ZACH COWIE’S BEST OF 2007

2007 was rough and weird, but these things ruled. (Apologies in advance to any person, place, experience, record, movie, tv show, or puppet-fueled entertainment I’m forgetting…)

* Finally being 100% California. After spending the last half of 2006 in California, but either on tour or living on an air mattress in the loft of Noah’s room (and turning completely Grey Gardens with him) – settling into a room with a door I could close and a normalish life was a welcomed situation. I’m in love with California. I don’t think anything pumped me up as hard in 2007 as passing my CA driving test (after failing it twice- apparently there’s a book you’re supposed to read) and having the license in hand.

* Robert Wyatt “Just As You Are”. I haven’t listened to a single song on repeat for days at a time since my 5th grade obsession with Zep’s “Goin’ To California” (see above).

* Robert Plant & Alison Kraus “Killing The Blues”. Agreeing with your parents on jams = 2008.

* Panda Bear and Animal Collective. Blah, blah, blah Person Pitch…what hasn’t been said at this point? This album is so far above and beyond ANYTHING that happened this year it’s not even funny. IT JUST FEELS SO GOOD!

Hearing it for the first time with Farmer Dave SUPER loud in his car after a serious meeting with the Vapor Bros is officially a feeling I’ll never forget. My face hurt from smiling.

The A/C bros are still up to some serious radness too. Much like the G/ D, my attention has turned more towards the live experience than the studio albums (even though Strawberry Jam is pretty sweet), and their show at the Henry Fonda was hands down my show of the year. Homeboys are about five seconds away from having a tapers section.

All musical contributions, vibes and attitudes coming from this group of dudes (tour manager and merch dude included!) have always been and continue to be one of my favorite sources of hope and inspiration in this increasingly painful business of music. Nice one dudes.

* Wooden Shjips. These dudes = up to something.
* Old Records. I played these things A LOT this year:
* Ronnie Lane & Slim Chance ‘Anymore For Anymore’, Jim Ford ‘Harlan County’, Ernie Graham ‘s/t’ (Thanks Cabes)
* Fraction ‘Moonblood’, Wildfire ‘Smokin’ (Thanks Bob @ Freakbeat)
* David Wiffen ‘s/t’ (Thanks Thomas)
* Anonymous ‘s/t’ (Thanks Jess)
* Lambert & Nuttycombe ‘At Home’ (Thanks Coots)
* Jeremy Storch ‘From A Naked Window’ (Thanks Andy)
* Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders soundtrack (Thanks Mahssa)
* Birds Of A Feather ‘Blacksmith Blues’ 45 (Thanks Ian)
* Tommy Flanders ‘Moonstone’ (Thanks expensive wall at Amoeba)
* Phil Lesh ‘Searching For The Sound- My Life With The Grateful Dead’ book on tape (Thanks Barker)
* Ramases ‘Space Hymns’, Catherine Ribeiro ‘Ame Debout’, Earth and Fire ‘Invitation’ 45, Vangelis ‘Earth’ (Thanks eBay)

* Beowulf 3D. Everyone thinks I’m bullshitting when I talk about how much I fuckin’ LOVED seeing this movie. I stood up and cheered at the end of the sea monster part, sat back down to crack a snuck Tecate as a victory celebration, then laughed super hard at Erin in 3D glasses. 100% satisfaction.

* Old Movies. These all worked for me: 3 Women, Blume In Love, Pacific Vibrations, If…, The Jodorowsky box, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, The Landlord, Herzog’s Nosferatu, Meatballs 1, Dillinger, Idaho Transfer, The final cut of Blade Runner, Once Upon A Time In America, Christian Liquorice Store, The Great Ecstasy Of The Sculptor Steiner, Night Moves, Harry And Tonto…etc

* The Collected Works Of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje. Jessie gave me this book and I read it twice in a week. The ‘sane assassin’ passage about Pat Garrett still blows my mind so hard….”frightened of flowers because they grew so slowly that he couldn’t tell what they planned to do”. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

* Guitar Hero. I thought everyone was so lame for playing this game but I always secretly wanted to jam out. Rob brought it into work a few weeks ago and I had a crack at it behind closed doors and now I’m totally hooked. A similar thing happened a few years ago with Sex And The City. Ask Noel…

* Desert Movie. Jed, Miguel, Chad, Jessica, Lee, Lindsay and Zach go to the desert for two days, get crazy smashed and make a slasher movie that’s probably only funny to us.

* Brooke & Fran (the huge white dog). Best roommates a dude could ever wish for.

