Best of 2025
Best of 2025
2025 is mostly a blur, but here are 20 of the people, places, things, and experiences that I loved the most.
Traveling through French Polynesia
Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter tour
Nine Inch Nails at Barclays Center
Floating Points - Lazarus EP (music)
Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball at Madison Square Garden
I Do Know Some Things by Richard Siken (poems)
The Loves of My Life by Edmund White (RIP to one of the greats)
Kim Deal at Brooklyn Paramount
Pee-wee as Himself documentary
Beth Ditto crashing with us in NYC
Thrift shopping in Vancouver with Douglas Coupland
Working on The Chanel Gazette for the 2025 Chanel Métiers d'Art show in NYC
Exit Opera by Kim Addonizio (poems)
Startlement: New and Selected Poems by Ada Limon
Alex G - Headlights
Soft Beasts by Jia-Rui Cook (poems)
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (memoir)
Weapons (movie)
YHWH Nailgun - 45 Pounds (music)
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (music)
Various Artists – Telepathic Fish: Trawling The Early 90s Ambient Underground (music)
Best of 2024
I know I’m not alone in feeling like 2024 was an impossibly wild ride. Between starting a new job at the Times, dealing with illnesses within my family, taking on too much freelance stuff, trying not to neglect my own creative work, and simply not losing my mind due to the presidential race (and terrible outcome), the entirety of 2024 feels like one long sustained anxiety attack. Still, as I sit here and think about it, I feel remarkably blessed when thinking back on all the great things that happened this year. I made new friends, spent time with people I love, Josh and I got to travel, and I turned 50 while soaking in a hot spring next to a volcano in Costa Rica.
A 50 year-old man in Costa Rica
I know I’m not alone in feeling like 2024 was an impossibly wild ride. Between starting a new job at the Times, dealing with illnesses within my family, taking on too much freelance stuff, trying not to neglect my own creative work, and simply not losing my mind due to the presidential race, the entirety of 2024 feels like one long sustained anxiety attack. Still, as I sit here and think about it, I feel remarkably blessed when thinking back on all the great things that happened this year. I made new friends, spent time with people I love, Josh and I got to travel, and I turned 50 while soaking in a hot spring next to a volcano in Costa Rica. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2025, no matter what the world has in store.
And here are a few things that I loved in 2024…
MUSIC
Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Floating points - Cascade
Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
Charlie xcx - Brat
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
Belong - Realistic IX
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Kim Gordon - The Collective
Gossip - Real Power
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Helado Negro - Phasor
Charly Bliss - Forever
Real Estate - Daniel
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God
MOVIES
Anora
Here
I Saw the TV Glow
Furiosa
Challengers
Thelma
Infested
Late Night with the Devil
Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q. Lazzarus
BOOKS
Havoc - Christopher Bollen
Stand in My Window - LaTonya Yvette
Scattered Snows, To The North (poems) - Carl Phillips
Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner
A Film in Which I Play Everyone (Poems) - Mary Jo Bang
The God of the Woods - Liz Moore
I Was The Girl: Art by Vicky West
Bluff (poems) - Danez Smith
NUL (art, music, words) - Matteah Baim
Everything and Nothing at Once - Joél Leon
A Year of Last Things (poems) - Michael Ondaatje
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World - edited by Ada Limon
Health and Safety - Emily Witt
Soon and Wholly (Poems) - Idra Novey
SHOWS
ELO at Madison Square Garden
Slowdive at Brooklyn Paramount
Madonna at Madison Square Garden
Justin Vivian Bond at Joe’s Pub
Cat Power at Carnegie Hall
Sarah McLachlan at Radio City
Cats: The Jellicle Ball at Perelman Performing Arts Center
Rolling Stones at NRG Stadium, Houston
Sandra Bernhard at Joe’s Pub (a New Year’s Eve tradition)
THINGS
Turning 50 in Costa Rica, surrounded by birds and sloths
Celebrating 14 years together with Josh (two of them as a married couple)
Settling into my Editorial Director role at TBrand at The New York Times
Continuing to collaborate on Dossier – and seeing a print version come to life
Reconnecting with old friends, disconnecting from others
Having two nieces to shower with weird gifts, seeing my sister be a great mom
Doing a Q&A with Beth Ditto in front of a live audience for the Grammy Museum
Traveling to Jamaica, Mexico, and Costa Rica
Devoting an entire closet in our apartment to the hoarding of expensive candles
The signature Santal candles for sale at all Arlo Hotels
Staycations in the city
Stress knitting and yarn buying
Hue lighting in every room of the apartment
Horror movie recommendations on Letterbox
The abundance of new Target stores across Manhattan
Writing letters and sending cards (and receiving them)
Expensive Japanese ink pens from the stationary section of McNally Jackson
Happy New Year!
Best of 2023
I guess I’m just going to pretend that 2021 and 2022 never happened. I know I read books and enjoyed a lot of art during those years, but I was also traveling a ton for Departures, losing my mind due to the state of the world, and basically just trying to keep my head about water and preserve my mental health by knitting, watching old TV shows, and generally dissociating whenever I could. However, it feels good to once again have a moment of pause to look back on the stuff that moved me over the past year. Even though it was a tough year in my ways, it was also momentous and filled with a lot of joy. In addition to traveling all over the world for work, I also got married, which is something I never imagined I would get to do. I am happy that I was able to end this year feeling deeply loved and extraordinarily blessed.
The coast of Easter Island
I guess I’m just going to pretend that 2021 and 2022 never happened. I know I read books and enjoyed a lot of art during those years, but I was also traveling a ton for Departures, losing my mind due to the state of the world, and basically just trying to keep my head about water and preserve my mental health by knitting, watching old TV shows, and generally dissociating whenever I could. However, it feels good to once again have a moment of pause to look back on the stuff that moved me over the past year. Even though it was a tough year in my ways, it was also momentous and filled with a lot of joy. In addition to traveling all over the world for work, I also got married, which is something I never imagined I would get to do. I am happy that I was able to end this year feeling deeply loved and extraordinarily blessed.
Books
No Land in Sight (Poems) — Charles Simic
My Name is Barbra — Barbra Streisand
Sad Happens — Brandon Stosuy
The Lost Americans — Christopher Bollen
The Thomas Salto (Poems) — Timmy Straw
The Biography of X — Catherine Lacey
Everybody (poems) — Albert Goldbarth
Wayward: Just Another Life to Live — Vashti Bunyan
Films
Showing Up
Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God
Talk to Me
Oppenheimer
May December
Trips
Exploring Easter Island
Honeymooning in Greece on the island of Ios
Traveling from Hawaii to the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia via TCS Travel
Spending a week in Milan and staying in two of the most incredible hotels I’ve ever seen
Records
Sufjan Stevens — Javelin
Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert
Blue Lake — Sun Arcs
Lana Del Rey — Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Arooj Aftab / Vijay Iyer / Shahzad Ismaily — Love in Exile
Ryuichi Sakamoto — 12
Tim Hecker — No Highs
Shows
Beyonce at MetLIfe Stadium
The Cure at Madison Square Garden
Judy Collins at Town Hall
Kiki & Herb Dress Rehearsal at Parkside Lounge
Best of 2020
While I certainly don’t want to miss an opportunity to finally read 2020 for filth, I’m not sure what sorts of terrible things I can say about this year that hasn’t already been said more eloquently by lots of other people. It was a terrible, no-good, soul-crushing, exasperating, and thoroughly exhausting excuse for a year. Still, it feels good to acknowledge that 2020 did actually manage to give us all some beautiful art, so here are the things that made an impression—and made me feel better—in the crazy-ass year of 2020.
While I certainly don’t want to miss an opportunity to finally read 2020 for filth, I’m not sure what sorts of terrible things I can say about this year that hasn’t already been said more eloquently by lots of other people. It was a terrible, no-good, soul-crushing, exasperating, and thoroughly exhausting excuse for a year. I lost my job and, like so many people, spent the bulk of the past 12 months living under a thick fog of anxiety. Still, I am so incredibly grateful for so many things and the general wretchedness of the past year also served to highlight just how lucky I am. I got to spend my time safely quarantined with my loving partner and favorite person, Joshua Sanchez. While unemployed, I had lots of very kind folks in my industry go out of their way to offer me freelance work and job references. I remained healthy (thank goddess!) and relatively productive. I learned to knit and launched a tiny cottage industry selling hats and scarves. Compared to what so many people have gone through this year, I realize that I am incredibly fortunate and should never take for granted all the blessings in my life. That being said, doing a “best of” list for 2020 feels very weird, since I basically saw no shows, listened to a shockingly small amount of new music (for the most part it was all ancient new-age playlists and non-stressful jazz around my lair), and mostly looked at old poetry books as a way to keep sane. Still, it feels good to acknowledge that 2020 did actually manage to give us all some beautiful art, so here are the things that made an impression—and made me feel better—in the crazy-ass year of 2020.
Books
Arena - Lauren Shapiro (poems)
Cardinal - Tyree Daye (poems)
Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems - Wanda Coleman
Romance or the End - Elaine Kahn (poems)
A Beautiful Crime - Christopher Bollen (novel)
A Saint from Texas - Edmund White (novel)
Wow, No Thank You: Essays - Samantha Irby
What Are You Going Through - Sigrid Nunez
Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary - Sasha Geffen
Make Time for Creativity: Finding Space for Your Most Meaningful Work - Brandon Stosuy
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir - Natasha Tretheway
Records
Jessie Ware - What’s your pleasure?
Fiona Apple - Fetch the Boltcutters
Bill Callahan - Gold Record
Juliana Barwick - Healing is a Miracle
Duval Timothy: Help
The Soft Pink Truth: Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
Kelly Lee Owens: Inner Song
Fleet Foxes: Shore
The Microphones: Microphones in 2020
Perfume Genius: Set My Heart on Fire Immediately
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Caribou - Suddenly
KMRU - Peel
Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders
Movies
Scream Queen
Host
Bacurau
Da 5 Bloods
Lovers Rock
David Byrne’s American Utopia
First Cow
Possessor
My Octopus Teacher
Normally I’d add an entire section here devoted to interviews and live shows (haha, there were none!), but I didn’t actually do too much professional writing in 2020. I was focused mostly on my own poetry practice, my own ongoing poetry workshop, and taking Joshua Sanchez’s always amazing screenwriting class. However, I will say that interviewing Dionne Warwick for InStyle was a personal highlight and the kind of gig that comes along right at that moment you need it most. The same thing is true of my new job, which materialized at the end of the year at basically the exact moment I was ready to throw up my hands and give up. Lesson learned. Never give up.
Sending love and light to everyone in hopes that 2021 will be happier, healthier, and less psychically draining than the year we all just endured.
xo Cole
Best of 2019
2019 was a beast of a year. A lot of great things happened, a lot of terrible things happened. People I love struggled tremendously and managed to persevere. My dad got sick and has mostly recovered. A lot of people were very kind and supportive. The larger world became increasingly terrible, but when I needed it most I found myself supported by love and light. I don’t think I’m quite capable yet of processing the events of the past decade (or even the past twelve months, really), but I can say that the past year was made better by lots of amazing music and art and wonderful conversations. I am grateful, grateful, and more grateful for all the good things and good people in my life and looking forward to what 2020 has to offer. Here’s a list (in no particular order) of of the things that brought be joy in 2019.
My mom’s backyard, December 2019.
2019 was a beast of a year. A lot of great things happened, a lot of terrible things happened. People I love struggled tremendously and managed to persevere. My dad got sick and has mostly recovered. A lot of people were very kind and supportive. The larger world became increasingly terrible, but when I needed it most I found myself supported by love and light. I don’t think I’m quite capable yet of processing the events of the past decade (or even the past twelve months, really), but I can say that the past year was made better by lots of amazing music and art and wonderful conversations. I am grateful, grateful, and more grateful for all the good things and good people in my life and looking forward to what 2020 has to offer.
Here’s a list (in no particular order) of of the things that brought be joy in 2019.
Books
The Now: Poems: Albert Goldbarth
Arias: Sharon Olds
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: Ocean Vuong
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion: Jia Tolentino
In the Dream House: Carmen Maria Machado
How We Fight for Our Lives: Saeed Jones
Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems: Dorianne Laux
Magical Negro: Morgan Parker
Soft Targets: Deborah Landau
The Topeka School: Ben Lerner
Black Light: Kimberly King Parsons
Movies
I watched surprisingly few of the big awards movies this year (and hated most of the ones I actually did see), so this is a particularly random list of mostly genre movies that stuck with me long after I saw them.
The Souvenir
Knives Out
Crawl
Hagazussa
Hail Satan?
Knife + Heart
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary
Records
Black Marble: Bigger Than Life
Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Aldous Harding: Designer
Kim Gordon: No Home Record
Deerhunter: Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?
