My favorite records from last Friday, over on Crucial Tracks: www.crucialtracks.org/crucial-r…

Chet is ready. Go Bills.

Hiking last weekend at Franklin Gulf

Recently had the pleasure of doing an interview for Foofaraw and their Consumption Gumption series. Check it out! foofaraw.press/jason-det…

The newest Crucial Tracks interview is up! Featuring Matt Dente, guitarist in the hardcore bands Despair and Longest War. Kicking off 2025 strong! www.crucialtracks.org/crucial-t…

I just posted the first Featured Crucial Releases from 2025! New records from Ethel Cain, Lambrini Girls, and zzzahara. www.crucialtracks.org/featured-… Enjoy!

Listened to the new Ethel Cain this afternoon and have spent the rest of the day thinking about it. Not sure it’s entirely enjoyable as music (for the most part) but as art it’s pretty amazing. It’s parts haunting, anxiety inducing, and beauty. Like a black and white horror movie set to slowcore.

📺 Finished: Dark Matter (Apple TV+) - a pretty faithful adaptation of one of my favorite books. I held off watching it because I didn’t want to be disappointed. Fears unfounded!

I really want to publish more Crucial Tracks interviews in 2025. To help, I put together a framework that is a starting point for participants. If you love music and want to think about (and share) what music made you who you are today, head over and follow the instructions! We’d love to have you.

Did our annual New Years Day hike today. This year to Tifft Nature Preserve just south of Buffalo. You can see the old grain silos near downtown in the background.

Last.fm year-end reports are out! Here’s mine.

Year number 3 of my song-a-day playlist is in the books! Find 2024 here and the brand new 2025 version here. Apple Music only, sorry.

Locked in and published: my favorite 20 albums from 2024. www.crucialtracks.org/my-favori…

New hack to get page views has to be load your site up with so many scripts that the page repeatedly crashes on 50% load, so you have to keep refreshing the page. Every “major” site I visit seems to be this way now. The internet is so broken.

Finished reading: Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman 📚

Exporting GoodLinks Highlights to Craft: I’ve been exploring Craft more, now that I took advantage of their 50% off for life promotion. It’s been fun discovering all the new features since I last used it, as well as how I can integrate apps like Things and GoodLinks, which I have been using more often. My most recent discovery has …

Taking the People Pledge: Adam Newbold, the purveyor of Neatnik/OMG.lol/Social.lol and many other sites, just launched The People Pledge: I pledge to recognize the dignity and worth of all people. I will not discriminate against or devalue anyone because of their age, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, …

Cazenovia Lady Chiefs took home the 19u championship tonight at Buffalo RiverWorks, with a 4-0 shutout. Great team victory!

Pulled all of my favorite albums into one Apple Music playlist to facilitate the final listen for inclusion on the Crucial Tracks end-of-year list. Listen along!

We are pretty much a kakistoligarcracy now aren’t we? Billionaires get richer, while some of the worst humans alive get to run the federal government. And yeah I probably just made up that word. Fitting.

Uhhh, looks like the NYT is continuing its streak of stellar coverage. I am sure there are many people and stacks of government subsidies that would like a word with “single-handedly.” Gonna be a long 4 years.

Episode 2 of my new project on Crucial Tracks, where I listen to records from RollingStones Top 150 albums of all time that I’ve never heard before… this time #131 to 140. Bob Marley, Funkadelic, Adele, and Joni Mitchell…

To keep myself busy with something I like, I’m working on a new project over at Crucial Tracks where I do a focused listen of albums from the RollingStone Top 150 albums of all time list that I’ve never heard completely (or at all…) – today’s post is #141-150. Mainstream …

Appropriate time for this shirt.

Disappointment: As a parent of a trans son and two daughters (all teenagers), I’m obviously disappointed and saddened by the results from last night. Mainly because morality, decency, competency, and facts no longer matter. The U.S. is officially a self-centered, narcissistic nation, though it’s most certainly been …

New Crucial Tracks site on Ghost is coming along! Added some older posts, like my One Last Wish series and older year-end music reviews. Also, just posted my favorite releases from the first two Fridays of October.

Can’t believe this kid is a senior. In a way, he’s always been an old soul. Smart beyond their years; a truly empathetic, caring person; a great friend to all; and naturally talented at whatever they try. Milo gives me hope for the future, because I know he will be in the mix helping to create it.

