Friday, March 8, 2019

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hi Gang,

I wanted to just take a minute to talk about some changes you'll see on this blog in the months to come.

The biggest one is this -- I'm planning on taking a hiatus in writing album reviews for awhile. There are a number of reasons for this. A big one is that I went full-time on my job last December, and it's requiring a lot more time (and a lot more writing) than I originally realized. I've been trying to keep to a schedule of writing at least one album review a week, but I've been feeling a lot of pressure in trying to keep up with this.

The second reason is simply that I'm kind of pissed right now at the Sputnik Music site, which is the place that my album reviews over the last few years have really been tailored for. I'll probably get over it at some point, but it's given me a chance to reevaluate how I'm spending my time, which is becoming a precious resource right now. And since I've taken a step back to think about it, I realize that there are a lot of listening projects I've been wanting to do, and taking some time off from churning out album reviews will give me a chance to catch up on them.

Don't fret though, because I'll still be posting the next entries in the My Favorite Bands project on here. (Next up: Long Island's own legendary Good Rats.) And I've got a bunch of tickets for upcoming shows, so there will be a bunch of concert reviews on here over the next two months. I'll also be getting out a few times over the next few weeks to revisit some of my favorite local artists, and I'll be writing about those shows as well. And I've got at least one more musical theater entry coming up, too. So it's not like the blog will be empty.

Along the way, if I get an overwhelming urge to write up an album review, well, there's nothing to stop me. So far, my two favorite albums of 2019 have been the new Fool album by Joe Jackson, and a double album by an electronic band called All Hail the Silence (which some are calling a self-titled album, and others are calling Daggers, because there's nothing on the cover but a picture of some daggers. It's like Zoso/Runes/Led Zeppelin 4 in that respect.) These guys are proteges  of Erasure's Vince Clarke, as were one of my favorite discoveries of 2018, Reed & Caroline, and they feature a very tasty brand of '80s-influenced electropop.

So that's what's coming up. See you soon.