For The Record- 27. January. 2024

Counting all different ideas drifting away

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Welcome to another edition of For The Record, a good old-fashioned link drop and benefit for paid supporters of On Repeat.

As a reminder, On Repeat is 100% reader-funded. And as always, there are 7-day trials for anyone looking to test the waters.

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This week, we’ve got news on Jack Antonoff (again!), Sammy Hagar, Future Islands, and Snoop Dogg.

All that and a LOT more, including Elle King, Travis Kelce, and some fun facts about Aruba.

Let’s get to it!

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I am back from a very nice escape from Hoth trip to Aruba. While there, I learned a couple of things and was reminded of a universal truth.

The first is that the water on the island is very good. I’m being serious here. It's fantastic and something residents make sure to remind you of every 10 minutes or so. If I lived next to the second-largest desalination plant in the world, I’d probably talk it up.

The second ties in with that a bit, and that is that Aruba is mostly desert. There are swaying palms, trees, and vegetation, but a lot of light looks more like Arizona than anything else. On one side of the island, it resembles a moonscape. It’s beautiful but stark. And like most deserts, plenty of plants are thriving almost out of spite. They've adapted, and they’re not going anywhere.

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I was thinking about that while sitting on the beach reading. The obituaries for Pitchfork continued to roll in at a steady clip all week, much like the waves in front of me. Only one was relaxing, and the other made me… restless.

Everyone has had a take. Some are on point. Some are so hot you can bathe in them. But at the heart of all of them is the idea that something had died with Pitchfork. A venerable music magazine crashed against the shoals and broke up, leaving music criticism lost forever in a sea of infinite scrolling and content. (Can you tell where I’ve been this week?)