The year 2025 has been a weird one. We knew going into it that the US had picked a President who promised to be a “dictator from day one” and then had the temerity to NOT lie for possibly the first time ever! And that colors everything. Personally, my wife and I have spent a boatload of effort in renovating our kitchen and bathroom at the same time, beginning with the research phase that lasted from April to July. With work actually starting in October and still continuing; at least for the bathroom. It was a lot of money and even more time invested but the results were transformative.

THE CULL OF THE WILD

A big musical transformation was when I finally acted on the desire to divest myself of at least a thousand CDs that I did not have room for storing. Making finding anything I wanted to listen to physically impossible as most of the rack space was blocked by other stuff. Even now, I have a large box of several hundred CDs that had been [laboriously and with great difficulty] pulled over the last 18 months that I am waiting to put back on the racks where they belong. Meanwhile, I managed to sell 389 CDs; mostly at fire sale prices in my Discogs store. I wanted it to be a faster process than it has been but I usually sell 4-5 CDs a week except for one buyer buying 135 discs in two huge batches! You had better believe they got some big discounts on already inexpensive goods.

This year the plan is to move the rest by whatever drastic means necessary. Then we need to move to the records and thin that herd as well! My record racks for those are also at capacity and I’d like some room to grow. Fortunately [or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it] this was the year where downloads reached parity with physical goods! Only a quarter century after the iPod is The Monk finally swimming in DLs. This was down to two factors.

One – 80% of promo is down to DL form. It just makes sense. I get promo crossing my desk, and this is a good thing. Some of my favorite music I would have had no clue about if not submitted for review. Fortunately, there are PR agents who form bonds with writers and can curate the promo that won’t waste anyone’s time. Until I started really writing about music, I didn’t appreciate what a good PR agent brings to the equation. Sometime I get files, other times I just get emails with Bandcamp links and then I check out the goods and if I like it, I buy it immediately. Other times I get promo codes sent to me and the music I deem so great that I end up buying it anyway – because I feel I have to support some work financially! Occasionally in physical form if that’s an option. And then there are the albums so great I end up buying multiple physical copies to give to my friends as gifts!

The second factor is a practical one. There is a lot of music I want to hear now that is DL only. And I’m lucky, because it might have just streamed. For years I dragged my feet on DLs because I didn’t find it convenient to listen to files on a device and I didn’t have a cell phone. But in 2020 I bought a cheap used iPhone since I was planning a trip to the UK and I needed a handheld computer to get around. That ultimately didn’t happen thanks to Covid-19 yet the personal device was still in my hands. I maneuvered to a carrier who gave me the service I wanted at a price I liked and we’ve had a device ever since. One that now has the Bandcamp app on it so that any DL music I buy from the two platforms I use is accessible on that device at any time. Bypassing the tedium of moving files from the computer to the phone and vice versa. Or building [shudder…] playlists! Plus, if I do put the files on the phone, I can listen to music to review it during my lunch hour at my desktop where I’ve not had a CD drive for six years now.

NOT MEMOREX®

This year saw the number of concerts I attended explode in the second half of the year. Last year there were eight concerts attended. This year there were ten, but all in the July-November period. Sometimes three in a week. In different states! And two of the shows I went to I had little to no previous knowledge of the acts in question. Which is something I need to do more often. Especially, since I really enjoyed three of the four acts on those bills. And more than anything it was the caliber of the shows I saw that will stick with me for a good long time. I was able to cross five bucket list acts off of my long list this year and I can say that for three of them I never held the slimmest hope that I would ever see in concert.

I will go to my grave disbelieving that I saw Peter Godwin on stage. I’ve always been an avid fan of his stylish approach from 1982 onward, but 2025 was the year he joined the Lost 80s Live retro tour that had been approaching him for a while and ended up playing all over North America for what was the first extended tour he’s ever mounted over here. It was challenging to undertake, but ultimately he found the experience to be more than rewarding for the effort spent. What more can we ask for?

I was sure that I’d missed out on DEVO after my one real chance to see the crucial band in 1988 when I callously blew it off as a case of the band being irrelevant. I eventually got smarter, and time’s passage mocks me daily on the subject of their relevance, but the other opportunities just didn’t seem to manifest. I thought seeing Mark Mothersbaugh giving a panel discussion at a local college might be as good as it got for me. But then the band linked up with their fellow New Wave icons, and former labelmates The B-52’s at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary concert and they though they should at least do a small tour together – finally, now that The B’s are retired from long tours. The twelve big dates were certainly value for money.

Color me thrilled, but then someone delivered a coup de grace by suggesting that Lene Lovich be the opening act! So I also got to see Lene Lovich perform and even better, she mounted a larger tour around the dates with The B-52’s and DEVO! So I went to Florida to catch a full, glorious set by the artist I first think of when I think of New Wave. Yes, DEVO are second. Her former lead guitarist Jude Rawlins now lives in America and he assembled a great band that did the songs proud. That I saw her in Florida with so many friends in attendance was icing on the cake. The experience was the balm that soothed the existential pains that the year lobbed in our faces continually and without pity.

And I finally saw Liverpool’s finest, the wonderful China Crisis also at the same concert where I saw Peter Godwin. In fact, Godwin made effective use of China Crisis’ keyboard player for his set! And the final concert of disbelief was the reformation of Pulp with a great new album made that saw them actually coming to the Southeast where I live for the first time in 32 years, so I pounced. And got to experience the living presence of some of the best songs ever written.

I’m also aware that most of the acts I saw were up to a generation older than I am, and I’m no greenhorn! I am approaching retirement age even though that’s not bloody likely! If the rest of us of us can age as gracefully as Lene Lovich, or the members of DEVO and Sparks, then it really would be a “Beautiful World!” For the gift of their song I am immensely grateful.

And oh yeah, I finally saw Judas Priest!

Next: The Stats…And Lists!