Anyone who has ever lived with me, or just knows me well, knows that I have two obscure habits in which I choose to spend (or “waste”, but I prefer “spend”) my time. The first is getting lost wandering ESPN for sometimes hours while checking scores, standings, stats, polls, and other interesting things. I’ve been improving with this one lately (unless Bill Simmons posts a worthwhile article – the man can’t write anything that takes less than 20 minutes to read).
I know, probably a lot of guys have this same habit, but my second is a little odder. I love to fiddle with my i-tunes. This isn’t just listening to music or downloading songs, but putting my music into very specific folders and playlists, rating songs, organizing them, ranking artists, burning way too many CD’s, resetting my IPod far too many times, previewing tons of new music, and even researching the artists’ lives.
Over my winter break, after discovering many totally legal and in my mind honest ways to get free music (i.e. Daytrotter, Amazon, e-music free trials with a subsequent cancel, and subscribing to the artist’s newsletter to get free downloads) and also after receiving a hefty sum of i-tunes gift card money for Christmas, I got distracted with another silly project. I first discovered a few more new artists, and then decided to rank all my favorites and spend the rest of my time getting sufficient songs for each of these musicians. Well, I ended up with a very long list of artists and probably more songs than I really need. And it took a whole lot longer than I had planned and included a whole bunch of “you gotta be kidding me” looks and statements from my wonderful wife.
But as I distracted myself from studying this morning and began looking back at the playlist I’d created, I thought, “What a waste! No one will ever see this. … Or will they?” Then the thought came to start up my old blog and make a music blog for friends and family to read. I got really excited and now tonight (yes, I did do some studying today), I will begin my weekly blog revealing the top 100 artists of my liking.
I’ll start with #100 and introduce 5 each week. A lot of these artists most of you probably haven’t heard of (which again, if you know me well, makes me very happy – I like liking things other people don’t), but some, you probably have, at least I hope you have. My wish is that this may spark some of your interests to discover great new music, help you realize that the radio truly stinks (b/c most these songs you’ll never hear on there), and help you understand me a little better (since music means so much to me). …Oh and of course, the main reason I’m doing this, is to justify those many hours wasted this winter. ;)
Lastly, please feel free to post any comments, good or bad. And whoever you may be too; I won’t get weirded out that you read my blog even if I don’t know you that well. Thanks and here it goes.
*First, I do have to give a few honorable mention shout outs - Larkin Poe/ The Lovell Sisters, Tracy Chapman, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Justin Timberlake, Vampire Weekend, Sufjan Stevens, Missy Higgins, & The Greencards. Sorry guys (and gals), you just didn’t make the cut.
100. Nirvana
Believe me, after you hear the other 99, you’ll think, “How the heck does Nirvana fit in with the rest of these?” Well, five words are why … MTV Unplugged in New York. This album alone puts them on my list. Most of you will probably laugh at this statement, but in my opinion, it is one of the best albums/recordings ever put together. You’d have to pay me to sit and listen to another entire album by them, but I could have this one playing all day and not get sick of it. Maybe it’s just my ears, but the emotion and pain heard in these songs is almost unmatched.
--Requested song: Where did you sleep last night
99. Josh Ritter
Ritter is one of those songwriters that the first few times you hear his songs, you think, “What in Sam Goody is this guy singing about?” Then by the third or fourth time you think, “Wait, I think I’m getting this.” Then, the fifth or sixth time you’re finally like, “Wow, where’d he come up with that… but it totally works and I like it!” Ok, maybe that was just my thoughts, and especially with a couple specific songs.
-- song: The Curse
98. Andrew Bird
Actually I used to not really like this artist until I stumbled across a couple of his live performances and realized he was extremely talented. However, with Bird’s lyrics, you have to listen to them like 10 times before you decide to just use your own imagination as to what they could mean. Or I might just be slow when it comes to the abstract, so if you know more about this guy, please inform me. If anything, just ignore the words and listen to his unique instrumentals. Or be like me, and listen to the words trying to hear any unusual science terms where you can say, “Hey, I know what that means.”
--song: The Giant of Illinois/ Anonanimal - can’t decide between the 2, but they’re both weird, and good
97. G. Love (or …& Special Sauce)
Sometimes his music isn’t the most thoughtful thing ever, but I love how he incorporates many genres into what he does. In my opinion, he’s like a poor-man’s Citizen Cope (who I will mention later). He moved ahead of Ritter and Bird only because I recently found out he worked with the Avett Bros. (who I will also mention later) on his upcoming album - you can read about it and hear new stuff on his site.
--song: Sunshine
96. Grant-Lee Phillips
He’s an older singer-songwriter that has a unique style and smooth voice. I first found out about Phillips when I was looking at i-tunes 2009 year in review page and his ‘Little Moon’ was on there as one of the albums of the year. So maybe you’ve heard of him too; but then again, probably not, because you’re not like me and waste (I mean "spend") hours doing weird things on i-tunes. Oh well!
--song: Older Now
…more to come….
