rebworld

2025 Music Reflection

January 2, 2026 // 11:07 P.M.

In a year marked by more and more people starting to rebuild physical media collections, illegally downloading songs onto strange new mp3 players, and where it’s more cringe to use Spotify than ever before, it’s still hard to resist the all-familiar urge to show off a specific data set that proves just how special your taste is. I’m no better than anyone else here, to be clear. Sure, I traded Spotify for Deezer in August in an attempt to lesser-evil my streaming. One of my thoughts when switching was that I wouldn’t be able to compare Spotify’s wrapped data to my last.fm data – something I started using solely to see how the listening lines up. But I got a car with a CD player this year (what an upgrade!), made more effort to listen to my local radio stations, and sought out specific human-curated radio online (NTS, KEXP, KXLU). So, even though last.fm could track my cross-platform move, it was still a lost cause when it came to an accurate, all-inclusive list of everything I listened to in 2025. With that shortcut gone, I find it’s time to take matters into my own hands and figure out for myself what I actually want to reflect on regarding my music listening from this past year.

It’s more insightful, in my opinion, to look at how my listening has grown and changed in the past year. According to last.fm, Mannequin Pussy is easily my most listened to artist. A shock to nobody. To me, it makes more sense to catalogue what’s new in my listening habits, instead of reinforcing that I am still in fact listening to I Got Heaven on repeat. It’s also obvious that I listened to a shit ton of Turnstile this year, along with everyone else. I think Never Enough was my most listened-to CD of 2025. Wet Leg also put out an amazing album! I didn’t realize they were so popular, and their show at the 9:30 Club sold out before I even knew they were playing there. But these are all bands I’d already been listening to, and as a result they don’t really stick out as something that specifically demarcates this past year. So, without further ado, and in a semi-specific order, here are my favorite discoveries from 2025.

Wednesday

In case you couldn’t tell from my previous post, I became obsessed with Wednesday this year. Once I heard Bleeds, it was all I listened to for a month. It was Bleeds or NPR. In this fugue state, I bought my 9:30 Club tickets. Then, I reluctantly moved on to Rat Saw God. Got blown out of the water again, and listened for two-ish more weeks before burning out. Kept listening on and off until I saw them live, and I’ve since been a little freer with my choices. I am curious about listening to MJ Lenderman, but I’m hesitating because I’m afraid I’ll end up like a child who has to choose her favorite parent in the divorce. Which isn’t how divorce works, or how listening to music works, but that’s how my brain is spinning it. One of the best playlists I listened to this year was Wednesday’s NTS show – give it a listen if you like Wednesday and have the time.

Die Spitz

Another band I found this year that I invested a lot of listening time into is Die Spitz. I heard their Teeth EP in January and loved several tracks, but wasn’t super into other releases from them. They had a show at DC9 coming up that was sold out when I found it, and then their other show in the area was expensive, as they were opening for Viagra Boys. I want them to come back so bad, because apparently their live show kicks ass!! Die Spitz come to Baltimore, please.

Their first album, Something To Consume, came out in September. (Good month for albums!) They actually were signed to Third Man Records for this project, while Teeth and their previous EPs came out under “poop butt records,” which implies to me they were self published. I was a bit worried about whether or not I would like the album because I wasn’t a huge fan of the first single, Throw Yourself to the Sword. It reminded me of some of their more metal-leaning songs that I’m not super into. I didn’t listen much to the other singles that dropped, and gave the album a cursory listen a week or so after it was released, but I was in Wednesday mode and didn’t have the brain space to give it the listen it deserved. I honestly probably listened to it at work, which is never a good place to intentionally listen to an album. However, I still kept Die Spitz in the back of my mind.

I revisited Something To Consume in early December, and it’s an amazing first album. I’m happy I kept them on my radar to revisit – sometimes you just need to come back to an album when you’re more ready for it. Not a single instrument is wasted. The drums in particular are relentless. Every band member plays multiple, if not every instrument, including singing! At least three of the four girls sing. They all have distinct vocal styles and they bend the genres to match, but Something To Consume is nothing if not cohesive. The album has excellent pacing, with no song feeling out of place. There’s also clear growth from their previous works, but not so much it feels like an unnatural jump. Throw Yourself to the Sword is a favorite now, along with RIDING WITH MY GIRLS and Punishers, and American Porn, and Go Get Dressed… There’s a new favorite every week. I think (and hope) their second album will rip twice as hard.

Other Bands I’m Keeping My Eyes On

There’s a few other bands I found this year that have things upcoming or were recently released. Babe Haven is a punk duo with a great album titled Nuisance, which is coincidentally also my favorite track on the album. Gas Pedal and Blind Yourself are also standouts. I just missed them in Baltimore but I hope they come back again when it’s warmer and not in the middle of the holiday shopping season… I have to listen to their debut album, but there are a few songs on Nuisance that need to push just a little further – the chorus of If I Were You comes to mind. The timing of the lyrics and the backing instruments don’t seem to match up, and it throws the energy of the song off balance. And while I’m sure it’s hard as hell, I want to hear more of a range when they’re screaming. But I think they have such a clear musical vision and are demonstrating that they can put out bangers. On Spotify they have a killer playlist of their influences which I recommend listening to. Let’s go Babe Haven!!

