Howdy folks!

Happy New Year! Wishing you and yours all the best as we enter the second half of the 2020s.

December is always a month filled with reflection and lists. So many lists. I make it a point not to recommend lists in the December issue because, while there is definitely good music writing to be found, they are pretty easy to find and there are simply too many to go through.

With that said, I do highly recommend See-Saw.fun’s physical (not available online at all) zine of the best punk records, which you can purchase at Bandcamp. It’s a big, fun broadsheet and holding it your hands it much more enjoyable than looking at a screen. Evan and team also, consistently, recommend music that you won’t find anywhere else.

For my recommended stories from December, you’ll find an essay from Austin Chronicle music editor Rachel Rascoe on farewell letters to the Austin music scene from Austin musicians, a tribute to a favorite podcast theme song from Ryan Dombal at Hearing Things, and the book of the month from Galaxie 500 drummer Damon Krukowski. All have heavy personal elements to them that make the feel intimate in additional to their larger points.

Find some time, click through, and read!

Saying Goodbye

Local music scenes are unique organisms, often romanticized, but just as often stifling and toxic. I love reading about these communities, especially those outside the New York and LA, and Rachel Rascoe, the former music editor and columnist at the Austin Chronicle, has a really unique angle on Texas’ premier music city.

At the Oxford American, Rascoe examines and frames her own decision to step away from her role at the newspaper through the lens of farewell letters written by a few of Austin’s own local stars: Nanci Griffith, Doug Sahm, Lucinda Williams, and Daniel Johnston.

Griffith’s letter, a scathing takedown of Austin critics who diminished her despite a glowing international reputation, feels like the Rosetta Stone here, unlocking Rascoe’s reflections.

In her letter, Griffith had so easily identified an essential ingredient in twentieth-century Texas music critics: Your myopic and self-consumed view of your self-proclaimed importance in the world of art. I felt I had failed to grasp that lineage of protective, wisecracking self-importance, which I’d spent more time trying to untwist than replicate. Now, I was crumbling without it.

This piece easily could have fallen into a navel gazing endless pit, another in a long line of journalists lamenting the state of the industry, but in Rascoe’s deft hands, it’s an a lovely, bittersweet study on what happens when your home doesn’t love you the way you want it to.

Theme and Variations

One thing about me: I love a good theme song. At one point, I thought I might write a thesis or book or something about the history of theme songs and what makes good ones. And it makes me a bit bummed that we live in an era where theme songs are rare and skippable.

So you can imagine I perked up when I saw that Ryan Dombal wrote an appreciation for The Weakerthans “Sun in an Empty Room” and the podcast it bookends, Johnathan Goldstein’s Heavyweights, over at Hearing Things.

Dombal traces the history of the song and its influences (a 1963 Edward Hopper painting among them), analyzes how it fits with the subject matter of the show, and reveals how Goldstein came to choose the song.

I found the behind the scenes reporting well worth the read, but what made me choose to share this with you is how Dombal weaves in his own experiences with the song and podcast. Themes are about creating a feeling and through these vignettes, Dombal shows us just how perfect a choice “Sun in an Empty Room” is.

When I listen to Heavyweight and hear “Sun in an Empty Room” now, I think of all these things. I think of my own past lives as I commune with the story being told in a given episode. I think of the green outside my window, foretelling the future. I think of the bare rooms I have made whole, and the rooms I know so well that, one day, will be empty again.

Book of the Month: Why Sound Matters by Damon Krukowski

I had intended to write about a different book, John Darnielle’s This Year: 365 Songs Annotated, but decided to save and savor it over 2026 so went to the bookstore (Chicago’s wonderful Unabridged) to find a last minute replacement.

The name of Galaxie 500’s drummer, Damon Krukowski, jumped out at me and I picked up this thin entry in the Why X Matters series. Part philosophy, part science, part personal anecdotes, Krukowski packs a lot into its scant 128 pages.

It covers topics ranging from how sound physically impacts the world (chapter 2 “Sound is Material”) to the value of music and performance (chapter 6 “Music is Labor”). These short essays would be great intros into these topics for folks who have never thought about these things. If you’re looking to convince friends and family of the value of music, maybe start here before assigning them something more robust like Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine.

In between each of these more academic essay’s, Krukowski writes about his experiences running the soundboard for a small folk music venue. He writes about how he tries to make the room to sound its best, about watching how people react to the music, and about the unseen labor when the audience isn’t around.

It makes for a short, sweet, and perfectly balanced overview of sound, music, and the communities around it.

Bonus Links

This month’s bonus links aren’t extra stories, but rather my recommendations for some smaller publications to subscribe to. These are ones I subscribe to myself, you’ve seen regularly featured here in Of Note, and I think provide value well above their price. The start of a new year is a time people think about building new habits. Why not build a habit of paying for some great music writing?

• See-Saw ($4/month or $40/year): Evan Minsker’s digital punk magazine and podcast. Recommendations, reviews, interviews, and coverage of punk bands (especially international bands) you won’t find anywhere else.

• Don’t Rock The Inbox ($8/month or $80/year): Marissa R. Moss and Natalie Weiner’s country-focused digital magazine. Regular features, interviews, new music reviews and recommendations, and playlists. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has their finger on the pulse of country music like they do. They cover the breadth of the genre and don’t shy away from strong opinions.

• Hearing Things ($7/month or $70/year with options for higher tiers that include events, merch, and more). Andy Cush, Dylan Green, Jill Mapes, Ryan Dombal, and Julianne Escobedo Shepherd founded this all-genre site that feels like something we lost when Pitchfork got bought and gutted. Their taste is impeccable. You’ll regularly discover music you’ve never heard of, but you’ll also get their takes on many of the buzz bands du jour. Features (including unique things like producers breaking down favorite production), essays, reviews, interviews, podcasts, and the essential weekly 5 Albums and 5 Songs newsletters. I’m an audiophile tier subscriber and I’ve joined them for several video call hangs and it’s a blast to talk to them in person.

• New Feeling ($6 CA/month or $70 CA/year with a higher tier option for advisory members): A truly unique digital music mag set up as a cooperative of music journalists in Canada. You have options to subscribe as a community member, organizing member, or advisory member, all with different roles and responsibilities in the collective. In addition to great long-form music features, many of the pieces focus on the business of the music industry and how to build the better future we all want to see.

Thank you for reading!

Justin Anderson-Weber