Caley Conway, Partner
Refrigerator, Get Lost
Jeff Parker, The Way Out Of Easy
Mountain Movers, Walking After Dark
The Special Pillow, Meets The Space Monster
Little Hag, Now That’s What I Call Little Hag
Daga Voladora, Los Manantiales
Shady Cove, Part II
Oneida, Expensive Air
Cornelius, Ethereal Essence
Roger Moutenot, Microcosm
Ava Mendoza, The Circular Train
David Nance, David Nance & Mowed Sound
Alan Sparhawk, White Roses My God
Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away
Alan Licht, Havens
Julie Beth Napolin, Only The Void Stands Between Us
Mark Robinson (Teen-Beat Records, Cotton Candy) Kali Malone, All Life Long (record)
Miranda July, All Fours (book)
Kim Gordon, The Collective (record)
Ruben Pater, Caps Lock (book)
hollAnd, Green Text (record)
Katherine Small Gallery (store)
White Manna, Hackensack, NJ (restaurant)
Henry Smith, Film No.18 (Mahagonny) (film)
Bakar, Halo (record)
Escape-ism Black Gold (record)
Mount Kimbie, The Sunset Violent (record)
Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga, The Courage to Be Disliked (book)
King Krule, Shhhhhhhh! (record)
Papa Slumber’s Top Ten Listens of 2024 (Slumberland Records) Ability II – Rediscovered (I9M)
Autocamper – Blanche (Safe Suburban Home)
Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes – Janice Long Session 11.11.86 (Precious)
Shabaka Hutchings – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
Rachel Love – Lyra (The Cat Collects)
The Moment of Nightfall & Tony Jay – Winter Dream (Kilikilivilla)
Sharp Pins – Radio DDR (Sharp Pins)
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp)
The Softies – The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter)
v/a – Lost Paradise: Blissed Out Breakbeat Hardcore 1991-94 (Blank Mind)
I’m not going to get any less angry, so here we go:
Fanzines – loads of brilliant photos, pictures and writing, perhaps replacing record sales. Maybe we all need to evolve…
Clairo – get the latest lp if you haven’t already..
now..
really, are you still here?…
go… get the latest Clairo album, come back, read on…
Do not read on without that Clairo lp
YOU GOT IT? Ok, read on
Heavenly – they have returned just when we need them the most – May I be among the first to solemnly declare allegiance to the flag of FUCK YOU NO WAY
Saturday Night Fever – seen for the first time in 2024, after nearly fifty years of being told “it’s not what you think it is” it wasn’t what I thought it was. Led to me listening to a LOT of disco, good and bad, and buying a LOT of paint.
Italian exploitation soundtracks of the 70’s – turns out it’s the best music there is
Despair – we did our best, it was fun while it lasted, but the cunts have been voted in, promoting the far right, buying politicians and media networks – but remember everyone who didn’t vote for it, we stand together, we are here for each other. I don’t know what it means, but if there is anything I can help with I am here – wiaiwya on most media (fuck you billionaires, we will use your networks while we can) – please get in touch – we are here for each other…
The future – it is ours… it has to be.
FUCK YOU NO WAY
Can you say cunt in America? Hope you can’t and you will anyway- because he is one!
Some books from 2024 that I have read/am reading and thoroughly enjoy – not in hierarchical order, but I do love Joni Mitchell more than most things:
• Traveling on the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers is my fave of the new books I’ve purchased this year because, well, Joni. There is not a wasted syllable in it, and the “traveling” and “path” is an extended metaphor for both Joni and author Ann Powers.
• How Women Made Music includes two photographs by me, but that’s not why I love it. It is an important reference work of NPR dispatches with thorough curation by Alison Fensterstock. I have lost track of how many people who have received this book from me as a gift. If you still haven’t gifted anyone anything yet – I highly suggest How Women Made Music. And sharing good reads isn’t just for Christmas or year-end lists.
• In Under a Rock, Blondie’s co-founder, Chris Stein delivers a delightful valentine to the NYC of his youth. It’s no wonder Blondie was a pioneering musical project. I wish that NYC still existed.
• The surrealist next door, my former neighbor and lifetime icon of pop surrealism, Robyn Hitchcock also paints a picture of his Groover origin story in 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. He made a companion album to go along with it, which is a fave listen as well.
