It’s that time of year again.

Here in the Crooked Forest, we know how despite all the work you do all year on your projects, it’s easy to get lost in the woods feeling like you haven’t so much as picked an apple or planted a seed. That’s why we always make a point towards the end of the year to look back on what we’ve accomplished and give ourselves a little pat on the tree branch for the effort that went into it. Usually, by the time we’ve finished running through the year, we’re able to recognize that we’ve actually done a lot more than we gave ourselves credit for and we can set our sights to the new year with just the right amount of positive momentum to keep at it.

As always, we encourage you all to do your own lists and set ambititous goals, because whatever it is, we think you can do it.

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Music Releases

On the music front, we had a pretty successful year again. Here’s a few projects that were released over the last 12 months.

Jaimee Eat World – Futures

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a full Jimmy Eat World cover album, but Futures arrived on September 19th, 2024. Available wherever you stream.

Neither Could Dylan – Foxchase

The follow-up to 2023’s Acceptance arrived on March 15th, Foxchase, a 17-track oddysey that serves as a precurser to the band’s debut.

Treble Charged – Still Wide Awake Bored

It was short lived and we chose to take the project down after Deryck Whibley’s memoir was released, but we did record the entire Wide Awake Bored record and are still proud of what what into it.

Death Bus for Blondie – You Can Do Better Than Me, Your New Twin Sized Bed

Death Bus for Blondie returned in May with You Can Do Better Than Me before having some sort of mental breakdown during the summer months with Your New Twin Sized Bed, both available on YouTube.

Neither Could Dylan – Title & Registration

Oddly, not a Death Bus for Blondie release, but it happened.

Neither Could Dylan – Futures (Acoustic)

Also, for reasons unbenknownst to me, not a Jaimee Eat World release, but this was included as part of a compliation album put out by Audio Mirage Studios called Music That Changed my Life.

Collaborations

We were also pleased to be invited to work with other artists again this year.

Neither Could Dylan x Maneframe – Hey Wait

Neither Could Dylan teamed up with Maneframe on Hey Wait, released on March 12th, 2024.

Neither Could Dylan x Marc Schuster – Hole in the Boat, Can’t Help Falling in Love

Featured on backing vocals on Marc Schuster’s Hole in the Boat, Marc returned the favour lending his drumming to Neither Could Dylan’s cover of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love. Both are available on Bandcamp.

In Progress

A Julian Taylor cover is on the way and a new Neither Could Dylan album is nearing completion for a 2025, and there’s some rumblings about the continuation of the Death Bus for Blondie project while Jaimee Eat World takes a brief hiatus.

In other music-related accomplishments….

We went on tour.

Sort of. We played some shows this year and were ecstatic to be invited to play in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for the first time at The Distraction.

We also had a great time playing the first artist showcase held at Bar Cathedral in Toronto back in February and hit up a couple open mics, adding Handlebar and Free Times Cafe to our list of stages played.

We interviewed some great artists.

And want to say thanks to everyone who submitted music for review or feature and those who participated in our Casual Convesration series. Thanks Big Milk, Snap Infraction, Quizboy, Michel Neray, Marc Schuster, Scoopski, Hot Apollo, Rose Alaimo and Alex Southey.

We were in a music video.

Thanks to The Anti-Queens for the invite and hospitality. Disenchanted is one of our favourite albums of 2024 and we were stoked to be on set for Magnolia.

We saw some great shows.

What\s a year in review without a nod to the great concerts we caught?

For your recommendation:

Ron Sexsmith, Bowling for Soup, The Anti-Queens, Teenage Head, Carl Dixon, all of the artists of Winterfolk 2024, The Get-Up Kids, Smoking Popes, I Mother Earth, The Tea Party, Elijah Russell, Ron, David Quincy, Skye Wallace, Big Milk, Mihalystic Entities, Death Wears Tie Dye, Jerkoff Diary, Headstones, Death Cab for Cutie, Slow Pulp.

We obsessed over new albums.

Thanks for your releases. Here’s just a few we haven’t stopped spinning since they arrived:

Julian Taylor – Pathways
The Anti-Queens – Disenchanted
Japandroids – Fate & Alcohol
Jack White – No Name

Misses

We took a chance on a music producer, a strategic move intended to move ourselves forward as artists. Like some sort of sick music-industry right of passage, the experience ended with us being out $4000 with nothing to show for it other than our exhaustive Am I Being Scammed By My Music Producer blog series, but at least now we don’t feel like we need to hire anybody to end up with a product we’re proud of.

There are probably other misses, but, let’s move on to…

Looking Ahead to 2025

It became entirely too clear while writing this blog this year that my personal focus shifted dramatically this year towards the future of Neither Could Dylan and the Pine Four Records collection, so I do feel like I fell a little short on Crooked Forests’ featured blogs and releases by anyone-who’s-not-me. It is a great challenge to spread myself between, broadly speaking… that and this.

While I no longer accept direct submissions from artists, I do still want to feature your great work. The cavest is that because this is a personal blog and not an industry-driven e-zine, I tend to need ample time with your work before I connect to it personally. So, features will continue, but I’ll reach out to you instead of you to me going forward for interviews and if you’re interested and willing to participarte, than great. I just don’t have the capacity as a single person to keep up with the workload that comes if I keep submissions open through the year and I know the quality of the features will suffer if I continue things that way.

Thanks very much for reading, listening and supporting my projects over the last year and thanks for the great conversations if we’ve managed to connect this year.

If you’d like to collaborate on any music projects in the new year, don’t be shy & do reach out.

All the best, see ya back in a couple weeks.