Matmos: Plastic Anniversary
Cate Le Bon: Reward
Trond Kallevåg Hansen: Bedehus & Hawaii
Jenny Hval: The Practice of Love
Bill Callahan: Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Purple Mountains: Purple Mountains
Charlie Bliss: Young Enough
Live Shows
Cate Le Bon / Elsewhere
Low / Basilica Soundscape
Suzanne Vega / Cafe Carlyle
KISS / Barclays Center
Judy Collins / Joe’s Pub
Rolling Stones / NRG Stadium
Bridget Everett / Joe’s Pub
Oklahoma / Circle in the Square Theater
TCI Interviews
Here’s to a happy & healthy 2020!
xo COLE
Best of 2018
It’s hard to separate the good and the bad when so much of you was so very very bad. Still, you had some serious bright spots—amazing art, good books, lovely times with friends. I also moved into a new apartment this year, leaving my old nest of 16 years on Powers Street and heading to Bushwick with Joshua Sanchez. In some ways this felt like the longest year ever, in other ways time seems to be moving at light speed. As always, wishing I could just press pause on life and have a moment to catch my breath and get my head on straight, but instead I’ll take a moment to look back at some of the things that gave some welcome respite from the never-ending political nightmare of the past 12 months. As always, putting together this list is nice because it reminds of how lucky I am to be in a position to write and think about art for a living and how incredibly privileged I feel to both love and be loved by so many amazing humans.
My new office in our new apartment. Thanks, 2018.
Best of 2018
Dear 2018,
It’s hard to separate the good and the bad when so much of you was so very very bad. Still, you had some serious bright spots—amazing art, good books, lovely times with friends. I also moved into a new apartment this year, leaving my old nest of 16 years on Powers Street and heading to Bushwick with Joshua Sanchez. In some ways this felt like the longest year ever, in other ways time seems to be moving at light speed. As always, wishing I could just press pause on life and have a moment to catch my breath and get my head on straight, but instead I’ll take a moment to look back at some of the things that gave some welcome respite from the never-ending political nightmare of the past 12 months. As always, putting together this list is nice because it reminds of how lucky I am to be in a position to write and think about art for a living and how incredibly privileged I feel to both love and be loved by so many amazing humans.
xo COLE
The books I read in 2017 that I couldn't stop thinking about later on…
1 - The Carrying - Ada Limon
2 - How to Write an Autobiographical Novel - Alexander Chee
3 - The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading - Edmund White
4 - Evolution: Poems - Eileen Myles
5 - You’re On An Airplane - Parker Posey
6 - Wade in the Water: Poems - Tracy K. Smith
7 - A Cruelty Special To Our Species: Poems - Emily Jungmin Yoon
8 - So Far So Good: Poems - Ursula K. Le Guin
9 - My Life as a Goddess - Guy Branum
10 - Monument: New & Selected Poems - Natasha Trethewey
Maybe not technically the “best” records released in 2018, but definitely the ones I listened to the most.
1 - Low - Double Negative
2 - Cat Power - Wanderer
3 - serpentwithfeet - soil
4 - Robyn - Honey
5 -Beach House - 7
6 - Nils Frahm - All Melody
7 - Amen Dunes - Freedom
8 - Kelly Moran - Ultraviolet
9 - Flasher - Constant Image
10 - Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John
The movies that I couldn’t shake in 2018.
1 - The Favourite
2 - God Knows Where I Am
3 - Roma
4 - Won’t you be my neighbor?
5 - The Rider
6 - Eighth Grade
7 - Revenge
8 - Monrovia, Indiana
9 - Three Identical Strangers
10 - Mandy
My favorite interviews of 2018. These were the people who were the most fun to talk to and said stuff that either made me laugh, think deeply, or cry.
1 - Neneh Cherry
2 - Erica Jong
3 - Nile Rogers
4 - Joan Baez
5 - Eileen Myles
6 - Ada Limon
7 - Kim Gordon
8 - Courtney Barnett
9 - Amanda Duarte
10 - Isaac Mizrahi
My favorite live shows of 2018.
My ears rang and my heart burst.
1 - ELO // Madison Square Garden // August 22nd
2 - My Bloody Valentine // Hammerstein Ballroom // August 1st
3 - Low // National Sawdust // September 19th
4 - Cat Power // Album Release show // October 3rd
5 - Michael McDonald // Cafe Carlyle // October 23rd
6 - Depeche Mode // Barclays Center / June 6th
7 - Hamilton Leithauser // Cafe Carlyle // January 16th
8 - Tremor Festival // Sao Miguel, Azores // April 20th
9 - Boy Harsher // Basilica Soundscape // September 15th
10 - Orbital // Brooklyn Steel // December 4th
So long 2018.
Here’s to a happy and healthy new year.
Best of 2017
My main takeaway from this year was namely that the general toxicity of our political landscape sometimes made it hard to appreciate anything beautiful...but it also made the capacity to appreciate art and beauty feel so much more necessary. As a person whose job it is now to talk to artists and creators on pretty much a daily basis, I feel both grateful and honored that so many people—including so many of my friends—are continuing to put good energy out into the universe at a time when it's harder than ever to do so.
What can I say about 2017 that hasn't been said already?
My main takeaway from this year was namely that the general toxicity of our political landscape sometimes made it hard to appreciate anything beautiful...but it also made the capacity to appreciate art and beauty feel so much more necessary. As a person whose job it is now to talk to artists and creators on pretty much a daily basis, I feel both grateful and honored that so many people—including so many of my friends—are continuing to put good energy out into the universe at a time when it's harder than ever to do so.
The books I managed to read in 2017 that I couldn't stop thinking about later on.
1 - The Destroyers - Christopher Bollen
2 - Her Body and Other Parties (short story collection) - Carmen Maria Machado
3 - Hunger - Roxane Gay
4 - Hit So Hard: A Memoir - Patty Schemel
5 - WHEREAS: Poems - Layli Long Soldier
6 - There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (poems)- Morgan Parker
7 - The Raincoats' The Raincoats - Jenn Pelly
8 - Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction - Grady Hendrix
9 - Adventures of Form and Content (Essays) - Albert Goldbarth
10 - Why Poetry - Matthew Zapruder
The records that I listened to the most (according to my iTunes account) and that brought me the most pleasure over the past year.
1 - No Shape - Perfume Genius
2 - Slowdive - Slowdive
3 - Black Origami - Jlin
4 - Guppy - Charlie Bliss
5 - This Old Dog - Mac Demarco
6 - Antisocialites - Alvvays
7 - A Deeper Understanding - The War on Drugs
8 - World Eater - Blanck Mass
9 - Screen Memories - John Maus
10 - Rest - Charlotte Gainsbourg
The movies that I actually managed to see over the past year that either stayed with me or managed to scratch some deep childhood itch. (Apologies to all the great 2017 movies that I haven't seen yet)
1 - Twin Peaks: The Return (not technically a movie, but I don’t care)
2 - Call Me By Your Name
3 - BPM
4 - IT
5 - God’s Own Country
6 - Mother
7 - Whitney: Can I Be Me
8 - The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
9 - Get Out
10 - Dawson City: Frozen Time
I somehow saw less live music in 2017 than normal, but here are the shows that knocked my socks off.
1 - Slowdive (Brooklyn Steel)
2 - Breeders (Bowery Ballroom)
3 - Cat Power (Webster Hall)
4 - Serpentwithfeet (Basilica Soundscape)
5 - Josh Fadem (REMAINS, Matthew Barney Studio)
6 - Tori Amos (Beacon Theater)
7 - Goldfrapp (Brooklyn Steel)
8 - Marilyn Manson (Hammerstein Ballroom)
9 - Grizzly Bear (Brooklyn Steel)
10 - Yo La Tengo (Bowery Ballroom)
I talked to so so so many incredible people in 2017 and it would be easy to just list them all, but here are the interviews that had the deepest impact on my own thinking and/or were simply the most fun.
1 - Beth Ditto
2 - Sufjan Stevens
3 - Michael McDonald
4 - Rickie Lee Jones
5 - Betty Buckley
6 - Derek DelGuardio
7 - Genesis P-Orridge
8 - Alice Cooper
9 - Gerald Busby
10 - John Maus
That's it for you 2017. I feel very blessed to continue to have a job that I love, a partner that supports me, and good friends spread out all over the world who bring me lots of joy, even when I don't see them all the time. My hope for 2018 is that we're all currently perched on some kind of enormous cultural pendulum, which is just now starting to swing back into a more positive, healthy, less politically soul-crushing 2018.
Happy New Year. Trump can still go fuck himself.
xo COLE
Best of 2016
After getting a new job this year and finally saying goodbye to my freelance life, it didn’t take long to realize that my relationship to music had also changed. Since I’m not writing about music almost exclusively anymore, I don’t have the same kind of impetus—or the time, frankly—to wade through a million promos or spend all day listening to the same record over and over just to figure out if I like it or not. That being said, music continues play an important part in my life daily and I credit it with helping save my sanity during this flaming shit show of a year. While I tend to lean on my arsenal of comfort records during times of duress (thank you, Disintegration), there were plenty of new records that also made me feel things (happy, inspired, comforted, not totally insane) this year. These are those records.
Best of 2016
After getting a new job this year and finally saying goodbye to my freelance life, it didn’t take long to realize that my relationship to music had also changed. Since I’m not writing about music almost exclusively anymore, I don’t have the same kind of impetus—or the time, frankly—to wade through a million promos or spend all day listening to the same record over and over just to figure out if I like it or not. That being said, music continues play an important part in my life daily and I credit it with helping save my sanity during this flaming shit show of a year. While I tend to lean on my arsenal of comfort records during times of duress (thank you, Disintegration), there were plenty of new records (and books and movies) that also made me feel things (happy, inspired, comforted, not totally insane) this year.
TOP 20 RECORDS OF 2016
1 – Cass McCombs - Mangy Love
2 – Matmos - Ultimate Care II
3 – David Bowie - Blackstar
4 – Neko Case, K.D. Lang, Laura Veirs - Case/Lang/Veirs
5 – Beyoncé - Lemonade
6 – Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch
7 – Lush - Blind Spot ep
8 – Steve Gunn - Eyes on the Lines
9 – Mr. Fingers - Outer Acid EP
10 – Julianna Barwick - Will
11 – Cobalt - Slow Forever
12 – serpentwithfeet - blisters ep
13 – Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
14 – Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
15 – Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
16 – Huerco S. - For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)
17 – Katie Gately - Color
18 – Parquet Courts - Human Performance
19 – Nicolas Jaar - Sirens
20 – William Tyler - Modern Country
THE 12 MOST PLAYED SONGS DURING MY 2016 MORNING BUS COMMUTE.
1 – “Opposite House” - Cass McCombs
2 – “Conditions Wild” - Steve Gunn
3 – “Human Performance: - Parquet Courts
4 – “All Night” - Chance the Rapper
5 – “I Can’t Give Everything Away” - David Bowie
6 – “Female Vampire” - Jenny Hval
7 – “Hungry” - White Lung
8 – “Song for Judee” - Case/Lang/Veirs
9 – “Out of Control” - Lush
10 – “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales” - Car Seat Headrest
11 - “Normal American Kids” – Wilco
12 – “Joanne” – Lady Gaga (I hated this album, but this song is so sweet)
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2016
I was lucky to see a ton of amazing stuff this year, but nothing can match the pure surrealness of watching the reunited Guns & Roses from the very front of the stage at a stadium in Houston. Something I never thought would happen in my lifetime, but I’m so happy it did.
1 – Guns & Roses / Houston, NRG Stadium
2 – The Anniversary / Bowery Ballroom
3 – The Cure / Madison Square Garden
4 – Stevie Nicks / Madison Square Garden
5 – Lush / Music Hall of Williamsburg
6 – Basilica Soundscape / Hudson, NY
7 – Julie Ruin / Irving Plaza
8 – AC/DC / Madison Square Garden
9 – Serepentwithfeet / The Mission
10 – New Order / Radio City Music Hall
TOP 10 FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2016
I still mostly watch horror movies, the Great British Baking Show, old episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and weird documentaries to relax, but here are the movies that seemed to crack open my brain the most over the past year. (And no, I still haven’t seen Moonlight or almost any of the other big awards movies of this year, which I realize is incredibly lame.)
1 – Christine (Not sure why Rebecca Hall isn’t being given ALL the awards for this)
2 – The Wailing
3 – The Witch
4 – Don’t Breathe
5 – The Wave
6 – Spa Night
7 – Under the Shadow
8 – Everybody Wants Some
9 – Kate Plays Christine
10 – Uncle Howard
TOP 13 BOOKS I READ IN 2016 (THAT WERE ACTUALLY PUBLISHED IN 2016)
1 – Odes (Poetry) - Sharon Olds
2 – Our Young Man (Fiction) - Edmund White
3 – The Anatomical Venus: Wax, God, Death & the Ecstatic (Nonfiction) - Joanna Ebenstein
4 – Am I Alone Here? (Nonfiction) - Peter Orner
5 – Pond (Fiction) - Claire-Louise Bennett
6 – The Mothers (fiction) - Brit Bennett
7 – So Much Synth (Poetry) - Brenda Shaughnessy
8 – What Belongs to You (Fiction) - Garth Greenwell
9 – Imagine Me Gone (Fiction) - Adam Haslett
10 – Garden Time (Poetry) - W.S. Merwin
11 - Music is… (Children) - Brandon Stosuy
12 -George Washington (Poetry) - Adam Fitzgerald
13 - Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family - Garrard Conley
MY 11 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2016
One of the many great things about working at The Creative Independent is that it gives me the freedom to interview all different types of creative people and I don’t have to beg a magazine to let me do it. This also means that I get to do two or three interviews a week now, which is one of my favorite things in the world to be doing. I talked to a LOT of people in 2016, but these were the 10 interviews that felt the most impactful, either because I couldn’t stop thinking about them afterwards or because they made me laugh so hard or simply because I loved the person so much.