Finished reading: How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith 📚

We've gone insane: I have been refraining from posting politics, but this new study is just absolutely insane. 🔗 Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy Any kind of mass deportation, like Trump and Vance are proposing, is beyond reckless…on top of the racism and xenophobia. This …

New on Crucial Tracks… a mega upload of my recent favorite albums! crucialtracks.org/2024/09/f…

New Reeder!: The new version of Reeder is out and it is glorious. Reeder is by far the most used app on my phone. It’s been my go to RSS feed reeder since 2011 and I’m pretty sure it was one of the first apps I bought for my iPhone, after switching from Android that year. Like most app addicts, I’ve tried a LOT …

The Dismemberment Plan Reunite For Their First Show In A Decade: Watch The Dismemberment Plan were my favorite show I ever put on in college. So fun and in a friend’s basement too.

Finished reading: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler 📚

Birthday Northern Lights! So awesome.

Lots of great new records this past week! See Crucial Tracks for more: crucialtracks.org/2024/04/f… (Also, the drawing for the record giveaway is complete. Subscribers, check your inbox to see if you won!)

One week to go until the Crucial Tracks record giveaway! Learn more about what records you can win and then enter to win by subscribing to our newsletter here: crucialtracks.org/record-gi…

Over on Crucial Tracks… last two weeks worth of my favorite albums: crucialtracks.org/2024/04/f…

Whelp that was cool. Clouds opened up just in time!

Most Buffalo thing ever: sunny, perfect days over the weekend. 60 degrees plus. Eclipse day? Cloudy and kind of dreary. We’re gonna make the best of it, though! Street blocked off, snacks made, chairs set up.

A neglectful music blog host would like to make it up to you with a March super post of my favorite albums released in March, to date: crucialtracks.org/2024/03/f… Enjoy!

Just published my favorite albums from the past two weeks, including Mannequin Pussy’s I Got Heaven and The Past is Still Alive by Hurray for the Riff Raff. That and more over at Crucial Tracks! crucialtracks.org/2024/03/f…

Better late than never – my favorite music releases from the last two weeks! Featuring Friko, IDLES, Ducks Ltd, The Chisel, and Heems. crucialtracks.org/2024/02/f…

I am 100% convinced that any childhood memory of time or distance (and usually hardship caused by said amount) is actually half of that in reality. Recent visits to my hometown neighborhood (so small!) AND I just tested my wife on her “riding my bike 7 miles to school” story. Actually, 2.5 miles. 😂

New music for February 2nd! Liquid Mike is the highlight here, but don’t sleep on very solid solo albums from J Mascis (Dinorsaur Jr) and J Robbins (Jawbox). crucialtracks.org/2024/02/f…

Just posted my favorite albums from this week’s new release pile: crucialtracks.org/2024/01/f…

The latest issue of Crucial Tracks should be hitting inboxes now. Here’s a sample, if you want to check it out. It’s a great time to subscribe – we are doing a record giveaway at the end of February and all newsletter subscribers are eligible to win!

My fave new music releases from today: crucialtracks.org/2024/01/f…

Finished reading: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik 📚

My favorite music release from this week: Letter to Self by SPRINTS. More here: crucialtracks.org/2024/01/f…

Some start of a new year updates for Crucial Tracks: My 2023 musical diary is complete (and why you should do one in 2024), updates to the newsletter schedule, and a RECORD GIVEAWAY for subscribers! More here.

Crucial Tracks is growing up fast! New domain and website is live. Stop by and check it out. New issue is going out soon, so it’s a perfect time to subscribe. 🤘✌️

My official 2023 year in review for music is up on Crucial Tracks. Lots of good music to check out. Enjoy!

Adjustments have been made to my end of year album list on Album Whale, as well as the corresponding draft of next week’s Crucial Tracks issue focused on 2023. Good things happening over at Crucial Tracks – if you are a music fan, be sure to subscribe!

The second issue of Crucial Tracks just went out. This issue features the other half of the team, Chris Fritton aka The Itinerant Printer. It’s a genre spanning opus and an amazing introduction to his life with music. Check it (and subscribe to not miss a future issue!)

