Top 10s for 2008: Max J Hansson (Cut City)
To present this year's insults in a pile of ten random things that moved me or marred me feels strangely satisfying. Put me on a throne sprung form 1's and 0's and I'll direct the shit-flinging fan ambiguously in a spin-the-bottle-kind of way. Bigmouth reeks again. I'll chew those urinal cakes and get to it:
01. ESCAPE FROM PARIS - Paris' Zombie Zombie knows just what icing to put on the cake. Their record "A land for renegades" (Versatile, 2008) puts all the ingredients of the Neue Deutsche Welle-era, late 70's/early 80's John Carpenter with all the Snake Plissken you can muster and grinds that shit with some German monotonous kraut to pull fresh from the oven a contemporary goldie.
02. RELEASE THE BATS - Gothenburg can definitely be a dump and taking a dump on a dump will amount to nothing I guess. I have no idea if there are any fecal matters guiding We Live In Trenches as they continue to stir our musical cesspool but they've got their shit straight at least. So far only a single seven-inch, "Autonomy clinic" (Instigate, 2008), has surfaced but chances are that much more will follow in 2009. It's more of a progressive take on Black Flag than a Black Flag-take on prog-rock and I'm happy to say that.
03. ASPERA AD ASTRA - Back in a decade when fashion equaled velour and pants you could hide entire families in, Space emerged out of Marseilles and sold more records than you ever will. "Magic fly" (UA, 1977) is all you ever wanted, but never had. Period. You can easily see the line of heritage when listening to other French acts of today and it's a good thing.
04. CURSED SINCE BIRTH - I had to rewrite this entry since it took a whole other dimension this past Sunday (Nov. 30th) when I watched Fucked Up dump six persons worth of musical equipment into a foyer the size of a toilet stall (give or take an inch or two). An audience comprised of sweaty crusties and equally sweaty hipster scenesters and barely oxygen enough for two people hyperventilating, it was an ideal setting for an f'ed up kind of show. Though the entirety of the show, the sum of it, was an instant ejaculation, I must point out a few highlights that might have made your pants feel tighter around the groin: Pink Eyes stripped thirty-something seconds into the first song because apparently it must have been "too hot" (I've noticed from several clips floating around that it must be pretty hot everywhere they play because this loving pattern repeats itself wherever they play); he felt a sudden urge to sing one song from inside one of the bathroom which was neatly located adjacent to the stage; played pinball while the rest of the band dutifully finished the song without him; carried several members of the audience on his shoulders through the crowd just 'cause it had to be done. Ranting and raving but never did I think 'less talk, more rock' because there was all the rock you needed to get your yearly fix. Thank you: Pink Eyes, 10,000 Marbles, Mustard Gas, Mr Jo, Gulag and Young Governor!
05. SMELL NIGHT - Little did I know that, due to a severely sprained ankle, I was about to miss out on several good shows that coming Saturday at Way Out West. Still from knowing what I know now it mattered very little. On Thursday the 7th of August I was two steps shy of getting rear-ended by the bouncers at the Pustervik venue while they tried their very best to milk some extra cash from an audience that had already spent a small fortune on tickets. That, too, mattered very little. As I witnessed The Mae Shi, Health and No Age tear an ecstatic crowd new assholes, I could do nothing more than smile. The rest of this year I've looked in the rear-view-mirror and I know I saw something of definite worth that night.
06. BEFORE INTELLIGENCE - Carefully plotted jittery stemming from an unknown auxiliary den of creativity I know these kids-come-men dubbed Alarma Man have multiple things up their sleeves/skirts. Fuck me if this sees the light of day before the end 2008. It doesn't matter. It never did. As a working title for their recorded new long-player they chose "Swedish intelligence" and if in the end it stays just a draft, it still shows the importance of being unfuckwithable, a nice display the of wit they possess.
07. PEYOTE DUBBING - Joining an over-extended and much needed Summer of Love-vacation, the brains of Wooden Shjips conjure music to charm snakes to. It's undeserted desert rock, found under a San Francisco-ean pile of rubble. The self-titled ep/album(?) (Holy Mountain, 2008) clocks in at thirty-three-something minutes and comprises only five songs but, hey, who's counting. "Station to station" was only six songs and it's beautiful gem. Droning guitars? Check! Sinister organ? Check! Steady Kraut-pulse? Check! Do I love it? Check!
08. WORSE MEN - Let's rid this paragraph from drug-induced allegories of how prog-rock rules. just listen to Bad Dudes and their sophomore album "Eat drugs" (Deleted Art, 2008). Or better yet, check out the video with the same name. It's a classic on paper and it's a classic in its full flower.
09. THE HORROR, THE HORROR - I'm partial but that shouldn't deter anyone from dive head-first into the shallow end looking for these guys; Cat Party put out an astonishing 7" (Rich Bitch, 2008) and even more astonishing split 7" (Monoton Studios, 2008) and they will be hot shit in 2009. These guys are from San Clemente (same town that once housed the drummer from Battalion of Saints) and they carry a torch so light it'll blind your eyes. It's Easy Being Gay!
10. J IS FOR GENIUS - Ten is the amount of fingers you have on your hands. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. Ten!
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Max J Hansson is the singer and guitarist of Gothenburg's Cut City, an orchestra which 2008's whopping rap sheet include one postponed European tour, five rehearsals and the rear-ending of another van at the speed of 150 kilometers per hour (Americans please consult nearest metric converter) on the German Autobahn. Also, they released a split 7" which contained one new song. Busy boys.
www.cut-city.com
www.myspace.com/cutcity