1 – Stevie Nicks (always and forever, my favorite interview subject)
2 – Sandra Bernhard
3 – Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson (Lush)
4 – Dev Hynes
5 – Leiomy Maldonado
6 – Alex Ross Perry
7 – Julien Baker
8 – Kelley Deal
9 – Shirley Manson (always and forever, my second-favorite interview subject)
10 – Cindy Wilson
11 -- Rodney Bingenheimer
TOP 10 THINGS THAT GAVE ME LIFE IN 2016
1 – Going to work alongside Brandon Stosuy at The Creative Independent. Life changer, game changer. I get to work in a beautiful office space among some of the most genuinely kind and creative folks I’ve ever met. Plus, I spend most of my time talking to artists, writers, musicians, dancers, actors, and various creators whose work I admire. It’s a literal dream job.
2 – Having my mom and sister come visit for a week and convincing my mom to get dressed up for Halloween and go to a crazy party with us at MoMA PS.1.
Mom.
3 – I didn’t even know what/were the Azores islands where until I went to the Tremor Festival (they are a group of islands in the mid-Atlantic, btw. An autonomous region of Portugal), but it turned out to be one of the best travel experiences of my life. Not only did I get to see a lot of beautiful landscapes and hear beautiful music, but I also got to share a million laughs with Julianna Barwick.
4 – For the second time I flew to Oslo, Norway (one of my favorite cities in the world) for the By:Larm Festival. It was cold and wintery and perfect.
5 – My “Poetry & Photography” class continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Not only do I love the people so much, but teaching the class always inspires me to write new poems and reminds me why I spent such a big chunk of my life writing them, studying them, and thinking about them.
6 – Always a high point of the year, this year’s Basilica was maybe the most fun yet. Not only did Josh and I get to stay in a bed and breakfast that totally felt like a haunted house (or the set of Clue), but our DJ set at the Half Moon was probably the best one we’ve ever done.
7 – After having our minds blown going to Houston to see Guns & Roses, we spent a few days in Austin doing absolutely nothing other than floating in a pool, eating excellent food, and seeing old friends.
8 – I went to the premiere of American Psycho on Broadway with Bret Ellis, an old friend and someone who has shown me incredible kindness over the years. Sadly, the show didn’t end up having a very long run, but the premiere party was one of the funniest things I did all year.
9 – Josh and I celebrated six years together this year, which is a beautiful and remarkable thing.
10 - After over a decade of slinging drinks in some capacity somewhere in New York City, I finally stepped away behind the bar this year. And though I’d never count out the possibility of doing it again at some point (who knows what the future ever holds, right?) it felt really good to say goodbye to all that and never make another Old Fashioned or needlessly complicated martini (hopefully) ever again.
REGARDING 2016...
It seems impossible to add anything new to the growing chorus of voices talking about what a miserably fucked-up year 2016 was. In a lot of ways my life changed for the better, but the election of he-who-shall-not-be-named and the seemingly endless barrage of deaths this year made it nearly impossible to see any silver linings anywhere. Still, as I sit and type this, I am reminded of how profoundly lucky I am. I have a great friends, a supportive family, a loving partner, a cute apartment, five billion ceramic cats and a garden, plus a job that allows me to think and talk about art and creativity for a living. It’s the kind of life I almost wouldn’t have dared imagine for myself when I was a kid, so my goal as we cruise into the scary black hole of 2017 is not to take anything for granted. Wishing everyone love and light.
Happy New Year. Fuck Trump.
xo COLE
Best of 2015
As always, there were so many records released this year that were technically dazzling and critically beloved that, quite honestly, I just never really listened to that much (Grimes, D’Angelo, Jamie XX)...and lots of records that might not necessarily have been critical darlings but still brought me lots of pleasure while I listened to them in my office while wearing pajamas, guzzling coffee and scrolling through cat photos on the internet. These are those records.
As always, there were so many records released this year that were technically dazzling and critically beloved that, quite honestly, I just never really listened to that much (Grimes, D’Angelo, Jamie XX)...and lots of records that might not necessarily have been critical darlings but still brought me lots of pleasure while I listened to them in my office while wearing pajamas, guzzling coffee and scrolling through cat photos on the internet. These are those records...
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2015
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
Lower Dens – Escape from Evil
Deerhunter – Fading Frontier
Bjork -- Vulnicura
Floating Points -- Elaenia
Hop Along – Painted Shut
Lana Del Rey -- Honeymoon
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete
Rabit -- Communion
Girl Band – Holding Hands with Jamie
Bully – Feels Like
Meg Baird – Don’t Weigh Down the Light
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I just Sit
Tame Impala -- Currents
Joanna Newsom -- Divers
Tamaryn -- Cranekiss
Kurt Vile – B’Lieve I’m Going Down
Julia Holter – Have You in My Wildnerness
Blur – The Magic Whip
C Duncan -- Architect
Wax Idols – American Tragic
Sanhet -- Revisionist
Lotic – Heterocetera EP
Beach House – Depression Cherry
Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, Girl
Palaxy Tracks -- Wilderness
Chris Stapleton -- Traveller
Jessica Pratt – On Your Own Love Again
Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
PWR BTTM – Ugly Cherries
My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion
Low - Ones and Sixes
Best Coast – California Nights
New Dog – Classic Ballroom Dances
Kasey Musgraves – Pageant Material
Martin Courtney – Many Moons
Swervedriver – I Wasn’t Born to Lose You
Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
TOP 20 MOST-PLAYED SONGS OF 2015 AROUND MY OFFICE (According to my iTunes)
“Fourth of July” – Sufjan Stevens
“Say” – C Duncan
“Terrence Loves You” – Lana Del Rey
“Pretty Pimpin” – Kurt Vile
“Mr Noah” – Panda Bear
“Lionsong” -- Bjork
“Alright” – Kendrick Lamar
“Feel You” – Julia Holter
“A New Wave” – Sleater-Kinney
“Ugly Cherries” – PWR BTTM
“Softcore” -- Tamaryn
“Karen Don’t be Sad” – Miley Cyrus
“Ad Astra” -- Deerhunter
“Let It Happen” – Tame Impala
“To Die in LA” – Lower Dens
“I Don’t Mind” – Meg Baird
“Space Song” – Beach House
“Buddy in the Parade” – Hop Along
“Run Away with Me” – Carly Rae Jepsen
“Depreston” – Courtney Barnett
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2015
This year was really an embarrassment of riches as far as live shows were concerned. Looking back, the most surprising thing is how much fun I had while seeing really big shows—like, stadium-size shows—as opposed to the more intimate, sweaty club shows that I generally prefer. Also, watching Madonna work at arena at close range and seeing The Rolling Stones from the FOURTH ROW in a ginormous stadium are things I’ll not likely soon forget. As much as my heart belongs to emerging music, there is a reason why some artists are meant to be icons…and it’s amazing to get to see them do their thing.
Fleetwood Mac / Oklahoma City
Madonna / Montreal
Bjork / Carnegie Hall, NYC
The Rolling Stones / Dallas
Tri Angle Records 5th Anniversary Showcase, NYC
Perfume Genius at Basilica Soundscape / Hudson, NYC
RIDE / Terminal 5, NYC
Swervedriver / St. Vitus, NYC
Garbage / Kings Theater, NYC
LOW / Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC
TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2015
Records so nice I had to buy them twice (or in the case of some of these, for the 3rd or 4th time).
Frankie Knuckles – House Masters
Built to Spill – There’s Nothing Wrong with Love
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Press Color
Coil - Backwards
Various Artists – Ork Records: New York, New York
Red House Painters – Box Set
Mariah – Utakata no Hibi
The Velvet Underground – Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition
Bikini Kill – Revolution Girl Style Now
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2015
In lieu of listing all of my favorite movies from this past year, I should probably just make a list of all the "Murder, She Wrote" episodes that I watched (and rewatched) instead. Movie-wise, so many of this year’s heavy hitters escaped me…but here’s a list of the things I did manage to see and happened to love. Clearly, I have a thing for horror movies and documentaries.
Carol
It Follows
The Assassin
A Poem is a Naked Person
Going Clear
Tangerine
The Wolfpack
Amy
Unfriended
Goodnight, Mommy
THE 20 BEST BOOKS THAT I READ IN 2015 (that were actually published in 2015)
So many great books…and so many people I love and admire doing such great work.
Orient – Christopher Bollen
Girl in a Band – Kim Gordon
Selfish (poems) – Albert Goldbarth
Ordinary Light: A Memoir – Tracy K. Smith
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl – Carrie Brownstein
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs – Sally Mann
The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories – Joy Williams
Heaven (poems) – Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Grace Jones: I’ll Never Write my Memoirs – Grace Jones
Don’t Suck, Don’t Die—Giving up Vic Chestnut – Kristin Hersh
What About This: The Collected Poems of Frank Stafford – Frank Stafford
Witches of America – Alex Mar
M Train – Patti Smith
The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle – Lillian Faderman
The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic – Jessica Hopper
Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris – Edmund White
Chapter and Verse: Joy Division, New Order, and Me – Bernard Sumner
Anger is an Energy: A Memoir – John Lydon
Going Into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man – Robert Christgau
The Last Two Seconds: Poems – Mary Jo Bang
MY TOP 25 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2015
I literally say this every year--sitting down to do interviews with people remains my absolute favorite thing to do. I didn’t think it would be possible to top 2014 in terms of unbelievable interview subjects, but 2015 managed to do it. Never in my life did I think I’d sit down (and do tequila shots) with Madonna, talk to Vaughan Oliver about the Cocteau Twins, or quiz Bernard Sumner about the early days of New Order. I also got to spend a couple of days in Georgia with Bradford Cox, who remains perhaps my favorite interview subject of all-time. Talking to all of these folks was truly an honor.
Madonna for Pitchfork
Vaughan Oliver for Interview
Bernard Sumner for Stereogum
Fred Schneider (live Q&A at Word in Brooklyn)
Bradford Cox for Pitchfork
Tori Amos for Interview
JD Souther for Interview
Shirley Manson for Stereogum
Joanna Newsom for Stereogum
John Lydon for Man of the World
Lou Barlow for Stereogum
Michael Shannon for Maxim
Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker of LOW for Stereogum
Father John Misty for Man of the World
Giorgio Moroder for V Magazine
Neon Indian for The FADER
Savages for OUT Magazine
Julia Holter for Stereogum
Moses Sumney for V Man
Peaches for V Magazine
TOP 10 THINGS THAT GAVE ME LIFE IN 2015
Teaching my POPNY class at NYU, which reminded my how much fun my job actually is.
Teaching my Poetry & Photography class at Baxter Street, which reminded me how much I love writing poems.
Going to Zipolite, Mexico with Joshua Sanchez, which was both life-affirming and death-defying.
Going to Oklahoma for my grandmother’s 80th birthday, which was also both life-affirming and death-defying.
Introducing my mom, brother and sister to Stevie Nicks backstage after the OKC Fleetwood Mac concert.
Being a judge at Coney Island Drag Race.
DJing the Basilica after-party with Robin Carolan, Bobby Krlic and Joshua Sanchez (while Brandon Stosuy danced behind us).
My bartending family at Richlane. My bartending family at the Ace.
Going to Montreal for the opening night of the Madonna tour with Joshua Sanchez, which was surely the gayest thing we did all year…
#murdershetweets
Regarding 2015…
The main reason I do these lists every year is really just to engage in some sort of Oprah-style gratitude exercising. It’s a way to remind myself to appreciate all the amazing things I got to do this year and to document my work. Since I can’t seem to ever keep a reliable journal, these yearly “best of” lists have become a way to look back and actually remember all the good stuff (especially when it’s all too easy to look back and only remember the bad stuff). To take stock of the previous year and remember all the things I loved and enjoyed is not only a good way to put things in perspective, it’s also a way to ward off all of the cumulative darkness that it seemed impossible not to be overwhelmed by in 2015. As the world gets increasingly scary, I take great comfort (and pleasure) in the luxury of being able to write and talk about art for a living. I’m also more acutely aware than ever before of how lucky I am to be surrounded by amazing friends, a loving and supportive partner, and my insane but wonderful family.
Happy New Year.
xo COLE
Best of 2014
Dear 2014,
You were crazy as hell and for the most part I am glad you are over.
Thanks for giving me so many great records to listen to though!
Sincerely,
T. Cole Rachel
Dear 2014,
You were crazy as hell and for the most part I am glad you are over.Thanks for giving me so many great records to listen to though!
Sincerely,
T. Cole Rachel
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2014
- Perfume Genius – Too Bright
- Real Estate - Atlas
- The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
- Sun Kil Moon -- Benji
- Mac Demarco – Salad Days
- Grouper -- Ruins
- Matteah Baim – Falling Theater
- Todd Terje – It’s Album Time
- Caribou – Our Love
- Merchandise – After the End
- Lykki Li – I Never Learn
- Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours
- Alvvays -- Alvvays
- FKA Twigs – LP1
- Ty Segall -- Manipulator
- Flying Lotus – You’re Dead!
