Favorite Album of 2017 Contenders

It's that time of year for best of lists to start rolling out.  At some point I started a google doc with new albums and my ratings for them, but life is a thing that happens so that kind of went to shit. Anyway, I more or less know what will be in my top 5, but beyond that is kind of open right now.

I've been contributing over at Saint Audio where I posted a piece about a new app called Stationhead, for you iOS people. I started a station on there and have already loaded some of the top album contenders on there, so go check that out. If at some point, I see there are actually people listening, I might say a few words.

If you don't have access to iOS, Stationhead or a Spotify premium account, you can get a sample of the albums I'm considering on this playlist. Go listen, one way or the other and soon I'll begin my countdown. As I've said in previous years, I intentionally use the word favorite and not best. I don't know what the best is, just what I like. Fight me.

2016 Contenders

The past couple of years I've put together a favorite albums of the year list. This year didn't start out very promising with a couple of albums that I was anticipating and, honestly, disappointed me. But later, little by little, there were almost too many to keep up with. In any case, in the next few weeks, I'll finalize my list, so keep an eye out. Some good things did happen this year.

As always, these are not necessarily the best critically, just my favorites. There may or may not be some overlap with the deluge of lists that will start hitting the web soon. I don't care, either way.

I pretty much have my top 5 decided. I am certain what number one will be. The rest, I'm still sorting out. I'm still going through several albums again and I may add more for consideration, so if you give a shit what I think, you might want to follow my playlist of 2016 Contenders. I have no idea when I'll even have the time to do my posts like I did last year, since I'm toying with the idea of having more than 10. But we'll see. In the mean time, listen to the playlist but go through to listen to each album represented.

Summer 2016: Chaos Reigns

So much has been said about how 2016 sucks. Deaths of icons. An election that seems to be taken from some parody within an apocalypse within a farce of a nightmare. A climate that is rightfully trying to kill us all with fire, if we don't all just shoot each other first. Race not "still" being an issue, because that's not surprising, but what seems to be an escalation in willful denial about inequality has ignited some truly insane shit. Anyway, the world is on fire figuratively and almost literally. I swear I felt the sun laugh flames in my face the other day as I stepped outside.

I see so many ridiculous arguments on every side of issues with very few people being consistent about a damn thing. I'm constantly amazed about how much people are willing to give up to systems that are clearly broken just because that's "the way it is." The idea that change is incremental is something only people that benefit from the status quo can say with a straight face, as if that was somehow ok. People looking to change things are called naive by those supporting candidates simply because they pledge the right mascot. Everyone is offended but somehow calling out actual offenses is also offensive. It's mind-boggling.  But anyway, about music. . .

I've been listening to a lot of Nick Cave this summer and it's been the perfect voice for all of this. We've partied like it was 1999, but no big time apocalypse came. Instead, it's been a descending spiral for several decades. Cave's narratives are the soundtrack of our elongated doom. But, of course, there's other songs, other voices. Hence my playlist, Summer 2016: Chaos Reigns. Metallica released a song that is not only a great reminder of why they were my band back in the 80s, but is one of the most timely things I've ever heard. And of course, Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" plays in my head every time I'm reminded how shitty the world can be. It's not all doom and gloom, though.  Deap Vally's "Smile More" is an anthem for every woman who's ever been, well, a woman in a supposed man's world, but also for anybody who's ever been outside the norm or just generally feels like they should be left the fuck alone. (Hint: leave everyone the fuck alone). The point is, there's a sense of rebellion here and maybe even hope as well. But, always, unfortunately, for most of us, struggle. Still, at least we're not alone, even if we don't always realize it.

Anyway, listen and think and hopefully enjoy. And I'll try to post more often again, if anyone cares. 