* Mighty Boosh. The levels of jealousy I hold for anyone involved with this show is intense.

* Turbo New York Karaoke Sesh. The only thing that could have made a perfect night (free Terry Allen show at a little gallery, HUGE dinner with a gigantor table full of old and new bros) better was a karaoke room. “If You Could Read My Mind” from Gordo as a duet with Coots filled the room with levels of bromotion so thick that it took a group sing along to “Drinkin’ Bone” TWICE in a row to bring the good times vibe back!

Kevin doing air pan flute to “Father Figure” was easily the closest I came to peeing in my pants- 2007.

* http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/bro_youre_a_god_among_bros

* Puppet Up. http://www.puppetup.com/

* New Years Eve in the redwoods as I type this is pretty awesome…

Zach Cowie works in the A&R department at Rhino. He’s also 1/3 of the Small Town Talk Los Angeles based DJ ensemble- dublab.com/smalltowntalk. We love him to pieces.

Sun Ra: Space in the Place
8pm

Based on Sun Ra’s free jazz masterpiece of the same name, Space is the Place is an appropriately chaotic brew of elements: social commentary, exploitation, science fiction, concert film, and, best of all, a journey to “true perception.” Playing himself, Ra intergalactically travels back in time to the 1940s to compete in a card game with the pimpadelic Overseer to determine the fate of the Black race. From then on, Ra is dodging everyone from The Overseer to white secret service agents who have it out for him, all the while maintaining his signature calm. Luckily, Ra’s band, The Arkestra, is in tow to back him up, and provide musical vibes all along the way. Truly bizarre and captivating at the same time, with colors that rival a Powell & Pressburger film, Space is the Place takes you on a cosmic journey into not only Sun Ra’s mind, but maybe your own.

Presented by Arthur Magazine

Dir: John Coney, 1974, 35mm, 85 min.

Tickets – $10
http://www.cinefamily.org/calendar/thursday.html

A top 20 list from John Payne…

Reissues floated my boat most deeply, as I find most contemporary cultural life far too cold and cruel. This list is in no particular order:

1) Robert Wyatt, Comicopera (Domino)

2) Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz,Cendre (Touch Music)

3) Marissa Nadler, Songs III: Bird on the Water (Peacefrog/Kemado)

4) Ed Sanders, Sanders’ Truckstop and Beercans on the Moon re-releases (Collectors’ Choice)

5) Supersilent – Supersilent 8 (Rune Grammofon)

6) Devendra Banhart– Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (XL)

7) Tuxedo Moon – Vapour Trails (Crammed Discs)

8. Liars– Liars(Mute)

9) Amon Tobin– Foley Room (Ninja Tune) and at the “Pravda” event at Disney Hall on May 28

10) Christina Rosenvinge — Continental 62 (Smells Like)

11) SWR Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra —Valentin Silvestrov: Symphony No. 6 (ECM)

12) Stefano Battaglia– Re: Pasolini (ECM)

13) Oxbow– The Narcotic Story (Hydra Head)

14) J.D. Blackfoot– The Ultimate Prophecyreissue (Fallout)

15) Stephane Ginsburgh– Morton Feldman: For Bunita Marcus reissue (Sub Rosa)

16) Chris Watson + BJ Nilsen– Storm (Touch Music)

17) Sunburned Hand of the Man– Fire Escape (Smalltown Supersound)

18) Ghost – Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006cd + dvd (Drag City)

19) Pauline Oliveros – The Wanderer and Accordion & Voice reissues (Important)

20) Pentangle– The Time Has Come 1967-1973 box set (Castle Music)

John Payne has been writing about exciting music and culture for eons. He profiled Jon Hassell in Arthur No. 18 and discussed Magma and the Mars Volta at length in Arthur No. 16.

TRACY NAKAYAMA + JEREMY YODER’S BEST OF 2007

MUSIC
– “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders” (OST) reissue on Finder’s Keeper’s and The Valerie Project’s score on Drag City as well as their performance at The Silent Movie Theatre, LA.
– Prinzhorn Dance School “S/T” (DFA)
– Harmonia 74 (Water)
– Mani Neumeier “Sketches” (Important)
– Aluk Todolo 7″ (Implied Sound)
– Wooden Shjips bonus disc with all the vinyl stuff (Holy Mountain)
– Panda Bear “Person Pitch”
– The Entrance Band live shows
– Erik Bluhm’s new “Soft Sounds For Gentle People” comp and Turkish Psych CD-Rs
– Andy Votel and Cherrystones mix CDs and podcasts
– M.I.A. “Kala”

MOVIES
– Mike Mills’ documentary “Does Your Soul Have A Cold?”