- Iceage – Plowing Into The Field of Love
- Wild Beasts – Present Tense
- J Mascis – Tied to a Star
- Liars -- Mess
- Nils Frahm -- Spaces
- Pharmakon – Bestial Burden
- White Lung – Deep Fantasy
- Ratking – So It Goes
- Dum Dum Girls – Too True
- Swans – To Be Kind
- The Soft Pink Truth – Why Do The Heathens Rage?
- St. Vincent – St. Vincent
- Against Me – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
- Andy Stott – Faith in Strangers
- Peaking Lights – Cosmic Logic
- The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits
- Tori Amos – Unrepentant Geraldines
- WIFE – What’s Between
- Protomartyr – Under Color of Official Right
- Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness
- Run The Jewels – RTJ2
- Lana Del Ray -- Ultraviolence
- Adult Jazz – Gist is
- Luluc - Passerby
TOP 21 MOST-PLAYED SONGS OF 2014 AROUND MY OFFICE
- Perfume Genius – “Queen”
- Real Estate – “Primitive”
- Sun Kil Moon – “I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same”
- The War on Drugs – “Suffering”
- Todd Terje – “Johnny and Mary” (featuring Bryan Ferry)
- Mac Demarco – “Passing Out Pieces”
- Beyonce – “Partition”
- Matteah Baim – “Peach Tree”
- Alvvays – “Archie, Marry Me”
- Caribou – “Our Love”
- Merchandise – “Green Lady”
- J. Mascis & Chan Marshall – “Wide Awake”
- Ex Hex – “Don’t Wanna Lose”
- St. Vincent – “Prince Johnny”
- Grouper – “Holding”
- Nils Frahm – “Says”
- Tori Amos – “America”
- Lykke Li – “Gunshot”
- Ty Segall – “Susie Thumb”
- Sophie – “Lemonade”
- Future Islands – “Seasons (Waiting on You)”
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2014
As always, one of the best things about my jobs is the fact that I get to see so much live music FOR FREE. Occasionally I get burned out—and I don’t see nearly as many shows these days as I used to—but still, I’ll never complain about it. 2014 was filled with great stuff—particularly this year’s installment of the Basilica Festival—and no year is complete without somehow managing to see Stevie Nicks twirling across a stage in person. Also, for all you lovers, going to see a Van Halen cover band on Valentine’s Day is basically the perfect thing to do. Just saying.
- Slowdive// Pitchfork Festival, viewed from side stage
- Fleetwood Mac // Madison Square Garden
- Swans // Basilica Festival
- Bottoms Up (Van Halen cover band) // St. Vitus
- Vegan Cannibal // Ceremonia Festival, Mexico City
- Pet Shop Boys // Terminal 5
- Money // Glasslands
- Caveman // Baby’s All Right
- Cat Power (solo show) // Music Hall of Williamsburg
- The Knife // Terminal 5
TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2014
For all the nerds out there…here are the top 10 reissues of records that I loved and re-purchased in 2014. I’m biased about the Beth Orton record because I had the good fortune to be asked to write the liner notes. Also, in case you didn’t know, Beth Orton is basically an angel from heaven and one of the dearest people ever.
- Beth Orton – Central Reservation
- Pixies – Doolittle 25
- The Velvet Underground -- The Velvet Underground – 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
- Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas
- The Clientele – Suburban Light
- Lavender Country – Lavender Country
- Grace Jones -- Nightclubbing
- Lewis – L’Amour
- Bedhead – 1992-1998
- Yo La Tengo – Extra Painful
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2014
I feel like I should almost do an entirely separate list specifically for all the shitty horror movies I dutifully watch on cable late at night but since I’m already a little list-weary, here are ten movies that I loved this year. I’m embarassed to admit how many of the year’s big movies I still haven’t seen, but it’s hard to see things like Interstellar and The Imitation Game when I’m busy rewatching 80’s horror messes like Tourist Trap and The Sentinel as if my life and livelihood depended on it.
- Ida
- Boyhood
- Under the Skin
- Stranger by the Lake
- Finding Vivian Maier
- Snowpiercer
- Jodorowsky's Dune
- The Babadook
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film
THE 11 BEST BOOKS THAT I ACTUALLY READ IN 2014
A frightening number of books that I purchased in 2014 are still floating around my house and waiting for me to read them, but here are ten that hit the spot…
- Citizen: An American Lyric -- Claudia Rankine
- Is It My Body? Selected Texts – Kim Gordon
- The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion (Essays) – Meghan Daum
- Collected Poems – Mark Strand
- New Selected Poems – Les Murray
- Icon (Essays) – Edited by Amy Scholder
- Wolf in White Van: A Novel – John Darnielle
- Horrorstör: A Novel – Grady Hendris
- The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs – Greil Marcus
- Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records -- Amanda Petrusich
- Inside A Pearl: My Years in Paris – Edmund White
MY TOP 23 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2014
I say this every year--sitting down to do interviews with people remains my absolute favorite thing about my job. This year I had the excellent good fortune to talk to a lot of amazing humans who represent a pretty wide swath of what is happening right now in popular culture (not to mention being able to chat up a few of my own personal heroes in the process). I had a particularly good year interview-wise, so it’s hard to pick just ten…but getting sweet-talked by Kim Deal (who insisted on calling me Thurman) and being momentarily scared-silly by Joni Mitchell (“You aren’t going to call me a folk singer, are you? You aren’t going to refer to me as the female Bob Dylan, are you???”) are moments I won’t soon forget.
- Joni Mitchell // V Magazine
- Kim Deal // Stereogum
- almost all of The B-52s (Kate, Keith, and Fred) // The Pitchfork Review
- Ratking // The FADER
- Stevie Nicks // V Magazine
- Perfume Genius // Stereogum
- Kate Zambreno // Bon
- St. Vincent // Interview
- Bryan Ferry // Man of the World
- Marianne Faithfull // V Magazine
- Lykke Li // Stereogum
- Laura Jane Grace // Stereogum
- Nile Rogers // V Magazine
- Panda Bear // Stereogum
- Erasure // V Magazine
- Ann Margret // Interview
- Kirk Hammett // Stereogum
- Death Cab for Cutie // Stereogum
- Clive Davis // V Magazine
- Nina and Louise from Veruca Salt // Stereogum
- Kevin Drew // Stereogum (notable because he was taking a bath the entire time)
- Lily Allen // Stereogum
- Foxygen // Interview
Regarding 2014…
The main reason I do these lists every year is really just to remind myself to be grateful. After suffering a few unexpected losses over the past couple of years, I just always want to remind myself not to take things for granted and to love things fully and without irony. Even though this year got off to a rough start, I got to do a lot of amazing stuff in 2014 and spend time with a lot of amazing people. Aside from my journalism work, I’m now a part-time bartender at two amazing places--the ACE Hotel and Richlane—where I get to work with a bunch of hilarious people that have come to feel like my family. My continuing “Poetry & Photography” workshops at the Camera Club not only provide me with amazing students (many of whom have become dear friends), but also helped jump start my own poetry writing practice again, which is something I’ve too often neglected over the past three or four years of mostly writing about music. In addition, this year I got to see a lot of old friends from all eras of my life, which always reminds me how blessed I have been to always have been surrounded by so many amazing humans. Lastly, at a time when the world seems so profoundly INSANE and truly frightening, I have an amazing support system, a wonderful partner, and a sweet family. I truly can’t complain.
As always, thanks to everyone has given me so much love and support over the past year.
And may we get the happy, healthy, cat-filled 2015 that we all so richly deserve.
xo COLE
Best of 2013
I have to preface this by saying that what follows is a personal list (based upon the number of iTunes plays and spins on my turntable) rather than a strictly critical one. There were a lot of records released in 2013 that I thought were truly exceptional—Kanye West’s Yeezus being an obvious one (also, Beyonce!)—but these are the ones that I actually listened to the most. I think it says something about my topsy turvy year that when I was here at home alone (which is generally all day, every day) I mostly wanted to hear things that mellowed me out or were particularly conducive to staring out the window and wondering “What have I done with my life?”
I have to preface this by saying that what follows is a personal list (based upon the number of iTunes plays and spins on my turntable) rather than a strictly critical one. There were a lot of records released in 2013 that I thought were truly exceptional—Kanye West’s Yeezus being an obvious one (also, Beyonce!)—but these are the ones that I actually listened to the most. I think it says something about my topsy turvy year that when I was here at home alone (which is generally all day, every day) I mostly wanted to hear things that mellowed me out or were particularly conducive to staring out the window and wondering “What have I done with my life?”
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2013
- Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze
- Forest Swords - Engravings
- Deafheaven - Sunbather
- Cass McCombs – Big Wheel and Others
- Bill Callahan – Dream River
- Body/Head – Coming Apart
- Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
- My Bloody Valentine - MBV
- Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
- Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time
- Majical Cloudz - Impersonator
- Haim – Days are Gone
- Yo La Tengo - Fade
- Pure Bathing Culture – Moon Tides
- Low – The Invisible Way
- Laura Veirs – Warp and Wend
- Goldfrapp – Tales of Us
- Deerhunter - Monomania
- Phosphorescent - Muchacho
- Jon Hopkins - Immunity
- Mazzy Star – Seasons of Your Day
- Darkside - Psychic
- Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus
- Matmos – The Marriage of the Minds
- Ty Segall - Sleeper
- Steve Gunn – Time Off
- King Krule – 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
- Perfect Pussy – I have lost all desire for feeling
- Juana Molina – Wed 21
- Pissed Jeans -- Honeys
- Mikal Cronin -MCII
- Guerilla Toss – Gay Disco
- Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
- Savages – Silence Yourself
- Overseas - Overseas
- Iceage – You’re Nothing
- Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
- Black Hearted Brother – Stars Are Our Home
- Daniel Avery – Drone Logic
- Dead Gaze – Dead Gaze
TOP 20 MOST-PLAYED SONGS OF 2013 AROUND MY OFFICE
- “Girl Called Alex” – Kurt Vile
- “Thor’s Stone” – Forest Swords
- “The Point of it” – Yo La Tengo
- “California” – Mazzy Star
- “Shirtcrush” – Kelley Deal & Her Neighbor
- “Boys” – Sky Ferriera
- “Mother” -- Low
- “In Another Way” – My Bloody Valentine
- “Home on the Range” – Cass McCombs
- “Irresistable” – Deafheaven
- “I” – Perfect Pussy
- “Chilhood’s End” – Majical Cloudz
- “Ectasy” - Iceage
- “She Will” - Savages
- “Black Skinhead” – Kanye West
- “Stranger” - Goldfrapp
- “Baby’s losing her mind” – Josh Berwanger
- “Small Plane” – Bill Callahan
- “Days Are Gone” - Haim
- “Playboys of the Western World” - Minks
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2013
One of the best things about my job is that I am provided the opportunity to see such a bizarre variety of music on pretty much a weekly basis. I like it when you can’t exactly predict the shows that are going to totally—and perhaps unexpectedly—blow your mind. Such was the case with going to see Celine Dion. Watching her power through an hour or so of her greatest hits from about 3 feet away was both amazing and kind of shocking. After spending hours and hours in dark clubs watching hyper serious indie rock bands do their thing, watching a bonafide pop megastar do insane vocal acrobatics right in your face is sort of a nice way to reset all of your dials.
- Celine Dion (3/29/2013)
- Bob Seger (4/16/2013)
- Sinead O’Connor (11/8/2013)
- Alice Cooper (7/18/2013)
- The Breeders (3/29/2013)
- Cass McCombs (9/14/2013)
- Phoenix (4/5/2103)
- Cat Power (1/29/2013)
- Fleetwood Mac (4/8/2013)
- Low (4/19/2013)
TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2013
- Patrick Cowley – School Daze
- I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age Music In America 1950-1990
- Seefeel – Quique (vinyl reissue)
- R.E.M. – Green (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Nirvana – In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition)
- The Clean - Vehicle
- The Breeders - LSXX
- Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
- Jawbreaker - Bivouac
- Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Co.
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2013
There are still so many of this year’s big movies that I have yet to see (though I somehow managed to see literally EVERY B-grade horror film released on planet earth), but these are the films that I did see and that stuck with me.
- Muscle Shoals
- Behind the Candelabra
- American Hustle
- The Conjuring
- Room 237
- Spring Breakers
- 12 Years a Slave
- Before Midnight
- Blue Jasmine
- A Band Called Death
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2013
I am gripped by the constant fear that my brain has been turned to much by staring at a computer screen all day and reading too many Buzzfeed lists, but these books in particular reminded my why reading will always be my first love and helped me feel not quite so dumb and dull.
- Metaphysical Dog (poems) – Frank Bidart
- Tenth of December (stories) – George Saunders
- The Disordered (poems) - Anhvu Buchanan
- Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism – Devon Powers
- Companion Grasses (poems) – Brian Teare
- Henry & Glenn Forever and Ever – Tom Neely and Friends
- The Goldfinch -- Donna Tartt
- Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to be a Pop Star -- Tracey thorn
- The Late Parade (Poems) – Adam Fitzgerald
- White Girls – Hilton Als
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2013
Sitting down to do interviews with people remains my absolute favorite thing about my job and this year I had the excellent good fortune to talk to a lot of amazing humans who represent a pretty wide swath of what is happening right now in popular culture (not to mention being able to chat up a few of my own personal heroes in the process). As with my live show experience, being able to go deep for an hour or so with Celine Dion proved to be the most surreal—and the most genuinely sweet—interview experience I had all year long. She loved me back to life.
