early morning blog! mostly because I zonked out at 11pm last night and tried to get up really early today to make up for it... but ended up snoozing 45 minutes anyway. (I think this always happens, honestly.) Wedding was beautiful. Seeing my college friends again was SO MUCH FUN. Annapolis was charming. And I'm absolutely terrified about how far behind in everything I am.
Nevertheless, here's a fantastic article/book review from Salon about iPod's 5th birthday and Steven Levy's new tome about its success. I find the article particularly resonating because I was literally saying this exact thing to Supermarj in the car yesterday:
"Listening to an album you've never heard before is work; it requires time, patience, and attention. You can't do it half-assed. But when you play your new album on your iPod, there's always the lure of all those other tracks, and your mind drifts to all that familiar music, all that stuff you know and don't need to work to appreciate. So you inevitably start playing the same stuff over and over."
This phenomenon (coupled with how relentlessly busy I am) is why I didn't have any new artists to tell my friends about when they asked at the wedding reception who they should be listening to. I sang the Decemberists' praises, of course, but what did I listen to on the plane on the way over? Why, Sufjan's "Majesty Snowbird," which is a new song but not a new artist (and not even released yet--it was a live cut--so it definitely didn't count), then R.E.M.'s "Make It All Okay" (listening to songs by alphebetical order), then I wanted to hear EFO's "Baltimore," given where I was flying, and it was followed shortly thereafter by Blur's "Bang" and R.E.M again ("Bang and Blame"), then four versions of "Crazy" (by Gnarls Barkley, R.E.M. a third time, Tori Amos and Seal)... and nothing remotely resembling an up-and-coming new artist to tell my friends about. Sigh. I truly fear that my musical attention span is shot, and there's not a thing I can do about it.
Time to go to class. Hard to believe it's the last week in October. The next month is going to be crazy-go-nuts, I fear.
3 comments:
I've got some new artists (and recommended songs) for people, since all work and no play is making katlet a dull musical blogger: (1)Midlake ("Van Occupanther"), (2)The Lovely Feathers ("I Really Like You"), (3)Anberlin ("Paper Thin Hymn"), (4) The Electric Soft Parade ("A Cold World"--reminiscent of Ben Folds), (5) The Sunshine Underground ("Commercial Breakdown"), (6) The Golden Republic ("She's So Cold"), (7) Switches ("Lay Down the Law").
Sincerely,
"the Boy"
Eh. I think that musical-attention-span-loss (MASL) is something that happens when you get older. There will always be a few new artists that get your attention, but then you miss your old, comfortable friends. Not to say you shouldn't branch out to new music (that's why I subscribe to PASTE magazine and their new music sampler), but you have to try a little bit harder. (To love, love, love him, . . .)
Hey, where'd you get the Sufjan track? I'm looking forward to his Christmas EPs.
Looks like you can get the Sufjan song here, though I can't say for sure it's the same live track I have. I CAN say that it's one of the most gorgeous songs I've ever heard, and I honestly cannot wait for a studio version, because it can only get better. Absolutely lovely.
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