A lesson learned from YMAAA guests...and a way to apply it

It's been an eventful August here at YMAAA HQ. Last week, I published the 200th episode of YMAAA, and it's one of my favorites to date. Raincoats co-founder and pioneering punk legend Gina Birch and author Audrey Golden (Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats) joined me for a fun and informative discussion about (what else?) The Raincoats—specifically their second album Odyshape. I've also recorded the second and third episodes for my Patreon-only series Bonus Tracks. Bonus Track No. 2 with Michael Beller from The Athletic will be available to Patreon subscribers on Aug. 28. And everyone will be able to hear YMAAA Ep 201 with Cassie Wieland (Vines) this Thursday (Aug. 21) and Ep 202 with Marshall Crenshaw on Sept. 4.

Also, this newsletter is the first I've published through Ghost. I'd been meaning to leave Substack for a while now. With the Patreon having been launched and having passed the milestone of 200 episodes, it was finally time to make the move.

Reflecting back on the first 200 episodes led me to think about what I've learned and what I can share with all of you in addition to my weekly interviews. I haven't had any big epiphanies, but I've had a bunch of little ones. Like the way that Gina and Audrey as well as Sam Coomes (Ep 98), Greg Saunier (Ep 103) and Joe Steinhardt (Ep 140) have shown me how almost any type of music can be punk. Or how Juliana Hatfield (Ep 134) and Rachel Lichtman (Ep 136) opened me up to finding cool things in music that is widely considered to be "uncool." Or in the upcoming episode with Cassie, where she helped me find a way to appreciate ambient music, even though I'm accustomed to listening to music with lots of drama where big buildups and comedowns are the payoff.

If there is a common link tying these realizations together, it's that I've learned that listening to music that doesn't follow familiar rules and patterns isn't easy, but it's possible to learn to appreciate and even enjoy it. You just have to listen to it from a different perspective.

I'm guessing this is not news to many of you reading this. But maybe it's news to some of the people you know. So if you know someone like me who is set in their music-listening ways, yet you want to share your favorite music with them—even if that music is a big stretch for them—I have developed a product that can help with that.

I've created a brief, fun guide called We Can Connect Through Music, in which I find connections between an artist you love and an artist that someone you know loves. It includes a breakdown of similarities and relationships between the two artists and a short playlist of songs you can enjoy together. Depending on the reception to the guide, I may expand this to video and/or live chat formats. For the time being, you can get it as a PDF guide for $10 on Gumroad (through the link above).

Even if you or anyone you know may not benefit from the guide, I'd be grateful for any feedback you have, whether on this product or any other YMAAA-related products you'd like to see.

I have one more thing I'm working on, and I'll have more details soon. The basic idea: my first crowdsourced podcast episode. If you've been listening to YMAAA for a while, I will be asking for your suggestions once I've fully fleshed out the concept and determined a date to record and air it. Stay tuned...