Streaming and Discovery: Where I'm At

Lately, I've been finding it harder to get excited about music. Just yesterday, I started going through the Spotify New Music Friday playlist, which I do each week, and it was an exercise that seemed to be adding digits to my age with each skip. I was wondering if it had finally happened. Had I reached the age and moment where I was going to be the guy saying music today is crap? The guy I hate? It was getting close to it. At this point any song that contains the phrase "in the club" is going to piss me off with how shitty it is, but there has to be something else on this playlist, I thought. And eventually there was, but the percentage was lower than usual. Of course the issue isn't one of age or "music today." It's a complicated one because the very thing I love so much about "music today" is also now becoming the thing that is making it, ironically, harder to find new music I will love. I'm talking about the easy access to everything and how that leads to an almost impossible world of choices in one sense, but no choices in another.

Star Trek. That is all. No, really, one of the most exciting things to me watching Star Trek back in the day was the "Library Computer." They had access to everything on request. They could say "Computer, play The Beatles' Abbey Road" and it would instantly happen. The fact that we actually live in that world now is not something I foresaw but it's something that excites me to no end. All this music that growing up I'd only read about but couldn't find and/or afford (I know, pay the artists and all that, but that's for a different post), I can now listen to on a whim. And the stuff I'd never even heard of is mind-boggling. So much catching up that I've done in the past several years. But I may have reached a point where open exploration has hit it's limit for me. Maybe it's a time thing, too. I just don't have the time to wander through the infinite possibilities to find something I might actually like.

The crew of The Enterprise working on a killer playlist.

Sure, Spotify and others have algorithms to help you and they can be great. Even before streaming, Amazon recommendations lead me to discover The Black Keys (before they were cool) among many others. There's nothing wrong with that. But algorithms are limited. I recently started listening to The Earfuel Podcast, hosted by Joel Freimark, who I had gotten some recommendations from through his YouTube channel The Daily Guru in the past. On a couple of episodes he's spoken about this very issue: how streaming has somehow limited the discovery of new music because the human element is missing. He also talks about how the whole experience of music itself can be very disconnected and empty. And I've been feeling just that for at least a few months now.

Way back in jr. high school, as I've mentioned before, I met a few kids who introduced me to metal. As the years went by, we would all trade cassettes and even vinyl and that's how I would get into everything from Ozzy to Metallica and Mötley Crüe and Guns n Roses, and all that stuff. And that's all great. But the thing is, I was (I can only assume, but fairly sure I'm right) the poorest kid in that collective. I also lived further away and was, frankly, a bit overprotected by my parents. So I wasn't the one going to the record store on my own (or anywhere else) exploring the music bins and just getting whatever looked cool (this would come much later). Hell, we didn't even have cable on a consistent basis so my exposure to MTV was sporadic at best. And radio was just not going to cut it. I got everything filtered and second hand via The Rockers at Kinloch Park Jr. High in the mid 80s. I won't even go into what happened in high school, but the point is, it wasn't easy for me to access music back then, but at least I had a shared experience with friends over what I did get access to.

My section.

Fast forward to now and it's basically the opposite. I'm the one making recommendations to people, except that everyone is so overwhelmed or, frankly, old, that they don't listen, don't care or I don't know what. The thing is, after a certain point, I was always the outlier among any group of friends I've ever had where I'm listening to stuff way off their beaten paths. Sometimes they listen, but it's mostly just Carlos (Mostly Just Carlos is his new band). And he's gotten me into a few artists too. But it's just two of us and there's a whole world out there. It gets hard to navigate and we need guides sometimes.

So I think the next step in the evolution of music streaming is pretty much what Earfuel and others like Stephanie Kibbe at Some Kind of Awesome do. On the face of it, it's not that revolutionary. They have blogs or podcasts and post about artists they like. There are millions of those (you're kind of at one now). But what I think they do that's a little different is the attitude and approach. For starters they are not focused so much on known entities (though Joel will review bigger albums on the podcast at times), but instead focus on artists that you may not hear about elsewhere, whether new or established. They both also have Spotify playlists they update weekly that you should get here and here. They have a goal in mind with what they do. Their intention is to expose you to music you may not find on your own. They are not interested in just being part of an echo chamber where everyone is talking about the same music. But there's one other thing about them specifically that I think sets them apart, as I see it.