In case you missed, here are Apple Music and Spotify playlists for the first issue of Crucial Tracks, my newsletter focusing on the impact of music on your life.

Come read my music-focused origin story on Crucial Tracks. The first issue just posted!

(And finally) Some albums that didn’t make my 2023 favorites, but were still enjoyed… Hip Hop edition: To What End by Oddisee And Then You Pray for Me by Westside Gunn Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown Sundial by Noname Indiana Jones by Boldy James & RichGains

Some albums that didn’t make my 2023 favorites, but were still enjoyed… R&B Adjacent edition: The Age of Pleasure by Janelle Monae Red Moon in Venus by Kali Uchis Falling or Flying by Jorja Smith Fountain Baby by Amaarae Raven by Kelela Heaven by Cleo Sol My Soft Machine by Arlo Parks

Some albums that didn’t make my 2023 favorites, but were still enjoyed… Hardcore/Punk edition: Slogan Machine by Gumm Living Proof by Drain Consume Me by Big Laugh Hellmode by Jeff Rosenstock Walk the Wheel by Truth Cult Would You Miss It? By Koyo Of Days Renewed… by Magnitude

Some albums that didn’t make my 2023 favorites, but were still enjoyed… Alternative/Indie edition: Pure Music by Strange Ranger Infinite Spring by Superviolet s/t by Liquid Mike In the End It Always Does by The Japanese House Lucky for You by Bully Careful of Your Keepers by This is …

Announcing Crucial Tracks: I am super excited to announce the launch of a newsletter project with my friend Chris (aka The Itinerant Printer). The site is called Crucial Tracks and it focuses on the songs that made you who you are today. Everyone has moments in their life that are defined by music. Whether it’s a song that …

I’m pretty set with my favorite albums from 2023. I’m going to write up something in depth during December, but here’s the list. Something for everyone: indie, pop, singer songwriter, alt-country, 90s alternative redux, emo, hardcore, R&B and hip hop. Hope you find something new that you love.

I have a fantasy hockey league that had two drop out from last season. It’s $40 to enter with payouts of $240/120/40 to top 3 teams. If interested, let me know and I will get you the details.

Finished reading: Upgrade by Blake Crouch 📚

Saw Sunny Day Real Estate tonight - been over 20 years since the last time and they sound just as good as ever.

Can’t believe it’s travel hockey season already. Really glad we fell in with this great group of families & girls. Looking forward to see where they go in their first year at 16u.

We’ve been to the theater more this summer than the last 5 years combined. Here are a few others we liked: 🍿 Theater Camp (2023) - ★★★★☆ 🍿 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) - ★★★★★ 🍿 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) - ★★★★☆

Completed the Barbenheimer: 🍿 Oppenheimer (2023) - ★★★★★ 🍿 Barbie (2023) - ★★★★★

Loving the new wallpaper we put up yesterday in our small bathroom. Another step toward completing the project!

The Making of CIVILIAN by Wye Oak - featuring Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack — Life of the Record — Overcast One of my favorite albums of all time. A great conversation with the band as they look back at recording and their experiences around that time of their life.

21 years with this amazing lady!

We’ve reached the half way point of my song-a-day playlist for 2023. Follow along on Apple Music! music.apple.com/us/playli…

🍿 Nimona (2023) - ★★★★★ Amazing adaptation! We loved it so much.

The Mysterious Case of the Fake Gay Marriage Website, the Real Straight Man, and the Supreme Court | The New Republic The lengths people go to 1.) be assholes or 2.) make a name for themselves or their business is astonishing. I don’t know how these people can sleep at night.

Used the town-wide garage sale as a tool to get the bicycle out and prep it for the Ride for Roswell next weekend. Lots going on in Kenmore today!

Two new additions to my Best of 2023 album list: the recent releases from feeble little horse and Home is Where. Both in top 5!

Seems as if Reeder got their Twitter access back. Getting flooded with those feeds now. After a brief skim, nothing of interest nor anything that would draw me back to using Twitter full time. Even if the stable tech genius wasn’t running the show.

This year is turning into a pretty amazing one for concerts! Seeing for the first time: Thrice, Middle Kids, Digable Planets, Cat Power, Alvvays, Alex G; and again: Manchester Orchestra, Jimmy Eat World, Modest Mouse, Pixies, Broken Social Scene. All through the end of September.

