January 24th 2011

Trans Am - Armed Response (The Surveillance)
-
Stalwart Sons - Northern Lights (Burn Daylights Like Torches)
Auld Beak - Cat Song (4 Songs CS)
Gunther - Side B of new 7"
The Dismemberment Plan - Spider in the Snow (Emergency & I)
-
Bright Channel - Final Stretch (Bright Channel)
Disappears - Guider (Guider)
Bird World - Strung (No Wonder)
-
Sonic Youth - Theme d'Alice (SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu)
Eric's Trip - Smoke (S/T 7")
-
My Disco - A Turreted Berg (Little Joy)
Bandera - Don't Stop or my Mom Will Shoot (Bandera CS)

January 17th 2011

Mi Ami - African Rhythms (African Rhythms 12")
-
My Disco - Rivers (Little Joy)
Auld Beak - Sacred City (4 Songs)
Pissed Jeans - Sam Kinison Woman (Sam Kinison Woman 7")
-
Gowns - Marked (Broken Bones)
Deadhorse - Paraboots (Deadhorse)
STNNNG - New Black Hole (Smoke of My Will)
Bandera - The Jolly Boys (Bandera cassette)
-
Disappears - Revisting (Guider)

January 10th 2011

Sorry for missing last week's playlist--I was not pleased with how the show turned out at all, so I don't really want to bother posting it. Here's this weeks show, which I think turned out much better.

I wanted to get to the new My Disco album, but ran out of time. Sorry--will definitely be spinning that one next week.

Live Skull - Machete (Dusted)
-
Bird World - Swamp (No Wonder CS)
Carsick Cars - Silence (You Can Listen, You Can Talk)
Women - Bullfight (4-Way Split 7" w/Friendo, Fair Ohs, Cold Pumas)
-
Auld Beak - GBH (Auld Beak CS)
Zs - Acres of Skin (New Slaves)
Poem Rocket - Box: Tallow, Felt, and Ice (Infinite Retry On Parallel Time-Out)
-
Rhys Chatham - Guitar Trio pt 2, Live in Brooklyn (Guitar Trio is my Life!)
-
Polpot - The Trip (Split w/Natural)

Bitter Fictions - The First Book of Electricity

Pardon the self-promotion here, but I finished my own album in December.

I've released it digitally here, and also on cassette. If you want your hands on the tape, shoot me an e-mail (freezeyx at hotmail dot com), or if you're in Calgary, head over to Sloth Records, where I'm keeping a few stocked. They're $5+s&h (or $6 at Sloth, $7 at Hotwax), and hand-numbered/ltd to 60.

I'd been working sporadically on a bunch of home recordings over the past year, and I just finally (I say finally because I originally thought I'd be done in August, but then school came up) finished to a point I'm happy with.

There are nine songs, split roughly down the middle between noise/ambient drone, and noisy indie rock. Four songs have vocals, and everything except "On Film" and "Silver Medal" was recorded over 2010, mostly throughout the summer with a few additions here and there. "On Film", "Downed", and "Silver Medal" were recorded in the Spring of 2009.


(I recommend starting with "Slip Away" or "In Absence", if you're the impatient type.)

My favourites of 2010

My favourite albums of 2010 have been documented in print with FFWD, and also with CJSW. I had a few extra write-ups for the FFWD list, but due to space, they were cut. Figured I might as well post 'em here...

DEVIN FRIESEN

1. Mi Ami - Steal Your Face (Thrill Jockey)

Steal Your Face grabbed me immediately upon its April release, and has yet to let go. A three-piece from San Francisco, Mi Ami features Daniel Martin-McCormick and, until recently, Jacob Long, both formerly of the downright visionary D.C.-based post-punk group Black Eyes. Mi Ami takes some of the no-wave and post-punk elements that Black Eyes used, but merges them with elements of dub and neo-psychedelia to create one infectious smattering of deeply grooved noise-rock.

Martin-McCormick’s treble-shearing guitar-playing often recalls Arto Lindsay’s work with no-wave pioneers DNA, but in a new context appropriate for 2010. As for Martin-McCormick’s vocals, I’ve heard him described as a “shrieking chainsaw lady,” which seems accurate enough, aside from the “lady” part. Over Steal Your Face’s six songs, Mi Ami operates as an unstoppable kinetic force, sounding fresh, vital and downright exciting. “Latin Lover” should destroy any dance floor, “Harmonics (Genius of Love)” should destroy your speakers, and “Slow” will ride that avant-funk backbeat into the ground, leaving a moment of silence before tasteful guitar feedback melts what’s left. Utterly thrilling, and I hope their new lineup as a duo remains just as interesting — Dolphins, their next EP, comes out in March.

2. Broken Water - Whet (Night People)
Broken Water is a trio from Olympia, and their album Whet grew on me continually this year. My girlfriend and I drove down to Missoula to see them live, and they were fantastic. Very indebted to late-‘80s Sonic Youth/Live Skull—their male vocalist somehow sounds like a cross of Thurston Moore and J Mascis. Expect to hear more about this trio in 2011, as they’ve started coming into their own sound nicely. Also: Broken Water's "Normal Never Happened" 7" single on Fandeath, also released this year, is excellent.

3. Stalwart Sons - Burn Daylights Like Torches
Stalwart Sons’ Burn Daylights Like Torches is the exact sort of album I’ve always wanted to come out of Calgary, or even the prairies in general: sounding somewhere between Fugazi and the Constantines, with enough bent guitar strings and passionately poetic references to frozen ground to make any angry young prairie-dweller proud. Frontman Kevin Stebner just published his first book of poetry, even! (Revolution Winter)

---

For more information on my other favourites, just check out the list on CJSW.

December 27th 2010

This was a pre-recorded show. See you in 2011!

Cluster - Im Suden (Cluster 2)
Emeralds - Damaged Kids (What Happened)
Pas Chic Chic - Allez vous Faire Influencer (S/T 12")
People of the North - Over Me (Deep Tissue)
Disappears - Magics (Lux)
Shores - Robin (Coup de Grace)
Eric's Trip - Viewmaster (Forever Again)
Pitchblende - A Penny for the Guy (Working Holiday split 7" w/Swirlies)
The Dismemberment Plan - The Ice of Boston (Is Terrified)

December 20th 2010

Indian Jewelry - Lesser Snake (Invasive Exotics)
-
Pavement - AT & T (Wowee Zowee)
Bedhead - The Unpredictable Landlord (WhatFunLifeWas)
Pell Mell - Nothing Lies Still Long (Interstate)
Oneida - Winter Mind (Love and Circuits compilation)
-
Gowns - Mercy (Broken Bones)
Gunther - Manglosaxon (fvfvfv 7")
-
La Quiete - Guigno (2006 S/T 7")
Ancestors - Nightfall (Nightfall 7")
Marnie Stern - Female Guitar Players are the New Black (Marnie Stern)
-
Jon Mueller - Heart (The Whole)

December 13th 2010

Pre-recorded show tonight.

Outdoor Miners - Twelve Hundred Dollars (Twelve Hundred Dollars 7")
No Joy - You Girls Smoke Cigarettes? (Ghost Blonde)
Dustin Wong - Brother (Infinite Love)
Food Pyramid - Das Tier? Das Auto? somethingorother ...
The Plan - Lets Hear it for Our School Orchestra (Only These Movements Remain)
Seam - Little Chang, Big City (The Pace is Glacial)