On Sunday, January 21, 2018, I created a blog called Punk Goes Prenatt. The main purpose of this blog was to continue writing music news and reviews, much like I did with The Record at Buffalo State. What I didn’t expect was how this blog changed me.
Today is Punk Goes Prenatt’s one year anniversary, in case you didn’t get that in the first paragraph. In this article I will talk about what caused me to make PGP, the things I’ve leaned since beginning here, and the future of the blog.
Before PGP was even an idea, I was the culture editor for Buffalo State’s newspaper (they’re digital only now) The Record for three semesters. I started on the paper back in the fall of 2016, with my first article being on This Wild Life’s then new album Low Tides. Back then, I was a contributor for the paper. Throughout my time at The Record, I began improving my craft (seriously my older articles looked like garbage), writing sentences that flowed incredibly well. I wrote music reviews on acts like Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, Dance Gavin Dance, Less Than Jake, Waterparks, and The Tossers, which since led to a kinda partnership with Victory Records. They sent me free digital albums to review, a partnership that continues to this day (Thanks Tom).
I finally got my big break when I did concert reviews. Sure I paid to get in some cause I wasn’t that far yet in my career to cover shows for free. Shows that I paid with my own money for to cover include Tears For Fears, A Day To Remember, and Every Time I Die’s Tid The Season. But then I got to see people like Hatebreed, Jason Richardson, lovelytheband (this was when they played Alternative Buffalo’s The Kerfuffle Before Christmas), Broadside, and motherfucking U2. Yes, I saw U2 for free and sat in the section with all the other journalists (I had no idea the person two seats from my right was from Rolling Stone until we left New Era Field).
It was also where I wrote my first ever Prenatt’s Picks list. During those five weeks, I covered acts like 888, wore, ’68, Sir Sly, and Julien Baker. I wrote another list last year that had groups like Picturesque, I Don’t Know How But They Found Me, Fernway, Color Killer, and ASHES. I am currently working on one for this year, but I’m trying to get 50 bands and currently I’m near 40.
The major thing that I’m proud of this blog is that it helped me get a job in music journalism. While checking out the Revive Easycore group on Facebook, someone named Georgia said that the magazine she worked for, Discovered Magazine, was looking for more writers. Figuring I had a shot, I sent a resumé filled with articles from my years at The Record and from PGP. I ended up getting the job, and I currently do music reviews and just finished writing a piece on a South Wales alternative rock quartet called Scavengers.
Since starting this blog a year ago, I have seen my writing style change, improving ever so slightly. Reading some of my older articles and seeing the punctuation drives me crazy. Why did no one stop me when I wrote like that at The Record? That’s in the past now, and I’m more proud of my writing.
Now let’s talk about the future of this blog. Expect no major changes, but I will try to make this blog look as professional as possible. For this week, you can expect another Most Anticipated Albums of 2019 list featuring people like Huey Lewis & The News, Vampire Weekend, and Ariana Grande. As I said earlier, the 2019 Prenatt’s Picks list will be coming out soon.
Here’s to another year of success.
Punk Goes Prenatt 