well, here we are again. it was another good year for me, personally — several highs and only a couple of less wonderful moments, so i can't complain. however, i do wish i'd done more with respect to my writing output and productivity in general, so that's a focus for 2024. here's to the cheesy promise of the new year!
2023 in review
cool stuff i did:
- got a cool new vintage dining room table AND coffee table from facebook marketplace:
- took a few pole dancing classes
- enjoyed a little solo winter vacation in savannah, georgia
- wrote:
- an essay about how much i hate mayo
- an essay about how much i love fangirls (and being one)
- an essay about how much i love dads
- 11 substack posts (psst, psst...subscribe!)
- visited my aunt and uncle in the berkshires and finally checked out mass MoCA
- went to salt lake city with gleni for the kilby block party music festival:
- took a bourbon class
- went to lake placid for my cousin's wedding:
- made updates for the third(!) reprint of my book
- spent a lovely summer day in rockport, massachusetts and a lovely fall day in woodstock, vermont
- randomly got free tickets to the levitate music festival from dunkin'
- scored my dream music writing gig (when, at age 37, i thought that ship had sailed), which allows me to write pieces about AND interview artists i love — including kurt vile(!!!!!!), elliott smith, superchunk, braid, the new pornographers, and the long winters
- attended my first red sox game in over a decade
- stayed in a gorgeous instagram influencer-y cabin in new hampshire for a couple days:
- explored saint-gaudens national historic park
- took a tour of the knives out mansion:
- spent almost a week in north carolina, visiting friends in the raleigh area and greensboro
- MET SHAUN WHITE! i finally manifested this after 15ish years (which, funny enough, i wrote about in 2018 and how i got close with josh homme instead):
- got to see alison roman speak
- saw 42 artists/bands, including 6 i'd seen before, 2 twice in a year, and 2 festivals (best shows/sets in bold): bass drum of death, billy strings, the cadillac three, dead tooth, deeper, dominic fike (twice), donovan frankenreiter, geese, goose, goth babe, grace gravitz, greta van fleet, hether, indigo de souza, japanese breakfast, jean dawson, the juliana theory, late night drive home, lime cordiale, mamalarkey, mannequin pussy, misty blues band, momma, the moss, myron elkins, noso, PACKS, peach pit, pixies, quarters of change, red rum club, remi wolf, the rocket summer, run the jewels, the strokes, surf curse (twice), the walkmen, wallice, wednesday, white reaper, the wombats, yeah yeah yeahs
- for those following along on my annual to-do list, i checked off 12.5 of the 23 items i set out to accomplish for 2023 (did a sound bath meditation, visited a state i've never been to — utah, dined at the olde pink house in savannah, finished taking and developing the roll of film on the disposable camera i bought last summer — 98% came out horrible, took a pole dancing class, got published on one of my bucket list publications — i'm counting my interview with kurt vile because that's a bucket list interview! — made a bourbon cheddar apple pie, found the acler raven midi cutout dress for less than $100, went to a GVF show but not with danielle hence the half-item, tried a tasting menu, went to the encore casino, got a cute vintage table and chair set for my dining room, and got another eerily accurate reading from raymond at the tremont tea room!
2023 favorites:
albums:
(favorite songs here)
i originally started writing 20 billion words about each album but then just deleted all of them halfway through because sadly, nobody cares as much as i do — and i don't mean that in a woe-is-me way, but like, it's just the truth. everybody's busy and no one has time to read my very passionate musical essays. but i'd love to chat in depth about any of these records with anyone who feels so inclined because i have lots of THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS! :)
fave tracks: different pages, one trick pony, something i am not
sounds: lush, evocative, captivating, reflective, like you're journaling by yourself in a coffee shop in the west village
recommended if you like: soulful female singer-songwriters like norah jones and corinne bailey rae, mazzy star, portishead
fave tracks: body, detonator, spring
sounds: earnest, heartfelt, mellow, like you're taking a long hike in the pacific northwest
recommended if you like: indie singer-songwriters, folk, indie pop/rock like peach pit, mt. joy, and the backseat lovers
fave tracks: days move slow, change your mind, a love profound, lose you
sounds: '90s! impassioned, angry, raw, like you're lamenting unrequited love in your bedroom
recommended if you like: grunge, college rock, punk, pop-punk
fave tracks: shy of a nurse, river, walk on down, moon, circle of birds
sounds: warm, folky, melodic, cozy, relaxing, like you're hanging out, making dinner, and laughing with friends in a quaint new england farmhouse
recommended if you like: lo-fi indie, elliott smith, bedroom pop, college rock
fave tracks: how much is weed?, ant pile, dancing in the courthouse, 7 hours, dark
sounds: fresh, chill, vibey?? like you're cruising in a convertible with your favorite person, singing loudly and totally living in the moment
recommended if you like: pop, hip-hop/r&b, the strokes, weezer, the neighbourhood
fave tracks: love from the other side, hold me like a grudge, i am my own muse, what a time to be alive
sounds: like old fall out boy!
