Swell, it’s been a swonderful year.
For us, 2019 was all about discovering the wonders of our new home of Portland, Oregon. We’ve met all kinds of wonderful songwriters, been to a plethora of new venues, and even took a trip to Pickathon. The music here is incredibly thoughtful and unbound by structural, cultural, or societal norms.
We’ve made lots of wonderful new friends all over the world but must give a special shoutout to our new friend Damian aka indielover21. If you’re any kind of indie music band or fellow fan, you’ve probably seen Damian front and center at Portland shows. We highly suggest you introduce yourself to him if you get the chance.
We also put all of our love into the compilation we released this year with Various Small Flames: Summer of Love. Some of our favorite bands kindly recorded of covers of their favorite love songs and all the proceeds have gone to Homeward Bound Animal Rescue. Have a listen and grab a cassette tape of the whole thing here.
It’s been another great year of place-themed playlists and disposable camera photos with tour playlists on our One Swell Day feature. We’ve seen portions of tours, hometowns in other countries, and a lot of Seattle snaps now that we’ve relocated. One photo from a set of photos taken last year was even used as an album cover this year.
Thanks for supporting us this year. We are forever thankful for you and hope, as always, you’ve discovered some new music to adore from following us. Here are 50 nifty songs we really loved this year with an emphasis on newer artists and songs that might not be on every year end list but really deserve to be. Find all sorts of 2019 niftiness below!
