It’s perplexing that a 52-card deck has more combinations than atoms in the known universe, meaning every shuffle is likely the first time that specific order has ever existed. If you apply that conundrum to a music playlist, even a “Top 10” would result in a distinct playlist from everyone on Earth (if we all made one).

My top 10‘s top 1 was Olivia Dean, and I’m sure many others (it’s been her year), but my favorite track of the year is actually “Drink the Ocean” by Gabi Hartmann (feat. Oracle Sisters). It’s gotten me through a few hard times. Beautiful in all dimensions, especially one I don’t give credit to enough, the lyrics.

Back to Olivia. She wins not only through quality, but quantity. That’s what truly makes great music something more. When an artist surrounds herself with it. I liked her song “Dive” back in 2023, but it took me this year to get on the Deano bandwagon. As much as the soul that starts with Olivia goes in other vast directions on this list, it wasn’t my genre of the year.

That goes to HiTech, PinkPantheress, and horsegiirL. It’s a style of house music with an upbeat, leading tempo. And it’s all over this playlist.

Along with 228 other songs. I probably poured in at least an hour every day on this thing for the entire year. So I hope you enjoy at least the top 10.

Yuga Labs’ Apefest is the future of festivals. It’s less about what happened at their 5th year in Las Vegas during ComplexCon and more about what happens before and after.

Composability is key to any festival or community’s longevity. After 15 years of covering live events, I see most people stay within their own friend groups that don’t mix often enough with others. Apefest brings together tens of thousands of apes who connect year-round on X, Discord, and Telegram, building relationships across communities that blend widely online and reflect deeper in person. People recognized each other not so much by their face, but by voice, pseudonym, and how they’ve shown up online and for the community. The mix of disparate connections was something I’d never seen before at a festival, but will much more in the future.

Yuga’s metaverse play, The Otherside, will only amplify that experience greatly online and off.

Decentralized discovery. I shopped the concept around to every ape that would listen at Apefest Las Vegas, but none bit. I’m not the best sales man, I’m not going to sell it here, but I’ve got a good example of its most importance.

There were three after parties that weekend I went to, and the music was consistently a neglected afterthought. So much it was comical. Friday took the cake. Imagine an empty hotel ballroom with a few round tables, chairs around them, and people scattered around waiting for the dj that didn’t end up setting up until after we left. And that night had some of the better music on aux.

Getting a half decent dj is a good, simple option, but Yuga should take it two steps further. First, imagine collecting every ape’s listening history from the past year or more, then using recommender tech like collaborative filtering to craft a mix that connects them through shared tastes and helps build a narrative for the night. The second step would be to decentralize how a DJ or music programmer is selected for the festival through pattern matching their talents with the apes’ music tastes. Not just in style but in creative potential. This is the future of music festivals.

In 2022, I programmed content for Meta’s live commerce team on Instagram and Facebook, which initially got me thinking about how well money represents value. It’s like trying to gauge how well popularity represents it. Both are good correlations, but is there a better way? NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club connect creativity and capital closely, but how much value shows up in that connection?

I don’t have the answer, but it’s a fundamental question Yuga and web3 is answering. At Apefest, I met all kinds of people, more on the money side than the creative, but that balance of creative and capital is what will propel both in the future.

One person I met, a Ghanaian artist, uses silk threading for a cause greater. Raising awareness for people’s neurodiversity and special needs. I love how he describes it below, but see his thread work in person. It’s mesmerizing.

Music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and now the 90s carries a nostalgic warmth that feels perfect for summer. Like our Late Night Jazz series, I’ve been pulling together definitive lists from the 20th century, and Classic Summer is the latest for a hot summer day.

It was meant to drop the 4th of July, 2020, but like all good comprehensive playlists, it took way more time than any person should put themselves through. I originally made the playlist to support Black Lives Matter, and today I’d make it for a free Palestine. It’s how I can express at least some solidarity through the music blog, even though most of the music is white men. Music has come a long way in diversity of popular acts, highlighted always on this blog, compared to the simpler yet more insidious times these songs came from.

