The music year in preview

I had a really good blogging week a few weeks ago, getting positive feedback four days in a row. That included a huge response to one Sunday post, the Twitter account for Winter Wonderland retweeting my review of them on the travel blog, and both Steven Battelle and Ray Toro saying nice things about my reviews of their music.

I love the positive feedback (especially from Ray), but it had felt like a good section anyway. Those two band reviews, plus the previous two reviews (for Lostalone and Frank Iero's new album) both felt like really good writing.

I have grown as a writer, but I have also grown as a music listener: This week I review my 405th and 406th bands. (I am going back to some old favorites because it seems like a good time.) Given how much variety that has included, I should have learned a few things now.

It was not only that though, because this was better music. Music with more interesting lyrical content and playing choices and more thought into how the album is put together - I come up with more interesting things to say.

There were other interesting things there. I was supposed to see Frank in concert, which has always been kind of jinxed for me. A bus accident in Australia canceled the rest of the tour (I take no responsibility for that), but I still wanted to review the new album, and Ray's as well. I decided to put Frank and Ray on subsequent weeks, and put bands they had recommended with each one. (If I had seen Frank, his opening band would have run in his week.) I'd had Steven and Lostalone on the recommendations list for a long time, but I had not looked into them enough to know that Steven was in Lostalone. Having just reviewed his former band probably gave some extra context to his review. Knowing stuff helps.

(FYI, Lostalone had toured with My Chemical Romance, which makes it a less astounding coincidence.)

The songs of the day play an important part in everything too. Giving each band a song of the day after reviewing them helps cement them in my mind. I mean, after listening to them enough for a review, they are kind of there anyway, but going back after a while to pick a song makes a difference too. Plus, the bands often feel good about it.

Not all daily songs are from bands reviewed. Sometimes I pick a theme (November 2015 was Muppet Month), but twice in the past year I have been going from books. I am almost done with Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s. That will not end there. I found a few bands there that I don't remember and want to take a deeper look at. That includes Cock Robin and Anything Box, but also some I kind of remember. I totally remember Thomas Dolby, but it sounds like he is doing interesting things now, and I will check that out.

Of course figuring out what happens when is always a question, because there is so much, but I like that. I like that there are still young bands trying to establish themselves, and that I get a chance to listen to them. I like that there are older bands still going around and holding up. Some are still creating new music, and some are focusing more on the old, but they can still put on a pretty good show. You should see how the Psychedelic Furs hold up!

Music is as much an area of learning for me as the academic stuff I do, and for a long way down the road there is still more coming. That excites me; maybe I still have some vitality too.

It is always full of surprises, so I may be wrong, but here, on my 45th birthday, is what I think will be happening musically over the next year.

I have 21 bands waiting for review from Twitter follows, and 37 on the recommended list (though that list always has some ideas that I haven't written down yet). I could do them all this year, but new things always come up, and I do have four concerts scheduled: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Modern English, Reggie and the Full Effect, and Green Day.

The daily song from Mad World will go up on January 20th. I will then start doing songs from the last batch of artists reviewed, maybe throwing in a few other relevant songs. That should take me to about where I finally do a James Dewees week, which should be a great kickoff to starting songs from Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo. I will write about emo, and about that book, but probably not until April.

I also hope to do a country week at some point (I don't I can come up with a full month of country songs that I like).

And at some point - maybe this year, maybe not - I hope to do a me week. Recording is an unknown area for me, with a lot of technical questions and obvious concerns about performance, but yeah, at some point I need to do that.

So, there's lots to look forward too. It's not a bad way to start another year.

But please, no more bus accidents!