It’s the end of the year and the end of the decade (more on the latter in this post). It’s the time for me to reflect on the year and think too much about lists. Some things will never change.

Music I Worked On This Year

• Jeff Schaller and the Long Way Home – “Younger Years” (guitar, recording, mixing, mastering)
• Apocalypse Quest – Paradoxes (mixing, mastering)
• Sloth Hands – Vacation’s Over (mastering)
• Apocalypse Quest – “Mediocre Boys” (recording, mixing, mastering)
• Flora Self – “Didn’t See It Coming” (bass, recording, mixing, mastering)
• Pelafina – “Blue and Gold” (guitar)
• Apocalypse Quest – “CEO Blood” (recording, mixing, mastering)
• Apocalypse Quest – ERBA (recording, mixing, mastering)

My Favorite Albums of 2019

I’ve had a one-sentence review of my number one album, Breakup Season by Future Teens, in my head for a few months: If I had heard this when I was seventeen, I might have been a better person. That sounds hyperbolic, but I haven’t been able to shake the idea. I know I could have used this album as a teenager. It’s so honest and introspective about heartbreak and sadness and dealing with those emotions in healthy ways. I’m so happy that a band like Future Teens exists. I’m jealous of the kid that hears Breakup Season this year and connects to it like I connected to The Upsides. Future Teens will be that kid’s first favorite band, the soundtrack to their formative years, their inspirations and role models. I keep likening this album to The Upsides, probably the single most influential album on my past ten years. It feels like a torch-passing at the end of the decade, and it’s all the more apt because I saw Future Teens open for the Wonder Years in October.

The rest of my list feels as varied as my year, spanning genre and scope from emo debuts to the biggest pop artist in the world. As always, I think there’s a lot to love on this list, so pick something and give it a spin.

1. Future Teens – Breakup Season
2. Charly Bliss – Young Enough
3. Pedro the Lion – Phoenix
4. The Menzingers – Hello Exile
5. The Mountain Goats – In League With Dragons
6. Jimmy Eat World – Surviving
7. Taylor Swift – Lover
8. Origami Angel – Somewhere City
9. The Get Up Kids – Problems
10. Telethon – Hard Pop
11. Proper. – I Spent the Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better
12. Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties – Routine Maintenance
13. Ceres – We Are a Team
14. Oso Oso – Basking In the Glow
15. Better Oblivion Community Center – Better Oblivion Community Center
16. The Dangerous Summer – Mother Nature
17. Somos – Prison On a Hill
18. Dave Hause – Kick
19. American Football – LP3
20. Bruce Springsteen – Western Stars
21. Junius Paul – Ism
22. The Maine – You Are OK
23. Nervus – Tough Crowd
24. Great Grandpa – Four of Arrows
25. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

My Favorite EPs of 2019

1. Better Love – All I Ever Wanted Is To Be Where You Are
2. Mineral – One Day When We Are Young
3. Ruston Kelly – Dirt Emo, Volume 1
4. Rat Tally – When You Wake Up
5. Bosley Jr – No More

My Favorite Songs of 2019

Here’s a playlist on Apple Music and Spotify of songs I loved this year. It’s vaguely in order (at least the top ten or so).

My Favorite Shows of 2019

I went to 63 shows this year, 35 of which I played. Here were my favorites. These were all great, but the John K. Samson show is a contender for my all-time favorite performance. He doesn’t tour much, so make it a priority to see him if you have the chance.

1. John K. Samson and Christine Fellows – 11/23 at Beat Kitchen
2. The Wonder Years, Future Teens – 10/20 at Metro
3. Ruston Kelly – 11/1 at Thalia Hall
4. Mineral – 1/24 at Lincoln Hall
5. Pedro the Lion – 5/18 at The Castle Theater
6. Jacob Sigman, Jetty Bones – 3/29 at Beat Kitchen
7. The Sidekicks, Adult Mom – 7/7 at Subterranean
8. Spanish Love Songs – 5/19 at Cobra Lounge
9. Los Campesinos! – 7/6 at West Fest
10. We Were Promised Jetpacks – 7/13 at Bottom Lounge

My Favorite Podcasts of 2019

Two Headed Girl is the best new podcast I listened to this year. It’s a chronicle of gender dysphoria, transitioning, and marriage. Hosts Alex and Matthew Cox are unflinching in their honesty with each other about their lives, health, and feelings. It’s kind of amazing that they recorded all of this and are willing to share such a personal journey with the world.