• The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture. I lived in NYC for 20 years, but I read the Village Voice long before and long after I lived there. What a fantastic biography of a print icon! Bravo Tricia Romano onyour widely heralded book!
• Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum I’ve worked in television, and I grew up in Santa Barbara and witnessed the Loud family open their lives to the PBS series about them – An American Family, which was the first “reality show” in the early 1970s. Emily Nussbaum nailed this on every point; she has been writing about television for a long, long time and deftly connects all the dots. I am a hard one to convince, since this particular example took place in my very hometown at the peak of my snarky teenage phase. Read for yourself, Emily got it right !
• Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius. I have a personal obsession with the films ISHTAR and REDS, which Elaine May wrote, and co-wrote (no on-screen credit for REDS), and so does the author Carrie Courogen who appropriately identifies Elaine May as “Hollywood’s Hidden Genius.” This is a phenomenal effort and it places my head in a space that helps me understand why I am happy when I’m immersed in ironic satire.
Music and Film – Mostly I was underwhelmed this year – too much hype; too little deliverance. That being said, The The in concert was impressive, with the first set being their new album, Ensoulment, and after a brief intermission, a set of hits and fan faves. Way back in January, I saw Elvis Costello & the Imposters put on the best concert (3+ hours!!) I’ve ever seen and heard.
Mark with Evelyn in Cotton Candy (Image via Teen-Beat)
Mark Robinson (Teen-Beat Records, Cotton Candy)
1. Rochester, New York’s abandoned subway tunnels 2. Versus / Jawbox live performance at Le Poisson Rouge, July 21 — New York, NY 3. Katherine Small Gallery book shop — Somerville, Massachusetts 4. Death Records 5. Mickie’s Dairy Bar — Madison, Wisconsin 6. Garbage Plate at Schaller’s Drive-In — Rochester, New York 7. Gerard Unger — Life in Letters (book) 8. Folke Rabe — What?? (LP) 9. Theodore Shapiro — Severance (soundtrack album) 10. Severance (television program)
Stephin Merritt
Ten Delightful Books of 2022 (or late 2021): Re-Sisters, Cosey Fanny Tutti Shy, Mary Rodgers This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub Lookin’ for Lawrence, Lawrence The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber and David Wengrow Instant: The Story of Polaroid, Christopher Bonanos A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders Essays Two, Lydia Davis Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries 1918–1938 and 1938–1943
Cate Le Bon Bowery Ballroom 2/9 Kim Gordon Webster Hall 3/18/22 L’Rain BAM 3/30/22 Waxahatchee George’s Majestic Lounge 4/19/22 Linda Lindas Mercury Lounge 5/1/22 Sharon Van Etten Union Pool 5/7/22 Circuit Des Yeux Greenwood Cemetery 6/7/22 Phoebe Bridgers Prospect Park 6/15 Bikini Kill Pier 17 7/9/22 Soul Glo Knockdown Center 7/10/22 Wild Hearts tour Berkeley GreekTheatre 7/31/22 Porridge Radio Bowery Ballroom 9/24/22 Broken Social Scene (esp w Tracey Ullman and Meryl Streep) Webster Hall 10/17/22 Girl Scout Handbook/Dump/Jim Ruiz/Aluminum Group Chickfactor 30 Frying Pan 10/6/22 Nnamdi Baby’s Alright 10/30/22 Wet Leg Music Hall Of Williamsburg 12/17/22 Horsegirl/Yo La Tengo Bowery Ballroom 12/22/22
Nancy at Suomenlinna
Nancy Novotny: Top Ten Reasons I Adored My Trip To Finland (Sept. 16-Oct. 2, 2022)
1. Seeing Richard Dawson & Circle perform (most of) their collaborative LP, Henki, live at a Psych Fest in Tampere. 2. Seeing Lau Nau perform live at an intimate venue in Helsinki. Also finally working up the courage to chat with her after the show. 3. Charity Shops & Flea Markets in Helsinki, Tampere, Rovaniemi & various small towns in Northern Finland. Holy crap, they’re great! 4. The Moomin Museum in Tampere. 5. My day trip to Tallinn, especially shopping for gorgeous/weird Soviet-era books and other treasures. And the Puppet Museum! 6. The beautiful, colorful autumn leaves. 7. Long drink! (Usually grapefruit soda & gin, sold in supermarkets & at bars. Helsinki Long Drink by the Helsinki Distilling Company was my clear favorite.) 8. Seeing reindeer along the road in Northern Finland. Also NOT seeing any reindeer roadkill. 9. Vintage shops in Helsinki. Special shouts out to Mekkomania (for vintage dresses by Marimekko, Vuokko, Pia & Paula, etc.), Lanterna Magica (for vintage photographs, ephemera & books), and Caratia (for vintage Finnish jewelry, especially mid-century silver and bronze design pieces). 10. Being able to watch Moomin cartoons on TV every night. Also seeing Moomin merch for sale literally everywhere.
