Friday 18 April 2014

A Retrospective and Amended View of my Life Thus Far (Part 2- Music)

Following on from my bout of self reflection, this post shall be about music. To remind ourselves of what on Earth I was wittering on about in January 2010, here is an excerpt:

2. Music: Music was big thing for me in 2009. My tastes have drastically altered. I have stopped listening to DragonForce, much to the delight of some of my peers. I have also discovered my love of all jazz and swing, and have decided on Michael Buble as inspiration. I now have a severe dislike for R and B, because lets face it is both overplayed and overrated. I have discovered a whole bunch of new bands like the Royal Crown Revue, but most notably was the only NES-rock band in existence, the amazing 'I fight Dragons'.

 Needless to say, the music tastes expressed above are somewhat... antique. To start, DragonForce is well and truly out the window. I do very occasionally listen to Fury of the Storm (like once a year) for the purposes of nostalgia, but that's it. As for the Jazz and Swing phase, that has moved on to an extent, giving way to an altogether new stage of my tastes. What is it? I have no idea. People have said gypsy, but I don't think that entirely catches it. Many of the bands I like at the moment have some element of carnival influence or equally unusual sounds, and I think this comes from a longing for something to break the monotony of pre-packaged, individually wrapped slices of utter boredom the popular music industry is churning out these days.

I like liking bands that nobody has heard of. It shows that I'm not just another chump who is told what to like and how many times I should listen to it by Radio 1, before it becomes hilariously 'last week' and the trendy kids begin to devour the new zeitgeist before I realise what is cool. I like small bands. Bands that are made of real people, that because of their smallness, one can get a genuine insight into the way they work and what kind of people they even are. I don't have to pick up their autobiography in waterstones for £19.99 to know what flavour crisps is their favourite, there is a realistic chance I may get to ask them in person, if that was something I truly desired to know. For some reason, I don't tend to idolise many famous musicians, because I can't really relate to them. The only  musicians with worldwide success I truly enjoy are the likes of Tom Waits, for his famous 'screw you producers, I'm going to hit some tin cans and punch a piano and it everyone's going to love it' approach; and Gotye, for his personal video blogs into the way he works with music as if he is creating art and his refusal to pigeon-hole his music. And even then, sadly, nobody is aware of his finest work because its not that one that we all heard a thousand times on the radio. But I digress...

I like Tankus the Henge! I've met them at various gigs I've been to, and their lead singer signed my accordion. Magical.

I like MynieMoe! Chris Otero and Ben Jones. Two apparently ordinary blokes with a talent for making me do nothing else but listen to the music they make. The addition of a sousaphone? Brilliant. Grab the drummer from Origami Dinosaur and the Slytones? Brilliant. I've met them too.

Town of Cats? Saw them playing with MynieMoe in Brighton. Ended up supporting their EP launch with my new band (I'll get to that) and sleeping in their house. Fantastic.

There are more that I could rattle on about. The point I'm making is that I appear to have placed relatively ordinary people who make sublime music on a pedestal equal to.. I don't know... a Take That fan's love and respect for Take That? With this in mind, I have met and interacted with my own personal celebrities in a way that has made music and its pursuit all the more incredible for me. I know that the kind of music I like now is the fully mature being that grew from my earlier tastes for one reason- the music I write, the music I hear in my head and the lyrics I choose all fit into this genre, whatever it is- and that feels very nice.

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