Elsewhere in the podcast world, two of my favorite long-running podcasts hit new highs in 2019. On episode 102 of Reconcilable Differences, “Preparing the Way,” John Siracusa buys a refrigerator. The two-hour chronicle of this harrowing adventure is everything I love about the podcast format. And The Watch, Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald’s twice weekly talk about movies and TV, transitioned from purely critique to a behind the scenes look at making a TV show as Andy called in from the set and editing room of his upcoming show, Briarpatch.

Finally, I’ll recommend Michael Lewis’s Against the Rules, a meticulously researched exploration of societal rules and the people who make and enforce them. Unlike the long-running conversational shows I typically like, the tight format and high production value make Against the Rules feel more like an audio book.

My Favorite Books of 2019

As usual, I read very few new releases this year, but the few I did read were fantastic: Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest poetry collection, A Fortune For Your Disaster, Mark Z. Danielewski’s children’s book for all ages, The Little Blue Kite, and Mischa Pearlman’s One Day When We Are Young, a retrospective on the emo band Mineral and a companion piece to their first new music in over twenty years.

The best book I read this year, regardless of release date, was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

My Favorite Television of 2019

I started 2019 with the vague goal of “keeping up” with TV, but I quickly realized that’s impossible. There’s just too much great TV. With that in mind, I just want to highlight a few of my favorite shows of the year, all remarkable for very different reasons, which also happen to be short and digestible.

Fleabag – Season 2

A tour de force of emotion and energy, every episode left me thinking that writer / producer / star Phoebe Waller-Bridge might be the most talented person alive.

Watchmen

Every frame of this show is immaculate. I’m a longtime defender of the endings of Lost and The Leftovers so I had confidence in Damon Lindelof and his team to pull this sequel/remix, and my expectations were still far exceeded.

When They See Us

Ava Duvernay’s docu-drama about the Central Park Five is a heart-wrenching examination of injustice. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of a Netflix subscription.

Chernobyl

A different kind of bleak docu-drama, set on the opposite side of the world as When They See Us, Chernobyl is equal parts moving, gruesome, frustrating, and deeply sad.

And I can’t leave the TV section without giving a shout to Baby Yoda on The Mandalorian, constant cause of delighted squeals (both Liesi’s and mine) every time he’s on screen.

My Favorite Movies of 2019

As always, I’m very behind on movies at the end of year, but Knives Out is a masterpiece.

1. Knives Out
2. Marriage Story
3. The Irishman
4. Booksmart
5. Midsommar
6. The Report
7. Toy Story 4
8. Us
9. Dolemite Is My Name
10. High Life

Next Year

I haven’t made a formal new year’s resolution in quite a few years, but I do have some plans for 2020.

• Pelafina will be releasing a new EP in the next couple months. More on that very soon.

• The Long Way Home are deep in the process of recording our next album. That will hopefully be out later in the spring.

• I didn’t make a single blog post this year, and I want to change that. I don’t have a clear structure in mind, but I just want to write more.

• I’m going to listen to more jazz.

I never know how to sum up a year in a paragraph. I don’t think it’s really possible, when a year is so big and somehow goes by so fast, to capture everything that was significant in my little corner of the world. But I’ll always try.

Before the traditional lists, I want to highlight one very important moment from 2018. Liesi and I got married and it was the happiest day of my life. To every friend and family member who helped out in any way, thanks for making it so special. I appreciate it more than I can ever say.

And it turns out I’ll actually dance if I’m making the playlist.

Music I Worked On This Year

• Jaclyn Heuser – Forgotten (mixing, mastering)
• City Mouth – Hollows (bass, keyboard)
• Pelafina – Sorry In Advance (guitar, keyboard, recording, mixing, mastering)
• Water Dog – Wet and Waggin’ (mastering)
• Katie Steel-Thomas – “A Busted Car Window” (recording, mixing, mastering)
• Bosley Jr. – “RUOK” (recording, mixing, mastering)
• Movies About Animals – “Gosling” (guitar, recording, mixing, mastering)
• Pelafina – “How Many Raindrops” (guitar, recording, mixing, mastering)

My Favorite Albums of 2018

1. Spanish Love Songs – Schmaltz
2. The Sidekicks – Happiness Hours
3. The Wonder Years – Sister Cities
4. Brian Fallon – Sleepwalkers
5. Ruston Kelly – Dying Star
6. Mitski – Be the Cowboy
7. Death Cab For Cutie – Thank You For Today
8. Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness – Upside Down Flowers
9. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
10. Lucy Dacus – Historian
11. Joyce Manor – Million Dollars To Kill Me
12. Fall Out Boy – Mania
13. mewithoutYou – [Untitled]
14. Foxing – Nearer My God
15. Camp Cope – How To Socialize and Make Friends
16. Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog
17. Jeff Rosenstock – Post
18. Retirement Party – Somewhat Literate
19. All Get Out – No Bouquet
20. Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

My Favorite EPs of 2018

1. Better Love – We Were Younger and Less Put Together
2. Clear Eyes Fanzine – Season One, Episodes 1-6
3. The Flips – Exactly Where I Should Be
4. Boygenius – Boygenius
5. mewithoutYou – [untitled]

My Favorite Songs of 2018

Playlist on Apple Music and Spotify

The playlist only includes 49 of my 50 favorite songs because “Coming Up For Air” by Clear Eyes Fanzine isn’t on streaming services, but it is on Bandcamp.

