This year it seems that I rarely listened to albums all the way. So instead of a list of best albums of 2012, I put together a list of songs. Here are some of my favorite selections, in no particular order.
Frank Ocean - Crack Rock. Tame Impala - Elephant. Metz - Headache. Deap Vally - Gonna Make My Own Money. Hot Lunch - Killer Smile. Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings. Primate - Draw Back a Stump. Off! - Wrong. Friends - Friend Crush. Pallbearer - Devoid of Redemption. King Tuff - Alone & Stoned. Death Grips - No Love. Disappears - Hibernation Sickness. Allah-Lahs - Tell Me (What's On Your Mind). Spiritualized - Hey Jane. Ty Segall - Thank God For Sinners. Thee Oh Sees - Flood's New Light. Spoek Mathambo - Skorokoro (Walking Away) Killer Mike - Southern Fried. Frank Ocean - Sweet Life.
This is the first year since the 1980s where I've not bought a CD.
Well, that's not entirely true, I bought a used 5.6.7.8's CD from a friend for $1, but that's it. In fact, I don't even own a CD player anymore. I mean, sure, I can play CDs on my computer or in my car, but I no longer own a dedicated CD player component. But the odd thing is, I did pick up a cassette for the first time this year since the '80s (and I don't own a cassette player either).
The audio cassette revival is understandably obnoxious to those of us who grew up with them. It is an inferior format in every sense except for one: it has a crafty, DIY appeal. But really, the flirtation with the audio cassette today is only slightly more popular than the very brief mid-90s 8-track comeback. Cassettes may not entirely go away like 8-tracks, but they're not ever going to come back like vinyl either. So those of us who remember cassettes V1.0 - prepare to keep rolling your eyes for the foreseeable future - but also don't be pigheaded about it. The one cassette I picked up this year turned out to be one of my favorite releases.
My preferred method of audio delivery is still vinyl - specifically the LP (the amount of vinyl I buy increases every year and I'm pretty sure I buy more records now than I ever have).
Admittedly, I'm not a singles person - I like to put a record on and settle down with a magazine or a sketchbook or something. I'm not sitting on my bed with a bunch of singles, playing record after record as I stare dreamily into the spinning 45. That being said, I also bought more singles this year - about a dozen - than any year since I was a little kid (when I used to by a lot of singles).
However, I also want my records to come with download codes so they can be more functional. I still sometimes buy a record, get it home and open it and play it only to discover it doesn't come with a download. My response to that is more than disappointment but not quite anger.
I was a part of 2 music mail-order clubs (Yeti Mike and Van Dyke Parks) - where for a set fee, I get sent a certain number of records over the course of a year. Those were fun because I'd usually forget about them and suddenly a package full of weird and wonderful vinyl would arrive.
Unfortunately, given the nature of the music distro business (talk about antiquated, top-down dominated business models), I can't always find/get the music I want on vinyl, so I sometimes find myself forced to download (in some cases lazily or ignorantly supporting the very businesses (Amazon & iTunes) that are destroying the industry in the first place) - but I also often end up buying the vinyl later when I find it (like with GbV records).
However, in my own defense, I only use Spotify as a listening station. In the absence of legitimate music criticism (if Pitchfork is the best we have, we are in a lot of trouble), viable radio and any semblance of music television - finding good music has gotten even harder despite glib pronouncements of techwhores that we're living in some kind of artistic utopia.
On the plus side, a lot of good music is definitely out there to be found (even if the finding of it is more difficult - I call it the "Obscurity Through Availability" theory - so much is available, but with no filters or valid cultural arbiters, it all just becomes so much white noise).
In fact, I found so much good music this year, that I've decided to forgo my usual 1-20 countdown and list simply all of my favorite records of the year and why.
Where possible, I have linked most of the albums below to Spotify -
so if you have an account and are interested, you can more easily check
out the music. In other instances (when the record isn't available on Spotify), I have linked to either Bandcamp, Last.FM or a label's site. I do this for the reader's convenience in the hopes that they'll check out some of the music being discussed.
Many of these records are available at your local record shop - I purchased a lot of them at Celebrated Summer and The True Vine in Hampden, and Sound Garden in Fells Point is also a good resource.
Feel free to ask me for a copy of my annual Shank's Best Year End Mix CD. Available at Atomic Books while supplies last.