Nancy is a musician, a karaoke queen, a DJ who does a show called Turtles Have Short Legs on XRAY FM, Portland, OR, and a CF contributor.
Nothing to do with 2022 I’m afraid… Top Ten Beatles Songs
1. Yes It Is 2. We Can Work It Out 3. Paperback Writer 4. Every Little Thing 5. Strawberry Fields Forever 6. Ticket To Ride 7. If I Needed Someone 8. There’s A Place 9. Fool On The Hill 10. Can’t Buy Me Love
Gail O’Hara (chickfactor / Enchanté Records)
Phone Voice, Cradle Tape Reds, Pinks & Purples, Summer at Land’s End & They Only Wanted Your Soul Horsegirl, Versions of Modern Performance Marisa Anderson, Still, Here Alvvays, Blue Rev Flinch, Enough Is Enough Aoife Nessa Frances, Protector Say Sue Me, The Last Thing Left Nina Nastasia, Riderless Horse Sinaïve, Super 45 t. Lande Hekt, House Without a View Jeanines, Don’t Wait for a Sign Artsick, Fingers Crossed Bill Callahan, YTI⅃AƎЯ Dot Dash, Madman in the Rain The Jazz Butcher (RIP), The Highest in the Land Seablite, “Breadcrumbs” The Umbrellas, “Write it in the Sky”
Old and fresh: Mimi Roman, First of the Brooklyn Cowgirls Joyce with Mauricio Maestro, Natureza Tia Blake & Her Folk Group, Folk Songs & Ballads Dotti Holmberg, Sometimes Happy Times Norma Tanega, I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971
from @instagram/house_of_edgertor
Sukhdev Sandhu (writer, professor, CF contributor!)
House of Edgertor. Every week a lifetime ago, when she was writing reviews for the Other Music newsletter, Robin Edgerton introduced me to treasure after treasure (Pauline Oliveros, Pascal Comelade, Tricatel and Millle Plateaux labels). Still a brilliant researcher and writer, these days she discovers glorious, distinctive apparel, sleuths its backstories, sometimes fixes minor blemishes. Then she offers it to the world. Really she’s a philanthropist.
Monorail Music. It’s 20 years old! Starting things – a club, a shop. a magazine – is easy. Plunging in, all hands together, the thrill of the news, our gang forever. Keeping things going is a lot harder. Holding on, moving forward, unchanging and changing at the same time. Glasgow’s Monorail does it – and how. As Stephen Pastel writes in a lovely ‘2022 Staff Favourites’ Risograph booklet, “Twenty down, twenty to come.”
Norwegian Seamen’s Church. It’s been there, on East 52nd Street in Manhattan, for years. Still, it feels like a secret. Spare, light-suffused, a place that feels like a retreat from the world. It offers free waffles with lingonberry jam. Free coffee too. The basement has an art gallery. Everyone who works there has an open face, the gift of easy friendship.
Kommuna Lux. My favourite music venue – KuBa (short for Kulturbahnhof) in Donaueschingen – is a cafe/ bar located on a railway platform in Germany’s Black Forest. Performances are often punctuated by the sound of incoming trains. This July, Kommuna Lux came to town to play what they called Klezmer, Odessa and Gangsta Folk. Think The Men They Couldn’t Hang. The all-age crowd, many of whom hadn’t been to a show in the last couple of years, didn’t – couldn’t – forget the terrible news headlines in the Ukraine. But they also whooped, jigged, knocked back Fürstenberg beer. That felt like its own kind of connection.