My Favorite Shows of 2018

1. The Bad Plus – Nightshop – 12/6
2. All Get Out – The House Cafe – 5/17
3. Spanish Love Songs – Subterranean (Downstairs) – 4/14
4. Counting Crows – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – 9/8
5. Lorde – Rosemont Arena – 3/27
6. The Wonder Years – Sister Cities Pop Up Shop – 3/30

My Favorite Movies of 2018

1. Annihilation
2. Hereditary
3. Minding the Gap
4. Roma
5. A Quiet Place
6. Game Night
7. Black Panther
8. The Incredibles 2
9. Solo: A Star Wars Story
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

My Favorite TV Shows of 2018

1. Killing Eve
2. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
3. GLOW
4. Atlanta
5. The Little Drummer Girl
6. Castle Rock
7. The Good Place
8. The Haunting of Hill House
9. Counterpart
10. Patriot

Other Highlights

The best book I read this year was They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib.

I spent a stupid amount of time playing The Binding of Isaac on Nintendo Switch.

My favorite podcast episode of the year is a tie between Roderick On the Line, Ep. 315: “The Slow Desctruction of Bueno” and Do By Friday, Ep. 109: “Bee. Wasp. Hornet.”

As always, thanks for reading. See you next year.

Some milestones and accomplishments from this year:

Movies About Animals released our first full-length album, Two Decades and Change, in January. I tend to be pretty critical of my own work even after it’s finished, but I wouldn’t change anything about this album. I’ve only grown more proud of it in the last eleven months. We also released a companion EP called Spare Change, with some B-sides and acoustic songs as a bit of a cap on the Two Decades era.

Pelafina had a very busy year. We played 29 shows, including two out-of-state weekends, and released a split with The Flips, a re-recorded and re-mixed version of Pelafina 64, and a single called “Skin.” These songs are particularly special because in addition to writing, I also recorded and mixed all of them myself. The rest of band has been more supportive and encouraging than I could have hoped for while I use our songs to learn the ropes of music production and engineering.

City Mouth played a handful of shows in 2017, but much of the year was spent writing and recording a new EP called Hollows, which will be out early next year. It will be my last release as a member of the band, which still feels strange to say after four years writing and touring with Matt and the rest of the gang, but I’m so excited to see where the new lineup goes (I’ve heard some demos and of course they’re great).

On a more general note, 2017 marked a decade of playing live music. Years To Come played our first official show in September of 2007 at the Coffeehouse in Normal, following a test run in my parents’ basement over the summer, and I’ve played over 300 shows with at least a dozen groups since. If you’ve been there from the beginning, or if you saw me play for the first time this month, thank you.

Outside of music, there were two big personal events I wanted to mention in this year-end wrap up.

On a chilly February night at the Logan Square monument, I asked Liesi to marry me. I was nervous and shaking and probably cried a little bit. I was convinced that the ring was somehow defective and that the diamond would fall off as we walked around the neighborhood afterwards. But mostly I was just happy.

Later, in the summer, my grandma Childers passed away. Her funeral was the first I’d ever been to. My mom asked me to read a poem. I was definitely nervous and definitely cried a lot, caught up in the memories of driving four hours to her old house, of the shag carpet and Beanie Babies, the smell of home-cooked food in a kitchen with a floor so sloped I could race my Matchbox cars, the first time I watched the Star Wars. And later, moving her up to Bloomington after her eyes and ears started to fail her, visiting her often (but never often enough) at her assisted living apartment, watching my mom give so much time and effort and love to make sure grandma was comfortable and healthy and always knew when the Cubs were on. I’ll always aspire to be as loving and generous and kind as she was. I hope I can be.

