She thinks I’m crazy
But I’m just growin’ old…

Sure, when you’re a grown-ass adult, 19 seems impossibly young. But when you’re a website? Well, 19 is old as dirt. C’est la vie.

2001 was a long time ago. A lifetime, really. It’s freaky to think how different the world was before Facebook, before Twitter, before YouTube, before iPhones…

Nineteen-year-olds today have no memories of life without a phone in everybody’s hand all the time.

But we do. And here we are. Still going. Still finding good music and sharing it. Occasionally still digging deep into something we care about. Mostly, we’re trying to stay positive and convey joy in an environment where that’s getting increasingly difficult.

But music helps. And whether it’s the thrill of discovering some kid’s debut single or the comfort of replaying something you’ve heard a thousand times, music provides a salve for our battered souls.

Skate a little lower now…

Audio: Steely Dan – “Hey Nineteen”

From Gaucho (MCA, 1980).

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Some business…

Last year, we talked about experimenting with ads. We ditched the idea in October. Just wasn’t worth it. We’re back to being a zero-revenue publication a/k/a labor of love.

Still got our instagram, but we go through phases of posting regularly and then being lazy. It’s more work than you’d think to sift through 19 years of concert photos and pick out the best ones, make sure you haven’t already posted them, crop them for insta-dimensions, and schedule the posts with all the correct tags and everything. Boo hoo, I know, but hey if there are any social media kids out there looking for an unpaid internship, hit us up and we’ll hand you the reins.

One more thing, we encourage you to sign up for our message boards. It may seem anachronistic to be pushing old school bulletin board technology in the age of TikTok, but trust me, it’s good to yak it up with likeminded community members. I had forgotten until recently that I disabled registration for new members back during the hiatus of 2011, ha ha, oops, but it’s open again. So sign up if you’re not already a member. (Be sure to enter something real for your favorite band — that’s how we know you’re not a bot.) And if you’re an oldtimer, but you can’t remember your password or whatever, let us know and we can get you back in business!

Previous birthdays: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019.

Video: Paul Hardcastle – “19”

From Paul Hardcastle (Chrysalis, 1985).

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