I love roundup newsletters. I love lists. I love collections of books, articles, art and music that merit investigating. Curated pathways to discovery. There are a few great ones.
's is always amazing, of course. A weekly digest of ten interesting things worth sharing. I also enjoy 's Commonplacing and 's five to six pieces. I've wanted to do something like this, but couldn’t think of a way to do it differently, in a way that I found fun, enlivening, and interesting.Over the holidays I started making small collages inspired by music. I didn't think much about it at the time other than the fact that it was fun and relaxing and a good collaging practice. A good way to play with words and phrases and typography. As a former musician who once dreamed of stardom, it's good to have music and art combined in some way again.
That's when it hit me. A collage of music. The texture of sound. A paper(ish) playlist.
Below is a collection of songs I've been listening and making to. I've been playing a lot of The Wonder Years lately, so I apologize in advance that there's a few of them. I hope you like it.
live like this
"Holiday From Real" - Jack's Mannequin
Andrew McMahon is one of my favorite songwriters. I've followed his work through his first band, Something Corporate, into his two Jack's Mannequin albums, and now in his current incarnation, Andrew McMhaon in the Wilderness.
It's fitting that one of his songs was the first I worked on. Even more fitting that this was made during the Holiday's while I was on vacation.
from memory
"Old Friends Like Lost Teeth" - The Wonder Years
I've been obsessed with The Wonder Years lately. "Obsessed" might seem like a dramatic word, but I challenge you to find a more apt one when it comes to describing how many times I've listened to this song on repeat.
by a thread
"All My Friends are Dead" - Olive Vox
I left Instagram for a while. Deleted my account and everything. But as I've been spending more and more of my time making art, for better or worse, I've come back again. This time I'd like to think I'm approaching more healthily. I've been finding a plethora of artists that inspire me. I've even found a band or two with a catchy offering. Olive Vox is one that found me.
woes me
"*Equip Sunglasses*" - Hot Mulligan
Speaking of bands discovered. This one came up on Spotify recently. It's not uncommon to be let down by the algorithm, but sometimes it gets it really right, and you get lucky. Now there's another song becoming victim to my obsessive overplaying.
*Sidenote - Some of the elements used in this piece came from the Grunge Essentials texture pack by Collect & Contract. Their work is amazing and their Youtube channel is always entertaining.
came out swinging
"Came Out Swining" - The Wonder Years
This piece didn't come out as well as I would have liked. Sometime no matter what you do you can't find the thing that satisfies what's lacking. The good news is that this song is so anthematic, it doesn't matter.
*Used a few touches of that Grunge texture pack here too.
enough is enough
"I Don't Like Who I Was Then" - The Wonder Years
So many things I've been or done that I'm not proud of. Parts of myself I'd like to sweep under the rug, or hide beneath the floor. I'd like to think I'm getting better. That forgiveness never ends. That maybe I could be kinder to myself and the ones who love me. Maybe you can relate to a desperate plea of yearning to be better than we were before.
As a member of the MTV generation, I would conjure stories to go along with the more creative music videos I saw. One of those stories became so elaborate that I wrote it down in a notebook, and that was my starting point as a writer.
Let me listen to these songs before I recommend some of my own.
What a great idea! Some great song choices and gorgeous artwork.