And now, some lists:

My Favorite Albums of 2017

1. The Menzingers – After the Party
2. Bleachers – Gone Now
3. Sincere Engineer – Rhombithian
4. Paramore – After Laughter
5. Alex Lahey – I Love You Like a Brother
6. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound
7. Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger In the Alps
8. Day At the Fair – The Epilogue
9. Nervous Dater – Don’t Be a Stranger
10. Lorde – Melodrama
11. Waxahatchee – Out In the Storm
12. Converge – The Dusk In Us
13. Forfeit – Perennial
14. Emperor X – Oversleepers International
15. Gang of Youths – Go Farther In Lightness
16. Julien Baker – Turn Out the Lights
17. Oso Oso – The Yunahon Mixtape
18. The Mountain Goats – Goths
19. Sundressed – A Little Less Put Together
20. Los Campesinos! – Sick Scenes

My Favorite EPs of 2017

1. The Wonder Years – Burst and Decay
2. Retirement Party – Strictly Speaking
3. Jetty Bones – Old Women
4. Lincoln – A Constant State of Ohio
5. Baggage – The Good That Never Comes

My Favorite Movies of 2017

1. Get Out
2. Coco
3. Baby Driver
4. Dunkirk
5. Lady Bird
6. A Ghost Story
7. Columbus
8. The Big Sick
9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
10. Logan Lucky

My Favorite TV Series of 2017

1. The Leftovers
2. Fargo
3. Mr. Robot
4. The Good Place
5. Stranger Things

That list is specifically about TV that aired for the first time this year. If I was including back catalog, my favorite TV experience this year was watching all of Gilmore Girls with Liesi.

My Favorite Books Read In 2017 (any release year applicable)

1. Wolf In White Van – John Darnielle
2. Kanye West Owes Me $300 – Jensen Karp
3. The Familiar Volume 5: Redwood – Mark Z. Danielewski
4. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
5. The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

My Favorite Live Shows of 2017

1. Regina Spektor – Chicago Theater – 3/24
2. John K. Samson – City Winery – 10/23
3. Paramore – Riot Fest – 9/17
4. The Wonder Years / Laura Stevenson / Jetty Bones – Bottom Lounge – 9/25
5. The 1975 / Jimmy Eat World / Bleachers – 5/20

Video Games

Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 dominated my gaming time this year. In fact, I hardly played anything else. But my favorite game of 2017 was not a big Nintendo franchise – it was a small, reflective, narrative game called What Remains of Edith Finch. I played it in one sitting a couple months ago and have thought about it nearly every day since. Don’t read too much about it beforehand, just download it an immerse yourself.

Podcasts

By far my favorite podcast episode this year: Roderick On the Line, Ep. 269: “Yelling At the Radio”

Conclusion

I don’t expect you listen to or watch everything on these lists (although I do recommend all of it). I don’t even expect you to read this far. But if you did, thank you. I hope you had a good year. See you in 2018.

Finally, here’s my favorite song of the year.

I started 2016 in a recording studio and I’ll end it on a stage (specifically, Double Door in Wicker Park). Those are fitting bookends for my busiest and most productive music year yet, but I’ll get to that in a moment. First, however, the biggest change in my life this year: After two years in the city, I moved out to the suburbs. Liesi and I got a place together in Villa Park and adopted the best little cat named Jazz. It has been a great seven months so far, and I look forward to many, many more.

The Cubs won the World Series this year. While I’m not a Cubs fan myself and I don’t follow the sport closely anymore, these were the most exciting games I’ve ever watched, and I’m so happy that my friends and family, especially my grandmother, got to see their favorite team on top.

A couple more non-music things:

• Favorite book I read this year (including non-2016 releases because I don’t keep up with new books outside of my favorite authors): Special Topics In Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
• Favorite movie of the year (with the caveat that I haven’t seen many of the big late fall/early winter releases): Arrival

I went to 90 shows in 2016, the most of any year yet. My favorite was a seated Conor Oberst performance at the beautiful Thalia Hall in Chicago. His setlist included all ten songs on his raw, sparsely arranged new album, Ruminations. True to the recordings, Oberst switched between acoustic guitar and piano and had a baritone guitarist as the sole backing musician.

My Favorite Shows I Attended In 2016

1. Conor Oberst – Thalia Hall – 11/27
2. Thursday – Double Door – 9/17
3. Copeland – Double Door – 12/1
4. The Junior Varsity – Castle Theater – 9/1
5. LCD Soundsystem – Lollapalooza – 7/31
6. Julien Baker – Lincoln Hall – 4/14
7. Bruce Springsteen – Bradley Center – 3/3
8. Against Me! – The Metro – 6/19
9. Ben Folds – Summerfest – 7/9
10. The Sidekicks – Wicker Park Fest – 7/23

Of the 90 shows I attended, I played at 55 of those, also a record for me. All of my bands got great opportunities this year, but the highlight was Movies About Animals opening for The Junior Varsity at the Castle Theater in Bloomington. The Junior Varsity was a cornerstone of my early interest in music, and I usually cite Wide Eyed as the first album that made me care more about guitar playing than lyrics.

