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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 35: “World Spins Madly On” by The Weepies

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Woke up, and wished that I was dead.

It’s 3am on the morning of November 6, 2025, and I’m still at work. One of the less desirable things about being a local journalism professional is that, on election nights, you’re up until all the precincts in your area report out their numbers and you can start projecting winners for things like county board seats or township administrators. At this point in my career, I’ve pulled the election night graveyard shift four or five times, and I typically don’t mind it much. I usually just put on a movie around 10:30pm and wait until the numbers start rolling in and I can write up my report so that the results are there in our subscribers’ email inboxes the next morning. In this particular case, though, the election night shift is the stuff of nightmares, because it involves writing the following words as my lede:

“Former president Donald Trump looked likely to win the presidency as of 3am Wednesday morning, defeating Democratic challenger (and current vice president) Kamala Harris.”

I haven’t been shellshocked a whole lot of times in my adult life, but I was truly at a loss for words watching the results come in on election night last year. With every passing hour, I could feel my heart sink a few more inches, until I finally punched in that sentence at 3:00 in the morning, turned off my computer, and tried to get some sleep. There was no movie that night, nothing pleasant or fun to kill the time as I waited for the moment when I’d have enough information to write up my local election report. Instead, I spent the better part of five hours obsessively refreshing my election maps, social media feeds, and Chorus.fm forums, looking for some sign that the growing feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach was an overreaction.

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Kewl Haze – “Used To Have It All” (Song Premiere)

Kewl Haze
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone an early listen to the new single from Philadelphia psych rock band, Kewl Haze, called “Used To Have It All.” The two-piece band is Dan Scott Forreal and Derek Sheehan, and this artist is somewhere in the same realm as other bands like Tame Impala and Beck. Sheehan shared about the direction of the music Kewl Haze took on their debut LP, Suburban Sherpa:

’Used to Have it All’ was one of the early songs we wrote for the album. We started demoing this song at my home studio in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia back in 2021 after Forreal and I moved him back across country from LA. The song came together pretty quickly. I started strumming the chords for the verse and chorus, we put a drum beat to it and added bass, synth and lead guitar for the verse/chorus. We pretty much finished the instrumental demo that night. Forreal later laid down a vocal take at his home studio and I loved the direction. The lyrics were about a recent break-up/post break-up bender. The narrative of the song is hilariously devastating and self-deprecating while also poking fun at modern dating culture. We went to Retro City Studios in Germantown and recorded drums and I wrote lyrics and tracked vocals for the bridge. With that, the song was wrapped. We then brought the song for final mixing to Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire Eater) and re-amped guitars and added some additional synth and percussion at his studio Silent Partner Studios in Germantown. Matt’s good friend and co-owner of Silent Partner, Quentin Stoltzfus (Light Heat, Mazarin) mastered the track. We are super excited to officially share our first single with the world. Enjoy!

If you’re enjoying the new single, please consider pre-ordering their new record here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 34: “Brother” by Brett Eldredge

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Brother, I think it’s time we talk; why do guys like us spend most our lives playing it tough?

I just kept replaying it.

On the morning of Saturday, November 23, 2024, as I ran circles around my neighborhood in the rain, I found myself double-tapping my AirPods every three and a half minutes to restart the song. I wanted – no, I needed – to hear it again. It was the one thing keeping me from spiraling out of control. For that run, and that day, and that weekend, this particular song was my force of gravity. If I just kept playing it, then I could keep the things I held dear from floating off into the ether.

I am not the type of person to replay songs ad nauseum. Even the songs I love most have rarely had me reaching for the replay button more than two or three times in a row. So why was it that, on that November morning, the only thing that felt appropriate was listening to a mostly-forgotten album track from country-soul singer Brett Eldredge 10 times in a row?

That morning, I’d woken up to the kind of text messages you never want to see on your phone screen. “I know you won’t see this until the morning but please give me a call whenever you can.” My sister-in-law had sent that text at 2:08 in the morning. Another message, from a mutual friend of my brother’s, said “PLEASE know I’m thinking about you and the family. I’m here for whatever you guys need.”

I have never popped out of bed faster.

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Interview: Teppei Teranishi of Thrice

Thrice
Adam Grundy

A couple of days ago, I was able to schedule an in-person interview with Teppei Teranishi of Thrice in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss the band’s excellent new record called Horizons/West. In this interview, I asked Teppei about the writing process of a few key songs on the new LP, the vinyl reissue plans of key albums like The Alchemy Index, and much more. Thrice are currently wrapping up their fall tour, and tickets are on sale here.

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Review: The EXOHs – Light Of The Moon

The EXOHs - Light Of The Moon
Adam Grundy

Sometimes you discover a band that makes everything else you’ve been listening to seem almost obsolete. I got that exact feeling the first time I heard The EXOHs vibrant single called “Soarin'”, that ended up being my favorite song released all of this year. The band, which is comprised of Chris Canberg & Michael Perdichizzi, is well on their way towards making a name for themselves on this shimmering collection of four songs known as Light of the Moon. Music is intended to make us feel one thing or another, and The EXOHs latest music makes me feel like anything is possible. With a sound that fits somewhere in the same realm as The Fray, Goo Goo Dolls, and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, The EXOHs have taken the next dramatic leap in their artistic development on Light of the Moon.

