BEST OF 2019

February rolled around and I still hadn't created by top ten best list of Bay Area albums of 2019, nor the survey of local releases that comes with it. I hadn't had the time yet, and there was no clear break in activities coming that would allow me to complete the project. It seemed like I might just have to let it go this time.  Then March came around, and not just my job, but my entire industry evaporated overnight, along with my full time hobbies of band practice, playing shows and touring. So if anything good comes from this recent societal upheaval, I will get some backburner projects completed, and the list of 2019 releases will now finally be published!

As for the top ten list, I think it's a pretty good mix of releases, cutting across the spectrum of what the Bay has to offer these days. One black metal LP, two death metal, two punk, two traditional metal, two rock and roll, and one album that I can only describe as "San Francisco Metal," because it's not so easily categorized.

Just like I've said in years past, I make this list because there are NO publications, print, web, or otherwise that solely cover heavy music in the bay. Every once in a while, one of the top bands will garner some national press, but that's it. Decibel included the new releases by Possessed (no. 6) and Vastum (no. 35) in it's top 40 albums of the year. Metal Assault put Death Angel, War Cloud and Exhumed in it's top 20. Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, now a website, is much more interested in international bands than what's going on in it's own backyard. The East Bay Express covers local music, everything BUT punk and metal, it seems: Hip Hop, Disco, Indie Pop, nothing heavy. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Not much more to write, I have pretty much the same things to say I did for 2018, 2017 and 2016. Hopefully the bands just speak for themselves.

TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2019
In alphabetical order 

Asada Messiah: Steel Coffin
November 3, self released
A just fantastic and fun thrash / stoner / M-E-T-A-L album. It's not trying to squeeze into a genre hole, and I like that. Pure San Francisco style metal. Full disclosure: Yes, I drew the album cover for this. 


Exhumed: Horror
October 4, Relapse
Ripping, unceasing gore metal, produced in an airtight, dry as a bone style (that's a compliment) Almost as good as 2017's masterpiece, Death Revenge! The VHS themed artwork is also a big plus. The mood and aesthetic of 80's trash slash horror is well captured. 

 
Glitter Wizard: Opera Villains
April 20, Heavy Psych Sounds
There probably won't be a year when a Glitter Wizard album comes out and it doesn't make the top ten list. Nobody locally is doing anything like this, glam rock with a punk attitude, some heavy metal muscle and some progressive aspirations. Are they taking themselves seriously, or is it a big inside joke? Who cares? Opera Villains is their most pretentious album so far, and that's not a criticism. The whole setup, from the music to the brilliant packaging is fun, engaging, and a step beyond where they've gone before. 


Hell Fire: Mania
March 29, Riding Easy
These are our local boys done good, the up and coming bearers of the torch for old school speed metal. They're working hard and they're gonna go far, and this album is an important step on their journey. 


Hot Lunch: Seconds
March 15, Tee Pee
In the six years since their last LP, Hot Lunch has remained productive, putting out a steady stream of singles, splits and EPs, but obviously they were saving the most epic jams for this album, the longest clocks in at 13 minutes! Somehow still, they don't stray far from their roots as a skate / garage / retro rock gang. Sandpaper screams, nimble guitar, warm fuzzy bass, and the alternately flailing and precise drums hold everything together. Half of the band has moved out of the Bay Area since the record was released, but I'll still give this to 'em. 

 
Kicker: Pure Drivel 
February 8, Tankcrimes
Roadie is like the Larry David of punk, unable to hold back as he rails against the indignities of the modern world, both the small punk world in which we live, as well as the greater world at large. Another solid Kicker album, and with an all star crew of Bay Area veterans driving this boat, a solid Kicker album blows just about every other punk record out of the water. 

 
Los Huaycos: Savage Monstrosities
February 8, Tankcrimes
Manic, quirky hardcore punk created by mostly Peruvians living in exile, which explains the third world flavor. A fun, quick record, excellent artwork and a laborious backstory. 

 
Slough Feg: New Organon
June 14, Cruz Del Sur
This might be the best one since Ape Uprising! Concise, catchy songs, mostly on philosophical explorations. This band is a local treasure that should be valued by everyone.

 
Vale: The Burden Of Sight
May 24, The Flenser
Relentless, Bay Area style crust punk black metal, more metal than the demo. Like a little nephew in the Ludicra / Ails lineage. 

 
Vastum: Orificial Purge
October 25, 20 Buck Spin
Here is Vastum doing what they do best: Big, heavy, hairy riffs. Lyrics so disturbing I'm afraid to even read them. "Abscess Inside Us" might be the Bay Area death metal track of the YEAR!


OH, HEY! I DID SOMETHING! 

