The first 100 bands -- especially with all the concerts -- was exhilarating. The second 100 was more about continuing strong.
Concerts played a role again, but one of those was a wishful thinking fulfillment.
Dave Hause was going to play a free set at Music Millennium. I really wanted to see him, but there was a conflicting family activity. We took Mom to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, and I can't regret that. They've had trouble staying open, and at that time she was still able to enjoy it, which was not going to last.
I wrote a review for Dave Hause's music anyway; it was my hope that somehow it would guarantee that he would come. That may sound silly.
He was my 85th band, and my 82nd review (sometimes I would double bands up for different reasons). Just a few months later he came to the Hawthorne Lounge, and I got to write up that show for my 117th review.
That was a bit of a trend for that year. I also wrote reviews for Torche, Alkaline Trio, and Lit, hoping to bring them my way. I have not seen Lit live yet, and the Alkaline Trio show was kind of a bad experience, but nonetheless Torche came and that was a great show!
Also, it is nice to remember being optimistic and thinking the world was full of possibilities.
I had quite a few bands from New Jersey, US and Manchester, England, but also I reviewed quite a few bands from Portland and Seattle, and that was good. As much as there clearly were "scenes" that appealed to me, I didn't want to forget home.
If there was not an obvious musical theme, the theme of my life was writing, and lots of it.
I had been wanting to do a month where I wrote one different 6-page screenplay every day. I finally did it in October 2014. I even did it on a day when I worked a full day and went to a concert (Lemonheads and Psychedelic Furs).
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/10/one-month-186-pages.html
Perhaps the theme was that I had established my writing rhythms. I had gone through the comic book writing, and the screenplay inspired by that first concert, while also blogging regularly; I could do it all.
It is amazing to remember that was once me, and that theoretically could be me again.
A lot of that writing was about music. Over the summer I had done some series on music videos. There was quite a bit of writing about comic books too, and libraries, but I had gotten the hang of writing about music and I was doing it all the time.
(Drum week wasn't going to happen until the next year, but I might have been thinking about it.)
One thing that has been coming up as I choose songs for the week is what to do with those bands whom I like more than usual, but who have not been a big enough influence where doing a whole post and week makes sense. That is especially the case with Dave Hause and with New London Fire.
Of course, I have given them songs of the day many times, but more than that, in addition to remembering to periodically go back and visit the bands you absolutely love, revisit the bands you really like as well. Maybe you like them only because of good music, and not that they wrote the soundtrack for an important part of your life, or got you through a hard time. That's okay; good music is worth a lot.
I am taking notes for after the retrospective is done, but probably I should revisit any of those bands that are still going for it after all these years.
It is terrible to see how many kept it going for a decade or so, but then couldn't make it through the pandemic.
Daily songs:
“Feet on Fire “
by Slow Readers Club -- Best video concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIBHAi9zB6Q
“Half Awake”
by We Are Forever -- They kind of border on boy band for sound, but I like them anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lUPAtz4d38
“Pray for
Tucson” by Dave Hause -- I have no connections to Tucson, but this hits me really hard this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z169t6dsU4M
“Write It Off”
by Fox & Cats -- Good energy. They had a stripped down sound but really elevated it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPYRNXMMwEc
“Under the
Mushroom Cloud” by Birds in the Airport -- This is almost a novelty EP, because he is usually collaborating with other musicians in totally different veins, but it is so brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4xAZNK3Hw
“Away From Here”
by High Pressure Flash -- The album cover doesn't match the sound, but I do like this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODGupZ8jxX8
“Here I Am” by
New London Fire -- Out of many good songs, this is the one that most represents me now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLu7g0CBU4g
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