Also, here are the past 5 years of my annual year end mixes on
Spotify if you are interested. These aren't entirely complete as Spotify
doesn't have everything, but it's as close
as I could get it.
Best Journey Into A Troubled Mind: Jazz Mind by Ed Schrader's Music Beat Schrader's Jazz Mind has a stripped down, minimal intensity in that sort of Joy Division, post-punk, Factory way. Air shows, sugar addiction, sermons, rats, broken minds, Schrader's Jazz Mind deals with issues of mild madness. This is a record that gets under your skin and stays with you and it is easily my favorite record of the year.
Best Record I Thought I'd Never See: Birthday Gift by Sick Weapons Birthday Gift has a long, storied history. It was supposed to come out a few years ago and didn't. Then a single was supposed to come out, and that didn't happen. Then, this year, it finally came out - with a reunion show. Easily one of the best records in Baltimore punk history - it's a bittersweet thing - knowing that there will never be another Sick Weapons record. But at least we have this one. With lines like, "If you love me, take me to the hospital," or "I don't know what I'm doing and I feel like an asshole," or the Ed Schrader penned "I Get Fucked For The Fuck Of It" - the songs are at least sharply clever and at their best - they're downright transgressive.
Best Solid Indie Rock: Orange Cassette EP by Monster Museum So I got this as a cassette with a download code. I downloaded the songs, tossed 'em on my iPod and every time a song would come up, I found myself checking to see who the band was that sounded like I should file them between Pavement and Sonic Youth. Each song on this EP is a winner, and I really can't wait for more songs from these guys. If all cassette releases were as good as this, I'd be an avid cassette collector (until the tapes started to get eaten or they fuse together because they were left in a hot car or until they accidentally get wiped because I sat it too close to a magnet... etc).
Best Trifecta: Let's Go Eat The Factory by Guided By Voices Class Clown Spots A UFO by Guided By Voices The Bears For Lunch by Guided By Voices
Often times we talk about song cycles on records - GbV this year, unfettered by label limitations, delivered an album cycle. This is the newly regrouped classic lineup, and each album moves closer to that classic GbV sound. In fact, there are a couple tracks off Bears, "White Flag" and "She Lives In An Airport" that rank as good as anything from the Bee Thousand - Under The Bushes, Under The Stars-era. There are gems on each record - and each is a movement of a band relearning itself and pushing forward. Some might argue that these three records could be edited down into 1 truly great GbV album, and they'd be right. They could. But to make such an argument is to not understand Pollard and GbV at all. Record all the songs. Put them all out. Let the fans decide what they like, and worry about making more music. That is the Pollard method.
Best Attempt At Being The New Guided By Voices: Slaughterhouse by Ty Segall Band Twins by Ty Segall Hair by Ty Segall / White Fence Garage rocker Ty Segall was responsible for 3 excellent records this year (my favorite of the lot is Twins). Output-wise, he's almost giving Bob Pollard a run for his money (but Pollard released 3 GbV albums as well as 2 solo records this year). Each record has that distinct Segall psych-garage rock sound, but each sounds like a distinctly different project too. Not an easy feat to pull off.
Best Unexpected Comeback: Researching The Blues by Redd Kross I really hadn't expected anything from Redd Kross ever again. Even a couple years back when I found myself revisiting their catalog and was shocked at how well it's aged, I thought they were done. But then out of nowhere came Researching The Blues - a tight, edgy guitar rock confection the likes of which just isn't as abundant as it was during Redd Kross' heyday.
Best Continued Relevance: I Bet On Sky by Dinosaur Jr. A few years back, I was pretty certain that I'd never need to hear another Dinosaur record, then they reformed with the original line-up, released Beyond, I heard enough good reviews to make me curious, and it was great. Then Farm came out, again I got curious, and again, it was great. And here we are with the third release since the reformation, and it's another good record. Beyond was hard and tight. Farm was sludgy and stonery. Sky is downright poppy at times. I'm done wrestling with it. New Dinosaur Jr.? I'm in!
Best Reclamation Of A Musical Legacy: Meat And Bone by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Before The Black Keys. Before The Kills. Before The White Stripes. Long ago, there was the JSBX. Even at their peak, they had to endure hipster backlash. As the years wore on, their enthusiasm waned and, well, they haven't done much worth listening to. Until Meat & Bone. It is prime, vital JSBX, but it also works in some new sounds, to keep the sound not only fresh, but ahead of the curve. The quailty of a Jon Spencer album is conversely proportional to the amount of times he self-references "Blues Explosion" on the record. By my count - there's only 1 "Blues Explosion" on Meat & Bone which means this is one of their best. Listen for yourself, I think you'll find that theory totally holds up.
Best "Rock Classicists": II by Nude Beach Nude Beach play quality barroom rock and roll in the Replacements style. The fact that Pitchfork regards it as generic rock "classicism" is actually more a testimony to the quality of the music on II than the smug indictment Pitchfork intends it to be.
Best Hooks - Leaving Atlanta by Gentleman Jesse As far as I can tell, Gentleman Jesse doesn't care where the hooks come from, and when the songs are this good - neither do I. Great guitar pop in the vein of classic Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello.
Best Pop Punk: WWIII by White Wires A quality 3-piece, garage/pop-punk/surf ensemble with a generous helping of catchy as fuck songs. You'll be singing along by the second listen.
Best Psych-Rock Revival: Putrifiers II by Thee Oh Sees I'm not sure if it's because I started listening to them both at about the same time, but I often think of Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees along the same lines. Over the years, Segall has moved into a more glam/garage rock direction, and Thee Oh Sees have expored more the psychedelic sounds of things. Both journeys have paid in remarkable dividends.
Best Psychedelic Journey: Lonerism by Tame Impala This album ranks on my list on the basis of one song alone, "Elephant" - a woozy piece of Rundgren-infused psychedelica. The rest of the record is shiny, pleasant, Australian psych-gone-walkabout - but man, that "Elephant." If the whole record were like that song, Lonerism would have easily been my record of the year, despite their horrible band name.
Best '90s Revivalists: Attack On Memory by Cloud Nothings Cloud Nothings bring the lo-fi alterna-rock of the '90s back to the teens with a new fervor and new breath. One of the more appropriate album titles of the year.
Best Album I Keep Overlooking (Most Likely Due To Lame Band Name): Open Your Heart by Men Every time a song from this record came up on my shuffle, I'd like it. A lot. There's a good diversity of sound on this record - within the indie-rock realm. But I'd never member the band. Probably because their band name needs a prefix. Or at least a "The".
Best Next Move - The Only Place by Best Coast The last Best Coast album had such a defining sound, it would be enough to pigeonhole a lesser band. They made the bold decision of ditching the Phil Spector-esque production vibe and go with a more straightforward sound, and that seemed to piss a bunch of people off. Expectation management is key to enjoying most things. The more you listen to this record, the more the songs present themselves.
Most Underrated: Young & Old by Tennis Tennis' Cape Dory got so much pre-buzz hype, when it came out, it didn't quite manage to live up to it (although I think it did). As a result, Tennis' next album, Young & Old, came and went with hardly any notice, which is shame. The songs here are beautiful, lush pop.
Best Record I'd Always Hope Would Be Made: Locked Down by Dr. John I've always liked Dr. John - a sort of voodoo swamp Tom Waits who lost his way over the years because of drink, drugs, and assorted vice. Here he gets Rick Rubened/Jack Whited by the Black Keys and delivers a wicked album of fully realized hoodoo funk. I really hope someone gives similar treatment to Leon Redbone next.
Best State Of The Union: Wrecking Ball by Bruce Springsteen It's not my line, but I wish it was - a new Springsteen album is like a State of the Union address. His "We Take Care of Our Own" almost seemed like a "gotcha song" custom made to trick Republicans during an election season for their Reagan-era co-option. The title track is a testament to an America that's been forced upon us by our own failures and our own determination to continue on despite it. Quality Springsteen.
Best Rantings Of A Crazy Old Man: Tempest by Bob Dylan This is not a perfect album - but a flawed record can sometimes be so much more interesting than a flawless one. Bob's getting up there in years, and there's no telling how many more records he has in him, but Tempest continues is Golden Years Golden Streak. His voice, ever-more croaky, at times seems like that haggard old man you run into immediately after parking your car in a strange neighborhood because your friends wanted to have drinks at some strange bar - and in this instance he's yammering at you about blood and death and violence and hell to pay. Tempest is Dark Dylan - An Old Pimp Turned Street Crank.
Best R&B Revivalist: Time's All Gone by Nick Waterhouse
It's a modern take on the pre-rock era - Waterhouse constructs tight, irony-free R&B that it as smart and fresh as it is familiar. Even its presence as soundtracks for TV commercials isn't enough to wreck how enjoyable the music is.
Best Garage Rock Revival: Allah-Las by Allah-Las If it seems like the Allah-Las really know music, it's because they really know music. A band comprised of employees from the famed Amoeba Records, this record is note-perfect garage at its best.
Best Single: "Meet Mike Hate" by The Stents I am sometimes cautions about exquisite packaging. Maybe I picked up a few too many of the wrong Estrus Records titles back in the '90s or a few too many records with Dan Clowes, Coop or Pete Bagge artwork that just didn't live up to their respective wrappers. Regardless - I sometimes suspect really good packing is over-compensation. In the case of The Stents "Meet Mike Hate," the deluxe packaging treatment doesn't misdirect or hide - it accentuates perfectly. Red vinyl - beautiful sleeve, inside a download coupon and stickers - and the record itself if some really tight garage rock via 1970s guitar pop.
Best Career Retrospective: Lo Fi High Fives... A Kind Of Best Of by R. Stevie Moore It can be a little daunting getting into lo-fi pioneer Moore's music. Over the years, he's put out so much, it can be difficult to figure out where to start. This sort of "Best Of" is an excellent Moore primer.
Best Compilation: Country Funk: 1969-1975 by various Talk about two great tastes that seem like they shouldn't taste good together but do. The cheesy country fondue of songs compiled here create an outline of an interesting genre. Featuring songs by Bob Darin, Bobby Charles, Link Wray, Mac Davis and more.
Best Box Set: Never To Be Forgotten: The Flip Side Of Stax 1968-1974 by various There was a lot of talk about how great Frank Ocean's R&B was this year. To me, it just seemed like more generic stuff - I didn't get what was special about it. However, this box set of Stax b-sides - holy shit! I mean, these b-sides are so much more awesome than a majority of R&B a-sides currently being produced. It was a magical era, and sometimes it's just fun to listen to something and shake your head at how staggeringly good their b-list stuff was.
Best Guilty Pleasure: Red by Taylor Swift I was working late on the computer one night, and I had Letterman on in the background. I wasn't really paying attention, but there was a band playing what seemed to me to be a pretty fucking decent pop confection. When I looked up from what I was doing, I realized it was Taylor Swift. What was happening to me was the I was liking a Taylor Swift song. This was a little confusing, so I checked out a few more songs from her new album, Red, and I found all of them secretly enjoyable, so I bought the record. But I kept this secret shame to myself. I wasn't sure if there was something wrong with me or if these songs were actually good. Maybe I was just becoming a confused old man (I still very well could be). Then I overheard another old dude in a record store talking about how good the record is to the shock and dismay of some of his punk friends. They couldn't believe him, so I outed myself and confirmed it and backed him up. The record is a very good pop record. We're not talking Pet Sounds here, but it is delicious ear candy.
Best Punk Rock (Despite Stupid Comments From Lead Singer) Off by OFF! When OFF! started coming out with singles a couple years back, it was a breath of fresh air. Good-0ld fashioned hardcore with band comprised of members with well-established punk pedigrees. It felt like the early '80s all over again. But the band has been around for bit now, and as much as I've tried to avoid it, every so often I'd stumble across a quote or a part of an interview with lead singer Keith Morris (he of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame) and the dumbass shit he'd say quickly reminds me of how quickly I went from digging the Circle Jerks and seeing them play back in the '80s loathing them for their support of Ronald Reagan and general dumbassery. So I guess what I'm saying is, hey OFF!, reign in Morris on the interviews before he starts chasing away fans. He's not funny. He's not even coherent. But otherwise, great music.
Best This Kind Of Shit Ain't My Kind Of Shit, But Clearly It's A Landmark Release: Book Burner by Pig Destroyer "Book Burner" - the name immediately brings to mind an Amazon tablet gadget (Fire, Kindle). Grindcore ain't my thing, but I've listened to enough of it to know what's what. And from the opening sounds to closing track, what Pig Destroyer does here is raise the bar for every other grindcore band. It doesn't transcend genre, so if you aren't down with the sound, it's unlikely to persuade you. However, if you're genre-rock neutral - just listen to what Pig Destroyer does on Book Burner. It is a masterpiece of the genre.