Isotope: s/t
April 5, Carbonized
My only release of 2019. 



TEN HONORABLE MENTIONS: ROCK AND METAL
In alphabetical order

Death Angel: Humanicide
Razor sharp production doesn't save this from being well… just another new Death Angel album, their fourth in what I will call the "Will Carroll" era. Based in the Bay Area thrash metal tradition, it goes a little of course with some too catchy choruses and groove metal breakdowns. Kind of like the last one.

Hysteria: Night Closing In

The most current lineup of Hysteria being half of Hell Fire, including the singer, it's hard not compare them, Hysteria being a little catchier and slower of the two. It's almost like two Hell Fire albums in the same year. Two split personalties of the same band.

Leather Glove: Perpetual Animation 
A madman cut loose to do a solo project. Greg Wilkinson from Brainoil, and my bandmate in Deathgrave, did the guitars and vocals, with a variating lineup of drummers. Ominous grindo death metal, it provokes feelings of anxiety, confusion, and eventually utter dread.

Old Grandad: s/t
Mission drug rock stalwarts returned with a new release. Less bludgeoning than their past releasing, more subtlety. They have multiple vocalist and one sounds kind of like Kermit the Frog! 

Possessed: Revelations In Oblivion
OG Bay Area death-thrash delivering the goods. Straight ahead, competently played, lacks the quirkiness of their 80's releases of course, not breaking any new ground here, but you can only invent this shit for the first time once, and they did pretty much invent it. 


Praying: I'm No Healer Indie fuzz stoner noise doom, it's still heavy, but it's kind of a breath of fresh air from all the chewing on broken glass bleeding out in a gutter in hell death doom that The Bay has been known for latley!

 
Swamp Witch: Dead Rituals
Four songs clocking in at about ten minutes each, very heavy and focused, a big leap forward for this death/doom/sludge band! They are not entirely Bay Area, but I'm gonna let it slide.

Sweet Chariot: Lean Into The Breeze
Byrdsy / Stonesy twangy rock 'n' roll. As comforting and laid back as a tall can of Tecate and a Burrito on a sunny afternoon.

War Cloud: State Of Shock
While I enjoyed their debut album, it was a dose of rock and roll comfort food, this record shows War Cloud going outside of their comfort zone, picking up the pace, going from a merely rocking level to a ripping level, and getting more adventurous with the songwriting.  

2019: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS

So here it is! Another year, another set of meticulously tracked statistics of my activities! Who needs rampant corporate cloud surveillance? I'm doing a fine job keeping track of my damn self. Every year, I think maybe I won't write anything, and I'll just dump the raw information on you, and leave it that. But, oh, I suppose I should write a "little something." Anyone with their head outside of their ass should already be fully aware of the problems affecting our planet, our country, our state, and our city, so I'll leave that analysis for the others, and focus on the live performances that defined 2019!

To the best of my ability to keep track, I witnessed 55 shows as an audience member, 20 less than last year, and an all time low, one less than the previous worst year, 2017!  That's a pretty bad slip, but I have excuses, as always! I worked a lot, and had a lot of band practices, which prevented me from going out many nights that I would have liked to. With Deathgrave practices happening in San Jose on Thursday nights now, it caused me to miss A LOT of shows that I would have gone to in Oakland and San Francisco. Plus, let's face it, I'm old and jaded now. A lot of times I feel like I can get more enjoyment out of a nice hike in the mountains than going to see ANOTHER metal show at a bar in Oakland, where I will drink 3-6 beers, buy an obligatory LP to support the touring band, and stagger home to attempt five hours of sleep. I had to pad my list of shows attended this year with some SERIOUSLY QUESTIONABLE performances I saw while at work, just to make this NOT the lowest year ever for nights spent out!

So as the world crumbles around us, let's have a look at some of the highlights of the year! I got to see Japan's Kikagaku Moyo, one of the best and tightest psychedelic bands going right now, two nights in a row in a tiny bar out in the Big Sur redwoods! Entrancing and intimate. The best bands I saw in 2019 were mostly from Japan, of course, and the biggest winner was Green Milk From The Planet Orange, who I saw at The Knockout in San Francisco. Best live band of the year! (Also, their new record III, which I believe they played in it's entirety that night, note for note, is my favorite album of the year.) Other great Japanese bands I crossed paths with included Boris, Church of Misery and Radioactive. Classic metal bands made a fine showing in 2019! Iron Maiden owned Oakland Arena with an excellent performance and unbelievable stage production.  Judas Priest delivered the goods at The Warfield. Obituary slaughtered the UC theater. OK, here's a cool one: I had never seen Metallica live until September of this year, when I was called by work to be a camera assistant at their "Symphony and Metallica" (S&M) 20th anniversary shows at the new Warriors Arena in San Francisco. For two nights, I was beyond front row, as the ageing thrashers played alongside the orchestra. Witnessing the frustration on the faces of the classically trained percussionists as they had to share a stage with Lars Ulrich was priceless! Another highly notable performance of a totally different sort was seeing the Pharaoh Sanders Quartet at Yoshi's. I decided it was more important to see one of the few living jazzmen who had actually played with John Coltrane, than to see King Diamond again. Bay Area choices! Pharaoh Sanders was great, still honking and squawking his sax like a champ at age 79, but he was almost overshadowed by his band, especially the drummer, who was simply jaw dropping in his skill and dexterity. Turned out it was Marvin "Smitty" Smith from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno! Of course, most of the shows I went to were to see the numerous talented, and more often than not, extremely malevolent, local bands. Check the full list for details!

