Music Monday 2026.04.13: An Ode to a Friend

If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, you probably have a deep appreciation for music. If you have a deep appreciation for music, we likely have a friend in common.

This friend has been with you perhaps for a long time, maybe even decades. The day you met is burned into your memory. You likely recall spending many hours together, perhaps hundreds, with this friend.

This friend has been with you through so many things. The new relationship. The breakup. The big move. Perhaps your wedding day. Perhaps the day your kids were born. Maybe the day a loved one passed away. All the less noteworthy days in between, the friend was still there.

Who is this friend, you ask, and how do I know them if they’re YOUR friend and we don’t really know each other? Well the answer is that this friend is someone - rather, something - different for each one of us. This friend is a favorite album.

These friends stick with us through it all. The good times, the rough times, the stuff in between, these friends are with us, soundtracking our lives, enhancing whatever it is we’re going through. And maybe if you’re like me, you have a few of these friends! And all of them know exactly the right time to show up, never too late. They know when to support us and when to give us a loving smack to the face.

Tell me about some of your favorite friends. Who released them? What year? Did you discover them in the year they were released or sometime later? What are some of your favorite songs on the albums? And if you’re comfortable sharing, what are some of your favorite memories with the albums?

I’ll start with one of mine.

Quite possibly my favorite record of all time. Originally released in September 1996, I wasn’t too far behind the curve when I picked it up in late 1997. Having already become enamored with R.E.M. otherwise, Hi-Fi quickly became my favorite. I instantly fell in love with the rawness of it all. It felt very off the cuff to me from the opening drums of “How the West was Won and Where it Got Us”. That song, along with “E-Bow the Letter” and “Bittersweet Me”, form the introspective foundation of the record. There’s some swagger in “The Wake-Up Bomb” and “Departure”, some regret in “Binky the Doormat”. It ends on a positive note in “Electrolite”. And then there’s “Leave”, often maligned (unfairly, in my opinion) but stuck right in the middle of this incredible journey of music and words, ripped straight out of a nightmare sequence that perhaps serves as the sequel to “Find the River”. Hi-Fi runs the gamut, and it’s been with me for nearly 30 years.

One of my favorite memories of the album comes from my early university years. School was about a four hour drive from home, and I made the trip back and forth fairly regularly especially when I lived in a dorm room. Sometimes when I was making the drive at night, I’d put on Hi-Fi, crank it as loud as I could stand it, and sing the whole thing at the top of my lungs. There’s nothing quite like a south Georgia summer night.

We have recently finished production, including mixing and mastering, on our latest track “Losing Time”. This will be our first official release with all original lyrics and our first RömHeadTech release featuring vocals - special thanks to Iona Kassel for contributing to the lyrics and to Iona and Everday Solaris for providing the vocals. “Losing Time” is a bit of a turning point for us as we branch out into expanded capacity. Paid subscribers will have an opportunity to hear the song in the coming days with a wider release pending.