Last year was my first year in a decade that did not culminate in an Arsies tournament. That was bittersweet for me, but I still feel good about the decision. And clearly, I did not slack on my Firsties duties: 144 new albums evaluated in 2019! We’ll see how I do in the coming year. See the rest here
I think there are actually two amazing things here:
1) “[Y]ou somehow have managed to avoid the calcification of musical tastes that is a basic biological fact of age. How did you do that?” I agree, this is truly exceptional. In case you want to know what the near opposite of what you have been able to achieve is, here is a list of the ten albums I have most recently purchased:
Thank you, my friend! I think the First Listens have had the key effect of keeping my tastes fluid and evolving. I’ll keep that going, as I said, so that I can That, and being in frequent contact with other (younger?) metalheads in my area; these folks are not shy about talking at me about <insert random band or subgenre> at me until I relent and promise to give it a listen with an open mind. See the rest here
Very nice work, my friend. I’m sorry that I haven’t had the time to fully invest in your project, namely that I don’t know a substantial number of the albums you have reported on. That comes to the most impressive aspect of your project: you listen to a shit ton of albums! See the rest here
Today, I published my final installment The Arsies, wrapping up what I certainly didn’t intend to be a ten-year, 81,000-word odyssey. Now that the bittersweet end is finally here, I have some thoughts. See the rest here
It’s time: the bracket is here for what is sure to be the most bizarro Arsies ever!
(It’s also the last, friends. So let’s make it count!)
I just watched it the other day—it was pretty sweet, though some of it, especially the end, felt a little rushed.
The parts about the recording of Human and ITP were especially enjoyable. Good stuff! See the rest here
I just watched the new documentary on the band Death, called “Death By Metal,” which you can find on Amazon Prime. It’s really sweet and touching, and does a great job reminiscing about the early days while still hitting all the biographical beats you’d expect. Also, great interviews with ex-members of Death, Sadus, and just about everybody you’d care about. See the rest here
I just discovered a man on Reddit who’d done the 80s hard rock lead guitarist thing, without commercial success, and lost the drive for it. Gave up guitar playing, settled down, had some kids. About a year ago, he was somehow inspired to come out of retirement for fun, to see if he could play a fairly advanced classical guitar piece. See the rest here
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