General Update and June 2023 Overview

General Update and June Overview

Writer's Check-in

Hello everyone! I know it's been a little too long since I have posted regularly about music, especially since this is about 13 days late. Somehow, it just didn't feel right to post about music for a little while, and since I already had a lot on my mind and just wanted to enjoy music as is for a while, I decided to hold off until I really wanted to get back into it. I will say these last 45 days or so have been a very reflective period, where I've taken time to really look back and think about whether the way I am living and doing things is right for me. Much of this was spurred on by watching Moonage Daydream, recommended to me by a very close friend, and in a way I can't express, it made me readjust my thinking in a healthier pattern and gave me clarity to really evaluate things. I've made drastic cuts to things I felt weren't doing much for me (I've already been minimally engaging with social media, and now I've really taken measures to cut myself off from a large part of the internet for good). I've begun to build up some habits I felt were lacking in my life (such as cooking, exercising, and just thinking more about my future in general). It's been a good period overall, and I've felt much better about trying to improve certain things than coasting through everything without thought.

As for the essay I wrote earlier this month, I'm aware that many of you might have been shocked and repulsed by it. It was written when I was feeling very depressed and emotional in general, very much a spur of the moment where I tried to get out a lot of the ideas and feelings that were in my head. I even considered taking it down since I don't think it really had a coherent message and might have been a bit too over-the-top, but I decided to keep it because it does, to a large extent, reflect how I feel about modern society. If it reads as a bunch of overdramatic tripe, just ignore it and feel free to even tell me such in the comments. If some people find it something they resonate with, that's great as well and more the reason I'll keep it up. It was certainly not what a lot of my friends were expecting, and if it rubbed any of you the wrong way, I apologize for that.

Yet, I still feel really deeply about the idea that this loss of humane ways of acting and living in the modern world, and it really is responsible for so many problems we see today, from political extremism to collective inaction to the mental health crisis. The thing that really bothers me is that this crisis seems to be something few people care about. People do see social media, extremism over moderation, and turf wars over empathy in personal relationships as the norm that should be upheld (even if people don't realize that they are upholding these things), and the fact that such a small number are talking about this core crumbling and degradation is concerning. On some level, I think everybody knows this is happening, but until enough people start to evaluate whether a good chunk of our modern innovations is actually improving society, I see no way of making serious progress in any sphere because if we aren't looking at things from the human perspective, what good will it do? I do honestly believe there might still be hope for a great "spiritual humanist" revolution, but as of now, it is still an idea that is not shared by many. At the very least, even if everything I am talking about is pure nonsense (and I am open to that being the case), it is better, for balance, to be a devil's advocate for a lot of these modern innovations than sing the same hosanna most people do these days. For what it's worth, the modern world has, at least, done one amazing thing: working on stopping a lot of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, and that is one improvement I am very, very thankful for.

In other news, as far as music writing goes, I've tried out way too many things with mixed success and satisfaction for me. Some have told me I should have stuck with some of those schedules for longer, but looking back, it seems the song of the day reviews were the most successful. So I think I am going to go back to those for now. I'll probably be writing two fully-fledged articles eventually (one on Otis Redding, the other on pre-war blues), but expect many casual reviews in the coming days.

So, I guess I am standing at the crossroads for many things in my life, but so are most of us, and I'm glad I even have an opportunity to be at such a point than having to plow through one path for the rest of my life without my own choice being involved.

Music Stats for June

Total Listening Time: 210 hours. Didn't think I'd ever hit such a number, but I'm also not surprised that it happened.

Top Artist: The Beach Boys. Revisiting one of my favorite bands ever will always be both fun and rewarding, especially since music tends to take on new meanings as you age and grow.

Top Album: The Complete Blind Willie Johnson. It's still my benchmark for sheer emotional expression in music, just because the slide guitar + vocal attack of Blind Willie Johnson is still so powerful even a whole century later. There has never been a song more direct and emotionally devastating than "Dark Was The Night - Cold Was the Ground", and it isn't even by far the most intense song he ever recorded. He also is probably the most accessible pre-war blues great to get into, so if you are interested in getting into classic folk and blues, this is an awesome place to start!

