Crawling out from Under the Rock

The wonderful, gloomy, cool, breezy, rainy weather today has inspired me to cancel all planned errands and stay inside and be cozy instead. In honor of today's Lollapalooza lineup --sorry kids, I hope you all brought trash bags to wear. It really is better than 100 degrees with humidity! -- I am finally going to listen to some Arcade Fire. What has it been (two years?) that you can't read anything about music and not see something about them? I couldn't name a song although I'm sure I must have heard something. Same with Animal Collective.

I have a general blur in my mind of a bunch of bands that are NPR and WFUV Music podcast darlings over the last three years. None of them have really stuck with me but I know some were enjoyable. So I have made myself an Arcade Fire station at Pandora and I'll do a stream of conscious reaction for 10 songs.

1. Neighborhood #3 Power Out - I don't think I like this creaky, whiney voice (says the woman who loves Neil Young)

2. Lisztomania by Phoenix - Yeah, I remember this from a Podcast. Do I hate pop music? this just seems silly. Not absolutely offensive but not something I need to hear again.

3. Karma Police by Radiohead - Oh yeah, I couldn't pick Radiohead out of a lineup either. They are a 90s band right? Okay, so the theme here is warbly, high voiced men? Why is/was Radiohead such a big deal? Are these the guys with the Broadway show now? Or is that Green Day? Ack, end of song with ear piercing feedback.

4. Kids by MGMT - feeling cool, I've heard of MGMT too. Kind of like this one: when the music isn't annoyingly perky there is a bit of a New Order Low Life sound.

5. Old Flame - hmmm, still don't like the lead voice, not loving the chorus aspect either.

6. Tenuous by Andrew Bird - okay, I know Chicago guy Andrew Bird. First voice I've really liked so far. I'm a sucker for the word gamey, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist sorts though. Do I like what I know or what I hear? No I like the little cowboy sound and the goofy space noises.

7. Sunlight by Death Cab for Cutie - I'm starting to get indiepop fatigue. All of these men have a certain oompa loompa nasal vibration quality to their voices. Trying to reconcile this and put into context with old favorites like Jeremy Enigk and Matthew Sweet, in my mind's ear they had that too. I'm recalling that I can't listen to Sunny Day Real Estate or either of those guys for too long either without feeling drained.

8. Boy with a Coin by Iron and Wine into 12:51 by the Strokes- Thought about Jeremy Enigk all through these 2 songs. Saw Iron and Wine live a few years ago though.

9 Intervention - Okay, this one started and even with big big church organ sound I felt dread. Different singer though? I think I don't like Arcade Fire? I want to turn this off or go out into the rain and do errands .... but the vocals are growing on me and it is making me think of something. Can't think with this music on though. Psychedelic Furs song? Something around there, need to come back later or this will drive me nuts.

10. Clark Gable by The Postal Service - The Killing Moon! Echo and the Bunnymen. Now that the song stopped I can think again but how in the world did that song make me think of Ian McCulloch? Oh, I should be listening to this new song that sounds a lot like the other songs.

This 10 song experiment has mainly proved to me that I am hopelessly stuck in the past. I'm always surprised by the younger people I talk to(mostly women, the men I know who listen to music seem to have broader tastes) who say they don't know about a pre-1980s artist because they weren't born yet. We do have these magic inventions that record music! You can even listen to the music of dead people! But I am oppositely bad, I'm more in touch with music made when I was 2 than when I was 32.

I'll work on it, familiarity with music tends to bring more appreciation. One-time listening on my laptop is not really the way to fall in love. I will admit though, that as I type this up I am listening to my new Pandora station (The Killing Moon) and feeling put out that they are giving me Oasis.