Wednesday, December 20, 2017

SELECTIONS FROM 2017

Here's a list of some things that I've been excited about this year. This isn't meant to be a definitive or comprehensive 'best of 2017' list or anything (despite the subheadings) because there are a lot of 2017 books that I have yet to read (I am very behind on reading this year): it is merely a list of enthusiasms.

also if you have music recommendations, you should send them to me:

BEST ALBUMS
Land Animal, by Bent Knee
--favorite track, "Holy Ghost": I saw this band live for the first time last week and it was unlike anything else; their music is like some muddy dark gospel that someone dug up from the forest and translated for our modern times, just endlessly inspiring and inventive and dense. The band has an incredible camaraderie live, too, like they have their own secret language;

STAO, by Dun-Stao;
--favorite track, "STAO": this is like minimalist zeuhl filtered through black metal and gamelan and chamber music and a million other arcane influences (+ invented language). You should all listen to and buy this EP to encourage this motherfucker to make more stuff;

The Assassination of Julius Caesar, by Ulver
--favorite track, "1969": "a black metal band that just discovered synthesizers and 80s horror movie soundtracks" - Graham;

Stage Four, by Touché Amoré
--favorite track (TIE), "Flowers and You" and "Water Damage": every couple of years TA releases a new, terrific album, and each time it gets a little more melodic and somehow better than the last; this came out late-2016 but this is my list and I mostly listened to the album in 2017. I hope that Jeremy is taking care of his voice because otherwise I wonder how many more albums it can last. Perhaps the most cathartic 35 minutes of 2016 (2017);

Beyond the Fleeting Gales, by Crying
--favorite track, "Well and Spring": it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket, I don't know what else to tell you, this also came out in 2016 but whatever;

Between the Earth and Sky, by Lankum
--favorite track, "The Granite Gaze": Lankum makes all of their songs sound like myths from long-forgotten eras. Maybe some of them are. See also: "What Will We Do When We Have No Money?"

BEST MOVIE
Columbus (dir. Kogonada)
--A perfect, beautifully-shot, understated movie about the midwest.

BEST BOOKS
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, by Hanif Abdurraqib (Two Dollar Radio);
Literally show me a healthy person, by Darcie Wilder (Tyrant Books);
Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood (Penguin Random House);
Hotwriting, by Todd Anderson (Instar Books);
The Grip of It, by Jac Jemc (FSG).

I haven't read the sarah book yet, fuck off

BRUTALEST DEATH SCENE IN LITERATURE
Gutted by a tri-antlered helldemon in The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, by Margaret Killjoy (Tor Books).

BRUTALEST OFFSCREEN SUBTLY IMPLIED DEATH SCENE IN LITERATURE
Every scene in The Buried Giant.

BEST LIVE ACTS
Bent Knee (@ Rough Trade);
Sick Shit (@ Punk Island);
Touché Amoré (@ Bowery Ballroom, see above, also it was a Bad Anniversary and this helped to make it right);
Patti Smith (@ Summerstage).

BEST EP ON A CD-R THAT I GOT AT PUNK ISLAND
Field Goal by Field Goal.

BEST ALBUM IN A JEWEL CASE THAT I GOT AT PUNK ISLAND
Softcore by Sick Shit.

BEST BAND THAT DIDN'T RELEASE SHIT THIS YEAR
Blackbird Raum (which doesn't mean that you shouldn't take this moment to go and listen to Destroying or Caspian's side project Scissorbills' THAN THOU, because these things will change your life).

BEST UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS
Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton (now with more hovercars)
Tyrant by Brandi Wells
Lake Humm by Martha Moody
THE OTHER NOVEL I WROTE (String Follow)

BEST YOUTUBE CHANNEL
atmospheric black metal

BEST BAND NAMES THAT I INVENTED (up for grabs)
House Ghosts (pop punk)
Crop Top (shoegaze)
Golgonooza (black metal)
Alphalpha (regular metal)

BEST RISE AGAINST ALBUM
...the one I made up, Hooves, a higher-concept and more allusive version of their mediocre 2017 album Wolves:


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In other news, if you've found your way here without knowing, Palaces (my first novel), is due out on January 16, 2018 from Two Dollar Radio. I'm pretty excited; there's a whole page on this blog about it, with blurbs et al! If you're interested in learning more, reviewing the book, etc, reach out at jacobs852 [at] gmail [dot] com, as ever!

Booksellers, critics, and librarians can request copies from Two Dollar Radio here (available now!).