"This Is My Jam"

I started this in late 2024 as a response to Spotify Wrapped. I have nothing against Spotify Wrapped. In fact, I love it. Bbt it doesn't really show chronological listening patterns that well. When I listen to music, I put a song or album on repeat and wear it out until one day, I'm done and move on. This is my attempt to build a log of these when they happen, along with some extra color around why.

No, this isn't all that I listen to. I mostly listen to drab podcasts, and I listen to a lot more music. These just happen to be the songs that make a small or large unique impact on me that specific moment.

How I'm Listening

  • Services: I already mentioned Spotify, and that's the big one. But I also listen to music via YouTube Red on occasion. If I watch videos, it's YouTube unless specified otherwise.
  • Headphones:
    • My default is Shokz bone conduction headphones. I can still listen to the world around me without distortion, whether I'm chasing a small kid, running outdoors, or cooking. Listening on them is very weird at first, but it can absolutely hook you. the battery is solid, and they're waterptoof enough that I don't worry when working out. The trade off is that the fidelity isn't perfect.
    • When I do need fidelity, either to really listen to details, do video editing, focus on a call, or just sink into the zone, I go for Bose QuietComfort Ultra noise cancelling headphones. I can wear them for hours without realizing it, and the charge can last approximately two full workdays. The tradeoff is price -- but they go on sale often.
  • Sonos + RokuTv: I'm all in on Sonos for audio and Roku-enabled TVs. My ideal state would be the ability to sync video between multiple TVs the same way I can sync audio across Sonos devices. I'd really only do this for sports parties or award show parties, but I'd love it.

The List

  • 01-17-2024: Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Lead Belly

    • No music video for this one unfortunately. Lead Belly died in 1949, and the production of "talkies" hadn't quite scaled down to the blues by then. You might know this song from the Nirvana cover -- it's how I first encountered it. However, there's something deeper and more chilling about the song coming from the grizzled bluesman who wrote it.

  • 01-14-2024: La Prisión de Folsom: Los Tigres del Norte

    • For someone who doesn't speak Spanish fluently, I love Norteño. Maybe it's from growing up in Texas. In any case, Los Tigres Del Norte were the first band to record a live album in Folsom Prison since Johnny Cash, so it's only appropriate that they covered the title track. The guitar solo is an accordian and I love it. The video is also a poingiant reminder that even those incarcerated are human beings just like us.

  • 01-12-2025: Flea, St Vincent

    • St Vincent strikes me as one of the last remaining rock stars who can exist making music just for them in an era where that gets harder every year. Flea's catchy and I love listening to it. Also St. Vincent is from Tulsa, and I have a cultural obligation to give a shoutout to anyone who came from Texas or Oklahoma and makes good art.

  • 01-11-2025: Back on 74, Jungle

    • Sometimes it's time to throw on a happy groove on repeat. No further questions. Watch the video for some of the best choreography in the world.

  • 01-07-2025: Innervision, System of a Down

    • I feel like "Top X Favorites" lists are wack. But, if I had to take a snapshot of my favorite bands or artists every few years, SOAD would be somewhere in the 4-6 spots from 2002 to present, surrounded by very different artists and remaining on the list for extremely different reasons as I aged from junior high kid through multi-child father. Innervision made it's way back into my headphones for the first time in at least 10-15 years, and I'm digging it.

  • 01-02-2025: Apple, charli xcx

    • It's fun, it's addicting, it's the hit record of the summer. I'm not gonna say anything better than the hundreds of music journalists who covered Brat Summer like the phenomena it became.

  • 12-30-2024: Squabble Up, Kendrick Lamar

    • The hook on this song is amazing, and the rest of the song is just as good. The music video is simplistic and perfect (Jesus does save gangsters too). It's quality art. 2024 was also the year of the "Drake / Kendrick" beef, which ended with a masterclass of artistic evisceration unlike anything we'd seen in decades.

  • 12-26-2024: Break my Stride, Matthew Wilder

    • Every time a song like this worms its way deep into my brain I assume it went viral on TikTok or something. I don't know how this one came into my life, nor do I care. It hits the fun dance spot I didn't know I needed.

  • 12-15-2024: Walk, Pantera

    • I was asked "what song makes you feel unstoppable?" This is my answer. I will walk through a cinderblock wall of resistance, and we all can follow in the hole left behind me. Just two grooved notes, timed to perfection -- it's a borderline wizard's spell.

  • 12-06-2024: Plantasia, Mort Garson

    • The happiest, most whimsical song. At a time when we could use more happiness and whimsy. It has oddly optimistic energy too, for an instrumental piece. "Warm Earth Music For Plants... And The People Who Love Them" is a wild tagline.

  • 11-15-2024 (approx): Kids, MGMT (2003 live)

    • This video took the world by storm in the fall of 2024. Two college friends playing a song they'd recently written, having a good time, not quite knowing they struck gold and a life-changing journey. The album version is richer, yes. But the bones are here.