Hi there reader. How’s it going? You look good. It has been a minute. Yeah, I know I know I should have reached out sooner but …. LiFe aMiRiTe?
I don’t have to tell anyone still reading this, but I have not been what you would call a good “blogger” these last few months. I think I underestimated how much this blog served as a substitute for work during the last few months of furlough szn (shout out to my boy Sean for pushing me to do this). So being back at work, while good(!) came at a cost of this blog (bad!). This isn’t a goodbye post though…it’s just a realization I need to do better and post more. New Year resolution, baby!
For my last post (of the year I can feel your judgement I promise new year new me) I may as well write about music. It 100% without a shadow of a doubt got me through this year.
I do not want to even remotely pretend I had it rough, as my role was to just sit my ass at home and stay out of trouble, but for those of you that **really** know me, you know that an [name redacted] alone in his thoughts can sometimes be a recipe for disaster.
A quick aside I don’t know if it’s been the fact that I’m getting older or just that I have spent the better part of the last year alone in my thoughts, but I find myself reminiscing a lot more these days. But the first musical genre I loved was rap. If you were to have asked 10-year-old me who belongs on a musical Mount Rushmore I 100% would have said MC Hammer, Young MC, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, and Vanilla Ice. I can’t always remember my nieces birthdates, but I have the lyrics to Young M.C.’s “Stone Cold Rhymin” album burned into my head. **A quick aside to my quick aside…how have I never karaoked to “Bust a Move” I’m so ashamed [runs to google to look up the world “seppuku”]. I can remember being in 3rd or 4th grade asking the cooler kids in my class if Young M.C. was cool…which had less to do with him and more to do me trying to be cool (saves this post for when I inevitably need to go to a shrink)
So in lieu of a “Best of 2020” list, if you will indulge me, here are the songs of my year. Which may or may not have come out in 2020 (leave me alone start your own blog if you have quibbles with this list).
- Bastards of Soul “The Waiting Time”
- Phoebe Bridgers “Garden Song”
- The Strokes “Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus”
- Old 97’s “Streets of Where I’m From”
- Juicy J “Killa”
- Heart Bones “I Like Your Way”
- John Prine “When I Get to Heaven”
- Kris Kristofferson “Gettin’ By, High and Strange”
- White Stripes “Ball and Biscuit”
- John Baumann “ Daylights Burning”
- Kanye West “Gone” <- this will always be one of my favorite songs
- Sturgill Simpson “Life Ain’t Fair and the World Is Mean” <- either version works but the bluegrass album is the heat heat
- The Mountain Goats “No Children” <- this is a holdover from 2019 but I heard it in the last episode of “You’re the Worst” which is my favorite tv show and you should watch it. But again, my blog I do what I want.
- Radiohead (no specific song I was just in my feelings)
I also want to shout out the Furlough Emporium of Musical Arts Spotify Playlists (606 songs!), Good Records; the best record shop in Dallas and probably beyond (my frame of reference for the beyond is a little limited but I’m assuming my declaration holds true), and anyone that sent me a song to listen to. Seriously y’all kept me sane!
So here’s to music, and what ever small comforts you found got you through this shit-ass year. Sorry mom and dad for the cuss words. Would love to hear what kept you sane this year, whether it’s music or something else. Don’t be shy. Would love to hear from you! Post it below.