A lot has been going on in this mind of mine. For a lack of many things, school included, its also been wandering. Through many car trips, a too long layover and boredom overall I’ve been exploring the inner depths of my iPod. That led me to an On-The-Go playlist 142 songs long. Which then led to more music boredom. Since I’ve been home here in Ithaca I’ve had nice time on my hands. Allowing for most of my afternoons thus far to be completely devoted to listening to music, an activity that is a constant in my life but is never really as deep as it has become over the last two days.
It begins with the fact, and a confession, of my past as a music lover. I used to be a close-minded classic rock fan who didn’t know better and never gave anything a chance. Right now, while stomaching the Breakfast with the Beatles show, I am on a personal quest to knock the Beatles off their pedestal in my life, and for those around me. I’m the ‘Beatles girl’ (as I’ve been told) and not until now has that bothered me. Recently I’ve been listening to what I used to consider modern music. Now it is just becoming common sense.
Here we have the Dirty Projectors.
Bitte-Orca
This band we play at the station. Although I did not start listening to them until my brother-in-law recommended them to me. My Christmas gift to him was a jump drive full of music that I acquired throughout the year. His personal quest is to find as much new music as possible. Through him and someone else close to me I have found something I never thought I would stumble upon, let alone go looking for. Its the idea that anything can be great. Just think, every band- and even more importantly- every song is someone’s favorite. So you can’t be too upset with something musically, because everything has a home.
This band, the Dirty Projectors have been putting out records since 2002- this record Bitte-Orca is remarkable. There is plenty going on there, bold and unusual unlike anything I’ve ever heard.I fall in love with it every time I hear them. Over the course of time I’ve never listened to anything as what I would consider as strange as this band. And I never thought I would genuinely love anything like this.
Almost even better is Yeasayer. This is a band that has one record from 2007 and their most recent, Odd Blood, is credited for coming out in 2010 (but I heard it all throughout the latter part of 2009.) The bravest band, maybe, that I’ve ever listened to. Odd Blood opens with a track that throws you off. Almost like you don’t expect what the hell the next thing will sound like. I was so familiar with just the one song the station plays and I had heard the full album two other times. It wasn’t until two days ago I got the full record and let it marinate that I realized that its better than crack. Each song as you listen to the full album impresses me and even though there is one in particular, all the songs are peculiar themselves. After enough time to digest you can see that it is technically a ‘concept’ album- but anything short of ordinary. Most people don’t even like it.
Odd Blood
Now right now there is something even more important to me. It is a revolution in my own life. A word that can never be used too lightly, its a revolution because I have these feelings about music as if I’m falling in love with it for the first time. As if I’ve never even heard it before. Something like this has never been this important to me. Bands that I’ve known of since high school and never gave a second chance, or second thought, are now some of the most important bands in my life.
I’ve been trying to love some in particular, like the Flaming Lips (coming to Cornell in April), since I was a senior in high school. Brian Walagorski introduced me to them. He also gave me the gift of life with giving me Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for the first time. I now know that this kid was way ahead of me. He knew that Wilco was his favorite band. I even remember him going to Chicago to see them (and thought he was crazy for doing so.) Wilco has become one of, if not, the most important band to me. This kid also gave me Yo La Tengo, which I have grown to appreciate. I forgot where Elliot Smith came from- whom I now am sincerely falling in love with. As well as The Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground, as some ‘cant readers might know, are THE favorite of mine. I guess you could call them tied for first with Wilco. When I said this out loud to my sister, they could not believe it and thought I was messing with them. How could someone mess about something as serious as this?
Music has become so much more important to me. And I never thought it could gain any more credibility in my life. I’ve started a brand in my own head of ‘Euphoric Rock.’ Including a list of most of the above bands, it is a kind of music that makes you feel strangely happy yet disturbed in a way you cannot understand. Beautiful lyrics like poetry and voices that are choral and unexpected. Arrangements and musicianship that goes far too overlooked and a sensibility that continues to keep my brain interested.
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Since the ‘Best of 2009′ lists have been ranking Animal Collective all over their number one or two spot (in addition to friends and associates saying the same things) they are my newest band that I am venturing into. I want to see what the fuss is about, give it a chance even more. If this many people are talking about it, it has to mean something, right? This isn’t me trying to follow the crowd (or is it?) and I’m pretty sure this isn’t me conforming. Its just a message in my own brain telling me to snap out of whatever crazy bizarro world I was living in before and stop spinning the same things. Merriweather Post Pavilion is the one with the cool cover. A couple weeks ago I couldnt manage to get past the first few tracks. But with help from another friend, it seems OK and to be growing on me.
It has become more than the band members and their history. I find myself looking up information on these bands after weeks of listening to them. Right now its all about the music, recording and composition of what they want us to hear and in what order. It really is the music that I’ve found as if its been missing for all these years.
There is a lesson in this. I was so close minded for so long, listening to the same things, listening to the same manifesto of my father building the Beatles up to be more and more, without ever giving anything a chance. (Now I have to discover things like Nashville Skyline on my own, thanks to him. Thank god I did.) I couldn’t let anyone I know ever follow in these footsteps. I can’t imagine going through life without all of this, growing up without essentials and an open-minded variety. I just want to make sure that you go out and find something new. Stay on a station even if it bores you, tape a list on your wall of bands you’ve always been meaning to give another listen to, and listen to music with new people. Friends who study different things, have different views on everything from politics to clothing and friends who you never thought you’d meet can all influence you in ways I never thought they could. People with different interests and different tastes have had an incredible impression on me musically. The world of music just got a whole lot bigger. The list is endless. And everything seems to be falling into place.
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