CARA. Its full name is the Center for Art, Research and Alliances; it’s on West 13th Street in Manhattan; it opened this summer. It has ceilings high enough to let you dream, light enough to think you may be floating, and Emmy Catedral who curates its public programs and is responsible for its dizzying bookshop, is a genius.
The Economist Christmas double issue. Page for page, it’s probably the best value magazine in the world. This year’s had articles on the myth of the holy cow, cricket’s increasing ascendancy over baseball, the future for the Baduy peoples in Kanekes (they’re a bit like the Amish of Indonesia), how the nitrogen cycle has shaped the world, a brilliant article on whether Tang poetry can survive translation. All that and a beautiful obituary of Daniel Brush, the private, almost hermet-like goldsmith in New York.
Sue Nixon, Homophone Dictionary. What a delightful book. Before she died at the age of 96 about three years ago, Sue Nixon, a former schoolteacher, decided to compile a book of homophones. She’d loved them all her life and had used them in class to teach her young pupils. They read like poems, lullabies, Molly Drake songs. According to her granddaughter Sarah, “Luckily the book was printed before she died: she was lying in bed, with her eyes closed but was able to hold a physical copy and commented on how thick and heavy it was.”
Air-India’s Maharaja: Advertising Gone Rogue. Air India had a mascot called ‘The Rogue’. He had a babu belly, a twangy moustache, and was endearing on the eye. He featured on any number of posters from 1946 through to the early 1970s – swapping turban for a beret and selling ‘naughty’ pictures of himself in Paris, dressed down as a Playgirl bunny in New York, donning monks’ garb in Rome. Poster House’s show devoted to Umesh Rao’s none-more charming creation was my favourite show of the year.
Paddington Railway Club. London’s black cab drivers deny it exists. But it does – and how.
Dovas, Cafe Giffi, Ronnells Antikvariat, Folkets Kebab, Herr Judit, Runstenen Wooden Horse Museum, Teater Tribunalen, Vintage Violence, Bacchus Antik, Cafe Tranan, Kurt Svensson Konsthandel, Kvarnen, Konstnarsbaren: Stockholm is such a lovely lovely city.
As always: Constantin Veis, ‘Memory-La’; Musette, ‘Datum’; Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, ‘Dr. Buzzard’s Original “Savannah” Band’; Swing Out Sister, ‘Breakout’. But also: Wechsel Garland & World Service, ‘The Isle’; F.S. Blumm, ‘Summer Kling’; Plantar, ‘Forest, Sea, Harmony’; Penguins & Martingales, ‘What Might Have Been’.
Photo: Gail O’Hara
Thomas Andrew – a certain smile/My Vinyl Underground
Top 10 things I wish were (still) in Philly now that I’m back:
1. the Snow Fairies (Neal come home)
2. Lil baby’s ice cream (vegan strawberry pink peppercorn was my whole damn heart, they are very sorely missed)
3. Red Square Records (i mean they left pretty much months after I first arrived in 2001, but still)
4. Spaceboy records (I owe John and Chris from that shop so much for the person I am today)
5. All my new friends from Portland! (This is why visits exist)
6. Brian from Pizza Brain, the shop still exists but Brian was the heart. (He does make Washington state that much cooler now though.)
7. A Popfest (who knows what may come though)
8. The Hollywood Theater/Movie Madness (one of the hardest things to leave behind in Portland, I’m hopeful to find something similar out here)
9. More damn pinball (I was spoiled for Pinball in Portland. Nowhere can compare)
10. Lilys (I mean there are enough former members in town to fill a small neighborhood, but to have Kurt here playing music on the reg would make my damn heart/brain explode with joy)
Cotton Candy
Evelyn Hurley (Cotton Candy) This past year, I watched and rewatched some movies from the ’80s, here are my highlights!
