(TJ again, in for the traveling Jeff, who informs me is working 14 days right now but is eagerly anticipating flying home on Wednesday, his birthday . . .)
I think one of the most revolutionary changes the internet has effected hasn't been in what books I read or what movies I see (though its influence is still felt there--Netflix, anyone?), but in the music I listen to and buy, and even the way I listen to music.
Of course, burns and mixes being physically passed has made exposure to new stuff much easier. But it's that all my music sits on a hard drive makes moving from artist to artist, album to album, so simple.
All this and more
ends up here:
I don't know why I felt like I needed to graphically represent this. I'm just having a renewed appreciation for my camera, I guess.
Anyway, having hundreds of hours worth of music a mouse-click away and more to grab from the hundreds of bloggers, streaming tracks on the MySpace pages, band sites, live show downloads, etc. at worst makes me schizophrenic, at best lets me grow an inch deep and a mile wide on what I've missed over the last years and what's coming up. I say schizophrenic because while I love "shuffle," it can make me very impatient with an album--even the ones I love. In the car, I can cycle through three or four CD's in one errand-running session. It's much harder for one artist's album to get regular repeats.
I can't be alone in this.
That's why recommendations in music, I think, carry so much more weight with me than they used to. If someone is so taken with an album that they're compelled to tell me about it and they remember to make a point of it, I'm way more likely to give something a shot these days. Same goes for a music blogger or mp3-J (I geekily call them): They've gone to the trouble of making a post, I've liked their other choices, I'll give them a shot.
All this is the long way around to pointing out something Jeff mentioned a few days ago. My Morning Jacket's new album Z has been in constant rotation for me from front to back. This is my introduction to this band, but I understand they have a jam band reputation coming into this album which is being hailed as a departure/growth for the band. At this point, their sound is both unlike anything I've ever heard and reminiscent of strange and not quite apt associations: I hear everything from Steely Dan to the Allman Brothers to the Cure and the Smiths in here.
I'm a hack when it comes to trying to describe music. And so are a lot of other people. Music writing is tough. And this is my point. If someone tries to tell you to check a band out you used to have to remember until the next time you were in a record shop, now you can just right-click and save-as and decide for yourself. My MBA-having friends call it a point-of-sale decision, I think. Far more effective at getting someone to buy. Picture the batteries and candle lighters and mints and candy bars stacked up around the checkout aisle at Target. Hope you like:
My Morning Jacket - "Knot Comes Loose"
. . . And as far as the Come to Iowa! link goes, first I'll say MMJ is coming nowhere near here, which is bad, but if you have a dog and you live in Iowa City, he or she can spend the day at Lucky Pawz and hang out with other dogs, which is good. Each day the staff posts pictures on the site of your dog and the other dogs having fun. They even celebrate Halloween there. Hilarious. (via IC blogger Grendel at Earthgoat, since I don't have a dog and had no idea this place existed)
Jeff's actually working 14 hour days right now. He has NOT put in his two weeks' notice. Ugh. Nothing like finding a typo.
Posted by: TJ | November 14, 2005 at 09:01 AM