Irrelevance Glorified

Strangely enough, I’ve had a number of musically related thoughts recently. Lately, the topic of my cogitations has been U2. For much of my early music-consuming life, I considered U2 to be my favorite band. By now, I would say that Radiohead has taken up that mantle. That’s not a huge dig on U2; I really only started listening to music a bit after U2 came out with Achtung Baby, so effectively I came into the music world just when U2 had passed their creative peak, almost 14 years into their now 29 year career, while I caught Radiohead on their way up.

Recently, U2 came out with a new album, No Line On The Horizon. At this point in their career, I’m not exactly waiting at the record store at midnight for their newest release. At best, I hoped that it wouldn’t be horrible. At worst, I cringed at what this would do for their legacy.
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[I actually wrote most of this about 3 1/2 - 4 weeks ago, but my browser lost it's sign-in information, and so when I went to save it, it punted me to an error message and I lost my hours worth of work. Whenever that happens, it takes me a lot of time to work up the courage to rewrite it all]

One of the things that I do miss about Champaign is the radio station, WPGU. A few years before I left, they switched over from a Clear Channel – like format to a more open, independent format. It was great! Instead of samey, cookie cutter corporate rock, they played a lot of indie stuff that you wouldn’t normally hear. I didn’t always like it, but I appreciated the diversity and enjoyed the respite from having focus-group-tested crap rock forced down my throat.

I haven’t had quite the same amount of luck in the Bay Area, surprisingly enough. For the most part, I’m listening to the local NPR station or Live 105, an corporate alternative rock station in the area. It tends to play a little bit too much nu metal for my taste and lots of commercials, but it has a suitably stupid and wacky morning show and plays some cross section of music that I like. When I first arrived, I spent a lot of time seeking on the radio dial, trying to find a good radio station. And one day, I found one! It was playing a bunch of generic indie stuff, which doesn’t really sound like a compliment, but I was happy to find a station playing interesting stuff that I hadn’t heard before. I could tell it was a low powered station, because it barely lasted during my commute in to work. But stupidly, I changed the station before setting it to memory, and when I tried to find it again all I got was static.

About a week later, I managed to find it again, and I quickly set it to memory, where it’s become a nice listen for my commute. The thing is, I couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from, because (a) there were never any commercials or DJ’s, and (b) there were no ‘official’ radio stations playing at that frequency, and more than one ‘unofficial’ radio station playing near that portion of the dial. I began to wonder, what sort of cool people ran this radio station, that their musical interests were so varied and interesting. And eventually, I found out. Teenagers. High school kids, to be specific. Saint Francis Prep School students, to be even more specific. On the way home from work, the music ended and the DJ’s came on…and they were two kids talking about prom. Of course, these were indie hipster kids, so they were talking about going to prom in a sort of detached ironic way, rather than being excited about it, but still. High schoolers.

This is sort of embarrassing. You might say that taste in music is age independent, but it’s sort of jarring to find out that I am head bobbing in unison with kids half my age. It’s like suddenly noticing that all the commercials for your favorite television show are aimed at tweens. Or heading out to the theater for the movie you’ve been waiting the whole year for, and finding out that you’re in line with a bunch of 9th graders. There’s a cultural divide, damnit, and one of our generations is crossing the line here!

However, this rant is not even the point of this post. The other day, I was driving to work, listening to KSFH, and I hear a song come on that really caught my ear, partially because it was good, partially because I could recognize neither the song nor the artist. A moment of action was needed. There were no commercials and no breaks, so I couldn’t wait for the DJ to come back on and tell me what songs they played. This wasn’t Clear Channel, so I couldn’t count on them playing the song again anytime soon. I could tell the song was winding down, so I couldn’t try and pull out my phone and start up Shazam (which worked, by the way, when I played it later). So, I was down to my last option — remembering choice lyrics and using Google as soon as I could, before I could forget them. The important part of such actions is that you have to think of something memorable and exactly right. Luckily, the start and the end of the song are both quiet, musically, and have a memorable line. I was coming up on a red light, so I quickly thumbed the line into Google on my phone and got a response. Maximo Park’s ‘Going Missing’. I love The Internet.

Later in the day, I tried to hit up Rhapsody to hear the song again. To my dismay, Rhapsody doesn’t carry that song, which is pretty much a rarity these days. I was forced to use YouTube to listen to the song. Now, there is a lot of music out on YouTube, but I feel wrong using YouTube to listen to music….it’s like cleaning the earwax out of your ears with a pencil. Sure, it works, but that’s not its intended purpose. Which brings me to my other realization — I am so used to an on-demand world, I’m actually annoyed when I can’t get information or media immediately, preferably streaming. I can only imagine what it will be like in the future, when things like MIT’s Sixth Sense come to fruition — how will people act when the Hive Mind goes down?

Does this post have a point? Not really. That’s why it’s got the random tag. Basically, if I think about any one subject for more than some threshold amount of brain cycles, there’s a decent chance that it will end up on the web page. But anyways, here’s the song. One other reason I don’t like using YouTube to listen to music by watching music videos is that it’s harder to separate the music from the slickly-produced image of the band, so my impression gets clouded. Which sorta happens here…the lead singer looks like he’s trying a little bit too hard. But whatever, here’s the video:

You know, I think Brian Williams exudes an air of arrogance. He seems like a bit of dick. But I have to say, he is always a good interview on the Daily Show.

And to understand the “Giant Head” thing, you have to see this :

Finally, some music. I really like the concept of They Might Be Giants. I love that they exist. But I’ve found that I really only like one or two tracks per album. But I do like this song off their latest album.

They Might Be Giants, Climbing the Walls, from the album “The Else”.

Every once in a while, The Daily Show uses their video editing skills to put a bit together that is brilliantly scathing. The irony is delicious.

Next, a song that gets in my head everytime it’s on the radio.

Feist, 1234, from the album “The Reminder”.

Comedy central is maddening. Lots of videos are there, but hidden. You need to find old web pages that link to them.
Updated to update to the new website. I have to serve one of my highest Google search hits.

Another one of my favorite Ed Helm’s bits. Fans of potty humor, rejoice!!

Also, another song.

Margot and the Nuclear So And So’s, Skeleton Key, from the album “The Dust of Retreat”.

Alright, I don’t post much, so let’s let other people make some content.
First up, a classic Daily Show clip. I miss Ed Helms.

Also, here is a track for you to listen to. You’ll need the Rhapsody web plug-in, which will install upon click. Even if you don’t have a subscription to Rhapsody, you’ll still be able to get 25 free song listens/month. So check it out.

Clem Snide, “Fill Me With Your Light”, from the album “End of Love”