fave tracks: fate of the faithful, the indigo streak, frozen light, the archer, meeting the master
sounds: dreamy, spacey, heavy, dirty, nuanced, like you're stoned and waxing philosophical and cosmic in a wood-paneled, shag-carpeted den with a lava lamp
recommended if you like: '60s & '70s folk, prog, blues, or psychedelic rock, arena rock, southern rock, grunge, and perhaps even heavy metal
fave tracks: tasteless water, sooner or later, don't want you in the car, aaahh!!!
sounds: mellow, atmospheric, like you're taking one last, bittersweet look at a person or place that meant a lot to you but that it's time to move on from
recommended if you like: bedroom pop, 2000s indie rock like nada surf, rogue wave, or pinback
fave tracks: little magic, me and george, check the mirror, swanee
sounds: groovy, laid back, hypnotic, sometimes like you're drinking on a fishing boat in the florida keys and others like you're driving along a desert highway
recommended if you like: southern rock, blues, old-school country
fave tracks: get close, whole wide world, bite my head off
sounds: like the stones, man
fave tracks: slick rick, talkin' on the internet, herberts on holiday
sounds: neurotic (in a good way), riffy, snappy, badass, like you're drinking $5 cocktails in a bowling alley bar with townies (i don't know, it's just the vibe i get!)
recommended if you like: new wave, '77 punk, melodic hardcore/punk/indie stuff like turnstile and angel du$t
fave tracks: too good at raising hell, pretty vicious, i won't run, remember the name
sounds: slick, catchy, glitzy, like you're strutting down the sunset strip in a leather catsuit with a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other in the '80s
recommended if you like: queen, the darkness, t. rex, bowie, cheap trick, '70s and '80s glam
fave tracks: fog machine, getting into trouble w/ the boss, pink slip, bozo
sounds: energetic, retro, nostalgic, lighthearted, punchy, like you're in a mall arcade with your crush and earning tokens to get a prize from one of those claw machines
recommended if you like: '70s & '80s glam rock (KISS, thin lizzy), hair metal, early-mid-2000s pop-punk/emo, power pop
NEW CATEGORY!! albums that i wanted to love, but did not:
now these, i will elaborate on.
aka critic bait: the album! this is the perfect example of what i mean when i say that "innovative" and "original" are not synonymous with "good." it's giving "i'm not like other girls," except instead of letting that message unfold on its own through the music, they're loudly announcing it at every turn by constantly shoehorning ~*qUiRkY*~ vocal wankery and needless, noisy nonsense into every possible crevice of the album. for all of the critical value placed on so-called musical authenticity and forming a distinct personality, i'm left flummoxed by this ween-meets-grateful-dead-meets-rolling-stones-meets-drunk-uncle-at-a-keno-lounge project, because when considering it alongside their strokes-and-television-esque post-punk debut, projector (which i loved) i now have absolutely no clue who geese is or what kind of music they want to make. i'm not sure they know, either. i'm all for experimentation and evolution, but what i'm getting here is a band that's just trying on different sound "outfits" for fun at the expense of actually establishing an artistic identity. jack of like two or three trades, master of none. i LOVE "cowboy nudes" — it was my third favorite song of the year! — and really, really like the title track as well, but overall, a pretty big miss for me. and as i mentioned in my favorite songs post, it was somehow worse live (my friend sent me a random clip from the show last week being like "seriously, WTF is thissss??" hahah). so naturally, f*ntano stans are calling it the album of the year. i did derive some sick pleasure from playing the opening track for my friend in his car when i was visiting him in north carolina, and this was pretty much his exact reaction. cackling.
"did not love" is probably the most gentle way of putting it; the optimistic outlook i had for this band in 2021 was immediately squashed upon one listen to this album. aside from a few of the 17(!!!) tracks, including the undeniably catchy oral sex ode "baby said," it's the worst record i've heard this year by a wide margin. i would say two years, but it's maybe slightly better than panic! at the disco's viva las vengeance (more on them later). a completely transparent, "LOUD NOISES + GUITARS = ROCK MUSIC!"-made-for-pop-radio-imagine-dragons-esque attempt at an american breakthrough in which they cuddled up with max martin and abandoned everything that made them so promising. the whole thing is about as melodic as a garbage truck or, say, being bludgeoned to death with a frying pan, and the english-language lyrics are a cringeworthy buffet of try-hard, vapid drug and sex references. think what you want about greta, but they'd neeeever in a million years make *anything* like this and i thank god for that.
