I remember the first time I was given one of Jason’s albums. A simple and special moment, handed to me as a gift by someone I saw as a mentor and now someone I call a close friend. It was as if I had been given access to a secret club. A small and humble club with a small and humble man at the pulpit. Emotional enlightenment was on the horizon and Jason was staring at it with me.
If I see you struggle and givin’ all that you got / I see you work all night burning your light to the last of its dim watts / I’m gonna help you how I can / If you see me struggle all night / And give me a hand cause I’m in need I’ll call you friend indeed / But I’m going to watch my own back / Didn’t it rain
2012 // 10 // Tarantula
Carson Mell is an animator and author. Echo Johnson is a transient and hero. Watch all 8 episodes of Tarantula. Maybe the best theme song of the year, too?
2012 // 9 // Future Islands @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
Hands down, the best show of 2012. Sold out - excuse me - sold the fuck out crowd. People hanging over the balcony. 19 girls jumped on stage (?) at once to dance (??). Sam Herring would say what song they were about to play and the crowd started clapping along to the beat before a note was played. The only show of 2012 that I walked out of feeling INVINCIBLE.
2012 // 8 // Pocket
Best “read later” app I’ve come across. Totally changed the game for me actually reading articles that I intend to read. RIP Open Browser Tab Fatigue.
2012 // 7 // Lonerism
Of course this is on here. It’s just as easy to get caught up in the sonic archeology that this record mines as it is to overlook the lyrics. Grant Manship Kevin Parker is batting 1,000 when it comes to exploring the deep, dark nooks and crannies of self doubt.
2012 // 6 // Half Way Home
Angel Olsen can cast a spell. ”Tiniest Seed” is one of the best bookends of recent memory. “It’s known that the tiniest seed is both simple and wild.”
2012 // 5 // Light Up Gold
Jun’s Favorite Sardonic Moment Of 2012 is a quick 12 seconds starting at the 2:05 mark in Parquet Courts excellent “Master Of My Craft” from Light Up Gold.
“Ya know, Socrates died in tha FUCKIN’ GUTTER.”
Other highlights include “Stoned and Starving,” “Donuts Only,” and the album art.
2012 // 4 // D.F.W. at Kenyon College
“And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”
2012 // 3 // Children Of Desire
No record hit me nearly as hard this year as Merchandise’s Children Of Desire did.
“I’m my mother’s son / I’m a rolling stone”
2012 // 2 // Oslo
August was busy: Norway > Sweden > Charleston > Bloomington. So many For All Time moments that month but swimming in a fjord off a tiny island in Oslo is tough to beat.
2012 // 1 // Tim Lahan
2012 was the year that I rediscovered my love for illustrators, an interest that’s been dormant for the last 5 years or so. Tim Lahan’s specific brand of simple, clever and kid-who-ate-glue-in-the-back-of-class goofiness is a large part of why I’ve dug back in.
Ruin Porn for the day: Detroit’s Cass Tech. Alma-mater to Alice Coltrane, Diana Ross, and a few other notables. Demolished in 2011.
Happy anniversary. Time for a slice of cherry pie & a cup of hot, black, coffee.
