Wrapping Up 2025 + Talking Year in Music w/ Will Hermes

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on a year since I posted my first newsletter of the year and I’m thinking this will probably be the last one of 2025. I started with a thought on song from Bill Callahan’s most recent album and lo and behold he has a new one coming in February, which I hope to write about.

There’s not much left to do now but debate with Julie whether A Charlie Brown Christmas or John Fahey’s The New Possibility is the Greatest Christmas Album of All Time. I’ll also throw in a word for Phil Spector—pictured here in a rather sad-looking fake stereo version issued in the UK in the early ’70s—and I’m very fond of Flaming Lips’ psychedelic take on holiday music as Imagene Peise. One thing working in Fahey’s favor aside from his alternately thrilling and peaceful music is his record’s title: The New Possibility. There’s a phrase that can get you out of bed on a dark morning, so open and free, suggesting something good might be around the next corner.

I wanted to take a moment to plug my conversation with my good friend Will Hermes about some of our 2025 highlights, which we streamed live and is posted for posterity here. I’m not even sure if I knew this kind of thing was a feature of this platform until a few weeks ago, but talking music with Will is always very fun, and this was no exception. You should subscribe to his newsletter New Music + Old Music if you don’t already.

I’m making a vow to write here more frequently in 2026. I’m also going to update my website more often to include links to pieces new and old. Recently, I revisited a few Resonant Frequency columns I wrote circa 2010, and it was interesting to remember earlier days of digital culture, trying to get a handle on something like YouTube, which had only been around for a short time. I put links to a few of those on the website and will add to that when it makes sense. Thanks for reading and wishing you a season of new possibilities.