7Inches - Singles awards of 2010 extravaganza- PT 2

The Already Overpriced Single award goes to Best Coast, there have been plenty of repressings of this on Art Fag, but they keep flying off the preverbial ebay shelves at ludicrous prices...kind of reminds me of the old Vivian Girls singles, it's like people wanted them to be rare already or something. It's nice to know there are super fans checking this stuff out and willing to shell out serious money for them, so I'm not complaining. $82 for this Best Coast single is very tempting sometimes...that's almost 1/10th of pressing your own!



Winner of single 7" that has no business being pressed, but I'm so glad they did:

Portal 13 Globes on Chrome Leaf Records. Of course they are better live. I was actually a little scared they were going to sacrifice something on stage, or hang themselves...like a snuff film amusement park. Extreme is always good, they do it the best. When these two worlds came together at the merch table I was seriously protecting this thing in my bag the whole way home.


Least wanted single (two years running): Brian Jonestown Massacre, not only that it's always listed for 9.99 or some nonsense. It had to be listed at least every week for the entire year, not selling once. Haven't you spent at least 10x that in listing fees? Throw it away already.
Dig! is the worst documentary.... not the way it's made...but both of those terrible bands make me sick...and of course the Dandy Warhols would be successful over BJM. Indie Rock? Get lost. Overrated creeps. The worst pathetic druggies with delusions of grandeur...sadly full of themselves. I might have even liked the part towards the end when they fight with each other in front of 10 fans...but then they probably staged it thinking that anyone gives a shit.



Best packaging for a single: It's a tie between PIAPTK's wedding album of handcut picnic plate lathe singles in the shape of hearts, his letterpress plate series and the Records Digest book/lathe cut series that all came out this year and Sonny Smith's 100 singles art show and boxed set.
Both of these are so insane/amazing that I couldn't choose. An amazing amount of work all for the love of the single. We don't deserve it and I hope you get over to their sites and pick these up because I'd like to see both of them continue their unique brand of sadomasochism.



Best new 7" label: Olde English Spelling Bee, congrats guys, there is no way I can even keep up with your releases let alone research all of these insane bands. I'm officially overwhelmed. The tip of the iceberg was the Big Troubles single, and they've been around since 2009. Still the best.


Special award this year for the longest band name with a single: The world is a beautiful place and i am no longer afraid to die on Top Shelf Records, I like their massive instrumental, emo, post sound, they do it right. You can't even abbreviate that.



Noisiest split single goes to (split decision): Mucky the Ducky and Hexlove and Aids Wolf and Satanized on badmaster Records, two singles that push the limits of what is even music, and that's a good thing.


Most obvious sign of the 7" apocalypse: Scion is not only promoting live garage shows at the Knitting factory but pressing records, which are unbuyable...it's one thing someine there has crazy taste and puts together shows, have free streaming songs from these bands on their 'radio' station but then to go and press records, you have no chance of getting? Thank god for ebay.

Aids Wolf/Satanized split on Badmaster Records

Aids Wolf...of all the animal names out there this at least gives you an idea of where this is probably going. If you said experimental noise insanity, you would be completely right.
It's kind of liberating sometimes to listen to something that you know won't be enjoyed by anyone else. It's got very little to do with the actual sound itself... more the very act of just accepting this arrangement, these distorted vocals which can't be about anything pleasant makes you part of the subset that owns this 7" and who can reject everything.
Just putting this on the turntable says "There is nothing that will shock me, and there is nothing I won't try."
You'd also be hard pressed to meet an asshole at one of these shows.
AIDS-Wolf are so anti-establishment that instead of attending the show with a group of murderers and convicts, they are all music nerds like yourself who are just saying "Bring it on." We all can't wait for the band to start playing and clear the room of casual listeners.

There is an entire underground here in one side of a single. A vocabulary a majority of people are probably unfamiliar with. You can grasp tiny pieces, a hint of a repeatable rhythm or a word from the vocal, but it's mostly alien. It isn't ever about volume and just indiscriminate layers of noise. Throbbing Gristle established the art to pushing the limits, you can hear the carefully planned experience they've been crafting. The years of music it takes to get to this experimental place means that should put them at the top of anyone's list. But the problem is always in acceptance and the narrowing base of listeners a forward thinking a project like this inevitably becomes. They belong to that group of singles, I'm glad exists, but it's rare to commit this to careful study. But they've deliberately set it up that way.

The B-Side, Satanized has an off kilter, jazz-math, metal vibe with appropriately distant recorded-in-a-metal-box vocals.
They make very clear they can play, that's the reason no one could dismiss this...it isn't just noise or the shitty facsimile you would hear from a fictional bad ass band in a movie. Why is that always a joke...a bad stereotype when a periphery character's avant-garde music is played? The music supervisor should know better. If your trained in classical composition, you should be aware of this end of the spectrum, or you're worthless.
There's a huge amount of rhythmic changes. I wonder why the vocals stay that same I'm-in-hell growl tone. Why aren't they experimenting as much vocally? Is that the weakness in this endgame?
It's just a statement about the whole noise genre, not Satanized. They make perfect sense and for me have the musical talent to get away with it. I just think if I'm listening, then we've all agreed we're here for the ride, push it. I'm on board...give it to me.

Impressive 4 color screened sleeve with that rough matte ink, smelling like the printmaking room. Purple splattered 33 rpm vinyl...on Badmaster Records, who is also having a crazy vinyl sale, one LP and 2 singles for $15.