Stanley Cup game got out of hand quickly so I put together my top ten album list for the first half of the year.

Got to see Thrice play The Artist in the Ambulance tonight in full. So good live!

This Stanley Cup opening in Vegas made me hate that team even more than I do. Eichel was enough but that was beyond over the top. Let’s go Panthers!

The Kids are Alright: Yesterday I took two of our kids to Toronto to see the band Lovejoy at the Danforth Music Hall. Over the course of the morning, news was shared that folks were already lining up at 9am. We obviously couldn’t make it that early, but we were able to get to the neighborhood around 3:30p/4p. We …

Keep fluctuating between thinking today is Tuesday / Wednesday. I am glad whenever I know it’s Wednesday though 😂

And with that I’ve disabled cross-posting to Twitter. I’ve already stopped visiting/interacting with the site. Not sure I’m going to close it though, as I don’t want some Nazi taking over my handle since I use it everywhere else. Anyway, sorry for the political post. Back to …

So, you’re telling me the fake “absolute free speech” CEO / tech genius is propping up the fake “freedom” governor for president? Would NEVER have predicted that! (It was pretty much the plot of last week’s Succession episode, after all.) The end game for power …

Finished reading: Saving Time by Jenny Odell 📚

My physical copy of Zelda doesn’t arrive until tomorrow. Might have to stay off the web for the next 24 hours. 😂

Building a blog to learn Laravel. So many niceties. Really enjoying it so far! Maybe I will even use it for endonend eventually. 😄

Enjoying Couchella so far… caught Wet Leg and Yves Tumor. Both top notch! Looking forward to Bjork, Frank Ocean, boygenius, The Breeders, and Sudan Archives to name a few.

The new Yves Tumor album, Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), is amazing. Check it out!

Today, Chet and Watson. So cute. Didn’t last long though. 🤣

It’s a De La Soul day, all day long. Enjoy on whatever streaming platform your prefer. RIP Trugoy.

New Big Thief song is so good. And indie rock flute! My kid will be so excited. 😄

My fave album of the year came out this past Friday: Making Circles of Our Own by New Pagans. Female fronted indie punk/post-rock with really great hooks and lyrics too. Check them out!

Zoey’s high school team won their area championship yesterday and head to states on Friday. Also, Z got her cast off and is able to start playing again. Back at practice tonight!

Woke up to a 3.8 earthquake this AM. Unusual for our area! Worked better than our standard wake-up alarms. 😂

The Cazenovia girls representing their high school hockey teams before last night’s championship. Playoffs start this coming week! #rollkengi

Zoey was unable to play, but we made the trek down to catch the championship game of her teams tournament. Cazenovia took the ‘ship with the game winner in OT with 10 seconds remaining. 🎉🏆🏒

Just registered for Oliver Burkeman’s Designing Your System for Creativity course in March. Can’t wait!

Zoey’s wrist injury (now in a cast for two weeks) is forcing her to miss the outdoor game of her hockey tournament today. Not too sad. 🥶

I just posted a quick update to my Finitude and Productivity post from last month: mindfultasks.com/finitude-… More to come!

It’s amazing how much I didn’t care about Wye Oak until like two years ago (sometimes purposefully) and now they are one of my favorite bands ever. 🎧

Cazenovia ladies won their tournament this weekend in Pittsburgh. Zoey got two goals, the game winner, and MVP. 🏆🏒

My 2023 song-a-day playlist on Apple Music! music.apple.com/us/playli…

This team is ridiculous. 9-0 in league play, no goals allowed. 11-0 in total, with two goals allowed. Some great role models for Z to model her game after in the coming years.

De La Soul’s Catalog Coming to Streaming Services For the First Time Best music news in awhile!

This city has experienced far too much heartbreak in the last year.

My 2022 song-a-day playlist is complete! This was honestly one of the best things I did last year. It brings back memories every time I listen. A 2023 version will be shared once there are a bunch of tracks. 😄

My year in music from Last.fm 5978 scrobbles Top artists: oso oso, Wye Oak, Cymande, Empath, and Nilufer Yanya Top genres: indie, hip hop, emo, post hardcore, and rock Give me a follow, if you are on Last.fm!

A drink (or two) with the Mrs at a fabulous new neighborhood bar, recently opened by an acquaintance. Can’t beat this within walking distance.

Picked up some new books based on various recommendations I’ve been seeing on micro.blog 🎉📚

Thankful to get out of the house after the blizzard and do some winter hiking and snowshoeing with the Mrs.

Wrote a little summary of my takeaways from reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman: mindfultasks.com/finitude-…

Day after the blizzard. Local grocery store is open and queued up to buy groceries. Feel apocalyptic today.

Mother Nature knows how to do it: we crushed the blizzard record in Buffalo (since at least 1950): 37 consecutive hours of blizzard conditions. ‘85 was 16 hours and ‘77 was 12 hours. Glad it’s over! Mid 50’s and thunderstorms forecasted for next weekend. 🤪

At least there ain’t no hole in the washtub. 🦦

Whelp this blizzard has been something. It’s been insanely windy since Thursday overnight (70 mph gusts), constant whiteouts since Friday AM, -10 windchill, and we’ve gotten about 2 ft of snow - with drifts over 5 feet. Thankfully we are home, safe and warm. Hoping it ends soon!

The Cymande re-issue came! Gonna be listening to this a lot today.

Finished reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚 So good. Definitely a lot to think about.

Nilüfer Yanya - Full Set From The Basement Her album Painless is my fave from 2022. Give her a listen!

Tired boy

I’ve got my “Best of 2022” album list up on Album Whale! 🎧

Thanksgiving observations: Some observations from today: I am so thankful my dad made the trip to share dinner with us. Our first holiday since my mom passed at the end of the summer. ❤️ Really thankful for the wife and kids. They are great all of the time, but they really made today an enjoyable day all around. 🥰 I am …

My Favorite Albums from 2022: It’s that time again, though I’m a little earlier than usual! I’m not going to make you scroll to the bottom to find my top recommendation, so here we go: PAINLESS by Nilufur Yanya (Listen) I really, really hope this record gets it’s due. Everything is top notch: the lyrics, the melodies, …

🎧Now Listening: Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out by Gladie FFO: Cayetana (ex-members), early Waxhatachee, Hop Along, Lemuria, Swearin’ This album is certainly making my Best of 2022 list.

Buffalo storm prep update: local grocery stores cleared out — except pumpkin spice stuff. We aren’t that desperate yet.

Bummed Turnstile and Snail Mail canceled tonight, due to our coming snowstorm. Time to prep I guess! ☃️

My oldest friend Chris, aka Itinerant Printer, is having a massive sale on his amazing letterpress prints. Do check them out - I just grabbed three.

Some recent vinyl pickups: new Soulside and Hammered Hulls, two classic Dinosaur Jr., and Check Your Head from Beastie Boys. 🔥

I put together my finalists playlist for 2022 album of the year - 50 so far. Check it out here on Apple Music

Attempting to port the Hugo theme Congo for micro.blog. Stay tuned!

🎧 Insta-buy: Blue Period by Beauty Pill A double LP compilation including the band’s complete Dischord recordings from 2003-2005.

🎧 Now Listening: Curses by Future of the Left

Just voted! Most people I’ve ever seen at our polling place too. Still have time today, if you haven’t. #JustVote

The sweetest pitty. Watson wedges himself behind me every single workday.

🎧 Now listening: Igor by Tyler, the Creator

🏄‍♂ Exploring the omg.lol universe

I’ve taken a little hiatus from writing One Last Wish posts (my music newsletter), so here are a few top notch new releases I’ve been digging: Careening by Hammered Hulls Malign Hex by Meat Wave Guitar Music by Courting Blending by High Vis Enjoy!

Major milestone! 300 days complete in my song-a-day playlist journey. Grab it on Apple Music: music.apple.com/us/playli…

Mr. Robot and the compounding effect of tiny changes: I just completed a re-watch of Mr. Robot and it stands up (and still very relevant) 7 years later… it’s probably one of my favorite TV series of all time. My favorite scene of the series is one of the last – Elliott’s realization that changing the world requires more than …

Beautiful fall day for a hike at Artpark

My assistant is being a little oppressive today. 🥰

Quicksand and Spotlights last night in Buffalo

Anxious, MAGS, and oso oso last night at Rec Room in Buffalo.

