A lifetime ago, I was in a few bands. I have an Ernie and the Berts sticker on my “punk rock venue” door in the garage, but my AiXeLsyD & Gasoline Dion sticker supply has long since been exhausted. I figured why not clean up the old logos and upload them to my TeePublic & RedBubble shops? I may get myself some stickers, pins, & a hoodie or something. I didn’t draw the Ernie and the Berts logos, so I don’t want to upload & sell those.
Everything at TeePublic seems to be on sale as of this posting for up to 35% for the next 2 days. The new stuff is in my AIXeLsyD13 album there, but everything is on sale. It’s in the AiXeLsyD13 collection at RedBubble too. They both have rotating sales often, and I have been pleased with the stickers & clothing I bought from each. I wear my amp maze collage hoodie all the damn time. The designs & merch differ slightly across the two platforms, so I encourage you to poke around at both.
These go around all the time on social media. Saw one on Bluesky. Thought I’d make a playlist. This, like all of my musical tastes, could change if I were to do it again in 5 minutes. Here we are though. I made a playlist & put it on Amazon Music, Spotify, & YouTube.
It was tough to pick. I could do this list probably 5 deep with entirely different yet valid answers right now. I mean, I have whole playlists for color, numbers, dates, names, & more. I also thought of another ask that I wonder if anyone would participate in?
I don’t drink a whole lot of pop, or I try not to anyway. Friday, I ordered some Penn Station via their website. While hangry & waiting for the pickup, I externalized my internal dialogue via Threads, and boy did people get wound up. People were dropping facts about Pepsi being cheaper, calling out corporations for being complicit in everything from wars and genocide, referencing Pepsi Challenge taste tests, calling me silly for caring, agreeing, disagreeing, and just… generally all over the place.
So, if you already have the best Chipped Ham BBQ recipe of all time, you may want to try this absolute garbage pile of over-processed comfort food.
I posted it on a few spots, but it garnered the most attention in a private food group. It also got me Zucked by Meta AI bots for calling it “ωнιтє тяαѕн ηα¢нσѕ.”
Despite Halloween and Thanksgiving being more my favorite… I do enjoy Christmas & Christmas music, both traditional and decidedly not-so.
I resisted streaming for a long time, in favor of just popping mp3’s on to a thumb drive & listening in the car/truck. I’m still in a lot of remote areas, and I think I clung to a desktop setup for a while longer than the rest of the world.
Someday, someday, I will rip all my CD’s, corral all of my purchased mp3’s or FLAC files, & pop the stuff on some kind of server so I can call it up at will.
I use Spotify occasionally. I would use it more, but I refuse to pay for a premium account, and sometimes I swear songs vs. commercials are 1:1 if not 1:3. I refuse to pay for Spotify premium account because we have whatever all-encompassing Amazon plan gives you Prime and Amazon Music.
I’m still building my Amazon playlists… I may pay for one to move to Spotify lists over. Maybe. I’d rather just by records, CD’s, & downloads directly from artists.
I haven’t dipped into YouTube Music yet. I think I have 2 or 3 Pandora accounts, but they’re just frustrating these days when you can actively pick a song with other services.
I just reached out on a couple of FB forums asking for suggestions, and I’m still pouring through, but these are my playlists across different platforms…
I ‘m still adding/shuffling on the Amazon lists and they’re good for all-day playing. I might have to make one narrowed-down with my absolute favorites.
So, what’s on your Christmas playlist? Any glaring omissions? Any you love or hate with a passion? Tell me about your holiday music in the comments. Am I missing any good Festivus or Hanukkah songs?
Halloween has the coolest music. I have made some playlists on various platforms over the years, Amazon & Spotify being the most recent. I thought I’d not only put them all in once place, but also share. I’m always adding to them and changing. I’m listening to the 1st list now.
If you don’t know about Pat Finnerty, you should. He has a YouTube channel and he does a series of videos titled What Makes This Song Stink? among others (Now there’s a podcast too!). He has some witty observations, harsh truths, and is just lampooning guitar guy videos on YouTube. The pedal mobile is a thing of genius and pure hilarious delight. He says what a lot of us are thinking. He catches some wild connections or callbacks. He takes a joke way too far, which has always been something I am a fan of. It’s defiant. It’s hilarious.
As someone who has made art for it to mostly serve as a creative outlet that happens to have a very small circle of people who may have enjoyed it to varying degrees… It’s nice to see this guy get traction.
Writing, recording, and performing your own stuff lends itself to a certain level of judgement of others’ art. There’s probably some narcissism in there, but not at an unhealthy level. It’s not necessarily mean spirited, but it can be. I remain humble and understand that my creative output is not for the masses. I cater to a very small crowd with very similar tastes and no hang-ups about production quality. You have to wonder though… on some stuff… Why is this objectively certifiable crap popular? It’s hard to pin. It’s hard to point out.
I have played with some awesome musicians that “get it.” I have encountered many who do not. We are not on the same page. You’re not wrong in your opinions, but then again… you are. Pat gets it. Pat & I would probably disagree on a lot of things…. but we’d both have arguments to back it up. I appreciate his overall music nerdiness.
This ties in with an earlier blog post. I’m just trying to figure out how to reach people. When people who have never heard of us catch us play, we generally have people coming up to say they dig it. It’s a good feeling. I’d like it to happen more often because I think the band is doing a fun thing, and I’d like more people to share in the fun.
Getting people to come out in the first place is one struggle. Getting yourself in front of an audience that’s already there is another struggle. Getting people to watch you once they’re there seems to be an entirely different struggle.
Has this ever happened to you? Yes, it has.
Lately I’ve seen a trend of bands telling people saying “hey we’re 1st, come early” or “hey we’re last, come late” then their fans show up for just them & don’t bother to check anyone else out. I generally tell people to come for the whole show & check out the other bands. We try to book shows with bands we dig, just for this reason.
Spider-Man:: This has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that I found it hilarious.
I hate to come of as a whiner, and I know I will to some readers. I’m just trying to express my frustrations, and this blog is a forum for just that. In fact, it’s my forum for just that. I’m trying to work it out for myself & to possibly get some insight from other local (and some not so local) musicians.
In fact, I think I have ranted about this very topic online before, maybe just a similar one… but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
I also don’t want to dismiss the people that come see us at just about every show. Your presence is incredibly important to us, and we value it. We just want some more people there to watch with you, and we don’t want things to get stale where you’re seeing the same show over & over. Even if you’ve only caught us once, or if you’ve bought a T-shirt, or told us you liked a video online… you are awesome and we truly appreciate your support & attendance.
I recently saw the worst case ever of this crazy only-watch-the-band-with-a-guy-I-know-in-it thing going on. We played a show where people watched the band they came to see, then just absolutely bailed. Not even the bands stuck around to check out the other acts, one of which was a touring act & the reason we were all playing the show. It’s disrespectful. I get that stuff comes up, & sometimes you need to go. It happens. Sometimes there’s burnout. Sometimes there’s arrogance. Sometimes there are good reasons. Sometimes you’re just being ignorant.
I know personally that a bunch of people from my wife’s family came out to a show at a bar once where my wife & I absolutely love the wings. We had told everyone how cool the place was, they all decided to come to the ‘Burgh to eat some legendary wings & watch my band play… killing 2 birds with one stone. They sat through one band that everyone liked, then through a 2nd band that was just absolutely awful… one member was so drunk and/or high that he would strum the guitar and look down at it dazed for a minute or so while apparently hearing stuff that none of the rest of us could. This was all endured just to see us play. The place was packed all night, the bands & their fans watched each other, and everyone had a good time.
Not to judge a book by its cover, but I all kinds of judged books by their covers the other night and I hit the nail on the proverbial head. A quick scan of the room revealed some crazy demographics. More specifically a bunch of old people trying to look cool and standing on tippy-toes watching their kid play with no general comprehension of what was going on up on the stage or around them. If I’m calling them old, you know they were old. We knew these were parents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors… and they were going to split as soon as their kid’s bands was done. Boy, did they ever. If it was a cartoon, there would have been a cloud of dust & a cartoon noise. Whoop!
It must be happening everywhere because the touring band had it written into their contract that they weren’t to be slated to play last on any of their shows. You can’t blame them. You tour to build support for your album, and if no one sees you play, no one’s going to buy your album or you merch or come see you the next time you roll through town. We took the cleanup/closer spot because none of the other bands would.
Do you know what it's like to be on the bill and to play for fifteen minutes and the only people there to see you are the other bands and their girlfriends? Don't talk to me about Rock n' Roll! I'm out there in the clubs and on the streets and I'm living it!I AM ROCK N' ROLL!
We didn’t help their cause because we apparently weren’t a draw either. We watched the touring band, & they watched us. The handful of people that came to see us were there for all of the sets that night… and the show started an hour or so later than it was supposed to. It was awesome that the touring band actually stuck around to see us play. I’m sure on the road they’ve seen crappy band upon crappy band night after night… but it was an unparalleled show of respect for us, and assured us that the sound guy & doorman had to stick around until we were done. Ha ha.
Playing their new hit, ''Girl Girl Girl''!
Well, there were more people there to watch us… since it was a rare all-ages gig for us, we had an under-ager and her mom eager to see us… we were told we’d be rocking about 8:00pm. We eventually went on much much later, way past the under-ager’s bed time. So, two people who bought tickets & came out expressly to see us had to leave early and were unable to see us because of all the ridiculousness and shuffling. Then the dozens of people who came out to see the other bands watched them then left. Immediately.
Try as he might, Jeremy could just not meditate in front of a stereo. Live music is the only way to go.
It would be nice to say that whoever sold the most tickets had to go last… but then again, they did sell a lot of tickets, so that has a certain amount of pull as far as when you want to go on.
I didn’t hear any of the opening bands even mention the touring band… the headlining band that (again) we were supposed to be there in support of.
Before you say that my band sucks (you’re certainly entitled to your opinion), I’ll say that no one who left early would know, because they didn’t even give us a chance. I’d rather clear the room myself than have it cleared for me. How do you expose people to your live show, if the people in the place don’t even stick around for one song?
World (and Lunar) Domination 