My two favorite live performances of 2024 were Mon Laferte at Festival La Onda (BottleRock’s sister festival) and Jalen Ngonda at The Swedish American Music Hall. This year both played BottleRock 2025, but I didn’t get to see either.

I intended to once again see the Queen of latin musical dramas, Mon Laferte, at BottleRock on Friday, but she had to postpone her show until Saturday. I couldn’t stay because I had a flight out to Detroit the next day for Movement. Fortunately, Friday had six more musicians I’ve wanted to see or see again. Namely another Queen in a whole different realm, Remi Wolf.

Remi’s music hits at the heart of my partner Liz and I’s relationship. Both being at Remi’s live performance with Liz and in her song, also called “Liz”. I remember hearing it for the first time. The chorus was such a perfect anthem for my Liz. Soon after, I realized the rest of the lyrics told a much messier story. The entire song is a train wreck from the start. The chorus is the only positive part and not really even to “Liz”. We still love belting out the lyrics every time we hear it.

Remi’s live shows have been equally dramatic circumstances for Liz and I (in good times and great), but her music makes for a beautiful, complimentary backdrop. I saw her at Outside Lands, The Regency Ballroom, SXSW, and now BottleRock. Each has been distinct and memorable. Key to all IP.

Take a look at a few shots I got of her at BottleRock for a glimpse into her fun. More importantly, listen to her music with our playlist below.

Mill Valley Music Festival has been a go-to for its intimate charm and consistent selection of soul. 2025 marked its fifth year running and my fourth time going. My top three shows have been Thee Sacred Souls in 2024, La Doña in 2022, and Durand Jones in 2023, but they had some hefty competition this year.

Sunday was packed with soul— Thee Sinseers & Monoponics with their retro style, Sister Nancy with her dancehall reggae, and Nile Rodgers hit melody after hit melody with Chic and beyond. Still, the weekend’s best performance came the day before.

It took 13 years to hear Gary Clark Jr from when I first posted about him. It was well worth the wait. His voice topped the weekend, and his guitar playing rivaled Nile’s. Watch my favorite song from his set below, particularly starting @ 3:44!

10 years at SXSW. Technically 2020 shut down and 2021 was online, but 10 years I’ve been enjoying a city filled with live music more dense, diverse, and good than anywhere in the world.

This was the first time I went to weekend one, which is the main attraction for the conference. It was informative. I got to see Ben Stiller talk Severance – the best show in the past 10 years – and something dear to my professional heart, Paramount CTO Phil Wiser talk LLMs for movie recommendations.

2025 was still all about the music showcase. For six years I’ve gone through every musician playing SXSW (usually around 1,000) and filtered it down to a manageable amount (usually around 5-10%) for a playlist to guide my schedule.

Tokyo night was my main attraction this year. I’ve seen a handful of Japanese performances at SXSW, but this year had a full roster. The music wasn’t the standout, but the performances were. Chiaki Mayumura especially. She worked the crowd second only to Josh Lane of Thee Sacred Souls. She took a floatie, threw it into the crowd, jumped on top, and performed floating over the people. Her vibrance made for a great photo op. Glimmering with joy. Which reminded me of another showcase and how different they can be.

While at the Balanced Breakfast unofficial showcase, I met one of the bands’ mothers when they were on stage. She was very proud of her son, which was adorable, but she also remarked that he needed to show more of himself up there. He was a bit shy. I love some boisterous personalities on stage, like Chiaki, but there is a spectrum that works, even the understated. It’s nerve racking to get comfortable performing for people, and I’m sure that’s what his mom was pointing out, but the kid had some good music and that’s what matters. His stage presence will come, resonating from the crowd, reflecting back at him.

I was getting a beer and brats at Banger’s when an older woman came up to my photo guy & I and asked if she could sit by us. She was eccentric and I love that. We chatted for a good 20 minutes when she pointed out how weird I wasn’t. I was a bit offended and said I was. She asked, how? I thought to myself, I’ve never had to prove my weird, usually the opposite. I told her because my 12 year old nephew said I was. That seemed like enough.

The debate over whether a musician’s legacy lies in an album or a single is more contentious than ever as music shortens and singles dominate the internet. While both clearly play a role (like all good things), I lean toward the single. The album is too rare for me. I’ll take it a step further, it’s not just the single, but more specifically a moment within the song that defines the musician. Ideally more than one moment. It’s what makes a good beat a great song. The highs and lows.

This year we started a playlist of Daily Goodies to highlight that moment and match it to a video for Instagram and TikTok. Our 2024 Music of the Year playlist features over 200 defining moments. Yes, that’s too much, but we tried too hard this year and distillation is harder.

Latin women dominated my music listening this year according to Spotify’s Wrapped, the first four songs on the playlist above, and my wife. No musician more than one Chilean singer, Mon Laferte.

Mon Laferte has one of the best catalogs and live performances I’ve ever listened to/seen. Comparable to Bill Evans on quantity of quality songs. Comparable to Kali Uchis on putting on a show. I caught Mon Laferte at BottleRock’s sister festival of latin music, Festival La Onda, and it was the performance of the year—right next to the man below.

So many artists copy. All. So many aren’t good at it.

When I first heard Jalen Ngonda, I thought of Marvin Gaye, but not in a copycat way. Pushing his sound forward rather than replaying the past poorly. His live performance however was something else.

Marvin wasn’t a thought in my head throughout Ngonda’s entire set. A moment I remember so present and somehow I recorded most of it below.

Daily Goodies is like no other playlist we’ve made before. Every other playlist has been static with very little updates, but this list updates at least a few times a week. Ideally daily. We also clip the best moment of each song, cut a video to match, and upload to Instagram and TikTok. Follow along.

Jalen Ngonda played a sold-out show at The Swedish American Hall in San Francisco this September. You can tell his voice is more than a 70’s soul knockoff in his recordings alone, but it’s nothing like hearing him live 10 feet away.

Not even one of my favorite musicians over the past 5 years, Aaron Frazer, who had the song at my wedding’s first dance, could showcase live like Ngonda. I saw Frazer a week before, and while his catalog runs deep with fresh new soul, Ngonda’s live performance is best of the year, beside Mon Laferte at Bottle Rock. Ngonda still needs work on building his catalog and moving more into his own sound, but give him 5 years and he’ll be on top.

More than any musician before him, I heard more people tell me Spotify recommended Jalen Ngonda to them. If that’s not an potential sign of major success than take it from me. While I was a part of his Spotify recommended season late last year, I realized I reposted his song “Don’t You Remember” on SoundCloud 5 years ago. Bite it, Spotify recs.

I remember the first time I heard Aaron Frazer. With Durand Jones & The (rest of the) Indications at Outside Lands in 2018. Durand and his band were one of the most memorable sets of the 8 years I’ve been to OSL. Most memorable was hearing a high pitched vocalist in the band but took me a good 3 songs to figure out who it was. The drummer in the back, Aaron Frazer.

Now he is very much in front. Touring his second solo album, Into the Blue. What I hadn’t heard in his tracks online, but was very apparent that night at The Independent is that his falsetto isn’t half of what he’s got. Check out the first video on the Instagram embed below. It’s the best glimpse on camera I’ve got in hearing him in a different light, but I’m sure it’s just one small step in his much bigger plan. His catalog of singles is already stacked, imagine in 50 years.

Also, I didn’t realize how much swag he had, but with a voice like that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Silence Nogood (@silencenogood)

Festival La Onda was BottleRock’s first run at a second weekend that was all latin music, new & old. Not dissimilar from Coachella’s third weekend, Stagecoach. And reminds me a lot of Lost in Riddim too. Each of these California festivals bring together the top performing musicians from a culture around the world, whether in country, afrobeats or latin music.

The first day of La Onda with my friends on Saturday was a good time, but my solo trip Sunday introduced me to 3 musicians I’ll be feeling through music for the rest of my life, particularly Mon Laferte. I went into her show with casual expectations. I liked one of her songs. It was near the top of my “Songs to see at Festival La Onda“, and was approved by my partner. I had no idea how impactful she would be live and in catalog.

My jaw still drops thinking about the feeling I’ll remember from hearing her for the first time live. It was like I was listening to music I’ve heard for years. Song after song, hit after hit. Ballads better at storytelling than most movies. And I don’t speak Spanish.

I’ve binged her 8 studio albums and the many live iterations on Spotify for the past 72 hours when I’ve been awake. It’s a lot of music. I’ve only narrowed it to just under a hundred, but a few more months and I’ll distill it down with much more discernment. Follow my progress in the Spotify playlist below.

She’s made me want to write. I never like to write. It’s been especially hard to write, let alone think, about anything other than war. But she made me feel something deep at La Onda and with so much more of her entire catalog. Something words can never and music can only do.

I mentioned above that I discovered 3 musicians at La Onda that I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life, but only named 1. Yahritza Y Su Esencia was the #1 reason I went to La Onda and Eslabon Armado was #2. Let’s see where they’re at after they’ve released the amount of music worth keeping as Mon Laferte. Still stellar shows.

BottleRock 2024 was my third visit to the music festival in Napa. The first year in 2017, my partner and I heard Charles Bradley sing, which brought us to tears. The second year in 2021, we saw Jon Batiste play a charismatic set, which the crowd reflected back. Six months later, he won Album of the Year at the Grammys. So my third year had a lot to live up to and it did times 2 with the main headliners on Saturday, Kali Uchis and Pearl Jam. But the two had the same set times.

I had never been this conflicted with overlapping sets at a festival. I had seen Kali Uchis 5 times already, but Pearl Jam never. Plus, Pearl Jam was my second favorite band in high school (Smashing Pumpkins), but Kali was my first fav in 2018. And her new album, Orquídeas, is my favorite album of the year by far so far. I was so conflicted I did an Instagram poll (40% Kali, 60% Pearl Jam), which of course made me more conflicted. So I decided to go to both.

Pearl Jam started first at 7:45. That gave me about 30 minutes with them before I had to head to Kali Uchis for her 8:30 set. The funnest part of most festivals is swerving through the crowd dancing in moments with others along the way. Most of us don’t do it enough. I ended up leaving Kali Uchis after “Loner” and caught Pearl Jam close that night with an even better stroll through the crowds right before.

I love to compare and contrast everything, especially when others don’t. Pearl Jam topped Kali Uchis this time live, but they had twenty years of anticipation from me. However, of the 5 other shows I had previously seen of Kali, Pearl Jam’s set didn’t top a single one. I distinctly remember the first show I saw of hers in 2017. I had never heard such a majority of the crowd sing back every lyric to her. I’m sure Pearl Jam had a similar reaction a few years after they started playing, but I couldn’t witness because I was 8.

If that wasn’t controversial enough, Kali Uchis has a better catalog than Pearl Jam and she isn’t close to past her prime. Here are a few of my favorites from her.

Dave Graham, Justin Dragoo, and Jason Scoggins-the people who run BottleRock-talk all about the business, logistics, and heart they put into the festival since they took it over after the first year. I very much appreciate their candidness.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Silence Nogood (@silencenogood)

Performing live looks so hard to me. I see a lot of musicians give so much and the crowd can be so tough, especially me. I’d be worse than 99% of them. I may just be projecting, but rarely do I see someone as present on stage and in the crowd as Josh Lane, lead singer of Thee Sacred Souls. I don’t think I’ve seen someone work a camera so well since Rema at Lost in Riddim.

I first saw Thee Sacred Souls at SXSW and then Hardly Strictly Bluegress in 2023 and now Mill Valley Music Festival in 2024. Josh has only gotten better at making his performance interactive, tangible, and not the standard call & feedback. See a perfect example below with his performance of “Running Away” while running around the crowd.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Silence Nogood (@silencenogood)

Forest Claudette’s song, Violence, is top of the “Songs to see at Sxsw” playlist for this year, not because it’s the best song (still up there), but it has the most important message. We cannot speak about anything until we speak on the horror of genocide and all other forms of violence. Peace is our only future.

I spend over four months digging into the thousands of artists for SXSW each year and try to get the songs down to a manageable # for a playlist. It was 134 songs this year or around 10% of the artists I went through. Wish I woulda got it down to about 5%, but I didn’t have enough time. I focus on quantity and getting through all the artists because it is the first and most important step to quality with variety, but without enough time to digest and discern all the music, quality will suffer for variety.

For the first time since first going to SXSW in 2016, I don’t think I did a better job at finding emerging musicians than the previous year. Or any of the years before it. Next year I need to focus more on the personalities behind the songs sooner, using other curators rather than digging into the raw data myself, and leaving more room for serendipity. Although I’d argue digging into all of the music beforehand is the best way to amplify serendipity.

I cannot imagine performing on stage. I wonder why most musicians aren’t more like Frank Ocean. Introverted. While Estevie seemed shy on stage, she had presence. Being vulnerable on stage seems impossible, let alone off stage, but it’s what makes the music come to life. Reminded me of Billie Eilish six years before her on that exact same stage. She closed out my SXSW 2024 with a small down pour at the end. Her music ages like wrinkles on the brain with careful thought.

Ok Cowgirl, Forest Claudette, Lauren Housley, and Chinese American Bear had stellar performances as well. Check them all out below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Silence Nogood (@silencenogood)

There was a big debate among “end of the year” music playlisters. Not that big, five people. If a song wasn’t released that year, can it be included in an end of the year playlist? Should it be included? The consensus of the 5 was it cannot and should not. I disagree.

Songs released that year should be prioritized and age of release should be weighed in, but discoveries of the year are just as important as when they were released.

Before we get to 2023’s music of the year, this year for the first time I wanted to start highlighting the music curators as well. This was the first year I actively sought them out. Usually I rely too heavily on recommendation systems, but a mix of the two is optimal.

SXSW was the most influential event. A good dozen artists are on this year’s Music of the Year playlist. NPR Music’s Best Songs of 2023 had the best end of year list. So much I’m going through all of their other Best Songs of the Year playlists. There are 9 total on Spotify. As far as quality music curators I followed throughout 2023: Saving Connie, Ladman, and Somewhere Soul. Also, shout out to my two good friends, Carl & Levi, who took their playlists as serious as I did.

As for the music, Pale Jay topped this best songs playlist. His voice, unlike most of the other many soulful vocals on this playlist, brought soul forward rather than taking it back. Strongboi had the single. Jungle was my #1 artist on Spotify Wrapped. And Jessie Ware had the best album of the year.

NFTs were my favorite tech last year, and took the cover for our Music of the Year playlist in 2022. This year, it’s AI generated. There’s a song on this playlist that was also AI generated. Can you tell which one?

The only thing I can think to write about is the suffering that’s happening in Palestine, Israel, and too many other wartorn countries. It is unimaginable terror. Israel will only find peace when Palestine does, and vice versa. Only two can win.

It’s nice to just talk to someone. 1 on 1, without interruption, about what’s important to them. It’s hard to do that in public. There are lots of distractions, including my sobriety. I originally wanted to interview Lindsey of Annabelle Chairlegs at her show during Psyched! Fest in SF, but I got too tired and tipsy. I’m glad we got to chat over video after her tour ended.

Lindsey’s got personality and she knows how to show it – in her performances, which she learned from years in the theater, but in her music and in-person too.

I’ve seen Annabelle Chairlegs live 4 times, twice in SF / twice at SXSW. I discovered her music going through every one of the musicians at SXSW 2022 and she was at the top.

I love a lot of music, but I rarely like more than a song from a musician. Let alone an album. Or two. I looked over my listening history of Annabelle Chairlegs on Spotify and I liked a half dozen songs the day I found her music (March 4, 2022). Usually it takes a lot more listens.

I may not know a strand of lyrics more than a few words from her, but they’ve been the melody to my thoughts frequently over the past two years. It’s how you can tell if a song is sticky. When it’s popping up in your inner dialogue at the most random times. Usually an offshoot of its original lyrics.

Even a few seconds into her record career with the first song that starts her first album, Watermelon Summer, hits depths that follow her music more into her second album, Gotta Be in Love.

I only cracked that depth talking with her one-on-one, but the grace between her words mirrored her music and how she performs it live. With a calm intensity.

Psyched! Radio’s second-annual Psyched! Fest was over the halloween week this year. It featured 60 performers that like Lost in Riddim with afrobeats, I went to not for the love of the music, but to push the boundaries of my music listening bubble. I spend too much time in dance and soul music, but there are many gems in other genres. It just takes much more digging per gem for me.

I found out about Psyched! Fest through Annabelle Chairlegs when she announced it at her show a few months prior at Kilowatt. I tried to do my usual bit of going through every artist on the bill and compiling some top list to see at the festival, but when you don’t know the genre well enough, seeing your favorite picks based off a few listens isn’t as reliable as chance / serendipity.

What did work was getting to the shows early for the openers. It gives you more time to talk to other people about their recommendations, breathing room to dance to the music more, and in the case of Psyched! Fest, more room to thrash around.

I recently learned that animals in the wild when feeling anxious shake it off literally to get back to calm. Humans do it similarly through twirling pens, tapping their legs, or fidgeting a fidget spinner, but there’s no place better to do it than at a concert with great music. I don’t see it being done enough at a typical soul show, but Psyched! Fest had a much better % of people shake it off.

Even being on the edges of the mosh pit, helped focus my anxiety to make sure I didn’t catch the tail wind of anyone throwin’ bo’s.

I’ve prepared a few playlists for wedding receptions & dinners over the past few years, so since I just had a wedding of my own, to celebrate I finalized those playlists here. It’s centered around millennials since I’m a millennial but covers at least the last 60 years of mostly American pop music and a few important tangents.

There’s music I intentionally left out. The music doesn’t focus on the stereotypical wedding songs, but there’s still quite a few in there–the same point my first wedding party playlist tried to make, Not UR Typical Wedding DJ. If I missed something send it to me. I’ll try to keep this playlist fresh with some of your selections.

These wedding playlists aren’t meant to be ordered to play through, though they could, but more for you to pull from a comprehensive list that will be a good start to any wedding music. I spent too many hours going through too many other playlists, hopefully this will eventually become a one-stop shop. I’ve already got over 10 hours of music on these two, let along the Bachelorette playlist.

We go to music festivals to see the musicians we love, but it’s also the best way to discover new music.

I remember seeing Durand Jones & The Indications for the first time at Outside Lands in 2018 and then the following SXSW twice. My partner and I have been so obsessed with the group that their song “Is It Any Wonder?” was the second song at our wedding’s first dance (“Suavecito” was the first). I went to the second annual Mill Valley Music Festival to see Durand Jones’s solo set, but even better to see something new.

I always jump the gun on these festivals and listen to all of the artists beforehand. My most highly anticipated performance was the psychedelic African rock ensemble from Oakland, Orchestra Gold, but there were a few other notable new discoveries including The Dip and Valerie Jones – all of whom you can see live video of below.

As I just pointed out on my SXSW recap, music festivals aren’t for music. When it comes down to it, the music sets the scene better than any other showcase of an artform, but it’s still second to how the crowd all interacts with each other.

Mill Valley put on a festival vibe I don’t see often, more family-friendly, and I appreciated the small social gestures they included to get people playing together – a game of bags (cornhole) or the many other pockets of people gathering around some common art, including food. Except for the burger, that was no good.

The festival wasn’t just for finding new people, but a place to nurture old relationships. I’ve known Stephen Aronsen of Balanced Breakfast from the days of SF MusicTech (around 2014), where he’d draw caricatures of the panelists. I was jealous then, but his Balanced Breakfast has introduced me to many musicians and is one of the most genuine community of musicians I’ve seen come together across the country. Check out his big mug with my gal in the slideshow below.

I got married a week before SXSW. We took a proper mini-moon on an island off of Mexico, Isla Holbox, but ended the trip at SXSW. When I told people the grand finale to our wedding vacation was at South by, some thought it was hilarious, others were a bit confused, and one person said I had to include it here, someone I respect very much.

I’ve never experienced such a heartfelt sense of community than at my wedding. People from distant parts of my partner and I’s life came together and started relationships of their own. Something I’ve always dreamed about. Creating new communities is as important as maintaining old ones, and SXSW has become a complex, interconnected community of new and old.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes up a community. As much as I know one of the most important roles is a curator of content (like myself), someone who brings new people (and old friends) together is even more important. There’s no greater gift you can give someone than introducing them to someone you know – other than giving them your time and attention.

Brian Zisk, founder of SF MusicTech Summit, has been that person bringing people together at least for me and the dozens of people he’s introduced me to. He also gave me one of the most sincere compliments about Silence Nogood. One where you know they were actually listening. Thank you, Zisk, and everyone I met through him over the years.

As important as the personalities were at SXSW, the music is still the main show. I took the 1,084 artists from SXSW’s Official playlist and cut it down to about 10%, which is a little higher than last year.

SXSW has become more of a music festival than a conference for me, but I went to one panel because it covered a special time 10+ years ago. “The Blog Era: Hip-Hop’s Wild Wild West” panel was promoting a podcast with the same name. The panel and podcast were conceived by Eric & Jeff Rosenthal of ItsTheReal, two of my favorite podcasters of their time.

“The Blog Era” was more before but a little after 2010, and yet here I am still bloggin’. While the panel believes the independent curators of that era are long gone, in reality they just have day jobs doing it professionally for some big media company. I’ve done it seven years for radio & podcasting apps before doing it in video streaming today. Like creators, until we figure out how to pay independent curators properly, they’ll be stuck as session musicians for Google, Facebook, and the many other media behemoths. There are still many passionate folks in front of the people who get paid, doing it free for the culture.

It’s still very present at SXSW with people like Operation Every Band (and myself) helping to pick between the thousands of musicians playing at the festival. We aren’t limited to blogs, but are in every nook and cranny of everything online and off– most prevalent in social media today because of its specialty for information overload. It’s still a wild west mess for now.

The importance of independent curators shouldn’t be stressed hard enough, but The Blog Era panel did bring up one good example of a big media company getting music curation right. Spotify’s RapCaviar was a cultural force when it started up in 2015 by Tuma Basa. I can’t name a single curator that has had that much influence on hip-hop or any other music than RapCaviar at its prime, but coming technologies always open up new gates.

Whether it’s cutting down the over thousands performers at SXSW or the thousand more photos we took of them, layering is key to discerning such mass amounts of information. Both layering in time: it takes a while to distill things down, and layering with other peoples: getting opinions from someone else is important, but can often serve up a curveball of perspectives. Thanks to my beautiful wife who helped me do just that for all the music and photos we took at this year’s SXSW.

More than music this year, web3 has been what I’ve chosen/had to immerse myself in to pay the bills, including this bill. I’ve especially fallen in love with NFTs for what they can do for music and other communities. The first NFT I ever bought was a project by Channel Tres & omgkirby and my second one is the picture above, called “The Journey” by Valfré.

Festivals have been the highlights in music for me for at least the past 10 years I’ve been in The Bay. This year especially had some really good concerts with two performers at the top of my “Music of the Year” list – Luna Li and Rema. My third top is Bill Evans, but unfortunately, he’s been dead for some time. I found him through my Late Night Jazz research and he would’ve made up half of the list if that was acceptable for a public playlist.

The hardest thing about making a playlist is what not to include. I can appreciate that Fred Wilson kept it to about a dozen, but it’s 82 this year for me. Wish there was a way to highlight my top 10 on Spotify. It’s not necessarily the first ones on the list.

What’s your favorite tune of 2022? from this list or otherwise.