Thinking about the end of the decade
If you’ve been around (me) awhile, you know that I kind of pride myself on knowing all the hip tunes and what’s going on musically. So, it sort of struck me for a loop recently when someone tweeted about “end of the decade” lists, and I realized “oh that means I need to put an end-of-the-decade” list together?
The weird thing is, I’ve been listening to so much old music the past few years, that I’m going to somewhat struggle to think of what records this year were my favorites. I mean, I’m going to start doing it right now. But the point is, thinking about how long (and yet, how short) this decade has been sort of trips me out.
Anyway…I can usually tell whether how good my weeks are by how much (or little) music I’ve been listening to. The problem is, sometimes I just don’t what to listen to. This year has been a strange one, because for months I felt like nothing resonated but over the past few weeks, there’s constantly been new stuff to vibe to across genres.
Coffee shops have the best music — sometimes.
I was around the corner the other day at the coffee shop and there was a run of really good tunes. The thing that really stuck with me was a band I was able to Shazam (the future is dystopian, but at least that’s a useful tool) a 70s band from Indianapolis called Amnesty.
It’s fantastic and you really need to spend an afternoon with this record while you clean the house or something else. I’m going to find a vinyl of this as soon as I can.
Here’s what their label said about them:
Based in Indianapolis in the early 1970s, the group released only two obscure 45s in their recording career. Birthed from the same scene as the Ebony Rhythm Band, Amnesty had a poltical edge similar to LA Carnival and the hardest brass section since The Kashmere Stage Band. In 1973 Amnesty recorded five hard, vocal funk numbers alongside some ballads and a handful of demos based around nothing more than guitar accompaniment. Only two songs were ever released; Amnesty’s biting, difficult-to-categorize prog/rock/soul/funk stretched far beyond Indianpolis’s bounds and the band didn’t have a label to take them to the next level.
All I ever listen to anymore is darkwave
This isn’t really true. But I did make a playlist of coldwave, because a few people have asked me what it is and I can’t really explain it without saying something about the 80s. Not sure what my life would’ve been like if I realized I like shoegaze in the 90s, but here we are now.
Other stuff I’m overplaying
Yeboyah (I finally found a good Finnish rapper.)
Jessica Pratt (I know I mentioned her last time, but fall Folk vibes for daysss.)
Chastity Belt (Female PNW post-grunge but quieter than their past LPs.)
JPEGMAFIA (It’s rap, but like…basically
I had no idea Tyler, The Creator did a NPR Tiny Desk Concert two years ago.
I’m probably going to use the next few newsletters to start making sense of my favorite albums of the decade. It’s an easy topic to write about and honestly, I have no idea what I’ve been listening to and it’ll be fun to do a retrospective.
What about you? Any favorites that you’re excited to revisit over the past ten years? Or did you stop listening to new music after high school?
Feel free to reply.
-Rb
If you only listen to one new song this month: