22 FAV SHOWS
Raincoats @ Mono, Glasgow
Bikini Kill playing one song @ The Kitchen
Every time I saw Priests, esp @ Black Cat, DC
BASILICA SOUNDSCAPE @ Basilica Hudson — esp Emel Mathlouthi
Jenny Hval + Zola Jesus @ Greenpoint Warehouse
Sunn o))) @ Knockdown Center
Kaitlin Aurelia Smith @ Knockdown Center
Odwalla88 @ Alphaville
Elysia Crampton + Moor Mother @ Good Room
Field Agent + Liberation @ Silent Barn
Phew @ A church
Palberta @ Sunnyvale
Tanya Tagaq singing @ Pop Con, Seattle
Julie Byrne @ David's Basement
Escape-ism @ A bar in Williamsburg (?)
Flesh World, Decisions, Signal @ Silent Barn
Mick Barr + Ava Mendoza @ The Stone
Lucinda Williams @ Town Hall
Solange + Vince Staples + Kamaiyah @ P4k Fest
Aye Nako @ Silent Barn
Laraaji @ Bushwick United Methodist Parish
30 FAV RECORDS
01 Priests — Nothing Feels Natural
02 SZA — Ctrl
03 Zola Jesus — Okovi
04 Waxahatchee — Out in the Storm
05 Lorde — Melodrama
06 Circuit Des Yeux — Reaching for Indigo
07 Spellling — Pantheon of Me
08 Kendrick Lamar — Damn
09 Julie Byrne — Not Even Happiness
10 Gsp — Gsp
11 JLIN — Black Origami
12 Palberta — Bye Bye Berta
13 Allison Crutchfield — Tourist in This Town
14 Sheer Mag — Need to Feel Your Love
15 Jay Som — Everybody Works
16 Joan Shelley — S/T
17 CCFX — CCFX
18 Kehlani — SweetSexySavage
19 Flesh World — Into the Shroud
20 Escape-ism — Introduction to Escape-ism
21 Irreversible Entanglements — S/T
22 Otoboke Beaver — Love Is Short
23 Laurel Halo — Dust
24 Vince Stapes — Big Fish Theory
25 Milk Music — Mystic 100s
26 The Courtneys — II
27 Sacred Paws — Strike a Match
28 Greg Fox — The Gradual Progressio
29 Mdou Moctar — Sousoume Tamachek
30 Jefre Cantu-Ledesma — On Echoing Green
10 MORE FAV SONGS
00 Adult Mom — J Train
00 Angel Olsen — California
00 Cardi B — Bodak Yellow
00 Carly Rae Jepsen — Cut to the Feeling
00 Haim — You Never Knew
00 Kamaiyah — Build You Up
00 Kelela — LMK
00 Moor Mother & Mental Jewelry — Hardware
00 Pharmakon — Somatic
00 Total Control — Laughing at the System
13 OTHER THINGS
The poem There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
Call Me By Your Name and how it felt like opera
GIRL’S TRIP
Summer happenings at REMAINS; the trees and the clock.
“I wanted to end composing, get rid of it. I wanted it to die out.“ —Tony Conrad in doc about himself
“I don’t know what ‘fall in love’ means. It’s not part of my world.” —Joan Didion in doc about herself
“all my personal freedom is rooted in minimal interest in what the world has to offer and zero fears“ —Ayesha A. Siddiqi Tweet
“I look like an idiot with my backpack.” —Jo Barchi, The Owl
literally show me a healthy person
Pettibon wave paintings at New Museum
Psycho Jazz
The last page of Patti Smith’s Devotion
“You bitches can’t even spell Prague.” —Nicki Minaj
BEST MUSIC JOURNALISM 2017
The Problem With Muzak
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-muzak-pelly
Fear of a Female Genius
https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/10/16/16476254/joni-mitchell-pop-music-canon
City of Dreams
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/10083-city-of-dreams-music-and-politics-meet-in-the-border-community-of-mcallen-texas/
DEFINING EXPERIENCE OF MY YEAR
The most exciting part of my year and maybe my life was publishing my book about The Raincoats and sharing the experience of releasing it into the world alongside the band in New York, London, Nottingham, and Glasgow. Watching history unfurl in physical space; watching people feel its weight. (”I would follow this crowd anywhere,” Aaron Cometbus told me at The Kitchen and for the next night I got a guestbook.) I am still forming my thoughts on those supremely charmed weeks. ~Life is a process~