.looooong overdue

With all the madness going on in our country right now I decided to resurrect this blog and bring it back as a form of sanity for myself and maybe others? I think I let it go because it got so overwhelming with all the concerts I attended in 2016! When I thought about documenting every single concert I attended last year the thought of it became so heavy I just was at a lull. My goal is to just update this once a week every Sunday. I mean I'm on the computer every Sunday for my job anyway. What's 5-10 minutes to update? But anyway how have you been? What have you been up to music-wise? What have I been up to music-wise? To do a quick update on 2016....

**I purchased 230 albums. Yes 230. I am more than aware this is someone's starter collection or not even. No all of them were not full price. No please don't make me list all of them! Pretty much the large majority of my collection is the "Best of 2016" albums listed on NPR. I like to think I have good taste. ;)

**Ladyhawke was the last concert I posted about on here. Jaysus! After her I saw:  Black Mountain, Stone Roses, Fear of Men, Girlpool, Laura Gibson, Duran Duran, Ryan Adams, Garbage (2x), White Lung, The Danger O's, Belly, PJ Harvey, The Julie Ruin (3x!), Tiffany (80s singer, yaass), Julien Baker, Angel Olsen, Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins, Chvrches, P.S. Eliot, Lush, All Dogs, Tacocat (2x), Japanese Breakfast, Margaret Glaspy, Sloan, Adia Victoria, Phantogram, Sad13, The B-52s, The Naked and Famous, Mitski/Fear of Men/Weaves, Stevie Nicks/Chrissie Hynde, Kristin Hersh, Rasputina.

**If I did a total I came really close to 80 concerts in 2016. The amount I did not go to is sad. I think it totals 20 concerts I did not attend due to illness, anxiety, and just depression from the election. Picking my favorite concert of 2016 is hard because they are all special in their own way and I truly enjoyed all of them. Seeing The Julie Ruin three times and Garbage twice was unreal.

What are some goals for 2017?

1) Hold back on albums and quit Vinyl Me Please when my year subscription is up. With everything going on now I'd rather donate to charities or organizations in need instead of going on huge splurges. VMP I'll explain why I'm cancelling in another post.

2) Attend less concerts. Yes you heard correct. I think last year I was in this mentality where "Yeah! I'm going to go to as many possible!" But you know what? I think in the end I was truly burnt out. When it became a "chore" I knew I needed to back off. This year I only bought tickets for shows I really really wanted to attend and the others will be last minute calls (depending on if they will sell out immediately or not). I also learned to not attend a concert if I am only going to see the opener. Wait until they headline instead. Sometimes it's not worth it.

3) Collect more cassette tapes! I'm going to use my Amazon points and purchase a boombox (yes I'm a grandma). I've accumulated some really great cassettes last year I'd love to play them on a smaller device besides my huge Crosley. Plus in a fit of excitement I purchased two blank cassette tapes where I want to make a mix of songs from 2017. The kids at FYE probably looked at me like "What the fuck are these?" Oh old school 90s me is living the dream and reverting back to my middle school / high school years where I'd constantly make mixes! 

4) Subscribe to Bust Magazine! Many of the bands I like have been featured in Bust or been reviewed in Bust. Plus we need feminism at a time like this. 

5) Make a protest mix! I'm currently assembling a pretty kick ass protest / angry mix to hand out at protests or to mail to friends to get us through these shitty times. It will contain the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Bjork, Le Tigre, etc. It will be badass.

What are your music goals of 2017?