When they landed in Philadelphia after an 8-hour flight from France, Hypno5e’s bassist Gredin and their light guy were denied entry into the US. “Customs wouldn’t let them in,” drummer Thibault Lamy says, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette on the front patio at Bonnerhaus.
“Where’s my ginger ale?” guitarist Jason Shaw asks, looking around for the redhead waitress. It’s midnight at a sports bar in North Hollywood and HRVRD just wrapped up their first-ever L.A. show to a sold-out crowd at Bonnerhaus. Now everyone is starving. “Where’s my bacon?” drummer Tim Cossor chimes in.
With 2011 coming to an end, we have assembled a list of the best releases put out this year. When brainstorming for this article and determining the criteria for how our list would be ranked, we felt at the end of the day it be best to only feature records that we absolutely loved and listened to all year. Rather than publishing a list in favor of a particular record label, scene, or trend, we wanted to shine light on music that made the soundtracks of our lives here at Ryan’s Rock Show. Here are the records that were played religiously at Bonnerhaus the past 364 days. We call these records the “Best 11 Releases of 2011,” as they include two EPs. We hope they resonate with you as greatly as they do us.
The music industry’s shit is hitting the fan, at least according to data anyway. Album sales dropped 12.8% last year in the US, the fourth year in a row where sales declined nearly 20%, reveal Nielsen SoundScan numbers. Tour business revenues from the top 100 tours in 2010 dropped 13%, reports Pollstar. And sales of individual digital tracks increased by an oh-so-promising 1% last year. It’s stats like these that have industry execs wondering just how long they can stay suited-up, and if there is any saving grace to a business in turmoil. Despite the apocalyptic premonitions that foresee the industry’s demise, there may in fact be a Messiah: vinyl records. That’s right, those gargantuan cup coasters once beloved only by elite music collectors, DJs, and thrift store shelves may in fact bring the second coming to the music industry. Something Barney Stinson would call legen…wait for it…
I see it at least fifty times a day. My friends do it. Your friends do it. Dudes in bands do it. The problem is entirely out of control. And frankly when people do it, it gives me quite the urge to be quiet and drive off Malibu Canyon. Unless you were skipping fourth grade English class to toke the dope and drink bottles of Wild Turkey, nobody that uses the internet has any excuse whatsoever to fuck it up. People, we’ve reached a point in time to where spell check can’t help us, and heaven forbid we put down our mobile devices to learn it. It’s the there/their/they’re, your/you’re problem. We are seriously in fucking crisis.