Matt Nerney

Main Poop Analysis 2016

Dear POOPster:
So . . . there seems to be some agreement that 2016 could have been a tad better. If I may speak for many of you here, fuck you 2016, fuck you for so many reasons. As we approach the end of the world as we know it, we will have to find strength in the little things, as trivial as they might seem right now. And what could be more trivial than the 30th Annual(!) POOPlist.


Main Poop Analysis 2015

2015 just might become known as the year to beat when it comes to unbridled stupidity in America. But more alarming than that, I fear that with good ol’ American gumption, the coming election year will no doubt leave it behind in the dust. Recently I learned that the oft paraphrased H.L. Mencken quote, the one about how no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, actually had an even more apropos follow-up sentence: “Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” But while the American political system as we know it is currently circling the drain, we the POmpous and OPinionated have responded in the best manner we know. While some of those who would be President prattle on in their assholier-than-thou vitriol, 25 POOPsters have found 10 or 25 or so causes for which to campaign, with civil discourse and free of all squirmishes (thanks, Sarah P!). Feel the POOP.


Main PoOP Analysis 2014

2014 was a pretty rough year for the world. While good music might ordinarily offer a diversion from the bad and the ugly, occasionally a year comes dangerously close to getting its ass kicked. Seasoned as we are after 28 years of committing POOP to paper and post, we persevere and continue (in the face of beheadings, ebola, Boehner’s new band of blowhards, “I can’t breathe,” and climate calamity) to cling to both bad alliterations and silly year-end lists. Or do we? This year only 26 self-important pontificators got their cool cards punched (2 fewer than last year).


Matt Nerney Poop 2014

It was a year of continuous change, but also of hopeful permanence. We started the year in a small rental in Reading, Vermont and ended it in our rambling new home in Grafton, New Hampshire. In between, moving and madness. At journey’s end, we found the home of our dreams, a historic colonial, with barns, land, and forest. We’ve just ordered our seeds and are planning the vegetable garden. The cycle of life continues. Of course, one needs a soundtrack for all this change, and 2014 certainly provided it. Tops of the Pops     Buy New or Used via Amazon…


Main Poop Analysis 2013

Dear POOPster: I know you’ve been waiting with bad breath for the front-page POOP analysis and tabulation. So on this occasion, the 27th annual foray into the realm of the POmpous and the OPinionated, I present to you the combined musings of pretty much the same gaggle of blowhards, 28 of them to be exact. For reasons that both escape and annoy me, we are once again an almost entirely male sampling of swillmeisters; it’s getting right testosterony up in here. Talk about fitting the record geek profile. . . Anyway, to the Price-Waterhouse stuff. As usual, I’ve attempted to…


Matt Nerney Poop 2013

2013 was a year of big changes for my family and while music still played an important role in my experience, it just didn’t integrate itself as it usually has in the past. Moving to Vermont, finding new jobs, and shaping a new way of life has been a massive shift, an incredible life change that has included more wood-stacking, snow-blowing, and thankfully, more craft beer drinking. The experience has been intensely hectic and harried, but overall, happy. Music seemed almost to be an afterthought. The holidays though, as usual, brought many year-end reflections, and of course, the POOP. Tops…