- Celine Dion
- Cass McCombs
- Kim Gordon
- Kathleen Hanna
- Lupita Nyongo
- Sky Ferreira
- Giorgio Moroder
- Jennifer Hudson
- Harmony Korine
- Carrie Brownstein
FAVORITE BIZARRO MOMENT OF 2013 – The Cat Show at While Columns
Being asked to show my insane (trust me, I know it’s insane) ceramic cat collection alongside actual fine artists like Mike Kelley, Matthew Barney, Richard Prince and Patti Smith was not only the most hilarious thing that happened to me over the last year (particularly when the poor art handler came to my house and had to individually wrap them all), but it was also one of the most genuinely satisfying. In a year when I found myself struggling with my own creative projects and hustling harder than I’ve probably ever had before in order to make a living as a journalist, to see this funny little hobby of mine—which has long since taken on a crazy life of its own—being celebrated in such a public forum was really moving. Not only was the crazy cat lady within me finally legitimized by the art world, but now the cats have a brand new display area in my living room since the gallery let me bring home all the special shelving they built for the show. The whole experience gives me hope that one day I can just open up my own cat-themed gallery space, throw my computer out the window, and call it a fucking day.
As always, thanks to everyone has given me so much love and support over the past year.
And here’s to a happy, healthy, cat-filled 2014 for all of us.
xo COLE
Best of 2012
This is such a hard list to make because there are always so many records that I genuinely love, both as a critic and as a nerdy music lover. In the end I always go with the records that got the highest number of plays in my iTunes library or spend the most time on my turntable. I’m also biased this year because Chan Marshall—Cat Power—is a good friend. It’s hard for me to be objective about her music because I love her so much as a human being, but I do think that Sun is a towering achievement. She worked really hard on this record for a really long time and I couldn’t be more proud of her for finally putting it out into the world. I also listened to it more than anything else this year.
This is such a hard list to make because there are always so many records that I genuinely love, both as a critic and as a nerdy music lover. In the end I always go with the records that got the highest number of plays in my iTunes library or spend the most time on my turntable. I’m also biased this year because Chan Marshall—Cat Power--is a good friend. It’s hard for me to be objective about her music because I love her so much as a human being, but I do think that Sun is a towering achievement. She worked really hard on this record for a really long time and I couldn’t be more proud of her for finally putting it out into the world. I also listened to it more than anything else this year.
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2012
- Cat Power - Sun
- Tame Impala - Lonerism
- The Walkmen - Heaven
- Diiv - Oshin
- Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance
- Wild Nothing - Nocturne
- Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse
- Metz - Metz
- Holy Other - Held
- Beach House - Bloom
- Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
- Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
- Grizzly Bear - Shields
- Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
- Liars - WIXIW
- Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
- Chromatics – Kill For Love
- Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
- Starred – A Season in Hell
- Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…
- The Soft Pack - Strapped
- Japandroids – Celebration Rock
- Tamaryn – Tender New Signs
- Santigold – Master of my Make Believe
- The Men – Open Your Heart
- Bonnie Prince Billy – Now Here’s My Plan
- Death Grips – The Money Store
- Sun Airway – Soft Fall
- Aimee Mann - Charmer
- Grimes - Visions
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
- Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N2 It
- Hot Chip – In Our Heads
- Nu Sensae - Sundowning
- Crystal Castles - III
- Swans – The Seer
- Garbage – Not Your Kind of People
- Violens - True
- Father John Misty – Fear Fun
- Craft Spells – Gallery EP
TOP 20 SONGS OF 2012
Again, these are the songs that got the most airplay around the cat palace (aka, my home office) over the past year. Vibes for days.
- “Manhattan” – Cat Power
- “Laura” – Bat For Lashes
- “Get Free” – Major Lazer
- “How Long Have You Known?” - Diiv
- “We Can’t Be Beat” – The Walkmen
- “I Bought My Eyes” – Ty Segall Band
- “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” – Tame Impala
- “Eveningness” – Lotus Plaza
- “Wet Blanket” - Metz
- “No.1 Against The Rush” - Liars
- “Call From Paris” - Starred
- “Anything We Want” – Fiona Apple
- “Into the Black” - Chromatics
- “Thinkin Bout You” – Frank Ocean
- “When to Let Go” - Violens
- “Half-Gate” – Grizzly Bear
- “Disparate Youth” - Santigold
- “Something Good” – Alt-J
- “Crystalized” – Melody’s Echo Chamber
- “Husbands” - Savages
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2012
So many good shows in 2012, but these were sentimental faves. Watching Stevie Nicks from five feet away (and watching Heather Millstone shake her hand), arena rock realness, goth flashbacks…not to mention Nu Sensae nearly giving our neighbors at Heathers a heart attack simply by playing ONE song in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
- Codeine (Doug Fir Lounge)
- Stevie Nicks (Jones Beach)
- Cat Power (Roseland)
- Dinosaur Jr & Friends (Terminal Five)
- Aerosmith & Cheap Trick (Meadowlands Arena)
- Tori Amos (Le Poisson Rouge)
- Frank Ocean (All Tomorrows Parties, NYC)
- The Jesus & Mary Chain (Irving Plaza)
- Lower Dens (Glasslands)
- Nu Sensae (Heathers Bar, NYC)
TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2012
- Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
- Can – The Lost Tapes
- Codeine – When I See The Sun
- A.R. Kane – The Complete Singles Collection
- Bikini Kill -- Bikini Kill EP
- Blur – Blur 21
- My Bloody Valentine – Loveless / Isn’t Anything / EPs 1988-1991
- John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – Prince of Darkness ( Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
- R.E.M. – Document (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Country Funk 1969-1975
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2012
I usually don’t end up seeing most of the big Oscar contenders until after the Oscars are already over, but here are the movies that I did manage to see and found it impossible not to love. Again, I’m biased about FOUR because it’s Josh’s movie and I did the music, but still….it’s the best movie of 2012….if not the best movie in the history of planet earth. I couldn’t be more proud of Josh and the rest of the FOUR crew.
- FOUR
- The Master
- The Cabin in the Woods
- Holy Motors
- The Ballad of Genesis & Lady Jaye
- The Central Park Five
- Marley
- West of Memphis
- Chronicle
- Django Unchained
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2012
It pains me—causes me actual, physical pain—that I don’t have more time to read. There were so many novels that came out this year that I have yet to read and about five million poetry books that I still need to buy. That being said, here are the books that I did manage to read (most of them while traveling) and that seemed to lodge themselves into my psyche. Also, Scott Heim has edited a whole series of “The First Time I Heard…” books and all of them are excellent. If you love music and you love to read, go buy them all immediately.
- Stag’s Leap (Poems) – Sharon Olds
- Everyday People (Poems) – Albert Goldbart
- Mortality – Christopher Hitchens
- I Want My Mtv – Rob Tannenbaum & Craig Marks
- Waging Heavy Peace – Neil Young
- Life After Death – Damien Echols
- Talking Heads: Fear of Music – Jonathan Lathem
- The Eternal Ones of The Dream: Selected Poems 1990-2010 – James Tate
- Useless Landscape, or, A Guide for Boys (Poems) – D. A. Powell
- The First Time I Heard…Cocteau Twins – Edited by Scott Heim
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2012
Every year I make this list and every year I reflect back on all the interviews I’ve done and am reminded of how completely amazing it is that this is my job. 2012 was a particularly fruitful year for great interviews, but these were the 10 that were either the most fun, the weirdest, or the most moving.
- Chan Marshall (Cat Power) for Interview
- Johnny Marr for Stereogum
- Laurie Anderson for L’ Officiel Homme
- Jim James for Stereogum
- Liz Phair for Stereogum
- Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes) for Stereogum
- Tori Amos for Visionaire
- Norman Reedus for Man of the World
- Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) for Stereogum
- Bob Mould (Husker Du) for Pitchfork TV
Thanks and tremendous love to everyone who helped make 2012 such a fantastic year for me. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2013 for all of us…
xo COLE
Best of 2011
2011, How Dare You!
2011, how dare you!
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2011
- John Maus – We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
- Real Estate -- Days
- Caveman – Coco Beware
- The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient
- Atlas Sound -- Parallax
- Cass McCombs – Wit’s End
- The Horrors -- Skying
- Pure X - Pleasure
- Wu Lyf – Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
- My Morning Jacket -- Circuital
- R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
- PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
- Iceage – New Brigade
- Yuck -- Yuck
- Destroyer -- Kaputt
- Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for my Halo
- Das Racist -- Relax
- tUne-yArDs – w h o k i l l
- The Men – Leave Home
- Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact
- Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart -- Belong
- M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
- Craft Spells – Idle Labor
- Metronomy – The English Riviera
- Meg Baird – Seasons on Earth
- Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What
- AA Bondy -- Believers
- Nicolas Jaar – Space is Only Noise
- Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
- Peaking Lights -- 936
- Cass McCombs – Humor Risk
- Low – C’mon
- Bjork -- Biophilia
- Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
- Panda Bear -- Tomboy
- Liturgy -- Aesthetica
- Wild Flag – Wild Flag
- Quilt -- Quilt
- Oneohtrix Point Never -- Replica
TOP 10 SONGS OF 2011
- “The Orchard”-- Vorhees
- “Hey Moon” –John Maus
- “Younger than Yesterday” – Real Estate
- “Chinatown” -- Destroyer
- “How Deep is Your Love?” –The Rapture
- “County Line” – Cass McCombs
- “Mona Lisa” – Atlas Sound
- “New Beat” -- Toro Y Moi
- “Bataille” – The Men
- “Folds” -- Beige
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2011
- The Cure (Beacon Theater)
- Portishead (All Tomorrows Parties)
- U2 (Meadowlands Stadium)
- The Men (Shea Stadium)
- Caveman (Bowery Ballroom)
- John Maus (Glasslands)
- Cat Power (Webster Hall)
- Cass McCombs (Bowery Ballroom)
- Janes Addiction (Irving Plaza)
- Guns And Roses (Meadowlands Arena)
TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2011
- Ride –Nowhere (20th Anniversary Edition)
- Hood: Recollected (box set)
- Archers of Loaf – Icky Mettle
- Nirvana – Nevermind (20th Anniversary Edition)
- Leonard Cohen – The Complete Columbia Albums
- The Beach Boys – The Smile Sessions
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Let Love In
- The Flaming Lips – Heady Nuggs 1992-2002
- Rolling Stones – Some Girls (Deluxe Reissue)
- U2 – Achtung Baby
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2011
- Melancholia
- Tabloid
- The Tree of Life
- Weekend
- Bill Cunningham New York
- Insidious
- The Artist
- The Skin I Live In
- Meek’s Cutoff
- Rubber
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2011
- Lightning People (Novel) by Christopher Bollen
- Blue Nights (Nonfiction) by Joan Didion
- Space, In Chains (poems) by Laura Kasischke
- I Want My MTV (nonfiction) by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum
- Life on Mars (poems) by Tracy K. Smith
- Master of Disguises (poems) by Charles Simic
- One With Others (poems) by C.D. Wright
- Love Goes to Buildings on Fire (Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever) (nonfiction) by Will Hermes
- 11-22-63 (novel) by Stephen King
- Arguably (Essays) – By Christopher Hitchens
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2010
- Stevie Nicks (for the 2nd time!)
- Shirley Manson
- John Maus
- Mick Fleetwood
- Paul Simon
- Billy Corgan
- Yoko Ono
- Bob Mould
- PJ Harvey
- 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
Best of the 2000's
My favorite records from the past decade.
TOP 40 RECORDS OF THE 2000’s
- Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it in People (2002)
- The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)
- Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006)
- Low – Things We Lost in the Fire (2001)
- Cat Power – You Are Free (2003)
- My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves (2003)
- Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Master and Everyone (2003)
- The Shins – Oh, Inverted World (2001)
- The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)
- Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
- Hot Chip – The Warning (2006)
- Cat Power – The Greatest (2006)
- Sigur Ros – ( ) (2001)
- Deerhunter – Cryptograms (2007)
- The National – Boxer (2007)
- Beach House – Devotion (2008)
- Panda Bear – Person Pitch (2007)
- Feist – Let it Die (2005)
- Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
- The Strokes – Is This It (2001)
- Low – Trust (2002)
- Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans (2004)
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell (2003)
- Fever Ray – Fever Ray (2009)
- Yo La Tengo – Summer Sun (2003)
- Broadcast – Ha Ha Sound (2003)
- Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
- Portishead – Third (2008)
- Bjork – Vespertine (2001)
- Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand (2004)
- Joanna Newsome – The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)
- Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
- No Age – Nouns (2008)
- Band of Horses – Everything All The Time (2006)
- Kings of Convenience – Riot on an Empty Street (2004)
- The Notwist – Neon Golden (2003)
- Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend EP (2007)
- Gang Gang Dance – St. Dymphna (2008)
- Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008)
- The Killers – Hot Fuss (2004)
Best of 2010
Let’s give 2010 a nice pat on the back, shall we?
Let’s give 2010 a nice pat on the back, shall we?
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2010
- Beach House – Teen Dream
- Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement
- Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
- Midlake – The Courage of Others
- Neil Young – Le Noise
- Best Coast – Crazy for You
- Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
- Wild Nothing – Golden Haze EP
- Male Bonding – Nothing Hurts
- Tamaryn – The Waves
- Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
- Woods – At Echo Lake
- Balam Acab – See Birds
- Conspiracy of Owls – Conspiracy of Owls
- Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
- No Age -- Everything In Between
- Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
- Tame Impala -- Innerspeaker
- Warpaint -- The Fool
- The National – High Violet
- Frank (Just Frank) – The Brutal Wave
- The Fresh and Onlys – Play it Strange
- JJ – No. 3
- Yeasayer – Odd Blood
- John Grant – Queen of Denmark
- Wavves – King of the Beach
- High Places – High Places vs Mankind
- Glasser -- Ring
- Sleigh Bells -- Treats
- Spoon -- Transference
- The Walkmen -- Lisbon
- Sade – Soldier of Love
- Teenage Fanclub -- Shadows
- Grinderman – Grinderman 2
- Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Sleigh Bells -- Treats
- Houses – All Night
- Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
- Vampire Weekend -- Contra
- Superchunk – Majesty Shredding
TOP 10 SONGS OF 2010
- Beach House – “Zebra”
- Lower Dens – “Tea Lights”
- Best Coast – “Boyfriend”
- Deerhunter – “Desire Lines”
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Round and Round”
- JJ– “My Life”
- Wild Nothing “Live in Dreams”
- Midlake “Fortune”
- Male Bonding “Weird Feelings”
- John Grant “TC and Honeybear”
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2010
- The Breeders // ATP New York // September 4th
- My Morning Jacket // Terminal 5, NYC(the At Dawn show)
- Tom Petty // Meadowlands, NJ / August 24th
- Midlake // Bowery Ballroom, NYC / April 8th
- Mountain Man // Living Room, NYC / June 10th
- The Flaming Lips // Oklahoma City // New Years Eve (January 1st)
- Hole // Terminal 5, NYC // April 28th
- Tamaryn // Santos, NYC // October 20th
- Pixies // Philadelphia, PA / September 7th
- Maluca // Mad Decent Block Party, NYC/ August 7th
TOP 5 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2010
- Morrissey – Bona Drag (20th Anniversary Edition)
- The Cure – Disintegration (Deluxe Edition)
- Weezer -- Pinkerton
- Bruce Springsteeen – The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story
- Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine
- Galaxie 500 – This Is Our Music
- David Bowie – Station to Station (Deluxe Edition)
- Black Tambourine – Black Tambourine
- The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street (Deluxe Edition)
- Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (Legacy Edition)
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2010
Note: I’ve yet to see Black Swan or Blue Valentine, both of which sound like likely candidates for inclusion here. I really wanted to include Best Worst Movie, but it technically came out in 2009.
- Winter’s Bone
- Exit Through The Gift Shop
- The Social Network
- A Film Unfinished
- Circus (PBS documentary)
- Trash Humpers
- The Crazies
- Jackass 3D
- Please Give
- Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2010
- Listen to This – Alex Ross
- Imperial Bedrooms – Bret Easton Ellis
- Just Kids – Patti Smith
- Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems – James Schuyler
- Talking to Girls About Duran Duran – Rob Sheffield
- 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction -- Rebecca Goldstein
- The Small Stakes: Music Posters – Jason Munn
- Life – Keith Richards
- Come On All You Ghosts (Poems) – Matthew Zapruder
- Apathy for the Devil – Nick Kent
Honorable Mention:
Catwise – Wilbur Pippin & Marian Winters (This was actually first published in 1979, but it might still be the most importantbook of all time. )
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2010
- Nick Cave // Numero
- Sufjan Stevens // Numero
- John Lydon // Stereogum
- Chely Wright // The Advocate
- Nicki Minaj // Interview
- Tracey Thorn // Interview
- Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett // Interview
- Tegan & Sara // The Advocate
- Karen Elson // Numero
- Lykke Li // Details
The Five MOST Randomly Amazing Things that Happened in 2010
- Meeting Joshua Sanchez, Kelley Deal, and Aaron & Kendra Marable. New friends and new loves.
- Ceramic cat hunting in Oklahoma with my mom, my sister, and Ginger London.
- Going to Bali with Heather and facing my own mortality on a daily basis while on the back of a speeding motor scooter.
- Being the DJ at Jenny Noyce’s wedding.
- Getting started on my new book (finally) while in Indonesia. This is what 2011 is gonna be all about.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo xo xo COLE
Best of 2009
Seriously 2009? Are you Serious?
What can I say about 2009? The year actually started out promisingly enough—when the clock struck midnight, I was sitting at Madison Square Garden waving my arms in the air as My Morning Jacket rang in the new year. Little did I know that just a couple of hours later I would find myself hanging out of my bedroom window as a fire raged through our home and I screamed like a lady for firemen to come and drag me out through the smoke. What happened next? Oh yeah, the economy tanked and the majority of my steady freelance jobs packed their bags and ran outof my life like a cheating husband. A bunch of other bad things happened after that, but I might spontaneously combust if I tried to remember them all. The upside of 2009 was that my friends and family continued to be awesome (especially in the wake of the crazy fire), I got to travel to some faraway places, I saw some great shows, and learned how to be a part-time bartender (this was actually one of the most fun things I did this year). Maybe I also learned how to be a little more thankful in 2009 (a lot more thankful, actually) and gained a new appreciation for not sweating the small stuff. I also got a LOT of amazing new ceramic cats and cat-related paraphernalia given to me this year, so that was a definite plus. More than ever, my home looks liketherefuge of an elderly woman obsessed with feline knick-knacks, which is just the way I like it. I guess I’m cautiously optimistic about 2010, but basically there is no love lost between me and 2009. Actually, you know what 2009? Fuck you. You are dead to me. Don’t let the big cosmic door of time hit you on your way out.
xo COLE
Seriously 2009? Are you Serious?
What can I say about 2009? The year actually started out promisingly enough—when the clock struck midnight, I was sitting at Madison Square Garden waving my arms in the air as My Morning Jacket rang in the new year. Little did I know that just a couple of hours later I would find myself hanging out of my bedroom window as a fire raged through our home and I screamed like a lady for firemen to come and drag me out through the smoke. What happened next? Oh yeah, the economy tanked and the majority of my steady freelance jobs packed their bags and ran outof my life like a cheating husband. A bunch of other bad things happened after that, but I might spontaneously combust if I tried to remember them all. The upside of 2009 was that my friends and family continued to be awesome (especially in the wake of the crazy fire), I got to travel to some faraway places, I saw some great shows, and learned how to be a part-time bartender (this was actually one of the most fun things I did this year). Maybe I also learned how to be a little more thankful in 2009 (a lot more thankful, actually) and gained a new appreciation for not sweating the small stuff. I also got a LOT of amazing new ceramic cats and cat-related paraphernalia given to me this year, so that was a definite plus. More than ever, my home looks liketherefuge of an elderly woman obsessed with feline knick-knacks, which is just the way I like it. I guess I’m cautiously optimistic about 2010, but basically there is no love lost between me and 2009. Actually, you know what 2009? Fuck you. You are dead to me. Don’t let the big cosmic door of time hit you on your way out.
TOP 20 RECORDS OF 2009
I say the same thing every year about this list, but here we go again….People seem to love this ridiculous list, but every year I tend to get the same two primary responses. My music nerd friends (aka music writers and assorted bloggists) tend to respond with things like “How dare you exclude that amazing folk record from the Netherlands!” and/or “How dare you not include more rap music! ” while my non-music nerd friends respond with something like “Once again, I’ve never heard of anything on your list.” As a semi-respectable music journalist, there are lots of records that probably should be on my list and aren’t, but in the end I just choose the records and songs that got the most face time around my home office (as evidenced by the number of plays in my iTunes). So, even though I could easily list about 100 records that I genuinely liked in 2009, here are the 20 albums that I listened to the most.
- Fever Ray – Fever Ray
- Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
- Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Paviliion
- The xx -- xx
- Atlas Sound -- Logos
- Real Estate – Real Estate
- Papercuts – You Can Have What you Want
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
- Engineers – Three Fact Fader
- Cass McCombs -- Catacombs
- The Breeders – Fate to Fatal EP
- Woods – Songs of Shame
- Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- The Clientele – Bonfires on the Heath
- Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP
- M. Ward – Hold Time
- Bonnie “Prince” Billy -- Beware
- Major Lazer – Gunz Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do
- Pictureplane – Dark Rift
- AA Bondy – When the Devil’s Loose
TOP 10 SONGS OF 2009
Again, I’m simply picking the 10 most played songs (that were released in 2009) from my I-Tunes. This means that these were the 10 songs I probably most often jammed when riding the subway or walking around NYC feeling melancholy (a favorite pastime throughout much of the past year).
- “Seven” -- Fever Ray
- “Feel it All Around” -- Washed Out
- “My Girls” -- Animal Collective
- “Ready, Able” -- Grizzly Bear
- “Goth Star” -- Pictureplane
- “Chances Are” -- The Breeders
- “Hot Like Fire” -- The xx
- “Quick Canal” -- Atlas Sound
- “Don’t Vote” -- Cass McCombs
- “Beach Comber” – Real Estate
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2008
- Fleetwood Mac // Madison Square Garden (March 19)
- Fever Ray // Webster Hall (Sept. 28)
- Pixies // Hammerstein Ballroom (Nov. 23)
- David Byrne // Radio City (Feb 28)
- Cat Power // Apollo (Feb 7)
- Egyptian Hip Hop // Manchester, England(Oct 16)
- World Famous * BOB * // Joe’s Pub (Sept 10)
- Yeasayer// Guggenheim (Oct 30)
- Sufjan Stevens // ATP Festival(Sept 12)
- The Human League // Manchester, England (Aug 29)
WORST SONG OF 2009
“Pokerface” by Lady Gaga. I don’t care what anyone says about her fierceness, I loathe this. I’m just as happy as the next person that Gaga wears zany outfits and loves the gays, but this song might as well have been by the Pussycat Dolls or any other generically retarded pop act making soulless fast food music. That being said, I am happily planning to see her “Fame Monster” show at Radio City early next year. I’ll go to the bathroom when she does this song. (FYI--“She-Wolf” by Shakira runs a close second in this category)
TOP 5 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2009
- U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (Deluxe Edition)
- Nirvana – Bleach (Deluxe Edition)
- Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart
- Kraftwerk – The Catalogue
- The Feelies – Crazy Rythms & The Good Earth
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2008
If it was a horror movie and/or in 3D, I probably saw it and liked it. Otherwise, I seem to have spent most of this year enjoying purely escapist entertainment (i.e. really stupid movies filled with special effects and cute teens). Also, there are tons of movies that I haven’t seen—like Broken Embraces and The Maid—that would probably make this list had I actually made time to watch them. But how could I see them when I was too busy filling my brain with things like The Final Destination and My Bloody Valentine 3D? No judgments, please.
- An Education
- Paranormal Activity
- The Hurt Locker
- Anvil! The Story of Anvil
- Good Hair
- A Single Man
- Zombieland
- Trick-R-Treat
- The House of the Devil
- District 9
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2008
- Glamourpuss: The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs –Julie Jackson & Jill Johnson
- Under the Dome (fiction)– Stephen King
- Chronic (poems) – D. A. Powell
- Another Green World (33 1/3 Series) – Geeta Dayal
- To Be Read in 500 Years: Poems – Albert Goldbarth
- Something Has to Happen Next (poems) –Andrew Michael Roberts
- The Devil’s Alphabet (fiction) – Daryl Gregory
- Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater (memoir) —Frank Bruni
- Speak Low (poems) – Carl Phillips
- The Double Life is Twice as Good: Essays and Fiction – Jonathan Ames
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2008
- STEVIE NICKS // V Magazine
- Will Oldham // Blackbook Magazine
- Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray) // Interview
- Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) // Interview
- David Byrne // The FADER
- Rachel Maddow // Dossier
- Edmund White // Dossier
- Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) // V Magazine
- Peter Saville // Interview
- J. Alexander // Dossier
Five Randomly Amazing Things that Happened in 2009
- My brother graduated from college and I was really proud of him.
- Will Oldham sent me every one of his records on vinyl to replace the ones that got lost in my house fire, which was such a sweet thing to do that I almost couldn’t believe it.
- Meeting and working with Gigi Stoll. Totally life-changing.
- Going to Manchester, England—twice in three months!—earlier this year. Not only did I get to nerd out on lots of music stuff (like visiting Morrissey’s childhood home and the apartment building that previously housed The Hacienda!), I made a bunch of lovely new friends (Phil!), ate amazing fried chicken (McTuckys!), saw BANANARAMA perform live (sort of), and consumed my body weight in beer. So good!
- Tie! Going backstage at the Apollo after Cat Power’s show and sneaking on stage to the lucky logAND going backstage after the Breeders show and meeting Kim Deal (who basically just wanted to talk about how much she loves Battlestar Gallactica).