As a drummer, I played 68 shows with five different bands, up slightly from last year, and not bad considering I didn't do any extremely long tours. My amalgamation into Deathgrave certainly boosted my statistics, as the band toured and gigged regularly throughout the year, re-estabishing themselves after six months without a drummer. Half of the sixty eight shows I played were with Deathgrave. My other old bands limped along in various states of disrepair, disagreement or apathy. (To be fair, Hazzard's Cure was actually focusing very hard on writing a completely new album, which will be sure to blow your ear holes in 2020).
Here's the breakdown:
Deathgrave: 34
Owl: 14
Isotope: 9
Cronander: 6
Hazzard's Cure: 5

Accounting for nights when I played or attended more than one show in the same night, that adds up to 121 nights spent out at a show of some kind, or 33.1% of all nights spent out. Barely scraping by as the second lowest year on record, and below the average of 39%. I wish I could do some kind of "decade retrospective" like a lot of people are doing this time of year, it being the end of the "2010s," but my meticulous record keeping only goes back to 2011, and therefore you are spared such heavy analysis. Now, let's have a look a the numbers:

Percentage of total nights spent out:
2019: 33%
2018: 35%
2017: 32%
2016: 39%
2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

FULL LIST OF SHOWS ATTENDED AND PERFORMED AFTER THE JUMP

BAY AREA BEST OF 2018

 

I'm doing pretty good, thanks for asking! Why? I didn't get my annual survey out until January 26 last year, and this one is out by the 12th!  Most people get their year end "best of" releases out of the way in November, and then wash their hands of it. I'd like to say that my list is delayed because I'm waiting for any last minute stragglers to wash up on the beach in late December, and a few did, but the real reason is that I don't start working on this thing until late in the year, and if you read the whole damn list, you will see how exhaustively comprehensive it is.

Now, you may get the impression, at first glance, that this is a top ten Bay Area METAL releases list, and it usually ends up leaning towards that,  just because I'm kind of a metalhead and those are the releases that are the most on my radar. But most punk bands don't really seem to make it to LP stage nowadays anyway, the typical life cycle of a Bay Area punk band being demo in the spring, a seven inch by the fall, and broken up by winter. So the best PUNK releases of 2018 will mostly be found in the other list, the top ten new band's demos, singles and EPs.

Most of what I said last year about my motivations remains relevant, so here it is again.

…and much more importantly, no one makes a list of the best Bay Area releases of the year, because there are no magazines or blogs, as far as I know, that focus solely on the SF Bay Area heavy music scene. The East Bay Express made a top 12 list, which contained zero punk or metal releases. As one of the sole print publications covering alternative culture around here, couldn't they do a little more? As in, anything?

Once again, I don't think East Bay Express wrote about a single local punk or metal band. I eagerly await correction! The KQED top ten list DID include Adrenochrome this year, however! Congrats.

There wasn't a lot of attention given to Bay Area releases OUTSIDE of the Bay Area either, with the exception of Deafheaven and Sleep, who were honored by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Those two, as well as Mortuous, appeared in Decibel magazine's top 40 metal releases of 2018 list. High On Fire was thrown a bone by Loudwire and the Onion's AV club. You get the idea.


2018 TRENDS
Maybe it's a reflection of our times, but there has been quite a crop of death/doom/blackened metal bands really scraping the bottom for ugliest, foulest, most desperate sounds imaginable. If "screaming at the bottom of a well naked covered in blood while being devoured by rats" describes the mood of your band, then this was your year! I'm running out of words, even with the liberal use of a thesaurus, to describe the bestial foulness of all these releases in the capsule reviews! There are only so many descriptors at my disposal.

There also was a bumper crop of dark wave / death rock / post punk in the scene. It's been building for the past few years, with the Near Dark festival being introduced, and in 2018 I think it hit it's stride with some really strong releases and new bands. I'm no expert in this genre, by any means, but I really do like the stuff. Always liked Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I'm happy to see this scene within a scene growing. It actually seems to be the dominant form of punk in the Bay these days.

