A long time ago. A galaxy far, far away

We are heading into Halloween in a matter of hours so it's (probably) safe to say the Russian Nesting Doll that is 2020 is starting to wind down, at least in quantitative terms. It's equally safe to say there will be enough WTF moments between now and December 31 to fill up a normal calendar year. I don't have a crystal ball or, as the last, nearly 10 months have revealed, the imagination necessary to conjure up a litany of once-unplausible headlines and news stories that will orbit our consciousness the next couple of months and change. My brain explodes a little just thinking about it. Instead, let's venture backward to a distant time when everything felt decidedly different.  

It's pretty much a given that 2019 was the last 'normal' year of our collective existence for a good long while. The #1 song on my top 100 of 2019 (playlist below) was by a band I barely had heard before and would finally see live this past February. Fitting that it turned out to be my last live show for the foreseeable future. I wasn't blogging about the music of 2019 as it was happening. I wanted to. Many times. I had plenty to say, but, no. I was spending some part of every workday poring over my company's blog posts in order to craft concise, meaningful posts for my company's social media channels. The last thing I wanted to do when my workday ended was to continue sitting in the same chair in my home office, working on my personal blog and social media posts. I just couldn't. I had to detach. This was the case for the past four years to varying degrees, but true burnout occurred this year. That said, as of October 1, blogs and social media are no longer the focus of my professional career. Finding my next job is. 2020's stench finally caught up to me and I was one of the dozens laid off by my company at the start of this month. And that's okay. I have no doubt that this will prove itself to be a blessing in disguise, but I digress.

2019 was the year I obsessed over new albums from Vampire Weekend and Lana Del Rey, two acts who I instantly loved upon hearing their first singles and albums in 2008 and 2010 respectively, but drifted apart from in the years that followed. It was the year that I discovered great rap albums from Earl Sweatshirt, Chance the Rapper, Denzel Curry, and Sheck Wes. Great new and new-to-me artists like Chloe Lilac, Clairo, Beast Coast, and EARTHGANG. Perhaps, most importantly of all, it was the year I surrendered and became a full-on Swiftie.

I had dabbled in a song here, a video there. I knew she had songs about her exes, lots of albums, tons of fans, and a wealth of talent. I respected how she took care of her fans. In 2019, she released Lover and I was sucked into her world. "Cruel Summer," "Lover," and "Death by a Thousand Cuts" were standouts with the first two landing in the top 30 of my top 100 of 2019 and the latter a shoo-in for 2020's top 15. Not to mention the songs that grabbed me off of this year's front-to-back excellence known as "folklore," an album that has truly been one of the very few personal beacons of comfort and enjoyment I've known during the dumpster fire known as 2020.  

Check out my top 100 of 2019 and maybe find yourself a new favorite from the past.

Got live?

Look, keeping up with the news is a full-time job if you're doing it right. Reading stories from multiple sources, fact-checking, attempting to remain unbiased in your thinking, raising important questions...it's a lot. This blog is NOT about keeping pace with the multiple daily news cycles or my opinions on if a pandemic being "fake news" or legit cause for alarm, is or isn't our president systematically deconstructing the foundation of the democracy this country was built on, or whether or not Black Lives Matter. It's about music. That universal language that hopefully helps us forget about our individual and collective realities for a few minutes at a time.

Sharing new finds, spewing my thoughts on the infinite sea of past and current recordings, and commenting on music-related news stories is my respite, passion, and happy place. Keeping up with new music was often difficult when each week consistently saw several high-profile and under-the-radar releases being thrust into the consumer space. 2020 changed that. It's significantly easier to track new music this year, more so than any other year I've been following my life's obsession. 

The pandemic has impacted supply chains, shut down myriad small businesses (big ones too), and caused job loss, death, and immeasurable (perhaps irreparable) damage to the psyche of our country. If that wasn't enough, it also killed live music - a fundamental part of many acts' business models. Create the product. Bring the product to the masses. Bring the live version of said product to said masses in an effort to grow, and further solidify, the fan base. Sell merch. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My last concert was on February 17th this year. Tacocat. Small venue. Great time. Seeing bands I like do their thing live is essentially what passes for going to church in my world. And just like going to actual church, the ability to catch one's favorite band in concert, in person, came to an abrupt end about a month after I saw Tacocat. You'll read about them in future entries when I wax nostalgic for the now-distant innocence of 2019 and its music. 

Livestreams are no replacement for the "I was there" moments that only happen in person. You just can't virtually replicate unintentional physical contact with complete strangers as you jostle for a good eye-line to the stage. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor inconvenience. There are far bigger COVID-related issues to focus on. Fortunately, we co-exist with technology that doesn't take us back to the clubs, but has provided some interesting musical moments that I'll write about in a future post. So yeah, not being able to see live music is my personal cherry on top of the suckfest sundae that is 2020.

