Other than the review of a Kim Deal concert, I didn't do any music writing this year for the first time in a good long while, so it was harder than usual to keep up with new releases, even though I'm still on several mailing lists--and I didn't keep up with any reissues or collections at all.
To that end, respect to RVNG Intl. and 12XU for releasing some of my favorite albums this year, and a fond adieu to Trouble in Mind. Every year, I used to look forward to their new releases. It's a Herculean task to keep an independent act or label going in the post-millennial era, especially once the pandemic hit, so here's to all those who have.
Respect also to John Whitson, the founder of Holy Mountain Records, and a social media associate with whom I shared many friends. I regret that I never got to meet him in person. This year we also lost music writers Kaleb Horton and Charles Cross, completely unexpected passings of gentlemen with a lot left to say--in Cross's case, he was just getting started on a memoir. We'll not see the likes of any of these three again; each their own, unmistakable, much-missed individual.
Top 10
1. Lucrecia Dalt - A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG Intl.)
2. Nightmares On Wax - Echo45 Sound System (Warp)
3. Go Kurosawa - soft shakes (Guruguru Brain)
4. Marie Davidson - City of Clowns (DEEWEE/Because Music)
5. Little Simz - Lotus (AWAL Recordings)
6. Anika - Abyss (Sacred Bones)
7. Cate Le Bon - Michelangelo Dying (Mexican Summer)
8. Ty Segall - Possession (Drag City)
9. Melody's Echo Chamber - Unclouded (Domino)
10. Decius - Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience) (The Leaf Label)
Runners-up
11. The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet (Matador)
12. Wet Leg - Moisturizer (Domino)
13. Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
(Duophonic UHF Disks/Warp)
14. Lily Allen - West End Girl (BMG)
15. Horse Lords & Arnold Dreyblatt FRKWYS Vol. 18:
Extended Field (RVNG Intl.)
16. Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On (Matador)
17. Taba - Satomimagae (RVNG Intl.)
18. L'eclair - Cloud Drifter (Innovative Leisure)
19. Clipse - Let God Sort Them Out (ROC Nation Distribution)
20. The Cords - The Cords (Slumberland)
Note: Call me crazy, but I'd rather watch Austin Butler run through the streets of New York City than Timothée Chalamet. To each their own, I guess, but Caught Stealing is also a great cat movie with a truly great cat in veteran performer Tonic, who plays Butler's "Bud."
21. John Glacier - Like a Ribbon (Young)
22. Sault - 10 (Forever Living Originals)
23. Pulp - More (Rough Trade)
24. Water Damage - Instruments (12XU)
25. Natural Information Society - Meditation (New Soil Limited)
26. Natural Information Society - Manifestation (New Soil Limited)
5. Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza - The Secret Agent (Lakeshore)
6. Johan Lenox - The Plague (OST) (Waxwork)
7. Anika and Jim Jarmusch - Father Mother Sister Brother (Sacred Bones)
Notable concerts (unranked): Ty Segall (solo acoustic) with King Tuff at the Neptune, Kim Deal with Morgan Nagler at the Neptune, Branford Marsalis live score for silent Armstrong biopic Louis at the Paramount, and Wet Leg with Mary in the Junkyard at the Paramount.
This was a weird year. Not in terms of the movies I watched--well, not really--but everything else.
I'm not normally one to tune out politics--especially since 2016--but for the entire year, I couldn't get away if I tried. Under the current regime, everything has been politicized; nothing is neutral, innocent, innocuous.
Everything that promotes free thought--public media (the field in which I've worked since 2009), non-billionaire-owned newspapers--must be destroyed, everything that discourages free thought--chatbots, professor watchlists, book-banning campaigns--must be encouraged.
It's hard not to feel pessimistic, but I took hope from movies in which characters sought answers, forged connections, fought oppression, and found ways to make a difference. Not superheroes, just regular people.
Maybe they made mistakes, maybe they failed, but at least they tried, and maybe they even inspired others to do the same. Not all of these films fit that description, but I'm grateful for those that did.
Left: Jafar Panahi at the Uptown on Nov 20.
Links lead to my reviews for Book and Film Globe (okay, just one), Letterboxd, Seattle Film Blog, and Video Librarian.
9.It Was Just an Accident / Un Simple Accident (Jafar Panahi )
10. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
Note: I was planning to review The Secret Agent, and prepared by catching up with Neighboring Sounds--the only Mendonça narrative I hadn't seen yet--but the new film screened for the press while I was at the New York Film Festival, and since I was only in town for five days, I missed it at NYFF, too. (I still need to catch up with Pictures of Ghosts.)
Runners-up
11.28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
12.Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
13.Sentimental Value / Affeksjonsverdi (Joachim Trier)
14.Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
15.Weapons (Zach Cregger)
16.The Ice Tower / La Tour de Glace (Lucile Hadžihalilović)
Right: Ira Sachs introduces Peter Hujar's Day at the Walter Reade Theater during this year's NYFF (I missed the premiere screening with Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall).
Note: Seattle Film Critics Society awarded Sorry, Baby with the inaugural SIFF Seattle Critics Award. In one of my last official acts as SFCS president, I announced the winner and nominees at the awards ceremony. In April, my board term will come to an end.
Note: 2025 was a comeback year of a kind for Richard Linklater, and I'm absolutely here for it. While walking back from the Hudson Theatre after catching a late-September performance of Waiting for Godot with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, I happened to walk past Sardi's, which is also on 44th Street, and where Blue Moon takes place. Only later did I find that Linklater filmed the entire film on a soundstage in Dublin. Sure fooled me!
31.Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson)
Right:WTO/99 director Ian Bell and producer Gavin P. Sullivan at Seattle Film Critics Society's PNW nominee screening at SIFF Film Center on Nov 23. The film went on to win our best documentary award.
Short:Shelly's Leg (Wes Hurley).
Animated feature: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, and Jin Kuang).
2024 films (that I caught up with in 2025):A Different Man, Black Dog, The Flamingo(directed by former Northwest Film Forum head programmer Adam Sekuler, who co-edited Suburban Fury), Kneecap, and The Outrun.
Missed or haven't seen yet:BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, Caught by the Tides, Come See Me in the Good Light, Eddington, Father Mother Sister Brother, Is This Thing On?, Materialists, Megadoc, Mickey 17, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, Presence, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Resurrection, and The Voice of Hind Rajab.
The rest (all categories):25 Cats from Qatar, Acolyte, The Actor, American Baby, Americana, April, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, Before the Call, Bird in Hand, The Balconettes, Born for You / Nata per Te, Boys Go to Jupiter, Braindead, Bring Her Back, Bugonia, Cat Town USA, Charlotte, 1994, Companion, ¡Corazón!, Crusty Fouler, Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued, Die My Love, The Disappearance of Miss Scott, Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy, Duse, Eat the Night, Endless Summer Syndrome, Enigma, F1, The Fantastic 4: First Steps, A Fateful Weekend, Fidelity, Foreign Objects, Four Mothers, Freedom Renegade, Girl with Two Belly Buttons, Good Boy, Grafted,Great Absence, Hamnet, Holland, Honeyjoon, House of Dynamite, Jay Kelly, Jimmy in Saigon, Late Fame, The Life of Chuck, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, Marty Supreme, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Matt and Mara, Moonwater, More Beautiful Perversions, Mother, Couch, Naked Ambition, On a String, One to One: John & Yoko, Orwell: 2+2=5, Pavements, The Perfect Neighbor, Pescador, The Phoenician Scheme, Pooja, Sir, Predator: Badlands, A Private Life, Ready or Not, Revelations of Divine Love, Riefenstahl, Rope Tied, Roofman, Rose of Nevada, The Salamander King / The Long Shot, Samuel and the Light/ Samuel e a Luz, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Séance, The Secret of Me, Sisi & I / Sisi & Ich, Softshell, Song Sung Blue, Songs of Black Folk,Superman, Suspended Time, Style: A Seattle Basketball Story, Sylvania, There, There, Times with God, Tripolar The Movie, The True Beauty of Being Eaten by a Tick, Twelfth Night, The Ugly Stepsister, Water Lilies, Ways to Traverse a Territory / Formas de Atravesar un Territorio, Vulcanizadora, We Want the Funk, Wolf Land, Wolf Man, The Womenists, and The Zodiac Killer Project.
Left: Director Mark Jenkin with cowriter/actor/partner Mary Woodvine at Walter Reade Theater during NYFF.
Note: For the second year in a row, I served on the judging committee for Cucalorus, though I wasn't able to make it to this year's festival--it conflicted with the SFCS screenings--and that's how I saw 32 of the films above. A few have distribution, but most don't. I'm thrilled that American Baby and Beautiful Evening, Beautiul Day made the cut, and reserve the right to rank them at a later date if they get a proper release.
Right: Steve De Jarnatt's Miracle Mile was the Grand Illusion Cinema/Scarecrow Video member screening for December at the NWFF. De Jarnatt was in attendance, and also introduced his short flm, Tarzana.
Note: Thanks to Kanopy, the Internet Archive, Tubi, and YouTube for making many of the above films available. All four sites were helpful while preparing for my horror western panel at Crypticon.
Television/streaming (unranked):All Creatures Great and Small S5, Anatomy of Lies, Apple Cider Vinegar, The Bear S4, Brokenwood Mysteries S1-2, Call Her Alex, Call the Midwife S14, Dept Q, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, Dope Thief,Dying for Sex, Finding Your Roots S11, The Gold S1, The Good Karma Hospital S1-2, Grantchester S10, Law & Order S24, Law & Order: SVU S27, The Lowdown, Mad Men S6, The Marlow Murder Club, Miss Scarlet S5, NYPD Blue S6 - 7, Patience S1, The Pitt, Professor T S4, Reacher S1-3, Severance S2, Slow Horses S5, Task, Unforgotten S6, The White Lotus S3, Wolf Hall - The Mirror and the Light, and The Yogurt Shop Murders. Also, select episodes of Atlanta, The Good Place, and Sex Education.
Books (unranked):The Ax (Donald E. Westlake), Girl in a Band: A Memoir (Kim Gordon), King's Ransom (Ed McBain), and Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger (Dan Matovina). I also bought copies of memoirs from Neko Case, Tim Curry, Werner Herzog, and Lydia Yuknavitch, but haven't read any of them yet.
Top image from Screen Anarchy (One Battle After Another poster).
Here is a revived version of a 2013 Line Out post about Kathleen Hanna's band, the Julie Ruin (these posts were purged from the internet after The Stranger pulled the plug on their music blog in 2014).
"Peppermint Schnapps and super-sized sundaes with chocolate sauce." --the Julie Ruin, "Run Fast"
There's a reason Kathleen Hanna disappeared for six years after the end of Le Tigre and before the beginning of the Julie Ruin (the band, not the solo record she released on Kill Rock Stars in 1998).
If you've seen Sini Anderson's documentary The Punk Singer, you know about her struggles with Lyme disease, and if you missed it, this Spin interview will catch you up. She may have also needed a break from music-making—as well as the adoration of some pretty intense fans—but she's back now and sounding better than ever.
If Le Tigre seemed like an odd fit for a major label, Hanna returns to her riot grrrl roots by putting out the first Julie Ruin album on her own.
Nonetheless, it plays more like an extension of Le Tigre's electro-pop than Bikini Kill's agit-punk (the five-piece includes bass player Kathi Wilcox from Bikini Kill and keyboard player Kenny Mellman from Kiki and Herb). The emphasis on rubbery party grooves reminds me of the early B-52's, especially since Mellman handles the vocals on one song, "South Coast Plaza," while adding counterpoint to others. My favorite Mellman moment: when he contributes to the "Girls Like Us" chorus.
Though I've been following Hanna's career for a couple of decades, I was never one of her adoring fans (I've written about several documentaries in which she appears, but I've never actually reviewed any of her recordings). If anything, I was always a little skeptical, particularly after I caught Bikini Kill opening for Fugazi at St. Joseph's Hall in 1992, where the group made me uncomfortable—and not in a good way. I wasn't really feeling it, and after Hanna called out a male audience member who didn't appear to be doing anything wrong, I wondered if they might not be for me. Shows should offer a safe space for women, but I wasn't sure this was the best way to go about it.
But I always liked Le Tigre—"Get Off the Internet" seems even more relevant today than it did 13 years ago—and my appreciation for Bikini Kill grew after seeing The Punk Singer, which makes a case for their musicianship and not just for their third-wave politics or for their influence on most every female-driven act to follow in their wake, which includes the Vivian Girls whose bassist, Katie Goodman, opened for the Julie Ruin last night at Neumos with her band La Sera.
If Run Fast is less overtly confrontational than the projects with which Hanna has been involved in the past, it's just as spirited and energetic. Though it hews closer to pop than rock, Hanna yells, shouts, and swears: she's gotten older, but she hasn't gotten old.
In the live context, the album took on more of a garage-punk dimension. The grooves still abounded, but there was more punch to Sara Landeau's guitar work, though Mellman proved to be the band's secret weapon with his singing, his playing, his moves, and his quips (as with Justin Vivian Bond's Kiki, he's a great foil for Hanna).
If I had to choose between the Julie Ruin live or in the studio, I would call it a draw. Both have their merits, but in different ways. If it took awhile for Mellman's recorded vocals to grow on me—he's a bit of a grumbler—I was frustrated that I couldn't hear him properly at Neumos (no such problem with Hanna). I also grew restless during the ballad the band played toward the end of the set, but then they came out for an encore and performed the dreamy, keyboard-driven "Run Fast," which concludes the album—and it sounded just as good live.
Right: Hanna described her skirt-free look as a "business outfit"
I'm glad Hanna is feeling better, I'm glad she's back, and I love the Julie Ruin.
Run Fast is out now on TJR Records through Dischord. Sundance Selects, a division of IFC Films, will be distributing The Punk Singer (release dates TBA). Images from Amazon (Run Fast album cover), Sara Landeau (Kathleen on the mic, Sara on the guitar), and Philip LaRose via Flickr (Kathleen and Sara at Neumos).
As a music and film writer, I try to be forgiving.
We all have our off days, and expecting perfection from an artist--however you choose to define that term–isn't really fair. Growing and maturing also involves taking risks, and not all risks pay off, so I can forgive an artist for a film or music performance that isn't up to their usual standards. Or maybe it is, but it just isn't to my taste.
Nonetheless, despite their human frailties, and the ups and downs of their lives, some artists always deliver. In preparation for a 2022 Rock and Roll Globe piece about Jane Birkin, I listened to every album she released during her 43-year career (most all of them are on streaming).
I liked some more than others, and some songs didn't quite work for me, but to my surprise, she never released a bad studio recording, even as she mixed things up with different languages, collaborators, and the like. This is all subjective, of course, but I was impressed, since a lot of my favorite artists have released some real clunkers. It happens.
It's also true of Jane's daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Granted, I don't count 1984's Charlotte For Ever, the record she made as a child, because that was her father Serge Gainsbourg's doing; the songs, the arrangements–everything except for her tentative vocals. Since resuming her recording career as an adult, however, she hasn't set a foot wrong.
I would say the same of Kim Deal. I'm not counting the Pixies, not because she wasn't an integral part of the band, but because that always felt more like Frank Black's project, and towards the end of their initial run, she was more like a guest than a full-fledged member.
As a fan of her contributions as both writer and singer, I expected good things from the work to come, but the Breeders' 1990 debut, Pod, was better than I expected--better even than the Pixies at their best (your mileage may vary, but for me that means the pre-Elektra material).
To prepare for Kim's show at the Neptune last night, I revisited all five Breeders full-lengths, in addition to the 1992 Safari EP, and I enjoyed them all. If anything, 2002's Title TK and 2008's Mountain Battles sound better now than they did at the time. I can't be the only one who hoped they would sound more like Pod or 1993's Last Splash, but there was a lot going on at the time, with lineup changes, Kim in and out of the Pixies, and care duty after her mother's dementia diagnosis.
Nonetheless, the band sounded revitalized on 2018's All Nerve, and that's the last time I saw Kim in concert. The show was at a venue, Showbox Sodo, that leaves a lot to be desired, but it was really good. Not great, necessarily, and I don't recall any surprises, but I left happy.
Last fall, Kim released her first solo album, Nobody Loves You More, at the age of 63 (she turns 64 this June). There are only so many artists who wait that long to strike out on their own, and it isn't always worth the wait, but it's among the best things she's ever done–possibly the best–and she's been pulling out all the stops for her tour. In the Pixies, the Breeders, and the Amps, Kim was mostly playing with three other musicians. Last night, she was joined by nine. Maybe even 10.
I should backtrack, though, to mention the opening act. I wasn't familiar with Morgan Nagler, but my friend Tony and I made sure to get there in time for her set, and it was totally worth it. A former child actress with dozens of credits at the IMDb, Morgan is a charming presence with a voice and vibe that reminded me of Susannah Hoffs in her early Bangles days, though with less of Susannah's mod '60s style.
Though her name didn’t ring a bell, Morgan has played with or written for a number of acts with whom I have some familiarity, including Haim, Jenny Lewis and/or Rilo Kiley, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. In 2014, she and Kim released the single "The Root," which they performed as part of the headliner's two encores. Their voices work beautifully together, and I like the way the song recalls the spirited sound of Holly Golightly with or without the Headcoatees.
Perhaps because Kim had such a sprawling ensemble, Morgan played as part of a drum-less trio, including her friend and producer Kyle Thomas of King Tuff–Tony and I saw him at the Neptune just a few weeks ago opening for Ty Segall– and author and musician Orenda Fink from Azure Ray. Beyond the guitars and bass, Orenda played melodica during one number and multi-instrumentalist Nick White, from Kim's band, added keyboards to another.
Like Kim, Morgan did her time in bands, mostly Whispertown, before striking out on her own. She turned 47 last night, and her Kyle Thomas-produced debut will be appearing sometime later this year. On the basis of the material she performed, it should be quite good.
Kim and company then proceeded to play every song off Nobody Loves You More, and everything sounded fantastic. I'm not certain whether she retained the sequence from the album, but I think she did.
Tony and I agreed that the title track recalled Love, circa 1967's baroque-rock masterpiece Forever Changes. I had expected a rock combo, but the horns, strings, and backup singers, including twin sister Kelley, made everything richer, fuller--more special--than it would've been otherwise. Due to the Neptune's fuzzy acoustics, I couldn't hear everything she said, but that had no effect on the sound of the music or her voice--which hasn't changed since her 20s.
The venue was packed, possibly even sold out, and there was a lot of yelling between songs, which Kim took in stride. Tony speculated that it's probably been happening at every show, and that seems likely. When she mentioned the Pixies, for instance, a woman yelled, "You were the Pixies!" (Well yes, and no.) Sometimes it was a bit much, but I understand the impulse. She just means that much to so many of us.
Towards the end of the evening, she acknowledged that her album only provided around 35 minutes of material, not enough for a full set, so she performed other songs from throughout her career, both solo singles and Breeders songs, like "Safari," which Tony and I were thrilled to hear. If anything, I prefer the Safari EP to Last Splash, the slightly more polished, platinum-selling album that followed.
At various times, Kim introduced members of her band, rather than all at once. I could make out some of her introductions, but not all. She introduced Kelley by saying she's from Dayton, Spencer by saying he's from Cincinnati, and "Allison is from Albini–she's from Chicago." It was the second Steve Albini reference of the night, and he really was one of the Breeders' best engineers–one of the Pixies' best engineers, too.
Though I took notes, I won't list every song she played--I counted around 20--because I'll probably get it wrong, but the last one was "Do You Love Me Now?" from Last Splash, and it's been stuck in my head ever since, especially the line, "C'mon c'mon come back to me right now," mostly because it's so catchy, but maybe, just maybe because the whole show was so good, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again as soon as possible. Kim Deal really is one of the all-timers.
Update: set list here (they count the first encore as a second set).
Morgan Nagler will be opening for Kim Deal's next four California engagements. Find more tour dates here. All photos by me.
I write about popular music and film and the relationship between the two. I'm Irish on one side, Italian on the other—British on both. I was born in Connecticut (Far From Heaven), raised in Alaska (Northern Exposure), and I've lived in Seattle, WA (Trouble in Mind) since 1988.
