Music
Generally into flavors associated with indie rock, with ventures into hip-hop, jazz, folk, electronica, 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
- Jim O'Rourke - Bad Timing
- Pharoah Sanders - Karma
- Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home
- Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
- Frank Ocean - Blonde
- Yo La Tengo - Painful
Favorites of 2025 so far
- Hayden Pedigo - I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away
- Jens Kuross - Crooked Songs
- Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
- Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band - New Threats from the Soul
- Lifeguard - Ripped and Torn
- Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
- Geese - Getting Killed
- Big Thief - Double Infinity
- Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo 2
- Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love
- The Beths - Straight Line Was a Lie
Favorites of 2024
- Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
- Amen Dunes - Death Jokes
- Hayden Pedigo - Live in Amarillo, Texas
- Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal (post-hoc)
- 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