If you need a country song that will make the rest of the Music League say what the heck is this, especially if they're not country fans either, go with "Choctaw Bingo" by James McMurtry. There was even an article in Slate a while back suggesting it should be the new national anthem. I can't really argue with the article's logic.
I had never heard "Choctaw Bingo" until we got in the car this morning and I punched Outlaw Country...and there it was. OMG, I love this! I hope Michael goes with it.
I did one music league with fellow Discord members and it did introduce me to a ton of new music. I also learned almost no one shared my musical taste, which is basic bitch radio rock 😅 Mostly why I stopped was the time required to listen to 20 or so songs every week. If I had a job where I listened to my own music all day (instead of my boss's stale-ass Spotify -free version, ugh- playlists) it would be far easier.
I love exquisite corpses. One of my favorite creative writing class exercises was the "write a sentence, pass to the next person to add on, but then they fold your sentence over so the next person only sees their sentence, repeat" around the room.
I'm an anxious person so I'm all about the routine. I do need to show up to writing more often, though. It seems any of my solo time chunks have a ticking clock attached and too many other things to prioritize. "do I do this necessary chore, exercise, write, or just give myself a fucking break already?"
I love how you put it, "Basic bitch radio rock." That's a genre unto itself. As for your boss, I think you need to go Empire Records on him and take control of the music at work. On a more serious note, I like how you connect routine with anxiety, Amber. As an anxious person myself I can totally see that because a routine sorta short circuits having to think about what comes next.
yes! the discovery and acceptance of new music IS possible beyond a certain calcified state of appreciation and combining it with
the joys of friendship and connection just adds to the joy
great point by you!
i had shut down for long stretches in "hearing" stuff id already pre-judged due to a personality or "story" but life is too short for THAT mistake i see now😇😂🤗
1. Not really, but the pickleball craze is sweeping through our community of middle-aged friends. Not sure my knees can take it, though.
2. I have not, but I must check out that Florida Man book. Those are my people.
3. We use Apple Music now and I only curate my own playlists. I tend to hear new songs ephemerally so I think I've done a good job of not getting stuck in the algorithmic vortex.
Be wary of pickle ball! I've had a few friends injure themselves even though it's supposed to be safer. Meanwhile, my friends who play tennis are plotting the destruction of pickle ball culture, and while I know you know how to handle your business, you make more than enough enemies with your newsletter. Stick to bowling! Also, thank you for the techno recs, I'm going to crush that round!
Music is so incredibly important in my life. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of music (just like every day for like the last 40 years) and starting to compile playlists, just like mixtapes I used to make during the late 80s. That was often how music was best consumed, and it's no different today - but I need to be the one making the playlist. It becomes an additional creative layer, a game I can play with myself to find songs for a particular playlist, or - as I've been doing lately - classify random songs into playlists I've already created, where they belong.
I hesitate to say that I hate country. Too strong a word for me. I don't know a lot of country, but obviously some of the singer song writers I love sit in a space between rock and country. But outlaw country? Oooh, I'm gonna have to check that out because I do like outlaws.
I speak fluent Outlaw Country: Willie, Waylon, Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt. Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash. I don’t do streaming. I’m so old AF I miss the music player you could embed in your MySpace profile.
I thought that the point of Spotify was to find you music SIMILAR to what you put in to expand your playlist from a familiar place to new things, but that doesn't seem to be the case, huh?
That is the promise of Spotify. It was the promise of Pandora too. Honestly, I think Pandora did a better job of that. But that kind of exploration and enrichment is as profitable as just giving you more of the same. Also, Spotify has shifted its focus to podcasts and now audiobooks, so there mission, I shit you not, is to own your ears.
1. Heck yeah! It's almost all on discord, but watching crazy movies every Saturday and Monday, reading maddening books every Friday, and gaming every Wednesday.
2. [redacted pending court decision]
3. It sounds weird, but I don't listen to a lot of music. I tend to gravitate to soundtracks and only get new songs when I hear them from random places.
4. I don't go for country much, either. But Blues Saraceno does some stuff that slaps. I recommend "Grave Digger". As for techno, maybe anything by Lindsey Stirling?
When I read this I thought damn, I wish I had friends to do Music League with. I moved from the north to the south and making new friends, especially as a man, is super hard. BUT- I realize I need to go find them around some activity (just got to figure out what activity lol).