BOOKS
– “The Park” (reprint) by Kohei Yoshiyuki
– “Unmonumental” – catalog from the New Museum exhibit
– “The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, YaHoWa 13 and the Source Family” by Electricity Aquarian
– “Tree of Smoke” by Denis Johnson

MAGAZINES
– Arthur, ANP Quarterly, Bixobal (#1), Daddy (#4)

THANKS TO
– Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Rocket Magazine, and Somone’s Garden in Japan, as well as Gabie Strong and David Patton in LA for their support.

– Jay Babcock for keeping Arthur alive and his many good deeds which include turning us on to the films of Jordan Belson, the new Om and White Rainbow records, and for giving us our first opportunities to DJ.

SORRY WE MISSED IT
Boredoms 7/7/07, Daft Punk tour, Mike Nelson installation in NYC, Carol Bove’s show at Maccarone, Charles Ray’s new tree sculpture

Artists Tracy Nakayama & Jeremy Yoder moved to Los Angeles a year ago, and are still breathing. Happy anniversary, dudes!

Ben Blackwell’s Top 20 for 2007

1. 7″ vinyl singles: Somehow managed to convince Detroit’s weekly rag to let me do a singles column once a month. Armed with a valid excuse, I bought 7″s like crazy. A bunch of shit blew my mind…”Jiggle City” by Noot D’Noot, “October Fires” by Wolf People, “See Me Mariona” from Brian Olive, “I Know a Place” by Jay Reatard are all bona fide in the truest sense. Seriously, that Wolf People single will blow even the arm-foldingest hipster’s minds.

2. Arby’s Cheese Cake Bites: the only time I’ve ever made a phone call immediately following a meal was after I first tasted the succulent richness of these piping hot beauties. Well-worth eating a roast beef sandwich for the chance to have these as dessert.

3. Guerilla Poetics: never before have I found a movement that so accurately captures my very own mindset and ideals. Under a vague guise of anonymity, this collective letterpresses poetry broadsides and dispatches them to operatives the world over who then smuggle them into books of particular significance in libraries, bookstores, etc. I makes me feel subversive and happy all at the same time. www.guerillapoetics.org

4. Time spent in Iqualuit, Nunavut: eating raw caribou meat, climbing a beastly hill in a full suit and tie and Florsheim dress shoes, the eerie faux daylight experienced at 3am a week after solstice, watching Inuit elders dancing, finding random LPs near the ice floe’s edge that’d been used for target shooting with the bullet holes to prove it, a veggie tray that cost $50, watching the White Stripes fly the far reaches of the Earth to spread the word. In one word: astonishing.

5. Summer of Love Exhibit at the Whitney NYC: Vernor Panton’s Phantasy Landscape Visions II and La Monte Young’s Music and Light Box were both well worth taking my shoes off for.

6. Re-birth of Arthur Magazine: maybe now Jay will run my tour diary via post card ramblings

7. CD-r of unreleased tunes from forgotten Detroit band Death: holy shit. Three Afro-American, Jehovah’s Witness brothers from the east side of Detroit locked onto some mad pre-punk squalor back in 1974. Email me for a devastating Mp3 of “Politicians in My Eyes” poignant now more than ever.

8. Quick trip to Cannes for the film festival: slept most of the time there, but Schnabel was a genuine sweetheart.

9. Late 80’s/Early 90’s ghetto bass/r’n’b/hip-hop: the iTunes giftcard proved valuable for how many old school favorites I was able to grab to help recapture my youth. Poison Clan, Oaktown 3-5-7, DJ Magic Mike, Black Sheep, Nice & Smooth and I still know most of the lyrics.

10. Garage rock alive and well: Killer full-lengths from the Black Lips, the Horrors, the Hives and the Alarm Clocks is proof positive that some shit just never goes out of style.

11. Three days of employment at Archer Record Pressing, Detroit: I can honestly say I’ve fully-experienced blue collar life albeit for less than half a week. From grinding down cast-off Lp’s (warped, scratched, off-center labels), filling vinyl vats, putting records in paper sleeves, putting those in jackets, working the “wrapped” end of the shrinkwrap machine and packing ’em up in boxes of 50 was the three most fulfilling days of the year.

