Every year I find joy in revisiting all of the albums I've listened to throughout the year and compose a list of my favorites to share.

2025 was a year spent with less new music than most, but I still enjoyed a lot of really great music! I hope you will check out some of the artists and albums listed below.

Ghosted Trio: Ghosted III

Jazz, Experimental

When Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin get together to make music, magic happens. Oren’s soundscapes paired with Johan’s thudding baselines, and Andreas’ mathematical percussion will take you places.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “Chahar”

Orcutt Shelley Miller: s/t

Instrumental, Alternative, Jazz

This is the trio I didn’t know I needed. Bill Orcutt is a guitar virtuoso. In this album he got together with Sonic Youth’s drummer Steve Shelly and bass player Ethan Miller to craft my favorite album of 2025. I don’t think there’s been a single time I put this album on and didn’t just let it finish. Despite Orcutt’s guitar work, I think Ethan’s basslines might steal the show for me here.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “A Star Is Born”

Rafael Toral: Traveling Light

Ambient Jazz, Experimental

Rafael Toral was a new find for me this year. This album is full of droning ambient electronic soundscapes. Heavily processed guitar is featured throughout, and is a route to inner peace each time I put it on.
Bandcamp / Apple Music

Key Track: Easy Living

Panda Bear: Sinister Grift

Indie, Experimental

“Sinister Grift” got my attention with the Cindy Lee collab “Defense”. I haven’t paid close attention to the last Panda Bear releases, and I’m thinking that’s a shame because this album is outstanding.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “Defense”

Vibin' Psybin and the Sunlight Band: To the Wind EP

Indie Rock, Psychedelic

Vibin' Psybin and the Sunlight Band is the creative outlet for Joseph Cochran. The “To The Wind” EP is a wonderful showcase of his songwriting and guitar playing. The title track “To the Wind” is a journey I’m happy to go on each time I hit play. I think his full-length album “Reflections” is due in 2026…be on the lookout.

Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “To The Wind”

Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band: New Threats From The Soul

Americana, Indie Rock

Add beautifully lyrical storytelling with indie Americana music and I’ll be hooked. Put on the title track and I have a hard time thinking you’d be able to hit skip.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “New Threats From the Soul”

Alex G: Headlights

Indie Rock

Trace Mountains and Wild Pink made my 2024 list and this Alex G release is in the same family. Absolutely phenomenal songwriting, beautiful musical compositions, and groove define this one.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “Afterlife”

Cole Pulice: Land's End Eternal

Ambient Jazz

Cole Pulice might be the modern master of ambient sax. This is an album full of “shimmering, otherworldly beauty” and deserves to be put on anytime you need to find your center in meditation.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “After the Rain”

Destroyer: Dan's Boogie

Indie Rock, Alternative

It’s almost a guarantee that if Dan Bejar (Destroyer) releases an album, it will be on my year-end best-of list. This album harkens back to his 2007 album “Destroyer’s Rubies” which is one of my favorites. Poetry put to blistering guitars throughout…
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: "Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World"

Fepeste: This World Ain't Mine To Change

Indie Rock

This album was my introduction to the songwriting and composition of Eric Jett. While the songwriting is great, I really fell in love with the music here. I know Eric is a huge fan of Velvet Blue Music and the inspiration he has taken from Richard Swift, Frank Lenz, and Jason Martin are very evident here.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “Gotta Sing It”

Ronnie Martin: Consume Like A Moth What Is Dear

Analogue Electronic Pop

Ronnie Martin continues his musical renaissance under his own name. This album is full of amazing analog synth programming, beautiful lyrics, and amazing artwork.

That I may
Walk before God in the light of life
For my soul tonight
Is forever bound in light

Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: "That I May Walk, Before God in the Light of Life"

Fine China: I Felt Called

Indie Rock

“I Felt Called” is the culminating artistic statement from a band I’ve loved for nearly 30 years now. In 2024 they released a couple EPs experimenting in New Age compositions. This album combines those experiments with Rob’s natural pop sensibilities and songwriting. It’s always inspiring to see artists making their best albums late into their ‘careers’.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “No Long Face”

Nils Frahm: Night

Solo Piano, Classical

Nils Frahm goes back to his solo piano roots and put out one of my favorite ‘chill out’ releases of 2025. I’m a sucker for solo piano compositions and Nils always hits the spot.
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: Wesen

Wednesday: Bleeds

Alternative, Indie Rock

This is one of those albums you listen to and wish you had it growing up. It’s full of all the emotions you feel growing up in a small town…
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: “Townies”

'•. ¸¸ .•´¯data cluster ¯'•. ¸¸ .•´: Coalescence

Electronic, IDM, Experimental

Thanks to my buddy Steve for pointing me to this one. This is an album full of electronic texture. I think that’s the best way to describe it. It’s a must-listen for fans of Autechre!
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

Key Track: Panorama

Welcome to my new home on the web!

