Snake Crew, Snake USA: Best of 2021
Top 10s of the year from nine friends of the newsletter, in no order, and the newsletter, in no order… here’s to health, happiness, prosperity, satisfaction in ‘22 and the one after, into eternity…
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage (Goliath): The duo hone in on territory explored on the most recent Bad Seeds albums and their score work together. Lush and spacious songs let the isolation seep in, and the writing breathes through every track.
Ye - Donda (GOOD/Def Jam): Love or hate him, Ye straddles many arms of modern culture, with Donda pushing how we think about production, performance, fame, community and how we share music with each other…
Aaron Dilloway and Lucretia Dalt - Lucy and Aaron (Hanson Records): Loops of bass, vocals and more churning through a unique aural process. Compositions are hauntingly timeless and churn through a range of disturbing depths to light, dreamlike warbles.
Coker EP (Breathing Problem Productions): JT Whitfield’s rhythms crash into each other and litter along open road junkie highways that crosscut the midwest. Less is more, but sometimes less isn’t enough.
Space Afrika - Honest Labour (Dais): Released in August, this is my most-listened-to of 2021., Moody downtempo rhythms and a patchwork of field recordings, loops and texture. It feels like the distillation of generations of UK electronic music.
On the Run - Two Doves (New Discipline Recordings): With more space and consideration on these tracks, we further develop context for these rhythms. “Back of Mercedes…” is transformational audio, and the titular track continues the journey through this distinctive world. “Two Doves” shows a lot of growth and development, and there is really nothing better than seeing your friends and loved ones be great.
Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion by Harry Sword (White Rabbit): An examination of drone. From the origin of sound to Black Sabbath’s aural destruction, this book traces our physical and psychological relationship with droning sound, and the near-timeless significance it holds.
Ballet Austin’s production of Joy/3 Happy Dances by Stephen Mills: Counterpoint’s choreography set to Steve Reich’s piece of the same name was so graceful and organic that it felt effortless. Just as with the musicians, the dancers’ strength and dexterity should not be understated by their finesse.
NBA Rule changes: The league finally took a stand on foul hunting and made it no longer advantageous for players making “overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves” on the offensive side. Gameplay feels more natural, and NBA is more fun to watch, unless you’re a fan of Harden/Trae Young/Doncic.
Honorable Mentions: Mass (dir. Fran Kranz): An exacting look at loss and growth, examining communication and its relationship to grief. The cast works with a tranquil violence, present in life but elusive in modern storytelling.
Andy Stott - Never The Right Time (Modern Love): A lush palette of sounds here and so minimal in execution. He stays true to his sound while exploring vocals and their interplay with his instrumentation.
Rule of the Robots by Martin Ford (John Murray Press): A good look at the societal gravity of how we develop and employ artificial intelligence.
Electronic Resistance by Nigel Ayers: A deep collection of Ayers’ artwork, flyers, video stills and more from 1980 through the 90s. I love archival collections like this. Ayers’ impactful vision makes there so much more to appreciate here.
so i'll start off by saying this wasn't easy, it was kind of a strange year for me (everyone) and scrolling back thru all my flicks from this year there wasn't a ton of high highs or low lows, which makes it hard to pull 10 tops. my nephew was born that’s huge and happy. i call him bug -but he not on the list bc that don't feel right. here’s my top 10 of 2021 in no real order other than how they came to me:
1. custom jewelry- not restricted to the rapper type of bust down cartoon chain. I think creating a piece of jewelry even in the simplest humblest form is the best thing that i've been into in 2021. its a "for life" investment, an artistic expression, and seems to play into human traditions as a whole. I loved learning more about gemstones and crystals and their properties- a good book is the crystal bible by judy hall. i see more people doing this for themselves and as businesses in 2022 - shout out to emily brown and mr. barnacle -two jewelers I work with and admire.
2. Public Access gallery - Leo’s gallery has had some of the best from the heart/streets/ real art shows this year. Shout out to weirdo dave
3. Sahbabii - even tho I don't think “Do it For Demon” is his best work i'd probs give record of the year to Sahbabii, just bc i think his creativity and style is top notch and hopefully keeps putting out solid and diverse records - best song imo -”Frontline”
4. Henry's handmade denim out of Toronto - i gave up on denim- probs been like 8 years since i bought/wore jeans, but Henry's brought me back from the dead. perfect fit and quality and i like the fact that the homie makes each pair tailored for the individual. rare
5. WOMBAT ICBM- kinda a new level of energy in NYC graffiti. look up. shout out to past years’ top teners - false, goog, vil , zexor rip
6. Bource de Commerce - Pinault Collection Paris - was lucky to do some traveling this year and this new museum in paris was crispy af. great art, great light and the flow thru was impeccable.
7. Thai Diner - fat boy fantasy - the egg sandwich is one of the best in the game for a brunch tip but everything is good there and they really came thru for the kid in lockdown . khao soi, crab fried rice, pea shoots, fuckin disco fries
8. Masahisa Fukase - Sasuke - my favorite photographer and my favorite book of the year. all about his cat. the tenderness, the sadness, the humor - a true genius king
9. Bagel Bunny Bagels. again with the handmade customs. Sakura makes the best handmade bagels i've ever had. something about the special yeast. shout out to the black sesame with cheddar and jam and the turmeric cinnamon raisin raw
10. Vintage Dior velour tracksuits. did a lot of lounging this year and these are the pinnacle of luxurious lounging. shout out to diefresh for supplying the kid w crispy ones . most with the tags still on em.
honorable mention: Blind Date Party - Bill Callahan / Bonnie Prince Billy. Two folk freaks shining like lanterns
Top 10 of 2021 (in no particular order)
1. Lewis Hamilton 25 place deficit São Paulo Grand Prix: Starting from the back of the grid in the sprint quali to get 5th, then hit with a 5 place penalty to start P10 for the race and finishing P1.
2. Fantas Variations - Caterina Barbieri: Why listen to Glenn Gould annoyingly hum all over Bach when you can listen to a gabber variation of Fantas.
3. Brooks Brothers branded cedar blocks: (To protect clothes from moths)
4. Jimmys Corner reopening:
https://ny.eater.com/2021/10/4/22708628/jimmys-corner-times-square-bar-reopening-nyc
5. The NY Times fanzine #7 imminent release
6. Tauba Auerbach’s S v Z exhibition at SFMOMA:
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/tauba-auerbach-s-v-z/
7. The time I went tanning March 26th, 2021
8. Noguchi ashtray 3D print: Although the show opened in 2020, it closed in 2021, so it counts. After discovering drawings for “the perfect ashtray”, the Noguchi museum 3D printed it to the specifications of his original patent. https://15olfn2rfn013q1hld13l6me-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2020-Noguchi-The-Sculptor-and-the-Ashtray-Brochure.pdf
9. Cady Noland show "The Clip On Method" at Galerie Buchholz: Specifically carpeted for the show and included a Vitsoe 620 Chair Program couch by Dieter Rams. https://www.galeriebuchholz.de/exhibitions/cady-noland-new-york-2021/
10. Fred Perry toweling track jacket: Over the past few years there has been a real return to form with Fred Perry. They stopped trying to cash in on the fact that subcultures adopted the brand and have mostly returned to being a tennis sportswear company. I wore this jacket all summer: to the beach, on boats, and on my block in Bay Ridge to get cigarettes.
