Listen Up, Nerds Playlist 9: Wish Fulfillment
Hey, what's up? Welcome to another week on the music-based internet with Listen Up, Nerds. This week is a playlist of oldies but goodies. As usual, though, I've got some announcements for things that are occurring outside of this space:
Jay Papandreas
My first zine for Fear Of Life, the small press I'm operating, is nearing a sellout. I am not reprinting this collection of NBA tattoos, so if that's something you might want, I'd suggest you pick up a copy.
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It's Bandcamp Friday. I know there's a lot to talk about re: Bandcamp and its recent sale and purchase, seemingly all to strip less than 50 employees of agency at the detriment of all independent music, worldwide. But, Bandcamp Friday means all of the money spent today goes straight to the artists and not the website, so here are some records I think you should grab today:
Diztort -Vengeance Is Mine (RIYL: the smell of sulfur, lifting weights with a demon spotting your bench press, jackets made from human leather)
Rifle - Under Two Flags (RIYL: Punk, being punk, being British but not being corny about it)
G.U.N. - G.U.N. LP (RIYL: Spitting, sneering, getting in trouble)
If I had to rank months, November is my favorite. Deciduous trees shed their leaves and litter the sidewalks. The first snow or last big rain in Denver, somehow always over Halloween weekend, lays a red-orange-yellow carpet over the sidewalks to celebrate and welcome the new season. The thin air in my lungs is more crisp, more valuable these mornings. The nights are darker earlier but the city feels more vibrant with more people milling about at night.
I’m not from a Christmas family or an Easter family, I’m from a Thanksgiving family. Regardless of the miles between us, ideological or physical, we’d come together to catch up and share a meal. We rarely sat at the table, maybe we never did, and I’d find my way into conversations with relatives I never spoke to. They’d ask how school was, I’d tell them it was fine, I’d ask them about their pets, and they’d tell me a funny story about a dog, cat, or goat if I was lucky. I spent years listening to adults talk about life, eating myself to the edge of sickness on red plastic plates of ham and brownies. The fire pit never reached satiety, either, chewing log after log as my uncle’s cigar smoke mingled with the sycamore smoke in the Ohio night.
My general problem with the year-end is that everyone is fixated on the rebirth that comes with the calendar changing as if that rebirth can’t happen every single day. The news and the apps all urge us to see what we did this year like your reset couldn’t come in June or August or any of the others. But that’s a December issue, I think. November allows for warm, cider-addled recollections of the days or years. It’s a time for relaxing. This playlist is less about the lyrics on the songs and more about the music, but hey, maybe your Novembers aren’t as saccharine as mine. I hope you find something here that you enjoy regardless.
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