Well dear Coke Can Poets, where to begin. We’ve been putting off this post for some time, as it pains the heart to dwell too long. But rather than ghost on you, we feel that some closure is in order. Cliché as it may be, change is a part of life—and even healthy in order to grow and create space for other enticing new opportunities. So without further ado, we’d like to formally announce that Coke Can Poetry is hanging up its proverbial hat in 2017. Some shrewd readers may have noticed the regularity of posts had dwindled this past year, as priorities shifted and attentions necessarily diverted elsewhere.
CCP was conceived when the site founder, Jenn Woodard (that’s me, penning this post and currently breaking the fourth the wall) relocated to the District and wanted to experience all that the DC music scene had to offer. What started out as a personal passion project evolved into something greater through the support of platforms like Hype Machine—enabling CCP to interact with a number of artists, promote the wondrous DC concert circuit, and cultivate some great friendships with other likeminded musos.
Over the years, we’ve received many a compliment on the name Poetry In An Empty Coke Can, which yes while quite long—is poetic in itself. I’ve (okay, dropping the royal plural pronoun now) never outwardly stated the meaning through this forum, though I did try to explain it an interview with WFAsounds. It derives from Guillemots “Made-Up Lovesong #43,” a simple Britpop song I’ve always loved for the underlying sentiment.
While the track is about the ineffable feeling of joy one experiences while falling in love—it also encapsulates the euphoria that comes from connecting to a song that speaks to you. So in essence, that was always the aim of CCP—to share music that inspired our protean team of contributors and hope that it would inspire others in turn. It was always more about the music than the words, though we did try to do the songs justice in the best way we knew how.
This is not quite a valediction from music journalism altogether, but rather a segue into another chapter. Moving forward I will be writing for SoundChips, a fantastic, forward-thinking platform for music discovery which comprises a much greater variety of genres than ever covered on CCP. In fact, I’ve already begun contributing to the site, and you can find the first post I wrote for them here. If you’re interesting in having a track featured on SoundChips, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me there at jenn@soundchips.co. They also have a newsletter coming out you should probably get hip to.
Thanks to everyone for listening and following along in our coke can poet pursuit. I cannot thank you enough for your support—the best things really do come from nowhere, and I’m grateful that you cared.
poetry in an empty coke can 