Amazon has gone full QVC.

264 days down. My song-a-day playlist on Apple Music: music.apple.com/us/playli…

Los Campesinos! at the Velvet Underground in Toronto. They’ve been on my bands to see bucket list and it was worth the wait. 🔥

What a show! Run the Jewels and Rage finally happened and it was glorious.

First Concert: Kenny G Last Concert: Bon Iver Best Concert: Fugazi Worst Concert: Kenny G Loudest Concert: The Pixies or Sleater-Kinney Seen the most: Despair Most Surprising: Idlewild Next Concert: RATM/RTJ Wish I could’ve seen: the Clash H/t to @aspleenic

Finished reading: The Passageway by Jeff Lemire 📚

My hopes for Sabres draft night- three of these please: Savoie, Lambert, Nazar, Gauthier, Kulich, Kemell, Miroshnichenko, Havelid, Chesley. Would love a trade up for Cooley or Nemec/Jiricek too. #nhldraft

Summer Chet

Finished reading: Something is Killing the Children Vol. 2 by James Tynion IV 📚

Bon Iver and Bonny Light Horseman were amazing last night. I’ve seen hundreds of bands and it was a top 5 performance.

Finished reading: Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV 📚

Retired the original vinyl storage unit with a larger 2x2 unit. Was kind of shocked how big the collection has grown in the last couple years. The overflow was in a few various locations, so this was the first time seeing it all in one spot!

IDLES Full Set | From The Basement - YouTube An absolutely brilliant performance. Sound is so good.

Award season! High school high honors for these three. 🥰

Currently reading: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 📚

Saw Iceage and Wiki at the Rec Room tonight. Crazy awesome show.

What is “ecofascism” — and what does it have to do with the Buffalo shooting? - Salon.com → A lot of people assume that if we teach people about climate change, they will want to create a world that is more just and peaceful.

Watson was so tired after our hike today he didn’t even mind Chet sitting on his head. 😂

I went to my first hardcore show in a while last night: Snapcase, Earth Crisis, Strife, One Step Closer, and Be Well. Here’s Strife playing “Lift” off their 1994 album, One Truth. Read my Ode to Hardcore from earlier in the month for more on what the music means to me.

A good week for new music: 

Some really, really good releases out this week:

Shhhh! 🤫

Making pickled beet deviled eggs for brunch tomorrow, so I whipped up a pickled beet egg salad with the extras. Did 4 eggs, 4 beets, mayo, mustard and a dash of curry powder. So tasty!

Was thinking through a web app idea, then realized it was pretty darn close to FriendFeed (which i loved) and upon doing more reminiscing, realized Micro.blog isn’t too far from FF. Just need the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds and other services beyond Mastodon.

1994 - An Ode to Hardcore: Welcome to issue #11 of One Last Wish – my regular series where I look back at records that changed my life. This issue: 1994. Thanks for reading! I spent a good deal of time considering all of my favorite records that came out in 1994. I couldn’t pick one that impacted my life as much …

Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

Two more album of the year candidates for me: First up is Tomberlin with i don’t know who needs to hear this… (Listen) One of her singles “happy accident” (Watch): Next up is the ultra-hyped Wet Leg with their self-titled debut (Listen) “Too Late Now” off the album …

This month I created a Shortcut to help with my 2022/365 playlist - my song-a-day project. The shortcut grabs all of the songs I listened to in the last 36 hours, puts them into a list, and adds my selection to the playlist. Simple, yet effective!

Went to see the cherry blossoms at the Buffalo History Museum and Japanese Gardens. Beautiful night!

Currently reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

One season ends and another begins. Tryout week done and so thankful Zoey has finally landed in a good spot for hockey. Now for a couple week break and they are back at it!

Some recent vinyl pickups: Guilt, Endpoint, Small Brown Bike, Sunny Day Real Estate, Modest Mouse, Karate, Nilufer Yanya, and Ian Sweet.

Thanks to the suggestion from @alans, I now have a sync setup on Spotify to copy over my Apple Music song-a-day project. There are now two options: Spotify and Apple Music. Enjoy!

One thing I’ve been doing this year, that I absolutely love, is adding one song to a playlist every day. We’ve listened on a few road trips and it sparks so many good memories. It’s pretty amazing. Follow along if you are interested!

