2025 In Review: FOH

Welcome to Open Up and Read, the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow.

Let’s be honest: it’s been a rough year. But I’m still here.

I’ve had many professional highlights in 2025, which I am very grateful for. But stability was fleeting. Gigs came and went, sometimes within the same month. And I wasn’t the only one on this ride: every visit to LinkedIn brought a new round of layoff announcements. “After years at the publication, I was let go this past Friday…” It wears you down.

I’ve had good months. I’ve had bad months. If you picked up an issue of Metal Hammer in the back half of 2025, you probably saw my name in the New Noise section. I had the pleasure of interviewing Idle Heirs,  Die Spitz and Ash Magick for the magazine. I also wrote a review of Viagra Boys’s viagr aboys for an issue of ANTICS. At the start of the year, I had a Patterson Hood feature in CREEM.

Thank you to the bands and acts I was blessed to see: Slick Rick, Belushi Speedball, X-Cops, Drive-By Truckers, Jonathan Hulten, Uncle Ads & the Deadbeats, Molchat Doma, Chris Beardo, The Spits, St. Vincent, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Fatboi Sharif, RAWG, War on Women, Subhumans, The Vandals, Cheater Slicks, The Armed, The Buzzcocks, The Legendary Pink Dots, Uniform, Boris, Blood Vulture, Dwarves, Helmet, and GWAR.

(Yes, technically, I saw the same band three times this year.)

I’ll send out a more thorough list on the other side of January 1, but if you want some albums that got a bit overlooked in all the Best Of 2025 lists:

• Intercourse, How I Fell In Love With The Void

• Boko Yout, GUSTO

• 95 Bulls, Canadian Nightclub

• Los Straitjackets, Somos

• Pelican, Flickering Resonance

• Panopticon, Songs of Hiraeth

• Blackbraid, Blackbraid III 

I also spent a lot of time listening to Deafheaven’s Lonely People In Power, Turnstile’s NEVER ENOUGH, The Armed’s THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED and Viagra Boys’ Viagr aboys. I need to revisit PinkPanthress’s Fancy That and the albums by Labrini Girls and Wet Leg that came out this year.

Thanks to you for staying subscribed to this newsletter. Changes are coming in 2026. Here’s a look back at what you might have missed.

Open Up And Read

A quick recap of this newsletter:

• Tell The Boys: Music Journalism Peaked 10 Years Ago Today: Celebrating the anniversary of an essay that stuck in my head for a decade.

• How David Johansen Changed Me as a Music Fan: Written right before the New York Dolls’ singer passed.

• Weedeater’s Dixie Collins Remembers Steve Albini: Shared on the first anniversary of Albini’s death.

Parade

Yeah, Parade magazine. It was once a glossy insert that accompanied the Sunday newspaper, back when there were such things. I’ve contributed to Parade’s music coverage for the past year or so.

• Filter Responds To Fans Playing 'Hey Man, Nice Shot' After Charlie Kirk Killing: I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else cover this. I would love to see which songs spike in streams after significant events. You can track them yourselves: go to a YouTube video of any particular song, and you’ll see “who’s here in [current year]” comments. Many went to “Hey Man, Nice Shot” after Kirk’s killing, and the band actually responded.

• Mark Mothersbaugh Didn't Think Devo Would Be A Rock Band: I had the pleasure of talking with two members of DEVO about the new documentary that arrived on Netflix.

• K.K. Downing is ‘Stoked’ To Be Part of Black Sabbath’s Final Show: ‘The Biggest Metal Party in History’: I was lucky to chat with K.K. Downing (Judas Priest) about his involvement in Back To The Beginning, what would turn out to be Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance.

Treble

I continued my relationship with Treble in 2025. They remain one of the best independent music sites out there.

• Pelican Embrace Lightness: Pelican released a phenomenal record, marking the return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec.

• Devo’s Gerald Casale discusses new documentary Devo: I spoke with Casale for the second time about what was and wasn’t included in the DEVO documentary.

• Snooper 'Worldwide’’ Review: If you want to read a lengthy interview with them, I made my Razorcake debut by talking with the band (read that here). It’s gauche to mention another publication in the Treble section, but you know. I also contributed to Treble’s End of the Year coverage (albums, songs, electronic albums)

The Stunner

Later in 2025, I started contributing to The Stunner, a wrestling website with Rob Pasbani (Metal Injection) as the Editor in Chief. I almost ended up as his roommate back when I first moved to NYC, though I’m sure neither of us can now afford that basement apartment in Greenpoint anymore.

I began a series called Break The Song Down that spotlights wrestlers’ themes. I hoped to do something similar for Hollywood Life (you can read my 2023 interview with Ruby Soho about adopting Rancid’s song as her in-ring name and how Danzig called her a “scumbag.”)

You should also check out:

• The Complete History of Misfits in WCW

• “Mean” Gene Okerlund, the 1950s Crooner? The Lost History of His First Career

• How a Masked Wrestler from Buffalo Made a Best-Selling Children’s Christmas Album in Japan

Screen Rant
I wrote a handful of pieces for Screen Rant this year:

• 10 Songs That Define Frank Zappa's Career: Yeah, if you know anything about me, this should be no surprise.

•  10 Shock Rock Metal Songs That Show Why GWAR Rules With A Bloody Fist: If I’m not writing about Zappa, I’m writing about GWAR.

•  Why Fatboi Sharif is the Rapper That Every Punk and Metal Fan Should Be Listening To: The prolific Fatboi Sharif released three collaborative projects this year: Let Me Out with Driveby,  Goth Girl On The Enterprise with Roper Williams and ENDOCRINE with GDP. He also put out the deluxe edition of 2018’s Ape Twin. They all deserve your attention.

• 10 Classic Pop Punk Albums That Aren’t By Green Day Or Blink-182: This was initially titled “Classic 90s Pop Punk Albums,” which caused a lot of people in the comments to wonder why I didn’t have anything after 2000.

There’s more if you want to read.

Fansided

I contributed to Fansided’s Arizona Cardinals blog, Raising Zona, before their current dumpster fire of a season. The less said about the Cardinals, the better, but there was one piece that I stand on:  3 do's (and 1 don't) the Cardinals should consider for their Rivalries uniforms: This year, the NFL announced their version of MLB’s ‘City Connect’ / NBA’s ‘City Edition’ Uniforms. For some reason, the Cardinals were selected as one of the first teams to receive them, and well, much like the 2025 season, they fucked it up. They unveiled a desert-themed uniform that, at best, looks like a flour tortilla and, at worst, looks dirty.

I wrote more, if you care to read. Most of it is outdated. There’s always next season.

Remind

I had a wonderful time working with Remind, TV Insider’s classic pop culture website. A couple of choice pieces:

• How One Episode of Elvira’s ‘Movie Macabre’ Made Over $8 Million Dollars

• Which Classic Halloween Song Was Once Banned By the BBC for Being Too ‘Morbid’?

• Whatever Happened to E.G. Daily, Star of ‘Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure’ and Voice Acting Legend?

CLOSING

Keep reading. Keep listening to music. Keep finding joy in joyless times. Keep fighting against anger, greed and cynicism. Keep your heart open (but keep your defenses ready).

Keep going.

See you in the new year.

Open Up and Read is the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. Thanks for reading. Tell your friends to subscribe to OpenUpAndRead.com. You can also toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi. Be kind to cats. Music is the best.