Shout out to James Rauh and Josh Carman for suggestions and inspiration when I was making the list! Check out James' incredible survey of Bay Area releases HERE.

OH yeah, and fuck all this top nine bullshit. The format of instagram is gonna dictate how many bands / things you liked last year? Fack ooff.

But now, to the list! 

TOP TEN BAY AREA ALBUMS OF 2018

In alphabetical order

Ails: The Unraveling

April, 20 The Flenser

For those of us who were big fans of Ludicra, possibly the best San Francisco metal band of the past 20 years, this was a long wait! Core band members finally returned with a new project and the elements that formed the classic "grey metal" sound are present in force.

Brainoil: Singularity To Extinction

October 18, Tankcrimes

Oakland's sludge godfathers go a little more death metal / crust on their long awaited third album.

Esses: Offering

July 11, Near Dark

By far the most composed, articulate and crisp of the latest wave of Oakland post punk. Downright collegiate compared to some! Lots of cool influences poking out through the darkness here.

High On Fire: Electric Messiah

October 5, eOne 

Does High On Fire even count as a Bay Area band anymore? None of them live here. Oh, well, they get honorary status, fuck it. This is their eighth album and it might be their third best! I love how fast it gets sometimes, epic, anthemic, the type of metal album we need right now, one of the few on this list that isn't extremely dark and depressing. Now the question remains, will High On Fire ever be able to tour on this material, or will Matt Pike have to stay home and keep getting toes cut off?

Mortuous, Through Wilderness

June 22, Carbonized

Extremely heavy death metal from Bay Area experts. Reeks of that lumbering morbidity perfected by Autopsy and other sludge tomb forefathers. Mortuous takes it there, and then keeps going, almost to a place of elegance.

Nopes: Stapler

July 27, Magnetic Eye

Wow! This is great. This just all all the good points of a great heavy weirdo noise rock album! They are not following any rules here, jumping from style to style like a speedfreak channel surfing. Elements of hardcore punk and snotty alternative rock set them far apart from the rabble.

Serpents Of Dawn: Into The Garden

August 31, Doom Stew

Honestly, this might be the release of 2018 that I was most stoked on. I listened to this over and over again. Gratuitous stony heavy rock, riffs for days, elegant harmonies in just the right (few) places, glass gargling vocals. This all sounds comfortingly familiar, and yet somehow fresh at the same time. Fuck yes! 

Ulthar: Cosmovore

November 9, 20 Buck Spin

Full of weird loping musical passages that come after you like a three legged wolf. You're like, ahhh, I can outrun a three legged wolf! But then you realize you can't. Because it's still fucking faster than you. And it's hungry. And as the first bite of the fangs sink into your calf, and you stumble upon the ice in the Lovecraftian twilight, you realize you were always meant to die this way, born to die this way. It was written in the cosmos.

Wild Hunt: Afterdream Of The Reveller

April 20, Vendetta

Blackened metal, elegant in it's chaos, like a ballet dancer swerving in a hurricane. If it's a hurricane though, it's is one with many eyes, like Argus. Between each malevolent burst there is some kind of interlude, not to put you at ease, but to set you on edge as you know that there is another blast coming.  Wild Hunt rebounded from tragedy in their lineup and made a career defining album. 

Yarrow: Rebirth

September 11, Transylvanian Tapes

It seems like the Bay Area doom scene is pretty much a race to the bottom, who can be the most miserable, disgusting, wretched, horrible, pulverized band of them all? If Yarrow isn't at the bottom of this heap, they're pretty darn close! Augmented with choice samples ala Eyehategod. Despite the horrifying nature of the band, Yarrow actually somehow comes across as the most FUN or the whole crop, they don't actually seem to take themselves quite as seriously as Abstracter or Body Void. Maybe that's what put them over the edge and got them onto the top ten. 

TOP TEN BAY AREA NEW BANDS OF 2018 

DEMOS, SINGLES AND EPs

In alphabetical order

Adrenochrome: Buzz Or Howl Sessions

February 26, Near Dark

Well, there's a lot of new post punk / death rock out there right now, and it all kind of sounds the same to me, but I don't know what the common influence is, because I'm just not very educated on this style. That being said, I really do like this! The mood is great, and this is especially cool because it's more on the energetic end of things when it comes to dark, bleak-ass music. Hoping for an Adrenochrome album soon! 

Altars: s/t 7" 

August 24, Sentient Ruin

God what a ripper of a seven inch. Utterly unrelenting and pulverizing. Blasting death metal grind.