I also liked Scowl's album this year. They keep coming to Baltimore at inconvenient times or with bands more hardcore than I’m built to see, but I would like to see them live. I like the singer’s mix of vocals – her growl is much more snarly than a lot of bands I listen to, and it brings a fun contrast to her standard singing. When Are We All Angels released, I was pretty thrown by the mixing. It’s something I noticed in Ecca Vandals music too, where the mix is really vocal forward and very smoothed out. It feels like pop music. Once I gave it some more listening time, I enjoyed it. B.A.B.E. and Not Heaven Not Hell are my favorites. I’m also keeping my eyes on The Bobby Lees. They just signed to Epitaph, so I’m really interested in seeing how that album turns out. There’s a single from it out now called Napoleon. Sword II, Sprints, and Friendship are all dancing in my peripherals as well.

Predictions and goals for 2026

I think the CD renaissance will really hit next year. I’m not a professional trend predictor and I’m nowhere near being ahead of the curve, but I think there’s a strong correlation with the economic and political state of the US and our desire to actually own things. Perhaps it also correlates with the fact that younger millennials and older gen z were the last generation to grow up pre-streaming, and are now “going back,” with younger gen z getting mp3 players for the very first time in 2025. And while I’m sure many people never left the physical media collecting grind, it’s much more in vogue to have packed shelves these days than the minimalist greige of our past did.

I believe it’s also a direct rebellion against millennial minimalism. Mid-century modern was the (mainstream) name of the game this year, with maximalism lurking in the shadows just behind. Another part of it is the consumption of it all. Take a look at bag charms, for example. Something that most people haven’t intentionally thought of in years, now being packaged and sold as something fashionable people do. And why not? A $10 impulse buy of a plastic cherry duo in American Eagle is much more budgetable than $150 jeans, and it’s still on trend, and it’s easier on the wallet than “buy it for life” denim. (I am not necessarily a bag charm hater or gatekeeper. I just find the entire trend extremely fascinating.) The bag charm is a sort of microcosm of what I observed, culturally, in 2025: a desire for uniqueness, but also trying to buy it, but also not having a lot of money. I think the desire to have your own (unique, personal) collection, combined with the affordability of CDs and the size of the secondhand CD market, will lead to their mainstream revival in 2026.

I also think we’re gonna see more of the punk and rock resurgence. I’m looking at the romanticization of early 2000s garage rock, the skyrocketing mainstream success of Turnstile, and the economic and political vibes as a whole. You could argue this is already happening, and you would be right! Again, it’s not like I have my finger on the pulse here. I’m a few inches away. I think the return-to-concerts push will continue, because of our post-pandemic and AI-poisoned world’s desire for real human connection and art and increasing transparency on how musicians really make money. I would like to see Ticketmaster break this year, but I have little hope on that front.

I am really trying to push off finishing this post until the very last minute, because this December has been just a flurry of finding new artists and songs. This happens every year, ironically after “wrapped” is released and your data doesn’t count for a month. I also went to ten concerts this year (two were free), and I want to at least meet that number in 2026. To do that, I need to expand my horizons and listen to smaller and more local artists so I can keep affording to see the amount of music I want to see. I would like to expand my record and CD collection to include more classical and jazz this year, and perhaps even follow some artists I like! I will probably be using NTS to find more music outside of my typical genre bias (and in it, of course). Overall, I want to consume more in 2026. More books, more videogames, and of course, more music.

Thank you for the visit, as always, and I hope 2026 is good to your ears and mine!

Wednesday, Daffo at the 9:30 Club

November 23, 2025 // 7:53 P.M.

This past Saturday I caught Wednesday’s late show at the 9:30 Club, and I’m happy to say it was a good one! I always have a good time at the 9:30 Club – the sound mixing is good, I usually get there early enough to get a good spot, etc etc. I was on the upper balcony for this show, and I do lightly regret not being down on the floor. The show was sold out, and I’m short, so I knew I wasn’t going to have a lot of luck being able to see on the ground floor (and I like to see!). The energy on the floor is always better than upstairs, and I wanted to jump and sing loud with the rest of them. Upstairs is always much more mellow, and not as often acknowledged by the performers (because they probably can’t see us). Leaning on a railing surrounded by people who aren’t moving and singing doesn’t encourage you to start. Also, I’ve been wearing earplugs at shows in an effort to save my hearing, but this means when I sing along I can only hear myself. Which isn’t what I want to hear. So if anyone has concert earplug recommendations that don’t do that, send word somehow.

