2021 was a good year for me, in the way that it sucked less than 2020. That's a low bar but I am grateful that I could release a record, play a handful of shows and write an article or two for That's Good Enough For Me. And. oh yeah, I had COVID. Maybe this year did suck just as hard as the last one. Anyway, here”s my best of 2021:
Best Record: UgLI – Fuck
This record made a huge impression on me. Not only are all the songs great, it just sounds so good. It's refreshing to hear a band that sounds like a live band in a room instead of the sterile overproduced music we hear from most bands. I could listen to this record every day and, if it wasn't for this site, I've probably would never heard it.
Best song: Sincere Engineer – “Trust Me“
I discovered Sincere Engineer pretty late and since then it have became one of my favourite bands. I was anticipating their second record Bless My Psyche for months. That's a good record but I do feel there are some duds on there. However, the opening song “Trust Me” is just too fucking good. It has the best sing along chorus of 2021, trust me.
Best lyric: Bo Burnham – “That Funny Feeling”
I almost forgot to enter this entry because I could have sworn that Bo Burnham's Netflix special Inside was released in 2020. A lot of things have been said about that special so I am not going to dwell on it here. But the lyric “20,000 years of this, 7 more to go” gets me every time. I find that line very comforting despite its apocalyptic meaning.
Most fun article to write: The Green Day debate
Writing articles can be hard. You have trouble finding the right words. However, when fellow contributor Mike Elfers stated on Facebook that Insomniac was a better record than Dookie, I wrote a full page why he was wrong in 5 minutes. Julie and Mike wrote their parts with some “points” and the rest is TGEFM-history. Fun read, fun write! As Mike said: “gah, we sound like a bunch of dickheads. I love it”. I concur.
Best podcast: The Punk Roquette Show
We live in the age of podcasts and there's one podcast in the punk rock world I love the most: The Punk Roquette Show by French Canadian Emily Plamondon. Armed with a charming energy and dito accent she plays songs from unknown bands from around the world and interviews people. I really like the fact that she doesn't only talk to top-tier guest but also The Punk Cellist guy, the Canadian PR-person for Fat Wreck Chords and so on.
Honourable mention: the interview with Fletcher from Pennywise on Toby Morse's podcast.
Best TGEFM Slack message that made me listen to some music which I really liked: Julie River about Atmosphere
The TGEFM editorial team communicates via Slack and in one of these channels Julie River mentioned the new Atmosphere record. I kind of forget about those guys and it turned out their new record Word is really good! Thanks Julie! Best song is obviously “Barcade” with Aesop Rock and MF Doom.
Best emotional rollercoaster: The Ink Bomb 2021 tour
As most people in a band I wasn't able to play shows for over 18 months. When restrictions in Europe were lifted, my band Ink Bomb was able to book six shows in very short time span including the infamous Booze Cruise festival in Hamburg. The first show after 18 months was weird but we felt lucky we could finally play again. On the road to Copenhagen we felt very excited to see our friends in Denmark again. In the car we received two cancellations in a row. The show in Copenhagen was so much fun: no restrictions, no masks, no social distance. Back home we found out Booze Cruise was cancelled.
Quirijn's primary focus for TGEFM is on album reviews and band interviews. When he's not writing for the site, he can be found mixing sound at Fiction Studio, mixing up beats for as one part of hip-hop duo Breekpunt, or playing guitar for punk quartet Ink Bomb.