Room With a View This movie came out when I was a freshman in high school, but I don’t think I actually saw it until it came out on video a few years later. I have to say, I really loved it then, and I really loved it again on this revisit! As a 14 year old, I think I imagined myself in the Helena Bonham Carter character role, but on this recent viewing I found myself absolutely smitten with the Judi Dench and Maggie Smith characters, who are absolute delights to watch! The movie is romance in action, and the scenery, plot, costumes, and acting are pure magic. Grade: A+++
Witness Another blockbuster from 1985, Witness was a movie I might have actually seen in the theater, and since Harrison Ford was such a huge movie star, I’m sure the theater must have been absolutely packed. On my rewatch, I was amazed at how really good the film is; the plot is thrilling, and the acting is top notch, especially the beautiful Kelly McGillis. The city elements of the story are scary, dark, and thrilling, which is in stark contrast with the Amish elements in this film, which are bright and clean. The noir twist in the film is riveting, but my favorite surprise are the quick scenes with Patti LuPone who plays Harrison Ford’s sister, she’s so great. Grade: A+
Broadcast News I never saw this movie when it came out in 1987, but I remember everyone loving it. The tv commercials for it were constantly showing, and I liked the scene where Joan Cusack nearly runs into the pulled out file drawer but ducks under just in time. Unfortunately, the movie is nothing like this clip, and in my opinion and in the opinion everyone who was watching it with me, it’s a terrible, terrible, movie. Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks epitomize the annoying characteristics of yuppies from the ’80s; self indulgent, self absorbed, and conceited. William Hurt is supposed to be a dummy who gets ahead in the broadcast world solely based on his looks, but in all honestly, he’s the only likable person in the movie, and seems pretty good at his job. I can’t tell you how it ended because we turned it off and absolutely wished we had never seen any of it. Grade: F-
Body Heat This 1981 film also stars William Hurt, but I actually finished this movie. It’s also another neo-noir film, staring Hurt and the amazing Kathleen Turner, and while it was very good it wasn’t as good as Witness. Grade: B
Here’s to 2023, and all the movies that we watch!
Photo courtesy of Rachel
Rachel Blumberg (Arch Cape)
Top Ten Favorite Shows I Played in 2022 in no particular order:
1. Agnes Varda Forever live film score collaboration with Kathy Foster – Holocene, PDX 2. Field Drums with Lunchbox – The Golden Bull, Oakland, CA 3. Arch Cape at the Arts Week Residency, Sou’Wester, Seaview, WA 4. Califone with BCMC, Judson and Moore Distillery, Chicago, IL 5. Encouragement Friendship Band w/Anis Mogiani & Laura Gibson – Mississippi Studios, PDX 6. Tara Jane O’Neil at Family Reunion Summer Fest – Kelley Point Park, PDX 6. Califone with Little Mazarn – Mississippi Studios 7. Old Unconscious with Fronjentress – The Fixin’ To, PDX 8. Linsday Clark with Michael Hurley and Luke Wyland – The Old Church, PDX 9. Field Drums with Party Witch and Desir – Mississippi Studio, PDX 10. Califone – Vickers Theater, Three Oaks, Michigan
Top Ten Favorite Native Plants in 2022
1. Thimbleberry 2. Douglas Spirea 3. Douglas Aster 4.Huckleberry 5. Sword Fern 6. Piggyback Plant 7. Wild Ginger 8. Osoberry 9. Vine Maple 10. Snowberry
The late great Stella Bean (photo: Gail O)
Top Ten Dogs I Petted in 2022
1. Stella Bean, my sweetest heart, rest in peace. 2. Bella, my sister’s dog 3. Sal, Sam Farrel’s dog 4. Caramel and Ace, Rob and Melissa Jones’s dogs 5. Rankin, Vanessa Renwick’s dog 6. Dylan, Sheri Hood’s dog 7. Gladys, Scotty McCaughey and Mary Winzig’s dog 8. Sparky and Zoey, my dad and Phillipa’s (his lady friend) dog 9. Dizzy, Janet Weiss’s dog, and Rooster, the dog she is fostering 10. Sugar, our neighbor’s dog
Top Ten Shows I saw in 2022, in no particular order, and I doubt I am remembering them all…
1. Belle and Sebastian, Roseland 2. Slumberland Showcase, The Doug Fir 3. Cate Le Bon, The Wonder Ballroom 4. Yo La Tengo, The Wonder Ballroom 5. Quasi, Pdx Pop Now Fest 6. Ural Thomas and The Pain, The Good Foot 7. Lonnie Holley, Hollywood Theater 8. Magnetic Fields, Aladdin Theater 9. Horsegirl, Polaris Hall 10. Pavement, Edgefield
