Top Ten MRR-Friendly Records in 2010
In no particular order…

EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING – Rush to Relax LP (Goner)
E.C.S.R. introducing the Volvo into their garage was a well-calculated career move in our Kraut-friendly times, and here the band benefits from a loose practice room recording environment as they drip out the jams.

GLAM – Duelo de Titanes EP (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Disgusting Spanish hardcore.

INSURGENTS – Fad Cash EP (Distort/Pederast Prophet)
Cocksuck alert: I helped release this 7” for Distort fanzine because INSURGENTS are a hardcore band in 2010 without cynical internet marketing or social networking tendencies, and one of the few modern bands that don’t sound immediately dated because they depend on a lousy, drab, nerd school aesthetic. They play unhinged, unpredictable, fast hardcore.

CRAZY SPIRIT – Burning Churches EP (Toxic State)
New York scum punk. Next time you see them, ask, “Whatever happened to old Noo Yawk?”

KRIEGSHOG – LP (La Vida Es Un Mus/HG:Fact)
Hideous Japanese noise hardcore.

PUFFY AREOLAS – In the Army 1981 LP (In the Red)
This sounds like ’70s hard rock, acid head freaks made a hardcore records one decade before hardcore. This sounds like what Sonny Barger wanted to hear at Altamont. BLUE CHEER getting cues from THE FIX.

H100’s – Recorded Live 1995 Cleveland LP (Noncommercial)
What other live hardcore record is there worth hearing over this?

BLOODCLOT FAGGOTS – Big in Adelaide EP (Nopatience)
Excellent Adelaide hardcore record. When was the last time you heard anyone say this? Sounds like today, but not weak, and will stand up over time, much like FORMALDEHYDE JUNKIES.

LAKES – Solar Flecks LP
In a very short period of time thefact that LAKES pressed all of his records in insanely paltry numbers and have not made them widely available beyond an obsessive cult of fanaticists will really irk the kinds of collector wieners that fuss over DEATH IN JUNE, EDWARD KA SPEL (LEGENDARY PINK DOTS) or CURRENT 93, as this stuff is easily as good as anything either have recorded in the last five years. Incredible Melbourne-based, morbid, post-punk, aggravated neo-folk.

NAKED ON THE VAGUE – Heaps of Nothing LP (Siltbreeze)
My Australia.

Honourable mentions for reissues:
THE MIRRORS – Something That Would Never Do LP, SNOWY RED – The Right to Die LP, CRISIS Hymns of Faith LP, AUTOPSY – Awakened By Gore LP, WIRE – 1976 Demo LP, LES REZILLE DENUDES BOTH OF THEM – LP, ULTRA – Roman Holiday LP, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – Quine Tapes box set, MIKE REP AND THE QUOTAS – Stupor Hiatus 2xLP, plus all that shit on Almost Ready’s other label that I can’t remember the name of, like THE EAT, FREESTONE, etc. [Um, would that be Last Laugh? —ed.]

Honourable mentions for non-MRR-friendly records that need to be heard:
UMBERTO From the Grave LP, SCOTT & CHARLENE’S WEDDING Para Vista Social Club LP, DEAD LUKE American Haircut LP, WHITE FENCE s/t LP.

The Best Fanzine of 2010:
Negative Guest List

Ydinaseeton Pohjola– Euro-Ohjukset 7” (Nightstick Justice Records)
Bleak, raw Finnish punk. The singer has no idea how to scream, so you can picture every time they play he spends the night afterwards coughing up blood while he chokes down some greasy bootleg vodka; and the guitar tone sounds like a horrible cheap digital pedal that tremors like a dirty CD in a couple of song pauses. All of these little disconcerting moments add to the impact of the music, and fortunately the song writing is inventive, though not experimental/weird enough that the entire thing sounds like a school project in rewriting the Havoc records reissue catalog. This sounds pretty unique and interesting, another great 7” from the modern Finnish scene which has given me plenty of justification to never want to visit that country and experience the kinds of miseries that go into making this music.