Deseos Primitivos: Existir

October 23, Self Released?

Chorused out anarchy liberation punk en español

Evulse: Call Of The Void

October 22, Transylvanian 

Extremely heavy DM with a fat low end. The dive bombing guitars add a fun old school element to the proceedings!

Glowing Brain: Demo

September 22, DOD Records

Downtuned, punchy noisy hardcore. This kicks ass! This might be my favorite new band of the year, and I finally got to see them play a show last week too.


Psychic Hit: Promo 2018
October 3, self released
Really cool old school rock metal with soulful vocals and tight songwriting. I see a bright future for them.


Riita: Absolut Santa Rosa
December 30, self released
Hardcore punk from Santa Rosa, Sweden


Shit Coffins: The Continuous Pleasure Of LivingJuly 8, self released
Competent hardcore played by scene veterans. Three quick-ass songs!


Terry Gross: Shameless Imposter
April 5, Valley King
One of my favorite new local bands, intense psychedelic noise rock


These Bastards: Old And Pissed
December 6, self released
Pissed indeed! Frantic hardcore with a sense of humor!


List of other Bay Area releases after the jump!

2018: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS

Time marches on. We struggle to quantify our parade of struggles and small victories in whatever way we can. 365 days. A year. Four seasons. A blink of an eye, or an eternity?

To the best of my ability to keep track, I attended 75 shows in 2018 as an audience member, which is up from 56 last year. I think I actually made a conscious effort to make it to as many live gigs as possible, in spite of my multiple band practices, and (sometimes) insane work schedule. Also, there is a new urgency to see certain legendary performers before they die. Because I work in the entertainment industry, some of these bands I saw while I was at work! As the Bay Area starts to suck in a lot of ways, I decided to just enjoy the hell of what's still around, and there turned out to be quite a lot, even in the face of rampant gentrification, multiple venue closures and the general trend of society to "Netflix and chill" instead of going out at night.

Some highlights included seeing one of the greatest drummers alive, and one of my personal heroes, Billy Cobham playing at Yoshi's. There was also my first trip to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and seeing David Byrne from the talking heads doing an extremely avante garde stage show, while I was working at Civic Auditorium. But for the most part, it was business as usual, tons of death metal, hardcore punk, sludge, psychedelic rock and maybe an odd Nintendo band.

As a drummer, I played 63 shows with six different bands, which is down slightly from last year  (when I actually played more shows as a drummer than attending as a punter). Although I played with six different bands, most of them did not play many local shows, and there were only two tours. Here's the breakdown:
Owl: 27
Isaac Rother And The Phantoms: 15  (European tour)
Isotope: 9
Cronander: 6
High By Night: 4
Hazzard's Cure: 2

Accounting for nights when I played or attended more than one show in the same night, that adds up to 128 total nights spent out during the year, or 35.34% of all nights spent out, which although is a slight rebound from last year's dismal tally (the lowest ever), it's still the second worst since I started keeping track, and well below the average of 39.8%.

In some of the early years of this project, I did a list called "venue graveyard," documenting the closures and burnouts of the local scene's live music establishments. Eventually, I stopped doing it, maybe because it was depressing and morbid, maybe because the scene stabilized somewhat in those middle years, or maybe because it was too tedious to document every little fly by night punk venue that came and went. But anyway, 2018 was a humdinger of a year for venue closures, with some real heavy hitters biting the dust; a few words must be spoken for the deceased.

The Elbo Room closed it's doors after 27 years in business as of December 31, 2018. In a rather science fiction type move, it manged to transfer it's soul into another, smaller venue in Oakland, where it lives on. The Hemlock Tavern, the ultimate small bar venue, closed it's doors in October, after 17 years, and will succumb to the wrecking ball sometime in 2019. Gargoyle might have to take the cake for shortest lived new venue. Though it appeared to be a fully functional and legal club, it closed after a few weeks and a few shows, and was revealed to have no permits of any kind. Whoops! Downtown Oakland stalwart Golden Bull, though it didn't shut down, pulled a kind of Pet Semetary move, when it temporarily died as a live music venue, then it came back, but it wasn't the same.

