the rut

Posts have been a little sparse lately. When they are happening, they’re focused on either the past or some vaguely music-related topic rather than albums and concerts.

Why? First, I’ve hardly bought any new albums this year, which didn’t completely register until I started compiling titles for the annual year-end countdown of my favorite new acquisitions. Pretty much everything “new” in iTunes was bootlegs, rarities, etc., from the same old favorites, rather than actual new releases.

Most new music discovering and listening didn’t happen in the old way this year. It turns out that getting rid of eMusic and embracing Spotify was a great thing for my wallet, but it was the worst thing to ever happen to my music collection.

I had some initial purist nervousness about Spotify when I first started using it, and a glance through iTunes (which, in itself, isn’t very music-purist, I guess) now shows that maybe there was some reason to not like it. My music collection isn’t growing very anymore, because, as I’ve said, it’s really hard to justify spending money on an mp3 when you have streaming access.

There was another tech transition this year that’s probably also contributing to the rut. When cleaning today, I found a dusty, abandoned, and almost full spindle of CD-Rs in a box. Making mix CDs for my hour-long roundtrip commute used to be a regular thing. I’d scour my music library to create new mixes whenever the mood struck me, which usually wound up being roughly weekly. Between new mixes, I’d listen to the same mix on loop over and over for several days, often falling in love with songs I wasn’t really familiar with but that fit a topical mix theme, or that I’d recently bought and wanted to “get to know.”

In January, though, I bought a new car (thanks to Pomplamoose, of course). This one has a built-in iPod input cable, which instantly killed the art of the drive mix. Never made another one. Now, I pretty much shuffle through to the same old favorites over and over. The iPod only holds 8 GB, and the other 53 GB stuck at home never stand a chance of being listened to in the car. Lazy familiarity.

So, in short, I’m not going to any shows and am listening to the same few albums over and over.

(I KNOW. THEN WHY HAVE A MUSIC BLOG? No one wants to hear about you’re listening to Neil Young’s On The Beach for the 926, 439, 234th time. Which I totally am right now.)

But there’s hope for new, worthy content in the future. The Band of the Day app has pointed me to some gems. I’ve put a bunch of frequently Spotify’d albums and an eMusic subscription on the holiday wishlist. Soon — very soon — there will be album reviews, after a few more listens to a few CDs streams.

And the concert dry spell (it’s been almost four months) may finally be ending, with three potential shows on the horizon in the next month or so.

This blog will get back on track.