NEW CATEGORY!! favorite artist discoveries (who didn't release full albums in 2023 or are now defunct):
movies (28 watched):
the holdovers (2023)
(...THE HOLDOVERS THE HOLDOVERS THE HOLDOVERS!!! guys, i'm like the biggest holdovers stan, i cannot even tell you. it's hands down the best movie i've seen all year, and probably in the past few years — since promising young woman. and i've been thinking about it every day since i saw an early access screening in november. see iiiit.)
take this waltz (2011)
a man called otto (2022)
no hard feelings (2023)
watcher (2022)
barbie (2023)
nocturnal animals (2016)
TV shows (6 new series/seasons watched):
BEEF (possibly the best original netflix show EVER, aside from russian doll season 1?)
books (13 read, i was slackin'):
where are your boys tonight? the oral history of emo's mainstream explosion 1999–2008 by chris payne
some commentary on this one, bc it's very personal to me! to my surprise and delight, i enjoyed this emo version of meet me in the bathroom MORE than the indie sleaze oral history? maybe because i felt more connected to it through attending shows and being somewhat embedded with the bands of the era, since nearly all of them passed through poughkeepsie (where i was attending college) constantly and i saw them all like a billion times. but it was also a pretty strange and amusing read, because some accounts are completely at odds with my experiences and recollection; the best example being panic! at the disco. my entire friend group and i absolutely adored them and their first album (still do) and they were one of the coolest bands around at the time for us. meanwhile, apparently pitchfork gave their debut a 1.5 and they were shunned by other bands due to their sudden, immense popularity and seen as uncool? huh??? sounds vaguely familiar...anyway, god damn, it just goes to show you how much less internetty the internet was back then. i truly had no idea about any of this until reading this book (i kept saying "REALLY?" aloud) and i've been enjoying a fever you can't sweat out, blissfully unaware of any dissenting opinions of it, for 18 years. and like, i'll continue to because i could not give less of a fuck what a random middle-aged asshole with a laptop and liberal arts degree thinks or thought of anything that brings me joy (nor should you), but wow. i was shook! same thing with my beloved something corporate. have they HEARD "i woke up in a car" or "space"? hello??! anyway, the book was also fantastic because it inspired me to check out artifacts from the era that i somehow missed or hadn't revisited in a long time, including:
- panic!'s second, critically-lauded-but-fan-maligned album, pretty. odd. (as per usual and as history showed, the critics were wrong, it was the death knell for their original incarnation, and as my memory correctly served, it's...extremely boring and not very good! barring "that green gentleman," which is the second-best panic! song (after "the ballad of mona lisa.") it's perfectly written, constructed, and performed in every possible way.)
- cartel being on some reality show called band in a bubble; i'd never heard of the show, despite seeing cartel live a couple times back in the day and still considering their debut album, chroma, easily one of the ten best albums of the emo era. i pulled up the first episode of the show on youtube and barely made it through half because it was aaaawful! i linked it, but like...do not recommend.
- my chemical romance's the black parade — shhh, don't you dare tell anyone that i never listened to it in full until the year of our lord, 2023, or they'll take away my former emo kid card (i was a total three cheers for sweet revenge girly and was moving out of my emo phase by the time of its release). it's pretty great, but i'm still partial to the former!
this time tomorrow by emma straub
easy beauty by chloé cooper jones
the seven year slip by ashley poston
the it girl by ruth ware
other miscellaneous favorite things:
- rolando pujol's newsletter, the retrologist (and his accompanying instagram)
- the retail archaeology youtube channel, which features dead mall walkthroughs:
- antphrodite, the pop culture psychic
- the ROM-comedians podcast
- rob anderson's 7th heaven recaps
- brittany broski's podcast, the broski report, and her one-off videos that have me peeing myself with laughter (the boyfriend ASMR one below is a fave):
looking ahead...24 things to do in 2024:
1. take a class at boston dance studios
2. request and receive a celebrity autograph via mail (i used to do this as a kid and it was actually so fun...my most prized one is brad renfro's, RIP)
3. ride in a convertible
4. order room service in a hotel
5. make a fancy latte recipe with my new nespresso machine
10. turn my guest room into an actual guest room and not just my junk/getting ready room
11. make a collage
12. listen to 2017 new-to-me albums released before i was born (pre-1986)
13. eat a croissant at a sidewalk cafe in paris (i tried this years ago but they were out of croissants, so i'm trying again)
14. (attempt to) grow a fruit tree in my apartment
15. watch an entire season of a TV show i haven't seen that "everybody else" has: succession, game of thrones, or the sopranos, maybe?
17. learn to play *one* of my favorite guitar solos
19. send christmas cards
20. start learning french
21. make one of the pies in the 50 pies, 50 states cookbook i bought last year
22. see 105 artists/bands live that i've never seen before
23. go to a stand-up comedy show
24. color my hair, because i haven't in like 6 years, which is insane
what's on your list for 2024?
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