Percentage of total nights spent out:
2018: 35%
2017: 32%
2016: 39%
2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

FULL LIST OF SHOWS ATTENDED AND PLAYED AFTER THE JUMP

2017: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS

To the best of my ability to keep track, I attended 56 shows as an audience member, which is WAY DOWN from last year (95, holy shit!), and actually the lowest amount of shows attended in a year since I began keeping track, which was in 2011. This extremely poor showing could stem from a variety of factors: my erratic work schedule never helps, and I was also playing a LOT of local gigs with four different bands, which meant a lot of nightly rehearsals that often went just a little too late to go catch a band I wanted to see at the club. There's also a chance that I'm feeling a little jaded these days. I'm definitely not trying to go see every little punk band that comes through town anymore "just for the hell of it," and for at least half of the year, I had a "serious" girlfriend, which means I had no need to go out to shows to just get drunk and look for chicks! Also, let's face it: the Bay Area scene is dying! The year was marked with a rash of venue closures mostly related to the notorious Ghost Ship fire that occurred at the end of 2016, and pretty much hammered nails into the coffins of DIY venues across the land. So there weren't even as many available shows to go to! I think I went to ONE Oakland punk house show the entire year, and it wasn't for a lack of wanting to.

What surprised me was that in this environment, I actually played 67 shows, only the second time since I started keeping track that I played more shows as a drummer than I attended as an audience member. (The only other time was when I played 103 shows in 2013, an epic Owl touring year). That's 11 gigs with Hazzard's Cure, 19 with Isotope, 12 with Cronander, 22 with Owl, and one each with A.N.S., Hazzard's Crüe (Mötley Crüe Halloween cover band), and High By Night (Rush Halloween cover band).

Accounting for nights when I played or attended more than one show in the same night, that adds up to 118 nights spent out, or 32% of all nights spent out, the lowest percent since I started keeping track. Pretty sad. Mostly, I'm gonna blame the excessive band practices. How Many? Maybe I should count... ah fuck, I'm sick of counting things.

2017: 32%
2016: 39%
2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

READ THE FULL LIST OF SHOWS AFTER THE JUMP

2016: RECAP AND STATISTICS

I almost didn't post my yearly analysis of extreme rock activities for 2016, the least significant reason, of course, being that no one cares about this shit besides me. More importantly, most are keen to forget the past year and it's myriad tragedies, be they those of the city of Oakland, the mortality of Rock's royalty, or the global political climate in general. Many were the tribulations. Few will care to "have a look back" at the past year one more time. Likewise, it feels quite gratuitously masturbatory to spend time aggrandizing my personal achievements of 2016, when so much energy is needed here, now, in the present: Actual threats to free speech, democracy, human dignity, and the environment have never seemed so real in my lifetime as they do at this moment.

But my yearly analysis and number crunching is a tradition, and I feel that I cannot move forward without doing it, so here it is: To the best of my ability to keep track, (which apparently is not that great, because even as I type this up, I am finding other shows I forgot to catalog) in 2016 I attended 95 shows as an audience member, 25 more than last year! The result surprised me, because I also put in more hours at my job than ever. This can mostly be explained by my lackluster performance in the touring department. None of my bands wanted to go on tour, so I was in town a lot. I worked a lot, and missed some cool bands because of that, but not as many as I would if I had been out in full Road Warrior mode. (Full disclosure: I did fudge the numbers slightly, as some of the shows I "attended," I was actually at work at the same time, seeing as I am employed within the entertainment industry. This will explain some of the "questionable" items, if you actually read through the list.) 95 shows attended is NOT far off from my all time high record of 118 in 2011! *Pats self on the back*

I only played 58 gigs with my various bands (four real ones, and two offshoot projects of Owl), which is down from 70 in 2015. That's 28 shows with Isotope, 12 shows with Owl, 8 shows with Cronander, 8 shows with Hazzard's Cure, and one gig each with the Owl spins offs "Bowl" and "High By Night." Isotope was the only band that even did anything close to what you would call a tour!

Accounting for nights when I did more than one thing (attended / played more than one show, or both), I spent 142 nights of the year playing or attending gigs, which edges me back up to 38.9% of all nights spent out, slightly bucking (much to my delight!) the downward trend of the past few years. I may not be touring as much as I used to, and I may be working a helluva lot, but I'm still not some beaten down, Netflix addicted homebody!

2016: 39%
2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

READ THE  FULL LIST OF SHOWS AFTER THE JUMP!

2015: THE RECAP

2015 was a little different from the past three years in that I did not do a huge month long tour in November, and to the delight of my mother, I was home for Thanksgiving! In fact, I did not do any long tours at all, though I was away for the entire month of August, which included two separate, smaller jaunts with two different bands. Even though I cut back on touring, I managed to hold the line pretty well on my "nights out" ratio with a hefty load of local shows and short mini tours.

To the best of my ability to keep track, and I must admit that my record keeping was exceptionally good this year, I attended 70 live shows in 2015 as an audience member, ten less than last year, and slipping further from my all time recorded high of 118 shows attended in 2011! I blame this decline in attendance to a more vigorous work schedule, a jaded perspective that comes from seeing almost every band I've ever wanted to see already, and not caring about going to see every little punk band that comes through, whether they're any good or not. (Most not.)



