your music seems a bit whacky. haha! are you a whacky guy in real life?? -A. Fan
No, I actually fit the brooding/tortured artist/self-hating Jew archetype quite nicely.
2011 + 2012
Hello friends,
How fitting that this incredible year is coming to an end in 11 hours! Before 2011 officially wraps, I’d like to shout out some very dear folks who helped make everything possible:
Alex Durlak; Vineet Shende, for single-handedly saving our tour; Joe Wallace, for the great time in Tucson; Eric Laurin, for all the usual stuff; Neil Wadhawan, for the next-level Bay hospitality; Dan Sutherland, for— hold on a sec— SHUT UP!; The Days, for a delish Emerald City Easter dinner; Bryce Roe, for returning our rental car; Swiss Air, for allowing us to board an international flight 30 min before takeoff with overweight suitcases…
Christian “Kirmes” Kühr, for “Ah…cool!”; Johannes Zink, for being our muttie-away-from-our-mutties; Christian Döpping, for being the greatest human being who ever lived; Grinnnnnnnnnnni, for all the Jew jokes; Corey Duncan, for loaning me his purse; Budget CZ, for the humiliation we swallowed every time someone asked us about the huge logo emblazoned on the side of our rental van.
<3 to all the new and old friends who generously opened their homes to us, especially Katja Karlsen, Anais Blondet, Jimmy Jam, Christo Squier, Seamus Cater, and Emilie Lesbros. Extra mega super-duper special shout-out to Oli Garcia, who housed us countless times this year in Basel, loaned us his double bass, and let us use his excellent band’s rehearsal spot.
<3 to all the amazing bands we played with, especially Paper Mice, Lightning Bolt, HUME, Daniel Francis Doyle, Why I Must Be Careful, Deerhoof, Dead Western, SchnAAk, and Charles Hayward. Mad props to all the string players who sat in with us!
Besitos y abrazos y saludos para los tios cachas Edi y Pau de ZA!
The 2012 agenda is action-packed:
- 2 (!) new Capillary Action albums, already under-way.
- World Warrior and American Spirit Split 7” Series, wherein we share slabs of limited-run vinyl with our favorite local and imported bands. Stay tuned!
- Collaboration with ZA!
- C A P A C T, our new contemporary music ensemble branch.
- Tons of chamber music, including pieces for brass trio, string quartet, and wind quintet, harp, elec. guitar and two percussionists.
- Solo guitar/voice record.
- Three new collaborative projects, details forthcoming.
- Cappuccino Free Mixtape Series, which will feature my production work.
- Left Breast, Johnny’s new solo endeavor.
- Colin’s as-yet-untitled piano/cello/drums trio. Spring 2012 European Tour in the works!
We’ll be mostly laying low on the touring front but expect us to pop our puppy paws out of our puppy houses at some point in the year.
In the meantime, keep yourselves abreast of Cap-related happenings on Twitter and Facebook.
Deepest condolences,
Jon and the boys
My Favorite Music of 2011
///ALBUMS///
#1 - Shabazz Palaces – Black Up (Sub Pop)
Seething, contorted hip-hop from Seattle of all places. Black Up was this year’s dark horse for me, inching unexpectedly into the top spot at the 11th hour. 2011 was a strong year for hip-hop but nothing came close to this record’s depth or scope. In the tradition of Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein, this is the kind of hip-hop record that you’ll never be able to get to the bottom of. Plus it’s Butterfly from Digable Planets!
#2 - tUnE-yArDs – W H O K I L L (4AD)
Ah, the soundtrack to much of our touring this year. I’ll never be able to hear European ambulance sirens the same way again! Merrill’s a kindred spirit and in a lot of ways I see W H O K I L L as Capsized with two X chromosomes; we’re each addressing similar themes— namely, those related to the multifaceted “urban experience”— but in slightly different ways. It only makes sense that we share members (Matt Nelson, who plays tenor sax on So Embarrassing, is in the band now).
