Tim’s 2022 Wrap-Up, aka Tim’s Ten Sentz Worth
Welp, that’s all folks. 2022 is over. It was uh… um… an interesting year, to say the least. Before we get into the music, the best thing about 2022 was growing my family by one, with us welcoming our daughter in July. She’s absolutely perfect.
Now… onto the music
THE GOOD
This was the year of a lot of firsts for me. Live music has been a passion of mine for years, and this year was no exception as I wrote off lots of bucket list shows. I started the year finally seeing The Microphones in Minneapolis, and even though it was just Phil Elverum playing The Microphones in 2020 in full, it was a mind blowing experience. I made the trek to Arkansas to catch a rare performance of Liz Harris aka Grouper at the wonderful Momentary in Bentonville. Finally….FINALLY….. saw Pavement and they didn’t disappoint. I caught Tool for the umpteenth time and at long last got to hear my favorite song – “Pushit” – live. I left immediately after because the last time I saw Tool (2019) they played Fear Inoculum material and I fell asleep.
After missing them several times, I managed to catch Iceage in October, and even got to see black midi again. Second viewings of Bon Iver and Kendrick Lamar were stunning, some of the best big arena shows I’ve ever seen. Lamar is truly an incredible performer, even if his latest is a bit of a messy (albeit excellent) affair. Another stunning moment was recently seeing The Smile in Denver at the Mission Ballroom. Radiohead-level quality, and I even got to meet Thom Yorke and Tom Skinner after the show for an autograph on my poster and a “happy birthday” (because it was my birthday). The Smile album A Light for Attracting Attention was unquestionably the best Radiohead side project, and easily my most played album of the year.
Candidate for artist of the year, billy woods, visited my area several times last year and I missed all of them, but managed to catch him twice in 2022, as well as securing an early copy of his phenomenal Aethiopes on vinyl. More to come from him in 2023 I’m betting, especially with Haram coming up on its 2nd anniversary in March. Meeting woods at his merch table was legit the coolest, dude’s a class act, through and through. woods dominated 2022 – multiple features, two excellent albums, one of which will undoubtedly end up as a decade highlight, and his stock continues to grow. It’s long overdue too, woods has been one of the most compelling rappers of the last decade, and the fact that it’s taken this long is absurd.
2022 is the year I fell in love with Bill Callahan. I enjoyed his solo work in the 2000s, but had never given Smog much of a listen until now. A few hardcore weeks diving in, and all of the sudden I have nearly his entire discography on vinyl. Vinyl collection mind you expanded gigantically in 2022 just as an FYI. A lot of that came from my further exploration into slowcore, with some of my favorite records coming from Duster, Bedhead, Karate, and Codeine.
Speaking of Duster, they low-key released one of the best albums of the year in my book with Together. Their reunion album from 2019, Duster was excellent, but somehow this blew it away and places it firmly in league with Stratosphere. My hope is that they tour in the near future because Together needs to be heard live.
Hailing from Pennsylvania originally, I’m thrilled by the quality of music coming from the Keystone State. If you’re just now hearing about this, the Philadelphia area is home to some truly innovative bands. Last year we saw Spirit of the Beehive drop their wonderfully manic breakthrough ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH (which I had the privilege of finally seeing them live this summer and they were excellent) but there’s more to the story. This year we got gorgeously noisy records from Empath and shoegazers Knifeplay who dropped one of the best gaze albums of the year in Animal Drowning, something fellow Philly gazers Nothing should be proud of; and They Are Gutting a Body of Water is likely to catch some steam soon given how deliriously enticing their latest album Lucky Styles is. On top of this, on the other side of the state, Feeble Little Horse reissued their 2021 debut Hayday and it’s taking off really well.
To wrap up the “good” section, I’ll just toss out my top 10 albums of 2022 for everyone to enjoy.
- billy woods – Aethiopes
- The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
- Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
- Duster – Together
- Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the High Steppers
- Bill Callahan – YTILAER
- Special Interest – Endure
- Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There
- SZA – SOS
- Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
THE BAD
Nothing put more of a dark cloud on 2022 than the loss of Mimi Parker from Low. I never had the chance to meet Mimi, but just being in the same room as her was enough to know just how much of a warm soul she was. The sheer volume of appreciation that came out after her passing is testament to her warmth. Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle even made a statement about it, sharing regret for never having met her or Alan Sparhawk, but ultimately loving their work. BPM has not disguised our adoration for Low – Double Negative made our top 20 of the 2010s, and HEY WHAT was our album of the year 2021.
The loss of Mimi is gutting for the staff here, and we did our best to pay our respects through a list of our favorite songs. But as the weather grows colder, the realization has set in that the loss of Mimi also means the loss of Low as a band most likely. I was fortunate enough to see Low twice in concert. The first time was in Chicago at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, which was a more understated performance. I was able to hop up to Minnesota for the HEY WHAT album release show by way of the Square Lake festival. It was an incredible evening show outdoors, one of my all time favorites.
