The question’s simple; the answers, not so much. Five of mine after the jump.
Pull out my dusty seven-inch collection and try to re-listen to every one over the course of the year. I will probably need to get a Swiffer before I do this, though.
Buy more albums without hearing them first. Because we’re all too fucking jaded by the Internet era.
More dedicated listening. Lucas and I were talking yesterday about how, for the first time in a long time, he just laid on his couch and listened to albums. No typing to friends on IM, no reading a book, no cooking a big, hearty meal—he just listened. I kind of miss doing that!
Try and make a music video of my own with that iMovie program, if only to see how I interact with music when I’m trying to sync it to images and concepts. Eh, it’s worth a shot, right? At the very least it’s fun on a budget (as long as I don’t upload it to YouTube and get sued)!
Listen to the Animal Collective album… eventually. Even though friends of mine have said that they’re haunted by “brothersportbrothersportbrothersport” being endlessly repeated in their dreams. Hey, wait a second, maybe that‘s how they make all the kids crazy!
I guess they’re all about discovery and going outside my comfort zone, eh? That’s so… pre-Internet era of me. Anyway, post yours!
Pull out my dusty seven-inch collection and try to re-listen to every one over the course of the year.
This was similiar to my 2007 goal/resoluation, which was to listen to every song on my iPod at least once during the year. Given that I had like over 40 days of music on 1/1/08, and picked up a lot of stuff throughout the year, it took a long, long time. Thankfully, I have my own office so I can listen to music all day long. Let me tell you, sometimes it felt like a chore more than anything else. I finished in the middle of December. I will not be repeating this task anytime soon.
I’d like to get around to checking out some of the African music reissues that have garnered a lot of praise lately. I know my music tastes run way to Anglocentric.
I also really need to get a new vinyl player. I know I avoid listening to my vinyl records because I don’t think the dinky little machine I have now does their sound justice.
Right now I’m trying to have the patience to finish out “Christmas on Mars” on my TIVO. Yeeps, this is quite bad. The fast forward button is beckoning…
1. Listen to one album every day.
2. Buy a bit more, pirate a bit less
3. MORE CONCERTS!!!
@How do I say this … THROWDINI!: I meant my 2008 goal/resolution. The year just finished.
As for this year, my resolution is more live music. I somehow only made it to about 10 concerts last year. Which is less than 1/2 as many I’d been attending the last few years. That is a trend that shall not continue.
Wow, those are all so good!
I definitely want to listen to my 7″s more, I get lazy and don’t like to flip them. That’s so pathetic.
I would like to keep a better list of things I’m looking for/want to replace/disappeared for some reason.
Buy more things out of my comfort zone. As in not 60s/70s rock and not girl dance music. *This does not prevent me from getting the new Annie when it is released.*
Keep up with eMusic downloads better, and not wait until the last minute to decide which of my 75 saved for later things I want.
1) Revisit a lot of things I wasn’t into when I was younger: jazz, Pink Floyd, ’70s prog-rock. Everything but the Doors. My hatred for them is evergreen, and no resolution will change that.
2) Make more music, don’t just talk about it.
3) Avoid pop radio as much as possible.
4) I second @JZ13: Need to fix the turntable! I have a copy of Randy California’s Kapt. Kopter & the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds coming in the mail and it’s not going to play itself.
My regular New Year’s Resolution was a musical one.
I want to meet Joe Perry.
oh fuck it, why not: Join the Slow Listening Movement, everyone! [slowlisteningmovement.blogspot.com]
listen to albums all the way through, even if they initially turn me off…
Good ones suggested so far. My big one is a practical one that I’ve been moving towards for a while, namely figuring out how best to let go of this collection of music that I’ve built up over the moons and which, for the most part, does nothing but gather dust. And I’ve made a big initial decision already, so for now a lot of ripping of CDs is going on — the side effect has been to reencounter a lot of the gathering dust music with very fresh ears, so that’s nice.
I sympathize with the dedicated listening resolution but it’s all down to the person — I pretty much always read a book when listening to something when I was growing up, and it almost become mutually reinforcing over time. Some albums I listen to while doing nothing else but it’s honestly very rare and would feel forced on my part.
@Michaelangelo Matos: That’s actually a damn good idea…and probably easier said than done.
@DocStrange: Blur are probably going to play at Coachella. I have the opposite dilemma, although I love all the Graham Coxon era Blur stuff, I also really love “Think Tank”. I’m thinking they’re probably not going to play “Think Tank” songs though. Although, I’ll take anything as long as Graham’s there. If they play “Oily Water” I’ll be a happy camper.
As for my resolution? Hmm I might try to learn how to correctly pronounce Bon Iver. Or then again…I might continue to not care how I say things.
Also try to cajole Working For A Nuclear Free City to come back to the US this year through flattery.
* Further weeding of my CD & vinyl collections. I cut them in half in ’08 and will continue in ’09. 11 years in commercial radio and a semi-unhealthy obsession with collecting leads to a lot of shit.
* Echoing others: more quality, less quantity. Finances and space are becoming issues.
* Revisit some genres I was into 4-5 years ago to see how they’ve evolved, if at all.
Maura what you’re really saying with that “make a music video of my own” resolution is that you want to get into trib vids. Am I reading that correctly?
I’m gonna sue Coldplay and Joe Satriani.
Not sure if this counts as a resolution but I’m trying to make the perfect birth mix. I’m somehow convinced that whatever the first song my kid hears when he/she is born in June will somehow profoundly effect her/his life.
@NeverEnough: “So mom, who was it again who was calling on their way back from the fire?”
@17Vargas17: No one really talks about how to let music go. Thanks to ned for brining this up.
Too kind. Right now I’m thinking of donating it to a spot I used to work at that could make use of it all…
@Ned Raggett: Ahahahahahaha!
@Michaelangelo Matos: HOLY CRAP SOMEONE TOOK MY IDEA, DOWN TO THE … NAME AND EVERYTHING.
Maura can vouch that I thought of this sometime in like, early/mid 2007, but never did anything with the idea. Crap!
As for me? I think I want to try and pare down/digitize my CD collection, put the discs in a box in the closet and start using my CD rack as a … shoe rack.
Additionally, this post reminded me that I’d already forgotten a resolution — which is to find some way to start performing again. (Yes, it’s true — your friend Cindy Hotpoint is a classically-trained singer.) I’ve been sidelined too long.
@Marth: Dude!! Have you been spying on me again? Except I’d replace “Supertramp” with “The Alan Parsons Project.” Awesome list.
@doublewhiskycokenoice: T-Baby is the TRUTH. I mean, how you ‘apposed’ to keep the peace?!?!