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    The Most Baseball Sounding Baseball Names - Last Names Ending in C + bonus 2024 music coverage

    https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ziur9iqZoxUOxKH7dLgRin27RTU=/0x22:3647x1931/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25817162/515539452.jpg

    Where I venture into the second leg of the journey into the most basebally of baseball names, C edition, and continue with my best music of 2024 list

    First off, I have already outlined this project and begun with MLB baseball players names ending in A&B. You can read about the idea and the first listing of the most BASEBALL baseball player names here.

    I hope everyone is recovering from New Year's and the holidays, and has stocked up for this ice storm blizzard deal we had going on the weekend after. I encourage you to purchase a St Louis Pizza Passport if you live in or near the Cardinal holy land. Never fear, if you do not like provel cheese, there are plenty of traditional Italian thin crusts available on there, as well as many other styles. And of course the best St Louis style pizzerias are on there as well. St Louis really knows its pizza! There's so much variety and creativity going on in the pizza scene and restaurant scene in general. From extremely Americanized to a wide array of international options, St Louis probably has you covered. I plan on writing a whole article about St Louis restaurants this offseason, and trust me, that will be a ton of fun! I have been to many places but still have a lot to discover here. Send me those restaurant gift cards and I will review that spot ASAP.

    Maybe I will end up being the next Anthony Bourdain, but instead I will travel from city to city and only live there a few years. It's a distinct possibility if I don't find a career job. That said, I'm sure I'll live here at the very least another year or two. I certainly hope to explore a lot more. I think it'll be three or more years before I move on, but we shall see what happens. I certainly cannot stand in the big man's culinary shoes but I do have my own spin on things. And I do love my pizzas. Again, I am impressed with the creativity and variety here. On the surface it feels very traditional and rooted in the past but once you look around more, it does not disappoint.

    But on the other hand I might just stay in St Louis a while. Who knows. There's also the Quad Cities where I grew up. New year brings random wintery thoughts, with the baseball season far, far away in both directions. It's been three months now since Cardinals baseball, and there are three months to go. One must stare out the window and sigh.

    ***

    I am certainly not listless in this new year, catching up with new music from 2024 and thinking about baseball player names. In fact I have TWO lists! One baseball related and one focused on music. Because I have been listening to a LOT of new music this new year.

    Well then, on to the basebally baseball names part of today's article! The Last Name C Edition. Be sure to read the first article (last names beginning with A&B) if you haven't, it explains why I made this list.

    Another 60 names for the very very baseball name list!

    More Best Music of 2024 content!

    A resource of very many end of year lists for music can be found here. My favorite one historically has been the Quietus end of year list, but I always check out a few others as well just so I don't rely on one source.

    What can I say, I am a voracious music listener with a wide range of tastes. I can seem like a metalhead sometimes, but that's just because there's a lot of good heavy metal music coming out. Maybe I seem a little narrowminded sometimes, perhaps because I am biased against several entire genres of music like country (most of it), pop music, ska, house, blues, folk, hell even a lot of rock music these days draws yawns and eyerolls from me. Everything is just so formulaic once you reach some point in absorbing music and consuming a wide variety of albums. The older I get the more I know exactly what I want to hear, and what things annoy me. The music I like often times includes some elements from all of those genres of course, but I am not interested in hearing anything too predictable at this point in my life, or just aping tradition and obeying genre lines.

    In case you missed my first round of best albums of 2024 and a few inductions into the perfect album hall of fame, that's in my New Year's Day article (where I also do a VEB and Cardinals baseball year end round up).

    Apparently what I wanted to hear was this new Chelsea Wolfe album, 'She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She'. I just tried to say that out loud but I couldn't do it. I could type it though, somehow. Compared to Kim Gordon and Beth Gibbons albums last year, this fits right in, but instead of being an instant classic collection of above average tracks, there are a few instant classic standout songs including "Whispers In The Echo Chamber" and "House of Self-Undoing" to start the album out... and another one-two punch happens where the song "Salt" blends into the epic "Unseen World". The whole album is good but maybe not quite a perfect album.

    I forgot one album last week that was an instant classic for me in 2024, julie's 'my anti-aircraft friend'.For fans of My Bloody Valentine and Swirlies, the more rock and noisy side of the shoegaze genre. Monster grooves, 90's alternative rock sounds, spacey soundscapes in the background of everything, and just a super catchy hook filled album from front to back. 'my anti-aircraft friend' has just been inducted into the Perfect Album Hall of Fame which exists in this neck of the woods! This band hasn't been around too long but they have a few releases out now, and have really hit their stride here. I don't know much about them but I hope to learn more because I love all of their music. Even kind of reminds me of 'Siamese Dream' era Smashing Pumpkins! Mostly in the guitar tones.

