The Men Have Opened Up My Heart

The Men are one of my fave bands. Leave Home, last year's LP on Sacred Bones, was incredible. Now, I'm not sure if the new album betters it, but Leave Home was a tough one to beat. Let's just say that I got Open Your Heart at the beginning of the week, and I'm going to end the week with it. Might end the year with it. Who knows? Alls I know is, this is the shit. THE SHIT.

So listen to the below track ad nauseum, or better yet, buy the album - it's worth a million other shit bands entire back catalogues. Happy weekend people.



The Men - Open Your Heart

Vale Christopher Reimer

One of the saddest pieces of news last week was the passing of brilliant Canadian band Women's guitarist (and touring member of Dodos) Christopher Reimer last week resulting from complications due to a heart condition. He passed away in his sleep on February 21 at the age of 26.

To coincide with the memorial, Reimer's Women bandmates, Women's Canadian label Flemish Eye, and Jagjaguwar have asked us to stream both of the band's albums, 2008's Women and 2010's Public Strain (which we gave our inaugaral Best of album of the year award), in commemoration. Please listen, remember, put the good vibes out into the ether. We will miss you.

It's Easy To Get A Panic Attack In Iowa

Melbourne scuzzball slackers Iowa have prepped yet another single (where's the longplayer, guys?) (UPDATE: Iowa's debut album Never Saw It Coming hits shelves in April - patience my child!) called 'Panic Attack', and it's typically great, raucous and filled with ambivalence, malaise and a smoky urge to shred.

I know Ive been championing these guys for a while, but looks like Iowa are getting further notice (not gonna say "because of me", of course). I just had to add this quote from Doubtful Sounds as it excited me just reading it: “Heavy, chunky distorted guitars that come in waves like Dinosaur Jr and Crazy Horse soaked in shoegaze.” Salivation for the nation, right?
If you live in their land, they will play at The Tote on Feb 22 with awesome support from Damn Terran. No word as to when they will come north - once again, we wait with bated breath...


Panic Attack is out February 20th - pre-order it 'ere.




NB - Jordan from the band is a massive fan of Brissie band Tape/Off's EP of last year ...And Sometimes Gladness, a release I included in my Best EPs of 2011, so they have impeccable taste too...

Sonic Masala's Best 40 Albums of 2011...One Month On

December of every year is the month of lists, where you get to see what people thought about the music of the past twelve months and either rant at said person's shit taste, laud your similarities, facepalm over forgotten gems, or scramble for something hitherto unheard of. But a list in January for the year before is more redundant than use by dates on a nymphomaniac's condom (sorry). Still, at first I thought that 2011 was a little low on the good music front, but after a sift there was some pretty killer moments. I'm sure things slipped through to the keeper, but here is a list of music-related guff that floated my boat in 2011 (my number one album? The clue is in the picture above...). No discussion - I've missed the boat on that - but will enter INTO discussion with any and all of you who leave a comment below. Feel free to berate as much as you want...

TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2011

40. Natural Child - 1971
39. Active Child - You Are All I See
38. Religious Knives - Smokescreen
37. Barn Owl - Shadowland
36. Civil Civic - Rules
35. Snowman - Absence
34. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972
33. Mikal Cronin - Mikal Cronin
32. Witch Hats - Pleasure Syndrome
31. JEFF The Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
30. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
29. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
28. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
27. No Anchor - Real Pain Supernova
26. Liturgy - Anaesthetica
25. Mountains - Air Museum
24. Plankton Wat -
23. The Skull Defekts -
22. Black Eagle Child - Lobelia
21. Crystal Stilts - In And Out Of Oblivion
20. Apache Dropout - Apache Dropout
19. Pure X - Ecstacy
18. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
17. Tune-Yards - w h o k i l l
16. Young Widows - In And Out Of Youth And Lightness
15. Nova Scotia - Nova Scotia
14. Wooden Shjips - West
13. Harmony - Harmony
12. Twerps - Twerps
11. Explosions In The Sky - Take Care Take Care Take Care
10. Disappears - Guider
9. Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread
8. Cola Freaks - Cola Freaks
7. EMA - Post Life Martyred Saints
6. Sex Church - Growing Over
5. Rank/Xerox - Rank/Xerox
4. Royal Headache - Royal Headache
3. The Men - Leave Home
2. Total Control - Henge Beat
1. Iceage - New Brigade

Honourable Mentions:
- Veronica Falls
- Times New Viking
- Dick Diver
- The Vietnam War
- White Denim
- Cat Cat
- Mr Dream
- Illness
- Human Eye

BEST SONGS

"Brooklyn", Happy People
"I Can Feel It", Ty Segall
"Let Me Back In", Explosions In The Sky
"White Rune"/"Collapse", Iceage
"Grey Ship", EMA
"No Surf", Wet Years
"Gatton Bohemia", No Anchor
"Around The Twist", Nova Scotia
"Down The Lane", Royal Headache
"Down At The Farm (live)", White Denim
"You Are All I See", Active Child
"The Other Shoe", Fucked Up
"Montana", Youth Lagoon
"Turn Into", Batrider
"Bad Feeling", Veronica Falls
"Bones", Male Bonding
"Backseat", Tape/Off
"Psychic Mesa", Total Slacker
"Shootinhead", The Whines
"Heartache", Harmony
"Safety Surf", Kid Chocolate
"Fucking Despair", Fat History Month
"Wild Horse Mountain", Feathers
"Pitiful", Extra Happy Ghost
"Truth", Alexander
"Ice Cream", Battles
"Small Streets", Brief Candles
"Modern Love", City Center
"Graveyard's Full", The Growlers

