Blog post No. 586
This is the first of whatever that thing was I posted about last week where I look back on old posts. Before I get into this week’s topic, I want to point out that while trolling through the old posts, I noticed not only that many of the image links are dead, but I was pretty creative with the titles when I started. Sometimes not for the better, but it got me wanting to put more effort into titles again. The post I’m looking back on this week came out on November 17th, 2010. Blog Post No. 5 CDs on the Radio.
The original post is about the first time I heard Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five. It’s also about getting older (not that the kid who wrote the post knew a lot about that) changing tastes, and a little bit how I hate the radio.
The radio in general is much worse today thanks to streaming. The old issue of the stations playing the same thing and music that sounds like it has been exacerbated. The stations mostly all did the same thing, but they each had a different format and they did try to play new stuff. Now, they are all one of a shrinking number of types that play the same small catalogue of music over and over again.
I won’t dwell too much on my changing tastes (mostly because I wrote a post about that not too long ago). I will continue to dwell on the music situation though, because it’s something I care about.
I used to get all my music suggestions from my brother and the cool radio stations of my youth. (They did exist). I still get good music suggestions from my brother. He’s my best source for truly indie bands writing and recording songs in their basements and playing live.
As for discovery, I actually find new music through random video suggestions on YouTube, but most of what I find comes from the local college radio station CJAM. There are a lot of shows that are hit and miss with me, but at least it’s all interesting and when something hits, it feels like being a kid again and hearing my new favourite band for the first time.
I do have to try and remember the name of the band and/or track so I can look it up later, though. Most of the shows don’t post that info and I’m not up for scrubbing through the recordings they do post on their website. Still, it’s nice to hear new things, even if they sound a lot like the old things I used to love.
The latest album I bought is Yard by Slow Pulp. I share it because it’s good and to attempt to go full circle with this reflection post thing. It was another of those YouTube suggestions that popped up in my feed when I should have been in bed. It’s a shoegaze style album with some hints at the old garage sound that was popular when I was first getting into high school. I did buy it on a CD and while I ripped it to my computer, I did take the time to play it on my stereo to get the full sense of it.
Ben Van Dongen 