my lockdown project during the summer of 2020 was releasing a couple of things on bandcamp as @magicians.
Because I was obsessively checking stats I noticed that someone at MIT had been looking at my stuff, and IIRC I looked up the unfamiliar user agent and deduced that it was some kind of radio playlist management software, and from there I somehow figured out that one of my tracks was probably going to be featured on Pipeline, a show featuring local music on @wmbr 88.1 FM, hosted by Jeff Breeze.
He played a track from my 'Keeysville' EP, which was an incredibly generous and inspiring thing of him to do, and then when I released 'Old Days' he played a track off of that too.
I believe it was that first episode I listened to that also featured a remote appearance by Crystal Canyon, a new-to-me #shoegaze band from Portland Maine, covering the usual topics of the strangeness of isolation, trying to safely get together as a band, etc., and then they performed a very cool cover of Mike Nesmith's "You May Just Be The One"
It's a highly unlikely pairing and Crystal Canyon doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, but I've always had a fondness for them because of the shared connection of that episode of Pipeline. (but also they're good! They don't play out a lot but I hope to catch them live someday)
I reached out and thanked Jeff and we connected on instagram and had a couple of exchanges, and then he passed away suddenly that November. It was so much at the end of such an awful year that I kind of shoved it aside and never really absorbed any of it; I forget the unlikely occurrence of a couple of my instrumental banjo tunes getting played on terrestrial radio in Boston, and then as soon as I remember it I have to remember the extremely untimely passing of an extremely cool person.
RIP Jeff, I wish I'd gotten the chance to know you better.
https://artsfuse.org/225179/arts-remembrance-jeff-breeze-host-of-wmbrs-pipeline/
Anyway, Crystal Canyon: good stuff even if it's always tinged with a little bit of the sadness of late 2020 for me
https://crystalcanyon.bandcamp.com/track/only-in-a-daydream
#WMBR