Sad Dad

The idea that if I stop subscribing I lose access to the catalogue
doesn't really bother me either - I get bored with music fairly quickly
so the odds of me wanting to listen to the stuff I'm listening to now in
five years time are pretty slim.

Amazon Wishlist + large stock of booze -> surprise gifts at work.

 

I might even have a "work" from next monday, so *ding*

 

Bass and cello usually go on a trailer; elbow room see? The one slight
drawback is that cello players usually succumb to the exhaust fumes.
They're cheap enough, though.

 

Spotify fills all the gaps I don't get filled by Last.fm, the latter of
which is exceptional for new music recommendations. I've had an account
for about a year and it's given me more new bands than I could count.
Totally complimentary services, I feel.
Although Last.fm aren't paying me to say that, they may be paying me.

The only thing stopping me forking out for Spotify on my phone (for the
commute and bluetooth) is the fact that I've been unable to get any shop
to sell me a scala Q2 on the spot and it's a faff getting my in ear
phones in and out at the start and end of my 30 min commute and that it
would involve setting up some kind of payment, whereas spotify free
'just works' atm.

I dunno when I last played an mp3 from my hard disk, and I never start
iTunes now.

 

One example of how it comes in really handy is when I got the rough
Glastonbury lineup I was faced with the conundrum of who to try to see.
It's a doddle to just pick a load of names from the list, punch them
into Spotify, listen to the three or four most popular tracks and then
file them under 'must see', 'see if i'm wandering past' or 'avoid'.

It's hard to do that if all you have is an existing archive or 79p for a
download every time you want to listen to something in particular you
don't already have.

The existence of something like Spotify, with a free option and a
premium package for buttons, means I can no longer even try to morally
justify downloading hooky music. So I don't bother. A fine example of
the free market in action.

 

YouTube would be my first port of call for that, simply because there's
a good chance of seeing what they're like live, which can be a world
apart from studio tracks. E.g. I quite like Florence's studio stuff,
but if she was singing live, I'd want to be as far away as possible,
preferably with earplugs.

 

Bitch was singing on the stage a hundred yards or so from my tent. I had
to go for a walk while she murdered a cover of The Chain.

Youtube is a brilliant place to find crappy videos shot on mobile phones
of bands playing live which don't give you much of an idea of anything.
And videos of cats doing funny things. And not much else.

 

Hmm interesting. Do you really get bored that quickly with music? Are
there no classics in the Ogden music box?

And what would you say is worth listening to these days?

I confess I have lost touch with the charts and musical developments
somewhat but I was wondering if we have any really "big" artists from
say the last 10 years that will last for a long time. I'm struggling to
think who they might be.

 

Of course there are - Dylan, AC/DC, Billy Bragg, Velvet Underground,
Spiritualized, yadda yadda yadda. But these old warhorses tend to be
brought out to fill in the gaps when I can't find anything new to listen
to.

And, of course, just because something's new to me, doesn't mean it's
newly released.

In terms of fairly recent releases (as in the last 18 months), I seem to
be hooked on...

The XX - The XX
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Broken Bells - Broken Bells

....and older stuff...

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Holy **** - Holy ****
Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
The Duke Spirit - Neptune
The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More (really unsure about this one mind)
The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Saved
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

Tbh I'm not really fussed about longevity so long as they release
something worth listening to. I never listen to the charts but I try to
sample new stuff as and when I hear of it. For pop, I find stripmining
the latest Now album does the trick, or whatever Popjustice recommends.

 

On which note, I cannot recommend enough that you check out the new EP
the Mumfords have done with Laura Marling and the Dharohar Project. The
first (Devil's Spoke / Sneh Ko Marg) and fourth (Meheni Rachi) tracks
are pant-wettingly good.

V, otoh, asked "what's this? it's just noise. your musical taste's
getting worse" but she likes Westlife so I take that as a seal of
approval.

 

As am I,... oh!
--
Gavin.

Moto Guzzi California Aquila Nera
GSXR600K1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk