Music

Generally into flavors associated with indie rock, with ventures into hip-hop, jazz, folk, electronica, experimental, etc. Soft spots for American Primitivism, and Power Pop.

Albums

All-time important to me

Joanna Newsom - Ys
Death Grips - The Money Store
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Pharoah Sanders - Karma
Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Yo La Tengo - Painful

Favorites of 2025

Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away
Jens Kuross - Crooked Songs
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
Geese - Getting Killed
Djion - Baby
BASIC - Dream City
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn
Orcutt Shelley Miller - Orcutt Shelley Miller
John Glacier - Like a Ribbon

Favorites of 2024

Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Amen Dunes - Death Jokes
Hayden Pedigo - Live in Amarillo, Texas
Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
BASIC - This is BASIC
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
Jake Xerxes Fussell - When I'm Called
James Blackshaw - Unraveling in Your Hands
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
Sharp Pins - Radio DDR
Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
Mavi - Shadowbox

Online references

Only Solitaire - George Starostin's Music Reviews - original version - favorite music critic by far, especially covering 1960s-80s rock, but with a scoring framework that remains robust for other genres and time periods
RateYourMusic - catalog of releases, with consensus ratings, also amazingly good genre classifications
setlist.fm - crowd-sourced live concert dates and sometimes set lists
Bandcamp - where I prefer to follow artists (rather than on Instagram or social media) and purchase music digitally
- I only purchase physical copies (vinyl) for records that are particularly meaningful, and prefer to purchase them at shows or at record stores, rather than online.
  - I actually don't have my record player set up in my current apartment, and so these records are purely serving as decor, which isn't ideal. And listening to music digitally is so much more convenient, even if there is some loss of attachment. Limiting my purchases of vinyl for now as a result.