What is Negative Progression?

Negative Progression started as pandemic-era DIY ‘zine for my friends. Essentially, it was a series of conversation topics that I’d having been discussing with various people I know, if we weren’t all quarantining at home. (One of the many rejected titles was Quaranzine.)

Turns out, I enjoyed writing it a lot (and people seemed to like it reading it) so I decided to make it into a Substack page so that I could increase the speed of production. But I still plan to make more ‘zines in the future!

What will Negative Progression be about?

Primarily, but not exclusively, it’s about music. There are a few recurring pieces:

  • Album Stories - A series in which I wax nostalgic about an album and how it fits into my life. If you talk to cool people, they might tell you that the humble 45rpm single is the perfect medium. I, however, remain a firm believer in the long play album as the perfect medium. I love a #1 hit single as much as anyone, but it seems to me that you have to grind it out to achieve perfection in an album: enough good songs, the correct track order, flow, vibe, artwork, etc. There isn't an album story for every album I own, but there are certainly enough for a recurring segment. Here’s an example.

  • One Perfect Song - Songs can take many forms. Some are engineered to be an anthemic single. Some are the perfect opener or closer (for an album or a live show). Some were included on an album just to make up the numbers. In this series I highlight a song that always grabs my attention when I hear it. Here’s an example.

  • “Bootleg Greatest Hits” - The Greatest Hits compilation seems to be a much-maligned concept. I both understand why that is the case, and also hate that it is the case. I have about 15 greatest hits CDs in my car at this exact moment. Sometimes all you need from a band is their hits, but if you're not a "Big, Rich Rock Band" you don’t usually get to release a greatest hits compilation. So, in this ongoing series, I'll be making them on behalf of the overlooked, underappreciated or otherwise passed over. Here’s an example.

  • Grab Bag - Beyond music writing, I also like to occasionally dip my toe into some other waters. This can cover anything of interest to me at the given time, which is may include: Books, TV, Professional Wrestling and any other undefined miscellany or musings. Here’s an example.

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Who Am I?

I’m Chris Whitehead and I live in Los Angeles, CA. I used to host a weekly radio show that covered a lot of the same territory as I do in this Substack page.

You can listen to the archives of that radio show here and you can follow me on Twitter here.

Newsletter logistics

Negative Progression is a free publication that is published monthly on an adh-hoc schedule

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It started as an idea for a zine, then maybe it was gonna be a blog, then it became a zine and now it's also a Substack. Format aside, it's me writing about the things I love.

People