Tag: frank zappa

holiday 2025 - a small batch of vinyl records and a box set laying on my futon. We got some Eater, Henry Cow, Albert King, Patti Smith, Art Blakey with Thelonius Monk, and Fugees
Miscellany

Holiday Pickups, Sonic Addictions, & Looking Ahead

Happy New Year. I started writing this yesterday, but that’s indicative of how 2025 went, generally. It’s been a year, in other words, one I’d rather forget. Except for the music, that is. Pretty soon I’ll kick off all the various end-of-year lists, but before fully shoving 2025’s ass out the door I wanted to take a few minutes and look back over some of my discoveries, addictions, and other music-related highlights of the year. It’s also been a hot minute since I did one of those “What I got over the holiday/break/vacation” deals, so we’ll start with the incoming holiday music (pictured in the header) and move on to my other predilections and penchants when it came to music in 2025.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 81: Sanity Check

I’m burning myself out. I think the stress of work, my only child being away in college and the attendant stress with that, along with the self-imposed commitment to get a 2025 review in every day was just too much this time, and I found myself not enjoying the process like I did last year. These next few days the plan is just to relax and let the music just be music, not a box to check off or a pile in my office to shrink. So I’m going to move a little slower, a little more deliberately. I don’t want to one of those people who want to write but all they ever write about is the fact that they’re not writing; I’m doing this for myself, and I find the best way through is just to keep writing. Which hey: I just did.

This week is a very random suite of stuff that’s ben keeping my head and heart afloat this week.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 77: Dumb Fun

Sometimes you want to fall into the depths of a great song or album, stretching your senses around and in between the notes, feeling the rhythm shifts and tempo changes. Sometimes you want to dig into the marrow of lyrics, searching for analogues to your life and experiences. Sometimes, though, you just want some DUMB FUN. That’s this playlist: dumb, mindless fun for my soul. Note that my definition of DUMB FUN may differ from yours…and that’s perfectly okay. Let’s get it.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 70: Reunions

I’m writing this Thursday instead of my usual Saturday morning. Today I’m leaving for a wedding on my side of the family, a group I see very rarely. Then it’s a trip across two states to visit my son for Parent’s Weekend at his college. We haven’t seen other since August, and both my wife and are looking forward to that more than a night of drinking and dancing – especially since I no longer drink. So this will be some of the soundtrack for all the driving, the expectations, and the reality of my various reunions over the next few days.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 62: What’s New?

Small steps. Repeated Deep Purple spins morphed into repeated Uriah Heep spins (the new stuff feels like a similar flavor to new DP), and rather than bear down and get another review out this week, I enjoyed taking bit of air and just listening to some of the new stuff that came in the house. I guess technically there is a fourth review, so if you dig stoner metal you can check out my review of the new Borracho over at Nine Circles. Otherwise, here’s what I’ve been spinning (or streaming) in my personal time.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 57: My Voyage to Italy, Pt. 1

50,607 songs. That’s the current total in my online music library. And that doesn’t count the hundreds of albums I bought off of Bandcamp and haven’t downloaded yet, or the physical albums, CDs, and cassettes I have yet to add. This is what happens when you hit “Shuffle” and take an hour’s worth of music for the playlist. Enjoy.

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