hmmm...

So I don't think I've been listening to much that is new recently. I listened to a lot of Stars and Broken Social Scene, especially Swimmers and Almost Crimes, which are excellent songs. The Almost Crimes video is matched perfectly with the song, so go watch it!

basically you can just Youtube the video or the download link (from the Arts&Crafts website) is here.

odd...

Every so often, I stop listening to the new stuff I've found and go back to a few tried and true bands like Stars, Death Cab, and Broken Social Scene. And every time I do this, I wonder why I feel so much more connected to these bands than the bands I've discovered more recently. I don't know why, but it seems like the older stuff has much more significance in my life than new material. Now undoubtedly some of this is explained by the fact that I've been listening to Stars, Death Cab, etc for a lot longer than anything else, and a lot of other bands that I started at about the same time sit unplayed in my library.

So part of it is because these are the best bands that have stood the test of time. However I also think that because these were among the FIRST bands I listened to, they have additional significance. There is something very romantic and mysterious about Stars, and not solely because of their music. So as more and more bands are discovered, there is less "mystery" about them, because you can compare them to stuff you've listened to previously. While this is useful for classifying music and finding similar bands, it decreases the uniqueness of new music. But when you find something that is truly different, however, you can really get into it, because of the novelty. Of course, this novelty makes it harder to appreciate the music at first, but once past that, I think your enthusiasm for the music is higher than if it was more similar to previous artists. A prime example of this process is Animal Collective. It was so far removed from the less experimental indie I've been listening to that it took a few weeks for me to even play a few tracks. Then I suddenly discovered that it was a lot of fun, and now it's something like my 6th most played artist.

So if you want a mathematical formula,
enthusiasm = (talent of the band) + (length of time you've been listening) + (novelty of the band)
where talent is generally constant, perhaps rising with time, time is obviously increasing, and novelty is inversely proportional to the number of bands you've listened to that are similar to the new artist.
and that's only if you're absolutely desperate for a formula, since my variables are vague and only give general trends.

I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm ready to go...

So tonight I've been basically listening to two songs repeated, cause they're so good. One of them is Photobooth by Death Cab for Cutie. For some reason I'd never listened to Forbidden Loves EP, so I hadn't heard this song, which is basically amazing.
The other song I've been listening to is one I'd heard a few weeks/month ago, called Bedhead, by Shotgun Jimmie. The first time I heard it was on a CBC Radio 3 podcast, and couldn't find the song anywhere, so I've listened to that particular podcast a few times. Today, however, I had a flash of inspiration and went to look for Shotgun Jimmie on last.fm. Not only was he there, the song was available as a free download, though only in 128 kbps.
The song is so incredibly fucking chill that I just love it. The whole song is basically the singer trying to get someone (probably a girlfriend or spouse) out of bed. OUT, not IN. cause the spouse/gf happens to be very sleepy. There are no references to drugs, sex, alcohol, or anything else common in music. It's also the only time I've heard "super sleepy head" in a song and not burst out laughing. Actually it's the only time I've heard that phrase in music, period. It's sorta like a children's song for adults, but not. beautiful.

Someone Still Loves You

So basically Lauren convinced me to listen to more music, even though I am supposed to be on a ban for new music. I'm pretty happy I did, because Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (yes, very long name) is really good. I got the album "Broom". I haven't looked into their biography much, but their music is excellent. It sounds a bit like Voxtrot mixed with a little of the accoustic guitars of Okkervil River. The end result is a warm, tuneful product that flows well in their relatively short (maybe I'm just used to 8 minute long trippy stuff) songs. That's not saying that it just goes by without anything to remember the songs by. Anna Lee is a very good song, and Anne Elephant has wailing in it. Wailing.
According to Lauren the next album is not allowed to be called "Mop".
how unfortunate.

the bees the bees the bees the bees the bees

Yeah that was sorta random. It's a good way to describe Animal Collective, from Baltimore, MD. Their music is heavily experimental and probably amazing while tripping. There are lots of random noises in the music, and the lyrics are often disconnected. It's interesting to note that they're connected to the band Múm, and in one song (Banshee Beat), they also have the theme of Swimmingpools. The music is pretty hard to get into at first, but once you get past the first plateau it's definitely a lot of fun. oh and the title of this post is from the song Bees. In one part it goes "the bees the bees the bees the bees (repeated a few more times) rewewrrewwerrewrwe". Just like that. no joke. You really need to listen to actually get an idea.

Okkervil River

So there's quite an indie scene in Austin, Texas, apparently. The first I heard about it was Eisley, a while ago. Then Voxtrot came around, and now Okkervil River. idk how it came about, but Lauren mentioned how much she liked the band and sent me a track, so I got some of their albums, and they're really good. Lots of accoustic guitars, sorta like Neutral Milk Hotel. They're material is diversified and thoughtful, not focusing on love, or death, or whatever. For example, Westfall is about a guy who killed a girl, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks is about a fictional lieutenant who massacred a village in a war, and so on. The guitars make it sorta folkish, but it's not so folky that it would turn people off.
I've definitely got too much new music right now, so I'm not going to get more for a while. I'll probably write some stuff about the other stuff I haven't written about yet.
ugh.

Plate

I've pretty much got too much stuff to listen to right now, so I can't really like anything intensely. I've got Feels by Animal Collective to listen to, Two Hours Traffic, Múm (I hate how I have to copy-paste that all the time...), The National, and !!! (chk chk chk). There's also stuff I haven't even listened to yet, like My Morning Jacket, the Juno sound track, and various other things. ugh.

Relapse?

So every so often when my music is on shuffle I'll get something I haven't heard in a while, like Neutral Milk Hotel, which surprises me because I've forgotten how good they were. This happens quite often, because I'm always looking for new music, so old favorites get pushed aside while I listen to the new stuff. It's also occurred with Brand New and Death Cab For Cutie many times. I listen to Stars a lot, so I don't really forget about them, they're that good. Anyways I think I have too much "new" music right now so I'm going to go through and actually get into the ones I like.

múm and The Postal Service

So I'd been wondering what múm sounded like, because of the dreamy instrumentals and electronic stuff in general. So let's think, what other artist has dreamy instrumentals and electronic elements? The Postal Service! I'm pretty sure those two would go well together, and I'm trying it out right now. Up to this point the music is going smoothly. I bumped my head on a ceiling so if this note doesn't sound too intelligent blame the house.

Múm!?

So I was randomly looking through music, and I happened across this band called Múm. It's some Icelandic band that does some nice instrumental and electroglitch indie. The sound is sort of like the older Architecture In Helsinki, with instrumental tracks and breathy vocals. It also sounds a bit like Broken Social Scene because of the distorted instruments. They occasionally have strange tracks, like Rhuubarbidoo, which has high pitched woodland animal-like voices, and They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded, which just sounds funny. They also have a strange obsession with "swimmingpools" (one word). Apparently it's not so random because Lauren had already heard of them and there's some connection with Animal Collective.
All in all good background music when you need to work, but also good for just listening whenever.