1. Jon Jon-Having the opportunity to introduce Mogwai at the 40 Watt and then The Shins, Big Business and Elf Power as Jon-Jon, Head of Security, at ATP in April. Made even better knowing I did okay next to David Cross’s crucifixion the night before bringing out Sleater-Kinney.
2. Paul Stanley–People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest – A collection of mp3s featuring Paul Stanley doing extremely painful and/or long-winded lead-ins to every KISS song you could possibly imagine. An inarguable, yet sometimes pleasurable, room clearer.
3. Rob’s House Parties-The closest thing to the explosive Athens house party scene from the mid-90’s I’ve seen here in Atlanta since I moved here in ’97. Seeing Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Jucifer or Elf Power back when they couldn’t get arrested is akin to seeing The Black Lips, Beat Beat Beat, The Carbonas or King Khan on a Saturday afternoon. If you’re in town, I’d hope it’s understood that these parties are mandatory. Duh.
4. Dethclok Metalocalypse-Adult Swim’s first grand slam home run since the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Metal humor for metal geeks, but you don’t have to be a metal geek to get it. Posehn and I nerded out a lot about this last month in LA.
5. Touch & Go 25-Yes, I know, I was in the mountains of North Carolina during this, but jesus christ, every band that ever meant a damn for this label over 3 days in Chicago? Having bands kiss and make up all in the name of Corey Rusk was awesome, but then to have kick ass shows for an entire weekend?! Fuggedit. I know there’s a slew of people who were there who can adequately explain what happened. All I know is that it looked like a record store employee refugee camp. Hilarious.
6. Whirlyball Concerts-What started as a stupid idea became reality with two shows in March with Mogwai, Torche and Growing and then followed up in October with The Melvins with David Yow, Big Business and the Men of Porn. Black Lips are already confirmed for the new year. A couple soo-prises in store. I’ll keep you posted.
7. The Comedians of Comedy-Two stellar tours through the midwest and east coast kept me out of town, and we had a great time while we were at it. Recorded the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company tour CD, did the one off Troubadour show. A lot of fun. I also got to meet Barry Hennsler (Necros, Big Chef) and Chris Thompson (Ignition, The Faith, Circus Lupus, The Monorchid, Red Eyed Legends, etc.) while in Chicago. I don’t know why, that was a big deal to me.
8. The Chunklet 13th Anniversary Weekend Extravaganza Blowout-Four of the most memorable days of my life. Check elsewhere on this site for more info.
9. Working With Indie Record Labels Can (Sometimes) Suck My Balls-You’d think it’d be easy, but I had a horrible time getting work completed and then getting paid by the "cool" or "popular" labels in the indie scene. I won’t smack talk, but goddamn, I’m so fucking fed up with lame ass, cheap, flaky labels that get away with murder in the name of business. I’m so glad I married a lawyer.
10. Shake It Records-I can’t think of one other time (other than going to Amoeba) in the last 10 years where I walked out of a record store spending almost $500 and thinking "Man, this was a steal!" Without a doubt, one of the greatest indie record stores left in America and would you believe it’s in Cincinnati?! I’m anxiously awaiting my return.
11. "Led Around By The Nose" Critics/Bottom Feeders-Even if you put a gun to my head, I couldn’t think of one redeeming thing about The Decemberists, Ratatat, Cat Power, Danielson or that wood nymph Joanna Newsom. God damn, do critics or on-line schlubs even BUY records any more? I swear, every critic’s end-of-year list has turned into one big carbon copy of each other’s list. Christ, let’s show some originality, you dopes. I don’t trust one critic’s Top 10 list with any of these bands featured prominently in them.
12. Chunklet SXSW 2006-An unrelenting 16+ band, 2 stage all-day event at Sound on Sound in Austin. Ted Leo/Pharmacists (who opened with a Rush cover!), Swearing at Motorists, Elf Power, Part Chimp, Torche, Rye Coalition, Baroness, This Moment In Black History, Fatal Flying Guiloteens, Black Heart Procession, Carbonas, Selmanaires and an assload of other bands I can’t remember off the top of my head. It took me a week to recover.
13. Grammination-‘Nuff said.
14. The Overrated Book-My first book came out this year (after designing probably 30 for other people). Traveled the US promoting it and even filled out my record collection in the process. Definite props go to Baltimore, Boston, Chapel Hill, Greenville, Nashville, Charlotte, Houston, Austin, Chicago, Bloomington and Cincinnati for helping me along. Also big thanks to Oneida, Black Taj and Birds of Avalon who played the release party during a neighborhood-wide black out back in August.
15. Anybody involved with Death Cab For Cutie-Say what you will about their music, but some of the raddest dudes I’ve ever encountered. And, again. ’nuff said.
16. Putting on Multiple Shows With My Favorite Bands-I got to put on a lot of shows this year with Boris, Growing, Torche, Thrones, Harvey Milk, Mogwai, Part Chimp, Melvins, The Hold Steady, Pelican, Mono, Minus The Bear, Russian Circles and Jason Molina.
17. I Paid A Grown Man $50 To Go On Stage Naked At A Mates Of State Show-It’s on youtube. You should check it out. Thanks to Destroyer for helping.
18. Live Music In Small Rooms Still Rules-Scratch Acid, Negative Approach, Man or Astroman?, Sonic Youth, Black Lips, Be Your Own Pet, The Carbonas, Drive By Truckers, King Khan & BBQ, Oneida, The Reigning Sound all completely ruled. I know there’s more I’m forgetting, but those stand out.
19. The Purge Of Dissidents-Having Tom Hazelmyer (from Halo of Flies/AmRep) recording music again gives me hope. I don’t know. It’s totally art damaged and demented as shit, but having him do soundtrack work for Dalek is better than nothing at all. And plus, it makes any 23-year old dweeb with a stomp box look even more feeble next to him.
20. Paying A Grown Man To Get A Tattoo On His Leg-Tad from The Hold Steady got a tat that I paid for. No, I’m not kidding. Just search for a jpeg on this site. I was actually giggling when I was cutting the check to the tattoo artist. Best money I’d spent in ages.
21. The new Chunklet.com site-How could I forget? It was redesigned by my good buddy Mark Wasserman at Plinko and then coded by the kids at Mission Media. A splendid job by all parties. Good job, gents.
Now who’s ready for a killer 2007?
