So much for the afterglow. Just shy of my 11TH birthday I got my first NOW! CD for Christmas. I played that disc until it literally cracked one day. I can sing a long with Harvey Danger, K-Ci & JoJo, All Saints, Tonic, Everclear, & Lenny Kravitz word for word to this day and I haven’t listened to some of those songs in a very long time. I got most of the Now! CDs up until 12 or 13 when I got less and less into contemporary pop. Back then we did a lot of traveling as a family, which was great because every new trip meant I could get a new CD to listen to on the road.
My music tastes have fluctuated a lot over the years, but I think I have a pretty open mind. I can judge pretty quickly what I like from what I don’t and I’m pretty opinionated, which I think gives the impression that I have extremely specific tastes. I don’t.
Growing up I listened to a lot of country. I also listened to the radio all the time. I picked up a lot of music interests from my family. I spent most of my childhood bouncing between one home in Independence, another home in Waterloo, my aunt’s home south of Jesup, and finally my grandparent’s home in Jesup, the last two being where I spent the majority of my time and were really what I considered my home. Now staying at my grandparents meant lots of bike rides, football at Pioneer park, & pink lemonade, but staying at my aunt’s probably had a far greater impact on who I am today. There was music blaring anywhere at any time over there. 70′s, 80′s, hard rock, R&B, pop, and country. From the garage, the kitchen, the living room and everywhere in between. Looking back, this was probably the single greatest impact on my music tastes. I was exposed to everything and I loved it. My cousins were way more like siblings to me than cousins. Lots of memories and firsts took place on that farm.
Lately I’ve been trying to get find new music to get into. It seems like I’ve been in a listening rut with the same stuff which prompted me to look back at some of the stuff I’ve loved over the years.
Anyways. My birthday is January 27TH. I’m not usually big on celebrating birthdays but this year I’m looking forward to it. Motion City Soundtrack is playing January 23RD at First-Avenue in downtown Minneapolis and I’m going with a decent sized group of friends. It”ll be their first show following the release of their new CD and in their hometown, so it should be a good time.
This is just my laptop..
Listen. My mom has been afraid that the FBI was going to show up at our front door to haul me off to juvie since Napster was a useful service instead of another form of digital rights management. I’ve been jacking music through Napster, Aimster, Kazaa, K-Lite, Soulseek, Limewire, eMule & torrents since I had to dial into my ISP. I’ve used IRC and FTP and occasionally just borrowed CDs from friends without remembering to return them.
I’ve tried to justify ripping off music labels by going to concerts every time I can and buying merchandise straight from the band tent, wall, and/or table. I’ve tried to justify every song, EP, & full length I’ve pirated with the logic that finances would have prevented me from actually buying the medium anyways, so it’s not really a lost sale for Sony or EMI or what have you. Besides, do you know of any good record shops in rural North East Iowa? Of course not.
We went on a band trip to Milwaukee back in high school and I remember the first time I stepped into a real hole-in-the-wall record shop complete with a couple of apathetic employees. I left that day with End is Forever by The Ataris. I don’t remember many details about that trip other than listening to that CD on repeat. It wasn’t my first CD, but it was one of few that I physically owned, had picked out, and paid for. I stared at the back of the case as I memorized every lyric.
Music is an important piece of my life. It always has been and always will be. It would be a large stretch for me to say I’ll never pirate another song in my life, but I realized a few years ago that it was important to make some sort of an effort to support the artists you love. With albums coming out from Dave Matthews Band, blink-182, Angels & Airwaves, & other bands of varied importance, it may be time to start saving a bit. Economic troubles or otherwise.
Mmm. New Bon Iver is amazing.
Fall asleep all alone
Hear your voice in the dark
Lose myself in your eyes
Choke my voice, say good night
As the world falls apart
I haven’t posted very much on Postblink since last November’s election. School got very hectic for a bit and only got more hectic with the passing of a family member. Since then, I’ve missed putting out my thoughts on several new albums, movies, and other forms of entertainment. That was a temporary absence.
I transferred my personal blog from LucasJ.Net to Postblink in July of 2006. It has since contained numerous rantings, a few random attempts at playing music, and random thoughts about music, movies, tv, politics, and more. See, the year prior to that summer of drunken shenanigans, I had met up with these kids that were all trying to learn their instruments – except the drummer. He had pretty much gotten his shit down. We were spending many a Friday night and Saturday morning in this small green room. I could barely walk around in it, else lose the top of my head to a ceiling fan. We were playing a lot of blink-182 covers and I slowly fell in love with this band who’s name became synonymous with fart and dick jokes in the 90′s.
