The Best Of Me, 2023
2023 has been a uniquely exhausting, exasperating, dispiriting year. This post is probably a little shorter than usual because so many outlets I've written for in previous years had layoffs and other major setbacks this year. It's just a rough time out there, way beyond what's impacted me personally. I'm happy to look back at the things I did this year that I'm proud of, and I'm happy to be here getting ready for the holidays with my wonderful family and heading into 2024 excited about some of the things I'm working on.
The most exciting thing I wrote this year was an interview with No ID for Stereogum's We've Got A File On You column. I wrote my first blog post about No ID on here about 16 years ago, so I was elated when Stereogum offered me the opportunity and just felt so ready to get a great interview. I think it was the first time I effected the trending topics on Twitter -- "Church Girl" trended that week when I broke the story that the beat was made for Jay-Z before it became a Beyonce song.
I wrote a lot for The Baltimore Banner this year and got to tell the stories of some awesome people from Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland. I interviewed Jackson Dean, Brothers Osborne, Starpoint, Bossman, Dan Deacon, the organizers of the High Zero Festival, and the creators of "Craig of the Creek." I also visited Keystone Korner, The Sidebar, Baltimore Music Company, Wright Way Studios, and a Towson auction house trying to sell John Lennon's piano.
On Spin, I profiled an exciting new Australian producer, Department, and wrote a deeply researched breakdown of Dark Side of the Moon on its 50th anniversary. I made lists of the 25 best EPs of 2023 and the top 50 hip-hop singles of the 1980s, I ranked the discographies of a bunch of artists including De La Soul, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Blur, Cypress Hill, Nas, The Rolling Stones, The Pogues, and Jimmy Buffett, And I wrote pieces surveying the work of several music legends who died this year: David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Harry Belafonte, Tina Turner, Sinead O'Connor,
Here on Narrowcast, I made a list of the top 100 country singles of the 1990s. And I continued my long-running Deep Album Cuts series with posts including Elvis Presley, Warren Zevon, Sheryl Crow, The Spinners, Juvenile, Sheila E., The Roots, Robert Palmer, Wilco, and Big Daddy Kane, as well as playlists I made to honor the passing of Bobby Caldwell, Television's Tom Verlaine, Urge Overkill's Blackie Onasis, Tony Bennett, The Band's Robbie Roberts, Smash Mouth's Steve Harwell, and Gary Wright. This month I posted lists of my favorite albums, singles, remixes, and TV shows of 2023.
I took it relatively easy on releasing new music in 2023 after a few very busy years. My new band Lithobrake released its debut EP and played a couple shows this year, and we're currently finishing up a full-length album produced and mixed by me. I only released three new Western Blot tracks this year, but I collected them on a massive 22-track compilation of non-album tracks dating back to 2018, Two Dollars And A Casio, which I'm very proud of.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 9:01 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment