Day 8: Magical Animals and the Meaning of "Enough."

I am yet to get used to the weird rambling my playlist can manage. As I promised last post, I got started with Metallica's ...And Justice For All. Its good to finally listen to an iconic band like that. It got me some strange looks from my dad as I listened, passively reading on my computer or deliriously twitching at The Binding of Isaac. By the way, I finally beat the last level with Satan today! This of course means that the endings went to a whole new level of confusing twistiness (what a twist!). Anyway, Metallica's aggressive pedal lines and rough textures helped put a lot of other music I've dabbled with into place. I also got to dig into some Mew, which is pretty chill and hazy.

Next...well,

Wizard Rock! I had forgotten about my short delve into this weird genre. The closest I've come to actually going to a "concert" concert, we say Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys. Harry turned up in my playlist as well, but up above I show The Mudbloods perform Eulogy for an Acromantula. I don't think there's a lot to say. Moving on...

Somewhere between The Slip (Angels Come On Time) and Yo La Tengo (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out) I tuned into Pink Floyd's Animals album. How could you go wrong there? I considered posting Sheep from that album, but I have a feeling that wouldn't be news to you. Instead, allow me to introduce Kraddy, former member of The Glitch Mob. I'm a sucker for electronica, especially when it gets a little heavy.

Steppin' Razor satisfies some self-indulgent part of me that just wants to hear something thick and synthetic blast its way out of my speakers from time to time. Foregoing complicated, obtuse rhythms, this music just hits its beats and hits them hard. Not Waters of Nazareth hard, but hard enough. Additionally, anything I'm doing when music like this comes on instantly becomes part of a montage in some heist film. Trust me.

Of course, I couldn't stop there. Oh, no. I sprinted through two Eno albums back to back: Another Day On Earth and Another Green World. You can't spell "enough" without Eno. His music is so ineffably boring. Except when he's singing, then its just terrible. I was reading up on him on wikipedia, and I noticed two strange things: there is almost no mention of his successes (for example, this album or that song becoming extremely popular), and everyone seems to want to work with him in some form. This leads me to the conclusion that somehow Eno has orchestrated a situation wherein everyone wants him to produce crap, and absolutely no one wants the crap. They just want him to keep sounding of his banality for some inscrutable, eldritch reason.

One final note: I've been discovering a number of duplicate, and in the case of Yo La Tengo, triplicate and... quatruplicate (?) tracks that I've had to clean up. Also, I've found a large number of stand-up comedy tracks which I've gotten rid of. I don't really care for them and I consider them outside the scope of my project - to listen to music. Because of this, there might be some odd fluctuations in the amount of music on occasion as I find this artist to clean up or this comedian to delete completely. Also, I've thrown a bunch of Arvo Part into the mix. Good times for all.

Music left: 168.41gb

Cheers, 

Bodhisvaha

Day 7: I should really try to develop some taste.

Today was another instance of playlist abuse magically morphing into the delightful. Or at least interesting. I got to start out with Yann Tiersen and his soundtrack for Amelie (fuck if I know the unicode for the accent ague there). His work has a great flow in its arpeggiated passages and lilting three-step, even if it gets a tad redundant movie to movie. In case you've forgotten him or just decided to ignore him for your own selfish, dastardly reasons, I'd like to share Sur le Fil:

As a side note, there are too many damn covers of Sur le Fil on youtube. Dear Cactus Christ.

Post-Tiersen I experienced Tori Amos for the first time. My response is pretty mixed. She sits a little too much on the country side of things for my first taste of her. The album in question is American Doll Posse. Things went downhill from there in the form of American Hi-Fi. Children, plug you ears. Fuck those pussy-ass bitches. Conversely, fuck those pussy ass-bitches. That was some of the whiniest stuff I've ever made myself listen to. Really, I should be trashed from all of it (I'm so drunk I'm even making bad puns). I got an unexpected surprise in the form of Johnny Cash and Personal Jesus. I really dig him doing it. His voice just has the right timbre for making me pay attention. Especially after all the tenor mediocrity before him, the nice baritone/bass was a pleasant shift.

Following him was Jim Morrison. My biggest impression from his An American Prayer was that he talked way too much. Boy should just play some music. Then, I got to enjoy this:

Yum. Radiohead. Kind-of-yum. Amnesiac. I really appreciate the stronger use of piano, which is something that kind of gets lost in his other work (especially now, what with Atoms for Peace and that business). His voice, delightfully ethereal, and a haunting chord structure that winds and twists between major and minor progressions, somehow coming full circle effortlessly. Favorite moment: when the percussion casually comes in, propping up the unstable 5/4 gate of the piano and strings. This was followed up by Amputechture from The Mars Volta. My playlist got snooty really fast it would seem. That's okay. Up next: Metallica!

Music left: 170.19gb

Cheers,
Bodhisvaha

Day 6: Jesus Christ Brian Eno sucks ass.

Jesus Christ Brian Eno sucks ass. I just finished lurching through his unfortunate Ambient Music I (Music for Airports). I didn't realize just how pretentious vague droning could sound. Not just droning. Ten minutes of droning for a song. I guess this is the karma I receive for indulging in some Steve Reich earlier and getting a kick out of Clapping Music.

Fortunately, today's listening was pretty solid. I started things off with Mott the Hoople (who you may recall did Ready for Love/After Lights), followed by the amusingly mediocre George Harrison solo album All Things Must Pass. Somehow his backup group chanting "Hare Krishna/ Krishna Krishna" just came off as contrived in My Sweet Lord. After some obnoxious All-American Rejects (I think I haven't deleted them out of morbid fascination) and a one-off from Zappa (He's So Gay) I had my chance with The National. Oh, Ohio, why do you seem to give me such good music? Black Keys and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's? Anyhoo, here's a track:

Secret Meeting lays out a mellow soundscape built, quite elegantly, off of two intervals on the guitar. Some steady drumwork keeps it from dazing off into dreaded Eno-boring territory.

I traipse across the country with They Might Be Giants and their album Almanac, and get to revisit an old flame of mine, The Prodigy. My first introduction to them was in high school and my friend James. Having just escaped the purgatory of Cascada-esque techno and a loop of Pictures at an Exhibition (I'm weird; it was middle school. Don't judge.), the quirky electronic slithers and zips from the Brit trio helped open my techno-encrusted  eyes to the vistas of musical possibility outside of the increasingly scratched mix CD's I had received years ago. In honor of The Prodigy I'd like to present this Medusa's Path:

Yum.

Music left: 170.58gb.

Cheers,
Bodhisvaha

Day 5: An Explosive Problem

I had another amusing pairing, although it wasn't back to back like Bowie and Aladdin. I wandered into Flogging Mollies and their Delilah, followed by Plain White T's and Hey There, Delilah. I also had a strange run in with Kelly Clarkson. I'm not quite sure who gave her to me at what point in time, so please don't judge to much. It felt like cheating at this point to delete her from the library without at least listening to her once. After all that, though, I found Explosions in the Sky and The Slip.

I know Explosions in the Sky. I enjoy their paced, irresistible climaxes and rolling instrumentals. Its just that when I'm trying to power through a bunch of music their pieces are long. Jesus they're long. The Slip doesn't get off the hook on this either. Fortunately, the music's gorgeous. I had a double up in the form of Aliveacoustic and Aliveelectric. Check it out. I seem to be unable to find a video of the song I wanted to show you, so please listen to Song by The Slip off Aliveacoustic. it demonstrates some interesting Middle Eastern themes not present in the earlier tracks of the album. Plus there's a great hand-clapping section from the audience (its called Alive, afterall - but still great audio) where they begin to stack hemiola on three/four and two/four.

I'll just have to settle with showing you this awesome piece by Yeasayers! Its called Sunrise, and it can be found in the album All Hour Cymbals.

It starts things off somewhat brooding with minor tonality and an unstable stacking of polyrhythmic drums, claps, and sustained choral chords. Yeasayers transition this energy into something urgent, with accentuated percussion and sliding electric. Yum. I'm in the middle of Lazlo Bane's All the Time in the World (you know him from the opening of Scrubs), and I'll report on him tomorrow.

Music left: 171.26gb

Cheers,

Bodhisvaha

Day 4: Ziggy, Prince of Thieves

I could dwell on the transitions between groups like Thrice to Tom Waits, or how Mindless Self Indulgence did a surprise-sex number on my speakers. My first encounter with actually listening to Steely Dan? No. (the album was Aja, by the way). How about the pleasure of Guided by Voices? Not worth it. Instead, I would just like you to experience the same two track combo that I did:

Followed by:

Yes, that would be One Step Ahead from the movie Aladdin followed by Watch That Man by David Bowie off of his album Aladdin Sane. wtf.

By the way, Xiu Xiu's not that hot.