In a strange, first time coincidence, the amount of shows I performed was equal to the amount that I attended: 70! I did 70 gigs in 2015 behind the drums for four different bands, which is a slight step up from last year (62), but still down from the 103 gigs I performed in 2013, which is the highest on record. I have a feeling that 2006 was higher than that, but I'll have to do some research to prove it.

Accounting for nights when I attended two different shows in one night, or played two different gigs in one night/day, or played a show and then went to a different one after... that's 135 nights spent out at a gig, or about 37% of all nights spent in shitty rock venues. As you can see here, there's a continuation of the declining trend. Am I losing my vigor, or is there just nothing worth going out for? We'll see if the trend continues in 2016.

2015: 37%
2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

THE FULL LIST OF GIGS ATTENDED AND PLAYED AFTER THE JUMP

2014: THE RECAP

Oh, 2014! Surely the beginning of the end! The beginning of a profound slide into complacency that will lead me to my grave! I feel the gears of a once mighty show attending / gig playing machine grinding to a halt! Oh, why has Lemmy forsaken me?

To the best of my ability to keep track, which may have been not so good last year, thanks to being apathetic and not giving a fuck (during certain phases), I attended 80 lives shows in 2014 as an audience member, the exact same amount as 2013, but still down from 99 in 2012, and the highest on record, 118 in 2011.

I only played 62 shows with four different bands in 2014, which is down from 103 shows with 3 different bands in 2013, and 80 shows with 5 different bands in 2012, but I am still up from 2011, when I played only 56 shows with five different bands.









Accounting for the nights when I attended or performed more than one show in the same day, that makes for a total of 139 nights out, or about 38% of all nights of the year out attending or performing live gigs, which makes for the lowest overall percentage since I started keeping statistics, in 2011:

2014: 38%
2013: 48.5%
2012: 46%
2011: 43%

This evidence can only lead me to the conclusion that I am now actually declining into OLD MAN status, preferring my armchair by the fire, my pipe, and my history books to the mosh pits and broken glass strewn nights or yore. 2014 was also an uncharacteristically weak touring year for me, and if I hadn't ended up filling in on the Wild Eyes European tour, road dates would have been almost non existent. 2014 was also my first year in quite awhile that I began the year with no steady job, and I know I spent many nights home and broke, scanning the internet for real estate upon which I would establish my alpaca farm. Researching last year's calendar to compile the list of shows I attended, I came across a startling amount that I MISSED.

CLICK BELOW TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF SHOWS FROM 2014:

BEST OF 2014

1. OWL: Screech


2. HAZZARD'S CURE: The Ugly EP


3. ISOTOPE: Final Wind Of Mercy Demo


HONORABLE MENTION: WILD EYES: Above Becomes Below
(I didn't play on it, but I toured Europe on it) 


FUCK YOU ALL

2013: THE RECAP

So here I am at the beginning of 2014, doing my annual analysis of shows attended and played. If I can't quantify it, it's not real! The numbers don't lie folks!

As I looked back over the past year, going through my archives and adding up the gigs, I remembered how optimistic, how enthusiastic I felt at the beginning of 2013. "Lucky '13!" was my rallying cry! And for awhile, I felt pretty lucky!  Shit was going good... but something somewhere must have changed, for I sit here at the dawn of 2014 feeling tired, defeated, disgusted, and like I've finally reached that age where I realize that I've been throwing my whole life away for some stupid bullshit that doesn't matter! I guess it's time to retire from rock and roll and become a file clerk!  This could possibly be the last year end recap that you'll have to suffer through. Cheers!





To the best of my ability to keep track...

In 2013 I attended 80 shows as an audience member. Down from 99 in 2012 and 118 in 2011. 

In 2013 I performed 103 shows with three different bands. Up from 2012 when I performed 80 shows with five different bands and 2011 when I performed 56 shows with five different bands. 

Accounting for a few nights when I played or attended more than one show in one night, that's 177 nights out in 2013, or almost 48.5% of all nights, which beats last year's percentage: 46!

Venue Graveyard 2013:
Pink String: Oakland (???)
Metro Small Room: Oakland
Rio Grande: San Francisco
The Swamp: Oakland
Sugar Mountain: Oakland
And like ten different ones in San Jose that lasted only for one show...


FULL LIST AFTER THE JUMP

2012: THE RECAP

Photo: Marissa Gräz

Posts have been pretty sparse around here at the famous Boca de Fuma blog, mainly due to an insane amount of business in other activities, many which will become clear as you read through this post. I know that my loyal readers wouldn't let me slip by without another epic end of year recap of my activities: specifically my activities of performing and attending a wide variety of extreme rock and roll gigs. As of now, a live gig experience is something you still can't download, and I'm going to take this opportunity to says "CHEERS" to all those who braved crowds of drunken idiots, harsh urban environments, transportation problems galore, as well and flying glass, spit, beer, blood and human bodies to make all this stuff happen. Here's hoping that 2013 is just as packed.