I’d had plans to see them in April, driving up to catch their show with Divide & Dissolve in Davenport, Iowa at the Racoon Motel. Unfortunately, on the drive up there the band announced they’d contracted COVID and had to postpone the show. Gutted by that, I was even further dismayed by them dropping out of the opening spot for the Death Cab For Cutie tour set for the Fall. I’ll cherish the times I did see Low, and remember the warmth I felt in hearing them live. I close this section out by just thanking MImi Parker for being such an amazing and inspiring person.
THE UGLY
Not to be overly cynical but I just so happened to see a bunch of really terrible shows in 2022. The concert scene has definitely been a struggle for most in the post-COVID times, so it’s perhaps unfair to lob criticism, but hey I’m a music journalist and if I didn’t anger some bands out there, I wouldn’t be doing a good job right?
While I enjoyed Time Skiffs, I cannot enjoy Animal Collective live. Dull, uninspired, meandering, just so boring. I was pleased with Spirit of the Beehive opening for them, but couldn’t stomach a full set for AnCo even though I waited over a decade to see them again. I’m just not tailored to the AnCo style.
Another band I waited a long time to see again was Beach House, and this year I was reminded why. I was too thrilled with Once Twice Melody as a whole, there were some good ones and bad ones, but the live show was boring. Having seen this band as far back as the Teen Dream tour I feel compelled to voice my disgust. There was a time they lit up the room, but the gloomy homogenous tones of Once Twice Melody would have left me snoozing in place, if the audience wasn’t such a cesspool of meatheads and aggressive talkers.
I held off seeing Destroyer because nothing really captured my attention until Labrynthitis, which I feel is his best in quite some time. Unfortunately, his live show was a mess due to some terrible venue decisions, and the sketchy translation of bangers like “June” to the live setting. Dan Bejar gets loads of respect from me regardless, and it’s sometimes out of the artist’s power.
One of the bigger disappointments as of late is Vince Staples, who I caught on the Tyler, The Creator tour for the second time. Tyler was his typical self, entertaining, lively, fun, etc. Vince Staples was muddled, looked uninterested (though it was a fairly small crowd), and didn’t play to his strengths like the last time I saw him (2018). There’s also the question as to why he chose what he chose for the show, opting for Vince Staples material (which makes sense since that came out last year) over recognizable material interspersed. It was thick and nuanced at the beginning, with a crowd not getting into it until he busted a Kendrick-less rendition of “745” towards the end. The sound was also not in his favor with a lot of puzzling looks on the fans faces because they couldn’t tell what he was performing.
Of course, I have loads of respect for all of these artists, and to their defense, the issues weren’t always them. As mentioned above, audiences have devolved post-pandemic. Not even going into the Harry Styles incidents, the sheer amount of disruptive behavior at concerts is maddening. Granted, a few drinks in, anyone (even me) can be loud and obnoxious. But threatening to beat someone’s face in at a Beach House concert is pathetic, especially when YOU are at fault. Is this entirely necessary? I know it’s exciting to have concerts back but it seems like people are just attending live music because it’s live music, whether they know the artist or not.
It’s not just them either. The overly obsessed fanbase is also toxic. Crazed fans chucking junk on the stage and hitting members of black midi is disgusting and uncalled for. These guys are busting their asses to bring you a show, and some of these shows aren’t even that profitable for them, oftentimes losing money to get hit in the face with a plastic cup or a shoe or have you scream for a song they aren’t gonna play. As more and more bands forgo touring because of the financial loss, having a toxic crowd makes them want to cease touring altogether, and then what? Venues shuttering their doors because no one’s touring? More artists going on hiatus due to exhaustion? Basically, grow the fuck up so we can keep having these wonderful people entertain us.
/soapbox
WHAT’S NEXT? NEW YEAR’s HOPES?
2023 is going to be great, I can already tell. I’m returning to the festival circuit! Planning to attend Primavera for the first time in June to celebrate my five year anniversary with my wife. Looking forward to see Unwound, Karate, Darkside, Kendrick, Julia Holter, Blur, and more!
I want Deerhunter back… NOW. Where are these guys? I feel like since we’ve been Cox-less music hasn’t been as good. It’s now been the longest gap for music from Bradford Cox since he came into the conversation, it’ll be 4 years since Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? next month, a peculiar stretch of time given we were never without a Deerhunter-related project for more than 2 years previously. Don’t believe me? Follow this:
Cryptograms/Fluorescent Grey EP (2007)
Microcastle/Weird Era Cont./Let the Blind… (2008)
The Floodlight Collective / Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP / Logos (2009)
Halcyon Digest (2010)
Parallax (2011)
Spooky Action at a Distance (2012)
Monomania (2013)
Fading Frontier (2015)
Lifetime of Love (2017)
WHEAD?/Trappy Bats / Myths 004 (2019)
I suppose we just need to adjust to this shitty timeline where we don’t get Bradford rants or random dumps of Atlas Sound mixes.
I’ll end with my top 10 live show requests for 2023:
- Duster
- Earl Sweatshirt
- Bill Callahan
- Special Interest
- Sharon Van Etten
- Cass McCombs
- Horsegirl
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Perfume Genius
- Dry Cleaning