Daffo opened and they were one of the better openers I’ve seen! Because it was a late show, they started off only half an hour after doors opened, which I liked. I wish all concerts had this level of urgency. The band had energy and pretty decent songs. My only complaint is that they were very obviously fans of Wednesday (and proclaimed so twice during their set) and their sound was super influenced by them. I want the vocalist to embrace more of her own style instead of a sort of knockoff of Wednesday’s Karly. I think they just need to come into their own a little more as a band. There were a few moments seeing them perform where I was thinking “wow, this is really good” only for the song to immediately undercut itself, usually lyrically, and in a way where I could tell they were trying to emulate Wednesday.

The show was a lot of fun and I was sort of enchanted by Karly. She was bubbly on stage and interacted with the crowd a lot, and obviously topped it off by being an amazing performer. I’ve been getting a little parasocial with it – visiting her website, reading her blog posts. She’s the genre of woman who I just think is undeniably super cool. I also appreciated Xandy – the man playing pedal steel and lap steel – who, despite sitting, was grooving along and headbanging as much as he could. Some special moments include Karly getting a birthday cake and a couple getting engaged in the pit.

Whenever I go to a concert I find myself more in awe of the actual art of their show, whether it’s the instrumentation itself, their voices, or even the physical performance they’re putting on. And they make it look so effortless, despite it being the polar opposite. I loved Karly’s vocals. Pitchfork’s review of Bleeds mentions that she wrote Wasp to follow up Bull Believer live, and part of that process was learning how to scream without destroying her vocal chords. I haven’t seen Wednesday live before, but Bull Believer apparently used to be their last song because of how strenuous the final act is to sing. This doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore, not only because of the Wasp follow-up, but the amount of respectable screams in the set as a whole. It was poetic in a way- they started with the scream in the beginning of Reality TV Argument Bleeds, and ended with an entire track of screams. Professional screams!

Screaming in songs will always be a little controversial, and I think that’s because there’s a real spectrum of musical hollering that sort of gets flattened a lot in casual conversation. I don’t personally enjoy a lot of the deep, gravelly screams you hear in black metal or some hardcore bands. I’m more of a yell enjoyer, on the scream spectrum, if that makes sense. Where the singer's voice is still coming through. I need to do some more research into the different genres of screaming, and with the way music is trending now, I think we’re going to see a lot more of it in actual popular music soon (see Mirtazapine or Ice In My OJ from Hayley Williams’ new record, for example). Karly’s screaming is a wonderful, melodic take on a sort of stereotypical final girl scream. Whether it’s anger, desperation, or just a general overwhelming feeling – she always nails it. Live, it blew me away that she could release something so guttural and then revert back to her otherwise very gentle voice. I imagine it’s something she’s put a lot of practice into.

The setlist for this show leaned into more of their hard stuff, especially in the second half. Which I actually didn’t expect! I peeked at setlists from the tour a few weeks ago, and I think I either misremembered what was on them, or they changed it up for their second DC night. (Mannequin Pussy did a different setlist on their second night at the 9:30 Club as well, which was also harder than the setlist the previous night. I wonder if this is a known tradition.) I wish they had performed Gary’s II, but I loved hearing Hot Rotten Grass Smell’s chainsaw ripping guitar in person. I was the most surprised by hearing Bath County – a song I love and had to keep it together for, because I was so happy they played it. I also kept it together for Bull Believer, but the pit actually had most of my attention for that song. Going back to screaming, she actually yelled more in the live version, during the chorus. Like Mannequin Pussy, they also didn’t have an encore, instead just playing the set all the way through. Which I prefer!

I’m very happy I went to the show, even if I have regrets about my positioning. They also weren’t selling CDs at the merch station, so I didn’t end up getting anything, which I’m sad about. I like to try and pick up stuff at concerts as often as I can, but it does have to be something I want at the end of the day. The hat was cool, but it was a little too expensive to justify right now. I’d also feel like a bit of a poser wearing hunting camo…

That’s all I have to say for now! See Wednesday live if you can!

hi! welcome to rebworld.

November 15, 2025 // 3:23 P.M.

Hi! Hello! First post alert!

I want to make a creative outlet and a place to talk about media and music without being an extreme bother to my friends. Hopefully this website can function like that!

I'm also using this as an excuse to learn html, css, and maybe one day… javascript (unlikely). Everything is going to be a work in progress forever but hopefully the website will grow and evolve as I keep making posts. If you’re here and you’re actually seeing the very first version of this website, congrats.

I am also going to try and make this mobile responsive! It isn’t yet because I just want to get the ball rolling. But I think being mobile responsive is important, cool, and fun.

I hesitate to make any sort of actual thesis statement about this place because I don't want to end up pigeonholing myself! I just like to analyze things! I want to get better at writing and expressing things, and again… the website building. Whatever else happens will happen.

So, without further ado… welcome to rebworld. I'm Reb.