Category — Music Much?

I was able to fix my Hard drive. Feels good not having to spend a lot of money on data recovery or trying to find all my music from scratch again.

The first thing I put on was the Bowerbirds. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to their debut album, Hymns For A Dark Horse. It’s one of those albums I can listen to over and over again and not get tired of. It’s a nu-folk band if that’s what you want to call it. I really love the lyrics and overall atmosphere of it. I first heard of them from reading John Darnielle’s blog Last Plane to Jakarta I didn’t think much of it at first. Later that summer Bessie and I went to see The Mountain Goats at the Middle East. (If you don’t know who they are then you should be ashamed of yourself. Go sit in the corner until you feel bad for living under a rock). I generally make an effort to see them at least once a year during their consistent visits to the Boston area. The Bowerbirds opened that evening. Bessie fell instantly in love with them. I just didn’t really get it. I attributed her glee to similar but slightly varied taste in music (Devendra Banhart). I just shrugged it off as another “freak folk” group. As the weeks went on, she did nothing but rave about the “life changing” (I may be just making the quote up) Bowerbirds performance and album.

I decided to give it another shot. She lent me the album and I fell in love with it instantly. I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that’s so amazing. You just have to listen for your selves. It will “change your life”

I was on pitchfork yesterday as it is a regular stop on my visits of obsessions on the interweb. I noticed that the article of the day was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the album many of us quietly love.

Yesterday’s article is an interview with Jeff Mangum in 1997 (just before this album came out) I find it rather interesting that JM openly discusses what the music is about. I guess I’m just used to artists being smug about their work and not so open about their creative process. Vivid dreaming is certainly an interesting way to get inspiration. From what I have read JM has since distanced himself from the Neutral Milk Hotel project, so it’s nice to get a fresh perspective on it while he was still involved.

Today’s feature article is more of a modern view of the album through artists who have been influenced by it. A common reoccurring theme is that people didn’t take to the album right away. It required some work and forceful listening to really understand. I find that groups that require this type of effort to understand have more of a pay-off than music that you instantly fall in love with. It’s not that it’s better, because that’s not necessarily true. It’s more that, once you cross that line where you reach sudden enlightenment (it usually is really “sudden” in most cases) and can really understand it, you will find yourself revisiting it long after and more often then otherwise easy to digest music. One major decision that I find myself making is, “Is this worth the time and effort that the payoff will be worth it?” After years of music fan-dom (for lack of a better word) I still have to second guess myself. Thats where friends who’s tastes you can trust come in handy.

Much like major nation events (JFK assassination, September 11 attacks etc.).  Once you do hit that point of enlightenment you never forget where you were and what you were doing when it happened. It’s kind of refreshing to read that many other people feel the same way as I do about this. That’s one of the appeals of always challenging yourself with new music. Otherwise we may find ourself in anther black hole decade of creative input from artists (that being the 80s and late 90s in my opinion.)

Below is some NMH for your listening pleasure. I recently fell in love with Songza and I hope you all do too. There are some issues with IE and it sounds a little odd in Opera but it’s still in beta. Since the death of my ipod and hard drive, its been hard to satisfy those impulses to hear a song when you just NEED to hear it. Thanks to the good people who brought us Songza, I can live to see another day of sanity.