Top Song: "Wave" - Antonio Carlos Jobim. Whatever reservations I have about Jobim, I can't think of many songs that can soothe my nerves like this one. It's absolutely serene.

Video of the Month for June

"Have You Ever Loved A Woman" - Freddie King

I was listening to some Freddie King this month and decided to watch this video again, and oh man, is this an incredible performance. Maybe lacking in subtly for some, but listen, Freddie sings and sweats his heart out more than almost any electric bluesman and makes his guitar live and breathe like a human being, so why complain? This is absolutely incredible stuff, way more devastating than his original studio recording and makes you feel the electrifying power this guy had as a performer and musician. Most of all, it shows why Freddie King was the electric blues veteran to survive into the late 60s/early 70s and how could easily hold his own against the Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers Band, and Led Zeppelin in this highly competitive era. 

Articles & Reviews

Well, I started June with song reviews and then jumped to doing general music thoughts about all sorts of things. Here is everything I wrote this month:

Song Reviews

1. "Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me" - Mississippi John Hurt
2. "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" - Isaac Hayes
3. "It's Too Soon To Know" - The Orioles
4. "Gee" - The Crows
5. "Crying In The Chapel" - The Orioles
6. "Money Honey" - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters

Assorted Ravings and Rantings

1. June 9, 2023 Entry
2. June 10, 2023 Entry
3. June 11, 2023 Entry
4. June 12, 2023 Entry
5. June 14, 2023 Entry
6. June 17, 2023 Entry
7. June 23, 2023 Entry

Monthly Playlist for June

Here is the link to the June playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3b1xxccHe18yBxjQdMEPQ4?si=c87637adb574440e

The playlist should also reflect my growing interest in getting into jazz and bossanova, though much of it is still in the rock-blues-soul axis you expect from a playlist of mine (along with one of the guys who got me into music in the first place, Scott Joplin). This playlist feels like a disorienting mish-mash of many different things, but I love all the tracks on there, and I hope you guys enjoy it as well. Here is the tracklist:

1. "Doin' The Cockroach" - Modest Mouse
2. "Wave" - Antônio Carlos Jobim
3. "The Girl From Ipanema" - Stan Getz & João Gilberto
4. "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" - The Spinners
5. "Floyd The Barber" - Nirvana
6. "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" - Skip James
7. "Drunken Spree" - Skip James
8. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
9. "Dumb (MTV Unplugged Live)" - Nirvana
10. "Construção" - Chico Buarque
11. "Deus Lhe Pague" - Chico Buarque
12. "Alameda" - Elliott Smith
13. "God and the Devil In the Land of the Sun" - Antônio Carlos Jobim
14. "Shhh / Peaceful" - Miles Davis
15. "Let Your Light Shine On Me" - Blind Willie Johnson
16. "Third Stone from the Sun" - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
17. "Crosscut Saw" - Albert King
18. "Undenied" - Portishead
19. "Come On Boys Let's Do That Messin' Around" - Blind Blake
20. "Heroes and Villains" - The Beach Boys
21. "Floating Bridge" - Sleepy John Estes
22. "This Whole World" - The Beach Boys
23. "Whatcha Doin'" - Sleepy John Estes
24. "Kiss Me Baby" - The Beach Boys
25. "Shake It and Break It" - Charley Patton
26. "Gladiolus Rag" - Scott Joplin, performed by Joshua Rifkin
27. "Bitches Brew" - Miles Davis
28. "Shelter From The Storm" - Bob Dylan
29. "Devils Haircut" - Beck
30. "I Belong To The Band" - Reverend Gary Davis

Anyways, it's been a hell of a month and a half, but music happens to be a helpful guiding force no matter wherever I am. Thank you all so much for allowing me to express my love of music here, and let's hope I can write a bit more to get some of that love out regularly!