Sure, social media makes everyone seem accessible, but not everyone is and it's a weird, tricky thing when they are. I hate people and am not one to talk to strangers in general. Never have been and being in my 40s means I am actually comfortable with that fact now. I have no idea how I managed to get married and have children. But I digress. The thing about Freimark and Kibbe is they are actually very accessible and un-intimidating.  And I feel like that is what actually brings the human element back into the mix. You get a recommendation from a blog where you know nothing about the person writing it and it may as well be an algorithm. But you get something from Kibbe's playlist and read her posts and twitter feed and it somehow makes sense. And if you later hear something, you might find yourself thinking, strangely, that this stranger might enjoy it. And what's more, you can actually share it with her and she might like it. Star Trek's library computer couldn't do that, but that's the thing about music. It's supposed to do that. It's supposed to connect humans together that maybe have never met and have no idea about each other, but somehow this thing is shared.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. I have no conclusion. There is none. It's a an ongoing thing, I guess. I hadn't posted in a while and all this was sitting in my brain so there you have it. Go listen to some music. For example, this new song from Rachel Fannan's new band The Bomb. Play it loud and get your air guitars ready.

2015 Week 51: It's The Fucking Beatles

The Beatles are now on every streaming service. Sort of makes the arguments from some of today's artists against streaming seem silly. All the biggest names in the history of music are pretty much already available. I believe artists should get paid, but the issues most have with streaming services like Spotify are really fights they should be having with their record labels. But whatever, there's always going to be a fight over this sort of thing I guess. It happened when CD's came about and later with iTunes. It happens with everything. Then it just sort of becomes accepted.

One complaint about The Beatles streaming is that they are only including the original Let It Be, as far as I can tell. I prefer Let It Be. . . Naked, the version they released in 2003. Paul never liked the original's overproduction by Phil Spector and I totally agree. The Naked version is stripped down and features a different track list with different takes and edits. In particular, I always hated "The Long and Winding Road" until I heard it without all the strings and orchestration it doesn't need. Also, Naked brings in "Don't Let Me Down" which is one of my all time favorites. Let's hope at some point they decide to add this version to streaming. Also missing, so far is the Anthology series which gathers tons of outtakes, alternate takes and miscellaneous bits. I would also like to see the full mono and stereo albums offered side by side. But maybe I'm just a dreamer.

Anyway, here's a list of my favorite Beatles songs. I could probably edit it down further or go the other way and add more. It's the fucking Beatles.

2015 Week 50: Top 100 Tracks Streamed

Spotify's year in music is one of the great things about streaming. You can get a wrap up of at least some of your music habits in a way that would take way more obsessive nerdetry to do offline than I think even the most insane among us would never do. So, even though I do listen to vinyl and this year started using Google Play to stream my own collection, this number is pretty damn close to reality. 62 thousand minutes. Take that! But what was I listening to? Was it all the same band? Not quite. I don't think I can name 4, 526 artists, but that's what I listened to, at least once. I give everything a chance. How else would you find anything? Spotify also tells me I listened to 12,000 different tracks, mostly in the following genres.

But who gives a shit about genre? Not me, apparently. My top artists where:

1. Tom Waits - 247 Streams
2. Elvis Costello - 189 Streams
3. Arctic Monkeys - 156 Streams
4. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - 144 Streams
5. Ana Tijoux - 121 Streams

So I guess, technically, Elvis Costello should be number 1, but that's how Spotify breaks it down. I'm not sure what they consider a stream though since I get the sense the individual numbers might be too small.  Anyway, next measure was albums and no surprises there either:

1. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs - 117 Streams
2. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones - 77 Streams
3. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie, etc. - 58 Streams
4. Royal Thunder - Crooked Doors - 54 Streams
5. Thunderbitch - Thunderbitch - 52 Streams

Which brings me to my top tracks. I won't get into the top 5 tracks and instead just direct you to this week's playlist, which is just my Top 100 for 2015, according to Spotify. I've been listening to it the past couple of days and while there really aren't any complete surprises, there are a few songs I hadn't actually heard in a while, but I guess I played them a lot at the beginning of the year. There are a lot of newer songs but mixed in with some of my old standbys. Shuffle this playlist and it's pretty much what riding around with me is like.

