So I am listening to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
I was just talking with my ex-boyfriend/roommate about this. I could listen to this album by Smashing Pumpkins over and over instead of any new music. I don't know any new music anymore. I used to spend a lot of time in high school finding music and making playlists. And now I am completely uninterested. I feel very old. I have basically rejected all current media and culture. Like blogging for example, I didn't really know what it was until March and I started one in the same week because I like writing. I knew there was such a thing as blogging and bloggers but I had never read one or even knew that anyone could have one. I thought you had to be like, a famous person to do that. Or have to pay to have one. I didn't know there was this whole blogsphere. Or, Instagram, or Twitter. I guess when I got an iPhone I started looking into online social media more. It's my first smartphone and I would have never gotten one, but my brother bought me it and pays the bill. Score!
I'm rambling, but the point is I just don't understand culture anymore. It's a really weird feeling. Fashion, slang, music, movies. It's all different. I don't really like it. Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of new culture stuff but from what I see on social media stuff, it's too foreign to me. I don't have cable, or listen to the radio, and I don't hang out with many people anymore because we've all gotten so busy. I have no way to learn about this new stuff.
And so I reject it wholeheartedly.
I think it started after I went to the psych ward and went back to Mississippi. I just started listening to only the same music. Now I listen to cassettes and records. This might sound like pretentious hipster shit, and for a while I was scared that's what it was. But I figured out why I like records and cassettes and felt better. I like them because you can't really change the track. MP3s have really taken something away from the artist's vision when making an album. This "Shuffle" option allows people to listen to a variety of music but there is something in how the artist places songs on an album. Listening to an album through is like a story (if it's a good album). I used to have an iPod, I've had 3 actually and they've all been stolen, and when I would put Shuffle on sometimes it would play Brain Damage by Pink Floyd. AND THEN NOT GO INTO ECLIPSE. If anyone has heard The Dark Side of the Moon you'd understand the tragedy of the issue.
So I had 3 MP3 players and was VERY into music. I mean VERY. I read a lot of Wikipedia, I still do. I can give you music trivia, songs or album names, I can name a tune if I know it with just a little riff part. Sometimes, in 3 notes played. Because I was crazy about music having an MP3 player was one of the best things in my life. I had some much music! See, I have about 100 Gigs of music on my PC and I had an 8 gig iPod. When I listened to that thing I had such a collection! But, it took my forever to decide what I wanted to hear. I listen to music so much I knew the music all well, but what did I feel like playing just then? And after that song... what to play next? It was actually kinda stressful. I like music too much to choose. So, I have deleted the option of choice. It makes like easier.
I suppose this mentality could be a metaphor to like, people taking the road of least resistance to have an easy life. Following the heard. Stuff like that. But I'm really not worried about just following the crowd. As previously stated, I have no fucking clue about the "heard" and don't understand them. I'm 21 and teenagers and kids my age all confuse the fuck out of me. So I have found joy in collecting cassettes because most of the music I listen to is 90s alternative. Actually, let me take this time to explain a term that I may use again in later blogs.
The Coldplay Principle:
Coldplay is a British rock band formed in 1996, (thanks Wikipedia!) this means I was 5 years old when they came out. None the less I consider Coldplay a "New" band. Their first hit was "Yellow" that came out in 2000, so I was 9 when it came out. But by age 9 my musical taste was already pretty developed. My mother it to credit for that. She listened to Pearl Jam, U2, and Red Hot Chili Peppers a lot when I was a kid so I grew up listening to 90s alternative rock. Except U2, other than "Mysterious Ways" and a few other songs, U2 isn't my style. Mom listened to the local hit rock station, and when I was a kid the hit rock was pretty awesome. There are of course exceptions. Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy" is an example of this. I fucking hate that song - it's just not good. So by age 9, I was pretty into so awesome bands. I was just too young to know it. And then when I was about 12 or 13 my older brother got one of the most important gifts ever. Important to me at least. We have an Aunt and Uncle who now live in NYC and are like mid 30s hipsters. At least, them seem really hip and always know about new art and books and stuff. Uncle Donnie made us mix cds for Christmas one year. Mine was okay, but they didn't really know me at the time so I don't think they knew what to put on it. David had already shown interest in Nirvana since that was a band we heard a lot growing up. So his mix cd had more of a theme. It started out with Pixies' "Bone Machine" Holy Fuck. It also had Pavement and Melvins. It was an awesome mix. Then it became a game for my brother David and me to find songs from our childhood and listen to them. It was a great feeling to hear a song again for the first time in a long time. You probably know the feeling. We just took it to an extreme. 90s alt. was an obsession for a while. Still basically is. I like to think I basically live in 1994. But that isn't true because I'm blogging right now. Anyways, because most of the shit I like was before Coldplay, Coldplay seems "New" to me. Early 90s and late 80s music feels "Current" and all before that is "Older"
There is some "New" music I like though. I'll name some I've seen in concert: Of Montreal, The New Pornographers, Foxy Shazam, Bright Eyes, The Mountain Goats is actually since 1991 but they feel new because they have only become well known since the world turned really gay for indie music. I don't get that whole indie music craze. I like indie music I suppose, but some is really bad and it's getting formulaic. Fucking beard bands man. Guys with flannel and beards and maybe some hot and/or quirky chick that has a jazzy or soft voice. Fucking hate female singers. Unless they cut that pussy shit out and belt it. Like, Courtney Love, duh. That being said, I do like The Shins, Belle and Sebastian, Bon Iver, and so on. But I think if I had heard those bands now, I would hate them. I realized this as I listened to Voxtrot for the first time in a long time. The guys voice is too young for my ears that are accustomed to Chris Cornell's smoothness. I have realized I do not like music since about, when I went crazy. I just am uninterested in it and hate it for reasons other bands I like have. So all the bands I like must have existed before 2010, because that was the year I went crazy and thus the year I rejected current culture and live in some weird time warp. Exceptions to this: I liked the movies "The Artist" and "Melancholia" that both came out this year.
^^^ That was written Friday, when it was my birthday. Now it is Sunday. I will end this post with the list of "Music I like" I like to make default answers to questions on my preference so it wont be too difficult to answer.
Favorite bands: Pixies and Pinback
Favorite song: "Car" - Built to Spill
Favorite musician: Elliott Smith
What I am currently listening to these days (this one changes): Smashing Pumpkins (obviously), Toadies, Elton John, Rush, Dinosaur Jr., Sparklehorse, Depeche Mode.
PS: pics!
