If you like short playlists, January’s is for you. Less than 50 tracks, only 3:45 on the runtime. Highlights include Kali Uchis, The Vaccines, Cedric Burnside, Sleater-Kinney, Sir Chloe, Benny the Butcher, Sarah Jarosz, and Tapir! [Spotify]
Usually, top 10 lists (especially in music) are bad… but these soundtracks truly are (bad). [Spin]
“Just 19 years old, Murph now has several global hits, a couple of tours and multiple festival appearances to her name—plus a deal with Columbia Records. Murph’s initial success building a following on TikTok with covers led her to start posting original material, and by 2021 she’d translated social media popularity into a record deal and her first Hot 100 entry…” [Spin]
Books/Media
“There’s nothing unethical, though, about dispensing advice. The better question is what, exactly, Pearlman said that wasn’t true in 2024. Ethan Strauss, the sportswriter and successful Substacker, said it best, and I will add a bit of what I’ve learned through the same era of tumult. Unlike Pearlman, who can be castigated for not having entered the industry in its period of terminal decline, I can speak exactly to what journalists are enduring right now…” [Political Currents by Ross Barkan]
Misc.
Preorder the book that inspired this essay by Emily Farris! [Amazon]
A short email this time due to January being a quiet month in the music/film/book world, but you can still preorder my book. [Amazon] [Blue Cypress/Indie shipping]