I saw a ton of shows this year, and i am not exaggerating. 1,200 lbs of shows (that’s how much a ton is, right?).  Trying to come up with the ten best was quite a challenge, but i think this list has all the right stuff.  I can honestly say that every single one of these shows was inspiring, staggering, jaw-dropping, and flat-out radical.  If you were there, you know what i’m talkin’ about.  If you weren’t, don’t cry, don’t pout, because you will most likely get a chance to see them again.  And even if you never get a chance to see them again, you will have a chance to see other bands that are probably equally awesome.  Get out there, music is happening all over the place.  Happy new years, denizens of the hollow earth!

Malaikat dan Singa / Master Musicians of Bukakke / Midday Veil @ the Comet
Malaikat Dan Singa is the new(ish) project of Arrington de Dionyso (formerly of Old Time Relijun), in which he throat sings, barks, and chants in Indonesian over insane, hypnotic beats.  I had seen them before, and they had been good in the past, but they were just a normal band size (five people or so).  Bo-o-o-ring!  Not this time!  This time their lineup included three drummers (!) and two bassists (!!) who pounded in perfect unison the whole time.  It was nutz.  And then Master Musicians of Bukakke… i had never seen them before, and I don’t even know how to begin describing them.  If you haven’t seen them before, do yourself a favor and go check it out the next time you can.  This shit is intense.  I’m pretty sure this show gave me permanent hearing damage, and I’m pretty sure it was worth it. (don’t worry, i now carry earplugs with me everywhere).

Joanna Newsom / Robin Pecknold @ the Moore
I never, ever, hardly ever go to a show that costs more than ten bucks.  Joanna Newsom was totally worth it.  If this was a “best albums” list, her triple LP “Have One on Me” would definitely be near the top (who makes a triple lp anyway?  and none of these tracks feel like they belong on a b-sides collection either).  I’ve always been amazed by the delicacy and precision of her arrangements, and the live arrangements were just as mesmerizing.  It was an ensemble that should have been awkward: two violins, a trombone, a guitarist (and other picked instruments), and a drummer.  But the sensitivity of the musicians here was phenomenal.  They were tight, balanced, and complementary, and it all came off so light.  They just played it like nobody’s business.  I could go on forever about Joanna Newsom, but I’ll just say that every element of her music is on a level above almost everyone else in music today.  She played all my favorite songs.

Heatwarmer / Snowman Plan / Chemical Clock @ the Josephine
So I played at this show (two shows on this list are shows I played at), which I’m sure calls my integrity into question.  But please believe, this ain’t about me.  Even if my band hadn’t played, this still would have made it on the list without hesitation.  Chemical Clock played jazz as if they were German math geniuses doing mushrooms after hours at the CERN.  I’m sure you have no idea what that means, but allow me to assure you that it is awesome.  And then there’s Heatwarmer.  This is my favorite band in Seattle.  It’s prog, it’s pop, it’s jazz, it’s old-timey, it’s from space.  Their songs go from one insanely complex melody to the next, but the crazy thing is they all sound natural.  Now I like music that some people might describe as “jerking off”, but Heatwarmer shows up all those jerk-offs with their massive chops, and does it with feel-good sing-along numbers.  I don’t even get it.  OH! And you know that balcony above the stage at the Josephine?  Their brass band (referred to as the “extended universe” i think) came out and played from that balcony. It was a spectacle.

Wow!  I’ve been writing some pretty long descriptions, and I’m getting worn out.  These blurbs are gonna get a lot shorter right now, but don’t think it’s because these shows are less deserving of high word count.  Tomes and treatises could be written about these shows, but alas i do not have that kind of energy.

Elizabeth Devlin / Shenandoah Davis / St Rainbow / Jordan o’Jordan @ the bread factory
Okay, so this one features my favorite seattlite song-writers at my favorite seattle house-venue house.  Mr O’Jordan is the wittiest man alive, and his between-song banter always seems to put his songs (which are already full of winks and allusions) in a new context, tying them together with anecdotes, half-remembered dreams, or botanical allegories.  Shenandoah Davis’ songs are heartbreaking, make you want to drink a bottle of wine and smoke cigarettes on your roof late at night by yourself.  St Rainbow (don’t call them saints!) can stretch out two chords and a tiny riff into an epic autobiography that just feels downright human.  Elizabeth Devlin, from NYC, was absolutely amazing.  One to watch for sure.  And finally, the bread factory is just the most sincerely friendly place you will ever see a show.