Every year at the Shank, I ask friends and readers to contribute their year end lists after the year actually ends.
I find them useful - by writing a list, it helps me organize the way I think about the previous year's art/culture/entertainment/media. But also, by reading other people's lists, I always find gems that I've overlooked. Essentially - it's a great way to get friends to make recommendations.
Over the next several days, I'll be posting these lists from people who were nice enough to contribute them (after all, ranking your top favorite movies, books, albums, TV shows, etc. is not as easy as it seems - and it can be quite time consuming - I've spent 8 hours, for example, working on my first list - my favorite music of 2012).
But before we get started, I want to comment about the dangers I see in our willing participation in
Download Culture. When we choose to download or stream content instead of buying a record, book, DVD, etc. we're fucking ourselves long term because of laziness,
novelty and ignorance.
Remember back when record labels produced
records? Book publishers published books? Movie studios made movies? Video game companies made video games cartridges and discs?
Increasingly, we are now referring to these one-time manufacturers as
"content providers." They don't make things anymore, they provide us with
content for our gadgets.
This may seem like a small change in our
perception of their role, but it's huge, and it's intentional.
A
record is not an abstraction. A DVD, a book, a video game disc - these
are real things. They are tangible. Content is not a tangible good. Content is an
abstraction.
The difference? You can resell a tangible good. You cannot resell content.
I have worked in the video game industry, in the music biz and in publishing.
When
I worked in publishing, I discovered many large publishers hated, HATED the secondary
(used) market. When I worked in the video game industry, I found the
same thing. Large video game companies loathed used game sellers. And
when I worked at a record label, I found many of the large labels felt the same way - they
hated used CD dealers.
These big labels/studios/publishing houses
see the secondary market as direct competition. If you buy a used copy
of something, not only are they not seeing any money from it (which they believe they have a right to), they are convinced they are losing money from that sale because you are not buying a new
copy of that item.
The mistaken rationale they have is that when a used copy of something is sold, that's one less new copy they'll sell. Any of us who buy used goods know this isn't the way it works. There are records I will never buy at new prices. However, a $5-$10 used copy? That changes my perspective on my internal value vs. need formula.
The big publishing corporations believe that when you buy a book, CD,
DVD, etc. - you are essentially just leasing the content and you don't
have the right to resell that content should you decide that you don't
have enough shelf space for it, or it wasn't as good as you'd hoped, or
you're short on cash and just need to sell some shit off. The problem for them is you have the physical book, CD, DVD - so it's easy for you to do.
And while they continue to file suit after suit to try to outlaw used sales, they
also push us to move more and more toward a digital download/streaming content
model. After all, when you're done with that downloaded book - you can't
resell it - you just back it up or delete it. Therefore you are not competing with them. There is no secondary market for digital content.
Consumers
are under the impression that this content leasing model will serve
their interests better - that they will have easier access to more content at a lower price, but this too is a mistake.
Remember
how CD prices were supposed to drop but record labels found that
consumers were willing to pay higher prices for them so the consumer
cost never went down (thereby fueling a large used CD market)? The same
thing is happening with downloads.
When you deduct the
manufacturing costs of the physical objects, when you deduct shipping
costs, when you deduct the retail markup savings by cutting out stores - digital
content should be a small fraction of the cost of the physical copy - but it
isn't.
In some cases, the download is just as expensive as a new
physical copy. In some cases, a download is more expensive than a new
physical copy. But in every case, a download is more expensive than a
used copy.
Not to mention - if you are buying downloads or streaming - you are most likely primarily supporting a small handful of very large online retailers - and these retailers, like Amazon, can be nasty beasts that we really shouldn't be feeding.
We're also strangling brick and mortar stores who not only can provide us with convenience (if you need a gift for a party tonight, where do you go?) and expertise, but selection.
Not everything that was physically manufactured is available digitally. Nor will it ever be. So once we help them kill the secondary used/collector's market, it will be solely the decision of the major publishers what content we have any kind of access to.
You won't be able to find/buy out of print items - out of print will mean cease to exist. This works well for companies like Disney and embarrassments like Song of The South (VHS copies can still be found on eBay), but not so much for those of us who love arts.
And finally, reliability on what digital downloaders/streamers offer is making us stupid and keeping us less informed. For example, in a class I teach, I had a handful of recommended documentaries for my students to watch on their own time for class credit.
My students had no idea how to see these films. I was flabbergasted. I asked them how do they usually see movies. Most responded, "Red Box" and some said "streaming."
Despite a whole world of movies out there, if they can't get it from a box or if it isn't automatically provided for them via streaming, as far as they are concerned it doesn't exist. This can not possibly bode well for media/arts/culture.
In this instance I assured them that every documentary on my list was available at Video Americain, and that figuring out a way to see these movies is part of the assignment.
But let's just take a look at the world we're creating: a world where we no longer have the right to resell the arts/entertainment/media we consume, a world where we pay more money to not have that right, and world in which a handful of giant media corporations make the decisions of what "content" we have access to.
We're fucking ourselves with Download Culture, folks. Yeah we all use it, me included. But we should be aware of the future we're building for ourselves with each click of the mouse, and we should think about the way in which we use it.
That being said, we're just about ready to get on with the 2012 Year-End Wrap-Up.
AQUARIUS: My reply is no. PISCES: Very doubtful. ARIES: Signs point to yes. TAURUS: Ask again later. GEMINI: Cannot predict now. CANCER: It is certain. LEO: Cannot predict now. VIRGO: Cannot predict now. LIBRA: As I see it, yes. SCORPIO: Very doubtful. SAGITTARIUS: My sources say no. CAPRICORN: Yes, definitely.
(click on strip to see larger version) Look for a new Said What? comic in Wednesday's B: The Paper. Available free around town. You can also follow this strip and others at MutantFunnies.com. ---------------------------------------------------- Overhear
something amazing? Post them in
the comments section
(with your email
address) or email your overheards
(using this format) to: MobtownshankATatomicbooksDOTcom. It could end up as a comic strip.
AQUARIUS: It is certain. PISCES: It is certain. ARIES: You may rely on it. TAURUS: Yes. GEMINI: Don't count on it. CANCER: As I see it, yes. LEO: Most likely. VIRGO: Most likely. LIBRA: My reply is no. SCORPIO: Better not tell you now. SAGITTARIUS: Very doubtful. CAPRICORN: As I see it, yes.
Specialty Bonus Sign OPHIUCHUS: It is decidedly so.
"We have to do something about our national debt!"
"Government has gotten too big!"
"We have to cut our spending or we're all gonna die!"
Okay that last one was a tad hyperbolic, but it does underline the seemingly increasing hysteria we hear when concern over the supposed growing debt is expressed.
Despite that fact that these attitudes are inherently Republican, we frequently hear them presented as simply non-partisan, common wisdom.
But here's the thing, it's not true. And not only is it not true, but the people who scream the loudest about cutting government spending don't really mean it. What they mean is they want to cut government spending on ourselves - on our infrastructure and on social programs. Almost all of the people who are calling to cut government spending also want to increase government spending - on the military.
And The Republican Party - the ironically self-appointed party of fiscal responsibility - well they're the worst when it comes to spending our tax money.
For example, the financial cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started by George W. Bush: $1,415,000,000,000.
Now, remember back when Bush also wanted to cut taxes? And Progressives were yelling, "Cut taxes during war time?! Are you freaking insane!?!!" And then everyone looked at us like we were trying to pee all over their good times parade? Funny. Turns out Progressives weren't just being dicks, seems we actually had a legitimate point.
The cost of Bush tax cuts: $2,800,000,000,000.
So, as a result of Republican "economics" and George W. Bush economic policies, we're down $4,215,000,000,000.
In fact, this is the level of US debt when George W. Bush left office: $10,627,000,000,000,000
It's also good to remember that when George W. Bush took office, he inherited a budget surplus of $5,600,000,000,000.
So, over eight years of the Bush Administration, Republicans blew through $16,227,000,000,000 of our money.
During that time did you hear any Republicans griping that we had to get government under control? That we had to reign in our spending? That we had to shrink the size of government?
No.
And why would they? After all, it was Republican Vice-President Dick Cheney who told his acolytes, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter."
So, when you hear Republicans freaking out about the debt, tell them to shut the fuck up.
The Republican Party is, historically, worse for our economy than the Democrats.
Our debt, despite their best efforts, isn't even as bad as the 1950s, that Golden Era conservatives yearn to drag us back to. Source: CBO