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Review: The Cranberries – MTV Unplugged

The Cranberries - MTV Unplugged
Adam Grundy

The MTV Unplugged series is pretty legendary in its own right, with memorable and iconic performances from bands like Nirvana and Alice In Chains setting a high bar for others to try and reach for. Originally recorded at Brooklyn’s Howard Gilman Opera House on Valentine’s Day in 1995, The Cranberries’ MTV Unplugged session is finally getting a widespread and official release. The magic of the late-vocalist Dolores O’ Riordan, and her band’s performance in The Cranberries, is finally getting its proper day in the limelight with this stunning 9-track collection released today. You probably know all the songs by heart; from the vulnerable “Linger”, to the visceral delivery of “Zombie”, The Cranberries had a knack for writing legendary songs during the mid to late 90’s. The MTV Unplugged series continues to live on with grace on this ultra-memorable performance from The Cranberries.

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Interview: Twin Shadow

Twin Shadow
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a quick phone call with an artist named Twin Shadow before he played a concert at Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre opening for Neon Trees, in support of his upcoming record called Cadet, that will be released everywhere on November 20th via Dom Recs. In this interview, I asked this talented artist about key tracks from his seventh studio album, plus where he finds most of his inspiration for his art. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider pre-ordering Cadet here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 33: “Friends” by Matchbox Twenty

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

All my friends, all my friends are here

“All my friends are here.”

Those were the words pumping out of my AirPods as I took off from the start line of my second-ever marathon.

Wind back the clock a decade ago and show me the words I just wrote, and I would not believe they were genuine. Despite being a long-time distance runner, the idea of facing down the grueling task of running 26.2 miles without stopping didn’t just sound unpleasant – it sounded stupid! But the pandemic reoriented a lot of things for me, one of which was my dedication to distance running. And so, on May 27, 2023, I laced up my racing shoes and gave the marathon distance my second try, despite some excruciating memories that were still fresh in my brain from having run the same distance on the same course just one year earlier.

The running community has mixed feelings about racing with music, especially marathons. There’s this belief, in some circles, that music is a crutch, or even a distraction. Having tried racing a marathon since that second one without headphones in my ears, I can definitely understand the appeal of leaving yourself open to hear the world around you – conversation with other runners, cheers from the crowd, snippets of whatever songs spectators happen to have blaring out of their Bluetooth speakers as you run by – not to mention the sharp focus you can lock into when there’s nothing in your head but the miles. For my first five marathons, though, I did run with music, and during that second one, it helped carry me off to a level of serenity I had never achieved before and have never returned to since.

A lot of that, I think, had to do with the song I chose to kick off marathon attempt number 2.

The day before that race, Matchbox Twenty released Where the Light Goes, their fifth album as a band and their first one since 2012. Matchbox Twenty had been one of my favorite bands in the world growing up. Starting with their hit-filled debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You from 1996, this band and their angsty, melodic songs were a platonic ideal for me of what music could be. I still can’t hear tracks like “Real World,” “3AM,” or “Push” without flashing back to car rides to school when I was in first grade, my brother’s copy of the Matchbox Twenty debut spinning in the CD player. Later, as I started governing my own music listening, 2000’s Mad Season and 2002’s More Than You Think You Are were some of the first albums I truly fell in love with. The former was, for a time, my very favorite album ever.

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Review: Susong – matae

Adam Grundy

Coming off of their critically acclaimed last record of We Are In This Together, Susong have returned with a vibrant new EP, called matae, which means “to give up”. In contrast to their opening statement of coming together, Michael and Matt Susong explore the depths of the concept of surrendering, while still building a community of getting artists to collaborate together. Pablo Vega (The Workshop) engineered and mixed the new EP, while Thomas Gleaner designed the artwork. On this 4-song EP, Susong not only expanded upon the feelings of letting go but they also created a world filled with hope and wonder.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 32: “evermore” by Taylor Swift

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

Hey December, guess I’m feeling unmoored; can’t remember what I used to fight for

In competitive running, they call it hitting the wall: the moment near the end of a race, usually a long, arduous one, where all the fight goes out of you. Your legs feel like lead, your heart is hammering on overdrive, your lungs are screaming at you to stop, and your mind is sounding every alarm bell it knows how to hit, all in a desperate attempt to override any motivation, goals, or positive self-talk you have left. Suddenly, everything inside of you is screaming the same word at maximum volume: quit, quit, QUIT.

