2021: there were *some* good things this year

At least we had some good music to listen to this year.

I am not saying these are the 99 best songs of the year, but I am saying these are 99 absolute bangers.

This playlist is meant to be put on shuffle, and my hope is within a few songs something will come up that you haven’t heard before and you’ll go check that band out.

What I’m saying is, this playlist is meant to be turned off. Kind of like how dating apps are meant to be deleted. Find something great, turn this off, and go love that band. Maybe come back and do it again (the dating app comparison kinda falls apart here but then again not every relationship works out — I’m divorced and my favorite band of all time is canceled) and find another great artist!

There are 59 artists on here. If you’re reading this you likely consider yourself a fan of a number of them already. I don’t always know how many people are familiar with a lot of these bands, but I hope you’ll end up digging one of the lesser known acts on here, like Alien Boy, Colleen Green, Common Sage, Coral Moons, Gollylagging, I Feel Fine, Kitner, Lana Wild, Orson Wilds, Pretty Rude, shallow pools, Strange Ranger… to name a bunch. They deserve attention just as much as The Killers and American Football and Olivia Rodrigo.

While making these graphics, I couldn’t decide how to present my favorite records of the year so I did one of the best of the best, and one for just a chunk of great music. There were a few that almost made the cut that I didn’t spend enough time with but that’s life. Still waiting for that Dunkin’ sponsorship.

If you have an end of year list or playlist, please send it over! @ me anywhere or just respond to this newsletter. I love seeing them, especially because I’m sure there’s more good stuff from this year that I just haven’t heard yet.

And now all the great TV I watched this year.

How To With John Wilson is so wildly unexpected, moves like a poem, surprisingly deep and poignant, and full of incredible visual gags.Hacks and Only Murders in the Building were both extremely funny.Dave continued to be incredible.Annie Murphy continued her greatness post-Schitt’s in Kevin Can Fuck Himself, which threads the needle with its difficult two-shows-in-one premise.This was the year I finally watched What We Do in the Shadows, which is perhaps the funniest show of the last few years. Jackie Daytona forever and ever.Station Eleven managed to be a pandemic show during a pandemic that wasn’t really about the pandemic.Yellowjackets was thrilling, shocking, and great even beyond the big LOST vibes. This is a Robbery was an enjoyable look at a local crime.…And everyone knows Mare of Easttown, Succession, and Ted Lasso are great viewing.

Drinking iced tea out of a wine glass just to feel something

So, my partner and I are combining Dry January with Whole 30 this month. I know these are good things and it’s mostly fine, but there are nights when I fight in my head “I would like a strong whiskey ginger” vs “oh stop, crushing these seltzers is just fine.” Some nights I drink iced tea out of a wine glass just to feel something. In general I’m doing alright these days, but the crushing weight of existence, especially in ~*these trying times*~ creeps in sometimes and it’s a lot. I have decided that combining these two calendar challenges and attempting to live in 2022 without sugar or alcohol or drugs should be called Raw Dog. Much respect to anyone who is sober, but raw dogging life every day is just not for me. I can’t have a drink or a cookie or a “cookie” and I still have to contemplate *gestures* all of this? Not easy.

A quick message for Bobby Berk

Hi Bobby! Crit here. You’re my favorite of the group. Would you like to be my friend?

