Hey y'all. I know it hasn't quite been a week, but I've got a pocket of time, and I figured I'd write a bit about how the music project has been going. Since last post, I've listened to 26 albums (including several that I only have one song on) and am working on my 27th right now. I'm averaging solidly under 4 hours a day, which is concerning because it means that this whole project is going to take over a month to complete. But that's fine, because I've actually been finding it a lot easier than I had expected I would. When I like the album that's on the docket, I have a lot of fun listening to it. When I don't love it, I usually am able to put it on the background enough that I can absorb it without getting too bored. Walking from my apartment to campus has been a blessing in this regard.
What it hasn't quite been, though, is as meaningful as that first bit was. I haven't had a moment quite like the moment that I had with "Ambient 1." There have been some fun moments: "Antics" by Vundabar is a really fun album that I always forget about, so it was nice to have a reminder. "I Got Mine," the only track I have off of the Black Keys' "Attack and Release" is a really quality single. "Brother, Sister" by mewithoutYou is one of my favorite albums, and coming back to it in this context made it more meaningful, somehow. But on the whole, I've spent a lot more time not quite focusing on the music than I'd like. It's somewhat of a necessary evil, as I mention above, but I do wish I had more patience.
Overall, not a hugely informative chunk of time, but I am still enjoying myself. And this is also the longest I've ever held myself to a challenge like this, so that's pretty cool.
Every album I've listened to since the last update:
"And So I Watch You From Afar" by And So I Watch You From Afar
"Antics" by Vundabar
"The Argument" by Fugazi
"Bound for the Floor" off of "As Good as Dead" by Local H
"I Got Mine" off of "Attack and Release by The Black Keys
"An Awesome Wave" by Alt-J
"Bastion Original Soundtrack" by Darren Korb
"BBNG2" by BADBADNOTGOOD
"Hedron" off of "BBNG3" by BADBADNOTGOOD
"Novocaine for the Soul" and "Not Ready Yet" off of "Beautiful Freak" by the Eels
"Bestiary" by Hail Mary Mallon
"BetterOffDEAD" by the Flatbush Zombies
"Black Sabbath" by "Black Sabbath"
"(Boyle) and Piles EP" by RED WALL
"Brother, Sister" by mewithoutYou
"Bryter Later" by Nick Drake
"The Mission (M is for M is for Milla Mix)" off of "'C' is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference HERE)" by Puscifer
"Cage the Elephant" by Cage the Elephant
"Camouflage" by billy woods
"Cancer for Cure" by El-P
"Cape Verde" by Super Chron Flight Brothers
"Cardboard Castles" by Watsky
"Lazy Eye" off of "Carnavas" by Silversun Pickups
"Cast the First Stone - EP" by The Virginmarys
"Catch For Us the Foxes" by mewithoutYou
Monday, January 19, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
A Parody of Myself Pt. 1
If you know me well (or not that well), the conceit of the following blog will make a lot of sense.
I've decided to listen to every single album I have on my iPod in alphabetical order. From "All Hail Bright Futures" to "You're Dead." That's 178 albums containing 1,853 songs by 121 artists. The total runtime is 5.3 days, or approximately 127 hours. At about 4 hours a day, that's almost 32 days of listening.
Never let it be said that I'm not ambitious.
The start of this project was very much as a challenge for me and a challenge to me. It is going to be a challenge to not deviate from alphabetical order, to not fall back into something I'm more comfortable with, to not skip something I don't love. But it's also a challenge to me. Why do I have so much music that I have made immediately available to me? Why don't I listen to all that much of it? I generally cycle between 5-10 albums regularly, with another 30 or so thrown in occasionally. There's music on my phone I've listened to once, and probably more that I've never listened to. And yet, when I try to clear out how much music I have, I always end up keeping the vast majority of it. Why can't I let go of music I don't listen to? And, on top of the challenge, it was also borne out of an urge to explore. I like music a lot. I want to find new music that I like a lot. I want to rediscover music that I've let go of. I want to expand what my ear can handle.
Any while all of those things are definitely still true, of course the journey has already taught me more than finishing probably ever will.
So far, I've gotten through 3 albums: "All Hail Bright Futures" by And So I Watch You From Afar, "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" by Califone, and "Allelujah! Don't Bend!Ascend!" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I'm currently working my way through Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno. "All Hail Bright Futures" was a great one to start out on because it's an album I really enjoy, but don't listen to too much. So it sounded fresh and set me off on the right track.
"All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" is an album I've listened all the way through perhaps once, although there's one track on there ("Funeral Singers") that I love and have listened to many times. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to it. I didn't feel any of the sense of impatience that I usually associate with trying to force myself to listen to certain music. And while I highly doubt the album will be cracking my Last.fm top weekly listens for a while, it's certainly one I want to return to.
"Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" is also an album that I haven't listened to entirely that much, although again I have one track ("Mladic") on it that I particularly love. It's a relatively short album for the band, clocking in at only 55 minutes (as opposed to "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven's" 87 minutes), but it's still an incredibly experience. Godspeed truly are the masters of long-form post-rock, and this listen was as magical as I expected it to be.
Where things started to get kind of interesting was when I started listening to "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" by Brian Eno. I've listened to it several times, although none recently, so I'm not super familiar with it. I listened to the majority of it while walking around campus, which caught my attention because it's not the type of music I'd normally listen to while walking. It's, as the name notes, very ambient, very relaxed, and not super driven. My most recent walking go-to, for contrast, has been "The Argument" by Fugazi, a rocking post-hardcore album. And yet, I found the experience of walking while listening to "Ambient 1" truly beautiful. I wouldn't say it was life-changing, but it was the sort of bubble of presentness and peace that I strive for everyday. I walked along totally absorbed in what was right in front of me, acutely aware of the buildings in a way I'm not normally, feeling the cold on my face with an appreciation I had been lacking. It was a wonderful walk across campus and back home, and it all seemed to be driven by the music, which shook me out of my normal routine and into something just a bit more magical.
And so, I again learn the importance of presentness, and hope to incorporate that into this challenge. If I can experience that sort of awareness through every 4th album, then this month will be an incredible one.
I will (hopefully) update again in about a week!
I've decided to listen to every single album I have on my iPod in alphabetical order. From "All Hail Bright Futures" to "You're Dead." That's 178 albums containing 1,853 songs by 121 artists. The total runtime is 5.3 days, or approximately 127 hours. At about 4 hours a day, that's almost 32 days of listening.
Never let it be said that I'm not ambitious.
The start of this project was very much as a challenge for me and a challenge to me. It is going to be a challenge to not deviate from alphabetical order, to not fall back into something I'm more comfortable with, to not skip something I don't love. But it's also a challenge to me. Why do I have so much music that I have made immediately available to me? Why don't I listen to all that much of it? I generally cycle between 5-10 albums regularly, with another 30 or so thrown in occasionally. There's music on my phone I've listened to once, and probably more that I've never listened to. And yet, when I try to clear out how much music I have, I always end up keeping the vast majority of it. Why can't I let go of music I don't listen to? And, on top of the challenge, it was also borne out of an urge to explore. I like music a lot. I want to find new music that I like a lot. I want to rediscover music that I've let go of. I want to expand what my ear can handle.
Any while all of those things are definitely still true, of course the journey has already taught me more than finishing probably ever will.
So far, I've gotten through 3 albums: "All Hail Bright Futures" by And So I Watch You From Afar, "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" by Califone, and "Allelujah! Don't Bend!Ascend!" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I'm currently working my way through Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno. "All Hail Bright Futures" was a great one to start out on because it's an album I really enjoy, but don't listen to too much. So it sounded fresh and set me off on the right track.
"All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" is an album I've listened all the way through perhaps once, although there's one track on there ("Funeral Singers") that I love and have listened to many times. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to it. I didn't feel any of the sense of impatience that I usually associate with trying to force myself to listen to certain music. And while I highly doubt the album will be cracking my Last.fm top weekly listens for a while, it's certainly one I want to return to.
"Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" is also an album that I haven't listened to entirely that much, although again I have one track ("Mladic") on it that I particularly love. It's a relatively short album for the band, clocking in at only 55 minutes (as opposed to "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven's" 87 minutes), but it's still an incredibly experience. Godspeed truly are the masters of long-form post-rock, and this listen was as magical as I expected it to be.
Where things started to get kind of interesting was when I started listening to "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" by Brian Eno. I've listened to it several times, although none recently, so I'm not super familiar with it. I listened to the majority of it while walking around campus, which caught my attention because it's not the type of music I'd normally listen to while walking. It's, as the name notes, very ambient, very relaxed, and not super driven. My most recent walking go-to, for contrast, has been "The Argument" by Fugazi, a rocking post-hardcore album. And yet, I found the experience of walking while listening to "Ambient 1" truly beautiful. I wouldn't say it was life-changing, but it was the sort of bubble of presentness and peace that I strive for everyday. I walked along totally absorbed in what was right in front of me, acutely aware of the buildings in a way I'm not normally, feeling the cold on my face with an appreciation I had been lacking. It was a wonderful walk across campus and back home, and it all seemed to be driven by the music, which shook me out of my normal routine and into something just a bit more magical.
And so, I again learn the importance of presentness, and hope to incorporate that into this challenge. If I can experience that sort of awareness through every 4th album, then this month will be an incredible one.
I will (hopefully) update again in about a week!
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