KD^3C^3 - 20251207 Stillub rah-fus
This week a lot of people are getting their Spotify Wrapped, AKA the thing where the company takes all of it's data about you and repackages it i n a cutesy way to minimize how much they know about you. Also don't think about the fact that 2025 isn't over yet, so they don't even have all the data yet. Letterboxd at least does the courtesy of waiting untl the year is over for their recap.
I don't get a spotify wrapped, because I don't use Spotify. I'd like to say it's a moral stand, because Spotify doesn't actually pay artists anything approaching the amount of money they make for the platform, or because they platform people like Joe Rogan, which are both very good reasons to not use Spotify. But the biggest reason is that I don't listen to that much music. So I don't have any streaming music platforms. Sometimes I'll throw a music video up on youtube, but in the rare cases where I'm listening to music with any regularity, I do it by listening to MP3s that I have saved to my computer, or have transferred to my phone.
But I still find and enjoy new music occasionally! I'll occasionally grab something on Bandcamp during Bandcamp Friday (when all of Bandcamp's fees are waived and they give that money to the artists on top of their regular cut). But I do listen to some music! Here's the stuff that I acquired in 2025, in roughly reverse chronological order.
Klingon Pop Warrior - Warrior Woman
Did you know that many of your favorite pop songs were originally written in Klingon? Well Klingon Pop Warrior is out here spreading the word. You know I love a commitment to the bit and this is a good bit. There's not much more to it that what it sounds like. She sings pop songs in Klingon. This her first release includes hits like bangwI' wa'logh HIqIpqa' (Baby, One More Time) and yIbuSQo' (Let It Go) the latter of which is recognized as an official translation by Disney. So that's something. Sure it's all kind of a joke but it's also both very funny and sincere.
They Might Be Giants - Flood Live in America
They Might Be Giants might be the most prolific band I know. They're always either touring or in the studio or sometimes both. And they've been doing that for longer than I have been alive. For that last couple of years they have been doing shows including the entirety of their album Flood, but since they're showmen, they don't just get on stage and play the songs. They like to mix things up and play around with some of their most well known numbers. I think the biggest example of this that I can point to is the song stelluB in which they learned how to play one of their songs backwards (including the lyrics) and they perform it that way on stage. They perform the song live, record that, they reverse it and play the video they just recorded backwards to prove that the song still sounds like the original version.
Laser The Boy - A Shark Ate My Penis
Laser Webber used to be in a band called The Doubleclicks. In this band he and his sibling wrote funny and heartflet songs about nerdy things like comic books and suerheroes and robots and love. Then the band broke up and Laser realized and finally accepted he was a manwho had been pretending to be a woman his while life. A Shark Ate My Penis is a stage show he wrote about coming to terms with the fact that he's trans and what that means. It's also a look at other trans men from history, because it turns out that being trans isn't new. The show is heartfelt and funny and he released all the songs in it as al album of the same name. I feel like trans men got overlooked a lot in the current political climate so it's kind of cool to see a show all about one.
Ookla the Mok - Folk Song Army Men
Ookla the Mok was the first band that I discovered for myself. I had other great bands thrust upon me, but this one was all mine. And it kind of remains that, as I know maybe one other person who has even heard of them without me recommending them. They write songs about nerdy things like comic books and love (sensing a pattern in my musical tastes?). They also wrote an entire rock opera concept album about monkeys going to space. They're not quite as prolific as they were in the 2000s but that's OK. One member of the band had a stroke a few years ago and so his recovery took priority. But this year they put a new EP which was a pleasant surprise. The title track is a cover of a Tom Lehrer song, but instead of being a jaunty little piano ditty (as most of Lehrer's songs are) they perform it the eternal genre of Ska. Ookla the Mok isn't a ska band by trade, but they manage well enough.
Tom Lehrer - His entire discography
Speaking of: A few years ago Tom Lehrer released all of his music into the public domain. This was awesome. Lehrer was a mathematician who in the 1950s and 60s had a brief period of writing funny songs. You may have heard some of them, such as Poisoning Pigeons in the Park or New Math. Or maybe you haven't. Surprisingly a lot of songs he wrote are still very funny and more than a few of them are still relevant (sadly). I knew he had released his songs to the public domain, but I didn't bother grabbing them until his death earlier this year.