Honorable mention: Being unfollowed by @mickey_rourke_ on Instagram
MP:
1. Benedetta
2. Slimelife Shawty
4. Blood for Dracula 4k UHD (Severin)
5. Game Changer Wrestling/trips to AC
6. Vinegar Syndrome Blu-rays and slipcovers
7. Wadge "Assembled Armaments and Exotic Lore" 2xCD (Mortville Records)
8. Fun City Editions
9. Midnight - Live
10. Deep Cuts fanzine #2 - Neglect issue
TOP 10 SELTZER FLAVORS 2021 (HARD INCLUDED)
10 The Bud Light seltzer I had was good don't remember the flavor (HARD)
09 Strawberry Guava Topo Chico (HARD)
08 Mango Lime Wegman's
07 Pink Lemonade Spindrift
06 White Tea Peach Loverboy (HARD)
05 Black Cherry Polar
04 Tropical Mango Topo Chico (HARD)
03 Ginger Wegman's
02 Pineapple Cacti (HARD)
01 Spindrift Grapefruit
The other day I went record shopping for my friends’ baby, due in early January. I recommend doing this if you have a baby in your life for whom to shop. My life feels as though it has narrowed considerably these past two years, and what is a birth if not an immeasurable expansion?
I still love digging for records, and do almost all of mine at a shop here in Montreal called Disques La Rama. There are other great record shops here, I’m sure, but this is what I mean about the narrowing. I’ve developed a particular ethic around it—I try only to buy used stuff that I don’t expect I could buy digi. Mostly this is a way to save space. At La Rama, I head straight for the used 90s house bin, and it usually takes me about an hour or two to go through that and the adjacent bins—80s house, 2000s house, techno, minimal, breaks/D&B. Mostly I buy these 12-inches out of some sustained delusion I might play records out again at some point. Here are a few favourites I found this year.
Jiggie ft. Del Harris/Sylvia, Creeping/Loving You 12”:" Go straight to the b-side for a Miami bass version of the Minnie Ripperton classic produced by Uncle Luke. Can’t find any other recordings by Sylvia. A more perfect one-and-done career, I cannot imagine. I was the only person shopping one day when Kris, the shop’s owner, put this on while sorting and we had a little “What the fuck is this?!” moment. He had two copies and I bought one immediately for five dollars. One of my favourite moments of my year.
Roach Motel, Movin’ Up/The Right Time 12”: Classic slab of early 90s English house by Pete Heller and Terry Farley, who started Boy’s Own with Andrew Weatherall, etc. B1 is the standout—seems like it’s going to be real cheesy with those horns but it settles into a warm groove buoyed by this warbly, ecstatic little vocal sample after a couple minutes.
Junior Byron, Woman/Dance to the Music 12”: Double a-side by the singer known best for his Sunshine LP, which was reissued in 2017 by Favorite. Simmering, funky, spaced-out disco. This 12” was put out by Formula Records, a Montreal disco label, and produced by a guy named Michel “The Man” Bibeau. Byron immigrated to Canada from Trinidad & Tobago sometime in the late 70s, I think, and passed away in Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto, in 2019. Here is his beautiful version of Mavis John’s “Crying’s Easy.”
Dean & Deluca, Chapter 1 EP: Bought this without listening because it’s on M-Plant, Robert Hood’s label, and because it’s so funny to imagine two Sprockets-type Austrian guys giving themselves this name in the early 90s. “We love to go to the Big Apple and eat croissants from Dean & DeLuca!” Twitchy four-tracker. A1 is spacious and dubby, B2 super acidic.
Fleur, Domingo EP: I buy pretty much whatever from Svek. My copy is a promo, and here is how the distro described it on the flier attached to the sleeve: “Svek strikes again! The new congenial Project FLEUR (w&p by AIR FROG) delivers springy sounds, cushy chords with heady basslines ready for the dancefloor.” No cap!
Jetstream, Seriously 12”: The very first release on Definitive! Legendary Canadian house label started by Richie Hawtin, John Acquaviva, and Karl Kowalski. Rare release where every mix has something going for it. Original Mix is tops with its plush pads, twinkly little synth triplets, and shuffling, breaky drums. Solid Richie Hawtin mix, too.
Sash!, Ecuador 12”: Pumping, filtered-out remixes by DJ Sneak of a truly awful trance track.
P.S. The baby got Alice Coltrane’s Kirtan: Turyia Sings, Eddie Chacon’s Pleasure, Joy and Happiness, and Pharoah Sanders’ Live in Paris (1975). I hope you enjoy these records, baby! I think your name might end up being Henry.
Cara Marie Piazza | buy Snake-Nat-Cara T-shirt:
1. Milford Graves exhibition
2. The Taste Of Tea - Movie to watch before you die
3. Casa Finca Rose Sage and Rosemary Honey - have it for your health
4. Persimmons - best fruit
5. Mugwort - current favorite herb and dye plant 🌱
6. Chinatown lychees: From any of the stands, favorite snack
7. Top rated astrologers- Ariana Reines and Alice Sparkly Kat
8. Anne Boyer’s Poem, No.
9. Debt - David Graeber ( also read The Dawn of Everything, after )
10. Song : L.A. by Amen Dunes
1. My forever-friend Mason Tucker surviving & bouncing back from a serious rooftop-plummet
2. Slimelife Shawty - Better Living
3. Young Thug - "It's Okay to Cry"
4. Marco del Rio's short novel A Clove-Studded Orange
5. Chief Keef - 4NEM
6. Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying to Tell You
7. Dismembered Fetus - Anthropophagous Anthology
8. Nightspore - Godseed
9. Council Daimonion - Rise into the Dark
10. The Flatlanders - Treasure of Love
Runner-ups: Hotboii - Life of a Hotboii, 42 Dugg - Free Dem Boyz, Wadge 2xCD, Jason Crumer - Services Rendered, Kodak Black ft. Chief Keef - “Who Want Smoke” (Remix)
The only thing I really collected at least 10 variations of this year were used books. They’re not particularly rare or valuable. Just books I thought were interesting. The only consistent criteria is they were all from thrift stores or dusty old book shops. Nothing curated or expensive. The most expensive item on the list may have cost me 10 or 12 bucks. I’d love to include photos but unfortunately I’m a few thousand kilometres from the pile right now. I apologize if I remember anything incorrectly.
In no particular order:
1. EPHEMERAL FOLK FIGURES: Scarecrows, Harvest Figures, and Snowmen (1969) by Avon Neal & Ann Parker: A book full of amazing and eerie photos of scarecrows throughout the US, taken in the 60’s. They’re all shot by Ann. Her husband Avon pairs the photos with a long winded and boring thesis that doesn’t matter. The pics steal the show.
2. VIEWS (1975) by Roger Dean: The prolific sci-fi illustrator’s first book. Huge, full colour, full bleed images of Dean’s fantasy worlds. I’m a sucker for anything related to 70s/80s Heavy Metal drug fantasy stuff. Now I just need to find a copy of the sequel, “Magnetic Storm.”
3. MEDICINE’S NEW VISION (1988) by Howard Sochurek: An illustrated guide of digital medical imaging from the ‘80s. Full colour scans of diagnostic and medical radiology that look like they were on the Lawnmower Man art department’s mood board.
4. ILLUSTRATOR ILLUSTRATED No. 1 (1978) by Roto Vision Switzerland: An index of illustrators and graphic designers published for art directors. In the pre-internet age this is the book you’d grab when your Chicago-based agency needed a Japanese illustrator to create product graphics for a French champagne company. Hundreds of pages of beautiful full colour illustrations all categorized into product and style with a complete index of all the artists and their contact info in the back. You can get these design annuals for all kinds of mediums: photography, art direction, etc. I buy them whenever I find them.
5. 1003 SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS (1997) by Larry Carey, Sylvia Tompkins: Weird old book I found at a flea market that is the supposed authority on cataloguing salt & pepper shakers. There seemed to be at least 10 to 15 books in the series but I decided to start slow with the third copy, focusing on characters. The photographs are poorly lit and are reminiscent of someone trying their best on Craigslist. The book doesn’t shy away from featuring unofficially licensed characters either, so there are some pretty twisted Snoopies throughout.
6. SPATS: SUPER SPECIAL BACKGROUND PATTERNS 12 (1993) by Hironori Yasuda: The SPATS series needs no introduction to most design nerds. For everyone else they’re a series of black and white patterns created by Japanese designer Hironori Yasuda, made free for reproduction in any creative endeavour. There are loads of books in the series and they go for anywhere between $50 and $100 each nowadays. I was lucky to find a copy that didn’t break the bank.