In April, I went on my third tour with City Mouth. We hit new cities around the midwest, got to hang out with Whale Bones again, and made some great friends in our tourmates, Old Fox Road. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more of that in the near future.

My newest band, Pelafina, played our first shows and released our debut EP, Pelafina 64. It was my first experience recording and mixing on my own, and I can’t wait to do more of that with Pelafina and eventually others as well.

I’m not sure how many new albums I listened to in 2016 (maybe I should keep track of that next year), but it felt like there was something new and interesting coming out every week. From the smallest indie bands to the biggest pop stars, every scene and genre seemed to have standout releases, and my own lists are just a miniscule sample of what’s out there.

My pick for album of the year isn’t much of a surprise. John K. Samson has been my favorite songwriter since I discovered the Weakerthans in high school. Like Springsteen writing about New Jersey, Samson is a master at giving his songs a sense of place. The settings on Winter Wheat range from bustling cities to rural dive bars, TV studios to recovery centers, all the forgotten corners of Samson’s native Canada. He even ventures across the Atlantic Ocean for "Fellow Traveler," which takes place in England. In relatively few lines, Samson manages to make each location feel lived in and loved by an ensemble of characters as vividly realized as that of any novel or film. On Winter Wheat the spotlight turns to struggling grad students, eccentric outsiders, beautifully personified trees, of course, a cat named Virtute. It’s a deep and rewarding listen for both fans of the Weakerthans and newcomers to Samson’s work.

Unlike last year, I did decide to rank this list, but the numbering feels arbitrary after the top three, and I can wholeheartedly recommend everything on these lists to just about anyone.

My Favorite Albums of 2016

1. John K. Samson – Winter Wheat
2. The Hotelier – Goodness
3. Jimmy Eat World – Integrity Blues
4. Pinegrove – Cardinal
5. Jeff Rosenstock – Worry
6. Camp Cope – Camp Cope
7. The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
8. Conor Oberst – Ruminations
9. Touche Amore – Stage Four
10. All Get Out – Nobody Likes a Quitter
11. Brian Fallon – Painkillers
12. Joyce Manor – Cody
13. Butch Walker – Stay Gold
14. Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
15. Empty Houses – Daydream
16. Anthony Jay Sanders – I Will Be the One Who Goes
17. Drive-by Truckers – American Band
18. Balance and Composure – Light We Made
19. Mitski – Puberty 2
20. Yellowcard – Yellowcard

A few bands who released really solid EPs this year deserve honorable mentions. These are all midwest bands, some local and some from a little further out, who are making this a really exciting time and place to be involved in the music scene.

• Hot Mulligan – Opportunities
• Kayak Jones – Memoir
• Classic Schmosby – Part 1: Makeshift Happiness
• Everyone Leaves – The Lonely End
• Short Handed – Peace of Mind

My Favorite Songs of 2016

1. Mitski – "Your Best American Girl"
2. The Menzingers – "Lookers"
3. John K. Sampson – "Virtute At Rest"
4. The 1975 – "Paris"
5. Pinegrove – "Old Friends"
6. Chance the Rapper – "Same Drugs"
7. The Hotelier – "Two Deliverances"
8. Butch Walker – "Wilder In the Heart"
9. Brian Fallon – "Red Lights"
10. Conor Oberst – "Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out"
11. Touche Amore – "Flowers and You"
12. David Bowie – "I Can’t Give Everything Away"
13. Jimmy Eat World – "You Are Free"
14. Joyce Manor – "Fake ID"
15. Modern Baseball – "Just Another Face"

"Challenge" by Anthony Sanders gets an honorable mention since he still hasn’t released a studio version, but I listened to the live recordings more than anything else this year. Rarely, if ever, have I heard a song that speaks so strongly to my own experiences and emotions about choosing not to drink.

So what’s to come in 2017? As I write this, I’m listening to the masters of the full-length album that Movies About Animals spent all year recording. It’s my favorite record that I’ve ever been a part of, and it will be out in January. Pelafina’s EP will be getting a reissue in January as well, with some of the recording touched up and a new mixing and mastering job. City Mouth is almost done writing a new EP that should be out in the first half of the year. Between all of my bands, I’m playing fifteen shows in the first two months of 2017 (hopefully this winter is a mild one). As always, keep an eye on this page for upcoming dates.

As always, if you come to my shows, listen to my records, support anything I do in any way, including just reading what I write here, there’s no way I can thank you enough.

See you next year.