June flew by. A month of birthdays to celebrate and wonderful weather to experience. Lots of great food and great wine. Summer is here and it’s glorious.
June 2024
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May in Portland flips between gorgeous and rain. But it’s starting to lean a little more toward the former and I’m definitely here for it. The month was busy, went by too fast, but ain’t that always the way.
May 2024
I shared an article on the website today that talks about why music tastes solidify in our youth and we return to the music of our teens through thirties for basically the rest of our lives. I (obviously) still seek out new music on a weekly basis and love nothing more than discovering a new favorite band, but there is something so comforting about returning to an old musical friend. One of my pet theories is those summer albums you spent your late teens blasting in the car right after getting your license find an even deeper way into your heart. Summer break, that first taste of (relative) freedom, and nothing to do but drive around trying to blow out your speakers. Boys Like Girls’ debut is one of those albums for me. It’s always screamed of summer and ushering in sunny days and warm evenings. Not surprisingly, Martin’s songwriting has continued to stick with me all these years later. (Do not sleep on those Night Game albums.)
Anyway, here’s to growing up and still spinning our youthful faves. And here’s to summer 2024.
#vinyl
April showers…
It was a month defined by travel. A business trip in the middle of the month to Mexico City, and Hannah off to California at the end of the month. But around the chaos of airports there was still a lot of good music, good friends, and some good weather. Let’s hope for more of that in May.
April 2024
The weather is starting to turn here in Portland. You can feel it in the city. People are starting to spend more time in the park across the street, the temperature is creeping upward, and this week has been ideal to break out this pop-punk gem from last year. Reminding me of the best parts of Sum-41 and early Blink-182, with a fresh youthful perspective, this is easily one of my favorite pop-punk releases in a long time. A worthy addition to not only one of my favorite genres, but my favorite summer albums playlist as well. (And once I saw this t-shirt I knew I had to order it. Could that be anymore me?)
March represented one more trip around the sun. And just at the tail end we started to see it peek its head out again; I’m ready to put the rain in the rear view mirror. Good drinks, good music, good walks, great time with family and friends.
March 2024
February brought (slightly) better weather, some great music, some good books, an incredible concert, and quite a few lovely weekend walks capped off with a perfect beer. And we were able to celebrate Valentine’s Day and my mom’s (long-deserved) retirement.
February 2024
The year started by throwing a few wrenches our way. The wind and ice storm shut down the city for a few days, but at least we kept power the whole time. This led to a lot of nights sitting by the fire with warm drinks and catching up on some long overdue reading. Not a bad way to spend a winter evening.
And the music year started off strong.
Let’s hope for less chaotic weather in February.
January 2024
Brian Fallon has long been one of my favorite lyricists, with dozens of classics under his belt, but there’s a line on the new Gaslight Anthem album that I keep running over and over in my head. Midway through “Autumn” he sings, “I wish I could do my life over, I’d be young better now,” and that lyric has haunted me ever since I first heard it. Such a damning description of growing older, looking back at life, and reflecting on the passing of time. At its core, ‘History Books’ feels like an album full of reflection, rejuvenation, and grace. It’s an album I was unsure we’d ever get, but one that sits proudly alongside the band’s storied catalog.
Sitting here by the fire on another Sunday evening, music softly playing, and thinking about a future where I’ll look back on today as when I was younger. I find it easier to start each week with that as my perspective.
My favorite albums of 2023.
As a whole, I loved music in 2023. I loved how many bands that I’ve followed for years released albums that felt like incredible additions to their catalog. I loved how many new artists I discovered. I loved all the time I spent with music both old and new. And, perhaps most importantly, I loved the way music weaved its way through my year, providing a memorable soundtrack to the passing months.
The Stats: I listened to over 14,470 songs this year (29,840 scrobbles), 988 different artists, and 2,081 different albums. My most played artist was Blink-182, and my most played album was One More Time…, because, of course.
And that’s a wrap for 2023.
All the stats are totaled. My most played albums of the year are on slide two, and we’ll post our end of the year features on January 8th on the website. 🥂
It’s always one of my favorite times of the year, but this year felt extra special. I’ve loved each evening when the lights turned on and slowly filled the house with gold.
A wonderful December with friends, family, and the two cats. We ate lots of good food, our annual Christmas party had all sorts of fun news and life changes from our friends, and we attempted ice skating for the first time in over a decade. And, of course, we listened to a lot of Christmas music.
December 2023
I’ve been trying to remind myself to take photos during the month so I have something to share at the end of it. November is always one of my favorite months of the year. Our wedding anniversary starts it while Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas act as a perfect bookend. (And I see holiday music getting some extra plays this week has already started to creep into my most played albums of the month.)
November 2023
Congratulations to @blink182 on another number one album! My two variants have arrived and I’m just as happy with them as I am the album itself. Beyond my wildest dreams of what I could have hoped for when we heard Tom was coming back.
My full review is up on the website and the feedback has been a little overwhelming. Thank you to everyone for the kind words and for sharing with me how much this band has meant to you over the years. I had a good feeling I wasn’t the only one that felt the way I did, that grew up with blink-182 and experienced much of life soundtracked by their music.
With October coming to an end, I realize how little I’ve posted here over the past year. Not for lack of record buying. 😬 I guess I should try and step that up over the next few months and share some of the new additions.
#blink-182 #blink182 #vinyl
I wrote about @blink182’s new album and what the band has meant to me over the years at chorus.fm.
Call it a review, an essay, a love letter, or just a mess of words trying to work out how this band helped shape our lives.
Yes, I know it’s long. But when I sit down to write I always want the outcome to be something I’m proud of, and when I started writing this, so many different feelings started to bubble. It wasn’t long until I knew I needed it to exist.
The written album “review” barely seems to be a thing these days but they still matter to me. Soon I fear it’ll all be ChatGPT looking “summaries” and hot take reaction videos. But I tried to distill my history and musical journey, and put that into context with the band and their new music. And that matters to me too. My whole thing, from the start, is that I’ve wanted to treat this genre seriously when no one else did.
I’ve been writing this for a while. I hope you can relate. If not with this specific band, to one that’s changed your life.