Hear Me Out: A Lazy Blogger Explains His Departure (and the Future)

2018 has been a hell of a year.

If you're the average Joe and/or Jane who stumbles across this place every so often, you may have noticed it's been pretty quiet around here. Aside from a spate of reviews here and there and the maintenance of the weekly Top 40/upcoming releases sections, it's been slim pickings for Sound Bites content (especially over the past four months or so). I've never claimed to be the most on-the-ball guy when it comes to posting, but even by my standards this year has been sub-par. For that, I apologize, and hope to do better going forward.

That said, though it doesn't excuse the silence, I'll try to explain how life got in the way this year without dwelling on details or laying it on too thick; those closest to me know all of this already, and there's no point in trying to get sympathy from strangers.

In April, my mother passed away; she had battled diabetes for decades, and after numerous trials and tribulations she lost the ability to fight the inevitable any longer. She was the strongest person I ever knew, and her life will always be an inspiration.

With the loss of my mother still weighing heavily on me, stress from work and the dissolution of an 18 year relationship looming, I finally sought help. Taking a leave from work for the first time in my life, I got to talk about all of my fear, depression and anxiety with a professional. I have been on medication since late July, and it has helped me tremendously during my most trying times.

In September, after about twenty years in Miramichi, I transferred to Moncton, where I now call home. I am still getting used to the place, but have settled in as well as I could have hoped for. My closest friends all moved here in the years leading up to my arrival, and being able to see them more has been invaluable to my recovery.

As I write this, I have a hope for the future that I honestly haven't felt for a long time. As drastic as this year's changes have been in my life, I believe I'm better having gone through them. There are great lessons in loss and, though I will always look back with fondness, it's looking ahead that's got me most excited.

So, as you might expect, Sound Bites kind of took a back seat for a while there; looking at the backlog I'm up against is admittedly a little daunting (I'm only 15-20 reviews behind), but I'll do my best to catch up this month. Reviews might end up bundled and/or shorter as I plow through them, but my intention is to have Year in Rock 2018 ready to go by December.

I didn't mean to neglect this, and I pride myself in providing the kind of content you come back for. Which leads me to a humble thank you for sticking around; even with an unreliable hack like me bailing on the place for weeks at a time, we're still getting about a thousand hits a month, which is mind boggling to me. I am grateful that you keep coming back, and I promise that if you choose to stick around a while longer, I'll do everything I can to get better.

At blogging, and at life.

Thank you.

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

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