Tu(n)esday: Walkabout music...
Wait, wait, wait! Don't run away just because it's Tu(n)esday! I promise, I'm not reviewing music (at least not intentionally)! I actually have a legitimate question for all of you regarding your personal music listening habits! Every. Single. One. Of. You.
Back in the day, people carried 8-Track cartridges in their cars. Then it became Walkmans and cassettes. Then Discmans and CDs. There have been others, as well, such as my own love of MiniDiscs. And now it's MP3s.
But, unless you are like me and own a monster-sized iPod with capacity large enough to hold your entire music collection, you are forced to pick and choose what you carry around due to an unwillingness to carry too many pieces of physical media in the past or limitations with your digital device. So what are you carrying around with you right now (hence “walkabout music”)? What albums grace your digital player? Which albums will soon cycle off and which ones always stay put no matter what?
Here's what I have on my iPhone at this moment with notes after each one:
Betty Who - The Movement EP - This is a new one I was introduced to yesterday by Dave2 and I really like her pop-fueled sound so far.
Capital Cities - In A Tidal Wave of Mystery - This has been a mainstay on my iPhone since its release earlier this summer. I like it, although I kinda preferred their EP for its succinctness.
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe" single - This stays because it is one of the only ways to calm Nathan down during a crying fit in the car. It works like a charm every single time.
Chairlift - Does You Inspire You and Something - Something has been on my iPhone for some time now and Does You Inspire You was added after seeing, and being blown away, by Chairlift at the Pitchfork Music Festival this past summer.
CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe - Currently my favorite album of the year and I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. I'm totally swooning over "Lies" and "Gun."
Daft Punk - Discovery, "Derezzed" single, TRON: Legacy soundtrack, Random Access Memories, and Homework - Yeah, so I'm kinda obsessed with Daft Punk.
Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace - My favorite album from our alien-battling heroes. This has been on my iPhone for a while as well, and I don't see that changing.
Ghostface Killah - Twelve Reasons to Die - Something I'm trying to get around to listening to sometime before I die of one of 12 reasons. I'm only a few tracks deep right now. We'll see how it goes. This will likely cycle off once I'm done.
Grouplove - Spreading Rumors - Their new album. I haven't listened to it yet so I can't say if it will stay or go.
Jack Johnson - "As I Was Saying" single - Freebie track from Starbucks to which I have yet to listen.
Janelle Monae - "Dance Apocalyptic" single - Freebie track from Starbucks that I've listened to many times and love immensely. Janelle does it for me. Likely to stay until I get the full album.
Japandroids - Celebration Rock - My album of the year from 2012 that has not been removed from my iPhone. Love, love, love it.
Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music - Another album I have yet to listen to, but, unlike Ghostface Killah, I have interest in listening to this one because I heard and liked him at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Why have I not listened yet, then? Because I only added it to my iPhone last week. Had to clear a lot of space for the iOS 7 update and my music collection is only now recovering.
Kings of Leon - "Temple" single - Freebie track from Starbucks. Not sure if this is the new single I've heard on the radio lately or not. I should find out.
KISS - Love Gun - Absolutely my favorite album from KISS and, although it was nixed to make room for the iOS 7 update, it's back, baby!
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory, Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns, and Living Things - for a while, my iPhone had the singles "Burn It Down," "The Catalyst," "Bleed It Out," "Faint," and "Breaking the Habit" on it as I loved to listen to them when I had a lot of stress to burn off during a commute. I only recently added full albums from the band. Good to have them on there.
Matt & Kim - Matt & Kim, Grand, Sidewalks, and Lightning - These were all on my iPhone until about a year ago when I decided I needed room and sacrificed their presence. They were added back on there last week. I've missed them.
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and Hesitation Marks - Pretty Hate Machine, one of my all-time favorite albums, has been in my personal portable music library since its release in 1989. First on CD, then a self-made MiniDisc, and now in MP3 format. The Downward Spiral was added about a year ago and Hesitation Marks was added when it came out this summer. None are going anywhere.
Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners" single - Purchased upon release and will stay there until the full album is released, I believe, later this month. Great song.
Pet Shop Boys - Electric - Their new album that I added a couple weeks ago. Truly fantastic and may stay in constant rotation for a while.
The Police - Message In A Box: The Complete Recordings - I love The Police and always have and have been a big fan of this set since I first bought it about 20 years ago upon its release. I'm pretty certain it's been on every player I've ever had. Mind you, though, that I hate Sting's solo stuff.
Pretty Lights - A Color Map of the Sun - Solid electronic music introduced to me by a coworker who professes to being an EDM fangirl. I like the album so far.
Tired Pony - The Place We Ran From - Side project from the lead singer of Snow Patrol. Pretty good listen. Not sure how long it might stay on my iPhone, though.
TV on the Radio - "Mercy" single - Great new song from the longstanding indie heroes. It will stay put until the new album is released, I'm sure.
Twin Shadow - Confess - Although the album came out last year, I didn't really start listening to it until this year. Shame, too, since it would've ranked high on my best-of list. Now I'm completely hooked.
Urge Overkill - Saturation - Probably my all-time favorite album from any artist ever that has never left my side since its release in 1993. And it won't.
I have a lot more music on my iPhone than I thought I did. Especially considering I only have a 16 Gigger.
And you?