AIDS Wolf / Wet Paint DMM / Mountainss / Gape Attack @ the Black Lodge
NOISE!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!! This so show was so rad, it was basically the definitive show for Seattle noise/no-wave (or whatever, I’m no good with genre names and i always worry someone’s gonna correct me about it).  Wet paint (dmm? what the fuck does that stand for?) is probably the only band I’ve ever heard who are trying to stress you out with their music.  My favorite line of theirs is (said in a frantic wail), “so many choices! so many options!  so many varieties!”  Mountainss is one of those bands that sounds like total chaos if you’re not paying attention, and then when you pay attention you realize that it’s a very careful, deliberate chaos and your head explodes.  Gape attack straight up destroys.  AIDs Wolf (from Montreal) just make you feel insane, and there isn’t anything you can do about it.

Psychic Handbook / Last Eyes / via / Glacier Saint @ healthy times fun club
Here’s the other show that i played at, and just like the first one, it would have been just as amazing without my band.  I played and stayed with psychic handbook in Oakland this summer and was so psyched on his chill beats and deep tones. It was even better this time, and the rest of the bands (also on tour, from Denver) were also awesome.  Last eyes made dreamy, noisy textures with contact mics and delay pedals, and via really stole the show here with expansive, stargazing tracks that had just the right amount of beat, and just the right amount of empty space.  If these lads and lasses ever come through town again, do get out and see them.

Sugar Skulls / Diminished Men / Dead Cinema @ the black lodge
The sugar skulls cd release show.  Wow.  The sugar skulls are insane.  Every song is a jungle.  Bass, keys, violin, and drums, and everyone here is right on top of the game.  The bass riffs are so dope you can’t believe they’re real.  Their new album “The Little Death” would be on my top 10 albums list if I made one.  And they perform in sparkly superhero outfits! Or super-villain outfits?  They sound a lot more like mad super-villains.  They are bent on world domination.

Lori Goldston / Leslie Dalaba / Eyvind Kang / Jon Zucker @ the Shafer Baillie Mansion
Lori Goldston is awesome.  Doing (semi-improvisational?) solo cello shows is no easy task, but she pulls it off.  Her bowstrokes are gruff and visceral, but when it’s all over her performances seem more like deep meditation.  An artist who knows how to use silence convincingly.  Leslie Dalaba did some really interesting stuff too, i love it when an instrument transcends it’s status as just an object and becomes something really personal.  Leslie Dalaba’s trumpet is like that.  It’s not fair to just say she plays the trumpet, she plays her trumpet in her voice.

Nymph / Jabon / Forrest Friends / Brain Fruit @ the black lodge
Nymph, from NYC, is just rad.  Their jams are so groovy, and all their music has this witchy mystery around it.  They channel a ritual energy that seems to be equal parts native American, Asian, and ’60s psychedelia, which sounds like it could be horribly contrived, but it really isn’t.  The players all fit together so well: the movinest bass, the trippiest guitar, the drums are crazy energetic, and then the front-woman just jangling, stomping, ringing bells, banging drums, hootin’ and hollerin’… it’s a sensation.  And the Seattle bands here certainly held their own.  Jabon (just a bunch of noise, sort of a misnomer if you ask me) casts a mind-melding spell on you with wizard beats, forrest friends (more deserving of the name jabon) are straight twisting up your ears with craziness, and brain fruit… man, i’m out of euphemisms for mind-fuck.  Brain fruit fucks you in your mind.

poppet / abraham / the lonely kazoo / amo joy @ the hoot house
Poppet is sooooooo cool.  This small, unassuming, cheery woman from davis, ca, takes the stage in a day-glow swimsuit and it just gets weirder from there.  Her voice is indescribable.  Her stage presence is so confident in it’s bizarreness it makes you feel like you should be saying nonsense to strangers.  Bubble machines, stuffed animals, and flotation devices shaped like animals are involved.  Her songs are filled with unrestrained joy.  She will get in your face.  And the lonely kazoo is a very curious part band, part musical.  It tells the story of a kazoo who is flushed down a drain pipe, washed down a river, and returns to the plastic factory from whence it came (“Everybody salute the plastic factory!  Think about your birthplace!  This your heritage!”).  I have never sympathized so much with a kazoo.

That’s all folks!  See you out and about!  It’s a whole new decade…