Saturday, September 25, 2010

Top 15

So I got the idea to do a series of blogs based on a Facebook meme that just recently started floating around again. The rules are as follows:

The rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends,including me, because I'm interested in seeing what albums my friends choose.

Blah, blah, blah.... So anyway, I thought I'd turn into a blog series, 1 album every couple of days, with an explanation of what makes it important to me and why you should own it if you don't already.

We'll start with an easy one: Brand New's Deja Entendu.

Everyone's who's going to read this probably already has it and has their own reasons for loving it, so for me, it was most importantly a turning point in my musical evolution. I still remember the day I went out and bought it--not the exact date or anything, but I do remember how it all went down. I bought it at Best Buy along with Alien Ant Farm's second album.  I had seen the video for The Quiet Things that No One Ever Knows and thought it was pretty cool. But after the day that I brought that album home, I think listened to that Alien Ant Farm album start-to-finish maybe once, and from then on I was hunting for music in a new direction. 

Everyone who loves this album thinks each track was written just for them. Which speaks to the simultaneously personal yet universal nature of Deja. It was uncompromising in its effort to evolve from the old Brand New Sound, yet still very catchy and accessible. Some of my favorite memories from high school are of me and my friends belting out the lyrics of Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't while driving around Fort Worth.

Let me know some of your favorite Brand New related memories in the comments.



Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Introduction

So, the first post. I guess I want to start by talking about why I’m starting this blog and why I desperately want you to read it (and I mean that with the strictest of sincerity; I’ll explain presently).

Part 1

I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. From experience I know that the longer the post is the less likely people will read it. And I do want you to read it. Partly because my ego craves it and partly because that's how things get off the ground. I'm relying on you, my friends, because you're the people I know and love, and who I hope will support me.

So why did it take me so long to finally get around to actually starting this? For the past 8 or so months I’ve been spinning my wheels. My college degree hasn’t done much for me, and my true aspirations of either getting my band listened to by a larger audience or writing a novel are still very unfulfilled. This makes me sad. So I have to do something. And right now, this is that something. I constantly get thoughts stuck in my head about music or books or life or whatever, and I spend lots of time thinking about these things. But often I’m unable to get things expressed vocally, in writing, in songs, or otherwise. I have always been very much a listener. Expressing myself through talking is a skill I don’t have. I can write for miles and form my thoughts the way I wish I could more directly, but lately I just haven’t.

I read a quote from Brian K. Vaughan. He said, “ ‘Writer’s block’ is just another word for video games. If you want to be a writer, get writing, you lazy bastards.” Well, I don’t play that much video games, but I have been lazy, and I really need to get back to writing. Starting now.

Part 2

I’ve always been sort of obsessed with titles for things. I tend to try and figure out the exact best title for songs, etc. I’m often able to just say, “Okay, that’s good enough,” and then move on with my life, but sometimes I just have to have that perfect title, because I know every time I get it just right, it makes me so happy and proud of myself. I feel like I got it right this time.

While I was trying to come up with a title I was looking at Wikiquote for quotes from Jack Kerouac; he had a couple that mentioned accepting the feeling of being lost and acknowledging that a lot about life involves being lost. Which has become a very pertinent sentiment in my life lately. “Get lost” is a very short, simple phrase that is so often used that I really only think about it as a command to tell someone to leave. I love those sorts of phrases, especially once I start thinking about it from other angles.

Now, for the most part this blog will probably be focused on music, a thing in which I so regularly find myself very lost, but more than likely I’ll stray into other categories as well. I’ve already planned out a few, but I’ll happily take some suggestions. I’d love to get input from others, and hopefully someday this can grow into a sort of group effort. I think that would be pretty cool.

Okay, I think that’s about it. Stay tuned for my top 15 albums of all time. So if you managed to read through all of this I appreciate it more than you know. I really do need you to understand how important this is to me, and if this doesn't really sound like something you'd be interested in, then tell a friend who you think might be.

Also, I may also post random photos that I just really like, from time to time. The one below is of the marquee at the Masquerade in Atlanta, GA where I saw The Dear Hunter for the first time with my little brother.