Two new favorite recent releases: the self-titled album by Plosivs (Listen) (ex Pinback, Drive Like Jehu, and Against Me) and sore thumb by Oso Oso (Listen).

One of my favorite things about having three teenagers is sharing the experience of live music. Tonight with the kids: Cavetown

Selling Girl Scout cookies with these two amazing ladies over the weekend.

Moved over a few more posts and my domain (back) to micro.blog. Good to be back with such a great community!

Earlier this week I posted the latest issue of One Last Wish, my regular look at an album or two that shaped my life. This issue we are in 1993. My picks: Fugazi’s In on the Kill Taker and Quicksand’s Slip .

I hope you find your niche someday soon: 1993 was another good year for music, with Nirvana’s In Utero, Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, The Smashing Pumpkin’s Siamese Dream, and A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Fugazi’s In on the Kill Taker, Digable Planets' …

Foxing and Manchester Orchestra tonight in Buffalo. Such a good show.

Hockey season almost over. Just in time to start the next. 🤪

Early album of the year contenders - early March edition: Two of my favorite releases from 2022 (so far) have been released in the past couple weeks. The albums are so opposite in style and substance – and I’ve been flipping back and forth – it’s keeping me sane in many ways. Painless by Nilüfer Yanya Some of the most unique indie …

Hain’s Point 2022.1.9 is out – added initial support for On This Day and a toggle for the Plausible Analytics button tracking code, since it was breaking the form in some browsers. See the readme for more. Thanks to @toddgrotenhuis for the reports and help debugging.

On a hot streak! Hain’s Point is now at 2022.1.8 – just loaded to Github with support for the Reply by Email plugin. I added a setting to enable it in the theme (once the plugin is installed), since not everyone will want it. See the readme for more!

Theme update! Hain’s Point 2022.1.7 was just checked in to Github. New feature: the ability to customize colors: header/footer background, subscribe/about backgrounds, buttons, and text colors. See the readme for more. Let me know if you run into issues!

Hain’s Point is available in the Micro.blog plugins section for all users! Details on the theme and install instructions here. My site is using the plugin-based theme. Note: the Photos page is unsupported at this time, until I can troubleshoot that more. Feedback/ideas welcome!

My Hain’s Point theme is almost ready! I just need to figure out why the Photos page isn’t working and finish up adding all of the settings to the Plugin setup. You’ll be able to customize the logo, a couple blurbs, newsletter name, and a few other things. Soon!

Mail day! Dischord’s first six records box set arrived. Worth the wait.

I’m excited about the progress, so here we go! I am working on a theme for micro.blog called Hain’s Point. Still a lot to do with styling, testing, etc but the homepage and one post I brought over from WordPress and cleaned up look decent in Safari. More to come!

Our weekly make pizza and watch the Mandalorian came to an awesome end this week. 🤯. We want to continue the tradition - what series should we watch next? Preferably something 12/13 year olds would like. Have Disney+, HBO, Hulu, and Netflix.

Apple Music users: get yourself a Last.fm account and a sweet iOS music app like Marvis or Soor to track your listening next year and you too can have reports galore.

My favorite albums from 2021: What a year for music! SO many good albums came out this year – it made it difficult to narrow it down to the finalists (see the playlist below) and then to the final 25. A handful of records could have easily fit in the #1 slot, but there’s one that has remained in heavy rotation for a …

So What'Cha Want: The year was 1992. Half of the year was me finishing 10th grade and the other half, the start of 11th grade. A critical time in any teenager’s life, as you transition to an upperclassman in high school. Music, of course, was still a huge part of my life as I started to branch out into new …

Tough group finals loss for the Lady Stars. The most tight knit group of girls, so they had a blast regardless.

Great tournament for the Lady Stars! A record of 1-1-1 in the round robin to get them into the finals of the consolation bracket tomorrow. Zoey scored her first goal of season too.

Yesterday evening started out with a road-trip to see Kenmore girls field hockey take on Barker. Then to Mohawk Place to see Hop Along. Long day, but fun!

Seeing Wilco for the third time triggered a listening binge. Picked up the deluxe re-issue of Being There today at Revolver Records.