12. Buying a Levis “Big E” jean jacket in Halifax: my lone sartorial extravagance of the year

13. Movies I’d missed the first time around: Old Boy and The Prestige both did my head in.

14. My FreeDamn Vols. 5-6: Rin Tanaka’s studious chronicling of clothing in American subcultures is the best coffee table book out there. Somehow makes all your thrift store scores that much more lame.

15. Bagazine: leave it to mail art stalwart Johnny Brewton of X-Ray Book Company to round up the likes of Billy Childish and Mark Mothersbaugh to contribute to this “magazine in a bag” filled with an assortment of chapbooks, poetry, art prints and all-around exciting and impressive ephemera. www.bagazine.com

16. The Ice Cream Man: cooling refreshment at Bonnaroo and saviour hunger suppressant at CMJ. And he likes the Dirtbombs! www.icecreamman.com

17. Human Eye live at the MoCAD, Detroit: paint-splattering, a pillow full stuffing raining down on the crowd, fire…what a way to turn a staid, boring art exhibit (Shrinking Cities) into a living, breathing art experience.

18. Not Not Fun Records: the only label around whose every release I purchase without discrimination. Britt and Manda have tapped into something truly fun, interesting and original. www.notnotfun.com

19. Z-Gun magazine: sometimes it’s just nice to hold something tangible, you know? www.z-gun.org

20. High Bias Recording Studio: the most comfortable, inviting recording environment I’ve ever been in. The only studio that matters in Detroit. www.myspace.com/turnmymicup

Detroit’s Ben Blackwell runs Cass Records and drums for the Dirtbombs. You’d think that was enough but wait, there’s more: he blogs at www.trembleunderboomlights.blogspot.com

STEVE K’s Best of 2007 list:

White Magic at Mercury Lounge

Pan’s Labyrinth at Sunshine with Jen and Fred

Benjy Ferree at Tonic (I think this was the last show I saw there)

Favourite Sons at Joe’s Pub. Some fans brought a banner and waved it the whole show. Another drunk guy yelled “R.E.M.!” The lead singer didn’t pay any attention and proceeded to destroy the place with his vibrato.

East of Havana screening at Soho House

Before the Revolution at Film Forum

Clipse at the El Rey with Brett

Zodiac at the Vista with Little Chimo

Dinner with Iris at the Pacific Dining Car

Ignacio Gonzales-Lang opening at Harris & Lieberman

Curating The Golden Age of VHS at the Anthology Film Archives

Watching Sunrise Earth with Jay Babcock

Brightblack Morning Light and Gary Higgins at Mercury Lounge

Inland Empire at the IFC Center

D. Charles Speer at Glasslands

Looking out at the sunset across Manhattan from the Top of the Rock

Watching Confessions of a Matchmaker with Shannon Taggart (it’s filmed in Buffalo, cut me some slack)

The King of Kong at the IFC Center (quote of the year: “there’s a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up”)

Watching the Prophet’s fall from grace on Big Love

The Simpsons Movie with Olivia and Phillipa

Hanging out with Michael Evans and Larry 7 before seeing the 77 Boadrum on 7/7/07 in DUMBO!

Seeing every film in the Yugoslavian Black Wave series at BAM plus getting to see Buck Henry speak in person!

Stevie Wonder at Madison Square Garden (w/ Tony Bennett and Prince!!!)

Thom Anderson’s Red Hollywood at the Anthology Film Archives

Pizza at John’s on 44th st. (best place to eat pizza in a former Catholic church!)

Ron Hawkin from Lowest of the Low at Stephanie & Chris’s wedding a Kleinhan’s

Listening to “No Quarter” during the Zeppelin reunion broadcast. They sound great, almost as good as Jimmy Page with the Black Crowes at the Greek in ’99!

Raiders of the Lost Ark remake at Anthology Film Archives with Wendy

Finally getting my hands on a Wii and bowling with Bryan, Keith, Calder, John Allen and my Mom! My Mom beat me the first game!

Hearing Mark Lanegan sing with Soulsavers (my first time seeing him) at the Grammercy Theatre

Welcome to Nollywood at the Paley Center doc fest

Mudhoney performing Superfuzz Bigmuff at the Bowery (my first time seeing them)

Birthday dinner at Hill Country (best BBQ in NYC!) with John

Seeing Coppola introduce Youth Without Youth with Amanda at the Paris Theatre in NYC

First submarine ride in Aruba – saw a wrecked ship and brain coral!

Finishing an advance copy of Carl Ogelsby’s forthcoming memoir Ravens in the Storm – a must read for 2008!

Steve K monitors, records and instigates cultural developments from a secret location in the East Village. He invites you to his dance party.