Merry Xmas Eve! For ANTICS’ latest issue, I profiled Mei Semones. Support print media and get yourself a copy, and read a short preview of the piece below:

Merry Xmas Eve! For ANTICS’ latest issue, I profiled Mei Semones. Support print media and get yourself a copy, and read a short preview of the piece below:

Listened to some of the worst music I’ve ever heard (for journalistic reasons) www.pastemagazine.com/music/worst-...

For Paste’s Best Music Books of 2025 list, I wrote about @nikostratis.com’s The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman and Ben Ratliff’s Run the Song www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-b...

Thank you to Grant Sharples and Paste Magazine (@pastemagazine.bsky.social) for naming THE DAD ROCK THAT MADE ME A WOMAN in their "10 best music books of 2025!" 💙 #booksky www.pastemagazine.co...

Listened to some of the worst music I’ve ever heard (for journalistic reasons) www.pastemagazine.com/music/worst-...

For Paste’s Best Music Books of 2025 list, I wrote about @nikostratis.com’s The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman and Ben Ratliff’s Run the Song www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-b...

Listened to some good music

I wrote about MJ Lenderman’s take on This Is Lorelei for Paste’s Best Cover Songs of 2025 www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-s...

Uproxx discontinuing Indiecast and no longer doing the music critics’ poll. What is going on over there

Love this version of This is Lorelei’s “Dancing in the Club” with MJ Lenderman. It’s got that perfect “I’m sad but also vibing” energy. One of my ‘25 musical highlights.

Love this version

I wrote about MJ Lenderman’s take on This Is Lorelei for Paste’s Best Cover Songs of 2025 www.pastemagazine.com/music/best-s...

Listening to some of the worst music I’ve ever heard (for journalistic purposes)

Well would you look at the time. It’s once again Heaven or Las Vegas o’clock

Very excited to share the first installment of Cover Me, one of my new monthly columns at @pastemagazine.bsky.social! I spoke with Rhian from Wet Leg about the visual language of moisturizer and how that iconography engages with their tongue-in-cheek songwriting

Makes me hate how the music/writing community is bifurcated into two sites so it feels like I have to use both but get pretty poor engagement either way

Very excited to share the first installment of Cover Me, one of my new monthly columns at @pastemagazine.bsky.social! I spoke with Rhian from Wet Leg about the visual language of moisturizer and how that iconography engages with their tongue-in-cheek songwriting

Rob Reiner and his wife dying the way they did. What the actual hell. So devastating

I wrote a lot of stuff that I'm proud of over at No Fences Review, but I'm particularly happy with this tribute to the great Jimmy Cliff.

Discovered the KP Skywalka album

There is nothing good about AI. It makes you stupid. It wastes tons of finite resources. It costs tons of money. And it barely even works. Everything it makes is ass. There’s literally nothing to be gained from it.

I knew little about the late Jill Sobule, so when she died last spring I had a chance to examine her career. www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Hm. I'd say I have three I can't quite decide between, one formally published, the other two on my Patreon, so I'll list them all. The formal one was "The 20th Century Dies," my deep dive on the combined anniversaries of @davidbowiereal.bsky.social's _1. Outside_ and Scott Walker's _Tilt_. (1/3)

Still wild to me that I made my debut for NatGeo, writing about the Grand Ole Opry of all things. Flew to Nashville, interviewed Vince Gill, Steve Earle, and Pam Tillis, and published 3000 words about a U.S. institution that walks a razor’s edge between tradition and populism.

I wrote a bunch of “album guide” posts I was happy with this year, but this might be my favorite. anthony-is-writing.ghost.io/steely-dan-a...

let’s just go with the thing that was published yesterday www.dontrocktheinbox.com/remembering-...

Making some predictions… having some thoughts…

Really cant believe the man is gone defector.com/waiting-on-d...

Sent an important email that was pasted from an old one but forgot to change the old addressee’s name

i got way too invested in the deslondes www.dontrocktheinbox.com/meet-the-bes... bsky.app/profile/gran...

I barely qualify as a music writer this year or most years, but I had the honor of eulogizing Francis Davis at his old home www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

I was really proud of this one! omgnyc.substack.com/p/the-summer...

Because of the writing/listening time involved, I should probably go w/ the three Best Country Albums projects I did, one for 1975, '85 and '95--each two parts, each including 100+ titles. But my faves were essays on Ozark Princess Chappel Roan and my appreciation of Johnny Rodriguez (1/2)

Interviewing a band for the inaugural Cover Me column in 10 minutes :)

Finally digging into some cool mail from @nikostratis.com

I went to 33 shows in 2025 and saw 49 different artists. Caught Sweeping Promises, Japanese Breakfast, MSPAINT, and MJ Lenderman twice.

Key changes are corny unless it’s specifically the one in “Belinda Says” by Alvvays in which case key changes are awesome

Frantically screenshotting blurbs I wrote before the webpage reloads

For paste’s best songs list, I blurbed about [deep inhale] caroline, Maria Somerville, Annahstasia, Rochelle Jordan, oklou, Amaarae, jim legxacy, Dexter in the newsagent, aya, MAVI, Wednesday, Greg Freeman, and Rosalía

Music >>>

the youths are getting into Aphex Twin

I feel like there’s something going on here

Even when I’m reading a book at home in total privacy I am doing it in a performative way

This interview with Good Night & Good Morning about their glacial one-shot slowcore masterpiece album 'Narrowing Type' epitomised why I love writing about music. The energy and love the trio had for each other moved me so much rateyourmusic.com/feature/sone...

Anyone have any opinions on my favorite songs of 2025 assembled in some kind of order along with some honorable mentions?

i wrote about my favorite record shops and how my buying process works when i’m on the road ihavethatonvinyl.com/essays/recor...

I didn't write a whole ton this year (would like to do more of that in 2026), but I did get to interview some cool folks from PUP, Charmer, The Tubs, and one of my all time favorites Deafheaven: www.pastemagazine.com/music/deafhe...

Anyone have any opinions on my favorite albums of 2025 assembled in some kind of order along with some honorable mentions?

I publish so little now I often feel like I'm speaking from beyond the grave, but I liked the piece I wrote on Cabaret Voltaire in this issue of @thewiremagazine.bsky.social: www.thewire.co.uk/issues/499