BEST EP/7"s

Crystal Stilts - Radiant Door
Happy People, Happy People
Puffy Areolas & Purling Hiss, Puffy Areolas/Purling Hiss
Tape/Off - ...And Sometimes Gladness
The Growlers & Thee Ludds - The Growlers/Thee Ludds
Assassins 88 - Kaneda
Surfer Blood - Tarot Classics
Black Gum - Black Gum
Cousin - And Other Relations
King Dude - My Beloved Ghost
Otro Mundo - Jellied
Part Chimp & TorchePart Chimp/Torche
Pontiak - Comecrudos
Thee Oh Sees & Total Control- Thee Oh Sees/Total Control
Ty Segall - Ty Rex
Weekend - Red


BEST LIVE SHOWS

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Hi Fi
Explosions In The Sky/Harmony - The Hi Fi
Fucked Up/DZ Deathrays - Alhambra Lounge, 09.12.11
The Drones/Mike Noga - The Hi Fi
Ty Segall - Woodland
Times New Viking/Cobwebbs - Woodland
Mono/No Anchor/Secret Birds - The Hi Fi
Gareth Liddiard - Spegieltent
Besnard Lakes/Nova Scotia - The Zoo
Black Mountain/ - The Zoo
Swervedriver - The Zoo
Skul Hazzards/Turnpike/No Anchor - The Step Inn
Batrider - Woodland
Nova Scotia/Tape-Off/Arbuckle - The Lofly Hangar
Sonic Masala shows - The Waiting Room

BEST FESTIVAL SHOWS

Mogwai (Splendour)
Warpaint (Laneway/Splendour)
Les Savy Fav (Laneway)
Portishead (Harvest)
Flaming Lips (Harvest
Holy Fuck (Laneway)
Pulp (Splendour)
The National (Harvest)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Harvest)
Mars Volta (Splendour)

Welcome to 2012!!!!!!

The Books I Enjoyed Most in 2011

I was going to a best books of the year list, but since taking on the degree work and simultaneously trying to work through the 1001 list, I have read precious few novels in the year of their publication.  Here instead then are the books that gave me the most reading pleasure last year.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey 10*

Quite wonderful, highly enjoyable, both laugh out loud funny and achingly sad, Kesey's best known novel is a near perfect work.

Address Unknown - Kressman Taylor 10*

A Jew betrayed by his German-American business partner sets about gaining a measure of justice, or revenge, in a cunning literary manner.  Published on the eve of WWII, Taylor's novel was banned by the Nazi's.



Cover of The Burial at Thebes



The Burial At Thebes (Sophocles Antigone) - Seamus Heaney 10*

Long poem or short novel in the style of a poem ? Heaney's translation is flowing and exciting.  He has a most special gift for language.



Appreciating Art - Diana Newell 10*
I bought this to help on my pre-degree course and what an excellent guide it is.  Newell explains clearly, and with lavish illustrations and reproductions of famous art works, how Western Art and painting in particular has evolved from 1400 t the present day.

Attention All Shipping - Charlie Connelly 9*

Radio 4 and the Shipping Forecast are two small parts of what makes the British British.  Connelly explores the physical areas of the Shipping forecast, encountering the people who live in or by them, and uncovering a trove of fascinating shipping and weather related lore.

Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks 9*


Hell is real if you believe in it, or rather if your culture wants or demands it.  Banks has a serious look at one aspect of belief in amongst giant space ships with weird names, death and technological resurrection and a a world sized weapons factory that might threaten known space.  Banks' Culture novels are still the cream of contemporary space sci-fi.

The God Of Small Things - Arundhati Roy 9*
Roy's complex weaving of the lives of a Indian family, told largely through the eyes of one of a pair of twins takes in diaspora, love, passion, the changing political landscape in India and has always at its heart a terrible tragedy that is hinted at in the earliest pages but only is only truly made clear as the novel draws to a close.  Intelligent, passionately enthralling and brilliantly conceived, Roy shows deep understanding of all the many kinds of love.

City Of Thieves - David Benioff 9*


Cover via Amazon



Two men fall foul of the Communist authorities in besieged Stalingrad and are sent on a bizarre mission to find a dozen fresh eggs for a wedding cake.  It sounds bizarre, but Benioff makes his idea work beautifully.  Yes it is really about the horror of war and man's inhumanity to man, but there is scope for friendship and laughter amongst the bleakness of life in a city at war.

Under Fire : The Story Of A Squad - Henri Barbusse 9*
Translated from the French, this really is the horror of.  Barbusse holds nothing back as he describes the living hell the French troops endured in the trenches of WWI, all based on his own experiences as a soldier. 

Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe 9*
Was Marlowe a better playwright than Shakespeare ? Faustus certainly shows him as a man with of inventive, acerbic wit and a sharp turn of phrase.

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen 9*
Classic horror, pre-Lovecraft and very much of the same style that H P would later employ.  Only really a novella, but well worth searching out.  Stephen King says it is perhaps "the best horror story in the English Language."

Terra : Four Events That Changed The World - Richard Hamblyn 9*
Hamblyn takes us on a tour of almost apocalyptic natural disasters, always emphasising the human cost.  The section on the Lisbon earthquake - which was followed by firestorm, aftershocks and tsunami - is particularly gripping and well written.

The following were also excellent...
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J R R Tolkein 10*
Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome 9*
AA100 Reputations - Ed. Elaine Moohan 9*
Making Sense Of The Arts - OU Course Team 9*
The Time Machine - H G Wells 9*
Of Human Bondage - W Somerset Maugham 9*
Ilkley Revisited - Mike Dixon 9*
The Storyteller's Tale - Omair Ahmad 9*
VSI English Literature - Jonathan Bate 9*
A Month In The County - J L Carr 9*
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 9*
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman 9*
Forgotten English - Jeffrey Kacirk 9*