I've decided to revamp my website over the holidays and will hopefully use this as an opportunity to have a better place on the web for my personal projects to live. Older posts from my previous website have been ported over and should be available below.

This Guy Spent a Week Inside Italian Catacombs Taking Photos of Corpses:

Spending all night in an Italian catacomb to take pictures of corpses is amazing. These images are something else.

Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide:

Fascinating piece on the terrible tragedy at the Schlitterbahn water park.

Favorite Albums 2017

Lee Bozeman - The Majesty of the Flesh
TW Walsh - Terrible Freedom
Nine Inch Nails - ADD VIOLENCE
War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
Lo Tom - s/t
Waxahatchee - Out In the Storm
The New Year - Snow
Kelly Lee Owens - s/t
Andrew Cohen & Light Coma - Unreality

Love this piece inspired by the Songs: Ohia tune, “The Big Game is Every Night”

By William Schaff
https://flic.kr/p/ErRhaZ

In Alabama, Judges Play God:

Shonelle Jackson may become the first American to be executed despite a jury’s unanimous vote for life. Paige Williams reports from Alabama.

The fact that a judge in Alabama can override a 12-0 jury decision is mind blowing. The fact that these overrides ramp up during election years is simply depressing.

Also, this quote from the article really rings true.

He went on, “Why have we become a nation that’s just obsessed with punishment? The reason is that we’ve become a fearful nation. The people that were once free and brave are so afraid of something bad happening to them. They’re attracted to politicians who say, ‘I will be tough on crime.’ And if a politician promises to be tough on crime he’s got to have something to show for it.”

First hockey practice of the season!

The demise of Google Reader came as a surprise to many, but not David Smith. David had been working on an RSS service for a few months before Google announced the retirement of Google Reader. The timing of the announcement however, forced a significant change in his plans. He quickly ramped up development with the goal of an April release to give users plenty of time to migrate before the July 1st shutdown of Google Reader. After months of hard work, David’s alternative to Google Reader, Feed Wrangler was released on Tuesday, April 30.

Feed Wrangler is not simply an RSS reader; it is an RSS platform. A Feed Wrangler subscription is $18.99 a year and gives you access to the Feed Wrangler website, the iOS (iPhone and iPad) app, and an upcoming Mac OS X app. David is also planning on releasing an API that will allow third party developers to integrate the Feed Wrangler service into their apps. Since the users are paying David directly for the service, he isn’t concerned whether you are using the official Feed Wrangler apps or third party apps. I hope that Feed Wrangler develops a large following and the API garners a healthy ecosystem of apps and services built on top of it.

Feed Wrangler handled my migration from Google Reader nearly seamlessly. It did change my In Focus feed to the generic The Atlantic master feed, but this was easily corrected. One of the first things I noticed in Feed Wrangler was the lack of folder support. I was taken aback for a moment until I discovered the Smart Streams. Smart Streams are much more powerful than folders in that you can create a group of feeds based on a filter. For example, you could create an Apple Smart Stream that only contains posts mentioning Apple. I am currently using Smart Streams as I was using folders in Google Reader. I created a smart stream for Tech that only has feeds from a select group of technology-related sites that I manually selected.

The Feed Wrangler website is pretty minimalist. The website focuses on enabling users to quickly process their feeds and succeeds flawlessly in this goal. I find that I am able to scan through my feeds and process them faster with Feed Wrangler than I could with Google Reader. The only issue is that the website is lacking more powerful features like keyboard navigation, direct sharing, and mark unread. I would also like to see a small post preview beneath each title with one or two lines of the post content.

The Feed Wrangler Website

The iOS apps are also not as full featured as many other top RSS readers in the App Store today. I would like to see more gesture controls and a better focus on reading. Adding some additional fonts and possibly a dark theme for late night reading would go a long way. Despite lacking some of these features, the iOS apps are very fast and like the website, excel in allowing you to quickly get through your feeds.

Feed Wrangler for iOS

Overall Feed Wrangler shows some great promise. I know David has been working hard to get the service ready for launch and has a large feature-rich roadmap in front of him. Since the Feed Wrangler revenue comes directly from user subscriptions, he has every incentive to continue making Feed Wrangler a world class RSS service that will stand out in an ever more crowded market. Do yourself a favor and check it out. There is no trial version, but if you sign up for Feed Wrangler from the website, you are guaranteed a refund within 14 days if it’s not the service for you.

Links

• Feed Wrangler
• David Smith’s Website
• David Smith’s Twitter
• MacStories Feed Wrangler Review

The Audacity of a Ninth Grader

There are so many things that we want to and can accomplish but a lot of us are sitting around waiting for permission. Permission that seems to never come. The kid in the ninth grade isn’t waiting for it. The acting student has already decided he’s an actor without anyone telling him he could be.

…So what are you waiting on permission for?

Open the other door already. I don’t think it’s locked.

An inspiring read. Instead of waiting for your job, finances, or life to change; put yourself out there, take a chance, and try to do something about it.