What's a favorite band that you weren't able to see live? There has to be some rules on this one, so here we go: - You must have been able to see them at some point, but didn't, for whatever reason - There's no likely way for you to see them live in the future, for whatever reason For me, there was a chance I could have seen Concrete Blonde play in New Mexico, but I only found out about the concert the day before, and there was no way I would have been able to make it up to the show never mind getting tickets. Also for me, there's bands I thought I'd never see which I've now seen four or five times, and bands that felt like they were right there which I never caught.

A bit of an opposite to John's "the song you weren't ready for" is the band / album that hit you exactly where you were at that time of your life. Way back in the before times, my friend stopped by randomly and said, "Hey. Whatever you're doing? Stop. You're listening to this now." He then put on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. That album, from start to end - an absolute piece of art. I'm still a bit gobsmacked by it. I'd heard of the flaming lips, and knew the ol' "She don't use jelly" song, but this was something entirely different. For that hour or whatever I was completely transfixed. I'd also add Portishead's "Dummy" to this list - although the time and circumstances were quite different to this one... As an aside, several years later, I was waiting in the OKC airport for a flight to Denver, when a guy with curly longish hair, sunglasses, and a feather boa walks by me and sits down in the same seating area. I whisper to my partner - "Hey! I think that's Wayne Coyne!" Not only was it really Wayne Coyne, but he sat in the row directly in front of us. We ended up on a turbo-prop airplane, flying through a snow storm in the winter. When we landed, there was no jet-bridge, and it was late at night. They let us deplane on the tarmac and had to walk to the terminal in the snow. Halfway to the terminal, Wayne stopped to turn back and take a picture of the plane, with snow blowing all around us in the wind - an iconic image. I didn't stop Wayne to tell him how amazing Yoshimi was, or how important it was to me (I deeply respect the personal space of public people when they are not "on") but I've since made it a point to tell artists I meet at concerts or whatever how much I love their work, or how important it is to me. Every time I've done so, it's been really rewarding. But that's another topic for conversation...

Curious how people are actually listening right now. I play music for people in a room, in a box, sometimes in my own home. When you put on new music, are you Walking? Driving? Cooking? Lying on the floor?? At work with one earbud in. There’s no wrong answer. Just interested in the habits.

21-Blondshell - If You Asked For A Picture 22- Momma - Welcome to My Blue Sky 23-Heartworms - Glutton for Punishment 24-Shaki Tavi - Minor Slip 25-The Hives - The Hives Forever Forever The Hives 26-Preoccupations - Ill At Ease 27-Annahstasia - Tether 28-SONS - Hallo 29-Packaging - Running Through The Airport 30- Witch Post - Beast When I got the stats on what I played. most this year, this window of records really surprised me. I love that. Some of it is because they were from earlier in the year but others like Sons, Preoccupations and Witch Post I was reminded JUST how great they were. Being a DJ at KEXP it is a good problem to have to forget all the records you loved all year. The Annahstasia is STUNNING, the Hives, ROCKING, the Heartworms GOTHY and don't get me started on Blondshell AND their Smooch performance this year as well as Packaging. Isn't it GREAT to see Seattle bands just always be there in the most played, most loved lists of people. I blame the rain.

Listening to the new holiday album from the Record Club and it reminded me it’s time to share the holiday favorite my band recorded back in San Francisco in the early 00s… https://youtu.be/OJuQq0kEnFU?si=mZzMFRlyxmBfTwJW