This Time It's Personal: The November 2023 Record Challenge Thread

November 20
“Oh yeah, I remember them! Didn’t they break up years ago?”

Play one of your favorite artists that is way overdue for releasing a new album, or that you would love to get back together. What album sold you on this band/musician in the first place?

Centro-matic - Fort Recovery

These guys played a few shows either this year or last, so would love to see a full tour and a record! Will Johnson has been playing in Isbell’s band, so he’s in top shape. A small club tour would be fantastic.

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November 21
Me: “Me, me, me, me, me!”

So today, it’s not about you. It’s about me, because it’s my birthday. You have a few options:
  • Play something that you think I’d love
  • Play something that you know I love
  • Play an artist that shares this birthday with me
  • Play an artist from my hometown (I’ll accept Seattle but you’ll receive a digital high-five if you can be more specific with Tacoma, WA)
  • Play an artist from my current area of residence (Alabama or Florida)
Join Brion - meaningless

Happy Belated Birthday! I’d think this was one up your alley, with a power pop powerhouse involved.

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Matt M said:
November 21
Me: “Me, me, me, me, me!”

So today, it’s not about you. It’s about me, because it’s my birthday. You have a few options:
  • Play something that you think I’d love
  • Play something that you know I love
  • Play an artist that shares this birthday with me
  • Play an artist from my hometown (I’ll accept Seattle but you’ll receive a digital high-five if you can be more specific with Tacoma, WA)
  • Play an artist from my current area of residence (Alabama or Florida)
Join Brion - meaningless

Happy Belated Birthday! I’d think this was one up your alley, with a power pop powerhouse involved.

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Yes! Love this one, for sure (and everything Jon Brion has ever done)!
 
November 25
“It’s beginning to look a lot like…”

Play one of your favorite holiday albums. When do you remember first hearing this? Yesss, I understand some of you hate holiday music. You may play an album that reminds you of winter months or wintery weather, if you wish.

Beau Dommage "Beau Dommage" (1974 Capitol Records; reissue)
This is more of a Christmas song than an album. The song "23 Décembre" is on here, and as you might decipher from the title, it's an ode to December 23rd. This song is absolutely everywhere in Québec every Dec 23rd, since 1974. And it's pretty fun, mixing traditional Quebecois sounds with a smidge of Christmas chimes. The lyrics talk about that day when kids leave school for the holiday vacations and wish everyone well. The chorus goes "23 décembre "joyeux Noël, monsieur Côté", "Salut ti-cul, on se r'verra le sept janvier" which translates to "December 23, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Côté, See you Ti-Cul (litterally means "little ass", a term of endearment towards a small kid), we'll see each other again on January 7th". The rest of the lyrics talk about the things they did at school on Dec 23, like trade hockey cards and playing games, and dreaming about Christmases past and anticipating this year's like whether his dad will pretend to be Santa again. It's light but fun. As an added bonus the album also includes "Complainte du phoque en Alaska", which talks about how this seal (but it's really a double-entendre with "fuck", i.e. an everyday douchebag) is having a rough time in Alaska, so a song about winter.

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Day 04: Underrated Artist/Album Of The Year Contender

Blake Mills - Jelly Road
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Blake Mills should be a big deal. He’s an excellent guitarist, an excellent engineer, and has worked with a long list of the who’s who amongst the mainstream and indie rock elite. Every album he’s released has been either inventive or exceptional and in some cases both. He has a quiet none flashy aura to him that reminds me a lot of two other of my favorites (and equally under appreciated) artists in Steve Gunn and Jim O’Rourke. Jelly Road is another record of understated brilliance that should be a AOTY contender on everyone’s year end list but sadly it will likely continue to fly under the radar of many.
 
November 22
“Dad, what do you cherish most?”
“Well, you, of course. And your mother. And my butcher cover copy of the Beatles’ Yesterday and Today.”

If your house was on fire, after saving your family/friends/roommate/humans/pets, you have time to grab only one record before you’re out of there. Which one is it and why-erm, “Bay City Rollers,” you say? What the hell?

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Not really sure this would be the one, but it was saying it needed to be heard today. And it’s an all time classic, so there’s that.

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November 23
“IIIIIIII… want to thaaank you.. for giving me the best day of my liiiiife”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I’m thankful for all of you making it this far. Play an album/song that represents what you’re most thankful for, or just a record that you are thankful to own.

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

Thankful to have this one, when i picked it up it was a tough one to find. This one was a need in my collection and so happy to have it.

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Day 05: A “Rabbit Hole” Artist

The Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street
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I never thought I would be this much of a Grateful Dead fan, I never disliked them and I’ve always loved American Beauty in particular but over the past decade my love has grown exponentially wher the Dead take up a sizable chunk of my Kallax real estate. I never thought I would’ve been pumped to have find a copy of Shakedown Street in the wild, yet here we are.
 
November 24
“Hello, everyone! If you’re waiting in line only for the Taylor Swift RSD release, I’m sorry to say that we just sold our last copy”

Happy Black Friday, everyone. Did you participate in Record Store Day today? Did you get what you wanted? Play a record that you got today or a hot item from previous RSDs. If you’ve never participated, just play the last record you purchased.

Justin Townes Earle - Live at Grimey’s

This one sounds fantastic. Went for Yuma and grabbed this too.

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Day 06: Favorite Music Genre
Yo La Tengo - New Wave Hot Dogs
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Underground/College/Alternative/Indie Rock, whatever adjective get applied; is my favorite genre and it has been for as long as I’ve enjoyed music. I love exploring genres outside indie rock but I always come back to guitars and unwavering coolness that defines the genre.Yo La Tengo are Indie Rock lifers who aren’t afraid to explore the edges of rock in interesting ways.
This is an original pressing from 1987.
 
Day 07: “Guilty Pleasure” Record

Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
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I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures. I like what I like and life is too short to worry about others opinions.

That being said, maybe I am a bit prudish because I woulda perhaps been slightly more apprehensive to purchased this “full boob” alternate artwork version of LDR’s latest album face-to-face from a record store clerk had that been required.
 
Day 08: favorite scene

The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
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One of the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest is being surrounded by lots of local fruitful music scenes. Obviously there is the Seattle scene which is rich within its own right but we also have lively scenes in Tacoma, Olympia, and the surrounding areas. One of my favorites was based around Calvin Johnson’s K Records in the late 90s, early 00s. Calvin had been a driving force behind the Oly Indie scene since the early 80s and his label so revered that Kurt Cobain had a K Records logo tattooed on his forearm. I didn’t really become aware of K records until the early 2000s through the interesting naturalistic Lo-Fi that artists many of whom were Evergreen College students who recorded albums at Calvin’s studio Dub Narcotic Studio. Some of my favorites were Mirah, Karl Blau, Little Wings, and Phil Elverum’s initial project, The Microphones.
 
Day 09: Hometown Artist
Ohtis - Curve of Earth
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Ohtis consists of Adam and Sam, the pair have been making music together since high school and friends since grade school. Sam is the singer and primary songwriter, Adam is the lead guitarist and driving force behind the group. When I first became aware of their group, Ohtis they were still not even old enough to drink at the bars they would frequently perform at in the latter half of the 00s. Despite being a sizable college town, Bloomington/Normal local music scene is fairly lame so it was a breathe of fresh air to find a band of young kids playing local bars and house parties that supplemented their wonderful original songs with covers of Bonnie’Prince’ Billy, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Pixies. They are a fun and talented bunch, sadly their run as a band took about a decades long pause while Sam dealt with a pretty bad heroin addiction and Adam bounced around to a few other indie bands in the Detroit area. Eventually, Sam kicked the habit and he and Adam reconstituted the band and released their “Debut” album (debut is in quotes because they released at least two albums prior to ever signing to a label). It’s a wonderful record and I happy they were able to record and release it. A lot of the album deals with Sam’s strict Christian upbringing and being a recovering junkie, well worth a listen.
 
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Day 10: Going Out Music

Jay-Z - The Blueprint
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When this album came out I wasn’t yet old enough to drink (legally) but it was part of my pre-game rotation, albums I’d play on my boombox while I showered and got spiffed up for a night of partying. This album was exciting for me because it was the first Jay album that I was in on from the ground floor. While I enjoyed many of his previous singles, it wasn’t until the end of high school and rise of the burned CD had I started to appreciate Jay-Z flow and how the man worked around a beat, so when this album was released featuring fire track after fire track produced by some of the best producers of the era, Timberland, Just Blaze, and a young Kanye West it immediately became a big time favorite.
 
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Day 11: A Quiet Saturday Morning

The Bill Evans Trio - Sunday At The Village Vanguard
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I used to not listen to much Jazz then around 8 years ago something finally clicked and really fell in love with the genre, as with most things I went a bit overboard when I started collecting Jazz records, now I feel like I probably have more than enough Jazz in my collection so I try to be pretty selective about what I’m adding. This one piqued my interest since I enjoyed Evan’s piano work with Miles Davis but didn’t own any records where he led. This OJC pressing of one of his most well regarded albums is the perfect accompaniment to a lazy Saturday.
 
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Day 12: The Blunder Years

Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
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music and style go hand-in-hand especially in high school. The early 90s were halcyon days for music from the decade for both Rap and Alternative Rock perspective, unfortunately what started off so promising would be capped off with the rise of Bling Rap, Mook Rock, Nu Metal, and an endless number of Boy Bands and Pop Princesses. Me and my friends really didn’t fit in with most of what was mainstream at the time and instead chose to embrace Frat Rock, and dressed accordingly, lots of Abercrombie & Fitch white baseball caps with dirty double entendres and thick Doc Martens and we almost exclusively listened to DMB and bands of a similar ilk. I would go on to see the band live over a dozen times over the last part of the decade and through the very beginning of the 00s, then at college I would discover Pitchfork and Indie Rock and started dressing accordingly.
 
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