And yes, BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!

RIP EVH

I feel a bit guilty. I've been around long enough to witness the passing of many musicians that informed, influenced, and infected my musical tastes. Some were purely nostalgic losses (like Johnny Nash who died yesterday), others were mourned for their contributions though they weren't among the artists who I strongly connected with (John Prine's passing earlier this year is an example). And then there are the ones that really hurt. 

They're the ones that silence a voice or an instrument that was formative in my life. Sure, nostalgia plays a part as does self-reflection on one's mortality, but some just hit me in the gut as if I lost a family member. Neil Peart's passing this year was rough. I'm not a drummer, but it's my favorite instrument. I spent a chunk of my teen years kneeling next to my bed, beating along to songs on it with a used pair of Zildjian drumsticks gifted to me by a friend of the family, futilely trying to deduce the rhythmic patterns of masters like John Bonham, Lars Ulrich, and the aforementioned drum lord, Mr. Peart. But I digress. 

Hearing yesterday that Eddie Van Halen passed away after a long battle with cancer sucked, but it didn't temporarily stop me in my tracks and crush my soul like when Chris Cornell, Prince, and George Michael died in recent years. Maybe I expected that the news of EVH's passing would come sooner than later given Eddie had been fighting health battles for at least the past 20 years. I don't know. It's a monumental loss. It sucks. I loved Van Halen growing up and into my 20s. Eruption / You Really Got Me, Jamie's Crying, and Dance the Night Away were the first VH songs I can remember hearing as a grade-schooler. I didn't have a wealth of knowledge on the history of the guitar, its masters, or the pivotal songs that highlighted the six-string machine at my disposal back then, but I knew Eddie's guitar sounds were different than anything I'd heard before. And they continued to be with each album that Van Halen released through the 80s, either with David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar at the mic.

Knowing and respecting what Eddie Van Halen brought to rock music and how he elevated the guitar like few others did; setting millions of kids' dreams of being a rock star in motion, it seems I should feel much more emotionally impacted than I do. So yeah, I feel a bit guilty. Eddie will be mentioned in the same breath as the guitar gods and game-changers for the rest of time. Clapton, Page, Hendrix, Lifeson, BB, Buddy, Stevie Ray Vaughan...the Van Halen name belongs in this elite company without question. 

I do a little thing on Spotify called Ten For The Win (aka 10FTW) where I create a playlist of my 10 favorite tracks by a specific singer or band. When the mood hits, I can fire up the appropriate 10FTW playlist (I've got over 300 of these...I know 😂) and have a concentrated blast of the songs I love the most by its respective artist. Some are easier than others to narrow down to just 10 tunes. Van Halen, when I did theirs years ago, was so difficult that I broke them out into separate playlists for the Diamond Dave and Van Hagar eras. As I've listened to both playlists the last 24 hours, I'm certain that Ed's axe-handling was the common denominator that made me keep coming back for more. Siden note, it's also my favorite part of Michael Jackson's Beat It. 

RIP Eddie Van Halen. Thank you for permanently and significantly changing the game and taking the guitar to a level that many others will try to reach in vain. 

Is this thing on?

I've seen my career take unanticipated twists and turns these past four years, akin to riding a theme park rollercoaster for the first time. Wait, let me back up for a minute. I love music. The joy of discovering my next favorite song is one of the few constants I've known throughout my life. Reading about it, writing about it, sharing new finds and classic tracks with others...music makes my world go 'round. 

Despite the joy it brings me, I haven't blogged nearly as much as I would have liked in recent years. Instead, I've focused my energy on my career which has consisted of managing software-focused blogs and social media channels on both the customer support and marketing sides of the corporate coin. Doing so left me with little motivation or inspiration to blog on the topics I'm passionate about and be active on social media myself. It just felt like a continuation of already long workdays spent staring at multiple monitors. I've kept my eye on new music the entire time...again, that is a constant regardless of what else is going on in my world...I just haven't had the juice to blabber on about it. 

A week ago, my company laid me off and effectively reset my priorities. So here I am, looking for my next career move and trying to make sense of all the jumbled thoughts in my head. A head full of thoughts that feels like a plexiglass hopper full of lottery balls, each one waiting to be sucked to the top and announced to the world. Now that I have too much time on my hands, I think it's best that I start clearing out some room in the ol' cranium again. That is if this little fluff muffin I call Bowie can stop using my laptop as a pillow. Stay tuned.