Last concerts and musical events attended:
4/11/10 Blue October @ 9:30 Club
1/16/10 Brian Fallon (Gaslight Anthem) and Dave Hause @ Black Cat
Sometime in 2009 - Ladyhawke, Ida Maria, Semi Precious Weapons @ 930 Club
9/23/08 Le Loup @ Iota
8/30/08 Kaskade playing @ Ibiza Nightclub
August 2008 : Ting Tings @ 9:30 Club
4/29/05 Ivy / Astaire and Stars at Black Cat
7/3/05 Brice Woodall/Revival/Cassettes/Cartel at Iota
my favorite previous memorable concerts and bands
Lavajet!!! / lots of gigs in the DC/Northern VA area
The Dandy Warhols / 9:30 Club, DC
Saxon Shore / The Galaxy Hut, Arlington, VA
DJ Scratch Tour / 9:30 Club, DC
The Cassettes (missed the Aquarium...damn) / Common Ground coffeehouse, Clarendon, VA
Stellastarr* and Placebo / 9:30 Club, DC
Five Maseratis, Come Down, Woolly Mammoth / Black Cat, DC
Asylum Street Spankers / Iota, Clarendon / 3-8-04
Aquarium / Warehouse, DC
Quannum Tour / 9:30 Club, DC
Broken Social Scene / Black Cat, DC
Maritime / Black Cat, DC / 6-3-04
Curiousa Festival / summer 2004
I haven't been clubbing as much as I used to, but when I went it would
be to Lemur Lounge, Club Five, or Red.
(the get over a guy music) (sometime in 2004)
The Walkmen's song, The Rat
Sense Field's song, Save Yourself
Ben Lee's song, How to Survive a Broken Heart
Ivy's cover song, Digging Your Scene, and song, Quick, Painless, and Easy
Love Letters 6/13/04
So a number of my friends over the past year had lamented about the lost art
of writing and exchanging love letters. PJ Harvey has captured this sentiment
perfectly in her single, "The Letter" off of her new album, Uh Huh Her. Gotta
love PJ Harvey. Raw and sexy.
These days I mostly get new music by voraciously downloading mp3s from these mp3 blogs. This is just a small cross section of the 40+ mp3blogs that I follow. The rest of them are on my bloglines account that I just haven't bothered to put on del.icio.us yet.
So the update is 2003.I heard Broken Social Scene's song "Lover's Spit" (yeah interesting lyrics, eh?) on a Queer as Folk episode and I loved it. I started listening to some of their songs and I really like them a lot. I think that I really like the atmospheric sound; Chicane is my new age equivalent of Broken Social Scene. I also started thinking that I tend to like artist's collaborations. Bran Van 3000...which come to think of it is another Canadian incarnation... is wonderful too.
And another great musical "aha"...and "oooooh" was when I went to Spring Carnival in April 2003 at CMU. I went to go listen to the a cappella concert that they always have during Carnival...and instead I was irresistibly drawn towards this fledgling band called Monarch that was playing. They are currently out in LA recording with Northern Records. I can't wait until their album comes out.
Last indie rock music shoutout for the moment is for Lavajet. My friend, Rachel, plays keyboards and flute in this band. I've taken to taking tons of photos of them when I can get to their gigs. You can check them out on my photos page.
And in the year 2001
when the fate of Napster is being decided...I have fallen
in love with bands like Coldplay, Lifehouse, and past geniuses like Nick Drake.
What I want in the music/media industry is access to live versions of songs and
remixes that aren't always available for purchase. So then you blame the
music fans for trading them on Napster? I support the music industry by
buying CDs despite the increasing MSRPs. And I would go to more concerts, but
for the fact that the ticket prices are too high for my taste.
My taste in music has changed dramatically through the years. From when I was very young, in say junior high, I was listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna, but only listened then for fun and enjoyment and still following pop culture to the tee. These days, the music that I listen to has much more of a personal meaning to me, where I listen more for moods, messages, and lyrics. It wasn't until high school when I felt that I really needed to own the music that I heard on the radio. That started my CD and tape and DVD collection.
Recently, my appreciation for music has changed, but I believe that I'm not yet going through another transition in my appreciation for music, but that I am simply too stressed out by my academic work. If I had to put a finger on it, though then I would say that my taste in music was tending towards a more folk or grass-roots music. I'm searching for poets and lyricists and muses... the ones with something to say... and bands who know how to jam. I often listen to music to soothe me and often to get a feeling that I'm not alone in feeling the way I do sometimes.
In high school, my main favorite bands were NIN, Pearl Jam, and Tori Amos. At that time alternative was becoming "mainstream".
I spent many hours during my high school years, raiding the radio waves for different kinds of music. I had a few favorite radio stations that I would listen to most of the time, but I liked to experiment every once in a while and listen to music from different ethnic groups and genres. The radio program that I stumbled upon below is still one of my favorites.
In college, my music tastes remained relatively stable with my favorites tending to be: Tori Amos, Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, U2, and Sting.
Even my current obsession with MPB (Musica Popular Brasileiro) was sparked by "Mas que nada" covered by Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 that a male friend had played for me. Since then I've bought a few compilation albums and watched a PBS special on the Brazilian Music Festival that was in NYC earlier this summer of '99. Currently, I'd have to say that I'm the only one of my friends that has this peculiar obsession with Brazilian portuguese pop.
My brother has also had a large influence on my music tastes. When I was younger he would literally force me to sit in front of the stereo and listen to endless hours of classical music asking me questions like "What composer? What symphony? How can you tell by the style?" And after hearing great classical works for hours at a time, I've come to admire a few of those pieces. I like Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Gershwin, Tchaikovsy, etc.
If you look in my collection of music, you will also notice that I have a pretty significant number of works from musicals and soundtracks. I also have a great passion for movies and I love the way that some movies can blend the visual (cinematography), verbal (dialogue), non-verbal (body language), and audio (music, sounds). One of my favorite movie soundtracks is "The Piano" where the music was written by Michael Nyman and the piano playing was heartfelt and played by Holly Hunter. Some of my favorite musicals are "Les Miserables" and "The Phantom of the Opera."
Lyrics are often very important to me; therefore you will often find lyrics and quotes in my .plan file. My interest in poetry should come as no surprise given my love of lyrics. :)
On a last note, I would like to say that although I have favorite artists and bands, in general, I appreciate all kinds of music and love to explore new moods.
Post-college: I've been influenced musically by the people that I live with in one way or another. If it wasn't for them I'd never get into bands called Modest Mouse or even have grown to like Belle and Sebastian. I also listen to more ambient/dance music like BT, Underworld, and Junior Vasquez. I'd like to think that Moby is enough of a musical genius that I'd have discovered him at some point in my life. I'm also completely addicted to MTV where I love songs like Sisqo's Thong Song.