Best of 2013: Visual Art

Mike Kelley, Mike Kelley (MoMA PS1, NYC) – I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t really know Kelley’s work except for the pop culture stuff I couldn’t ignore - the Sonic Youth association, is band Destroy All Monsters - but this hit me like a hammer.  Walking up the stairs of PS1 and finding myself in a room entirely devoted to takes on Superman’s bottled city of Kandor, the reminder of home that underlined the impossibility of ever going home, and that set the tone for the whole exhibit.  A grappling with personal history and...

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Best of 2013: Live Music

Good lord.  Most of my years are good years for live music but this was exceptional.  Upwards of 135 shows at over 60 venues spread out over a handful of cities, and a few duds but a vanishingly small number.  Similar to my records, not a lot of big, straightahead rock made this list but what did was choice.  And a surfeit of searing abstraction and firey hip shaking.  Of the four “best of” lists, this one had the hardest decisions, the most worthy stuff left off, and the most moments of “Fuck, I can’t believe how lucky...

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Best of 2013: Recorded Music

Man, there were some tough calls to make for this list but that's the best kind of problem to have.  There are some major blind spots I'm not happy about - why did I only hear half a dozen rap records and even less contemporary R&B? - but each one of these records shook me in a real, even if hard to define way. Aoife O’Donovan, Fossils - Any of my top five could’ve been the number one record.  Their one commonality is that the minute I hit play, wherever I was, I stopped and exhaled and thought My god, I’m glad this record’s in...

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