Tuesday Playlist: Nwah

It's been a quiet few weeks here, which is due to a variety of factors that converged, grabbed me around the ankles, and kept me from our usual silliness. These factors are listed below, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Fall is upon us, which means the trees on my property have launched their annual leaf attack; given that I am currently unemployed, I have spent many hours raking lately
2. As I just mentioned, I remain unemployed, and I'm not gonna lie; there are days when the growing weight of this situation and the ongoing grind of applying like a madman makes it hard to tune into the muse. (I'm okay, really, but if you think you or someone you know could make magic happen with my resume, let me know)
3. But that hasn't stopped me from devoting a lot of time to a book that's been gestating for WAY too long, specifically by scheduling and conducting interviews with an array of songwriters and '80s rockers. This has been Real Fun, and I am goddamn determined to drag it across the finish line sooner than later
4. I've also been spending a lot of time with a service called PodPitch, which makes it (relatively) easy to automate guest pitches to a fairly incredible database of podcasts. I've lined up 15-20 interviews to promote Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the Mundane, the first of which took place last weekend; I'll share them here as they post, and I'm looking forward to finding out whether this makes any difference whatsoever in terms of sales

There are probably other things that have wrapped themselves around my ankles lately, but I can't remember them right now, and anyway, you get the point. As I told Faithful Friend of Jefitoblog Robin Canan, I have been waylaid! Enough of you have told me that I don't owe you any explanations when I disappear for a bit, but some of you are paying for these posts, and it'd be amazing if more paid subscribers kept coming along, and in order to make that happen, I need to KEEP THE CONTENT COMING, so here we are.

I'm also chipping away at the next novel, which is nearing the 20,000-word mark. I still don't know if it'll be any good, but I do know where the story's going to go, and I'm still really excited to shepherd it toward that destination. As I mentioned a few months ago, this one's going to be a detective story — I keep telling people to think "Chinatown with jokes" — so while I'm writing, I often turn to (largely instrumental) music that fits that vibe. All of which leads me to this week's playlist, a treasure trove of music that's described as "Detective Noir/Neo Noir Jazz/crime jazz" by the angel of mercy who assembled it. If and when you're in the mood for this kind of thing — and if you're never in the mood for it, then I'm not sure we have anything in common — find comfort in the knowledge that you can feast on all 115 songs and eight hours of the noire-y, jazzy goodness that's been laid out for you here:

(If I'm being completely honest, I've actually spend the entire day listening to Tyler, the Creator's new CHROMAKOPIA album, which is one of the best things I've had the pleasure of aurally ingesting all year. But if I have the opportunity to choose between writing about myself and summoning the stones to shove past imposter syndrome long enough to write about a new hip-hop record, I'll always pick the former option. I might get around to penning a proper review at some point; in the meantime, if you aren't in the mood for noir jazz, stuff CHROMAKOPIA in your ears.)