Whoops I Accidentally The Whole Thing

 Since yesterday, i beefed the work list up to a round 50 songs, the biggest work list ever (probably, i didn't save them before 2011), and then whittled it down to 24, which is probably going to be the final track listing. Unless something major happens in the next few weeks.

I got it down to 27 pretty easily but the last 3 were very, very difficult to lose. The last one i cut was I Kill Giants by The Naked and Famous, but in the end i couldn't justify having two TNAF songs - i did that last year. Four songs by one band in two years?! Damn boy, we get it. Although TNAF is pretty much all i've wanted to listen to this year. Also then i went and added back one of the earlier cuts and chopped another song to keep it.

Without spoiling the track listing, here's some statistics!

-3 songs with "Walk" in the title, 2 with "Kiss," and 2 with "Good." Interesting repetitions there.
-4 covers, the most of any PAC. 1 or 2 are common but i've never exceeded that before.
-Female vocalists outweigh male by a ratio of exactly 2:1
-The average song age is 3.19 years; the last time it was under 4 was the very first PAC in 2004, which was exactly 3.
-Median song age is just 1 year, tied for lowest with 2013 and 2014
-7 songs released in 2022! One of the most new songs on the comp, tied with 2011 and 2015, beaten only by 2012 (9) and 2013 (10).
-In other words i've appreciated more new music this year than usual.
-24 tracks, the most songs since 2013, tying that year plus 2012 and 2009, exceeded only by 2011 at 27.
-There's one song on here that, despite searching exhaustively for hours across the last few days, i still have not been able to find the artist of. Yes, that's correct, i don't know who composed/performed the song. If i can't find that information, it may end up credited to ____________ and if you print the art for the CD, you'll just have to write it in by hand if we ever figure it out. It's from the Fortnite soundtrack. I've gone so far as to contact their customer support and was told twice that they do not know that information. And they don't know who does. So uh. There's that.

Looking Ahead

 After building that mixtape for Correy a few days ago, i just really got itching to put some work in on the Poor-Ass Christmas. In the last five years i've often ended up with difficulty getting the thing together in a timely manner, including one year where i didn't officially finish it until several months into the following year. So i thought i'd get a head start this year and start collecting what i needed from my Shazams, various Spotify playlists, Chelsea's new Jam of the Day Discord server, and other spots i've recorded incoherent notes. And, well, since i've got Covid and i can't go outside anyway and Amanda can't be here anyway, i started thinking. Well. Maybe Christmas just comes early this year. Amanda hates it when i'm scrubbing though tracks and listening to little slivers of songs and tracking transitions and such anyway, she finds that really annoying, as a bystander. So hell, why not start getting it together. The established cutoff for PAC additions has been October 1 for a decade or so anyway, so i'm only trimming it a little short. Besides, what with me being trapped inside and all our major get togethers and things behind us for the year, and given how my music habits have changed since the failure of the Wisconscene Kickstarter a few years back, it's unlikely i'm going to even be exposed to any new music that will impact me significantly in the next couple weeks. So hell! Here we go!

Right now the work list contains 42 songs, 2 hours 36 minutes. Not bad. Only have to trim about half of that off. And since there's currently 3 Naked and Famous, 4 The Sounds, and 5 Ladyhawke songs (the three bands that have shaped my year), some of these cuts will be obvious.

Stray observations? As quickly as my synthwave obsession started, it seems to have ended. I noticed there was very little of it on the worklist, and as i thought back over the last eleven months, i realized that i really haven't been returning to that well as much this year. Rock and roll is back. Also back, with lesser fanfare, male vocals. I noticed an increasing preference for female vocals over the last ten years, culminating in 2018 having no male vocals at all and 2019 having only one, but i think i've been letting dude rock return this year in a way that i wasn't fully conscious of. Although checking the statistics spreadsheet now i'm seeing that 2020 had a 5:4 male majority? Huh. I don't remember that.

In other news the Queen of England died today. I added Chumbawamba's Farewell to the Crown to the work list in response.

Correy's New Car

Little side project today, but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's the facebook post:

I made something music-related for my brother. Check below if you want to give your opinions on it.

Okay so two well-known things about my brother Correy are that he doesn't check his facebook and he doesn't listen to a wide variety of music. Last month he got on a plane (for the first time) to come to California (also for the first time)...so he could buy a car and drive it straight back to Missouri. I drove back with him. His road trip playlist consisted of exactly twelve artists. One of the 12 was CHVRCHES, who he got into because one time i said to him, "so you like Tegan & Sara, eh? Have you ever listened to CHVRCHES?" His new car also has a CD player, or has he calls it "that weird flat slot between the dashboard and the stereo." So i made him a mix using the logic "if you like x, try y," based on 7 of those 12 bands. Add one bonus track and it's exactly 80 minutes so i can burn it to a disc. Fortunately all 22 songs are on Spotify, so you can check my work and let me know what you think before i mail it out. Like an old person.

I know some of these are a stretch but here it goes:

If you like Metric, try The Naked and Famous.
If you like Paramore, try The Sounds
If you like September, try Ladyhawke
If you like CHVRCHES, try Phantogram (this may be the biggest stretch)
If you like Halflives, try The Birthday Massacre
If you like Against the Current, try TAT
If you like The Regrettes, try HorrorPops

Anyway i'm pretty happy with my work here. Feel free to offer opinions or just enjoy the music.

1. The Naked and Famous - I Kill Giants
2. The Sounds - Dance With Me
3. Ladyhawke - Magic
4. Phantogram - Black Out Days
5. The Birthday Massacre - Shallow Grave
6. TAT - Pessimist
7. HorrorPops - Where You Can't Follow
8. The Naked and Famous - Laid Low
9. The Naked and Famous - Punching in a Dream
10. The Sounds - Painted by Numbers
11. The Sounds - Fire
12. Ladyhawke - Walk Away
13. Ladyhawke - Girl Like Me
14. Phantogram - When I'm Small
15. Phantogram - Howling at the Moon
16. The Birthday Massacre - Sleepwalking
17. The Birthday Massacre - Oceania
18. TAT - Taking It All
19. TAT - Bloodstain
20. HorrorPops - Freaks in Uniform
21. HorrorPops - Kiss Kiss Kill Kill
22. Blue Foundation - Eyes On Fire

Spotify Link