I’m not feeling particularly long-winded today, so let’s jump right in to the next installment of my 1000 Minutes Project, which, if you’re unfamiliar, can be recapped here. If you’re up-to-speed, read on:
89. The Strokes – Someday (mp3) from Is This It
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When The Strokes’ seminal Is This It was released, I was a bit of a latecomer. That’s not to say that I hadn’t heard what they were doing; it was more that I simply didn’t find “Hard to Explain” and “Last Nite” all that gripping. (Apparently I’m not easily impressed by hype.) And then I heard “Someday” and caved instantly, purchasing the album as quickly as I could. Looking back and listening now, all the songs seem to have ended up on fairly equal footing, but “Someday” still makes it onto party playlists because of my particular affinity for it.
90. The Walkmen – In the New Year (mp3) from You & Me
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I’m not a big fan of The Walkmen; You & Me was my introduction to their music. Despite my lack of familiarity with the rest of their catalog, “In the New Year” has stuck in my head since the first time I heard it. The song is honest and hopeful about the process of getting older, falling in and out of love, and watching your friends experience the same. In short, it’s honest about life for me lately, and it’s (surprisingly) not wholly uncomfortable.
With the move to our new site, I have gotten to thinking about the progression of how this blog started.
Before I started writing anything about music I was a prolific blog reader, always on the lookout for music I enjoyed. I perused numerous blogs and downloaded a multitude of songs to build up my music collection. Often when I would hear something in a movie or maybe a commercial, I would search out the song because of a familiarity and find that I already had it downloaded without having ever really given it much of a second thought. I didn’t have, nor take, the necessary time to listen to everything but truly enjoyed finding new music and giving worthy selections my attention.
Then I started writing out of boredom. I had considered writing a music blog in the past but never had the assertiveness to begin doing so. Andy started working a little more on his old blog, and I started writing mine with a dabble here and there about music. Then the two of us began writing more often about music until our works became almost exclusively pertaining to music. We decided to combine our efforts and make a more dynamic website to hash out our music obsessions. With that change has come a change in my music listening habits. Now I feel I have more of a duty to listen to anything out there and give a cursory rating. I have purchased more music this year than ever in my life. I now feel a responsibility of sorts to consume as much new music as I can to formulate an opinion and put out the best of what I’ve found into the world. While it’s certainly more expensive this way, I prefer being the barnstormer and giving others ideas on what they may want to purchase with their hard earned cash. So thanks for reading and giving me the opportunity to do this thing I enjoy so much.
And on that lengthy note here are two older songs I heard somewhere and began to like. Go here to understand this project.
67. Massive Attack – Protection (mp3) from Protection
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Another in a familiar theme: I was pretty young when this song came out, but it appealed to me then as it does now. Just try not to like this song.
68. The Walkmen – We’ve Been Had (mp3) from Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
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Without really thinking about it, The Walkmen have built their way over time into being a subtle part of a favorite band list that may exist somewhere in my brain. Consistently strong efforts will tend to do that for you apparently. I love this song just as much as some of the band’s newer more widely revered work. As an added little nugget of info, I will also have fond memories of this song as it was used in a commercial during March Madness the year that Syracuse won the National Championship. Not often do my teams win anything, so that was nice.