I've been listening to Hesitation Marks lately. I've been wanting to really "spend some time" with the album since it's the first NIN album I've purchased since high school, I believe.
Gonna check out CHVRCHES now.
Posted by: Vahid | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 01:32 AM
Oh yes. Check out CHVRCHES. I love it. My buddy, Eric, loves it. Kevin spencer loves it. It's just downright awesome.
Posted by: kapgar | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 07:04 AM
All of my music fits on my devices. iTunes says I have 2867 songs. However, I really only have my 3-star or better tracks, plus soundtracks, on my devices, which is currently 1888 3-star and 118 other soundtrack tracks (2006 total).
That being said, I acquired several new (old) albums recently, so I'm listening to those to rate them. That's another 74 tracks, though a number of them won't make the cut.
Those new acquisitions are: The Best of Depeche Mode ($5 from Amazon yesterday, to replace my decades-ago-lost Some Great Reward CD), Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits (also $5, replacing my never-ripped Born in the U.S.A. LP), soundtracks from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End that my daughter had me buy for some reason related to school, and, finally, based on comments from friends, possibly including you, Foster The People's Torches (another $5 Amazon deal). Oh, and a couple of Katy Perry tracks from her upcoming PRISM release.
Posted by: Ren | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 11:19 AM
OMG, where do I start... how about with MiniDiscs. Did we have a discussion about this already? I loved the MD format. From 1992 when it first came out, I embraced it completely. I used to record my CDs to MDs since they were more portable. I had 2 portable players (one a recorder) and a home deck (all Sony branded). I still have many MDs in my collection, both pre-recorded and self-recorded and several other recordings that I did of personal stuff. This is a future Music Monday post I plan to do.
We've tweet quoted lyrics from "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" so you already know my love for this album.
I don't keep much music on my iPhone. It's all on my 7th gen iPod nano. I have a playlist called "Added Since..." which I change the date on to remove older music after I add new music. Newer albums I have are NIN, Capital Cities, Grouplove, Pet Shop Boys, The Strokes, QOTSA, PIXIES and Curt Smith (of Tears For Fears)
I also have another playlist called "Full Albums-current" that I keep my favorite albums on: Mad Season, Panic Channel, the first two Cars albums, Grouplove's first album, Foster The People (yay Ren), Broken Bells, Slash's last album, Walk The Moon, Killswitch Engage last release and Wild Nothing's most recent. This is the playlist that I use to move albums I want after they get removed from the previous playlist I mentioned above.
Posted by: Marty Mankins | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 11:54 AM
I'm glad I have a 160GB iPod as I have 17,000+ tracks. And my iPod is a bit of a backup drive for my music and it really saved my butt a few years back.
Sounds like you picked up some pretty decent stuff. Let me know what you think.
Posted by: kapgar | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 12:53 PM
I don't think we've discussed MD in depth. Just superficially. I only had a portable Sony from 2000-2004 when I made the jump to my first iPod. I had a ton of self-recorded studio album "rips" and mixes I made. But I only had three studio MDs (Pearl Jam "Vitalogy," Living Colour "Stain," and the Cable Guy soundtrack. I don't have any of my self-made MDs anymore but I have all three studios still. I kinda miss MD. It was pretty much the death of mix album making for me until we made some CDs for family as Christmas gift exchanges. I've shopped for one on eBay but couldn't pull the trigger to buy it. Couldn't justify it. I also shopped on eBay for a Sport Walkman because the Pitchfork Music Festival sells so many cassettes. I wish...
Posted by: kapgar | Wednesday, 02 October 2013 at 01:03 PM
All of my music fits on my iPhone so I can't make a list....dang.
One thing I have done is started keeping CD's (remember those?) in my car and it's awesome! I found I was never using my iPhone for music and one day I was walking past my CD's one day I just grabbed a few for the road. It's worked for about two months now and about once a week I grab 3 or 4 new ones off the shelf and cycle the old stuff out. I think if I had a cassette deck I'd start making mix tapes again but my CD policy is strictly albums, no mixes! That may change tomorrow thought depending on my mood. Currently I have two live PJ shows (will be cycled out soon) from 2000 and KOL's Come Around Sundown.
Posted by: Scott | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 09:12 AM
I have a few CDs in my car as well. Mostly old mix CDs that I haven't been able to listen to in quite some time. And a couple PJ live sets as well. Great minds.
Posted by: kapgar | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 09:59 AM
I have two 80GB ipods... the older one is full and the newer one is almost full (10 GB left!). I carry both around me just in case I want to listen to something on the old one. I am going to have to start making hard choices and clearing out space on the new one, though... unless I just get a third (160GB) one! I should probably save the money, but I am tempted. I rate the songs, like Ren does, so anything I remove I would have to record the ratings for the versions on my computer. I'm a geek.
Posted by: Eric | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 12:30 PM
Speaking of Daft Punk... I still have to give you Daft Punk's "Discovery" and "Alive 2007" CDs... their two best!
Posted by: Eric | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 02:26 PM
Wait... I see you have Discovery! ...and I already uploaded Alive 2007! Never mind!!!
Posted by: Eric | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 02:27 PM
I used to rate but I always forget. And my opinions change too often with music.
Posted by: kapgar | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 03:22 PM
Please do!
Posted by: kapgar | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 03:23 PM
Actually, I discovered it's only one track so still send it please!
Posted by: kapgar | Thursday, 03 October 2013 at 03:24 PM