Looking back on these albums from the year, I really do seem to have a particular type of music, don't I? Anyway, if any of these seem cool, click the link. You can stream most of them for free (not TMBG) on bandcamp and if you really like them you can pay a few bucks to own them too. So it's like spotify, but slightly less evil.
I don't get a spotify wrapped, because I don't use Spotify. I'd like to say it's a moral stand, because Spotify doesn't actually pay artists anything approaching the amount of money they make for the platform, or because they platform people like Joe Rogan, which are both very good reasons to not use Spotify. But the biggest reason is that I don't listen to that much music. So I don't have any streaming music platforms. Sometimes I'll throw a music video up on youtube, but in the rare cases where I'm listening to music with any regularity, I do it by listening to MP3s that I have saved to my computer, or have transferred to my phone.
But I still find and enjoy new music occasionally! I'll occasionally grab something on Bandcamp during Bandcamp Friday (when all of Bandcamp's fees are waived and they give that money to the artists on top of their regular cut). But I do listen to some music! Here's the stuff that I acquired in 2025, in roughly reverse chronological order.
Klingon Pop Warrior - Warrior Woman
Did you know that many of your favorite pop songs were originally written in Klingon? Well Klingon Pop Warrior is out here spreading the word. You know I love a commitment to the bit and this is a good bit. There's not much more to it that what it sounds like. She sings pop songs in Klingon. This her first release includes hits like bangwI' wa'logh HIqIpqa' (Baby, One More Time) and yIbuSQo' (Let It Go) the latter of which is recognized as an official translation by Disney. So that's something. Sure it's all kind of a joke but it's also both very funny and sincere.
They Might Be Giants - Flood Live in America
They Might Be Giants might be the most prolific band I know. They're always either touring or in the studio or sometimes both. And they've been doing that for longer than I have been alive. For that last couple of years they have been doing shows including the entirety of their album Flood, but since they're showmen, they don't just get on stage and play the songs. They like to mix things up and play around with some of their most well known numbers. I think the biggest example of this that I can point to is the song stelluB in which they learned how to play one of their songs backwards (including the lyrics) and they perform it that way on stage. They perform the song live, record that, they reverse it and play the video they just recorded backwards to prove that the song still sounds like the original version.
Laser The Boy - A Shark Ate My Penis
Laser Webber used to be in a band called The Doubleclicks. In this band he and his sibling wrote funny and heartflet songs about nerdy things like comic books and suerheroes and robots and love. Then the band broke up and Laser realized and finally accepted he was a manwho had been pretending to be a woman his while life. A Shark Ate My Penis is a stage show he wrote about coming to terms with the fact that he's trans and what that means. It's also a look at other trans men from history, because it turns out that being trans isn't new. The show is heartfelt and funny and he released all the songs in it as al album of the same name. I feel like trans men got overlooked a lot in the current political climate so it's kind of cool to see a show all about one.
Ookla the Mok - Folk Song Army Men
Ookla the Mok was the first band that I discovered for myself. I had other great bands thrust upon me, but this one was all mine. And it kind of remains that, as I know maybe one other person who has even heard of them without me recommending them. They write songs about nerdy things like comic books and love (sensing a pattern in my musical tastes?). They also wrote an entire rock opera concept album about monkeys going to space. They're not quite as prolific as they were in the 2000s but that's OK. One member of the band had a stroke a few years ago and so his recovery took priority. But this year they put a new EP which was a pleasant surprise. The title track is a cover of a Tom Lehrer song, but instead of being a jaunty little piano ditty (as most of Lehrer's songs are) they perform it the eternal genre of Ska. Ookla the Mok isn't a ska band by trade, but they manage well enough.
Tom Lehrer - His entire discography
Speaking of: A few years ago Tom Lehrer released all of his music into the public domain. This was awesome. Lehrer was a mathematician who in the 1950s and 60s had a brief period of writing funny songs. You may have heard some of them, such as Poisoning Pigeons in the Park or New Math. Or maybe you haven't. Surprisingly a lot of songs he wrote are still very funny and more than a few of them are still relevant (sadly). I knew he had released his songs to the public domain, but I didn't bother grabbing them until his death earlier this year.
Looking back on these albums from the year, I really do seem to have a particular type of music, don't I? Anyway, if any of these seem cool, click the link. You can stream most of them for free (not TMBG) on bandcamp and if you really like them you can pay a few bucks to own them too. So it's like spotify, but slightly less evil.