Update: Music Listening Regimen

So, in an effort to catch up from where I left off, I figured I'd go down the list of things I used to frequently write about on this blog and update you with what's been going on in that area since. As such, the first thing that came to mind was my rigorous music listening regimen, which (as you may recall) used to entail buying somewhere around 80 CDs a year and listening to each four times the week I added it to the cycle, and then one time each in the next four cycles, giving me what I deemed a thorough and fair chance to assess the album's merits.

Well, though this process continued more-or-less unchanged for the first half of my time since I last wrote in earnest, once I joined the band, I abandoned my old CD-buying habits in exchange for a Spotify Premium account, a decision based partly on the fact that the band was really into it, partly on the immediate accessibility of having everything on my phone (which is another update I need to cover), but mostly due to needing to save some of the exorbitant amount of dinero I was blowing on CDs a year. As such, I reduced the costs of my CD-buying addiction from roughly $800 to $120 per year… You do the math.

Now, while this change did much for my wallet, it has had mixed results with regards to my intake and appreciation of music. For example, since I started using the service back in early Fall of 2013, I've only listened to 44 albums in my official regimen, a significant decrease from the roughly 80 albums annually beforehand (and therefore a couple months shorter in duration as well). The flipside here is that, while I've listened to only 44 albums in the regimen itself, I've sampled (i.e. listened to the entirety of an album once) many, MANY more albums than that, all in the process of weeding out albums I don't particularly care for enough to commit to weekly routine.

That said, though this would only seem to increase the quality of my CD "collection" relative to its sheer quantity, it's odd that very few of these 44 more elite albums have really stuck with me, an alarming fact that I fear is due primarily more to psychological issues than musical ones. See, when committing to BUY an album before, I was essentially making a choice to get my money's worth out of it, placing a certain kind of weight on it that having a near-limitless virtual digital collection simply can't do. Simultaneously, the fact that I was even ABLE to use Spotify was due to having a smartphone, and (as I'm sure I'll discuss in a later post), this has negative effects on my ability to stay focused on the music itself whilst driving (which is my primary form of listening), mainly due to having so many other immediate distractions I previously did not have available to me.

Finally, and returning to the larger point at hand, the fact that I no longer had a blog for which I needed to tabulate and rank my albums on a five-point scale for a yearly "Top Five" post sealed the proverbial nail in the coffin of my investment in the music itself (even though one might argue it shouldn't if I really cared about the art form), and thus, another reason I find myself returning to my blog, even if only to make sense of all the media and experiences I've taken in over the past couple years.

So there you have it: a lengthy breakdown of my music-listening habits as of late, the ups, the downs, and a hopeful promise that I'll soon be returning to reviewing and relating the highlights of the year, thereby combatting (at least a little) the negative side-effects of using a streaming subscription service rather than actually owning hard copies of my chosen albums.

What I've Been Up To (Part 2)

I think I'll conclude the flurry of posts today by finishing up with the Baby Baby half of my time since last writing, which has been awesome, event-filled, and highly-memorable to say the least...

Fall 2013
Getting "discovered" by Baby Baby at a random house party, kickstarting the current era of my life. In total, we played 18 shows in what remained of 2013, and my dating life picked up like never before (though none of it worked out). ;) Oh, and I hosted another loft party, this time with twice as many people due to the band's friend network.

Winter/Spring 2014
After a strange Bachelor-esque (yes, the TV show) dating fiasco with two girls, I ended up choosing someone I fought with for the bulk of our four-month relationship, during which time the band ended up playing a very mediocre thirteen-date CD release tour across the SouthEast over the course of five weekends.

Most of Summer 2014
A big transition period on pretty much every level, including being single again, our bassist leaving the band and being replaced by our current (and super-awesome) bassist Hsiang, writing new material while playing shows to get him worked into the band, replacing my old primary synth with a new Roland Jupiter-80, and hosting a wild late-night tiki party here at my loft. Oh, and let's not forget picking up our LA-based management and lawyer, NYC booking, and heavy support by Red Bull, without which things might've turned out MUCH differently, especially given the shitty CD release tour and Kyle's departure.

Mid-August 2014 to the present
Most of my time is now spent with my current girlfriend Jessica (nearly four months in now!) and touring a ton with the band, including our festival dates (AfroPunk, Made In America: Philly, and RiotFest: Chicago/Denver, which itself was our first flight), a Midwest mini-tour, some higher-profile shows here in the Southeast (incl. my favorite show to-date, at Terminal West), a two-week bus tour with Run The Jewels, a big show out in LA (our second flight), and just recently, The Stuffing.

All in all, I've played a total of 71 shows with the band in roughly 34 cities in 15 states, all within 14 months, and we've got WAY more on the books for next year already. The bottom line is that being in Baby Baby, which was my favorite band in Atlanta before I joined and therefore a kind of real-world dream-come-true, has changed my life forever, giving me a new group of friends (both close and casual), allowing me to finally do something good with my years of music training (beyond teaching), and giving me more stories and adventures than I ever imagined I'd acquire (especially this late in life). It's nothing short of a sort of personal renaissance, and though there have certainly been a fair share of downs with the incredible ups I've had with the band, I couldn't be more grateful on this Thanksgiving weekend that it all worked out so wonderfully.

What I've Been Up To (Part 1)

So, now that I'm back from the dead, let's take this time (lengthy as it will most-certainly be) to list some major things that have happened in the interim, starting from when I really stopped blogging the first time, roughly April of 2012:

Late May/Early June 2012
Suzi and I take our last two trips together (Pittsburgh/Chicago). These were, like most of our trips before, fantastic, and as such, a nice way to cap things off before shit hit the proverbial fan.

June 23rd, 2012
My father passes away from an eight-year battle with cancer. Though I may cover this again in greater detail, suffice it to say for now that, sad as it all was, it had gotten to the point that I was just relieved to see that he was no longer suffering daily. Obviously I miss him, and things haven't quite been the same since, but at least there's that.

August 4th, 2012
After a month or so of continuous fighting, Suzi and I break up. Coupled with my father's passing, this made for one of the hardest, loneliest periods in my life, despite that fact that technically it was my decision to call it off.

Fall 2012
A period spent more-or-less reclaiming my social/dating life and picking up the pieces. Highlights include my trip to NYC for Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach and a trip to see my buddy Jeremy in Charlotte. Also, I wrote/produced a sad Christmas song during the most depressing/lonely point of the post-Dad/Suzi period.

Winter/Spring 2013
Fortunately, this all turned around by reconnecting and becoming constant companions with my high school buddy Adam Monica and (eventually) his girlfriend Rachel, featuring numerous fun visits to Athens, GA and going out all the time. Still no serious girlfriend, but it was a really fun few months.

Summer 2013
A chiller period seeing less of Adam & Rachel and dating a girl for a couple months, punctuated by a great trip to see my best friend Dave in Denver and then hosting my bday party at my loft.

Overall, though this year and a half since I last wrote had its fair share of highs and (really) lows, it all kinda averages out to being pretty solid, choosing to look at it from the positive side of things. Though Adam and Rachel have now moved out to LA and their place in my life is sorely missed, they were just what I needed to get over my depression and move on in life.

Back From The Dead

God it's been a long time. Just a couple months short of two years, really…

It's funny to think that back at that point, I had a long but manageable list of blog topics I had yet to catch up on, and though I'm sure I still have that hand-written list somewhere or another, it really couldn't matter less at this point, could it? There's just no way I could feasibly cover the sheer amount of ground that's been tread since then, especially considering I hadn't even joined Baby Baby yet (which has more-or-less, along with internet dating and the occasional relationship, all but wholly consumed my life).

Now, as to what I plan on doing with this blog, I'm honestly not really sure. On one hand, I've accumulated years' worth of time and history in this blog that I'd love to add onto, keeping everything in one place… But then again, part of me wants to start over, if only so I can make it public and not have to worry about being attached to the Baby Baby name, and therefore risk having perhaps-inflammatory things publicly associated with the band. Or I could possibly just have two blogs, one designed for public consumption and one solely for my friends…

Not really sure which way I'll go or how often I'll be writing, but I just kept feeling the pull to come back to archiving my life in written form instead of just in the detailed iCalendar I keep on my computer. Anyway, it feels good to be back, and if you're reading this, let me know so I can better access who all I'm reaching and whether or not I should go public-public. And happy belated Thanksgiving!

2013 Off To A Great Start

The title pretty much says it all...after what was perhaps the saddest year in my life, especially around the holidays, things have done a 180 in 2013 already, and I'm loving life. Pretty much since New Year's Eve, I've been making a point to be extremely social, I've been writing music again with my buddy Adam (trying to get a new band off the ground), I've been dating a lot, and work's even picked up, to the point that I'm running out of slots to teach people (which is both a good and bad problem to have).

