In high school, I spent my spare time downloading music and burning CDs. I started with my dad’s cd collection and when I ran out, I scoured Kazaa and Napster, clicked on questionable rave links, and barely slept so I could trade with a few friends at school.
It’s amazing what I could accomplish on a dial-up AOL account. In college, I discovered the school’s radio station, KDVS. It was a formative time in my life that catapulted me to New York City in 2006. My first job was at a music agency where I specialized in indie rock and electronic music. My listening habits at the time were albums straight through so we could learn how to promote them to radio stations across the country. I felt the change of new media” bloghaus. We stopped mailing CDs and staff was laid off because there was less to do when you could just email a link promo to a reporter.
The rise of streaming and Spotify radically changed the way I listened to music. I was disengaged from the artists on the algorithmically generated playlists (an example in Palehound below). Music was served to me in mixes, rarely in cohesive albums. I did not feel completely represented by Spotify Wrapped, so I made a concerted effort to diversify my listening sources in the last couple of years. I love to directly support bands on Bandcamp, which pays artists significantly more than Spotify. I dug into my college radio notebooks to revisit bands I liked, some of them listed below. I also dove into the archives of community-supported radio at Dublab, specifically Rona Rapadas, Jamie XX, and Daedalus.
According to my Last.Fm (which only tracks Spotify), I listened to 44% new artists, 64% new albums, and 74% new tracks. That’s pretty cool. I may be a chef in my professional life, but I listen to music every day. I can’t do anything without it. I don’t think about which band is the best or that I listen to any type of genre reliably (debatable). I like to think this way applies to my whole life, always open to listening and learning.
Here’s my 2024 in songs:
New bands for me
Say Sue Me - If you played their songs side by side with Camera Obscura, I almost wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! This Korean band hails from Busan and I discovered them on the Netflix k-drama Nevertheless. Adorable surf rock and a massive catalog I could listen to all day.
Ratboys - My friend Justin turned me onto this band. He described them as “sorta country-ish, but I like it.” An optimistic, earnest band that hooked me within minutes. Super fun to see live.
Palehound. - A sleeper hit for me! I went to see them live (with the above band) and slowly realized that I knew many of the words to their songs. I never connected the name of the band with what I was listening to on Spotify mixes, but here we are! It was Palehound all along.
Sega Bodega - My friend Liz introduced this artist to me on a car trip. Their slow, deliberate covers fill so much space in my ears.
|||||||||||||||||||| (pronounced Barcode) - Extremely hard to Google band, perhaps this was on purpose. He tags his tracks as ambient brainjazz.
Polinski - The side project of Paul Wolinski from 65daysofstatic. It makes sense he’d creep into my listening algorithm, it’s been very ambient and post-rock.
Discovered on Bandcamp
Chuquimamani-Condori - I’m late to this one, but it was on repeat for most of the year. No skips.
r.r. barbadas - I managed to nab one of the last cassettes from their Wet Hair EP. Side project of DJ Rona Rapadas.
Alex dl - An old friend, new moniker. Alex, formerly known as the chip artist IAYD is now pioneering a neo-trance with modular synthesis.
Disasterpeace - Rich Vreeland, composer (and also an old friend) released a bunch of unreleased sketches and soundtrack ideas.
Mark Sparling - The composer behind the indie game A Short Hike.
Old Favorites
65daysofstatic - Back when I worked with Monotreme Records, the Destruction of Small Ideas was one of my favorite albums. It’s so cool to see the band making cool generative music projects and video game soundtracks.
Pete & The Pirates - Joyous indie rock from the UK. I repped this band for a short time in the early 2000’s.
Black Moth Super Rainbow - I spent a few years repping and supporting BMSR early in my music career. They’re the nicest, most humble folks you’ll meet. We bonded over our love of vintage sythesizers.
Lali Puna -One of the earliest bands I played on my KDVS radio shows. If you like this, listen to Ladytron and Broadcast.
Safety Scissors - On the edges of weirdo sampling and IDM, lots of fun remixes by indie electro favorites like Dntel.
To Rococo Rot- Palimdromic, electronic post-rock.
Caribou - He’s still active but his early record Manitoba was on rotation often back when it came out.
Alias & Tarsier -An album very close to my heart. Brookland/Oaklyn represented my bi-coastal lifestyle of the 2000’s. I wondered what happened to the band members and managed to track down Rona Rapadas to Dublab, where she still DJs!