FAVORITE MOMENT OF 2009
This is a tough one. My birthday dance-off at Heathers? Going to the ATP festival (again) with my Stereogum bitches? Fadernoons with my beloved FADER editorial street gang? Ceramic cat shopping in Oklahoma with my mom and my sister? Honestly, there are too many to choose from. 2009 might have been a profound bummer on multiple levels, but I really did have some good times. I’m also anticipating that my favorite moment of 2009 might be on December 31st when I say goodbye to it. We’ll see.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo xo xo COLE
Best of 2008
People seem to love this silly list, but every year I tend to get the same two primary responses. My music nerd friends (aka music writers) tend to respond with things like “How dare you exclude that amazing folk record from the Netherlands!” and/or “How dare you not include more rap music! ” while my non-music nerd friends respond with something like “Once again, I’ve never heard of anything on your list.” As a semi-respectable music journalist, there are lots of records that probably should be on my list and aren’t, but in the end I just choose the records and songs that got the most face time around my home office (as evidenced by the number of plays in my iTunes). So, even though I could easily list about 100 records that I genuinely liked in 2008 (this was a great year for music, don’t let anyone tell you differently!), here are the 40 albums that I listened to the most.
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES—FOR REALS.
People seem to love this silly list, but every year I tend to get the same two primary responses. My music nerd friends (aka music writers) tend to respond with things like “How dare you exclude that amazing folk record from the Netherlands!” and/or “How dare you not include more rap music! ” while my non-music nerd friends respond with something like “Once again, I’ve never heard of anything on your list.” As a semi-respectable music journalist, there are lots of records that probably should be on my list and aren’t, but in the end I just choose the records and songs that got the most face time around my home office (as evidenced by the number of plays in my iTunes). So, even though I could easily list about 100 records that I genuinely liked in 2008 (this was a great year for music, don’t let anyone tell you differently!), here are the 40 albums that I listened to the most.
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2008
- Fleet Foxes // Fleet Foxes
- Beach House // Devotion
- Deerhunter // Microcastle
- High Places // High Places
- Fuck Buttons // Street Horrrsing
- Portishead // Third
- Department of Eagles // In Ear Park
- No Age // Nouns
- Lykke Li // Youth Novels
- My Morning Jacket // Evil Urges
- M83 // Saturdays = Youth
- Gang Gang Dance // St. Dymphna
- Abe Vigoda // Skeleton
- Crystal Stilts // Alight of Night
- Glass Candy // B/E/A/T/B/O/X
- The Breeders // Mountain Battles
- Dungen // 4
- Kasai Allstars // In the 7th Moon…
- Averkiou // Throwing Sparks
- Emmylou Harris // All I Intended to Be
- The New Year // The New Year
- Women // Women
- School of Seven Bells // Alpinisms
- Cat Power // Jukebox
- Growing // All the Way
- Atlas Sound // Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
- Stephen Malkmus // Real Emotional Trash
- Vivian Girls // Vivian Girls
- Ponytail // Ice Cream Spiritual
- The Dodos // Visiter
- Vampire Weekend // Vampire Weekend
- Hercules and Love Affair // Hercules and Love Affair
- The Duke Spirit // Neptune
- R.E.M. // Accelerate
- Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy // Lie Down in the Light
- Blank Dogs // On Both Sides
- Girl Talk // Feed the Animals
- Juana Molina // Un Dia
- Goldfrapp // Seventh Tree
- Silver Jews // Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
TOP 10 SONGS OF 2008
Again, these are the songs that I listened to the most obsessively this year—usually on the subway, while dancing around my kitchen, or sitting contemplatively at my desk wondering what I’ve done with my life.
- “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” // Fleet Foxes
- “House Jam” // Gang Gang Dance
- “The Storm” // High Places
- “Sweet Love for Planet Earth” // Fuck Buttons
- “Used to be” // Beach House
- “Thank You Too!” // My Morning Jacket
- “Song to Bobby” // Cat Power
- “Grinding Halt” // The Muslims (covering The Cure)
- “Night of Joy” // The Breeders
- “Planet Health” // Chairlift
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2008
- My Bloody Valentine // ATP Festival (September 21)
- Girl Talk // All Points West Festival (August 9)
- Dagon // Remains (July 27)
- Fleet Foxes // Webster Hall (March 29)
- Cat Power // All Points West Festival (August 10)
- Crystal Stilts (at 4am!) // Webster Hall (Oct 20)
- Gang Gang Dance // Santos (Oct 24)
- Abe Vigoda // Matthew Schnipper’s Apartment (July 13)
- The Cure // Madison Square Garden (June 20)
- The Breeders // McCarren Pool (July 13)
WORST SONG OF 2008
“I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry
I usually don’t like to be a hater and I almost never write about things that I don’t genuinely like or find interesting. I’m really of the opinion that there’s enough snarky, mean-spirited, hyper-critical bullshit floating around out in the world and I don’t really need to add to it. Still, I feel strongly compelled to write about my dislike of this song. Even though I kind of enjoy the fact that this track managed to mortify lots of right-wing conservatives across the country (always a good thing), I can’t help but imagine this song being played on an endless loop at really depressing strip clubs or serving as the soundtrack at awful sports bars while drunk college girls sloppily make out with each other as a means of impressing drunk fraternity guys. So gross. Is there anything more tacky than fake lesbianism? Just be areal lesbian or knock it off. Also, if this song had been called “I Kissed A Boy” instead and featured a handsome male pop singer “experimenting” with kissing another man, it would not only have been a huge flop, people would have literally run away screaming.
TOP 5 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2008
- New Order // Power, Corruption & Lies (the Factory years)
- Senor Coconut // El Baile Aleman
- Dennis Wilson // Pacific Ocean Blue
- Pavement // Brighten the Corners – Nicene Creedence Edition
- Aphex Twin // Selected Ambient Works 85-92
TOP 5 SONGS THAT MADE ME WISH I WERE A REALLY GOOD DANCER IN 2008
- Day ‘N Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi
- “Waters of Nazareth” // Justice
- “You’ve Changed” // Lauren Flax
- “Shake A Fist” // Hot Chip
- “I Seen Beyonce at Burger King” // Cazwell
TOP 20 MOVIES OF 2008
This one is always tough, since there are so many important movies that I just haven’t had time to see yet (even though I’ve somehow managed to see Step Up 2 at least three times this year), so here are the movies that I actually saw and that brought me the most happiness (or perhaps made me cry) in 2008.
- Happy Go Lucky
- Let the Right One In
- Wendy & Lucy
- Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
- Man on Wire
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Wall-E
- The Fall
- Frozen River
- Tearoom
- Frost / Nixon
- Frontiers
- The Dark Knight
- The Signal
- Donkey Punch
- The Edge of Heaven
- My Winnipeg
- Synecdoche, New York
- Funny Games
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
WORST MOVIE OF 2008
The Happening—directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Again, not to be a hater, but the awfulness of this movie really defies comprehension. I mean, everyone knows that I LOVE horror movies and tend to be very, very forgiving of even the worst scary movies, but this movie features Mark Wahlberg running FROM THE WIND. Seriously, it features people trying to flee in terror from the very air that they are breathing by closing windows and slamming doors. Not scary. Plus, Betty Buckley (aka Miss Collins in Carrie !!) is trotted out for a very thankless role as an inexplicably crazy person who serves no real purpose in the movie whatsoever. I couldn’t stop thinking about this movie for days simply because it is so stunningly awful. This is one of those times when something is so dumb and such a waste of human effort that it actually made me angry to watch it (this also happens when I accidentally see The Hills or The Real Housewives of Orange County, but those TV shows might actually be smarter than The Happening).
TOP 20 BOOKS OF 2008
I’m realizing more and more that, as I get older, I tend to just re-read books that I already own instead of buying new ones, which makes putting this list together somewhat difficult. But since I can only re-read The White Album and Sharon Olds’ first two books of poems a certain finite number of times in any given year, here are the other books that I read and loved this year (and were actually pubiished in 2008).
- Livability: Stories (fiction) by Jon Raymond
- Mythtym (nonfiction/art) compiled and edited by Trinie Dalton
- How the Dead Dream (fiction) by Lydia Millet
- Watching the Spring Festival (poems) by Frank Bidart
- Black Postcards (memoir) by Dean Wareham
- Atmospheric Disturbances (fiction) by Rivka Galchen
- Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories (fiction) by Steven Millhauser
- Elegy: Poems by Mary Jo Bang
- My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poetry by Jack Spicer
- Big Box Reuse (nonfiction) by Julia Christensen
- Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror, 2001-2008 by David Rees
- In the Time of Assignments (poems) by Douglas Martin
- We Disappear by Scott Heim
- Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems by Mark Doty
- X-Ray: See Through the World Around You (photographs) by Nick Veasey
- We Are Experienced (photography) by Danielle Leavitt
- Pictures at a Revolution: Five movies and the birth of the new Hollywood (nonfiction) by Mark Harris
- Sway (fiction) by Zachary Lazar
- Sleeveface: Be the Vinyl (photography)by Carl Morris & John Rostron
- My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge (poems) by Paul Guest
TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2008
I have to say—despite the crumbling economy wreaking a small amount of havoc on my professional and financial life—I had the opportunity to do a lot of amazing work in 2008. Looking back on all the people I interviewed and had the good fortune to write about, I am reminded of what a great career I have. All of these people helped make my job as a journalist even more awesome in 2008.
- Patti Smith (for V Magazine)
- Lykke Li (for The FADER)
- MGMT (for Interview Magazine)
- High Places (for The FADER)
- Genesis P-Orridge (for OUT Magazine)
- Lizzi Bougatsos (for Interview Magazine)
- Kelley Deal (for New York Times Magazine)
- Conor Oberst (for VMan Magazine)
- Estelle (for The FADER)
- Blank Dogs (for The FADER)
Five Randomly Amazing Things that Happened in 2008
- Going to Sweden to chase Lykke Li. Eating lots of authentic Swedish meatballs in Stockholm.
- Trevor & ASL’s wedding in Kansas City. (Sharing a room with Teeter Sperber, finding love while traveling for 24 hours with Jen Krakow, and making lots of people in fancy wedding outfits dance their asses off while DJing the reception)
- Going to the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival and having a total nerdfest bro-down with the Stereogum staff (and totally finding drugs on the ground!)
- Taping a “Best of 2008” music special for LOGO. Hair and makeup? Yes, please.
- Staying up until 5am to watch insanely spectacular vogueing in Hell’s Kitchen with Julianne Shepherd and Krisanne Johnson. (Awesome until Julianne later breaks her arm on the way home -- House of FADER realness!)
FAVORITE MOMENT OF 2008
NOVEMBER 4th.
Not only was this my 34th birthday, it also happened to be election day. The running joke beforehand was that this would either be the best birthday ever or, depending on how the election panned out, absolutely the most depressing. Luckily it turned out to be the former. Not only was this arguably the best and most fun birthday of my life—I was at Heathers (my favorite bar, staffed by my favorite people) surrounded by a variety of my best NYC friends and family—OBAMA WON THE ELECTION. I can’t remember very many times when I’ve witnessed a room full (and I mean FULL) of people collectively losing their shit so completely. It was genuinely one of the of the happiest, most exciting nights I’ve ever had in New York City. I went home drunk, loaded with gifts, reeking of champagne, feeling strangely optimistic (strange for me, anyway) and not at all bummed out about being another year older. FUCK YES!
HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo xo xo COLE
Best of 2007
Oh, 2007. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Mostly, at least for me, it was the busiest of times. I got to travel, I got to write all kinds of amazing stuff, and the year was filled with good friends, good times, and an abundance of good art. As per usual, I preface this list by saying that there are lots of things that—especially as an alleged music journalist—I probably should have on here and don’t, but these are the records that I listened to the most (for better or worse) and the things that brought me the most joy in ’07.
Oh, 2007. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Mostly, at least for me, it was the busiest of times. I got to travel, I got to write all kinds of amazing stuff, and the year was filled with good friends, good times, and an abundance of good art. As per usual, I preface this list by saying that there are lots of things that—especially as an alleged music journalist—I probably should have on here and don’t, but these are the records that I listened to the most (for better or worse) and the things that brought me the most joy in ’07.
TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2007
- DEERHUNTER // Cryptograms / Flourescent Grey EP
- AIR // Pocket Symphony
- VAMPIRE WEEKEND // Vampire Weekend EP
- ANIMAL COLLECTIVE // Strawberry Jam
- DOG DAY // Night Group
- NINA NASTASIA & JIM WHITE // You Follow Me
- THE SHINS // Wincing the Night Away
- RADIOHEAD // In Rainbows
- PANDA BEAR // Person Pitch
- CARIBOU // Andorra
- JANA HUNTER // There’s No Home
- FEIST // The Reminder
- GRIZZLY BEAR // Friend EP
- LAND OF TALK // Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss
- WORKING FOR A NUCLEAR FREE CITY // Businessmen & Ghosts
- BLONDE REDHEAD // 23
- BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY // Ask Forgiveness EP
- DRI // Smoke Rings
- BURIAL // Untrue
- ELVIS PERKINS // Ash Wednesday
- BAND OF HORSES // Cease to Begin
- THE CRIBS // Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever
- KANYE WEST // Graduation
- LOW // Drums and Guns
- NO AGE // Weirdo Rippers
- THE NATIONAL // Boxer
- OLA PODRIDA // Ola Podrida
- THE TWILIGHT SAD // Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
- ELLIOTT SMITH // New Moon
- JOSE GONZALEZ // In Our Nature
- FOURTH OF JULY // On The Plains
- THE FIELD // From Here We Go Sublime
- !!! // Myth Takes
- ELECTRELANE // No Shouts, No Calls
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN // Magic
- THE WHITE STRIPES // Icky Thump
- SPOON // Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- WHITE WILLIAMS // Smoke
- HAROLD BUDD & ROBIN GUTHRIE // After The Night Falls
- MARISSA NADLER // Songs III: Bird on the Water
TOP 10 SONGS OF 2007
- “Lipgloss” // Lil Mama
- “They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded” // Mum
- “Lydia” // Dog Day
- “Paper Planes” // M.I.A.
