Page 22 - the NOISE January 2013

WÜRST OF 2012
I did my first All Souls Procession this year. The Day of the Dead Festival is a cultural postmodern mutant I think is supposed to be about remembering, letting go and keep- ing close to heart all of the loved ones lost over the past year. For some, it’s a reverent celebration steeped in tradition. For others, it’s an excuse to get dressed up like a juggalo and get wasted. Naturally, the procession gets bigger every Novem- ber and one can feel the energy in Tucson as it gets closer and finally comes to life that Sunday night.
I had a lot to think about this year. A lot to remember. It’s been a crazy 2012. It’s one thing to lose someone that’s had a good long life. It can be equally hard to deal with the loss, but when a loved one just does something stupid just so the sur- viving can all suck on how fragile we all are, there’s something especially difficult about that. The festival: I had a nice over- whelming first experience. I merely got a taste of it; it seemed like the right dose.
Not the best year. For all my woes though, at least my fam- ily and I weren’t attacked by robot drones like millions of Paki- stanis, so at least we have that on our side. Nor am I the victim of what has to be one of the most ironic turns in history, in which the children of concentration camp victims are turning out to be concentration camp creators.
One has so much to be thankful for. A friend recently asked on a popular social networking site, what Obama had done to them personally to rationalize not voting for him. I couldn’t think of anything except taking Napolitano away from Arizo- na, leaving us with the other Jan, who has to be the worst gov- ernor in the country. Though maybe we can take stock and say, well, she fits in a nice large grouping of ‘worst of all time.’
Arizona, you racist fascist bitch, you’ve still got the best bur- ritos, and dang it if the music, however unloved or unappreci- ated or underloved or underappreciated, isn’t as high caliber as anywhere it is actually celebrated and treated with rever- ence. There’s something magical here. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll keep trying to find out.
Thank you for reading. Not really in the best of moods to discuss the best albums of the year. I couldn’t really keep up anyway. Besides, you already know what they are. There’s a lot of them. My favorite bands and songwriters are the same as they were last year. A lot of them call Arizona home.
— Bobby Carlson
It’s a cornucopia, a plethora, an embarrassment of riches.
2012 gave us damn good new albums from old guys Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen, a project nearly 30 years in the planning between Mike Watt & Rich- ard Meltzer, two mindblowing sets from Neil Young & Crazy Horse (one a double), three from upstart Ty Segall (one a col- laboration and two with his own Horse-style noisemakers) ...
And then there’s Guided By Voices: Three albums and nine singles (75 songs total, including b-sides), two solo efforts
George Lazenby
from GBV singer/songwriter extraordinaire Robert Pollard (another 29 tracks), a greatest hits from side project Boston Spaceships and a collection of 26 demos from the last BS al- bum Let It Beard. Pollard discovered the missing link between creativity and mass consumption of Budweiser years ago and it’s still serving him well.
Other good 2012 stuff: Patti Smith, The Melvins, Van Halen, Dinosaur Jr., M Ward, Screaming Females, Here We Go Magic. Best new discovery: My Disco, an Australian trio that takes the minimalism of Steve Albini’s Shellac to the next logical place (Albini produced their last two LPs as well). Where have THESE guys been?
Best local big show: fIREHOSE & M Ward at the Orpheum. Hurley: the man was here, he walked among us. On the way home I stopped and laid my hand against the Econo-van to soak up those good punk rock vibes of positivity and persis- tence.
Song Of The Year: “I Love You” by San Francisco’s Sweat Lodge, also Best House Show Band. Their cassette demo (free download at sweatlodgesf.tumblr.com) is fun but doesn’t match the intense abandon of their live show. They are hit- ting a recording studio soon. Keep your ears open, this could be huge.
Best local band: Dragons (again). Don’t break up, you guys!
Once more, the king of the not-so-idiot box was Louis CK, who graced us with a third season of Louie, featuring big name cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Robin Wil- liams, and David Lynch (“You put on a SUIT, brother!”). Sea- son 4, coming up!
Holy crap I’m getting old. The sadness over losing Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boys’ MCA, at the age of 46 to throat can- cer, was nearly matched by the fury over every journalist in America (including several who should know better) man- gling his last name. Folks, it’s pronounced Yowk, not Yawch. Ad-Rock says it in “Pass The Mic” and MCA himself ends “The SoundsOfScience”with“That’sright,myname’sYauch.”There might be a few more. Can you give the man some dignity in death and actually LISTEN to his music?
Fave YouTube clip of 2012: In the late 1960s, contentious author Harlan Ellison wrote a weekly column for the Los An- geles Free Press called “The Glass Teat,” which explored the so- cial conscience of television (or more correctly, its absence). Two collections of these columns were published in book form in the 1970s. Although the TV shows discussed are long gone, Ellison’s observations still hold water today. And net- work television hasn’t changed that much in 40 years.
To commemorate the reprints of these books, a Los Angeles Free Press conference/Q&A session with Ellison was held back in January. Actor/comedian Patton Oswalt (a friend of the author’s) decides to hijack the proceedings and transport the audience to Nerd Heaven.
The 42-year old Oswalt and the 77-year old Ellison are 2012’s most unexpected and bizarre comedy duo (runners up: Louis CK and David Lynch). They should be given a talk show on the strength of these clips alone. Upon viewing a
22 • JANUARY 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us