#3 - Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson – Horpma (Carrier)
Truly unique and confounding music from an exciting young Icelandic composer. Horpma was written for real and imaginary instruments tuned to just intonation and is performed using real-time computer scores. Before this record, I had never heard music that resembled the abject pleasure of examining a bad case of Acne Vulgaris. RIYL: insects, mutating viruses, anxiety, grids.
#4 - ZA! – Megaflow (Acuarela/Discorporate)
This year alone, I saw ZA! perform at a tiny Fishtown art gallery, a chic restaurant in Manresa, a poorly organized festival in Lleida at 5am, and a mud-soaked tent in Northern Germany. The conclusion I came to after each of these very different concerts is that the pure, positive energy ZA’s music generates completely overtakes any space it inhabits and overwhelms any audience that enters its path. The sound Edi and Pau churn out is tempered by Meredith Monk-esque vocal experiments, Lowrider percussion, splintered guitar loops, and ecstatic bursts of noise. But if you make the time, you’ll experience something much grander than the sum of its parts on ZA’s sophomore effort, a sprawling 60-min opus about friendship, altered states, Spain, and the cosmos.
#5 - Death Grips - Exmilitary (Self-Released)
Death Grips are a straight shot from an active IV drip connected to an engorged adrenal gland. These Sacramento boys (and girl) hit hard because they hit strategically. Exmilitary is easily the most aggressive hip-hop record I’ve heard since Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in Da Corner, which this surpasses in terms of focus and consistency. The meter stays in-the-red for pretty much the entire record, which would be exhausting and/or deflating if there weren’t considerable intellect, heart, and loins beneath that furious exterior. There are veiled references to astrology, quantum physics, religion, sex, and perception, and probably a number of topics that I haven’t picked up on yet. And it’s precisely that kind of depth and complexity of Death Grips’ fury, clearly born out of punk and hardcore, that will make me return to Exmilitary time and again. “Lord of the Game,” “Takyon,” “Blood Creepin’” are highlights. Bonus: Our pal Andy Morin, who housed us for nearly a week in Sacramento when we were touring the west coast with Joe Lally in 2007, produced Exmilitary. Zach Hill is also all over the record.
#6 - A$AP Rocky - LIVELOVEA$AP Mixtape (Self-Released)
This one took me by surprise; I initially dismissed LIVELOVEA$AP on account of the hype steamroller behind Rocky and his A$AP crew but I was begrudgingly hooked after hearing “Peso.” Fitting that this became the soundtrack to my first two months off tour, taking the C to and from my job at Le Poisson Rouge. Yeah, Rocky’s MC skills get by on sheer charisma but you and I both know it’s all about the beat selection and overall swagger with this one. Only time will tell if LIVELOVEA$AP is built to last. For now, I’m just going to quietly recite couplets like, “Couple ABCs / Bad bitch, double Ds / Poppin’ E / I don’t give an F / Told ya I’m a G…”
#7 - Corey Dargel – Last Words from Texas EP (Self-Released)
A collection of beautiful and brutal songs set to the last statements of Texan death row inmates. The music is indescribable; there are hints of show-tunes, IDM, and New Romanticism, but each song is laden with deliciously awkward spasms of metric modulation and strange melodic motion. The first track gets me verklempt every time. The only points of reference I have for this one are Dominique Leone, Max Tundra, and Owen Pallett (with whom Dargel’s voice and phrasing bear a passing similarity).
LISTEN HERE
#8 - Colin Stetson – New History Warfare, Vol. 2 (Constellation)
I first heard this blasting at our Montreal show at Casa del Popolo in between bands and I distinctly remember everyone in Cap Action immediately stopping whatever we were doing to listen. I know Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and Steve Lacy did the solo sax thing first— and Travis Laplante and Sam Hillmer/Diamond Terrifier are killing it right now— but the production on NHW Vol. 2 coupled with Stetson’s astounding technique (I L.O.L.’d when I read Chris Weingarten’s description of Stetson as the “human asthma attack”) put this record in a different class, in my humble opinion. I could see NHW Vol. 2 being a gateway to the world of avant-garde jazz and free improv for a lot of folks in the same way Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano’s “Hated Music” was for me in 2002. I have fond memories of listening to this while barreling down Rt. 40 in between Stockholm and Gothenburg on my birthday. This would have been higher on the list had the lame Laurie Anderson free-verse been left on the cutting room floor.