2015 Week 44: It Is What It Is

I finally loaded my music library onto Google Music. I don't think I'll be switching to Google, only because I do like the interface, music discovery and social features better on Spotify, but it's nice to be able to stream my Beatles and other obscure garage and shit. So I guess I just have two music apps now. What are you gonna do?

So I accidentally deleted this week's playlist and had to create a new one. I tried to more or less capture what I had before. It is what it is. Not much else to say about it, really. Just some songs.

2015 Week 38: Don't Fucking Call Me

The other day this song came up in the car from my favorites and I guess Shayera loved it. When we were dropping Zoey off at daycare, Shayera kept singing it. Her way: "You need your medicine, don't mess with your mama. . . " Still cool.

The new Dead Weather album, Dodge and Burn showed up on Spotify today and it's amazing. Just ordered the vinyl. It's not as dark as Sea of Cowards but still has that Gothic funk badass vibe they are so good at. It's steeped in groove and swagger and pulses with implied sex. This is without a doubt my favorite of Jack White's bands, and I loved The White Stripes. But there's something kind of mythical about this band with the leather and the beats and the danger. Alison Mosshart is maybe the best rock singer around right now, not just vocally but with that certain aura she brings that comes across in her voice. It's in your face and vulnerable, seduces and frightens, intimidates and soothes all at the same time in a way that perfectly captures the angst and abandon of rock n roll. It's the only Jack White band I haven't seen live. For all that is unholy, please tour soon and come down to South Florida, damn it.

This week's Spotify playlist is framed by a phone call. Bet you didn't know that Jayne Mansfield recorded an answer song to The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace." Well, she did, it's called "That Makes It" and it closes off the playlist. In between, it's mostly about loud and in your face because to me, that's what a phone call is. If you know me, you know my motto is "don't fucking call me." Man's greatest achievement is the text message. Use it. A ringing phone is an obnoxious interruption with you on the other end demanding my attention against my will "HEY HEY HEY!!!" Fuck that. My phone's on silent, man's other great achievement. OH BABY YOU KNOW WHAT I LIKE!!

2015 Week 32: As Is

The word artist gets thrown around a lot. And we all have our expectations and stereotypes of what we consider an artist. Is someone who sings, regardless of the genre, the quality or the substance, an artist? I don't know. It's all very subjective anyway. Never mind what is art, what makes one an artist, is an even more complicated question that I'm sure for many brings up the term "sellout" as some polar opposite. But I saw Patton Oswalt a few months back and he did a bit about selling out that perfectly illustrates what bullshit that concept is. Still, when someone comes along that somehow embodies this seemingly ridiculous ideal of what a "true artist" is, it's hard not to take notice, whether you're all in on what they are producing or not. I call your attention once again to Joseph Arthur, who I've mentioned a couple of times here.

Recently, we discovered a heart shape on Pluto, and in an era where we are having to justify to everyone why space exploration is important and how it gives mankind something to dream about, the one guy that gets it right and demonstrates it without being preachy, direct or even intentionally for all I know, is Joseph Arthur. He wrote a poem about it on his Facebook page and shortly thereafter, recorded a song. And of course, because this is Joseph Arthur, there are also paintings. That's what we're talking about. This is a guy that is not only prolific in multiple media, but he's not caught up in the bullshit of making a big deal out of saying he's doing something. He just fucking does it. Maybe we should all take inspiration from that sort of thing and realize something as a species. I don't know what, but something.

Anyway, I can't top that, so this week's Spotify playlist is simply as is. It's 10 songs that struck me this week, in the exact order they did so. I heard them all again as a playlist and it pretty much works. It has a sense of some progression towards, I don't know, something. Do it.

2015 Week 30: Late Night Drive

This guy.

I've mentioned before I've never been a huge fan of Foo Fighters. Not that I dislike the music, either though, but it's just not something I listen to often. But Dave Grohl on the other hand, is a major mancrush. There's just nothing about him I can dislike and everything I've ever heard him say was worthy of respect. Everything that surrounds him has a potent mix of awesome and inspiring and moving. Even, it seems, when he's not directly involved. This week 1000 people in Italy played a Foo Fighters song together just to try to get them to play there. Check it out.