I didn’t recognize any of the music you had here so thanks for putting me on as always. When it comes to music, I listen to Soulection Radio - it’s a playlist every week of just pure goodness. I can’t listen to random tracks. It’s an album or nothing. But Soulection Radio is beautifully put together.
Just a thought, but you might start a Music League with your friends from up north. It’s a great way to stay in touch. As for making new friends, Music League probably works too, but this feels like the kind of assignment that’s best done in person. My advice: pick an activity you enjoy or are curious to about trying and look for a local group that does that thing.
Music League sounds awesome - although, like you, I fear I would nominate a song from the same artist every single time - in my case, Steely Dan (I inflicted “Steely Dan Wednesday” on my kids for ninety-two straight weeks, a few years ago, by emailing a YouTube link of a Steely Dan tune to them). Also, thanks for the reminder about “Naked Came the Manatee” - I’ve never gotten around to reading it.
I love the idea of this app and desperately want to do it! Problem is that I don't have a cohesive group of friends who all love music/would commit to this kind of joyful ritual. Do you think it would work the same with a team of people who don't really know one another super well?
Hi Jill! Music League has public leagues, so maybe there's something that strikes your fancy there. Also, I don't know what the minimum number of people is, but you don't need 16, so maybe this is doable with 6 or 7. One other thing, we've had people come and go and some people are in two leagues at once. Point being, I think there's a league out there for everyone. I say go for it!
My dad once started a running gag with a Yankee Swap gift. One year he contributed a set of cork trivets. No one wanted them, so he swapped his way back to keeping them. Then he brought them the next year. And the next. And the next. Until people started to covet them. My parents still have the trivets.
3. My husband ensures our music streaming experience remains eclectic. If he didn't live in my house I would be on Meghan Trainor/Ed Sheeran station loops to infinity. But he'll search for genres like old-timey cowboy music, or big screen orchestra stuff that plays during epic battle sequences. Or Doo-wop. Funk. Irish folk music. Etc.
4. Country - Garth Brooks "The Thunder Rolls." Techno - Does Daft Punk count? They have a song called "Technologique" that's earwormy.
5. I'm drawing a blank. Guess I'll have to scroll through the normies comments and get some ideas. 😉
So I could bring a chicken parm sub to white elephant party, but in New England, I'm taking a chicken parm grinder to a Yankee Swap?? Gotta be honest, for an area founded by Puritans, New England's regional slang sounds pretty dirty.
It's so funny you diss Spotify because we FINALLY broke down and got it a few months ago. And I went crazy creating playlists of all my favorite 80s music.
But you are sooo right about not letting the algorithim ruin it for you. My nephews helped introduce me to some news song, and then one day, a bit bored with Eurythmics/Culture Club/Madness/The Stranglers, I created playlists of French and Italian music about which I knew almost nothing. And I'm loving.
I'm a little hard on Spotify. Back when I was a tech reporter, I wrote a few stories on Pandora. I really loved the music discovery tool they had built, and in the early days the company hadn't yet found its business model, so the tool worked as advertised. Today, not so much. But we're a Spotify household because that's what the cool kids use, and my wife is a cool kid. That's my excuse anyway. But I will say that app is huge for us when we travel.
When it comes to Country music, you have to look beyond the mainstream stuff. I'd suggest fiddling around with some classic Alt Country. This will still give you some "country" sounds but the lyrics are deeper and the vocals are not twangy.
Some suggestions:
The Magnolia Electric Company - Songs Ohia (the late Jason Molina's project)
Wilco - A.M. and Being There (their first 2 albums are a blend of many styles including Alt-Country)
Giant Sand - Glum - this is a very different kind of album and sound. They lean Alternative with a little bit of "country."
Thanks for the advice, Brad! It's really helpful. I think there's a concept of country that everyone knows that really isn't my cup of tea, but then there's a whole lot more country, including alt country, that probably does connect to some of the other music I listen to.
I listen to Spotify's 30 song weekly suggestions. At first it kept giving me Gordon Lightfoot and Charles Manson, but eventually it kept giving me longer songs until it was 2 1/2 hours each week. I finally started thumbs downing and now it's 55 minutes of pop punk.
I would appreciate if Spotify gave me Dire Straits' "Solid Rock" now and then.
As for question #1, I have a movie night with friends. We meet on FB messenger and chat, then watch a movie, though instead of movies, lately, we've been watching the 1960's show The Prisoner.
Gordon Lightfoot and Charles Manson is a rough combo. I mean, I love Gordon, but not so much with Charlie. A movie night with friends sounds like a lot of fun! Is this something that you started during the pandemic?
If you need a country song that will make the rest of the Music League say what the heck is this, especially if they're not country fans either, go with "Choctaw Bingo" by James McMurtry. There was even an article in Slate a while back suggesting it should be the new national anthem. I can't really argue with the article's logic.
https://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2009/03/choctaw_bingo.html
Also I actually prefer Ray Wylie Hubbard's cover version. But McMurtry is the OG version so that's what I would go with.
I had never heard "Choctaw Bingo" until we got in the car this morning and I punched Outlaw Country...and there it was. OMG, I love this! I hope Michael goes with it.
Listening to this now! It's gold!
Thank you for the suggestion and the link, Cosmo! Really appreciate it. I shall be victorious!
Choctaw Bingo is great! So is “Flatland Hillbillies” by Rodney Crowell, and “Bhagavan Decreed” by The Flatlanders.
I did one music league with fellow Discord members and it did introduce me to a ton of new music. I also learned almost no one shared my musical taste, which is basic bitch radio rock 😅 Mostly why I stopped was the time required to listen to 20 or so songs every week. If I had a job where I listened to my own music all day (instead of my boss's stale-ass Spotify -free version, ugh- playlists) it would be far easier.
I love exquisite corpses. One of my favorite creative writing class exercises was the "write a sentence, pass to the next person to add on, but then they fold your sentence over so the next person only sees their sentence, repeat" around the room.
I'm an anxious person so I'm all about the routine. I do need to show up to writing more often, though. It seems any of my solo time chunks have a ticking clock attached and too many other things to prioritize. "do I do this necessary chore, exercise, write, or just give myself a fucking break already?"
I love how you put it, "Basic bitch radio rock." That's a genre unto itself. As for your boss, I think you need to go Empire Records on him and take control of the music at work. On a more serious note, I like how you connect routine with anxiety, Amber. As an anxious person myself I can totally see that because a routine sorta short circuits having to think about what comes next.
yes! the discovery and acceptance of new music IS possible beyond a certain calcified state of appreciation and combining it with
the joys of friendship and connection just adds to the joy
great point by you!
i had shut down for long stretches in "hearing" stuff id already pre-judged due to a personality or "story" but life is too short for THAT mistake i see now😇😂🤗
ps give widespread panic a little love ha
1. Not really, but the pickleball craze is sweeping through our community of middle-aged friends. Not sure my knees can take it, though.
2. I have not, but I must check out that Florida Man book. Those are my people.
3. We use Apple Music now and I only curate my own playlists. I tend to hear new songs ephemerally so I think I've done a good job of not getting stuck in the algorithmic vortex.
4. I used to be a big techno head. Check out "I Go Deep" by Jim Rivers. Here's a playlist of my favorite writing tracks, which are largely electronic: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/writing-jams/pl.u-qxylEY6s0JLY7
5. Just taking Old Man walks and bike rides. You always feel better after.
Be wary of pickle ball! I've had a few friends injure themselves even though it's supposed to be safer. Meanwhile, my friends who play tennis are plotting the destruction of pickle ball culture, and while I know you know how to handle your business, you make more than enough enemies with your newsletter. Stick to bowling! Also, thank you for the techno recs, I'm going to crush that round!
Good luck with the techno round! Please report back with the results -- I'd love to hear.
Also, making enemies via my newsletter warms my cold, dead heart.
Music is so incredibly important in my life. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of music (just like every day for like the last 40 years) and starting to compile playlists, just like mixtapes I used to make during the late 80s. That was often how music was best consumed, and it's no different today - but I need to be the one making the playlist. It becomes an additional creative layer, a game I can play with myself to find songs for a particular playlist, or - as I've been doing lately - classify random songs into playlists I've already created, where they belong.
Very cool, Andrew! Do you share those playlists with friends?
Sure do. Let me know if you are excited or curious about a particular genre or title. I've got:
Demos
Old-School Punk
Proto-Punk
Metal Done Right
Thrash
These F***ing Songs
Creepy and Dark
F***ing Good Instrumentals
Literal Favorites
Crustish
Bye Felicia
Best Song from Every Artist
And maybe like 20 others I've made over the years, all works in progress. Let me know and I'll share a link to the Pandora playlist.
Drop those links! Share the joy!
Which one(s)?
Demos
Old-School Punk
Proto-Punk
Best Song from Every Artist
Here you go, Michael:
https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:187325997194938602:74638688
https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:75894891766353616:74638688
https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:107738947530010181:74638688
https://www.pandora.com/playlist/PL:208988575285381102:74638688
Oh, and if you like rock but hate country, find some "outlaw country" and it's usually a little easier to take.
I hesitate to say that I hate country. Too strong a word for me. I don't know a lot of country, but obviously some of the singer song writers I love sit in a space between rock and country. But outlaw country? Oooh, I'm gonna have to check that out because I do like outlaws.
I speak fluent Outlaw Country: Willie, Waylon, Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt. Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash. I don’t do streaming. I’m so old AF I miss the music player you could embed in your MySpace profile.
I hate country, though mostly because my mom started listening to it when she turned 40 and I'm terrified that's a genetic condition.
I do like two country songs (and hate myself for it):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E8FGdIl7HM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm0e7zSitGQ
I thought that the point of Spotify was to find you music SIMILAR to what you put in to expand your playlist from a familiar place to new things, but that doesn't seem to be the case, huh?
That is the promise of Spotify. It was the promise of Pandora too. Honestly, I think Pandora did a better job of that. But that kind of exploration and enrichment is as profitable as just giving you more of the same. Also, Spotify has shifted its focus to podcasts and now audiobooks, so there mission, I shit you not, is to own your ears.
I somehow forgot all about Pandora
Yeah, they were a little early on music streaming so they built for desktop, but were slow to go mobile. Spotify was always mobile-first.
1. Heck yeah! It's almost all on discord, but watching crazy movies every Saturday and Monday, reading maddening books every Friday, and gaming every Wednesday.
2. [redacted pending court decision]
3. It sounds weird, but I don't listen to a lot of music. I tend to gravitate to soundtracks and only get new songs when I hear them from random places.
4. I don't go for country much, either. But Blues Saraceno does some stuff that slaps. I recommend "Grave Digger". As for techno, maybe anything by Lindsey Stirling?
5. See 1.
I don’t need a music streaming algorithm because I have a cool little brother!
Is he a DJ? Please say he's a DJ.
Haha no but he is a bar piano player/singer AND in an insanely great Post-Rock/Space-Funk Fusion band.
https://www.escapermusic.com/
Listening now! When are we gonna get a Cafe Anne profile of your little bro? He lives in NYC, right? Or, is that a different brother?
That is a good idea. Maybe not a profile but an occasional convo with him. for the newsletter. He's got a super interesting brain!
When I read this I thought damn, I wish I had friends to do Music League with. I moved from the north to the south and making new friends, especially as a man, is super hard. BUT- I realize I need to go find them around some activity (just got to figure out what activity lol).
I didn’t recognize any of the music you had here so thanks for putting me on as always. When it comes to music, I listen to Soulection Radio - it’s a playlist every week of just pure goodness. I can’t listen to random tracks. It’s an album or nothing. But Soulection Radio is beautifully put together.
Just a thought, but you might start a Music League with your friends from up north. It’s a great way to stay in touch. As for making new friends, Music League probably works too, but this feels like the kind of assignment that’s best done in person. My advice: pick an activity you enjoy or are curious to about trying and look for a local group that does that thing.
Music League sounds awesome - although, like you, I fear I would nominate a song from the same artist every single time - in my case, Steely Dan (I inflicted “Steely Dan Wednesday” on my kids for ninety-two straight weeks, a few years ago, by emailing a YouTube link of a Steely Dan tune to them). Also, thanks for the reminder about “Naked Came the Manatee” - I’ve never gotten around to reading it.
Steely Dan for the win, Bill!
I love the idea of this app and desperately want to do it! Problem is that I don't have a cohesive group of friends who all love music/would commit to this kind of joyful ritual. Do you think it would work the same with a team of people who don't really know one another super well?
Hi Jill! Music League has public leagues, so maybe there's something that strikes your fancy there. Also, I don't know what the minimum number of people is, but you don't need 16, so maybe this is doable with 6 or 7. One other thing, we've had people come and go and some people are in two leagues at once. Point being, I think there's a league out there for everyone. I say go for it!
Amazing! Thanks!!
My dad once started a running gag with a Yankee Swap gift. One year he contributed a set of cork trivets. No one wanted them, so he swapped his way back to keeping them. Then he brought them the next year. And the next. And the next. Until people started to covet them. My parents still have the trivets.
2. Yeah, man! I was the seventh link in The Great Substack Story Challenge II - https://stockfiction.substack.com/p/gssc207
3. My husband ensures our music streaming experience remains eclectic. If he didn't live in my house I would be on Meghan Trainor/Ed Sheeran station loops to infinity. But he'll search for genres like old-timey cowboy music, or big screen orchestra stuff that plays during epic battle sequences. Or Doo-wop. Funk. Irish folk music. Etc.
4. Country - Garth Brooks "The Thunder Rolls." Techno - Does Daft Punk count? They have a song called "Technologique" that's earwormy.
5. I'm drawing a blank. Guess I'll have to scroll through the normies comments and get some ideas. 😉
Your dad sounds like a man after my own heart. Also, I'm assuming Yankee Swap is New England's answer to white elephant?
Also, hell yes to the Fictionistas exquisite corpse! Thank you for reminding me of that one, great job!
Yes. Yankee Swap = White Elephant. 🙂
One of our many regional quirks.
So I could bring a chicken parm sub to white elephant party, but in New England, I'm taking a chicken parm grinder to a Yankee Swap?? Gotta be honest, for an area founded by Puritans, New England's regional slang sounds pretty dirty.
No, no. We do subs here!
We're the original Puritans. 😂
So grinders are southern New England thing? I ate a lot of grinders when I was in college in Connecticut.
It's so funny you diss Spotify because we FINALLY broke down and got it a few months ago. And I went crazy creating playlists of all my favorite 80s music.
But you are sooo right about not letting the algorithim ruin it for you. My nephews helped introduce me to some news song, and then one day, a bit bored with Eurythmics/Culture Club/Madness/The Stranglers, I created playlists of French and Italian music about which I knew almost nothing. And I'm loving.
And I also love the idea of a joyful routine!
I'm a little hard on Spotify. Back when I was a tech reporter, I wrote a few stories on Pandora. I really loved the music discovery tool they had built, and in the early days the company hadn't yet found its business model, so the tool worked as advertised. Today, not so much. But we're a Spotify household because that's what the cool kids use, and my wife is a cool kid. That's my excuse anyway. But I will say that app is huge for us when we travel.
When it comes to Country music, you have to look beyond the mainstream stuff. I'd suggest fiddling around with some classic Alt Country. This will still give you some "country" sounds but the lyrics are deeper and the vocals are not twangy.
Some suggestions:
The Magnolia Electric Company - Songs Ohia (the late Jason Molina's project)
Wilco - A.M. and Being There (their first 2 albums are a blend of many styles including Alt-Country)
Giant Sand - Glum - this is a very different kind of album and sound. They lean Alternative with a little bit of "country."
There - that's only 3 bands and 4 albums.
Thanks for the advice, Brad! It's really helpful. I think there's a concept of country that everyone knows that really isn't my cup of tea, but then there's a whole lot more country, including alt country, that probably does connect to some of the other music I listen to.
I listen to Spotify's 30 song weekly suggestions. At first it kept giving me Gordon Lightfoot and Charles Manson, but eventually it kept giving me longer songs until it was 2 1/2 hours each week. I finally started thumbs downing and now it's 55 minutes of pop punk.
I would appreciate if Spotify gave me Dire Straits' "Solid Rock" now and then.
As for question #1, I have a movie night with friends. We meet on FB messenger and chat, then watch a movie, though instead of movies, lately, we've been watching the 1960's show The Prisoner.
Gordon Lightfoot and Charles Manson is a rough combo. I mean, I love Gordon, but not so much with Charlie. A movie night with friends sounds like a lot of fun! Is this something that you started during the pandemic?
yes! Want to join?