When We Were Young / When We Were Old and Mad

The big festival. Yeah, I’ll talk about it. The takes got a little wild last week. For those of us who are really into this music scene, it’s an incredible lineup. It’s Warped Tour on steroids, lineup and price. But then just a little bit of math made us go… wait, huh? Those are some short sets. The two headliners are playing at the same time. People rightly pointed out that it just seems like too much for one day. “Add another!” we shouted. “Okay!” they replied… but it’s the same lineup. So they didn’t solve the problem of not being able to see a ton of bands. Then they did it again. Which means the bonkers price tag is now doubled or tripled if you want to try to see both headliners, or want to see more bands. But alas, they are a company trying to make lots of money, not altruists, and they’ve made it by the pallet. They accomplished their goal. They don’t care about you. That’s capitalism, baby! This lineup, even at that price, over 2-3 days would be extremely tempting. But it sold out anyway, so they made their money and tickets are gone, but oof. I just really really really really really really hope they’re paying each band well. It seems to me that a ton of people who don’t go to shows often are going to this, and might be expecting a lot, not considering the red flags we’ve been discussing this week. I genuinely hope they have a great time and aren’t angry when they come to realize they’re going to have some real conflicts when the schedule comes out. That could get ugly. Either way, I have a feeling a lot of those tickets will be going for close to or maybe even below selling price in the days leading up to this thing.

But despite all of that, the “it’s Livenation!” takes were just weird. Their involvement is not a reason to doubt this show. They put on just about every show! I am not defending them, like some people below. Yes, they’ve fucked up before, especially at Astroworld. Yes, they owe a lot of money for that tragedy. But they don’t need to throw one big festival to make up for that money. They’re constantly raking in money every second of every day. Which brings me to this…

The Worst Tweet About The Festival

I have been thinking about this tweet for a week. It’s SO GROSS. Guy From Bayside thinks Livenation “treat fans great.” Really? The same Livenation that merged with Ticketmaster? The same LiveNation that has spent years buying up every venue they can possibly get their hands on? The same Livenation, that as a result of those two moves, has been able to jack up prices and fees on everything from tickets to drinks to parking to merch cuts? They are a monopoly. They have surgically and systemically made the show-going experience WORSE for everyone and they will continue to. They are not making our bands more money, they’re making themselves more money. If anything, Guy From Bayside should be mad at how much more money he could have made in those 1,500 shows if the artist cut was larger. It’s his band that filled those venues, more money should go to him and his bandmates, not the big monopoly.

Guy From Bayside defending this behemoth is really gross. What’s next, is Kenny Vasoli going to tell us that Walmart cares about their employees and compensates them fairly? Is Chris Carrabba going to say that Facebook genuinely cares about the privacy of their millions of users?

The Best Tweet About The Festival

Perfect joke. I am angry that it doesn’t have >20k retweets. Truly a shame.

This section is about Wordle

Wordle rules. I love word games. Not to toot my own horn, but I just love saying “toot my own horn,” even completely stripped of the sexual connotations. TOOT TOOT. Also, you should see how fast I solve some Wheel of Fortune puzzles. Anyways. I do not love people complaining about seeing Wordle tweets. It’s just colored boxes, it’s so easy to skip over! I love that people are loving it! I love when people love things! But here’s something I’ve noticed, and a small reason why I don’t like Wordle tweets: I often see a bunch of them before I do it myself, and have found that sometimes those little green and yellow squares get into my head and mess with me while I’m trying to solve it. Like if I see a few people who are green on 4 & 5 early but keep missing the first three, I can’t shake that image when I’m working on the puzzle. This is not a reason for anyone to stop posting them, just a thought I’ve had.

This is a good app

I like the app Yotta. I like it a lotta. That’s a Dr. Seuss quote, I think. Here’s the deal: it’s a free savings account that gains interest, and for every $25 you have in your account, you get one chance per week at a jackpot of $10 million. I only have a few hundred bucks in there, but I like getting the notification each night at 9pm that a number has been drawn and clicking to see if any of my tickets matched that number. They also offer a debit/credit card where you have a chance of getting your purchases for free but I don’t have that and don’t know all the details on it.

If for some reason you read this far and you also want a couple shots at winning the lottery, get the app and join with code CRIT and if you win the $10 million you have to promise to give me ten bucks.

Legal disclaimer: I am now legally obligated to say that if you’ve noticed that since early 2020 I’ve become much hotter and more unhinged, you may be entitled to compensation. Have your lawyer call mine.

xoxo Crit