#9 - Hermit Thrushes – Mystery Ocean (Single Girl, Married Girl)
Hermit Thrushes are a paradoxical bunch: ramshackle and surgical; tender and detached; sprawling and haiku-like. Mystery Ocean sees the boys refining all their miscellaneous contradictions into a dense collection of 120-sec nuggets that at times recall Thinking Fellers Local Union 282, Sebadoh, Polvo, or Xenakis’ Pleides (I could be projecting…). There are points on this record where there are three different time signatures happening at once; other points where I think Hermit Thrushes could be the next Kinks or they’re actually a folk group from some G*d-forsaken country that Sublime Frequencies has yet to track down. Yianni gave me this record after he came over to watch “The Room” with me and Eric Slick back in May 2010, so I’m psyched that the general public can finally hear it now!
#10 - Skeletons – People (Crammed/Shinkoyo)
Admission of guilt: I soundchecked the opening line from “Lil’ Rich” in my dead-on Matt Mehlan impression for most of our tour. Partially because my imitation (done out of love/respect, obviously) generated chuckles, but mostly because there was no better opening to a record in 2011 than: “Lil’ Rich got his face shot off / For 3-4 days, the cops didn’t clean it up.” “Grandma” is such a great riff I could imagine it working as well if it were re-contextualized for Motörhead, Shania Twain, Steve Reich, Depeche Mode, or a Mexican Chiapas folk band. “More Than The One Thing” proves Mehlan is a Bodhisattva of vocal phrasing. “Walmart and the Ghost of Jimmy Damour” takes the cake, the groove becoming that much more ominous once you realize the song is about a Walmart employee getting trampled to death on Black Friday. I saw them pull off an utterly mesmerizing set at 285 Kent in November.
///SINGLES///
Drake - “Headlines”
You couldn’t walk 20 feet in Brooklyn or Philly in October 2011 without hearing this one blasting from a bodega or someone’s car. I hear this song now and think about how many times it came on the radio over the course of the day I spent moving a car’s worth of crap from Philly to NYC. I also think about what it would feel like to have an entire city backing you up. “Soap opera rappers / All these niggas sound like All My Children” is an undeniably funny line no matter how many times I hear it.
The Weeknd – “What You Need”
Who knew Canadians could craft the sexiest song of the year? Thanks to Kevin Alexander for hipping me to this record. My friend Sarah said this one had a Maxinquaye vibe and I’d have to agree.
The Weeknd - “The Morning”
Killer hook. Love that drum machine ritardando right before the chorus. This song made so much sense to me after all the depressing Danish dance parties I was dragged to this year. I discovered, much to my dismay, that “The Morning” is sorta how the average young person feels in 2011.
Beyonce – “Countdown”
Frantic, kaleidoscopic R&B stuffed to the gills with way too many ideas. Sign me up!
St. Vincent – “Surgeon”
This tune finally makes me understand why so many friends of mine are kissing their Annie Clark posters before they go to sleep at night.
James Blake – “I Never Learnt to Share”
I woke up in the middle of this song after passing out from a Mickey D’s-induced food coma while driving from Ceske Budejovice to Berlin on the Oh! Pears tour in July. I can’t help but feel like Blake’s use of Autotune makes it sound like he’s being water-boarded.
Frank Ocean - “Songs for Women”
I checked out Frank Ocean’s record last week based on Hank Shteamer’s recommendation but this is the only tune that grabbed me. And by ‘grab,’ I really mean ‘erotically asphyxiated.’
“Feeding Frenzy”
Filmed for Dirty Laundry outside Silver Lake Suds in Los Angeles, California on 4/20/11.
