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.

Pshaw’s Lucky 13 for 2007

1. Popeye Vol. 1 [Fantagraphics] America’s first comic super hero from 1929 [Superman debuted in 1938] from the original Thimble Theatre newspaper comic strips. Matchless and defying all imitations [Boo! to the animated cartoons! Read the book.]. Sunday’s reprinted for the first time in full color. Arf Arf!

2. Little High People takes 7 & 8 [Complete Jack Johnson box: Miles Davis] Have replaced Kraftwerk on Bremen Radio as my temporary fave. Two Electric keyboards and organ, plus cuica and kazoo, nice!

3. Powr Mastrs Vol.1 [Picturebox] CF of the band Kites makes a big splash.

4. Ernst Haeckel 19th century German biologist,naturalist, and proto-psychedelic illustrator of sea creatures.

5. Ben Jones [member of Paper Rad] as inspirational as Gary Panter.

6. Ron Regé Jr. go to Plight of the Cartoon Utopian [http://ronrege.blogspot.com/]

8. MIT’s Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change researching our climate dynamics on the Charles River.

9. Lucid Absinthe the green muse served up right in Allston, Mass.

10. Buddha’s Hand smells nice, looks weird!

11. Capital Reef National Park Utah dazzling geological wonder. Way far away from civilization, hardly any tourists or food!

12. Black Cat/White Cat [1998 Emir Kusturica] very entertaining and fun spirited. Great cast of characters.

13. Lazy Magnet He Sought For That Magic By Which All The Glory And Mystic Chivalry Were Made To Shine – or – Is Music Even Good?
[2007 Corleone CD] Jeremy Harris defends his title with a sense of Doom, and remains the Champ.

PShaw is PShaw. He’s been drawing the “Strings” comic strip for Arthur since No. 19.

Top 20 highpoints of 07

1. Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru (literal god of krautrock) playing with Acid Mothers Temple, and subsequent incredibly inspiring interview in my living room.

2. DJ-ing before a brief Zipper reunion in Portland– Fred Cole of Dead Moon’s old Zep-like 70’s uberrock band, aided by members of Danava.

3. Playing guitar with Damo Suzuki network in Chicago, along with John Herndon, David Daniell, Josh Abrams, etc–it went from like space-reggae to total funky noise. Plus Damo cooked us all “asian soul food.” i can basically die happy now.

4. My band, Plastic Crimewave Sound doing shows in Canada with one of my all time fave groups, Simply Saucer–!! They still sound SAVAGELY psychedelic and nice guys of course. Canada spoiled us rotten–Andre/Steve in Montreal, Bijon in Ottawa, SR in Toronto–we love you!

5. Plastic Crimewave Celestial Vision Guitarkestra 1 at Empty Bottle– 57 guitars made people puke, cry, kiss and hand each other guitars to play… it sounded like an endless ocean of “E”….ahhhhhhhhhhhh

6. Exhibiting work in the NY art show “Frock n’ Roll”–haven’t seen so many righteously glammed out folks in one place ever, and had a total blast at the opening.

7. Getting a private concert in Ruthann Friedman’s living room in Venice, CA…the hairs stood up on the back of my neck! She somehow let me strum her $10,000 Martin guitar too.

8. Backing MN fuzz-garage-folk renaissance man/legend/saint Michael Yonkers in Chicago for my GZD release party.

9. Interviewing Vashti Bunyan, such a sweet lady– truly an angel of sorts. I almost wept during the show…the release of the “Some Things Just Stick in your Mind” 2LP earlier stuff is also wondrous.

10. Tracking down and interviewing Chicago experimental 80’s provocateurs ONO, and lead singer Travis chanting for my 3rd Guitarkestra.

11. DJ-ing with Portland’s Maura “Mystic Lady’ Arraj in Chicago–heavy riffs and red wine prevailed! yeaaaaaah!

12. Tony Joe White show at Schuba’s–that man can growl and play lusty wah wah like no one else!!

13. The Source book, at long last–Yod’s legacy explained–i laughed, i cried, i aligned my chakras.

14. DJ-ing with Elvin aka Nobody in LA, before the Entrance Band slayed all with walls of heavy bloozrok.

15. Awesome reissues– Bee Gees box of first 3 albums plus MUCHOS bonus material of unreleased miserable psychedelic ballads and elegaic hymns, Mark Fry’s-“Dreaming with Alice”- transcendent UK acid-folk from a mere teenager, Nick Garrie, Baby Grandmothers, Possessed, Crushed Butler, Michael Yonkers “Grimwood,” Ed Askew “Little Eyes,” “Wall of Soundalikes” Spector-isms, ooh and those COB bonus tracks too….

