Friday 5x5:

Friday 5x5:

Friday 5x5:

Friday 5x5: mostly last week's releases or two concerts this week

Finally caught my spreadsheet back up. Other than Decembers (when I almost exclusively listen to music from year-end lists), my previous single-month high for new albums in a month was 66. This doesn't include the 10 artists' full discographies I listened to before seeing them in concert either

jordan@jdepstein.bsky.social · 4w ago

July: 103 (+59)

Friday 5x5: Finished the Treble list of best albums of 2026 so far (www.treblezine.com/the-48-best-...)

A thing I am mindful of for the Kamloops municipal election is that I have no idea how to evaluate incumbent councillors. In the Rob Ford days, I would default to Ford Nation Voting %. In hindsight that would have led me to vote for Ana Bailão if I'd moved to Davenport in 2014 instead of 2015:

Toronto City Council Scorecard, Updated September 19, 2018

docs.google.com

Friday 5x5:

I have listened to some bad music over the years based on sports connections - looking at you, Josh Ho-Sang's 2024 album about retiring from hockey to become a crypto entrepreneur - but this is going too far

Awful Announcing@awfulannouncing.bsky.social · last mo.

ESPN star Pat McAfee announced the release date for his debut musical album "The Diary Of A Polarizing Figure" awfulannouncing.com/espn/pat-mca...

Friday 5x5: 100% of albums here are either 2026 releases or albums from an artist* (or their other projects) I either saw in concert this week or will see this weekend

Someone just sent me this photo from Chicago, unbelieveable

Having now seen all three members of boygenius play solo shows, # of times per concert they had to stop mid-song due to a crowd member passing out: Phoebe Bridgers 4 Lucy Dacus 2 Julien Baker 0

Almost time to blast Los Campesinos!, as is tradition

I'm hoping the existence of a separate headline show means that the crowd at the Amp will be relatively normal tonight but given Montréal jazzfest I'm not sure that's realistic. Could see half the crowd leave after they open, anything's possible

ℳatt@matttomic.bsky.social · 2mo ago

the Quebecois Microtonal Polkaroo Experience are simultaneously playing a 7pm show at Mod Club tonight while also being the openers for Jack White at RBC Amphitheater at 8pm

that’s a keeper

A good newsletter that does not explore the incredibly bad idea of the New Zealand/Fiji/US joint bid for the 2038 World Cup, a thing that will not happen but was reportedly considered last year. Can already imagine the 'Fan forgets Date Line, misses game' stories. www.nytimes.com/athletic/636...

Club World Cup prices drop, Infantino irks Canada and Mexico, New Zealand-US World Cup? – Inside FIFA's dramatic Congress (Published 2025)

nytimes.com

Rodger Sherman@rodger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

TODAY! IN! SPORTS! I wrote a little bit about actual World Cup games ... ... and a lot about FIFA's rigging its own rules so Saudi Arabia can host a World Cup that already looks like it's going to be a huge disaster in 2034 and (maybe) the USA can host again in 2038

Friday 5x5: now that it's July I'm reading mid-year lists to catch up on the best albums of 2026 I missed

Overturn this! 😎

Pausa de Humiliacion

Friday 5x5:

And Eusébio, the best Portuguese player of all time, used to play pro soccer in Toronto for an ethnically Croatian team back in the NASL days

Rodger Sherman@rodger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Big game in Toronto: there are 300,000 Portuguese-Canadians and 100,000 Croatian-Canadians in Ontario per the province government

A fun list! To nitpick: - no Spadina Bus? - Wrong BNL song (both Jane/War on Drugs are better and reference Toronto) - Missing Constantines' National Hum - Bobcaygeon - Wouldn't take anything out for The Ballad of the RAA but songs like that/Get Dark/etc. would make my longlist to consider

Richie Assaly@rdassaly.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Completely uncontroversial list of the Top 25 Toronto Songs in the Star last weekend. I blurbed songs by Drake, The Weeknd, Mustafa, Suakrates and Charlotte Cornfield.

South Africa must now reclaim ownership of Elon Musk

Biggest Canadian goal since the Julia Grosso PK, biggest men's goal since…2000?

Friday 5x5: finished the Polaris Longlist, on to the Treble list (www.treblezine.com/150-indie-ro...)

Between 'the 2029 Asian Winter Games will never happen at Trojena, an outdoor ski resort in the middle of the Arabian desert that does not exist' and this, Saudi sport has led these rankings non-stop since 2022

Rodger Sherman@rodger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

update your Things Which Will Never Happen power ranking, I have a new runaway #1 Thing Which Will Never Happen: This proposed stadium for the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, a 45,000-seat stadium on top of a 1,000 foot tall building. that's 8 years away, they should start working on a backup plan

Friday 5x5: working my way through the Polaris Longlist

25 years on and he's playing the biggest match of his international career against Qatar this afternoon

WHAT A FUCKING RECORD@whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 3mo ago

25

An SB Nation blogger used his writing to become a general manager of a team that won the Stanley Cup

Unrelated to hosting, Toronto during the World Cup, any World Cup year, rocks. Every country or region in the world has some significant presence here, every game is making some part of the city go insane, being in a city of immigrants absolutely slaps