All combined, out of the 31 days in January, there were only FOUR days where I didn't do something social at all (not counting work, of course). Sure, I'm probably spending way too much money, but whatever...considering I'm not traveling like I used to with Suzi, I'd say it pretty much balances out.

And I'm happy...so there's that. =)

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

Let's keep the album reviews rolling, as I've got a lot of ground to make up here. Next up is one of the surprise fives of 2012, the sophomore album by French/Finnish duo The Dø (as in the solfège syllable), which was one of the albums that I ended up discovering via critics' Top 50 lists from the previous year. From the get-go, it's obvious that The Dø have carved out their own sound, one that's simultaneously progressive and folky (in a European sense), leaning towards a more raw recording approach with lots of auxiliary percussion instruments to add tonal variety. Add to this the oft-melancholic lead vocals of Olivia Merilahti, and you've got an album the likes of which I can't say I've really quite heard before.

Perhaps the most appealing thing about Both Ways Open Jaws is the wide stylistic variety between tracks without losing a sense of unity amongst them. You've got moments that sound a lot like The Smashing Pumpkins' chiller stuff, others that sound a bit like Philip Glass and Terry Riley, and even others like Ethiopian jazz. If this sounds interesting to you, you definitely owe it to yourself to give The Dø a shot.

Highlights: "Dust It Off"/"Too Insistent"/"Bohemian Dances"
Rating: 5/5

Why I Hate My Next Door Neighbor

Back to blogging. Leave it to anger and hatred to fuel it! ;) Honestly though, being able to vent a little might be one of the few true upsides to having a privatized blog now, as I was always too worried before that the person I was writing about would have ended up seeing me shit-talk them! =) This actually happened on at least one occasion, and it didn't turn out well, so here's hoping I'm okay even writing this one!

[Note: This is a long, ranting blog, so I totally understand if you don't want to check it out. It's really not that juicy or anything, I just kinda needed to get this shit off my chest.]

So, the only real downside to living at my loft-style condo building is that, like any other lofts/apartments, I have neighbors that CAN hear through the walls/floors if I'm being loud enough (which honestly isn't that loud), and though I tend to listen to my music 95% of the time through headphones (thanks to another whiny roommAtE back in the day), my gay neighbor to my left (who's been here as long as I have) always finds a way to bitch at me once in a while. I point out that the guy is gay not because I have anything against gay people at all, but because he happens to harbor one of the worst qualities of being gay (being a total bitch) without redeeming it with one of the best (being lots of fun...which he absolutely isn't), thereby making him a particularly shitty person to have around a lot of the time.

Fortunately, I don't have to interact with him very often, as our schedules are very different, but here are some situations where he's definitely pissed me off:

- Texting to tell me to stop recording vocals at 10:30 on a FRIDAY night because he was asleep and trying to get over a cold. Look, I don't care what your situation is, 10:30 is WAY too early to be complaining about noise on a weekend night, especially when that noise is related to my career. Regardless, I should be able to have a party over here more often than I actually record vocals, and even that shouldn't be an issue until after 2am on a weekend night.

- Obnoxiously knocking on my wall when an ex was making too much noise in sex one night. Not only is this unnecessary, as it wasn't a regular thing, but it was HIGHLY embarrassing for both of us. He should have kindly approached me in person about it later, not while she was over.

- Shadily switching rates that he charges me for sharing his internet literally out of nowhere, even refusing to prorate the amount for the half month when he arbitrarily decided to switch it. I was so pissed at him for this and other things that I was seriously considering taking a little hit by getting my own internet connection so that he wouldn't get to split his with me. This is only exacerbated by the fact that the router/modem is in his place (which I have no access to), and the internet often goes out without him there to reset it, sometimes for as long as a week.

- Texting me an hour ago (yes, this is why I am riled up) to tell me once again that he's sleeping and wants me to shut off my music. Yes, it was 10:30 on a week night, but still...I only had it on for a few minutes while I was cooking, and it was pretty early, regardless of the night of the week.

Anyway, I think I've got it out of my system now. Were he to offer me an opportunity to confront him further about all this stuff, my response would definitely include the fact that he should feel lucky he isn't me, being situated next door (on the other side) to a crying baby for two years and then a lead singer in a band who has his music on ALL THE TIME and who constantly has parties. I feel like he's got it way better off having to only deal with my "noise" once in a blue moon, but again, he's a bitchy asshole, so I guess there's nothing I can do about it short of putting up with it until he moves.