We All Want Someone To Shout For

Artwork by Anthony Bauer

Those of us in the music industry aren’t in it to make money. Especially this year, 2020, where everything is terrible and live music is dead. I’m a photographer and there isn’t much to photograph these days since live music is dead. What I will always truly be first though is a music fan. Anyone in the industry is always a fan first and then we get into this to be closer to our musical heroes. It could be working for, touring with, interviewing, photographing, or just turning new folks on to them because we believe in the music they are making.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

2020 has been anything but normal. It’s changed every aspect of our life, including the way we watch movies. While many of the year’s big blockbusters seem to be endlessly delayed or just moved to 2021, a lot of smaller indie films have gone straight to our homes as hopefully found a bigger audience than they may have upon initial release. We have no idea what the rest of the year will look like with film festivals and Award Season. But if smaller films get highlighted as a result, maybe it’s one of the few silver linings this year.

With that said, here are 25 films that I enjoyed so far during the first half of 2020. This includes only films that received some sort of limited theatrical release or release on VOD during the first six months of the year. So please note that any films released after June 30th are not included in this list.

With that said, here are our favorite films of 2020…so far:
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

Yesterday we shared our best albums of the year(…so far) and today we return, this time with our best songs of the year(…so far).

I’ll save you another “this year sucks” general summary. Instead, let’s look at how good the music has been during the past 6 months. These are the songs that connected with me the most during the first half of 2020. Please note once again that once again, this list contains only songs that were officially released between January and June of 2020. Who knows what this list will look like at the end of the year but for now this is what we’re going with.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

So we’re now way past the halfway point of 2020, a year that somehow simultaneously feels never-ending yet still seems to be flying on by. Although this year has been one that we’d like to forget, the lone bright spot has been new music. From where we stand, this year has been incredibly strong so far, and we still got plenty of year left (though, I guess this isn’t necessarily a good thing).
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Artwork by Anthony BauerJust like with music, there are so many new films out there and just not enough time to watch them all. Although it’s amazing that it’s easier to find all sorts of movies with just the click of a button, it’s impossible to watch it all. But when not at a show or blasting my favorite records, most of my spare time is spent in the cinema trying to find the next great movie.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

While making our best albums of the decade list wasn’t an easy task, figuring out our best songs was ten times more difficult. Do you pick the obvious single or that hidden gem that revealed its true glory with every new listen? How many songs do I even include? 200 is a lot, 100 is too little to really showcase the best of ten years. So I had some fun with it (the only sane way to take on an insane task like this) and decided that since it’s 2020, I’d do a list of 220 songs.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

Where did the time go?

10 years ago, I was a sophomore in college, still fumbling around with what exactly running a music blog meant and where I would take it as a college kid just trying to figure out…well, everything. A lot has changed since then, many of the blogs that I grew up with and grew with are now literally gone or just operating in the realm of Spotify playlists like the rest of the world.

Think back to the person you were last year, let alone 10 years ago. You’re likely a much different person than you were then. I know I am. But what stayed a constant is the love for music, that never waned. Although the industry has shifted, trends have come and gone (RIP EDM, good fucking riddance to ya), our love for music is always what pushed us through.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer

2019 is now technically hours away from wrapping up, and with it, a whole decade. We have had some time to sit and think about our favorite albums of the year and now we present our 100 favorite songs of the year. It’s always hard to put this together, a lot more thought goes into it than you think. How many tracks do I include from an album I listed in my top 5, what if those songs work better as a complementary piece than an individual track? How do you rank a bunch of songs that you love?

But in the end, these are 100 songs that soundtracked my year. While compiling this list, I went through a journey of my literal year of moments, good hangouts, lonely drives, good times, bad times, and everything in-between. That’s the beauty of this sort of thing and music in general.

Stay tuned as in the new year we will be doing the best of the decade in both albums and songs as well as something else that we are eager to share with you guys. But for now, find my top 100 songs of 2019 posted below listed in reverse order. You can also find a Spotify playlist right here, as well as embedded at the end of the list.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and anything you wished I included.
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Artwork by Anthony Bauer2019 came and went in a blink of an eye. Our parents always told us that time would fly by at an unthinkable and unmanageable speed the older and busier we got, and boy was it true this year more than ever. But during this warp-speed time travel, we still found time to indulge in a ton of great music, from artists both familiar and completely brand spanking new.

If you’re familiar with this space, you know I always try and wait until, you know, the year is actually over to publish my best of list. While many others are in an arms race to publish first before the Thanksgiving spread has even hit the table, I spend the last few weeks of the year revisiting albums and obsessively changing the order of my list.
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Vampire Weekend at Webster Hall2019 was an interesting year in many ways. While I steamrolled through my show count early on, I slowed down drastically in the last few months of the year, not coming close to my insane 200+ show count of 2018.

With that said, I spent many nights in clubs and big rooms of all sorts, taking in all the best music that my ears could possibly find. From finally checking a few major bucket lists legendary rock bands off my list, to seeing new bands that will define the next few years, I can’t wait to do it all again in 2020 and start the next decade strong.

But for now, here are the 50 best shows I saw in all of 2019:
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