It's been some time since I composed another entry, life strikes again. Whatever, got money, got work done, and most importantly, no regrets.
I thought I would discuss some of the music that I listen to, and collect, via one Top 8 list and some jabbering. I'll give my list first, then I'll talk about music.
Quite the varied bag with this one, there's some alternative, big beat, some rock and electronica, and really sticks to the late 90's late Dub-aughts. I tend to ping pong which song I want to hear depending on if I want to get my energy up or to just relax. Call it my Y2K nostalgia flaring up, but some of the artists that made some of these were really cooking, electronic beats that put you in a flow, or perhaps trance, state, and rock and alternative that no matter what still manages to ring true today. Maybe that last part is from my experience, but as a young adult still confused at how I should go about in life, it's a cheap way to scream my problems out without paying too much money and not straining the hell out of my vocal chords. Probably why I like Limp Bizkit, even though it has an image of being Frat Guy Music, The crew knew what they looked like and didn't let that stop them, even having some songs just talking about relatable stuff like girl troubles and insecurity of who one is.
I already mentioned this in my trivia page in my About Me, but my collection started after my brother gave me a Spice Girls CD as a joke. After nabbing a boombox at a garage sale, I started trying to thrift some CDs that pertained to my interests, which at the time was whatever a Teen addicted to THPS2 would listen to. Mix in with growing up on late 2000's electronica and somewhat niche song tastes, and you got me. Not really an elitist music snob, my modus operandi is that if I like an artist's song, I would try to listen to their album that song is on to see if they got the stuff I like. Sometimes that leads to some good songs I didn't know, and sometimes it gave me stinkers that made me avoid (Looking at you Jet).
If I couldn't find a CD at a thrift store, and grabbing it is only somewhat possible by going to discogs (eugh), I would do the Napster Shuffle and get the MP3 to my USB stick. If you have a problem with that, then be my guest and get me a Brothers From Another Planet CD, a band that's local around california at around 2003. My tastes are esoteric and physical ownership hits different nowadays. You could say to stream it, but the issue with that is that I only have so much organization and phone data to mess with. I would rather give an envelope full of coins to the artists and assistants than to give it to UMG or whomever the hell.
Now you would think I would be one of those music nerds that hang vinyls up on my wall and do the intellectual posture of a bookshelf full of books, and maybe gush about some rock or underground band that's "for the people", but I'm not like that. First, Vinyl is huge and I value space. CD's are small and compact enough, and the audio swell for me to enjoy proper. Secondly, as much as I can listen to Dad Rock and maybe an enthusiast's favorite Artist once in a while, my tastes are on a different spectrum. All of the music I want on Vinyl is probably oxidizing somewhere in Europe where electronica was brewing like a river. Third of all, I don't have that much music experience. I could dedicate my time to learn how to play guitar, but the amount of dedication and sensitivity to what you would think be a straightforward instrument gives me headaches to being in Orchestra class in middle school. The noise is groovy, all I can vouch.
As much as Vinyl can make some music mixed better, but from the limitation that if your crap's too loud it'll bump the needle, and that it's analog that can play analog good, it's simply a format that is good with working with equivalent tech. Maybe it's the ritual to get the thing to play, a theatric of taking the record out of the paper sleeve, setting it on the table, making the needle drop right on the groove, and the noise crackle of it 'searching' for the enterance. I get that, active listening and all, but with CD all I have to worry is if the laser is fussy or if the CD got in a scratch fight. Your money and format amigo, I get more luck in getting better CDs anyway.
I put Chronic Future there at the top because every song they released I managed to connect with the message a lot. Being that they formed when they're 14 in an Arizona suburb, maybe it's because they had the same exact questions about life as I do. It's a no brainer, I live in America, with more warts than an old fart in a retirement villa, no better than we were in the 2000's. In a way, it speaks to me that despite the new, misunderstood, and scary new stuff is simply a derivative of what we did before that has a new coat of paint. There's always some person trying to use something for evil, but we forget sometimes.
I put the Octopus Project in there because that's a checkpoint where it melded my brain chemistry. Being 8 years old and recieving my cousin's DS and games, then putzing around THPG DS was something that I would never know. They also utilized a theremin in that song that I listed, which is cool as balls. It's one of the few medias that may have used the theremin in a way where it isn't just playing on how alien it sounds.
