CHRIS KLONDIKE MASUAK
TOP SEVERAL FOR 2024
Ahh, the Festive Season!
Serious decisions have to be made … buzzkill the Glad Tidings or be of Relentless Good Cheer.
Once again, I opt for the latter, so chuck “It’s Christmas Time Again” on the player and sit back for my yearly screed.
The vicissitudes and caprices of life had seen me languishing (not uncomfortably, I must say) in the doldrums most of the year, waiting for someone or other’s winds to puff up enough to push a fistful of projects back into the currents.
This of course, meant I’d been left with Too Much Time On My Hands … never a good thing.
Luckily, others had been more than busy enough to keep me outta trouble.
Or affronted, which is also engaging.
(The only way I can get to sleep these days is by imagining myself as a kind of Ninja vigilante, stabbing a never ending assfull of genocidal and venally corrupt Bad People in their unsuspecting throats. An admittedly twisted version of counting sheep, but hey … therapy!)
GENUINE GARBAGE
I’ve watched more movies than usual, and it’s a good thing that I have zero taste! This year’s big budget movies offered up a veritable stinkhole of unwhatchability.
THE SUBSTANCE
The director of this crock of crud took an interesting premise, handed it to a surprisingly engaging and watchable couple of veterans, and then leaned hard into stupid and grotesque laziness. The kind of crap that gives crap a bad name.
REBEL MOON 1 & 2
I couldn’t manage to get to the end of either of those fucking stinkers. A big budget, dearth of coherent plot development, and absolute frickin’ absence of memorable characters just couldn’t prop up the deliciously sullen anti-hero. When I read that the director made his name in video games it all made sense.
DOGMAN
Luc Besson led a fearless Caleb Landry Jones straight into the toilet. All dumbass, no class.
REAGAN
A gee whiz infomercial for Trumpsicles who like their history made with corn syrup. And, any kid who has heard Boris on "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" could do a better Russian Accent than John Voight’s.
PULP FICTION
Vital parts of my own personal musical history have already been told too many times, and pretty much perfectly so in a certain tragicomic documentary by Jonathan Sequiera.
But that didn’t stop others from being duped into throwing the literary Rock Of Truth at the ground and fucking missing.
For sanity’s sake, stick with my own "FAITH AND PRACTICE IN BEDLAM".
GENUINE GOODNESS
THE CRISPS
Perky, cheeky, and crisply melodic power pop that seems to have sat perennially on the CD player.
POCKETWATCH
An energetic and genre defying flurry of excitement from a bunch of kids I know.
JUPITER 5
A bunch of disgracefully aging fratboys kick the kids outta the fucking garage and own it.
THE STEMS
Garage groovy greatness that defies a low fi live release.
PERKING UP JADED EARS
This year was loaded with low tech garage from the likes of THE BAWDIES, THE COURETTES (who actually do get old fast), and THE DEMOLITION DOLL RODS. And, there were some really nice guitar sounds from THE BACKSEAT RHYTHMS.
Also, on high rotation in Casa Masuak (and, special thanks to The Barman for keeping me hip to the latest), were some larger compilations/reissues which reminded me how much music I HAVEN’T heard! Early BOB SEGER & THE LAST HEARD, an extended version of LOU REED’S ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL, psychedelic compilation BROWN ACID TRIP, and extensive reissues from NEIL YOUNG and ALICE COOPER.
THINGS TO COME
LOS REVELATORS (Spain) and DOG SOLDIER (oZ) are in preproduction and have tour plans for 2025, and JUNKYARD DOG (France) just like to party!
THE FINAL CURTAIN
Dear Lord, so many more friends and acquaintances have been lost this past year. And, way too many of my heroes!
It’s really highlighted the importance of just doing stuff … and being kind and vaguely tolerant (jeez that’s a hard one) to everyone who bumps up against you on your fragile journey.
So, until I catch you on the road or on your turntables, have more fun than is imaginable to the human mind!