Music left: 171.65gb

Cheers, Bodhisvaha

Day 3: A Divine Comedy

I feel a little like Dante, wandering from the depths of the Inferno (Savage Garden), although the way up to my fair Beatrice, or in this case back to back albums of Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros is quite enjoyable as long as you're comfortable having no idea what the fuck they're singing about. After all, they enjoy just speaking complete gibberish. (No, seriously. Search for "Hopelandic.") I also happened upon Popol Vuh, a fine piece of 70's krautrock. It get's a tad ethereal after a bit. I can only do so many 10 minute songs, or 6 minute songs with a woman chanting one word in Italian incessantly. Then, out of nowhere, a gem popped up, tearing me away from my mindless time-wasting:

Video Killed the Radio Star! And not just the one Buggles beauty, but all of The Age of Plastic to boot. Its a shame I had neglected the Buggles so far. One other treat was this little Baroque Pop lovely, The Last Shadow Puppets and their song Calm Like You.

A little moody, and quite enjoyable.
Music left: 171.89gb

Cheers,
Bodhisvaha

Day 2: The karma of not knowing what's in your music library.

The whiplash this kind of listening style is creating is taking some adjusting. From Smashing Pumpkins to Tool to, well... you'll find out. But first, I realized I hadn't explained how I'm actually doing this. How do I know whether I've listened to a song already or whether its part of the tiny sliver of files I've listened to? To fix this I created a smart playlist in iTunes that indexes any files which have a play count less than 1. The only drawback is that any tracks that I haven't listened to since the last time I lost my collection (which would be this past summer) will count as as never-listens. Oh well.

The first track I'd like to bring to you is by Savoire Adore, A Home, A House, A Hearth:

A Home, a House, a Hearth

Funky and glitchy in all the right places. A child of Cantora Records, Savoire Adore can call acts like MGMT and Of Montreal siblings. This pleasant electric wonderland didn't last forever, though, and I was in no way prepared for this.

Lolwut? Antony and the Johnsons cover Bey's Crazy in Love? I can't say that I'm terribly familiar with dear Antony, and now I think I might have an idea why.

But it gets better. I'm just here, innocently browsing this or that subreddit (Sarah has made me a hopeless addict), listening to hip-hop followed by Tool, and then the unthinkable happens:

Savage Garden. A whole fucking album of it. To show my disdain I intentionally chose a fan-made Star Wars piece from "my friend's LiveJournal." The karma of not knowing what's in your music collection is that Savage Garden can ambush you without warning. The album just finished, so I'm gonna call it a night.

Music left: 172.46gb

Cheers,

Bodhisvaha

Day 1: Death and Violence

Ugh. I have to be up for the beginnings of my Christmas rituals, starting with lunch. I get to see family, which is great. However, I also have to get up. In any case my insomnia led me through metal to Alarm Will Sound and sundry other places. My first offering is The Hard Way by Racebannon.

I'm not quite sure how this video fits in with any of it...moving on.

Eventually I stumbled into Alarm Will Sound, a chamber orchestra that, in this case, did an awesome cover of music by Aphex Twin. I'm a sucker for intricate instrumentals, and what else can I expect from Aphex Twin? Of particular interest to me is the song Avril 14th, which Kanye borrows from in his Blame Game. From there it was a short step over to The Dear Hunter and the Violent Femmes. The Violent Femmes are getting a solid "meh" from me right now, so allow me to leave you with a piece of The Dear Hunter:

  

Cheers, and Merry Christmas.

-Bodhisvaha

What's up? What's Stendhalling?

Let me begin by saying I have a lot of music. Too much music. Currently, my library has about 180gb, and I haven't listened to a lot of it. Too much of it. In fact, about 173gb of my library hasn't been played once in its entirety. Why would I bother collecting so much music and not listen to it?

Well, I want to listen to it. Really, I do. And so I made this blog. I've set a goal for myself of listening to every single file in my library at least once. I'm going alphabetically by album through them all. This is to avoid getting stuck in some 14 album discography of an artist I'm not terribly excited about. To keep it interesting, I'll post the total size of all unlistened tracks at the end of each day, along with a couple of tracks I found interesting/ cool/ perturbing/ generally noteworthy during my listening sessions.

So...what's Stendhalling? Stendhal was some guy (I didn't do too much reading on him, but have fun). More importantly, Stendhal Syndrome is almost religious ecstasy in the face of exceptionally beautiful art or in the presence of a large quantity of art.

Does 33,000+ count as a lot?

Let's listen to some music.

-Bodhisvaha