Category: Longform
You are viewing all posts from this category, beginning with the most recent.
Crucial Tracks milestone! 100 posts
It’s been about two weeks since I launched the first version of Crucial Tracks and 10 days since I started sharing the project and my plans. Achieving 100 community posts in that time exceeded my expectations — blew past them really. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far!
In addition to the basic journaling tools, dashboard, and public profile page I launched with, I’ve been able to implement more of my initial ideas and the tweaks requested by the community:
- Full Apple Music playlist integration - if you are an Apple Music subscriber, you can connect to the service and automatically add each day’s song to a playlist of your choosing. Perfect to build a playlist to represent your year!
- Social sharing: you can now automatically share each public entry on Mastodon and/or Bluesky when you post. (Example)
- Improved Daily Prompts: the earliest version of the site had just a few prompts randomly selected for the day. This caused many issues! Now there are more prompts in place and a system to make sure we rotate through all prompts before they are recycled.
- Public Tracks: a new view available when you are logged in to the app that shows that last 50 public posts on the site. Read other community member’s posts, find new music, and maybe even find an internet friend!
- Improved public profiles - you can now add a link to your Apple Music playlist (in addition to the social and blog links) and each entry now has it’s own page to help with RSS and sharing. (Example)
- More preferences: visit your profile settings to pick your date format and customize your shared entry title to your liking. (An example of someone with both customizations)
I’ve also added a Help and FAQs page and a change log here. (Be sure to check the FAQs if you are enabling Apple Music, Mastodon, or Bluesky. That will definitely help you set those features up correctly!)
I’m so excited about this community and what the app can do – it’s everything I hoped for and more. It’s just you, your favorite songs, and your words. (And a lite touch of social discovery.)
SO, if a slow, thoughtful, meaningful anxiety-free music community sounds interesting, come join us! We are very interested in reading about the songs that made you, you.
Crucial Track for April 25, 2025
"Worlds" by Farside
What song reminds you of your first love?
First love? The only thing I remember is the song I listened to after breaking up, over and over. Cheesy high school love! 🤣
The Moon won't shine for me
The way it used to
There is something missing, but
Your hand is not there to hold
You let the left side
Of your brain take over
Your heart is inactive now
Don't run away from
What is inside of you
Don't run away from
What you're feeling
Well, I can't believe
You took back so much
Of the things you said to me
Crucial Track for April 24, 2025
"Paul Bunyan's Slingshot" by Liquid Mike
What is your favorite song from last year?
My most played song from 2024 was definitely "Paul Bunyan's Slingshot" off Liquid Mike's album of the same name. That record was also my favorite album of the year.
Liquid Mike has the most infectious power pop hooks of any band going today. Up there with Sugar and early Weezer. So, so good. I've certainly had this ear worm stuck in my head for a good chunk of 2024.
Please don’t bother
Trying stick around any longer
Trying to tie the clouds to the water
So when you’re back in town
Just lеt me know when, I will be waiting
I’ll be walking around
Evеrything works out
Crucial Track for April 23, 2025
"Enything" by quickly, quickly
I listened to I Heard That Noise quickly (ironic, huh?) and admittedly not closely enough for my initial Crucial Tracks release post, but it was intriguing enough I listened to it again after posting. And then again in the evening. And again this AM.
The record is beguiling and I pick up something new with each listen. The weird added melodies in the background, the song transitions, the off kilter instrumentation and glitchy electronic elements that just add so many layers to quickly, quickly's songs. The intro to the album on Bandcamp compared him to a cross between The Microphones, Dijon, and Nick Drake. I think that is apt.
"Enything" is probably the closest to a single off this record, so hopefully that is intriguing enough for you to give the whole thing a listen. It's worth it.
Crucial Track for April 22, 2025
"1612" by Vulfpeck
Picking “1612” today because my daughter Stella chose this song to audition for a NY select high school band program. She transcribed the notes and recorded herself playing over the weekend. And absolutely nailed it. So in awe of her talent on the bass.
Crucial Track for April 21, 2025
"Innocent" by Outspoken
Describe a concert that changed your perspective on music or life. Pick a song from that artist or band.
The most impactful concert I ever went to was in the summer of 1993 and it was one of the first big hardcore shows I went to, headlined by Outspoken and Endpoint. Seeing those two bands sold me on the genre and changed the rest of my life.
Prior to that show, I had only been to local hardcore/punk shows over the previous couple of years – mostly ones that featured friends bands and a few from the surrounding area. This one, however, featured Outspoken from Southern California and Endpoint from Louisville, Kentucky.
Both bands had a unique sound for the time (and really since), with amazing lyrics that were politically forward and at times emotional and poetic. Both bands were energetic on stage and musically proficient, so the combination just blew me away.
Beyond the music, hardcore gave me lifelong friends (and a wife), trips all around the Northeast to see bands, and the scene really solidified my liberal belief system: compassion, empathy, and critical thinking skills that I couldn’t get from a formal education.
Alone. He doesn’t want to face the prejudice.
Afraid. While the fear lies in the ignorant.
All love is legitimate. It is hatred that is the enemy.
An innocent man portrayed as being guilty.
What crime is love between two people.
The crime is hatred caused by ignorance of difference.
Have to open my eyes to see a wider range.
Have to open my mind. I’m the one that need to change.
Crucial Track for April 20, 2025
"Pressure Cooker" by Dazy & Militarie Gun
Two of my favorite artists did a collab that has some serious 90s UK alternative vibes. Catchy as hell and the lyrics are relatable today as I try to get Apple Music playlist support going here on Crucial Tracks. In fact this is the first post with the integration turned on... so if you see this song on my song-a-day playlist, it worked!
Pressure cooker’s got me running
Teach me new tricks
Something to forget now
Tightrope slipping
One step, I’m flipping out
Somehow…
Crucial Track for April 19, 2025
"Check the Rhime" by A Tribe Called Quest
What was your favorite song in high school? Why did it resonate?
"Check the Rhime" is a song that definitely lasted the entirety of high school (and even to present day!) Hip Hop was the first music genre I fell in love with as a kid in the 80s and A Tribe Called Quest is near the top of my all-time favorite artists list.
The song (and ATCQ in general) resonated with me through the melding of jazz and hip hop. The boom bap drums with jazz bass and horn loops are like peanut butter and chocolate for me. It just sounds so good to my ears.
Lyrically, ATCQ contrasted with gangsta rap's rise to popularity through positive and socially conscious lyrics. As someone who was also getting exposed to punk and hardcore at the time, the similarity in message was hard to overlook and made it easy to love both genres.
Crucial Track for April 18, 2025
"CORSO" by Tyler, The Creator
_What is a song that instantly energizes you?_
It's Tyler, so you know it's high energy... and this song has some great beat drops.
He's one of the few current artists that my kids and I both like. I absolutely love the bonding moments when songs like this come on, especially since all three will be graduating high school in the next 15 months.
Crucial Track for April 17, 2025
"Endless Tree" by Valerie June
A song for the current moment and a reminder that even the smallest joy you can add to the world is *something*.
Are you ready to see
A world where we could all be free
As branches of an endless tree
May we seek and find it
Although we might not all agree
Still live together peacefully
Watching the news almost every night
Telling the stories of all that ain’t right
But what could be done from a house and a home
Sink in the sofa and feel so alone
Getting the courage to do something small
Lifting the spirits of all that you saw
Feeling the tiniest spark in your heart
‘Cause only an ember can light up the dark