7. ALBUM COVER ALBUM VOL.3 (1989) by Roger Dean & David Howell: Another book by Roger Dean but this one doesn’t feature his artwork. Instead it’s an illustrated guide of his favourite album covers, categorized by aesthetic rather than genre. The focus is all art and nothing to do with the music. It’s an amazing book that seldom gets put away on my shelf for long. As far as I can tell there are five, maybe six books in the series. I’ve managed to secure four so far. The hunt continues.
8. FILM REVIEW 1993 (1993) by F. Maurice Speed & James Cameron-Wilson: One of those big nondescript film annuals with the two-sentence blurb about each flick and the odd black and white corresponding image. Mainly purchased it for the amazing illustration of Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman on the cover, and nicely typeset serif they used.
9. SYMBOLS, LOGOS AND TRADEMARKS: 1500 OUTSTANDING DESIGNS FROM INDIA (1998) by Sudarshan Dheer: Hundreds of great logos all categorized into industry and style, with a really nice focus on type and iconography.
10. PLAYBOY’S ILLUSTRATED TREASURY OF GAMBLING (1977) by David Carroll: I’m at the end of the list so we’re inching towards more books that look great but aren’t all that useful. I don’t know if this book will make you a better gambler. I’m a trash gambler and I don’t need any faux confidence to convince me otherwise. Great dust jacket, though.
Snake (me):
1 Levis Mens Vintage 501 Original 1890 USA Washed 90501-0009 Rigid Blue 34 x 34. I had a pair of these a decade ago but gave them to my friend’s little brother. These are the old one ass-pocket retros with baggy legs and no belt loops and a dozen buttons on which to attach your suspenders. They came in the mail this spring fitting like yoga pants, with no space between my thighs and the denim. This was all fine: I sold them later for about what I paid, and the sting of bad fit felt like appropriate punishment for not asking the seller for measurements. But it also felt like a shift. A year ago every pair of pants I wore were too baggy. It’s a leg day thing that I’m happy about.
2 Vintage Sergio Asti Red Boca Flatware 20 Piece Set ICM Italy Mid Century Modern. I’d been looking for new flatware since almost immediately after I bought my first set of good flatware, a safe Danish teak set I picked up on eBay the week I moved into my place. Sometime a few years ago, fed up, on a hunch I searched every ‘70s Italian designer name I could remember and “cutlery.” I only found Asti’s, which would rarely hit market, and almost never for under a grand. So I waited. I only saw two sets priced humanely in the past five or six years. The other one was listed the first week of the pandemic. Mine I bought around February. Was nice since I mostly buy things at the juncture of want and convenience. My dream cutlery, finally. Materially, the best thing that happened this winter.
Irish Haven — the bar from the cranberry juice scene in The Departed is in Sunset Park. I went there for the first time this fall. The bar pizza isn’t bad and the group at the table over was having a birthday party, waiting on us to finish our game of pool — like most bars south of 40th St., IH has a cozy events room in the back — and split their birthday cake with Nat, Julien and me. A few weeks later Nat and I were there hanging out and some chick there split her actual pizza with us. The outside is very stark too, even nasty, with the words IRISH HAVEN spray painted construction-instruction style over the tricolour Covid stable, always empty, that they put up for fake indoor dining. It’s humbling to hang out somewhere Scorsese thought was important enough to immortalize.
Merauder 94 Minus demo — not really a good enough writer to explain this thing, but I’ll try. This lost promotional recording (1994) is three songs, two of which are on other Merauder albums and one that I don’t think has been recorded, with a singer, Minus, who left the band, and who has only appeared on other demos but not on any albums (a small distinction, but one nonetheless), and who here turns in a vicious rendition. The songs are also slowed down by a few BPM, making them somehow … in the pocket? An accomplishment for a band that sounded like molasses at their best and which had a death grip on tempo and time… The album art (tattooed chrome skull) is nothing short of breathtaking. As important an archival release as anything ever: the Dead Sea Scrolls… anything. There is not a lot better than this. The artistic surprise of the year. This is an astonishing demo.