16. Psychedelic art exhibit at the Whitney–it could have been bigger and less SF/UK focused, but i’m sure i’ve never seen so many sweet posters in one place.

17. Interviewing svengali-extraordinaire Giorgio Gomelsky in NY– it was about 3 hours of the most fascinating stories ever! Magma, the Yardbirds, no-wave, Julie Driscoll, Blossom Toes, Ornette Coleman– he had a hand in it all. Thanks to Virginia Tate for hookin me up…

18. Marissa Nadler at Ronny’s in Chicago, 3 mics of different vocal treatments and incredible songs–plus a classy red evening gown all in a not-so glorified garage. I was also introduced to opener Angel Olsen, who will take the world by storm soon.

19. Playing the Diamond Days fest in NY, commandeering the hot-shit communal drone band (“the PCW Expanse”) of Samara Lubelski, SR Palm, Virginia Tate, Adam La Otracina, and Kathy, Georgia and Taralie of Spires That in The Sunset Rise.

20. Playing that Four Tops record over and over with Libby; picnics on the lawn with special caramel; exploring Chicago music history; watching Son of Svengoolie and reruns of Lost in Space, Night Gallery and Twilight Zone on Me TV….whew i guess 07 was a good year.

Steve Krakow is Plastic Crimewave. He writes, he draws, he edits the magazine Galactic Zoo Dossier, he broadcasts, he organizes, he plays music in his band the Plastic Crimewave Sound. Amazing!

1. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon, phenomenal epic on light, science, anarchy and modernism. Best of 2006-2007 and perhaps the decade. Viking/Penguin

2. Mistress Oriku by Matsutaro Kawaguchi first time English translation and publication of a classic tone poem set in Meiji era Tokyo about a former Geisha and her artistic Tea house on the edge of encroaching change. Tuttle press

3. Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. Hilarious essays on a variety of current cultural signposts. Riverhead Press

4. Blood Tea and Red String on DVD, a stop-animation gothic religious vision of dolls, mice and Oak forest creatures – a 13 year obsession by young filmmaker Cristine Cegavske.

5. Electric Salome: Loie Fuller’s Performance of Modernism by Rhonda K. Garelick, brilliant book that gives justice and recognition to this early performance artist. Princeton University Press

6. Fantod Pack, Edward Gorey’s gruesome tarot deck, Pomegranate

7. The UFO Factory in New Detroit

8. Silmaril: The Voyage of Icarus “captures the dark, mysterious, and achingly beautiful acid folk & Christian-themed psychedelic sounds” Locust double LP.

9. International Day of Peace September 21st.

10. Propinquity: Propinquity -neglected folk rock classic of 1973, reissue Asterisk, CD

11. 20 to Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair DVD a film by Stephen Gephardt

12. Koudelka by Robert Delpire, Dominique Edde, Anna Farova, and Michel Frizot, Aperture, NY.

13. Cameron Jamie retrospective at MIT may-July 2007, and the eclectic designed catalog; Cameron Jamie by Philippe Vergne, Kathy Halbreich, Cameron Jamie, and Charles Bukowski. Walker Art Center, Pub.

14. Me and My Brother book and DVD set by Robert Frank, Steidl Press

15. The Original Art of Basil Wolverton From the Collection of Glen Bray by Glen Bray and Doug Harvey and Monte Wolverton, Last Gasp

16. Day is Done by Mike Kelley essay by John Welchman, Yale University Press

17. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas by Danny Glover, Kathleen Cleaver, Amiri Baraka, and Sam Durant, Rizzoli

18. Nathaniel Mayer: Why Don’t You Give it to Me? Alive Records CD/ LP

19. Jim Shaw: Distorted Faces & Portraits 1978-2007, with lovely bonus 53×37-inch fold-out poster dust-jacket portrait of Ronald Reagan’s face embedded with violent American figures like Manson and Rambo. JRP Ringier

20. Wipe That Clock Off Your Face by Brian Belott book and DVD, Picturebox, Inc.

21. Storeyville by Frank Santoro, Picturebox, Inc.

22. Mario Bava Box Set Vol. 2, Back Bay

23. Monster Island: The Children of Mu, End is Here records, double LP

24. Independent press Process Books gets the freakout award for reissuing Guitar Army by John Sinclair, and publishing The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, YaHoWha 13, and The Source Family by Isis Aquarian and Electricity, Moondog: The Viking of Sixth Avenue by Robert Scotto and Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond all in the month of October, wow!

25. In Memory of Shakey Jake, Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, RIP

Cary Loren runs The BookBeat, an independent bookstore open since 1982 in the Detroit area.