We spent most of October selfishly focused on our own mammoth parties but we still had some time to reflect on the best records that passed through the various Impose HQ's. The usual suspects marched through the office in the guise of solo projects (Zach Hill, Dustin Wong), while rock bands grew their legend (Fresh & Onlys), we found a reason to care about Boston hip hop (Dagha & Psych Major), and the Gaslamp Killer came through with a perfect record for your drive to midterm electioneering 2010. (Vote.)
Best album
Marnie Stern, Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars)
We were bummed Marnie Stern didn't get a “best new music” from P4k. Hopefully the Impose bump will be enough to get her some advanced money for a Japan tour. Worried she still thinks it's our fault P4K didn't hand down their stamp on account of us printing her words, when she went off about how lives depend on getting a best new music stamp. Maybe she got Ryan Schrieber all paranoid and he brought down his real-life pitchfork (minus that sucker .5!) in order to assert his authoritay. What if she reads this? That would be doubly worrisome.
Best releases of October 2010
Zach Hill, Face Tat (Sargent House)
Face Tat is going to own your fucking face like a rabid badger let loose in your studio apartment. All visual stimulants point to raw beyond repair.
Dustin Wong, Infinite Love (Thrill Jockey)
The release was indeed a cathartic, psychedelic journey into the deepest parts of Dustin Wong's mind, but did you get personal with Dustin?
Sisters, Ghost Fits (Narnack)
Sisters is one of Brooklyn's best pop bands. Looks like they've shined up their already ebullient anthem-making process and stepped lightly towards that Great Cherry Pie Pop Album in the Sky. You can pretty much smell it.
Co$$, Revelations
Co$$ has been a man of his word, operating in a balance of street
themes and scripture. He pushes no agenda, but presents himself as man
capable of mistakes. Co$$ sees no problem with pondering about greater
more spiritual places over a freshly rolled blunt, which is what makes
his music so endearing to us.
Waka Flocka Flame, Flockaveli (Warner Bros.)
His album was good, his Halloween gimmick was better.
The Fresh & Onlys, Play It Strange (In the Red)
Fresh & Onlys' Play It Strange tells similar tales of longing with wistful melodies and jangly hooks as last year's Woodsist-released Grey-Eyed Girls. Immaculate make-out music.
Sun Araw, Off Duty 12-inch (Woodsist)
un Araw is the fastest rising one-manned UFO in the Los Angeles area, a master of the alien nobs and organ grinding that gets a saucer up into the dusky heavens with the gassy help of vaguely mustered FM 70s jams, and rides the technicolor winds, spitting out electric-squalls of industrial waste along the way.
Busdriver, Computer Cooties
No one can deliver left-brain braggadocio quite like Busdriver. He
sneaks in nuggets of brilliance like “I'm a self-employed dapper-dan”
that go unnoticed while you scratch your head over “I go so hard it's
like I co-starred in a Ferris Bueller movie” and this is before he
wraps up his battle with a signature double-time punching bag exercise.
The Gaslamp Killer, Death Gate EP (Brainfeeder)
The length is insufficient, the Gonjasufi
overlap is confusing, but the four remaining tracks are cut from the
same rawhide and smoke rings that has propelled GLK to his current
status of touring beat-stoner extraordinaire. Our advice: Bump this
shit on your way to the voting booth and cast that Prop 19 vote with a
burn hole in the ballot from your doobie.
Cloud Nothings, Turning On (Speakertree)
I get the feeling these guys are to Wavves what Princeton is to those Vampire Weekend Ivy League bros. Regardless of trite tractates of meaningless correlations, Cloud Nothings is doing the rock thang right.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Happiness Only Real When Shared
Noah Klein made the great American double finger salute tour through the heart darknesses that some out there call “culture”, dragging his toy pianos, plastic monster masks, and broken, half-ass-embled guitars (high E strings are so early oughts!) through the muck of high-end cheese, lofty Renaissance portraiture, sauerkraut forests, hashish firesales. Poor man came out richer, and our latest Impose tape is the evidence.
Note: We are also rather partial to our other release this month, a split between Talk Normal and Jana Hunter's Lower Dens.
Dagha & Psych Major, Noise Is The Trigger (Lewis Recordings)
Not since the indie-rap hey day of the early Noughties have I paid much attention to the Boston rap scene. Dagha is still bringing that heavy mental on his newest collaboration with producer Psych Major.
Bruce Haack, Farad: The Electric Voice (Stones Throw)
Peanut Butter Wolf is doing his whole “unearthing” thing again by collecting Haack's greatest Farad pieces and releasing them in hopes that we will all invoke his name when giving our well-practiced “oh, you haven't heard of Bruce Haack” elitist speeches.
