MILT # 2

Haven’t done this thing for awhile. It’s been a weird year, which feels like a cliché, obvious, overly-stated thing to say. Like, yeah, it was a “weird” year for everybody. Doesn’t that just make mine “not-weird,” or alike to everyone else’s?

Regardless, the weird things about my year, other than the obvious ones like a pandemic, rampant-yet-always-existing injustices, etc. had to include the change in routine to the way that I go about my job and me figuring out where I am at and who I am emotionally. Adapting to a somewhat emotion-numbing med for the blues has been something, and figuring out what I can contribute to the world that will satiate a somewhat selfish sense of fulfillment has been something else.

Music has always been a constant, though. So here’s a playlist of some of the music that I have been listening to during this past weird-not-weird year. If you listen to it, let me know what you think.

Most of the playlist is comprised of music that I’ve discovered on Bandcamp. The lead-off is a warm, meditative drone track by Terekke. It sounds like floating in outer space. It’s awesome.

The warmth is then interrupted by a flurry of poppy, surf rock bands. Surf rock/”surfgaze” has been my recent obsession. Some of the surf bands I’ve been digging that are in this playlist include Grrrl Gang, a fun, pop-punk group from Indonesia; Foliage, which I can only describe as sounding like Morrissey with a surfboard; and Say Sue Me — one of my favorites as of lately.

The playlist is punctuated by a lovely, mostly instrumental piece by Sufjan Stevens (which is actually featured on the Bridgerton soundtrack). Then, the playlist meanders through a playground of emo (awakebutstillinbed), more surf, dreampop (Alvvays and Fritz), black metal (Violet Cold), and is bookended by a beautiful, nostalgic harp piece by Mary Lattimore. The title of her track, “On the Day You Saw the Dead Whale” is as powerful and depressing as the contents.

If you have a short attention span and/or a lack of time, then some of my favorite tracks from the playlist that I’d recommend include “Old Town,” “URL,” and, if you like noise, “Pride.”

Feel free to reach out and let me know if you gave any of the playlist a try. Or, let me know what you’ve been listening to. I’m looking forward to trying to do more of these. Also, I believe you need to log into Spotify to listen to the entire playlist.

Thanks and have a great day.

MILT #1

I’ve always liked making playlists. I remember back in the heyday of CD’s, I would pour hours into burning CD’s and making playlists for myself and (even better) others. If I was really into it, I would meticulously curate them so that even the transitions from one song to another sounded smooth and natural.

They always felt so meaningful when made for someone else, too. My sister, who is by far the biggest influence on my taste in music, would sometimes make me a playlist which I would then cherish and listen to on repeat. And it’s interesting trying to find a middle ground between the music you, the creator likes, and music that your recipient likes. You want them to enjoy it, but it’s also important that it, in a way, represents you. Wouldn’t want to make a playlist of music that you know they already like and listen to, right?

I’ve had a lot of time to listen to music these days (epidemics, amirite?). Here’s a recent playlist of music I listen to (hereafter MILT) that I have made for myself that you can enjoy, or not.

This playlist features quite a bit of music I’ve discovered through the local non-profit radio station, WMPG (who are currently rerunning old shows due to COVID). I’ve also got a bit of synth-pop (The Radio Dept., Spiritualized) and shoegaze/dream-pop (Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Slowdive) mixed in. I tried to bury natural instrumental intermissions throughout. I’m into it when an album does that.

Some of my personal favorite tracks are the first and last tracks, the imaginative instrumental “Shine” by The Album Leaf, and Liam the Younger’s spacey “Sleep Pt. 3.” Oh, and the amazingly 80’s track “The Promise” by When in Rome. It’s so cheesy but so triumphant. One track, “Sleep II” by Death Cult Cave, also won’t play for you because it’s a song I’ve downloaded from Bandcamp.

A note: I believe you have to log into Spotify or open up a Spotify browser to listen to the complete songs. Thanks, Spotify.