The Beginning

My friend Daniel Singer and I met on a baseball team in the seventh grade. Sitting on the bench waiting our turn to bat, we would talk about our favorite Green Day songs, since that was what our middle school selves were into. Now we're both in college.

We've come a long way, but nothing has really changed. Nearly every weekend I take a ten minute walk to south campus, rain or shine (or snow on one particular October night), and we spend a good portion of our time talking about music. Our tastes have changed, but we never shy away from a good talk about the high points of the latest Fun. single or the influence of the Beach Boys on a band like Tally Hall.

I'm starting this blog because it has occurred to me that I spend most of my free time now listening to new music. I've become quite the Spotify addict and have an active "to listen to" list. I've started shying away from just listening to catchy pop tunes and wonky rock to dabble in some hip hop. The point is, I need a place where I can organize all of these thoughts about new and old music into one place, and "Led Zeppelin IV is really good #rockstars" is not enough. As far as reviews go, I've never been and don't really plan on becoming a frequent Pitchfork or Rolling Stone reader or anything like that. Thumbs up and thumbs down is too simple. Even a ten point scale doesn't seem to do a piece of art justice. More useful questions are "how much is this influenced by past musicians?" or for an older work, "how is this album/song still relevant?" In addition to "reviewing" some albums, I'd like to answer some deeper questions like "as performers and consumers of music in 2011, are we responsible for knowing what is popular, even if what is popular is not 'good' music?" Maybe once in a while I'll come up with a "top five" list in true High Fidelity fashion.

Although I'm studying Electrical Engineering here at UMD and Dan is off learning about Twitter and iPads, music has in no way left us. He has his radio show (Pastiche Quiche on 88.1 WMUC Wed. @ 3pm) and I'm in the marching and jazz band here. Neither of us are ever going to be professional musicians. Dan will probably write comedy articles for some newspaper or start the next Cracked.com. I'll graduate and get a job behind a desk in some cubicle. But we'll always be listening. And with that, let the blogging begin...

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose