Sign, sign, everywhere, a sign

Listen, I know that when I tell people that there are certain moments where certain things from wholly disparate sources converge in my life at the same time — let’s call them… oh, I don’t know, maybe capital “s” Signs — I may sound a bit nutty. But I tell you, it happens. I haven’t … Read more

Top 10 songs of 2025

I came across fewer new songs this year than I often do, but I’ll squarely attribute that to trying to get through 50 books this year, and that often taking the form of audio books occupying my listening time. As always, these aren’t necessarily songs released this year, but just songs I heard for the … Read more

When good music is SO good

The province-owned liquor store I work in has planned playlists that they swap out every “period”, the segments of the year when featured products and sales change. Most playlists are pretty hit and miss, to my tastes. But this one? Oh, man, is it ever hitting. The current playlist is almost entirely classic rock and … Read more

Wait, I… kind of like some country music now?

I’ve long maintained that I listen to a pretty wide variety of music. Classic rock was probably the first thing I really tweaked to — one of my earliest memories is of falling asleep on my mother’s lap at a casual house party my parents and I were attending, with the smell of pot in … Read more

Top 10 songs of 2024

Another year done already? Craziness! As per usual, I’ve been taking in all the music I can reasonably get and adding songs to this year’s playlist (now sitting at exactly 100 songs from this year) as well as my ever-growing, various playlists for myriad purposes.Want to chill and read? Got a playlist for that.On my … Read more

Linkin Park rides again

Seven years ago, Chester Bennington, the charismatic lead singer of the hugely successful alt rock band Linkin Park, killed himself. He had a history of depression and substance abuse, and had been deeply affected by the suicide of his good friend (and alt rock god) Chris Cornell two months prior. I thought, as I believe … Read more

My growing appreciation of Tool

For those not into progressive metal music [glances at most family and friends] who may not have heard of the band Tool, here’s the scoop.*. When the world lost the drumming and lyric-writing brilliance of Neil Peart a few years ago, I was a bit adrift for some time about who else to look up … Read more

Those classic November… blues?

The new playlist at the LCBO for this period is very blues heavy. Now listen, I like the blues just fine. At no point will I hear any blues song on the radio or streamed somewhere and wish someone would just turn it off or change it to something else.But given the choice, blues also … Read more

Top 10 songs of 2023

Not as busy a year, music-listening-wise, as I’m used to. But I still added 53 songs to various playlists. As per usual, my top picks from that list aren’t necessarily newly released in 2023, but rather — aside from old songs I like but hadn’t added before and have finally included — are songs that … Read more