Card Counter (Schrader) — the reality here seems to have been chosen by Schrader with a shrug as a sort of Robert Frost tennis net test: could the jobs, settings, moods etc. create an effective/evocative enough foundation to wrench out the emotions from the solo diarist/protagonist he puts in every one of his films? That these conditions also drill into the last 20 years of life in this country speaks to his political compass (deeply radical)… and is fitting aesthetically, too. Effortless and heavy… Schrader nails a styleless workman-like piece of art while keeping perfect composition, frame, logic, space, etc. Feels Fordian but what do I know… If they could bottle up this formula — and it feels like it could be bottled — it would be a lot less degrading to go to see American movies. Why can no one under 60 make movies like this? Both sad and fitting that a minor Schrader work executed as an afternoon exercise/bar napkin sketch ends up film of the year because of his depth and perspective, things he has and which no one else seems to.
Kevin Drumm - “New Old Card.” This came out Monday
Whistlinsdixie “Destroying a Toyota Hilux” series of four videos — a visual, sometimes moving act of service journalism by a YouTube video director/host where Top Gear’s segment on the namesake truck’s indestructibility is expanded upon. That video is special — the best-ever segment from the world’s most far-reaching show —but too short… WD, who mostly destroys cars and trucks in his videos, tests a stock old Hilux, tries to kill it but can’t. Some tests are insipid, some are incredible… the video reveals the world of deep truck knowledge as true and real, a subject almost Talmudic, like baseball… auto mechanics are intellectuals, or at least shokunin, and the companies who sell new trucks to Americans are a blight, either ignored or held in contempt… that thread can be expanded to lots of other industries, exposing the efforts consumers take to educate ourselves, which feels like a lot… still, between the nature and trucks, it’s not a bad life… The serious stylistic demerits of popular YouTube video — jokes made as asides, riffing commentary with the cameraman, non-diagetic explanations about shot choice, hiccuping edits — are here, but feel like a fair price to pay for the unshowy visual choices and tactful shots that peek out, to say nothing of a handful of surprising, vibrant moments that had me double back. In one scene, the abandoned truck rolls down a hill into a clearing, stopping in a mirror of the shot in Tarkovsky’s Stalker where Stalker (the bald guy in every Tarko movie) falls to his knees in The Zone; in another, a shot of the truck joyriding through uncut grass with a full payload of bricks flying everywhere, two wheels in the air, isn’t far off from the last scene of Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us where the guy rides on the back of the other guy’s scooter through wheat, and listens to the driver’s ruminations on life and death. There are some impressive choices here. I watched some of WD’s other videos after and they weren’t as good. Some had moments, and newer ones were improvements on older ones… videos made by other uploading entities are worse still… it’s a gristly medium, made up of scam filth… but I understand now why people watch YouTube-oriented videos, which at their best feel meandering, easy and not wasteful, almost talk radio… and I understand the loyalty people feel for WD — he says, in the video, that they do — since his videos stick out, scatter impressive surprises, and don’t skimp on visuals and knowledge. Like Frederick Wiseman, WD edits his own films. Such is his footprint — the comparative quality of his production, the knowledge here, the deep subject matter, the quiet visual choices in a foul, dead medium — that Hiluxes are more expensive now than a few months ago, when these videos were released… bound to happen honestly… there’s a non-zero chance he does something special.
Humanoid (Future Sounds of London) “7 Tracks”
[redacted] metal 7”s (two of them)
Dopplereffekt — several new songs on their bandcamp
Ojas - “Rebirth” — best old record I heard this year. Uploaded by Sounds of the Dawn. (Wind…, Matter of Life & Death, A Scene at the Sea the old films that stuck with me the most)
First half of the Texas-OU game/season
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Other work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JLRt0Ec6gZBm50hATYCYmLctnF9GhVijoEbam50JSw/edit
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