At some point that winter we had decided it would be a good idea to play some blink-182 covers at our high school talent show. At some point during that decision we had also decided that I would sing – big mistake right? Don’t let your ears be frightened. I never sang. Unfortunately (depending on your perspective) I had surgery to correct some nerve damage caused by a broken ankle the previous year and had enough trouble walking around. Standing up even for a few minutes of music was out of the question. I was pretty bummed.
Luckily for the other guys, I had a friend who was pretty stoked about music and liked what we were doing. I then suggested he take my place.
Essentially one winter had changed my thoughts on music. I began listening to the self-titled blink-182 religiously. Regardless of what you thought of the 3 piece punk band from SoCal, you had to respect their self-titled work. The recording tecniques and production values were amazing. Producer Jerry Finn, who passed last August, had forged this group into a music machine.
But I jumped aboard the blink-182 boat too late. They announced their hiatus in early 2005 and shortly after we began to hear rumors of a new Tom DeLonge project. Angels and Airwaves came, followed by Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s +44. I saw Angels a few times and, while I enjoyed what they were doing, they weren’t blink. I caught +44 and The Matches at a club up in Minnesota that will forever be one of my favorite shows ever. I was feet away from Mark Hoppus and was watching Travis Barker dominate his set with one hand while his other sat in an arm brace with a ciggarette.. But of course, it still wasn’t blink.
Postblink was born sometime in the midst of all of this. During a sober moment in that summer of 2006 I had been listening to blink-182 all day. I decided, for some reason, to purchase a new domain. Postblink just seemed to fit. Of course, I didn’t even realize at the time that the music scene was changing drastically. Pop punk bands with effiminite lead vocalists began cranking out bubble gum lyrics to a generation of 12 year old girls. And the nerve of it all! More than half of them did it all while listing blink-182 as their biggest influence. Yeah, times were definitely post-blink. Flavor of the month bands began getting air time on the radio. Warped Tour began to die for many people. I remember watching girls come back from the front of a crowd watching My Chemical Romance with bloody noses, being carried to the med tent.
Things have gotten a little ridiculous in the “punk” scene. Of course, you can argue that the genre is wide and undefinable – whatever.
My point is that things have gotten a bit sad in that department for me. But of course, this past winter we found out that the members of blink-182 had began talking again. Rumors ran rampent. Then, in the days leading up to the Grammys, David Kennedy let loose that blink-182 had began recording a new album. Of course, Mark, Tom, and Travis showed up on stage at the Grammys to announce they were, in fact, back together.
And now the summer of 2009 looks a little more sunny and a little less bubbly. I don’t know that blink will influence a new generation of bands that will overcome the likes of Metro Station, but I am hopeful. And perhaps I’ll see you on their tour this year.
Postblink will stay Postblink. I will badger the hooligans that contribute to the site to do so more this summer. It may start slow for a just a bit, until school is done.
But hey – if you’re bored you can always go check out my friends at the adventuresofbradandjordan.
Ahh Chicago. I love getting away from rural Iowa occasionally. I’m leaving Friday afternoon for Chicago until late Sunday with some family to pick up other family from the airport that have been in Africa for the past couple weeks.
I probably won’t post much until I get back – so let me leave you with some final thoughts for the week. There are two ad spots on the site now. They’re pretty small and don’t get in the way of much so don’t get all grumpy face. They’re more of an experimentation than anything else; to see whether the site could support itself.
Nine Inch Nails have released the studio-length album The Slip for free, with Trent Reznor saying “this one’s on me” via the NIN website. Apparently you can be successful and generous at the same time. I’m impressed by what this band is doing and I’m going to probably start a write up of my opinions and recommendations for bands you should check out that understand where the music industry is heading while I’m in Chicago. I’m going to try and get that out by next week.
Speaking of which, in addition to The Slip being on my iPod during the car ride to Chicago, Narrow Stairs is still on repeat every couple of hours. Yeah, I’m that ridiculously into it. Keep in mind Death Cab for Cutie’s latest is out on the 12th. No, it’s not free, but at least it’s worth spending the cash on.
And I’ll leave you with this. . .