By Karen Glauber

Deep sighs of both relief and resig­nation. I’m grateful that my house wasn’t in a fire zone—as long as Griffith Park stays intact, I’m fine. I’ve donated clothes and contrib­uted to as many GoFundMe accounts as possible, but that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what my impacted friends are going through. Some of my friends in Pacific Palisades say the toxic air is from the melted lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. Seems like this negates the reason to own an electric car.

The sound from the Watch Duty app keeps us triggered and anxious, which is why I’m cur­rently in my hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania, visiting my avowedly liberal 96-year-old uncle.

Eight years ago, I declared 2017 the year of “Are You Fucking Kidding Me?” The same sentiment applies to 2025, but this time with anger. Whatever I can control, I will. With that in mind, there’s no reason to get upset at radio programmers, or indies trying to kill the format with their insurmountable fees. This is the game we’ve chosen to play, and I’m going to be the second best at it (after Ted, of course.) That’s my mantra for 2025.

Amanda Dobbins has the most exciting record of 2025 (it already feels like a long year) with Lola Young’s “Messy.” As always, the female programmers were the first to jump up and down for this song, and the format is now following. I loved her performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and “Messy” is one of the biggest streaming stories of the year. I wish I had heard this song on the radio in 1974, instead of “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” or “Chevy Van.”

Speaking of songs explod­ing at streaming platforms, pay attention to beabadoobee’s new single, “Real Man,” currently streaming 1 million a day! Nominated for TWO BRIT Awards, Artist of the Year and Alternative/Rock Act, bea is exploding! She’s confirmed for Coachella and Bonnaroo, with other festivals to follow. “Beaches” was the year’s highest-charting song at Alternative for a female artist—let’s do this again!

In just over two weeks, The Lumineers are Top 10 with “Same Old Song.” It’s phenomenal how well this song is doing. In the scheme of things, this is what is making me happy. My favorite line from the song sums up how I’ve been feeling since the pandemic: “I don’t know what’s wrong with me/ I killed the mood so naturally/ The guests begin to make me feel alone.” Yeah, don’t invite me to your parties.

Also bursting onto the chart is the new Mumford & Sons single, “Rushmere,” which is a welcome complement to The Lumineers. Add The Head and the Heart to this group, and you have the perfect upper-demo records that your audience adores. New artist Jonah Kagen fits perfectly into this mix, as “God Needs the Devil” continues to grow. For all of the pop punk you play in Recurrent and Gold, the return of this “sound” is a fantastic balance.

The third artist on the Governors Ball lineup, after Tyler, the Creator and Benson Boone, is Mk.gee. Pretty impressive for an artist you haven’t started playing yet. Our approach to working Mk.gee is similar to the approach we took with Arcade Fire and Interpol, if any of you were around: Find the believ­ers and build from there. “ROCKMAN” is nearing Top 30, with airplay from programmers who legit love this song. This record is bigger than you, for real. I don’t want to hear again from programmers telling me, “Yeah, this song was a hit, and I missed it.” In 1996 I felt that way about Mundy’s “To You I Bestow,” which was on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack. Loved that song so much.

Very excited for the new Djo record, which Dave Lombardi played for us last week. “End of Beginning” was such a monster hit, and I expect the same for “Basic Being Basic”—just watched the lyric video on YouTube. Very cool.

SONG TO HEAR: “T&A” by Blondshell, currently found on Lorem, my favorite Spotify playlist.