Guest “Best of 2024”: Tim Anderl (Sweet Cheetah PR)

---

Curious what notable personalities in the scene think was great this year? So is TGEFM! So we reached out to some of our favorite luminaries ranging from musicians, label personnel, and more for their “Best of 2024” lists. Now, listen: TGEFM is not a taskmistress. Contributors can write these out however they want. So if it doesn’t actually look or read like a list… and sometimes it really is just a list with no other observations! Who cares?

Sweet Cheetah Publicity is a small, boutique PR cohort started by American journalist Tim Anderl 12 years ago. Although it confuses people, including him most days, he provides pro-bono in exchange for charitable giving PR work to friends and referrals. To date, Anderl says that SCPR has helped to raise over $100K in donations to charitable organizations. 
Anderl lives in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, with his eight-year-old son Oliver, and a three-year-old mixed breed rescue dog named Duncan (named after a protagonist from the John Hughes movie Some Kind of Wonderful). 
If you’d like to peruse Sweet Cheetah’s work in ’24, check out this playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5iZwqJ99Pw4nlCo49ZUVYj?si=9f7db015db3b4f97
Anderl continues to be a contributor to New Noise Magazine and Ghettoblaster Magazine, in addition to having an unrelated day job since his graduation from Ohio University in 1998.

---

Not spending money on concerts and records
This year was an extremely weird one for me as it is the first year since I started working (34 years ago) that I made a decision to forego most concert ticket and record purchases. At this point you’re probably saying, “how very un-punk/unsupportive of the arts of you.” “Is it even worth working for a paycheck if you can’t spend on those things?”Trust me, I agree… However, as a result of tampering down my spending on music to a very significant degree, my little blended family tribe was able to cover some significant, and unexpected necessities/bills, and I was able to start a small record label without going into deep debt. My partner and I are also taking a family trip this Winter with our kids while they’re still at an age where they’ll tolerate spending quality time with us.
Sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do, however painful. 

Enjoying events and concerts in my own backyard
Although I set a boundary with regards to excessive spending on travel to music festivals or large concerts, I did pursue opportunities locally to see some absolutely phenomenal live music taking place within an hour’s drive of my home. Sweet Cheetah worked with MidWest Music Festival to put on a little pre-Fest show at Southgate House Revival in Cincinnati that included sets by Sammy Kay, Place Position, The 1984 Draft, and Bandages, Palm Ghosts made a few trips to Dayton and Springfield, I attended a couple of shows at Blind Rage Records, and made it out to part of Dayton Music Festival where I was able to catch Philadelphia’s Lilito, West Virginia’s Exit Angles, and Dayton’s Oh Condor, and a few others. Being able to see Lilito, Exit Angles, Oh Condor, and Palm Ghosts in a single night is almost better than any festival I could have dreamed up.

Sweet Cheetah Records (sweetcheetahrecords.com)
Like I mentioned in my list last year, in early 2023 I began kicking around the idea of starting a record label for the express purpose of releasing Palm Ghosts’ incredible I Love You, Burn In Hell LP, which the band and I were struggling to find an appropriate label home for (it ended up released by a team of four awesome labels and the record was in the black in under a month btw). 
Before I knew it, the label had a roster that included my brother’s band, The 1984 Draft, Broken Hearts Are Blue (ex-Ottawa, Current, Ordination of Aaron), Chris Broach (of Braid), Christopher Lee Lewis (formerly of Lewis and The Kinison), Upset Boy and the Queens (ex-Dirt Reynolds, Thelma and the Sleaze), and Zach Barocas’ powerhouse collective New Freedom Sound.
In addition to genuinely loving each of the 15 releases Sweet Cheetah has had a part in, I’m also so fortunate to have worked with some of the best people and musicians on the planet in pursuit of this project. Thanks also to the amazing labels who teamed with me on these releases this year — Heading East Records, New Granada Records, Poptek Records, Steadfast Records. Fred, Keith and Susie, Andy, and Matt are genuinely the best people and you should buy their entire catalogs.
Not to be overlooked, Sweet Cheetah Records was involved in releasing five “Covers For A Cause” (from Palm Ghosts and Compilations respectively) and two albums (by Christopher Lee Lewis) where 100 percent of sales went to amazing organizations like The Trevor Project, Doctors Without Borders, Project AnimalAid, To Write Love on Her Arms, Equality Texas, and more.

Continuing to set boundaries and set aside time to maintain my personal health
To be honest, I’ve never been good at saying “no” or making time for my own personal needs. It always seemed selfish to me to prioritize things like getting enough sleep, working out, tending to my mental health, or turning down calls for my time or help from even my most casual of acquaintances when I knew my dance card was already full. As a result, my own lack of movement, poor eating habits, body’s production of cortisol, etc. led to some pretty unhappy adult years and a toll on my mind and body. 
While I can’t say I’ve found the perfect balance, I have made it a priority to get 8 hours of sleep, eat fewer processed foods, set aside time for workouts/weight training three to five times a week, put my screens away to spend more quality time with my son, and to say no when I’m at my bandwidth. These things are absolute game changers. I’m happier, healthier, in better shape than I have been in many years, have lost a little weight (around 25 lbs), and I’m focused and in the right mindset when I do sit down to work.
If you’re struggling with any of the things I described above, know that you don’t have to do it all at once. Make one small change. Notice how the world didn’t end by making that change. Get comfortable with it and make it a routine. Then make another small change. Don’t live unhappy and stuck in habits or relationships that no longer serve you. You’re worth it!

