Changing Times

I promise this blog will not only be about music.

In the past few years I've tended to notice that people generally say they "like a band" when they only know the one or two singles they have on the radio. Coupled with a recent article interviewing Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey it sparked me to think about the fact that people don't really seem to like listening through entire cds as much as I do (I know some of you who actually do luckily).

I undertand sometimes there is some bands that release a cd that only contains a couple good songs. But there is far to many bands I see only reach success off of one song when their whole record is amazing (and some bands that have one good song but the rest of the album is terrible). There is no doubt people remember Augustana for "Boston" and "Sweet and Low", but what most people don't know is that they have released two unbelievable albums ("All The Stars and Boulevards" and "Can't Love, Can't Hurt"). There is more to this band than a catchy hook and pianos spralled out on the beach.

It kind of baffles me sometimes as to why people these days are not listening to whole cds and are rather opting to purchase a couple songs off of iTunes. There is something about starting an album and listening through the entire thing.

I sometimes think people not listening all the way through albums is a microcism of our entire society today. We live in such a fast paced world that people only get snippets of things anymore and not the whole thing, music included. People generally are not sitting still long enough to take in a album, listening to it a couple times to get the feel of it. A cd to me is like a book, you sometimes have to just concentrate on it and nothing else to take it all in and truly understand it. Maybe that's me, and if it is that's fine.

No doubt the whole digital revolution has affected people's listening habits. iPods have given people the opportunity to switch to thousands of different songs with a scroll and a click of the thumb. Having the ability to hook them into your car has given people the ability to no longer delve into albums on long car rides, but listen to a few songs and move on.

I might be the only person in the world who thinks about this. But I wouldn't be suprised in the future (and maybe even the near future), that full length cds become fewer and far between. I can easily see EP's and scattered songs becoming more and more common. What's the point for musicians anyways? Most bands don't make money off of albums, so why should they have to put in the time and effort to release 10-12 songs as once when they can just make them at their leisure and post them when done with.

I hope full lengths never go away though, I truly do. It would be like people having only chapters of a book to read instead of the whole thing. It would take a lot of the art and story telling away from the musicians.

Thanks for listening to my babble.

Top 40

Figured this would be the best avenue to post this since I never really use this blog (although I probably should). This list was actually kind of hard together once the top 10 was out of the way really. I'm sure I'll look at this list in six months and change it around but that's how it goes. I kind of made my top 40 off of what I like the most, have listened to the most and what I think is the best musically as well (usually used when deciding between two bands on certain spots). My list of top 10 EP's is below. The top four really could go in any order.

Top 40 CDs:
1. Jimmy Eat World- Futures
2. Brand New- Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
3. Jimmy Eat World- Clarity
4. Death Cab For Cutie- Transatlanticism
5. Brand New- Deja Entendu
6. Death Cab For Cutie- Plans
7. Augustana- Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt
8. Copeland- You Are My Sunshine
9. Anberlin- Cities
10. Lydia- Illuminate
11. Death Cab For Cutie- Narrow Stairs
12. Copeland- Eat, Sleep, Repeat
13. Deas Vail- All The Houses Look The Same
14. Jimmy Eat World- Chase This Light
15. Jack’s Mannequin- The Glass Passenger
16. Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American
17. Jack’s Mannequin- Everything In Transit
18. Something Corporate- North
19. Copeland- In Motion
20. Anberlin- Never Take Friendship Personal
21. Manchester Orchestra- I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child
22. City and Colour- Bring Me Your Love
23. Say Anything- In Defense of the Genre
24. Jimmy Eat World- Static Prevails
25. The Graduate- Anhedonia
26. The Starting Line- Direction
27. Something Corporate- Leaving Through The Window
28. City and Colour- Sometimes
29. Fall Out Boy- Take This To Your Grave
30. Fall Out Boy- Folie a Deux
31. Cartel- Chroma
32. New Found Glory- Coming Home
33. Relient K- mmhmm
34. Manchester Orchestra- Mean Everything To Nothing
35. Brand New- Your Favorite Weapon
36. Mute Math- Mute Math
37. Motion City Soundtrack- Commit This To Memory
38. Paramore- Riot!
39. Paramore- All We Know is Falling
40. The Early November- The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path

Top EPs:
1. Ace Enders- The Secret Wars
2. Jimmy Eat World- The Stay on My Side
3. Eye Alaska- Yellow & Elephant
4. The Morning Light- The Sounds of Love
5. The Narrative- Just Say Yes
6. You, Me, And Everyone We Know- So Young, So Insane
7. Monument Monument- Sleep Well When You Get There
8. Death Cab For Cutie- The Open Door EP
9. Deas Vail- White Lights
10. Something Corporate- Audioboxer

Writing and summer aspirations

It always ends like this. My days I should mean. I'm laying in bed and I come up with another idea for this book that eventually want to write. But I'm to tired to write it down or type it. It's like that with reading for me as well really.

It's just check facebook, check twitter, check absolutepunk.net and repreat. I know it's just a way to unwind and relax, but sometimes I feel like I'm wasthing my time when I'm flipping through three websites. But whatever, back to the topic.

Last summer I intended to start writing a book, or at least trying to get something down. This summer I don't have an internship to worry about and I'm single. So I don't really have any obligations besides work. But really that's not to bad. But for some reason I haven't read as much as I'd like to. And I haven't wrote as much as I'd like to as well.

And that got me thinking about summer plans. During the spring semester (winter semester, call it what you will) everyone makes these dream plans of what they will do during the summer. Trips. Journeys. Adventures. Concerts. Dreams. Aspirations. It's the time when you plan to get things done you don't have the time to get done then. But then summer comes and things end up differently. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the worse.

For me this summer I just want to relax. This is going to be my final relaxing summer. Next summer I'll have to take a class and after that is graduate school prepration and all that shit. So this is my last free spirted summer for a while. I just want to read, write and have fun with my friends. Enjoy some concerts. We'll see.

Nothing deep tonight I guess. I'm to tired to think. My predicament really that got me to write this post to begin with.