Hello, friend.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "A Scream In Silence" by Small Brown Bike →

What's a song you associate with your favorite photograph?

My absolute favorite picture is one we took on vacation in South Carolina when all three kids were under 5. We tried to get a nice picture of my wife and the kids sitting on the big exposed root of the Angel Oak Tree in Charleston... the wife held the twins in her arms and the oldest was sitting on the root right in front of her.

Just as I was about to snap the picture, the twins started wiggling and screaming... and my oldest just had an absolute look of disgust and rolling their eyes at the twins. My wife smiling and trying to rein it all in... all caught on film. Just a perfect example of the chaos of having 3 kids a total of 13 months apart... and what a hero she is!

Now they are all going off to college this year and with that, the quiet. Going to be so weird.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "You’re Gonna Go Far" by Noah Kahan →

Obligatory “start of college drop off season” song. 😭

First college drop off in the books. 😭

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Goddamn, Lizard Man!" by Man/Woman/Chainsaw →

Errand soundtrack today.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Out to Lunch" by Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal →

What's your favorite song about letting go?

How about a song that’s the exact opposite?! Open Mike Eagle’s new album, at least from the first few tracks I’ve heard, is a breakup album and this song is definitely not at the letting go stage yet. Might have to add a prompt for not letting go. 😄

So please fly me to the moon, 'cause she lives right down the street It's fucked up songs on repeat Imparted my sadness on main, I felt safe, might delete My heart's at odds with my mind, and both is frozen in time I'm stuck in a choice I don't want My body's a house that I haunt, ain't no telling what you might find

Half way through the whole album and it’s elite.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Stutter" by Elastica →

Been mainly listening to my music files through Navidrome lately and a shuffle brought up Elastica's self-titled album from 1995. So good...

And of course the algorithm caught on (or maybe coincidence, since they just announced a re-release of the album) and I caught the video "She had a #1 album by 24. Then she stole the riff" (YouTube), which isn't quite true: the riffs were "stolen" when she recorded the #1 album... anyway.

I do love me some Wire and it's one of their influences, even without the riffs. With all that said, Elastica did a lot to make them their own too....

And can we talk about 90s rock music? I wish rock was as big as it was then... but I also know from listening to so much new music, that rock is very much alive, even if it isn't dominating the radio and streaming charts.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Sweet Year Old" by Shudder to Think →

What's a song you'd want to hear on your birthday?

Any time is a good time to hear Shudder to Think, but I mainly picked this song out of the options I came up with because there are zero songs from them on Crucial Tracks.

The fools are slow to leave So the angels aren't scared anymore And while they don't quite rush in Well, well, well They move at a comfortable Clip and they may never leave

Even if you've never heard of Shudder to Think before, I'm sure you've heard some of Craig Wedren's work at some point, maybe the soundtrack of Yellowjackets or scores for movies like Wanderlust, Role Models, School of Rock, Wet Hot American Summer, and many others. Shudder is well worth digging into though!

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Time Escaping" by Big Thief →

What song makes you feel like you're breaking free?

I love when a song comes on that fits the prompt I was struggling with...

What do the weeds say? They say "Everything, everything, everything falls through Each dimension breaks in two Like the two hands clapping Like the two wings flapping

I'd guess there are a good number of tracks from Big Thief that could fit this theme.

🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" by Wolf Parade →

What's your favorite song about second chances?

I gotta get a new bell to ring A new song to sing A steady hand to ring A readiness of things A new plan to bring to the people

This album is elite. I saw today that Isaac Brock produced it, so that makes so much sense...

The analysis has calculated heavy agentic AI usage by an individual to a little more than the energy usage of an electric clothes dryer for a year. Not inconsequential for sure... and that doesn't consider water, other pollution, noise, etc.

The eye-opening chart, though, was the annual numbers for an average US home in terms of electricity usage AND 11,500 miles of a gas car. Just huge. The lack of federal attention to convert the grid to renewables and reduction of incentives to buy EVs during this shit administration is going to have a massive long-term impact.