Ian Cory (Lamniformes / Bellows / Model Child / Laughing Stock / Fictionss / Told Slant)
What are your top five albums that were released in 2023? (In order 1-5)
This will likely change by the end of the year as I continue to review my notes, but as a provisionary stand-in here are my top five albums of 2023:
- 100 gecs - 10,000 gecs: The most fun I had listening to a new album all year. Tastes like vanilla coke and pepperoni pizza. How to make mass music for the youth and have a genuinely creative time with it. Ends right before it could seriously start to annoy you.
- Agriculture - Agriculture: Best metal album of the year, artsy black metal division. This might sound like missing the forest for the trees, but I knew this shit was really going to pop off when the soft song was legit good. If you sing a short, beautiful folk song and then play it again with screaming and blast beats in the next track I am always going to straight up lose my mind with joy. If you go one step further and interrupt the blasting and screaming with chaotic saxophone solos, you’re set for life.
- Metallica - 72 Seasons (Ian's Version): The album I thought about and listened to the most. Look, it is too long. It also has the highest frequency of legit good Metallica tunes since their return to thrash metal in the Trujillo era (I can safely call the albums released since St. Anger “the Trujillo era” and you’ll know what I mean, right?). Besides, have you seen Killers of the Flower Moon? You gotta let the old guys cook while they still can. Appropriately this is an album that only a band of older guys could have written. Lots of regret, self-reflection, etc. Still, I prefer the shorter tracklist that I edited for myself. Nearly cried the first time I heard the harmonized guitar lead in “Room of Mirrors.”
- Algiers - Shook: Best aggressively political record of ambiguous genre. The great stew of American music served with vengeful coldness. God bless every new Zach De La Rocha verse we get in this life. “Something Wrong” is one of the most inventive pieces of music of this young decade.
- Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?: Best singer/songwriter record of the year. I haven’t honestly spent enough time with it to articulate much about it, but it’s really good. Sad and funny. Sharp. Great production.
OTHER STUFF THAT’S DOPE: New albums from Anjimile, Anohni and the Johnsons, Chepang, Gridlink, Liturgy, Lana Del Ray, Great Falls, Horrendous, Tinashe, Victory Over the Sun, Water From Your Eyes, Woe, and Zulu.
NOT INCLUDED: the many great albums my friends contributed to over the year, excluded to save myself the headache of considering to rank them, all greatly enjoyed and appreciated privately.
What band did you discover in 2023 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? How so?
This is a tough question as currently framed, mostly because I quibble with the verb “discover” when all of these artists were already on the map before I got around to listening to them, and because its difficult to quantify what impact any of them have had on my life other than me going “that sounds cool” after hearing them. It’d be far easier for me to measure the impact made by music that I’ve revisited and reinvested in this year than the new favorites that have yet to accrue any of the same emotional gravity. In any case, I finally got around to listening to Prefab Sprout after being told to by several different friends and acquaintances. Yup, really good! I finally got around to listening to Chuck Person’s Echo Jams Vol.1 while researching Daniel Loptain and felt like a fool for not checking it out sooner. And I really, really loved the Asunojokei album Island that came out last year.
How will you remember 2023 (in terms of music)?
I’ll remember 2023 as the year where I joined too many/not enough bands, and as a year that I caught up on new music again. I’ll remember listening to drum and bass mixes of old video game music while I wrote. I’ll remember the deliberate effort to check out more music from North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. I’ll remember a lot of hardcore bands playing thrash metal in Texas, and Brazilian funk records recommended to me by friends. This year Liturgy finally clicked for me and I thought maybe too much about Dmitri Shostakovich. I revisited the Trujillo era of Metallica more than I did the classic first four records. I saw Botch live. I learned a bunch of songs on drums and wrote even more words about each of them.
What can we look forward to from you in 2024?
A new Lamniformes album called The Lonely Atom, and maybe a new Lamniformes EP whose name I can tell you about another time.
With any luck I’ll be on the road again and I’ll continue to play an excessive number of shows with different bands in NYC. I will continue to learn songs and write about them for my newsletter.
What records are you looking forward to most in 2024?
Not going to lie, I want to know what the Dream Theater comeback album with Mike Portnoy sounds like. Definitely psyched for The Smile’s upcoming album. I’m excited for my own record, The Lonely Atom, because I already know it sounds good and can’t wait for people to agree with me. Maybe there’ll be a new Deafheaven album? Nine Inch Nails? A guy can dream…
With physical media sales seemingly less popular than ever, what are some the best ways that fans can help to support the musicians when they go to a live show?
Is that true? Vinyl sales have risen over the last few years. People are trying to make CDs come back (shouts out to the used car market?), and I haven’t heard anything about a dip in cassette sales on an industry wide level. In either case, the spirit of the question is worth considering. How in this era of low streaming payouts, Bandcamp union busting, and venue merch cuts can fans best support their favorite artists?
Well if they’re going to a live show they’re already doing a lot, that’s for sure. From there, buying merch is a huge help, even if the venue is taking a cut. If the artists have a newsletter (*cough* lamniformes.substack.com *cough*) sign up for it. If you had a good time, tell your friends about it and maybe invite them next time the band comes to town. If you’re advocacy-inclined, bug your representatives about regulating streaming services, ending merch cuts, and implementing universal healthcare. That might be tough to do from a live show though, so maybe save that for a less noisy environment.
Ian Cory – social media links
- Instagram: @_lamniformes_