- “Someone Great” // LCD Soundsystem
- “Good Life” // Kanye West
- “Wash Off” // Deerhunter
- ”Holy Chord” // Dappled Cities
- “Song to Bobby” // Cat Power
- “Crackerjack Docker” // Prinzhorn Dance School
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2007
- Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
- Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
- God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
- Elegy (poems) by Mary Jo Bang
- Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff
- The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007 by Albert Goldbarth
- White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960’s by Joe Boyd
- The Braindead Megaphone (essays) by George Saunders
- The Boy Who Cried Freebird by Mitch Myers
- The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2007 (that I actually watched)
- No Country for Old Men
- Control
- My Kid Could Paint That
- The Lives of Others
- Sunshine
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- Black Book
- You’re Gonna Miss Me: A Film About Roky Erickson
- Persepolis
- I’m Not There
TOP 11 LIVE SHOWS OF 2007 (aside from Daft Punk)
- Feist // Town Hall, NYC // 6-12-07
- Grizzly Bear // Society for Ethical Culture, NYC // 11-3-07
- Stevie Nicks // Jones Beach, NYC // 6-13-07
- Vampire Weekend // Glasslands Gallery, NYC // 6-16-07
- Cat Power // McCarren Pool // 7-7-07
- White Stripes // Madison Square Garden, NYC // 7-24-07
- Emily Haines // Hiro Ballroom, NYC // 1-9-07
- Animal Collective // South Street Seaport, NYC // 6-1-07
- Land of Talk // Bowery Ballroom, NYC // 3-28-07
- The Books // Webster Hall, NYC // 1-27-07
- Jesus and Mary Chain // Webster Hall, NYC // 5-22-07
TOP 5 INTERVIEWS OF 2007
- Robert Smith (The Cure) // V Magazine
- Gwen Stefani // Cover Story - V Magazine
- The B-52’s // OUT Magazine
- Bradford Cox / Cole Alexander (Deerhunter / The Black Lips) // Cover Story -- The FADER
- Bryan Ferry // VMan
BEST PSYCHIC OF 2007
"While most psychics were spent the year giving vague advice about love and money, Oscar—our favorite gray and white psychic housecat—was busy predicting the deaths of over 25 terminally ill patients in a Rhode Island nursing home. Known for his deadly accuracy and no nonsense attitude, Oscar was known for crawling in bed with the soon-to-be-departed and purring them sweetly into the afterlife. Ironically, just as Oscar’s prowess as a death dealer became headline news, the clairvoyant feline reportedly passed away under unknown circumstances. One can only imagine that he saw it coming."
-T. Cole Rachel
(written for V Magazine’s “Best of 2007” list)
MY MOTTO FOR 2008
“Fall in love with T. Cole Rachel…all over again.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR
xo COLE
Best of 2006
As I do every year, I will begin this list by simply saying that these are the records, books, movies, shows, and interviews that I enjoyed the most in 2006 (even though there were arguably better records made this year and I can already think of about 40 more that I’ve forgotten to include). These were the booksthat I particularly savored that were actually published in 2006 (otherwise I’d just be listing Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds over and over each year). Movies were tough since there were a lot of them that I never managed to see and considering that I really disliked the majority of the ones I did. I chose the live shows that were simply the most fun (probably the ones where I had the most to drink) and this year I thought it would also be fun to go through and pick out my favorite interviews (since that is what I pretend to do for a living). I’d like to think I chose my favorite interview subjects based on how fascinating or revealing they were (Courtney!), but it mostly had to to with people who made me laugh or were particularly beautiful or handsome. I’m not gonna lie. So anyway, here is my annual nerdfest for the year that was 2006. Read it and weep.
As I do every year, I will begin this list by simply saying that these are the records, books, movies, shows, and interviews that I enjoyed the most in 2006 (even though there were arguably better records made this year and I can already think of about 40 more that I’ve forgotten to include). These were the booksthat I particularly savored that were actually published in 2006 (otherwise I’d just be listing Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds over and over each year). Movies were tough since there were a lot of them that I never managed to see and considering that I really disliked the majority of the ones I did. I chose the live shows that were simply the most fun (probably the ones where I had the most to drink) and this year I thought it would also be fun to go through and pick out my favorite interviews (since that is what I pretend to do for a living). I’d like to think I chose my favorite interview subjects based on how fascinating or revealing they were (Courtney!), but it mostly had to to with people who made me laugh or were particularly beautiful or handsome. I’m not gonna lie. So anyway, here is my annual nerdfest for the year that was 2006. Read it and weep.
TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2006
- MIDLAKE // The Trials of Van Occupanther
- CAT POWER // The Greatest
- BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY // The Letting Go
- BAND OF HORSES // Everything All The Time
- JUANA MOLINA // Son
- YEAH YEAH YEAHS // Show Your Bones
- THE KNIFE // Silent Shout
- THE WHITEST BOY ALIVE // Dreams
- YO LA TENGO // I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
- SECRET MACHINES // Ten Silver Drops
- HOT CHIP // The Warning
- BUILT TO SPILL // You in Reverse
- PETER, BJORN, AND JOHN // Writer’s Block
- THE BROTHER KITE // Waiting For The Time To Be Right
- MOJAVE 3 // Puzzles Like You
- CALIFONE // Roots & Crowns
- EMILY HAINES // Knives Don’t Have Your Back
- THE GOSSIP // Standing in the Way of Control
- HUMAN TELEVISION // Look At Who You’re Talking To
- MY MORNING JACKET // Okonokos
- JUNIOR BOYS // So This is Goodbye
- MATES OF STATE // Bring it Back
- CHAD VANGAALEN // Skelliconnection
- SONIC YOUTH // Rather Ripped
- BELLE & SEBASTIAN // The Life Pursuit
- HORSE FEATHERS // Words are Dead
- THE THERMALS // The Body, The Blood, The Machine
- PLUS/MINUS // Let’s Build A Fire
- M. WARD // Post-War
- BOUND STEMS // Appreciation Night
- OVER THE ATLANTIC // Junica
- ANNUALS // Be He Me
- BEACH HOUSE // Beach House
- FIELDS // Seven from the Village
- WOLFMOTHER // Wolfmother
- WHITE FLIGHT // White Flight
- THE FUTUREHEADS // News and Tributes
- AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD // So Divided
- THE LITTLE ONES // The Little Ones EP
- I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS // Fear Is On Our Side
TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2006
- CAT POWER // Town Hall // NYC // June 10
- DEPECHE MODE // Coachella Festival // Indio, Ca // April 29
- THE KNIFE // Øya Festival // Oslo, Norway // August 10
- JOSE GONZALEZ // Joe’s Pub // NYC // March 22
- THE FLAMING LIPS (w/ Peaches) // SXSW // Austin, Tx // March 15
- THE WORLD FAMOUS * BOB * IS F TO F // Mo’ Pitkins // NYC // April 6
- BAND OF HORSES // Warsaw // NYC // June 18
- FEIST // Webster Hall // NYC // February 10
- NITZER EBB // Irving Plaza // NYC // September 17
- LOW // Bowery Ballroom // NYC // February 6
Honorable Mention: MADONNA // Coachella Festival // Indio, Ca // April 30
Madonna in a giant tent in the desert AND I was nearly trampled to death. ‘Nuff said.
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2006
- In Persuasion Nation (Stories) – George Saunders
- We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction – Joan Didion
- Up is Up, But So is Down – edited by Brandon Stosuy
- The God of this World to his Prophet: Poems – Bill Coyle
- My Lives: An Autobiography – Edmund White
- Grave of Light: Selected Poems – Alice Notley
- Fool the World: An oral history of the Pixies – Caryn Ganz, Josh Frank
- Thirst (poems) – Mary Oliver
- American Genius (a novel) – Lynne Tillman
- Jesus Land: A Memoir – Julia Scheeres
TOP 10 FILMS OF 2006
- Old Joy
- Volver
- Neil Young: Heart of Gold
- When the Levees Broke
- The Descent
- Marie Antoinette
- 49 Up
- Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
- loud QUIET loud: A film about the Pixies
- Shut Up and Sing
Honorable Mention: Jackass 2, Borat
Movies that make me laugh and make me vaguely uncomfortable at the same time are generally winners in my book.
TOP 10 INTERVIEWS OF 2006
- Courtney Love // V Magazine
- Chan Marshall (Cat Power) // Mixte
- Will Oldham (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) // V magazine
- Olaf and Karin (The Knife) // Soundgirl.com
- Emily Haines // V Magazine
- Flora and Anar (Metal Hearts) // Soundgirl.com
- Tom Smith (Editors) // V Magazine
- Jason and Kori (Mates of State) // V Magazine
- Vince Clarke (Erasure / Yaz) // V Magazine
- Anjelica Huston // V Magazine
HERE’S TO A HAPPY, HEALTHY, ACTION-PACKED 2007
xo COLE
Best of 2005
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m HAPPY to see 2005 go away. This year my appendix exploded, my brother got thrown from a four-wheeler at high velocity (he’s ok now) and lots of other annoying crap went down. On the flipside, however, I loved a lot of things in 2005, including my friends, my family, my work, NYC, and the following movies, books, records and shows.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m HAPPY to see 2005 go away. This year my appendix exploded, my brother got thrown from a four-wheeler at high velocity (he’s ok now) and lots of other annoying crap went down. On the flipside, however, I loved a lot of things in 2005, including my friends, my family, my work, NYC, and the following movies, books, records and shows.
My 20 favorite records of 2005
As always, I’ll just say that there were probably better records than these released in 2005, but I don’t care. Sorry Kanye! I made my choices based on the records I know I listened to the most, which were as follows….
- My Morning Jacket – Z
- Feist – Let it Die
- Engineers – Engineers
- Songs of Green Pheasant – Songs of Green Pheasant
- Low – The Great Destroyer
- Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene
- Mercury Rev – The Secret Migration
- The Zincs – Dimmer
- M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us
- The Kingsbury Manx – The Fast Rise and Fall of the South
- Sigur ros – Takk
- Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase
- Rogue Wave – Descended Like Vultures
- The Clientele – Strange Geometry
- Chad Vangaalen – Infiniheart
- Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
- Antony and the Johnsons – I am a Bird Now
- Stephen Malkmus – Face the Truth
- Broadcast – Tender Buttons
- Foreign Born – In the Remote Woods
my 20 favorite books of 2005
- The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
- Lunar Park – Bret Easton Ellis
- Budget Travel Through Time and Space (poems) – Albert Goldbarth
- Indecision – Benjamin Kunkel
- Save Me – Patrick Ryan
- Mystery, So Long (poems) – Stephen Dobyns
- Manstealing For Fat Girls – Michelle Embree
- With the Beatles – Lewis Lapham
- Pretty Young Thing (poems) – Danielle Pafunda
- Oh Pure and Radiant Heart – Lydia Millet
- Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
- On Beauty – Zadie Smith
- The Sluts – Dennis Cooper
- Oh, The Glory of It All – Sean Wilsey
- The Stewardess is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s – Ron Hogan & Peter Bogdanovich
- The Glass Castle: A Memoir – Jeannette Walls
- When I Knew – Robert Trachtenburg
- The Fabulous Sylvester: the Legend, the Music, the 70’s in San Francisco – Joshua Gamson
- The Disappointment Artist (essays) – Jonathan Lethem
- Music Lust: Recommended Listening for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason – Nic Harcourt
my 20 favorite movies of 2005
- Brokeback Mountain
- Cache
- Mysterious Skin
- Me and You and Everyone Else We Know
- Capote
- The Fearless Freaks
- Grizzly Man
- Walk the Line
- The Century of the Self
- Ballet Russes
- Match Point
- Transamerica
- Look at Me
- Munich
- King Kong
- Thumbsucker
- The Squid and the Whale
- Murderball
- March of the Penguins
- Hostel
my 10 favorite rock shows of 2005
- Secret Machines // at their practice space, Brooklyn, NY // 1-25-05
- Feist // Bowery Ballroom, NYC // 6-25-05
- Ley Royal Scam // Pussycat Lounge, NYC // 9-15-05
- The Arcade Fire // Coachella Festival, Palm Springs, CA // 4-30-05
- The Duke Spirit // SXSW, Austin, TX // 3-18-05
- The Pixies // Across the Narrows Festival, Coney Island, NYC // 10-1-05
- Green Day // Giants Stadium, NJ // 9-1-05
- My Morning Jacket // Webster Hall, NYC // 10-18-05
- Mates of State // Siren Festival, Coney Island, NYC // 7-16-05
- Sleater-Kinney // Mercury Lounge, NYC // 3-2-05