    Peace Talks - 'Progress' is another slept on album from 2024. This is high speed punk rock of the highest order. The album screams by in only 20 minutes, full of 1 to 2 minute bangers and a only a couple songs that crack the three minute mark, with none longer than 3:45. For example the three minute and forty five second track is their idea of a lengthy prog or psyche rock epic. I guess? This album will drunkenly rip your face off with a rusty switchblade and leave you another faceless victim in the alley. And hey, Texas punk rock is really good and they have a flaming globe with their name on it on the album cover. Totally fucking noteworthy, even if not the most original sounding songs, they do make a much needed current events update to the punk lexicon. Also I like the singer, check her out.

    Also need to mention this new album called 'Compassion' that features two of my favorite contemporary jazz giants Vijay Ayer and Tyshawn Sorey. Especially Sorey's drumming gets me going but the mathematical piano genius that is Ayer always produces top tier results. This is what you will hear on this album, and even if you cannot get into this album's dense nature, I can guarantee you would be moved by it in a live setting. They are joined here by an extremely gifted bassist named Linda May Han Oh:

    Linda May Han Oh is an Australian jazz bassist and composer. She is currently Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music and is also part of the Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice.

    If you dig this album be sure to check out Ayer and Sorey's other band Fieldwork, which has a saxophonist rather than a bassist. Some time I will be inducting a Fieldwork album into the perfect album hall of fame, but I'll save that for its own week.

    Now we have our avant prog rock album of the year, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's 'of the Last Human Being'. This album has perhaps the best most clear production I've ever heard, and it is total ear candy. There is a lot going on with their music and a lot of musicians involved, but it is mixed and produced in a way that sounds super natural and balanced, almost like you're in the room with them. You're going to hear everything from a variety of acoustic instruments to lightning fast guitars bordering on extreme metal. For fans of Mr. Bungle, David Bowie, and other very strange prog rock music. Very artfully done. They had been defunct for over a decade but came together to make the comeback album of the year. Having seen them live years ago, I can verify that they are very theatrical but professional in execution of these very complicated arrangements and are one of the tightest bands I've ever seen.

    OK let's keep it a little different. Check out TOMO's 'vielle-electronica' which is another way of saying, I am making a really cool experimental hurdy gurdy album. This one is a bandcamp only link so apologies for any inconvenience, I know I tend to post youtube links. Anyways, the back story on this musician is just super cool and adds another dimension of imagination to this listening experience:

    Born in Tokyo in 1972, TOMO moved to small-town in Missouri at the age of 17 where he discovered early blues, country, bluegrass, ragtime, and learning guitar picking styles. After several years of developing his eclectic and personal style in the US, he returned to Tokyo and embarked on a series of solo and collaborative performances in local venues. Since he attempted to play the guitar with numbers of open tuning in his early years, his interest in folk tradition and tuning systems spread to other stringed instruments including his main instrument, hurdy gurdy. While his style came to be influenced as much by middle eastern, Indian folk music and medieval music as these early American folk traditions, his live performances were also a platform for developing the experimental and minimalist/psychedelic approach in his work. In respect for the tradition, he explores the alternative style of hurdy gurdy, and creates his original compositions for the instrument.

    Born and grew up in Tokyo, lived in rural Missouri as a teenager, and moved back to Japan to play hurdy gurdy is quite the excellent, weird story!

    If you like your pop artfully done, indie, and totally jazzy, check out this fun album that also has some very cool tropicalia vibes. The band and album: Fievel Is Glauque - 'Rong Weicknes'. I don't know what is going on with those words but that's what it is called and it sounds super cool! Just give it a chance. It makes you wonder why you don't hear music like this more often, so calming but so heady, and catchy. The production is smooth and captures their sound in the best possible way. Total ear candy. You don't hear many bands like this today. File under top tier jazz-pop.

    More jazz! Mary Halvorsen, one of my favorite guitarists I might add, released this beautifully done album about a year ago: 'Cloudward'. Mary has been in many bands in NYC and is also nationally/internationally known, albeit not a household name. If you know avant garde music or contemporary jazz, you probably know of her though. She's been around a while now, and her experience shows on this magnificent release. One of the best contemporary jazz albums I have heard. A nice balance between traditional and new. Mary has been very experimental at times with her guitar playing as well as pedal usage, but this time she fits right in with the ensemble and sounds a bit like a leader who leads from the center rather than as a director of intelligence. Because you will feel significantly smarter after hearing this album. At least I did.

    And now I have discovered maybe the most spiritually moving song I have heard in a long time. It is basically a very long psychedelic drone jam but this is some serious shit! This music will take you places and go nowhere simultaneously. Just let the EEEE take over and you'll find out what I'm talking about 20 minutes later. If a hallucinogen could be put into sonic form, this is it. Water Damage have just completely blown my mind with 'In E' and that's not easily done as I am a veteran of the psychic wars and have taken many the interior voyage into the depths of the unknown human consciousness. I am mainly freaking out about the song "Reel E" which starts the album with an absolutely epic meditative but totally mental climb and I'm like wooooooooooooowwww. I am melting.

    And with that, I'll call it a week. Hope you enjoyed the BASEBALL names, and maybe heard some new music. Thanks for reading!

    To be continued...

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