#tasha

Tasha: You Are Spring! (Bayonet Records, 2026)

Harkive was an annual research project by Dr. Craig Hamilton aimed at understanding how, where, and why people around the world listened to music. Each year, on a specific day, listeners would send in the music they listened to, how they listened to it, where they were, and why they played what they played. Submissions occurred over twitter, instagram, tumblr, email, and on and on. Posts ranged from bullet points to essays. I only caught onto the project in July 2021 (here’s my first post about it), which happened to be its last year. It’s grown to be a personal music documentation prompt for me that I follow through with every so often. With that said…

Listened to some Kacey Musgraves in the car with Kyra this morning. Loving the new album, excited for it to melt into this summer. Golden Hour will always warm me, transport me back to the first 8 months of 2019. The slant of that apartment, the taste of creme brulee Juul pods, the open calendar. Its haunt is heavier over the summer, I want to let it take over me, but I practice restraint. Thinking of that excellent quote from Tasha, in reference to her song “Quick!”: 

“When writing the song on a warm day last June, I was thinking about how summer time always reminds me of every summer I've ever had. It's a reflection on time and holding on to precious moments -- but releasing scarcity.”

Finished listening to a Phish show (3/25/92, Charlottesville, VA). Not my favorite year, though it’s nice to hear Rift take shape. Nice “It’s Ice.” 

I’m continuing to make my way through my open tabs (16 related to music, the other 17 a mix of travel, tennis lesson inquiries, a book I’ll eventually finish reading, Google Maps, and some work stuff). The late afternoon, early summer gray sky guided me to continue to dive into Rachel’s discography, so now I’m settled on Systems / Layers. It’s lovely. I first discovered them at Papa Jazz (probably back in 2020?), picking up The Sea and the Bells on vinyl. It took a while to stick with me, but I’m drawn to their history in Louisville (spent a good chunk of an hour exploring the city on Google Maps and Zillow, came to the conclusion that I could live there) and the contentment of gentle chamber music. I could’ve sworn that I listened to a live set from the Aadam Jacobs collection a few weeks ago, but I can’t find it anywhere. This guy recorded thousands of shows in Chicago over the course of a few decades and they’re slowly making their way over to the Internet Archive (about 2,000 at the time of writing this). Nice documentary about his work on Vimeo, and a nice description of the project. 

I’m trying to do a thousand things at once and now it’s June 23rd, a Tuesday morning.

I tried to listen to stuff in the car this morning, but the volume wouldn’t work, so I was forced to listen to the subtle shift in gears, the sound of potholes and construction. Already started the day annoyed. And Google Docs keeps trying to fix my grammar, this is how I want to type!

Settled in, tended to my open tabs and started where I left off: Breathe by Keller Williams and the String Cheese Incident. Once again, I dip back into my alternate timeline, the one where I was a camp counselor in the late 90s. Today, I get to decide if I’m listening to this as the 20 year old who would have loved this in the first place or if I’m 29 in the mid-late 2000s re-listening after a while, reveling in my idealized past. Maybe if I were listening to this on my balcony, in a cabin, out for a walk, I would choose to tap into the first one, but I’m at my desk, so I’m forced to consume from reality: 29 years old, late June in 2026, pretending like I was 29 in 2006, listening to this album with the intentions of latching onto something long gone. But, I guess, the two versions of myself are preventing this “something” from going away simply by listening to this album with enough force to actually bend time. Maybe, I guess. 

I’ve been having dreams of my cabin in the Appalachian mountains, dreams of tie dye and mosaics and a sturdy CD player. I think this is part of that same attempt to live in that alternate timeline, to mesh multiple years and selves together into one. It sounds crazy to type, but crazier to ignore. The root of all I’m trying to get at is the camp art room, living my whole life just trying to replicate the feeling of having been there, letting it feel like before. 

Do I even like this music? If I wasn’t tethered to all of these other ideas, these other timelines, other selves, I think I would actively dislike it, dismiss it completely. It’s kind of cheesy. But it’s earnest and warm and probably also trying to connect to that same thing. That context lives within me, so the answer is yes, I love it. Now onto Strangefolk’s Gathering of the Vibes show on 06/21/1998. Similar vibe.

Car sound decided to work on the drive home for lunch, so I shuffled through my June 2026 playlist, always a sacred one. (What has June given me this year? What have I given June?) Some highlights: new albums from Kurt Vile, Slippers, and Touch Girl Apple Blossom (twee pop lives on baby!). 

Something cool and fun about me is that I am the music director at WRUU, Savannah’s local community radio station. Each week, I sift through emails from promoters and labels, listen to all of the new music that gets sent to the station and decide what to add to our new music rotation. I download, organize, and clean up the metadata before uploading it to our database. You can listen to my selections on the Verdict from anywhere in the world, it’s on air for a few hours a day every day of the week (see here for exact hours). I host the show live on Tuesdays from 7-8pm EST. And since it’s Tuesday…

Here’s what I played on air tonight, not my favorite tracklist, but still decent. Kept things slow and easy, keeping in line with the slow and easy summer weather. Some quick thoughts: Artificial Go single is great, looking forward to the album. I had never heard of Yea-Ming and the Rumours until this week, really loving Residue. Ismay seems very cool, interested in watching their documentary about Lucinda Williams. I didn’t love Laure Briard’s album as a whole, but “Golden Sun” features F.J. McMahon, so you could consider my interest peaked. See highlights below:

I use Swinsian for all of my radio music. Eventually I’ll also use it to upload music onto my iPods because I’m sick of trying to guess what’s streaming vs a local file on Apple Music. “20200115” by Mac DeMarco is my talking song, I hardly make it through the entire 3 minutes. I also ran out of time and didn’t play “Ritmo Subersivo” by Terror/Cactus. Added an instrumental track against Jon’s wishes!

Rounded off the night by going through my open RYM tabs, frantically right-clicked-to-open-in-a-new-tab over the past few days to enhance my late night internet time. They consist of a mix of cool and serious electronic ambient (Carl Stone) and slightly egregious Windham Hill-esque acoustic ambient (new age, if I want to poke that bear) that eventually verges into smooth jazz territory. Which is where I’ve landed at the moment, Tourist in Paradise by the Rippingtons. I recommend reading through the reviews/comments to get a feel for the record, I couldn’t say it better if I tried (which I’m not!). Smooth jazz is fun! It’s like waiting at the baggage claim (fun!), a weeknight dinner at Nordstrom Bistro (mystifying!), walking through the bakery at Fresh Market (delicious!). Beautiful background muzak. This Harkive is turning into me convincing the ether (and also myself, probably) that the music I’ve been enjoying is worthy of intentional listening. Convincing might not be the right word and that might not even be the right sentiment. Anyway, I love it.