check out my cool t-shirts.
i love clothes.
got some great news the other day. bon iver is dropping an album in april. april is shaping up to be a great month for me (this and the crux, i know that’s right). but today’s post is inspired by this bon iver tweet that i saw:
i love music t-shirts. i think most people who are into music enjoy their music t-shirts. i usually prefer to grab a shirt at whatever show i go to which can be hard because sometimes the designs at the merch table are… mid. so i don’t usually get a shirt at shows. i’m less fond of just buying an artist’s shirt off their website, but needs must, y’know. if the designs are mid.
i don’t often get to show off my cool t-shirts because we’re not allowed to wear graphic tees at work and whenever i’m not at work i’m either 1) at home in my jim-jams or 2) going somewhere where my outfit needs to be a little more than just a t-shirt. so, prepare to enjoy… my music t-shirts.
i do have a few that i’ve retired. i am extremely particular about the fit of my shirts. i have preferences and they run deep. i’m about 5’ even, give or take an inch. most of my height is in my legs. my torso is pretty short, so most t-shirts are way too long for me and bunch up uncomfortably around my waist. as a boob-haver (a real-ass boob-haver, too, these things are 30D) i also don’t love when t-shirts are super tight around the chest. especially because it’s usually tight around the armpits, too. so i have a couple shirts from when i was around high school age—seventeen, eighteen—that i just can’t wear anymore because the fit is insufferable. shout out to my modest mouse t-shirt, my neutral milk hotel t-shirt, my swans t-shirt, my…
american football tank top
probably the oldest music shirt i have in my wardrobe right now that hasn’t been retired. leo has this design as a t-shirt. this is from the high school era but i think the only reason that i keep it in regular rotation is because it’s a tank top so it doesn’t really have the armpit-tightness that a shirt of the same size from the same era would have. my friend jody hemmed it for me, too, so it’s not awkwardly long now. kind of a basic design, but it gets the point across: “i listen to american football.”
“sufjam fever” t-shirt
love this one. it was a gift from my friend jared for either my birthday or christmas a while ago now. sadly i don’t wear it much because it is in the chest-armpit tightness realm. boo!!!! love the color—royal blue always makes me think of leo because he likes royal blue on me, and i love the pink in the design. so bold. it contrasts beautifully with sufjan’s vibe (if you’re a PLEB… real suf-heads know his true whimsy).
kero kero bonito long sleeve
pretty sure this was mine and leo’s last concert before covid hit. union transfer, my love. solid show. they covered “vertigo” by u2 at the end which was awesome for me because, for some reason, i have loved that song since childhood even though i generally hate u2. still not my favorite fit, but not as uncomfortable as some other shirts. i almost never wear this because if my arms are covered, then it’s just a plain black shirt. which is boring. but if i’m wearing this, usually i’m too cold to take the top layer off. there is no solution!!! kinda plain. shrug emoji!!!
rumours t-shirt
i bought this at hot topic because i do still shop there on occasion as a nearly thirty year-old. this is just about the perfect fit for me—fitted but not tight, cropped to perfection and hemmed by my dear jody. this tee had a featured i’d never seen before where the tag was perforated for easy removal, which i appreciated. i’m not often bothered by tags, but i removed it anyway because i thought that was so fun (i’m boring). classic album cover, looks great on a shirt… i wear this one a lot.
jpegmafia tour t-shirt
i used to hate tour shirts. i thought they were kind of lame, for some reason? i don’t remember my reasoning behind my hatred but i love them now. there’s a few i missed out on way back when that i mourn (hole tour shirt…) but i have learned the error of my ways and have begun to buy tour shirts WHEN THE DESIGNS ARE GOOD. the front of this one is okay, it’s a picture of jpeg inverted in yellow. the back is the fun part, as you can see. this was about when i started buying music shirts bigger. the oversized look was beginning to come back around and i figured well, if i suddenly gain a massive amount of weight, it’ll still fit and i won’t have to miss out on my cool t-shirt. i think this was our first concert “after” covid??? it was on halloween, which was cool. we dressed up in our matching skeleton pajamas and some girl was like “are you guys phoebe bridgers?” and we said “no, we’re skeletons.”
100 gecs tour long sleeve
one of the few shows that i actually bought our tickets for and chose to go to. to be fair, it was a whole thing where our friend jared and leo’s cousin max were also going, so i think even if i hadn’t wanted to go very badly we still would’ve gone. this has a great design on the back with all the dates, but i like the front, too. whoever the artist was that did this did a fantastic job. the comfort colors L is fucking huge though. don’t know if it’s just because it’s a long sleeve, but i swim in this so bad. this was a good show, but i was standing next to some annoying girl who kept saying YOU GUYS ARE GENIUSESSS all night very loudly.
algernon cadwallader tour sweatshirt
maybe my favorite piece i’ve gotten at a concert??? the show was fantastic, first of all. it was one of the band member’s kid’s birthday, so we all sang happy birthday to her which was adorable. they sounded fantastic. it was delightful. this is a sweatshirt which i feel like is a little different. i don’t love the front design—i love the type, but the graphic is a little… lame?? kind of urban outfitters circa 2012. but the back!!! i love the back. it’s simple and it’s cute. the sweatshirt itself is also great, fits well and keeps me warm. ten out of ten for sure.
live through this t-shirt
i bought this at a record store!!! not an especially cool one or anything. i’ve always wanted hole merch but it’s either 1) few and far between, 2) vintage that’s priced sky-high (i would DIE for the logo hairclips from the 90s, i’m so fucking serious those are my holy grail), or 3) just boring. this one’s kinda boring, but it’s hard to go wrong with the album art on a shirt.
“guess” t-shirt
i bought this in december with my friend megan, who bought a different charli xcx design so that we could match. :)
just from urban outfitters. haven’t worn it anywhere yet, so it still has the tags on. i thought that the front was really boring (just says “charli xcx” in a small font close to the collar) but when i turned it around i was floored. “guess” is one of my faves so i had to have it. i think i may have chosen the wrong size. i tried it on in the store and everything, but i’m not in love with the fit even though i convinced myself i was, i guess. and i can’t crop it because the type goes all the way down the back. ah, well. i’ll probably wear it in the summer with bike shorts.
the downward spiral t-shirt
the first of my two nine inch nails shirts. the other one is not pictured in this edition of the stack because it’s in the wash, but it’s just the basic NIN logo shirt everyone has. i honestly don’t love this design and i never have. i might crop it because there’s so much blank space at the bottom, but i’m still deciding. i love broadcasting my newfound love for NIN. i’m not stupid and i know anyone can like anything, but i do feel like there’s an inherent juxtaposition between me and liking NIN that i’m charmed by because i’m very self-involved. shirt’s great, not much more you can want in a t-shirt. comfortable, big, never wanna take it off.
“if you love me keep it to yourself” t-shirt
a very very very good shirt. i was so excited when the new ethel cain merch dropped a couple months ago. it was a no-brainer for me—i had to get the t-shirt. the back is printed with puffy paint, which is always a good idea, always. i can’t wait for it to get warmer outside so that i can wear this without a jacket more often.
looking forward to adding to the flock this year—the aforementioned salmon bon iver t-shirt, shirts from the shows i’m going to… yippee!!! clothes are my vice!!! unfortunately some of the artists i enjoy also like to push hats, so i do have two black ball caps with white logos on them that i have to force myself to wear all the time. sigh.
"It's from grapes!"