The older I get, the more important I find it to establish a goal with my actions before I jump headlong into them. I have been an impulsive person to my detriment but I somehow pulled up on the yoke of my life hard enough to get out of full nosedive. The goal here is that you and I land this plane in the beautiful, sunny, Acapulco of the mind, enjoying art (or at least this newsletter) together. I go to a lot of shows and listen to a lot of music already, and oh buddy now that I’m unemployed, the time on my hands lends itself to a lot more of doing both.
Here’s the rundown:
I am going to write about music in this newsletter. Two posts a week at minimum. A free post on Tuesdays, a paid post on Fridays. Posts will range from album reviews and concert recaps to personal blogs and interviews.
I will also be writing about merch (absolute shocker, I know), which is underrepresented in music coverage today. Merch roundups are relegated to end-of-year gift guides for confused aunts to make an earnest appeal to their disaffected niece/nephew1 who speaks in phrases rather than complete sentences at family gatherings. I’d like to change that, considering that merch has such a high profit margin that outside of purchasing digital music, it’s one of the better ways to support an artist.
Every three months, I’ll make a zine out of the content and send it to paid subscribers.
What makes this different? Why should I trust *YOU* as a white guy with glasses in Brooklyn over some other white guy with glasses in Brooklyn? 2
I’m glad you asked, Dear Skeptical Reader: I am committed to having Fun with it. I’m here to goof and joke and not to be serious about stuff that doesn’t really matter. This isn’t a humor newsletter, but life is inherently absurd, and the music industry is even more absurd. In general, I don’t think you should have to know everything about anything to have an opinion on it. The tone I’m shooting for is (Inzane) John Olson’s Life Is A Rip Off meets, I dunno, anti-circumcision guy with megaphone at Union Square. I would be lucky enough to sniff at either.
I’m not trying to pull some y2k “This Ain’t Your Grandma’s Substack” schtick but this ain’t your grandma’s substack. I’m not really beholden to anything or anyone outside of myself. My opinions posted here are mine and mine alone. My scores are mine and I don’t really have to worry about SEO or ad placements or anything like that. I’m not NPR, I’m not Vice Media, I’m not Conde Nast. I am Jay, I am literally just some guy. I don’t particularly care to get negative3 in this newsletter but if something sucks ass, you can trust me to say it sucks ass. This, above all, is the Listen Up, Nerds promise.
If there’s a show I should cover or a record you’d like me to listen to, send it to listenupnerds@gmail.com or respond to the post. Thanks for your time and attention. I’m looking forward to posting more soon.
I asked one of my groupchats if there was a gender-neutral term for niece/nephew and learned that the answer is, “NIBLING,” which is horrifying and will not show up in this newsletter ever again.
The icon/avatar for this newsletter, for the moment, is the evil guy with the hammer on the cover of Negative Approach’s Tied Down LP. If you join as a founding member, that tier is now called “Tied Down.” Isn’t that fun?