A Music Blog. Once in WA, now in Plano, TX.
It’s spreading–this craze to create a Pandemic Playlist. And I caught it. As we all–or, at least the smarter of us non-essentials–self-isolate at home, it’s given many of us time to tackle assorted projects, renew our personal goals, reconnect with folks we lost track of in the obsessive quest for the almighty dollar, and, finally,…
2019 saw some great releases. Here are ten I felt were worthy of adding to my collection. This list is far from comprehensive, but as of right now it’s my top 10.
I’ve been in a weird place musically of late. I’m a bit scattered, all over the map. My affinity for light, soft and playful folk has returned, but I’m also crushing on slacker pop and dream pop at the moment. Pretty hard, thank to bands like Darlings and Indians. I shouldn’t be surprised at this…
Continuing the countdown to my favorite record of 2012, today I present numbers 11 through 20.
Andi and I went to the beach this past weekend. And now we’re engaged, around five years and five days after our official first date. We’re pretty excited and have been talking to all our old friends about the plans (completely unofficial at this time); most likely a June 2013 wedding. I sense a show…
This was supposed to be a productive week, those hours after work. But I ended up doing what any solid music nerd would: procrastinate by going through my records and singles, rediscovering old favorites and discovering new treasures hidden within my collection. We listened to The Smiths on repeat for a few days. I dug…
I got pulled over tonight. Nothing big, just a bad taillight. The cop may have thought I was trying to evade him, pulling into the dark, always vacant Skagit Valley College parking lot late on a Friday night. As soon as I rounded the corner, his lights went on.
“Serpents” is a complete departure from Sharon Van Etten‘s early work. Admittedly, I missed her sophomore release, Epic from 2010, but was fully entranced by her debut, 2009’s Because I Was In Love. Here, she shatters the quietude of the stripped-down acoustic guitar of that earliest album with a folk-rock piece that is utterly haunting….
After a week away, it was nice to be back in the studio. This week I played several folk-related tunes, a few garage-based ones, and a small handful of indie pop tracks. With the amount of indie-folk I’ve played of late, I’m thinking we’re in store for another dreamy mix and maybe even a garage…
The introduction to Sharon Van Etten came, quite surprisingly, through a recent comment on my track review of Julie Peel’s “Unfold”. Even more shocking was the discovery that I had prior communication with Van Etten on other affairs. So she was more than gracious to provide me material in which to pump out this review….