I spend soooo much time downloading music, it’s crazy. I spent most of today catching up on my downloads. I think I need a faster internet connection. That way, my productivity would skyrocket… right?
However, if I have my desktop computer on, I feel a sense of anxiousness if it’s just sitting there not doing anything, so perhaps any time savings would be pointless. It should be downloading something, or compressing something, or burning something. Otherwise it’s just sitting there generating heat and noise. Unfortunately, it’s a bit old, so if I put it on standby it still maintains an annoying fan noise, so mostly I leave it on if I think I’ll be using it later. Laptops are better in that you can just close them and they go on standby with no fuss or muss.
I spend so much time downloading, I often never quite get around to listening to what I’ve downloaded. This is compounded by the fact that I like to listen to particular things over and over, especially when I’m first trying to get into an album. So those Siouxsie reissues and that Beefheart are going to have to wait while I gratuitously listen to some more Airplane and the new Yo La Tengo.
You would think I would just learn to download less, but it never quite works that way. There’s a sense of urgency. That data isn’t going to be around forever, I’d better grab it now. And of course, there’s a new remaster, reissue, or deluxe remaster or reissue with tasty bonus tracks every time you sneeze. Out with the old, in with the cold. Or, in with the cold, but keep around the old, just in case they fucked up the remastering. I don’t have time to figure that out now. And so so many lost classics just discovered on various mp3 blogs. How many downloads before the link disappears?
I think the only way around the problem would be a gigantic repository of all music ever created: a Library of Congress of the Universe of Music, with an all access pass in perpetuity in excelsis deo. But even if there were such a thing, I would probably still download from it, scared that something might get removed, which is why I often download videos from YouTube, just in case.
At any rate, my first impression of the new YLT is that it’s pretty rad. There are some stone cold guitar jams at the end, for instance. Also for instance, they had some guy named John McSwain make five cool vids for five cool songs:
“Here to Fall”
“Periodically Double Or Triple”
“Avalon Or Someone Very Similar”
“When It’s Dark”
I guess he’s only done 4 so far, but here’s “Nothing To Hide”, featuring Times New Viking as YLT:
it could so easily be me. somehow I nipped it by moving a lot back in the day when it was vinyl you had to collect (and i still have more than i ever need or like to move with). But since the advent of the mp3 i’ve never felt the same compulsion. There is so much music around, that i’ve pretty much taken a passive role about acquiring it – let the music come to me.
do you collect other things or just downloads? vinyl? cds? How many external drives do you have filled with music? Have you read the Recording Angel book with the guy who has his whole house full of records?
Conor, you might be a hoarder. Better have a chat with the Unspeakable.
There’s some good stuff in that YLT but I cannot stand the horns in that first one and overall I’m not so sure I’m into it. It’s reminding me of Vintage Violence though and I like that album a lot. My favorite of the bunch above is Avalon.
Thanks.
Oh boy, let’s see… I have most of my downloads on a 1.5 TB internal drive (roughly 1 TB lossless and 175 GB mp3). I have them backed up on an external 1.5 TB drive. Then there are 2000 CD-R’s which hardly ever get played, cuz unzipping a binder involves effort. There’s some overlap between the CD-R’s and the computer, as I’m trying to decommission the former eventually. Most of them probably have been damaged to some degree by the infernal heat of this shack anyway.
And then there are the purchased CD’s. I still haven’t cataloged them, but I’m guessing they number in the 1500-3000 range. I finally got around to cramming another CD shelf in here, so I can actually access them all for the first time in ages. I haven’t read that book but I’m guessing it’s a cautionary tale.
Luckily I have less than 100 LP’s. That stuff is heavy!
As for YLT… Dang, I really dig the strings on the first track, but I could see it being a problem for others. The last track is a 16 minute droneathon, so maybe I’m biased.
The Recording Angel is a good book. Sort of an analysis of the way recording technology has affected our relationship to music. It was written before MP3s (and, i tjhink, even before CDs became prominent. It’s sort of a philosophical book with interesting characters like that guy i mentioned who basically had filled every part of his house with vinyl records. Looks like a lot of it is available as a preview here – http://books.google.com/books?id=5swP8NCjpRsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
unzipping a binder involves effort
So, so true.