Is it me or is this just the greatest thing that's happened in quite some time, period? The moment I saw it I got lump in my throat at how powerful it is. It just viscerally made me want to move there and be with these 1000 people and hope Dave played for us for hours on end. And to top it off, "Learn to Fly" is such an inspirational song, it's made me dig back into the Foo catalog. I might wind up becoming a real fan now.

And then there's this week's Spotify playlist. It's kind of a late night drive type of situation. It's a little mysterious and dark. It drones and gets slow and low at times. There's not much to say about it, really.

2015 Week 29: Knda Badass-ish

Tonight!

Tonight I go see Slipknot. Given my state of mind, I'm either going to be napping or moshing to my death. Either way: catharsis. If my old ass survives, stay tuned for a write up. In the meantime, here they are fully expressing my philosophy. Poetry.

This week's Spotify playlist is back to the random. I can't make much of a story out of it but there's some consistency there that I can't quite put my finger one. Really just some songs that have a bit of funk and/or rock flair to them, I guess. Some screaming. Some attitude. All coolness and swagger. A little sexy. Kinda badass-ish. Maybe you can you use this to strut into a bar and start, not a fight, but some sort of staring contest. I don't know. It sort of slows down in the end because lazy. 

2015 Week 28: Reasonable Doubts

Stream of Justice!

Everyone knows how much I love my Spotify Premium. So it may come as a surprise to hear that I'm considering a breakup.  One feature I always liked was the ability to load songs that Spotify didn't already have into a local playlist on your phone and then be able to listen to a mix that would include such obscure little bands like The Beatles, for example. This was even one of the main reasons I had for switching from iPhone to a Galaxy, so I could put in an SD card and load tons of music without worry. Well, Spotify's latest desktop apps have made this impossible because they aren't reading local files properly and when they do, they did away with the ability to search them. At this point I'm not even sure how much music I have on my local hard drive because it won't even count it properly.

So I'm looking at Google Music as my next option. I have to stream because I listen to too many odd things and I need to be able to explore at will. I can't be held back by preset stations or any sort of limitation. Google lets you upload up to 50, 000 songs into the cloud to stream from anywhere, using the Google Play app. I'll be giving this a try very soon to see how it works. I don't know. Spotify does seem to have better social and discovery features, but it may just be a matter of getting used to it. We'll see. 

In the meantime, here's this week's Spotify playlist. Once again, I was listening to Serial all week, which I finished so this is an ode to that podcast. It's about murder, guilt, innocence, suspicion, lies and general complexity. I think all humans want to be heard and understood and not getting that can be frustrating. I still don't know what side I come down on in the case, but I'll go into that over at the other blog this weekend maybe, so stay tuned. For now, listen to Reasonable Doubts.

2015 Week 27: The Angry Ass of Summer

I'll be honest, I haven't been listening to a lot of music this week. Instead I've been absorbed in Serial which I started Monday and am already halfway through. Somehow, my wife is already ahead of me, though, so we can't talk about it.  It's times like these I wish I had an hour long commute. No I don't. Fuck that. Still, Serial: do it.

Meanwhile the angry ass of summer is in full force so that's what this week's Spotify playlist is about. I kept a few non obvious tracks on the list that just kinda feel hot and/or sweaty, but for the most part, I just added some standard type tracks that scream summer to me. I'm sure I could have dug some more, but it's hot. See to me, summer isn't all "summer lovers" type stuff. It's swamp ass, thirst and frustration. It's heavy and oppressive like an obnoxious boss at that dead end job you can't quit because the benefits are too good. It's bright and gives you headaches, no matter how dark your sunglasses are and there's a good chance dehydration is just your starting point. It's about the type of heat that has everyone on boil and ready to explode at the slightest shit. There's a reason most riots happen during heatwaves. So, yeah, summer. In Florida. I'm sure people love this shit, but those people are insane.

