November Sweatdown 2K24

The November Sweatdown 2K24 is here, and it doesn’t really feel like November does it? Not that I’m complaining. I’m writing this in shorts.

I do these Spotify Playlists every month and try to feature mostly new music. I’ve been doing it since April of 2018. I’m proud of the fact it’s one of the few consistent things I do every month. I might not work out as much as I’d like to. I might not write as much as I’d like to. But I absolutely do these playlists every month.

Here’s some thoughts on some of the artists and songs on this month’s playlist:

Warm Beers by ALEXSUCKS is, hmm, how can I put this. There’s always a song that gives me a true feeling of reflection and looking back without it just sounding like a song I’ve heard before. A real halcyon reflection of lost times or times missed. In 2018 it was Do It Again by Trevor Something. In 2019 it was Sicily by Matthew Good. In 2020 it was Twenty Something by Nightly. In 2021 I guess Speaking off the Record by Hotel Mira works. In 2022 it was This Can’t Be Everything by Phantoms. In 2023 it was Golden Days by Emi Grace.

So now we get to Warm Beers by ALEXSUCKS. It’s essentially the singer looking back at all of the dumb waste of time shit they used to do and how they weren’t prepared to tackle their later years now that they have to deal with ADD and adulthood. “I didn’t know life was gonna be a war” is a line that hit me like a truck. As someone with ADHD who never got diagnosed until he was in his late 20s and then spent his 30s dealing with said ADHD? I get the war. I get the feeling of feeling like I wasted my life and wasn’t prepared for this. I still think about those parties. I still think about skipping school. I still think about the bad decisions. And I miss them. I fucking miss them.

Glad to see Fickle Friends returning. Their album “Are we gonna be alright?” came out in 2022 but I didn’t hear it until 2023 and it was one of my favourite albums that year.

Time Waster by The Colourist is a bit older, the least popular song from their 2015 EP Will You Wait For Me. It’s also from back when The Colourist had Maya Aoki Tuttle who left the band in 2016. I’ve heard some of their newer work and I’m crazy about it but Time Waster has been slipping into my music rotations and it’s got that Naked and Famous/Of Monsters and Men vibe that I absolutely adore. It’s a great song and I love highlighting it here.

Fool For Ya by DVBBS was in The Penguin which is my current favourite show. What a fantastic soundtrack on that show.

November Sweatdown 2K24 Features:

ALEXSUCKS – Warm Beers
Fickle Friends – Feral
Social Order – Miss You
The Colourist – Time Waster
flor – Kick it
Girls Who Care – Jobs with Benefits
LEAP – I Don’t Believe You
Cold War Kids – Meditations
Phantogram – Jealousy
W O L F C L U B – Inside Your Stars
Trevor Something – In the Night
HEALTH, Filter – FREE TO DIE
DVBBS – Fool For Ya

Thank you for listening. Photo is from dawn in Windsor near the VIA train station that reminded me of the Pink Floyd cover for Animals. December is the best of the year.