Double header sports night! Stella played for the Kenmore girls modified soccer team and Zoey played for varsity girls field hockey. Fun night, even with the rain.

I went a little crazy with the 1992 playlist in preparation for the next issue of One Last Wish. So many good albums came out that year. 91 songs so far and I don’t think I got everything!

Wonder who is eating dinner under there? #weirdpitbulls

The pandemic has been yet another reminder that when Americans yell “FREEDOM!” they mean “personal freedom” and that means MY freedom, not yours. Especially not yours, if you aren’t like me. Gonna be the death of us, whether it’s climate or public health or worsening inequality.

Yo, microphone check one, two, what is this?: As mentioned in the last post, 1991 was an amazing year for music. While Nirvana was tops in rock music (and probably music as a whole), A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory was an instant hip-hop classic and the best rap record of 1991. Like Nirvana following up Bleach, A Tribe Called …

Wilco tonight at Artpark

Sleater-Kinney tonight at Artpark

Here we are now, entertain us: Note from Jason: Wow, I procrastinated a lot on this one. This issue was like 90% done for weeks. The last 10% was the hardest – putting the focused listen into words. Maybe it’s because SO much has been written about Nirvana, I didn’t think I could do it justice? Anyway, here it …

New additions 04.07.21: I picked up these two albums this week: TV Priest’s Uppers (Listen) Nirvana’s Nevermind (Listen) One will be this month’s featured album. I’m sure you can guess which one it is!

Corning Museum of Glass

New additions 03.21.21: Added a few new slabs of vinyl to my collection: Soft Sounds from Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast (Listen) Songs of Praise by Shame (Listen) Brutalism by IDLES (Listen) Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes (Listen) Most important, my daughter bought her first record: the Prom Queen EP (Listen) from …

Fight the Power: Quick Note from Jason: This month is the first issue published from my brand new site. If you subscribed to the email via Substack you are all set – no need to re-subscribe, in fact you can manage your subscription by clicking Login on the new site. If you subcribed via RSS or read issues by …

In the Days of My Youth: This story is as old as time: parents try to show their kids “good” music, kids roll their eyes and proceed to put their headphones back on / tune out / leave the room. Whatever that generation’s go-to “blow your parents off” move is… I did the same to my parents and my kids have done the same to …

Watson

Only You Can Set You Free: Whereas Run D.M.C.’s Raising Hellwas my first album and my first music purchase, Living Colour’s Vivid was my first rock album. Released in May 1988, I was just about to turn 12 years old and was finishing my 6th grade year. I started skateboarding that year, reading Thrasher magazine, and generally …

Awesome family hike today! So beautiful out.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Awesome Chadwick Boseman tribute in Jingle Jangle on Netflix.

2020 was a Punisher: 2020 was something else, right? Beyond the pandemic and resulting economic destruction, a lot has changed — some for the better and, unfortunately, a lot took a turn for the worse, including so many needless deaths from this virus. Small businesses, including many of the bands and musicians I love, …

Without saying your age, post 4 albums that came out when your were 14.

Lap puppers

Happy Thanksgiving! Thankful for a low key day, a delish and easy meal, and most importantly: getting to hang out with four intelligent, funny, beautiful ladies every day. Hope you all had a great day.

First Issue, First Album: My First Album As we start this newsletter journey, I felt the natural place to start was at the beginning. For me, the true joy of music, discovery, and finding my own taste started with Run-DMC’s Raising Hell. Not only was was Raising Hell the first cassette I bought with my own (10th birthday) …

$5 gigs, not $10m deals: the story of US punk label Dischord Records | Music - The Guardian → My all-time favorite record label.

Watson’s DNA test came back. 81% American Staffordshire Terrier, 13% American Bulldog, 4% Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog, and 2% Miniature Bull Terrier. And according to Chet: 100% annoying, but sometimes cute, brother.

File this in the “surprised I didn’t pay more attention to this band” category: Small Brown Bike So good.

Follow Your Nose -- a choose your own musical adventure: I love this idea from Merlin Mann and Do By Friday: the “Follow Your Nose” playlist… Pick a song you love and start a playlist Go to the artist’s page and view the Related Artists/Fans Also Like section – then pick a group you aren’t familiar with… Go to their page and start listening to their top …