American Pancake's Personal Year In Review (Conspiracy Free)

 

"it's been a devastating year but the indie music still shined through"

2020 has been an almost inconceivable year. A year that looked back upon, beneath the cold hard microscope of historical context, will likely be viewed as one of devolution. A Bizarro World (Htrae) even too strange for DC Comics writers to conjure up even though President Trump (as he really is) could be written absolutely straight and still fit the upside down, morally corrupt standards of an upside down / inside out Bizarro world. There are too many disturbing and vexing things that happened in 2020 to list, from the George Floyd killing, Covid 19- resulting in record numbers of deaths and economic destruction, cities on American soil occupied, social unrest / revolution clashing in record numbers, a cancel culture that may of cancelled itself, Karens, virtue signaling, a Presidential Election seemingly cast on Social Media instead of the Ballot Box and a US President trying to subvert the will of the people he is constitutionally bound to serve. All this and a shit ton of conspiracy theories tossed upon it all, at degrees you would only find on a QAnon message board. Seemingly, people have lost their fucking minds. Once that happens, these lost souls start to believe in any fairy tale put in front of them because the human mind has a need to believe in something, in anything.

All the while, American Pancake, this still fledgling, stumbling indie music blog has laid down more words about divergent artists than ever before. Here are some numbers, free of conspiracy theories. 

In 2020 AP listened to 48,688 minutes of new music and gave 332,012 words of feedback.

We wrote about 1328 artists or bands to the tune of 343,952 original words of reviews along with disseminating an additional 218,155 words from the artists themselves (in bio's / press notes) and 5312 Links shared.

Reviews ran the gamut from short burst blurbs (160 words), quick take aways (250 words), inspired and sometimes bent reflections (450 words) or full on, in depth, album reviews (928 to 1337 words). 

Our approval rate fluctuated but overall ran at 11 percent, less than the 18 to 22 percent of last year but we wrote more words in total. I am not sure what that means and I hope our approval percentage goes up in 2021 but we always try to stick to our artistic guns and write about music that truly moves us. This past year, we have made a conscious effort to reach outside our musical wheel house more and, I must say, the result has been wondrous. 

We are still and may always be a tiny blog. AP is for the most part a one man show although during the last quarter I have been helped tremendously by Alyssa Holland, my own encyclopedia of divergent music, who lent and continues to lend a hand while I take care of other things while overseeing and still writing content here. 

As our economy shifts so does my economic outlook. AP will survive but my time is like an apple pie and this blog will occupy a smaller slice if things keep going the way they have been. If you want to help out please do so by donating or sharing the link. Thanks in advance. As hard as it is to make ends meet, at the end of the day, I feel so blessed to be able to help the vast wealth of artists who are making some mind blowing art that is amazing and inspiring. 

Pitchfork Media, Consequence of Sound, Indie Shuffle, BrooklynVegan and, literally, countless other blogs have a wider outreach than AP but I don't think there is another music blog that cares less about an artist's Facebook Likes or Spotify plays and more about that same artist's aesthetic, originality, heart and ability to suck us into their stories that American Pancake. We have always been willing to give a listen when other blogs will not.

-Robb Donker Curtius