Busy Doin' Nothin

A Beach Boys reference seems appropriate for this Saturday in July.

I’ve had this blog for sixteen months now and I’m still not sure what to write about and when to write about it. So…I’ll just give a good ol’ fashioned life/music update rambling.

It’s summertime and I’m working 25 hours a week at the PLU library, which means I get to spend lots of time listening to music on my headphones. On the average day, I usually listen to about three albums, which is fantastic. I’m really quite blessed to have the job I do, as boring as it is sometimes. $9.40 an hour, with no stress and lots of quality music listening? I’ll take it…

Listening to music is a very difficult task for an indecisive, mildly OCD person like myself. My “era of the month” thing has been helpful when I can’t decide what to listen to (side note, “Best of 1973" is coming soon) as well as my humongous backlog of music I’ve acquired over the last year or so that I’ve yet to listen to. And of course, sometimes I can be semi-normal and listen to a certain album just because I want to listen to it.

I haven’t had any particular revelations over the past month or so. I’m as optimistic about the future of music as ever thanks to the excellent crop of 2010 albums. I’m going to start reviewing more records and possibly writing more artist profiles here on Page 43. I haven’t started intensively studying rock criticism yet but I hope to get on that this summer before I embark fully on my capstone project in the school year. I’ve written five songs this summer as well and hope to do some recording in August.

The last five albums I’ve listen to have been: The Mission Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, Nursery Cryme by Genesis, Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Meat Is Murder by The Smiths and Destroyer’s Rubies by Destroyer. A nice mix of sounds there I think. If I had to take one to a desert island, it would probably be Meat Is Murder. I’m not totally enamored with any of the aforementioned records but songs like “Nowhere Fast” would be appropriate for that kind of isolated setting I think.

I’ve also become obsessed with NPR Music recently. Every music media outlet has some sort of bias but I feel this might be one of the most open-minded yet thoughtful sources out there. If you haven’t already, tune in to an episode of All Songs Considered sometime. Really great stuff.