a week in music

journal

i spent the whole week listening and taking notes on the music around me. whether it was someone else’s, or my own. along with making what seems to be a list of music encountered, i blurted out thoughts that would enter my mind while i was listening or thinking about a particular type of music and/or how it was being used. ready for a rant-ish journal type entry? ok, here we go!

9.8
to keep me going through the night
160 bpms are just the thing to keep you going. i spend the evening listening to old skool hardcore/jungle, i have been rekindling my affair with the like.

9.9
to wake me up
in the morning i use music to get me up, the first items i tend to think about while i’m waking is what i have dreamt about and how i would like to go back, record or get away from that world as soon as possible or what will get me out of bed, which is at the moment dnb music/talk radio and tea.
to attract which crowd?
after work i come home to a loud neighborhood and the ice cream truck rolling through at 9:30 pm. hmmmmm…
to practice the right to
all the time in my hood music is blasting out of windows and cars driving by, no one seems to mind the limit of which they can push the volume before it becomes a nuisance for another. perhaps there is an unwritten law of ‘you can play yours as loud as you want, as long as i can too.’
to lose myself in concentration
i have just punched play on my mp3 player, which has reminded me of another use for music; the force field between my world containing my computer, me and our productiveness and the world outside the edge of my bed which both of us are planted.
to distract
sometimes i waiver and fool myself into listening to a talk radio show, what i really want is to be distracted from my own feeble attempts at studying. i need someone to tell me a bizarre, fascinating story, or to give me funny anecdotes.
putting on my music has become an iron door shutting me in a room of all intended seriousness, sounds a bit daunting? yes, somehow i have made it that way, i then remind myself that the play button is in fact a pause as well. i sometimes need to eject myself out of the bubble or i can give myself an anxiety attack.
while reading i usually like slow melancholy sounding songs

music’s influence in work while listening to it. you know the mood of the owrk you want to create, or you put on music that you deem as interesting or complex, and tell yourself, you’ll see how you will react to it, to see what will flow from your hands when you hear it.
to reduce or to wallow in loneliness
i have to be careful not to select sentimental songs with narratives and with ‘everybody shut the fuck up, this is the good part’ parts. they really distract me from my work since i end up wanting to sing and relive a moment or get lost in a new one that’s being creating.

a recording i made on the F train

9.10
to socially connect
i have spent all morning finding music online and budgeting shows in. plus making a playlist in myspace. i have taken my computer with me everywhere this morning, even the bathroom and the kitchen to make eggs. i will now listen to wfmu.
in order to get some reading done, i had to switch to something instrumental.

chatted with someone on aim, we were attracted to each other by the taste in music we both had. we have bonded over our appreciation for old skool hardcore/jungle and jump-up dnb. he now sends me files to listen to since he produces tracks in this genre. i have been listening to them very approvingly and will be in order to get ready for my day.

song by vinyl fatigue

itpalooza is tonight at the tank where fellow itp students will be playing in their bands with and without hand made musical instruments.

i have come back from the tank, and have recorded two sets from the evening.

a sample of current_working_directory

9.11
listening to radio lab in the morning gives me things to think about throughout the day.
recorded itpalooza once more.

sample of and um yeah

to connect
listened to grizzly bear behind closed doors for hours.

9.12
to stimulate the mind
woke up rather late and put on some wfmu.
to create a collectively pleasing atmosphere
went to jimmy’s diner in williamsburg were 90s music was playing, which appeased the crowd and the workers. everyone was between 24 and 30, dolly parton “jolene” came on and every girl started singing including me.

9.13
to put in the right mood
to wake me up i listened to a band that has a long warm fuzzy history with me. i either want to be jolted up out of bed, or regress to a familiar time in my life to take the edge off.
to endure the day
going to the furniture store was interesting, i walked down the linoleum stairs to the cheap ply wood furniture selection and noticed a mash up of music. one kind was in the back which got louder as you approached the employees, three men sitting on the mattresses wrapped in plastic listening to a top 40 rap station. the other came from the register where south indian music was playing to keep the register girl occupied.
clearly this music was to keep the employees from falling asleep or causing bodily harm to others and themselves, with total disregard for the masses wants or any marketing studies that might say a certain kind of music would produce more sales. the garage sale prices and shouted answers to the customers questions were enough for the customers to keep coming back.
in the evening i chose an uplifting dnb set to put together my new dresser to, this was good work music.

9.14
did not listen to music this morning, just talk radio.
class all day, then numbing programs later that night to lull me to sleep.

9.15
to set a mood and physiological reaction
more talk radio in the morning, i then went to a facial appt. where there was a drone of a a sea melody playing on repeat. as i was being taken deeper into place of relaxation by neck and shoulder massage, i noticed a stomach gurgle. i couldn’t figure out if it was mine or the lady who was working on me. i kept hearing it, i was then convinced that mine and hers were communicating. as i kept slipping away into my subconscious, the gurgles blended into the sounds coming from the speakers. i recognized them originating from our stomachs, then splashing into the soundtrack i knew to be playing. it eventually dissolved into other thoughts and images that lulled me into a deep state of relaxation. in other words, it was a really good facial.

this weeks mini playlist

Quasi – Our Happiness is Guaranteed
Talkdemonic – White Gymnasium
Jeffrey Lewis – End Result (from the album where he covers all Crass songs)
The Dears – Saviour
Dj Hype – The Chopper
Erasure – Piano Song
MONO/POLY – Lucid Day Dreaming