I have missed a few weeks because my day job has Sucked Ass Pretty Hard lately, but I can't let that stop me from committing to bits like music friday. Today is long back music day so my small attempt to counter that is recommending the debut elite gymnastics album because it is quite good and more people should know about it

Another Friday means another opportunity to commit to music friday. This time is actually a tribute to summery music, which I meant to do last week before I was derailed. It’s September now and we still have summer vibes, but temperatures around me are finally cooling down, so to celebrate some comfortable outdoor hangs as football and falling leaves approach, listen to some of these summer jams.

Happy Music Friday! I had been thinking about putting together a summer jam recap for this week, but then this post happened and it was all I could think about for the rest of the day. An overwhelming number of people came out of the woodwork to dunk on this person’s song choice, which—like—sure, whatever. I’m not a “music lover” like that myself in general but can obviously see why that choice in particular and the reasons for it are humorous, but it is a song I would generally consider pretty good under different… uh… let’s say “listening circumstances.” The more concerning thing about the issue described is basically everything else outside of the song selection, but maybe that’s just me.

The song happens to be a production of Hudson Mohawke, so I decided to make a playlist of HudMo jams. If you asked me a few years ago, I might’ve said Hudson was one of my absolute favorite artists, with time I’ve grown apart from him but still would credit him for having a huge influence on electronic and hip-hop music in recent history. The man had a large hand in the last great Kanye album. He laid the foundation for a lot of what is now known as future bass. Pete Tong dubbed him the “Aphex Twin of hip-hop.” He did a good job on the Watch Dogs 2 soundtrack. But now a lot of people will know him as the guy who made that meme song.

Anyway, here’s a playlist that shows some of HudMo’s reach and range. Enjoy

I'm back for another music friday to share one of my favorite ways to discover new music: radio.

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I've always been disappointed by the way every streaming service has failed to deliver anything compelling in the way of serving up new music for you to enjoy. Sure, Spotify will keep feeding you new songs "related" to what you were listening to or try to create a "radio" based on things you identify, but I'm always shocked at how bad these systems are, basically across the board.

The cynical take on that is streaming services are businesses and their best interests lie outside of actually helping you explore the depths of their libraries, but it's probably just as true that no one at those companies actually knows how to recommend music.

Thankfully, there are folks out there hosting radio shows. Like real ones, not just Clear Channel/iHeart slop that most terrestrial radio stations have somehow become. Lefto's show is a favorite of mine and definitely has been shaping and reshaping my tastes and appetites around mostly jazz, hip-hop, house, and experimental music for years now. You should listen to a show or two. There's almost always some gems to appreciate, even if they don't end up becoming your jams.