2015 Week 26: In Touch With Angst

I've been dropping a song of the day (literally) every day over on the Facebook page for a couple of weeks now and I'm already running out of some days of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the hardest ones to find at the moment. And although you'd think the weekends would be the easiest, I think Monday actually has the most choices of any one day, usually about how much Mondays suck. Anyway, keep an eye on it, because I think I'm going to have to go pretty conceptual at some point soon. And feel free to send suggestions or just go ahead and post them on the page.

I was going to put together a 4th of July playlist, but I couldn't decide how to do it. I am not big on patriotism/nationalism so it would never be a whole Yay America type thing, but at the same time, I didn't want to make a whole protest list about all the horrors we should remember have been committed under the pretense of protecting freedom or the hypocrisies of declaring certain truths to be self evident while your slaves are toiling away in the field. See, I wasn't going to get political and I did. That's why there's no list. Anyway, like everything else, the concept of America and independence is complex. You can choose to celebrate the specifics or the concept itself and the progress that it started, no matter how slow. Or you can choose to be the one that points out the bullshit. Both are valid. Both are important. Both are a demonstration of the concept. So, there you go.

So the Spotify playlist this week is one of the more random ones I've put together. Somehow, there's a certain cohesion to it. I decided to start it with some more slow and somber stuff before it picks up, because why not? There's not much a theme, except it does sound a little dark for the most part. Dress in black and put on some mascara to listen to it. Apparently, I'll always be in touch with angst. Maybe next week's will be lighter.

2015 Week 25: Common Sense Prevails

The love you take is equal to the love you make.

So this week's Spotify playlist wasn't coming together because I've gotten back into listening to podcasts so I wasn't listening to as much music. It happens. But still, one of the podcasts I heard this week was NPR's All Songs Considered episode on songs that make you cry. One song that came up in that episode, along with a crushing story, was Patti Griffin's "Moses." I don't know if it was the story that did it, but I instantly loved this song the moment it started playing, but go listen the episode. Patti Griffin is an artists I need to really dig more into. She has another song that I love, which is sort of my mantra now. Every time I hear it, I just want to drive all the way up the turnpike and not turn back. One day. . . .

Anyway, today is an important day so I put together a last minute playlist to celebrate it. It's been an odd week with the whole Confederate Flag controversy and now a substantial ruling to uphold common sense about marriage equality. This isn't a political blog, but some things go beyond politics and to think otherwise is to deny that we are all human beings. I'm just gonna call it Common Sense Prevails. 

2015 Week 24: Regrets, I've Had a Few

So I had a birthday this week. I don't really make a thing out of it, it's just another day and we grow older by the second, so whatever. But at 42, while I've reached a point of not giving a fuck that I've written about before, I still look back at roads not taken, which I've also written about before. One of those roads is having developed as a writer. But it dawned on me this week that one of the things that gives me any potential as a writer is the fact that writing was always the window through the wall I built around myself. It was and is a wall I built to protect my awkward and socially misunderstood soft inner core. The thing is, at a certain point, I made a choice, either consciously or not, to break at least some of that wall down in order to have an actual life. When I did that, I think I lost a little bit of the honesty, passion and hunger I had for writing because I didn't need it. It's a trade off I don't regret. The thing is had I not done that, I might be a great writer now, but I'd also be a miserable hermit. As it is, I get to have a great family, good friends and still be a joyfully miserable hermit on occasion, so best of both worlds.  Anyway, I'll continue to plug away at this writing thing as best I can whenever I find the time and energy and that's all I can do. At least now I actually have real things to write about sometimes. Sometimes.

So with that in mind, this week's Spotify playlist is about the back and forth of regret and acceptance. It's about doing things your way, when possible, but the reality that life sometimes doesn't let you or you just weren't strong enough that time. Some of it is about that guy with the wall up and what happens when it comes down. Life is not all about glory, after all. Sometimes we're disappointed in ourselves. Sometimes it's not our fault. And sometimes it totally is. So, here is Regrets, I've Had a Few.

2015 Week 23: Coping

SATAN!!!

I keep coming back to the heavy. Is this my version of a midlife crisis, getting back to the metal? The great thing is I'm not going back to stuff I use to listen to when it's about feeding my hormonal awkwardness. It's stuff that's new to me. Bands I've never heard. Sounds that are different from what I grew up with. But no matter how much I dig into other genres, like my new fado obsession, I still come back to the heavy.

So this week's Spotify playlist is nothing special, except I saw some accidental pairings in there after the fact. It's on the heavy side, as has been the trend lately for me, but has some softer moments as well. This is clearly due to stress, which I won't go into. If you know, you know. You know? In any case, let's call it Coping.

2015 Week 22: Manic Mood Swinging Mess

There was a time I liked going to the clubs and I'd actually get drunk enough to dance. It eventually led to going to raves where the music was bit more interesting and the scene more colorful. I quickly tired of the whole thing, but for a while there, those variations of house music were pretty thrilling. It's all about the drop. And I guess today's EDM as it's called is basically the same shit. Build up, drop, manic crescendo, repeat. While I don't see how anyone can be into that for a long period of time, I get it. It's all about that moment before the drop, though. That tingling feeling, sometimes in silence, you get before the insanity ensues and the lights and substances enhance the fact that everyone in the crowd is one gyrating mass. It's a release and it's thrilling because you know it's coming like the drop on a roller coaster. But before that release, when the tension is at a level where your asshole is shut tight and the veins in your neck are about to pop, like you're about to skid off a cliff and there's nothing you can do about it and part of you just doesn't know what's next at all, it could be the end or who knows what. Imagine that for a second. Now imagine it for a whole week. That's been the week I've had and witnessed others having. So, yeah, I found a way to make that fact be about music. So, now comes the release, finally, if temporarily.

Except, this week's Spotify playlist isn't really about release or EDM. Instead it's a Manic Mood Swinging Mess about anxiety and nervous breakdowns and who the fuck knows what else. It's a bizarre collection of songs that are great on their own but here come together to at least slightly unsettle you. It's meant to keep you on your toes, never comfortable with what the next track might be. In the end, I would hope it still leads to pleasant surprises and there may even be some moments of easy transition. But in the end, it's not anything to made sense of and should make you feel somewhat restless. Like this week. Enjoy.

2015 Week 21: Furiosa's Roadmix

She's gonna need some tunes to go with this much badass.

Not much to talk about except this week's Spotify playlist. It started happening, just by chance, as I was adding songs this week that struck me, that they almost all featured badass female singers and heavy songs. So, since I'm still thinking about how great Mad Max: Fury Road was, I decided to go with it and did some editing and adding to turn it into Furiosa's Roadmix. There are a couple of obvious but necessary tracks on here, but mostly I stuck with the original random songs I was adding. Honestly, I could do many volumes of this one. Something about rock, like real badass, not giving a fuck type rock, has an extra punch when it's a coming from a woman. Something something patriarchy. I don't know. Look, just listen to this thing while you're driving or just feeling like a badass or feeling like you need to feel like a badass, woman, man, whatever. But mostly, when you're driving. Do it. That is all.

Something is Wrong With My New Music Gauge

This morning, listening to the new releases on Spotify on the way in, I felt like that which I hate. I felt like the old, nostalgic, stuck in the past folks who say things like "kids today don't know what good music is" or "they don't make them like they used to." Phrases I hate and ideas that are just not true for several reasons. For starters people that say this are usually stuck on Top 40 pop music and don't remember how to explore to find new music. But beyond this, they all seem to forget that there was crap in their day too. But I'm not going to rant against them, because this morning, for a brief moment, I understood them. I was them.

Maybe not this old.

As I heard the new releases, I just kept skipping stuff saying "No!" after a few seconds that revealed some dubstepish wah wah bullshit or some modern hip hop caricature. Granted, I was queuing some of it up knowing what I was getting myself into, but still, fuck you, Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea. Yes, directly, even though they weren't the only offenders. The whole affair just left me ready to Hulk smash, really. But hopefully, I'll find something of interest being released this week. I don't normally care what era my music discoveries are coming from, but I would like a balance and a sense that something worthwhile is still happening, currently. I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but still. In the meantime, BRMC says it best.