When Taylor Swift released evermore, her second surprise album of 2020, on Friday the 13th of that December, I felt like a man who had hit the wall – not in my ability to run a race, but in my ability to weather a particularly fraught chapter in human history. When the sun rose that morning, it marked nine months to the day since the year’s other Friday the 13th – the March day when the world had turned upside down in the face of the incoming COVID-19 pandemic. And, for my part, I wasn’t sure if I could take any more months.

Writing about evermore on my favorite albums of 2020 list (it came in at number 3), I wrote that it “dropped on a chilly December Friday that just so happened to be the end of one of the worst weeks of my life.” At the time, I did not elaborate. I felt like everyone’s lives were in disarray, and I thought the sentiment would be more relatable if I didn’t tell my full story of why Taylor Swift’s saddest album came to mean so much to me as 2020 drew to its (merciful) conclusion. After all, who couldn’t relate to feeling down about a Christmas season where the very things that make the holidays special – namely, the warmth of togetherness with family and friends – were going to be all but impossible?

Five years later, I’m ready to share what happened that week, and that year, and how it tore my family apart, changed my entire life, and reframed my whole damn worldview. And I’m ready to tell that story because every time I listen to evermore, particularly the beautifully, exhaustedly sad title track, I can’t help but flash back to where I was the first time I heard it.

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Review: Tired Radio – Hope In The Haze

Tired Radio - Hope In The Haze
Adam Grundy

Originally started as a solo project by guitarist/vocalist Anthony Truzzolino, Tired Radio has returned with Hope in the Haze, an album that finds Truzzolino navigating through the darkness to find a way out. He shared, “We’re about to release this new record that was written at the darkest point of my existence, and I’m nervous for people to hear because it’s all the dark parts of Tired Radio and none of the levity. Very heavy musically and lyrically.” The raspy voice of Truzzolino works well to match the pain that he feels on key songs like “D.R.E.A.M. (Depression Ruins Everything Around Me)”, as Tired Radio finds ways to accelerate their development as a full-fledged band. Produced and engineered by Gary Cioni (Hot Mulligan) with some additional production contributed by Matt Weber (Sweet Pill), Hope in the Haze paints a picture of a person at rock bottom, yet willing to claw their way back to the top. I promise it’s worth the journey, and it’s easy to root for Tired Radio’s breakthrough.

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Review: Taylor Acorn – Poster Child

Taylor Acorn - Poster Child
Adam Grundy

There’s something pretty magical about Taylor Acorn. Could it be her knack for writing big pop-punk hooks that drew me into her music in the first place? Perhaps. Maybe it’s her ability to connect with relatable themes such as growing up, nostalgia, and fractured relationships that makes her musical case that much more compelling. Taylor Acorn has everything you’d want in a rising songwriter/performer, and she puts it all on full display on her sophomore record called Poster Child. “This record feels very personal but it feels nostalgic at the same time,” Acorn shares about the lyrical theme of Poster Child. “I feel like some songs are kind of on the angry side and are very vulnerable, but there’s also a lot of songs that made me feel really nostalgic for my childhood where you could go to the Warped Tour as a 15-year-old and there’s no worries about that.” By connecting to her past, while still moving her songwriting forward in exciting new directions, Acorn has all the makings of a star burning its brightest at the right moment in time.

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Interview: Ronnie Winter and K. of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Ronnie Winter and K. of emo rock band, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, to discuss their latest record called X’s For Eyes. The band’s sixth album to date features key cameos on songs like “Always the King” (ft. Kellen Quinn) and “Worth It” (ft. Craig Mabbitt) and an urgency towards the political climate today. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider streaming X’s For Eyes here.

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Interview: Taylor Acorn

Taylor Acorn
Adam Grundy

A couple of weeks ago, I scheduled a Zoom call with Taylor Acorn to discuss everything that went into her excellent sophomore LP, Poster Child, that is out everywhere you stream your music today. In this interview, I asked Taylor about key songs from Poster Child, the inspiration behind some of these songs, and what keeps her motivated in her musical career. Taylor Acorn will be supporting Poster Child with a headlining tour, and tickets are on sale here.

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My Life In 35 Songs, Track 31: “Passing Afternoon” by Iron & Wine

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

There are things that drift away, like our endless numbered days

“What song would you want to have played at your own funeral?”

Back in 2011, a friend and I decided to work through a 30-day song challenge on Facebook together, each of us posting one song per day in response to the same prompts. I have to chuckle in retrospect, realizing that the challenge bore more than a little resemblance to this series that I have spent the past seven months making my raison d’etre. That exercise was colder and more simplistic in its approach, though. Most days were less about deep emotional exorcism and more about the most rudimentary questions you could ask about someone’s music taste. “A song that reminds you of someone” was one prompt. “A song that you listen to when you’re sad” was another. But the overall idea of the project – essentially, selecting songs that for one reason or another were part of your life soundtrack – was the same as the driving force behind “My Life In 35 Songs.” And it stands to reason, when you’re making a soundtrack for your life, that you might flash-forward and try to imagine the song that would roll over your end credits, whenever they happen to arrive.

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