Early Rapture is the best thing that has ever come out of DFA. By, like, a lot. Don't @ me.

New Mail Bag dropped today! open.substack.com/pub/trickbag...

Really tempted to write a Trick Bag feature titled "The Top 100 James Baldwin Quotes That are Different from the Same Dozen James Baldwin Quotes Always Posted on Instagram."

It's so exhausting to be a Black person in a country that hates Black people. Even if you're "smart," even if you're "talented," even if you're "insightful," you still live in a country that hates you.

I want you to put the word out there that we back up. ("We" as in "real writers.") trickbag.substack.com/p/a-trick-ba...

Trick Bag has an Instagram now. Don't sleep (if you're even still on Instagram). www.instagram.com/trickbag_mag

New Trick Bag logo just dropped. trickbag.substack.com

if you can, i strongly recommend spending some time watching someone you care about do something they love to do

Dash killed this shit. Study up on the rap duo all the real heads already know about. 😉

ICYMI: The 5x (5x, 5x, 5x, 5x!) World Champion Booker T was a big-time reason why I became a wrestling fan. Here's what I learned about being a Black man in America due to watching his talent.

Next out the trick bag is another archived piece: A personal essay disguised as a wrestling essay. trickbag.substack.com/p/from-the-a...

All archival posts will be available to free subscribers—I plan on putting out freebies from my decades(!) of music and culture writing at underdetermined and unpredictable intervals. Paid subscribers ($7.50 a month or $75 a year) will get archived and new shit every week.

Not me getting roasted in the group chat for admitting I liked Phantom Planet's 2004 single "Big Brat" lol

Had so much fun talking to Harley and Kurt from Fugitive Bubble, 2/3 of one of the PNW's best punk bands. Just one of those magic conversations.

Trick Bag, my new weekly newsletter, is live! First out the bag is the full transcript for an interview I did in 2017 with the legend Ishmael Butler! open.substack.com/pub/trickbag...

Trick Bag trickbag.substack.com?r=2xisp&utm_...

Hopping on Bluesky for the first time in months to publicly wonder if, after the Home Run Derby, the wider baseball world now knows what a "big dumper" is.

good detroit punk records is my favorite genre

good morning. at IHTOV, we have part two of an incredible, enlightening conversation between correspondent @owenbrazas.bsky.social and music journalist @douglasmartini.bsky.social. they cover everything from record store clerks to home recording. great read! ihavethatonvinyl.com/conversation...

the great @douglasmartini.bsky.social sat down with one of the most consistent punk bands going, PYREX. a great convo that really opened up their great new album Body. subscribe to see/saw for free weekly punk features in your inbox 🪩

Seattle! Come to the Third Place Books in Ravenna for what I'm sure will be an enlightening conversation (partly) about how weird it is to be an elder millennial!

Made vegetarian gumbo from scratch tonight and it turned out delicious. I just earned a bunch of XP for that shit.

Dating back to 2018, Dusty and I have teamed up on canonical split albums, double albums, and songs by great duos in music. Here is the latest in that unofficial series.

A reminder that @scarleteen.bsky.social is 100% queer and trans run and will ALWAYS be providing educational materials, support, and more to youth seeking sex, relationships, and health education from a source who won't casually erase their existence with their political winds.

Hahaha mans got stunted on by a Honda Fit lmao

Big crowd at the SF Tesla dealership protesting our unelected overlord. A tiny sign hangs from an upstairs window

lol Drake is done. Couldn't have happened to a more emotionally dishonest rapper.

Gonna need white podcasters to get their shit together and start pronouncing Tramell Tillman’s name correctly. Before I ever even heard it said out loud I knew it was truh-MELL and not TRAM-uhl and that’s just basic two Americas, we have to know about you but you don’t have to know about us stuff.

A little (using the word "little" a little generously, since it clocked in at 2500 words) retrospective piece I wrote on the criminally overlooked Seattle rock band the Gits. www.kexp.org/read/2025/1/...

Bringing the ol' newsletter out of moth balls for '25 and beyond. martindouglasmailorder.substack.com/p/mail-order...

Agreed. Big fan of Rat Paws over here.

Local and regional culture journalism is especially important with *gestures wildly* ALL THIS FUCKERY going on. Please consider supporting the Reader!

Had to feed the streets with the best from the punk/garage/indie rock underground. '24 sucked for the most part but was an unbelievable year for the scene and its music. Here are 13 bangers.

In a world where recycled vibes are at an all-time high, we lost a true original who prized challenging his audience rather than placating them. RIP David Lynch.

The Chicago Reader really needs your support. It was my favorite publication growing up. I love their features still. Donation page here donorbox.org/support-the-...

Let me find out SpaceX employees are out here getting Severed. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/24/u...

The most private thing I'm willing to admit on Bluesky is that I make a living as Seattle-based music journalist and I've never seen Singles.

I have been slowly building up to my status as an avowed to-do list maker and 2025 will see me at my final form as such.

If I am being honest with myself (which I try to do at all times and recognize I falter sometimes), I pretended to be hopeful and optimistic that 2024 would be a good year when I was really just desperate. I say this now because I am hopeful that 2025 will be a great year for me.

They told me to write less lyrically, write less fractured, write more straightforwardly, be less artsy, be more like every other writer working in my field. 2025 is about breaking those rules again.

RIP Rickey Henderson. You know how many brothers I've known in my life who didn't like baseball but owned a Rickey Henderson jersey??

Of course I am spending the first few days of Capricorn Season planning a relaunch of my newsletter, which—breaking news!—will have a paid tier for a slate of cultural criticism essays I have mapped out.

I know in people's year-end recaps, they talk fondly about all that they accomplished. Well, my 2024 didn't have a lot of that. I struggled. I fell short of a lot of my goals. I didn't measure up to the man I thought I was this year. And that's okay.

I am among the many exciting names with bylines in the physical edition of the best music newsletter in the world today. Order your copy now!

Gotta admit, I'm about 100 times more excited about a surprise Roc Marciano x Alchemist album than a surprise Kendrick album.

My most British experience while in the U.K. last week was not walking through the abbey of a town founded in 1066, but almost buying a Sex Pistols shirt at an HMV at a mall in Brighton.

I had a dream that I asked Snoop Dogg the one question I've always wanted to ask him, "Do you stop smoking weed long enough to ever get withdrawals?"

With all the Kendrick takes going around (par for the course whenever he drops), now is the time for my magnum opus: A 2500-word think piece on the cultural history of custom Buick Regals.

Serious question: Should we all get back on Tumblr?

With everybody coming to Bluesky, I figured I would log on real fast to say I haven't completely abandoned social media yet. But I still might one day.