Extreme Listening Mode!

By contributor Scant Regard;

Simple, sometimes unknown, pleasures.

People, I have some bad news. This will not be another of my misanthropic rants. There are no eff or c words here. I’ve just experienced something very unfamiliar; an epiphany, if you will.

Let me explain. Through a series of SNAFUs too tedious to explain here, I have found myself temporarily music player-less, so have resorted to using my partner’s only half jiggered old one, which has no display. Now, whilst we obviously have some stuff in common, I am happy to say we are not one of those sick-making couples who regard themselves as “one mind”, and we are happy to keep our musical proclivities very separate. We approach our players in very different ways – I fill mine with my favourite bands’ back catalogues, whilst he is much happier to pick only his very favourite tunes, from anywhere, old or new.

Hence the epiphany. I have just spent the last hour being in turn surprised, delighted, puzzled and intrigued by some of the stuff I’ve found on the old player. And the beauty of it is there is no screen, so I have no idea what or who some of this stuff is. Now, in this age of information overload this is not a normal experience, and I have to say I was beginning to find it more than a little frustrating. But I decided to surrender myself to the fates, enjoy the liberating feeling of not being blasted with information about every-little-bloody-thing, and try very hard not to judge (I did marry him, after all).

And so it has come to pass, in the past hour, I have listened to:

• The Bloodhound Gang (don’t know the name of the song, but it’s got a lot of shouting on it, and is not crap)
• Stars  – My Favourite Book (This was the highlight of the last album for me – simple, and a little bit sugary, just like Amy Millan’s voice)
• Bruce Springsteen – Hungry Heart (You have got to love the boss. If you don’t, you have no soul)
• Heart – Alone (This needs no explanation or justification)
• The Hold Steady – Banging Camp (Predictable, but good)
• My Morning Jacket – the one that starts “a ree rum rum rum, a ree rum rum” (What a great tune – why didn’t they do more of this on the new album?)
• A nice indie type tune, chorus goes “I can’t find these easy pieces” or “I can’t find this easy peasy”?
• Neutral Milk Hotel – the one with the kazoo at the end, and something about holy water (Achingly hip, for those in the know, apparently. Listening to this, I can’t figure out why they weren’t huge)
• Bright Eyes – a song I’ve never heard, with loads of fiddles, and something about satan and whores of Babylon (I probably should have heard this before, but I haven’t. Glad I have now though, it’s very good)
• The Ramones – Beat on the brat (See Heart, above)
• The theme tune from Scrubs (which, in its entirety, is a lovely lickle tune)
• The Lemonheads – Tenderfoot (What a tune! I had completely forgot how great this is)
• The Little Ones – Lovers Undercover (Now, when he discovered this he played it. A lot. So I never have, but it really is a top tune – In a Jilly Goolden stylee, I’m getting hand claps, shouts, and some lovely percussion – all the factors needed for a top pop song)
• PiL – Rise (This really is a very good song, which, when you think about it, is a bit of a surprise.  A wee cockney shouting shouldn’t be this good.)
• The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Tonight (I take full responsibility for this one. It is a great album, get it if you don’t have it already)
• Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past (From the starbucks album, which I do think is a bit overlooked. Losing the legless bint obviously did his songwriting the power of good)

Now, these may not be obscurities, or rarities, or even forgotten classics, but to my ears I’ve heard them anew, and I’ve remembered all of the reasons I love music so much. And for that I thank a crappy MP3 player with a faulty screen. Oh, right, and my other half. I urge you to try it – I’m not suggesting you deliberately damage your shiny ipod or whatever, just steal someone else’s (or, for the less larcenous among us, borrow) cover your screen, don’t touch “skip” and listen.

Now, I’m going to have to go and find someone to call a c**t, before people think I’ve gone soft.

(To clear up a few points; The Bloodhound Gang song was the immense ‘Going Nowhere Slow’ from the One Fierce Beer Coaster. A touring song containing the great line ‘if you were not entertained, you didn’t drink enough booze’. Quite. The My Morning Jacket song is ‘The Way That He Sings’ from At Dawn. The nice indie toon was ‘Three Easy Pieces’, the title track from the criminally underrated last Buffalo Tom album. The Bright Eyes song is the fabulous ‘Four Winds’. Mr Scant Regard.)

Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | alone, bloodhound gang, Bright Eyes, bruce Springsteen, heart, my morning jacket, neutral milk hotel, paul mccartney, pil, stars, the Hold Steady, the little ones