Making time to check in on friends
Earlier this year I became acquainted with Jay Holmes, an artist (his stuff for Bifocal Media is SICK!) and musician living in Japan, and whom some may recognize from his time in The Ladderback, or from his absolutely killer band FVRMN. I noticed that Jay would send messages from time to time just to check in and see how I was doing, which always seemed to come at the right time, and that I appreciated immensely. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have other friends that do that from time to time too (shout out to Christopher Lee Lewis, Lisa Thompson, Aubrey Adams, Andy Ingram, Beverly Cazzell, Jack Duckworth, Joe Compton, Brandy King, Brian Griffith), but to see Jay doing it from the other end of the planet really moved me.
That said, I’ve been making sure to check in on my people when I’m thinking of them, and encourage you to do the same. Social media and email make this easier than ever before, and it might make a huge difference and be just the gesture the recipient on the other end needed (coming at just the right time).

Ditching X/Twitter
Another good decision I made this year was to kick my X/Twitter account to the curb. I’ve made it a point not to actively engage in political discourse online, and have written and erased literally thousands of social media posts this year. 
That said, it was an easy decision to leave that platform. I believe supporting causes, people, platforms, etc., that align with my morals, ethics, values, money might make a small difference. I hope. Should have left sooner.

For the remainder of my list…
What “Best Of” list for a music site wouldn’t be complete without a list of great records that have been in rotation this year. I simply can’t disappoint you by not including those. One small disclaimer, I’ve chosen to exclude records that I released or actively worked on in a publicist capacity this year. Frankly, there are a ton of them and they all rule, no cap. 

The Cure, Songs of a Lost World, Fiction, Lost Music, Universal, Polydor, and Capitol Records
The band’s first material in 16 years is simply its best since Wish in my opinion. If I were to register one critique of an otherwise absolutely stunning return to form, it is that it definitely leans towards Disintegration-era, moody The Cure, and I do miss the “pop” band that wrote stuff like “Let’s Go To Bed,” “Love Cats,” “Push” and the like. 

Harriet The Spy, Unfuckwithable, Solid Brass Records
If there was one other Ohio scene, aside from Dayton’s in the ’90s, that completely transformed and shaped how I heard, listened to, and expected live performance to make me feel, it was Kent, Ohio’s. So many of my favorite bands emerged from that strange part of Ohio — The Man I Fell In Love With, Pankration, The Party of Helicopters, Harriet The Spy, Underground Asian Movement, Old Hearts Club, The Six Parts Seven, Kill The Hippies, LiGod, The (New) Terror Class, Armstrongs Secret Nine. I’m sure there are some I’m missing…
That said, if you haven’t ordered the remastered reissue of Harriet The Spy’s Unfuckwithable from Solid Brass Records you really, really should. This is some of the weirdest, coolest art-punk Ohio had to offer in the ’90s aside from Brainiac.
Also, Solid Brass Records is a label that just consistently knocks out of the park in packaging, presentation, and curation. I highly recommend their Shotmaker, Red Scare, Grain, and Antarctica releases as well (so stoked to finally have some of these things on LP formats instead of digging through my dusty CD collection for those beautiful relics of my youth).

Knox, The EPs (How To Lose A Girl in 7 Songs/I’m So Good At Being Alone), Atlantic Records
My trainer at the gym turned me on to his friend, a singer/songwriter originally from Dayton, Ohio, named Knox. Some of you may have either caught his sets at this year’s Lollapalooza, or on the HULU broadcasts. This dude writes a hell of a pop song, and singing along to his songs in my soccer dad mini-van with my son has become routine. Our favorites are “Time Machine,” “Sneakers,” “I Don’t Wanna Know,” “Not the 1975.” Solid bops each and every one. 
Knox, who now lives in Nashville, is the kind of songwriter who is either going to blow up, or be the dude who writes the greatest hits of future Billboard charting pop greats. Either way, a brilliant career is afoot in my opinion. I also found out recently that he attended Ohio University, my alma mater. He’s in good company — Richard Dean Anderson, Nancy Cartwright, Piper Perabo, John Schmersal from Brainiac, Enon, Caribou, members of Skeletonwitch, and Brothertiger.

Planes Mistaken For Stars, Do You Still Love Me?, Deathwish Inc.
The band’s first album since 2016’s Prey, it is the groups final album with singer guitarist Gared O’Donnell, who recorded the album during the pandemic and amid chemotherapy and radiation treatment for esophageal cancer, which eventual claimed his life in 2021. 
This is a breathlessly intense album by a band that was always seemed to be barreling towards either oblivion or glory, and more often the later. Simply, this is some of O’Donnell and his band’s strongest work. It is heavy with grief, it’s agitated, ambitious, and simply glorious. A beautiful swan song that shows that O’Donnell went out kicking and screaming, just as I would have expected him to.

Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary at London Bridge Studios, SDRE Tours, LLC
A sincere thanks to the guys from SDRE for recording and releasing this. The first time I heard it was like listening for the first time to an album I’ve listened to literally tens of thousands of times. This release shows exactly why SDRE has achieved GOAT status and will stay there.

Thanks so much to TGEFM for this incredible opportunity. They do an awesome job of bringing largely unsung music to the masses, and I couldn’t be more blessed that they’ve taken note of the work the Sweet Cheetah cohort is doing.

Sweet Cheetah PR/Records:
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sweetcheetahpr.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetCheetahPR/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SweetCheetahPR