T. Cole Rachel

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Best of 2011

December 31, 2011 by T. Cole Rachel

2011, how dare you!

TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2011

  1. John Maus – We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
  2.  Real Estate -- Days
  3. Caveman – Coco Beware
  4. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
  5. Atlas Sound -- Parallax
  6. Cass McCombs – Wit’s End
  7. The Horrors -- Skying
  8. Pure X - Pleasure
  9. Wu Lyf – Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
  10. My Morning Jacket -- Circuital
  11. R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
  12. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
  13. Iceage – New Brigade
  14. Yuck -- Yuck
  15. Destroyer -- Kaputt
  16. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for my Halo
  17. Das Racist -- Relax
  18. tUne-yArDs – w h o k i l l
  19. The Men – Leave Home
  20. Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
  21. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
  22. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart -- Belong
  23. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
  24. Craft Spells – Idle Labor
  25. Metronomy – The English Riviera
  26. Meg Baird – Seasons on Earth
  27. Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What
  28. AA Bondy -- Believers
  29. Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise
  30. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
  31. Peaking Lights -- 936
  32. Cass McCombs – Humor Risk
  33. Low – C’mon
  34. Bjork -- Biophilia
  35. Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
  36. Panda Bear -- Tomboy
  37. Liturgy -- Aesthetica
  38. Wild Flag – Wild Flag
  39. Quilt -- Quilt
  40. Oneohtrix Point Never -- Replica

TOP 10 SONGS OF 2011

  1. “The Orchard”-- Vorhees
  2. “Hey Moon” –John Maus
  3. “Younger than Yesterday” – Real Estate
  4. “Chinatown” -- Destroyer
  5. “How Deep is Your Love?” –The Rapture
  6. “County Line” – Cass McCombs
  7. “Mona Lisa” – Atlas Sound
  8. “New Beat” -- Toro Y Moi
  9. “Bataille” – The Men
  10. “Folds” -- Beige

TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2011

  1. The Cure (Beacon Theater)
  2. Portishead (All Tomorrows Parties)
  3. U2 (Meadowlands Stadium)
  4. The Men (Shea Stadium)
  5. Caveman (Bowery Ballroom)
  6. John Maus (Glasslands)
  7. Cat Power (Webster Hall)
  8. Cass McCombs (Bowery Ballroom)
  9. Janes Addiction (Irving Plaza)
  10. Guns And Roses (Meadowlands Arena)

TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2011

  1. Ride –Nowhere (20th Anniversary Edition)
  2. Hood: Recollected (box set)
  3. Archers of Loaf – Icky Mettle
  4. Nirvana – Nevermind (20th Anniversary Edition)
  5. Leonard Cohen – The Complete Columbia Albums
  6. The Beach Boys – The Smile Sessions
  7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Let Love In
  8. The Flaming Lips – Heady Nuggs 1992-2002
  9. Rolling Stones – Some Girls (Deluxe Reissue)
  10. U2 – Achtung Baby

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2011

  1. Melancholia
  2. Tabloid
  3. The Tree of Life
  4. Weekend
  5. Bill Cunningham New York
  6. Insidious
  7. The Artist
  8. The Skin I Live In
  9. Meek’s Cutoff
  10. Rubber

TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2011

  1. Lightning People (Novel) by Christopher Bollen
  2. Blue Nights (Nonfiction) by Joan Didion
  3. Space, In Chains (poems) by Laura Kasischke
  4. I Want My MTV (nonfiction) by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum
  5. Life on Mars (poems) by Tracy K. Smith
  6. Master of Disguises (poems) by Charles Simic
  7. One With Others (poems) by C.D. Wright
  8. Love Goes to Buildings on Fire (Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever) (nonfiction) by Will Hermes
  9. 11-22-63 (novel) by Stephen King
  10. Arguably (Essays) – By Christopher Hitchens

TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2010

  1. Stevie Nicks (for the 2nd time!)
  2. Shirley Manson
  3. John Maus
  4. Mick Fleetwood
  5. Paul Simon
  6. Billy Corgan
  7. Yoko Ono
  8. Bob Mould
  9. PJ Harvey
  10. Andy Samberg

The Five MOST Randomly Amazing Things that Happened in 2010

5 – Not only did Heathers get a renewed liquor license this year (providing a very satisfying FUCK YOU to the asshole neighbors who have tormented the Heathers staff for the past few years), Heather Millstone and I finally produced our very first 7” single for our PEOPLES CLUB label. The Vorhees single will finally see a proper release (with a proper party and website launch) in 2012 and will hopefully be the first in a series of quarterly releases that Heather and I put together.

4 – 2011 was the year that I rediscovered why I love writing poems. After a few years of writing creatively only in fits and starts (and feeling like my creative mind had been replaced by a “gotta write this shit for money” kind of mind), I finally got back to work on a new collection of poems and essays that I hope to have completed by the end of this year.

3 – Going to Copenhagen with Julianne Shepherd and attending what was basically a city-wide rave was one of the highlights of my year. At an event that should have, by all rights, made me feel really old and cranky, I ended up having an unexpectedly fantastic and completely ridiculous time. It was like having all the dials on my psyche reset.

2 – In addition to taking Joshua Sanchez home to meet my family for the holidays, I also got to see him direct his feature film, FOUR, which made me really proud and totally inspired. Thanks to him, I also got to make my acting debut (as “bartender”) and try my hand at music supervision for a feature film. I can’t wait to see FOUR be released in 2012 and for everyone to finally see what Josh has created.

1 – It seems hard to believe that just around a year ago I was meeting Mike Hamm for the first time. Over the past year he became one of the most beloved people in my life—a sweet, funny, and incredibly kind bundle of hyperactive energy that made me laugh pretty much every day. His sudden passing last week has been incredibly painful for everyone who knew him. Rather than view his death as a pall hanging over this new year, I’m choosing to view it as a reminder of how important it is to take nothing for granted and to be thankful every day for the people you love. Mike reminded me of why I came to NYC in the first place and he really helped me get back in touch with my creative self. I’m so grateful to have known him and I will think of him every time I write a poem, dance drunkenly in public, or decide to carve a pumpkin.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo xo xo COLE

December 31, 2011 /T. Cole Rachel
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