Mike Riley (Pulling Teeth / Firestarter Records / Toxic Pop Records)
What are your top five albums that were released in 2011? (in order 1-5)
- Tenement - Napalm Dream
- Something Fierce - Don't Be So Cruel
- Night Birds - The Other Side of Darkness
- Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
- The Spits - V
What band did you discover in 2011 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
In Between. They are new band out of Baltimore playing really great melodic hardcore, sounding somewhere between Lifetime and Texas Is the Reason. I hope they stick around because they could have a lot more great music in them. Check out their demo - http://photoboothrecords.bandcamp.com/album/demo
How will you remember 2011 (in terms of music)?
Pulling Teeth released our best album yet and got to go back to Europe. Firestarter got to release the CD/digital versions of Pulling Teeth's "Funerary". Toxic Pop got to release records for Sundials, Tenement, and Scum Again. Tenement finally gave us an LP. Seeing Archers of Loaf live.
What can we look forward to from you in 2012?
Pulling Teeth will be laying low, but Firestarter and Toxic Pop will have releases from Modern Problems, Run Down, In Between, Sick Sick Birds, Idle Hands, and more.
What records are you looking forward to most in 2012?
Sick Sick Birds - Gates of Home LP, Tenement/Cheeky split 7", and anything Terrible Feelings puts out.
What did you expect to be huge in 2011 which never made it?
Tenement should be the biggest band in punk. Maybe if they toured more. Same goes for Dead Mechanical. I wanted Samiam's "Trips" to be as good as "You Are Freaking Me Out" or "Astray" but it didn't happen.