To the best of my ability to keep track...

I attended 99 shows as an audience member.
Down from 118 in 2011.

I performed 80 shows with five different bands.
Up from 56 shows with five different bands in 2011.

On eleven nights, I went to two shows in one night, which means a grand total of 168 nights spent at some kind of rock gig last year, or about 46% of all nights spent out.

VENUE GRAVEYARD 2012:
105 Pioneer: Santa Cruz 
BMC (Bobby Hill's House): Oakland
Five Points Art Space: San Francisco
Fuzzplex: Oakland
Kitty Castle: San Jose
Mama Buzz: Oakland   
Rec Center: Oakland


CLICK "READ MORE" TO SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF SHOWS ATTENDED AND PERFORMED IN 2012

Top Ten Albums Of 2011: Locals Only!

I was really getting pissed off at year end best of lists this year because: (A) they starting popping up in LATE NOVEMBER, and (B) EVERYONE seemed to be doing them. I was however forced to comb through an inordinate amount of them, because I was sifting through an inordinate amount of music blogs over the past month, looking for ones that would potentially review an album that I played on and released.

The main thing I noticed from these year end lists was that: (A) dirty old school death metal is going through a some kind of renaissance, and (B) almost no one (including one person who did a TOP 100 albums of 2011) was including any releases from Bay Area bands. Now it's not my opinion, it's a stone cold FACT that the Bay Area has a world class metal scene (punk scene too, duh), and we really got the cold shoulder this year, while bands from, well... ALMOST EVERYWHERE ELSE were getting their nuts fondled by the self important tastemakers of the internet kingdom.

So here I have, not only my top ten Bay Area releases list of 2011, but also a list of the most overlooked metal releases of the year, period. If you have not heard of some of these bands or releases, by all means CHECK THEM OUT. I have included links to music and external websites wherever possible.

This isn't a popularity contest (or a POOPularity contest, hence the lack of Shitty Fucker at number 11!) so the releases are in no particular order, just kidding: they're in alphabetical order, which is a PARTICULAR order, but has nothing to do with how much I like them. Please also take note that I gracefully refrained from including any releases that I performed on; this would have been a very different list otherwise, peppered liberally with Hazzard's Cure, A.N.S. and Owl releases. 


Alaric: S/T
20 Buck Spin

After the party time styles of Night After Night, the false start of Yellow Eyes, and the spaced out Hüsker-Mötorhead jams called Pins Of Light, I was really stoked to see Shane Baker doing some REALLY DARK vocals again. A dream come true for an old timer Dead And Gone fan such as myself.  The rest of the band is great too, the icing on the cake being the cruel, biting, reptilian sound of Russ Kent's guitar.

Fuck 2011: The Recap

I attended 118 shows in 2011.

In addition, I performed 56 shows with five different bands.

Accounting for the nights when I went to more than one show, that's a total of 158 nights I spent out at a show or playing one, about 43% of all nights. Not bad considering I didn't even do any big tours this year.

Venue Graveyard 2011: These ones didn't live to see 2012
The Hazmat: Love it or hate it, it was an Oakland institution.

Ghost Town Gallery: Although usually full of h****** garage rock trash, that's one less venue on a street corner that at one magical point in 2010 had FOUR rock and roll warehouses doing shows simultaneously. 

Kimo's: Bands hated it because of the stairs, fans hated because, well, I dunno, they'd rather be at the Hemlock? One less rock venue in San Francisco. You didn't love it enough, I hope you're happy fuckers! 

Victory Warehouse: What a cool spot! But those nice Wisconsin kids were sick of all the neighborhood violence creeping into the shows. Another one of the four warehouses that made up the one time 25th and San Pablo rock mecca. 

First Church Of The Buzzard: The stars that burn the fastest burn the brightest, and The Buzzard went pretty quick, but not before hosting some of the most incredible metal shows of 2011. Did that East Bay Express article have anything to do with it's untimely demise? 

Oh yeah... and The Eagle Tavern: A great loss to San Francisco's live music scene as well as gay community. Who really runs this town? Real estate! Fuck off! 

Why fuck 2011? I don't know, i just wanted to use that funny picture of myself flipping you off. 2011 was a year like any other, it had it's ups and downs. So what.

I'm getting ready to really kill it in 2012. Just you wait. Here's to many more shows, tours and hopefully some new venues in the Bay Area! Happy New Year!

Click "Read More" to see the lists of every show I played and performed, like you care...