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January 18, 2010

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For what its worth, my 2009 and decade lists include none of those artists (well, all right, the decade list has Radiohead in it, but they were formative in my shit), although I've mostly kept these lists to myself--I don't have the energy to write up the records as they deserve. If you're at all interested in expanding toward jazz from last year (I sort of reinserted myself into the genre after discovering the blog destination: OUT) and metal from the past ten years, I can recommend some stuff.

Also, genre fatigue simultaneously really excites me, because I know I am going to force myself toward some unfamiliar hills.

Oh, and also emo. I continue to follow that for some reason.

Great thoughts, Scott. I've been going through some of the same issues myself, and while I recognize that some of my current disillusion with indie rock is definitely with "me" -- some of the postures and elements of rock that seemed very relevant when I was 18 or 19 don't seem to hold as much water as I approach 30 -- a lot of it has to do with how I gain information about new music. Blogs have so much pressure to post something new every day in order to retain regular readers, and then to be overly enthusiastic about their recommendations so that the readers have reason to check up on whatever new band -- because, hey, you want to be in on what's happening, and you don't want to miss out on what could be your favorite new band. But the problem is, as a fan, chasing down all these daily recommendations time and again starts to bring in diminishing returns, and you begin to realize life will go on just fine without picking up the self-released debut of whatever band of the moment. As a sometimes blogger, I know I'm guilty of participating in this echo chamber, but it can be especially discouraging when you try to follow local music blogs only to realize they get approx. 90% of their content straight from MBV or Stereogum. Sometimes you just need to pull away from all the same old just to remind yourself what you liked about music in the first place.

Btw, I picked up the Mountains album on your recommendation - it's very nice! Definitely ambient, but with the arc and pull of more structured music.

Brad - I too had plans for end of decade stuff--have two posts fully written but eight more languishing--but yeah, I became so exhausted by everyone else that I couldn't imagine finishing mine. I doubt I'll go too far into metal or emo, but maybe jazz... it's always sort of an outlier in my world.

Todd, I hear you on the blog fatigue; it's a phenomenon of the era, I guess, that blog fatigue and music fatigue go hand in hand. I think I've mostly weeded out from my reader the blogs that seem purely geared toward posting for hits, though that doesn't stop certain bands from dominating the blogs I do read anyway. There's no escaping it. (Why you'd want to fully escape it, or not, is a post for another day.)

Ah, so it begins. It's so liberating!

For me, my love of jazz dovetailed quite nicely with my interest in post-rock and ambient... I'll have to check out this Mountain. (On a related note, per an earlier conversation we had, I downloaded the first Pan*American album recently. It's good! Given the topic of this post, I think you owe it to yourself to check out 360 Business/360 Bypass.)

(No love for my Bastro comment/questions?)

Oops - I didn't see that comment! I'll go back and answer. I have heard 360/360, I think... though it's been a while. If eMusic has it I'll save it. I also have his most recent album saved too.

And make sure you pluralize Mountains--otherwise it's a 70s rock band.

"And make sure you pluralize Mountains--otherwise it's a 70s rock band."

Oops. Thanks for the correction. Not that that one Mountain song isn't awesome.

Best post in a while, boots. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in consuming more and more music instead of really listening to the favorites that we forgot about because they aren't in the new area of the itunes collection. I was thinking about deleting the entirety of my itunes library since at times it feels more about acquisition and attachment than something that's of actual importance.

Lately I listen mostly to CDs and have given up on the ipod. I love browsing CDs whether mine or in the records store. It's much more surprising than the scroll feature of the computer. Don't you find that plowing through the CDs at the public library is infinitely more fun than the equivalent time visiting music sites?

Here is the current stack sitting on the CD player.

Radiohead-Airbag EP
Burial-Untrue
Neil Young-Harvest
White Magic-Dark Stars
Leyland Kirby-Sadly the Future...
Choir of Young Believers-This Is for...
The XX-eponymous
Saint Etienne-Good Humor
Mojave 3-Excuses for Travellers

Nice to hear from you Gregory. I can't say I've stemmed my urge to consume consume consume new-to-me music, more that I changed WHICH new-to-me music I consume. And I hear you on the CD vs iTunes thing, though I admit I have mixed feelings about that. Last weekend I bought 5 new (vinyl) records, despite not owning a functioning turntable; then I bought 3 new CDs, despite only being able to play CDs in my car; then I downloaded an album, and that's the one I listen to all the time. Technology is winning and I'm an idiot when it comes to consuming music. I'm like a bird fascinated by shiny things.

a somewhat related post, in case you haven't already read it:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-01-19/music/the-year-of-too-much-consensus/1

gregory, i often feel similarly flummoxed by choice: like i can't even imagine what to choose from the 32 days worth of songs in our itunes, it's just too much and i don't have anything but a cold, computerized list? i need pictures and imagery and objects to inspire me. so when i am at home i make scott choose. and when i am in the car, i listen to the cd's we have bought but are unable to upload into our old-ass computer. i think this is an indicator that we are getting old, stuck in the mud, etc. or is it that we are of the visual sort of people, and we need the full package? hmm, yeah, that's what i'm gonna tell myself.

but still: i could never delete it all. hoarding, here.

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