There’s a playlist on my Spotify account called “&c.”
I remember creating this, or at least I remember creating the title and planning to build something long-lasting outside of my typical playlists. I usually set up a new playlist every season, quarterly, recording the songs that I’m discovering or even just plain listening to a lot during the spring of 2018 or the fall of 2015 or what have you. This one was going to be something different.
It’s situated between Fall 2016 and Winter 2017. I could say so much about this fleeting chapter in my life, in part because I’ve etched its memory in music. But the actual experiences, like so much else, are better left for another night of story-telling. I’m in a delectable chapter right now; everything that’s come before has its place, but I’m enjoying the present too much to split backward all that often.
I’m listening to this playlist as I drink a few Jackie O’s See Foam IPAs and work on what could be a short story or the earnest stirrings of a novel. It’s about a goofy-ass Northeast Ohio pothead who… Well, I’ll leave that for another time, too.
Here’s the playlist. I’m loving it right now. These songs have meant so much to me for various, unending reasons.
Factor Chandelier – Buildings
ALO – Barbeque
Tauk – Afro-Tonic
The Wood Brothers – The Muse
Railroad Earth – Hard Livin’
The String Cheese Incident – Sometimes a River
Oddisee – Meant It When I Said It
Wilco – Unlikely Japan
The Sheepdogs – Downtown
Soul Position – No Gimmicks
Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Courtney Barnett – An Illustration of Loneliness
Marco Benevento – Witches of Ulster
Yonder Mountain String Band – Half Moon Rising
Perpetual Groove – Three Weeks
7 Walkers – (For The Love Of) Mr. Okra
Dinosaur Jr. – Almost Fare
Turkuaz – X.Y.Z. (Feelin’ Tough)
Aqueous – Don’t Do It
Phish – More
Wilco – Kingpin
Umphrey’s McGee – 1348
Cabinet – Spaceman
A Tribe Called Quest – Excursions
Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood – The Times They Are A-Changin’
Eyedea & Abilities – Spin Cycle
Blueprint – Radio-Inactive
Rob Sonic – Gorf
A Tribe Called Quest – Whateva Will Be
Billy Bragg and Wilco – My Flying Saucer
Tea Leaf Green – Sex in the ’70s
The Wood Brothers – Shoofly Pie
Jawbreaker – Save Your Generation
Sandy 