What we've been really enjoying lately

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Sophomore shine

I’ve been idly ruminating about the idea of the opposite of a sophomore slump… cases in which a band has made a big splash with their debut album, only to eclipse it with a followup album that was widely heralded as superior.

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A long essay about Judas F-ing Priest

So, I’m covering the hospital for the first time in a couple of years… It’s a two week stint, and I’m almost done with my first week. It’s been really great; I‘ve been totally enjoying myself working with the team, seeing patients, doing a lot of teaching. The part that’s more relevant to you, however, is that I have a 35 minute drive to and from the hospital, as opposed to my usual 10 minute commute, which allows for the return of Band of the Week™!

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Down with Spotify

This week, there’s been a growing hue and cry about Spotify, precipitated by Neil Young taking a stand against the platform’s promotion and publication of Joe Rogan’s harmful rhetoric about CoViD, but further bolstered by people seeming to wake up to Spotify’s less than generous revenue sharing model. To be totally fair, they’re not the only ones screwing the artists, but they’re among the most egregious.

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2020: The Year In Metal

Jesus fucking christ, guys. You know what kind of year this was. And if somehow you forgot what 2020 was, consider this: over the past 12 months, I have only managed to audition 52 new albums, or 1 per week. That’s something like 40% my usual workload. Do you have albums that I missed?

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