What I've Been Listening To... (Pt. 1?)

For a large portion of my life music was pretty significant to me. In school I was the guy who tried listening to a bunch of music and expanding my horizons (thank you Internet) and to this day I try to accomplish that even if I don't have enough time to venture out into the music world like I used to before.

I try and find at least one song I really like in every genre no matter how far removed it is from my usual playlist. Good music is good music.

I've mentioned that two of my favorite songs of all time are Somebody Told Me by The Killers and Instant Crush by Daft Punk. They still are, I just wanted to bring them up again because they're great. I've also showcased on this blog some of my other favorites like The Hives and J. Cole.

Today I thought I'd share some stuff I've been listening to recently. I'm somewhat curious to know what some of you think of these. Especially those of you who I have frequent conversations about music with (you know who you are!), I expect you people who fall into this category to listen to all of these and respond with feedback for each song ;).

When I said I try to expand my horizons, I meant it. To the point where I'm willing to go to foreign lands. Here's Italian superstar Franco Battiato. I assume most of you have heard of him at one point (especially if you're Italian), if not, well stop it and go listen to him, your biases against Sicily be damned.

I'm not too familiar with Georgia (the country) but this is a key song in a Georgian film titled Lullaby (called Lavnana in Georgian), in which a young girl is kidnapped from a wealthy family that helped two strangers whom they didn't know were thieves. She comes back years later but has no recollection of her original life or her heritage. But she does remember this lullaby from her mother. Yes, the movie is a tearjerker.

This is the Japanese band frederic and their song Oddloop. Which is a combination of the Japanese word odoru (dance) and the English word loop.

This is basically Japanese ska music. Very energetic, danceable, my girlfriend really liked it. She especially liked the emotionless girls dancing even though it's really evident that they must've cracked up laughing a ton of times during this video shoot. Contrary to what stereotypes will have you believe, the Japanese do have emotions, they're just subdued because we Japanese can communicate telepathically with each other.

Those of you in the indie rock scene have probably heard of Frightened Rabbit before. They're a rock band from Scotland and they make some pretty neat stuff. Although most of the time I have no idea what the plot (if there is one) of their songs are. This is a pretty chill song that contrasts nicely with a music video that has way too much going on in it.

Helsinki is in this bitch!
Finnish hip hop duo JVG are apparently pretty big in their home country (side note, you'd be surprised how widespread hip hop is in Finland). I have no idea what native Finnish people think of hip hop or this duo (the like to dislike ratio on this video is trying to tell me something!) but I thought this was pretty fun. I always say that mindless club songs are better enjoyed when you have no idea what the song is saying because it doesn't matter anyway. And foreign songs are the best way to make sure your brain doesn't interpret what's being said.

Presenting British indie rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen. A name that reminds me of Echo and the Bunnymen and a sound that reminds me of Kings of Leon. This song is pretty good, I enjoyed it. Apparently this is based on a conversation the lead singer Van McCann had with an ex-girlfriend about how she never got to know her mother who passed away too soon. And yet it's so upbeat.

Billy Murray man, if you try and go back to American pop music from the early 20th century expect to see a lot of him. He made a ton of music way back when and while he's gotten some flack over the years for, well, a lot of things I think it's rather charming. There's just something quaint about music that harkens back to when the Cubs had yet to win their first World Series, and before advanced microphones that practically made Frank Sinatra (and various other crooners') career(s).

Some hipsters from Brooklyn going through an existential crisis at the ripe old age of... twenty-something (these guys are barely 30 yet).

Singer-songwriter Cara Salimando is one of my favorite female performers in a genre I usually don't pay attention to for being boring.

I'll end with something really good. The most listened to song on my iPod (out of these songs) in the form of Lord Huron's Lonesome Dreams. For those of you who just scrolled down here without listening to the songs I posted I at least want people to listen to this. It's peaceful, relaxing, and a nice blend of country and folk, combing the best of both genres. It makes me want to hike up a mountain in the morning to see a beautiful sunrise.

And those were some music I've been into recently. Tune in next time for when I have another set of 10 tracks I want to share (and force Tony to listen to).

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Fare Thee Well My Friend

The other day the cruel hand of fate took away something that had been with me for years.

My iPod Nano (6th Gen).

I purchased this Nano way back in 2010. In Japan at that. It's been through a lot with me.

This was the third iPod I had ever owned (my previous iPod Classic had died and an iPod Shuffle was one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made as a consumer).

It was with me for a big chunk (mostly later half) of my high school days. I still remember how there was this one time when I accidentally dropped it in a public bathroom after I had done a number 2 in it before school. Worst yet, I hadn't flushed yet. Having to reach in and take it out was an, interesting, experience. Despite that it was sturdy for a large number of years though.

Hundreds upon hundreds of songs have been in this iPod (albeit at different times). Maybe even thousands. Living in Japan (one of the few places on Earth that still uses CDs, even to this day) had it's benefits as it gave me a steady supply of ripped MP3 files for pretty low prices (I had access to a lot of mom-and-pop music stores in Japan) without me having to resort to being a thief.

This was the iPod that was in my pocket when I graduated from high school (I don't keep wallets or iPods or phones in my book bag unattended).

This was the iPod that went with me to Yokohama for my one year of college in Japan.

This was the iPod that came with me when I came back to the US in 2013. It stuck it out with me throughout my first two years of community college and it was also there when I entered my current four year college.

It provided me with hours upon hours of entertainment/music to entertain me during long boring conversations er, I mean train rides.

In fact, I had two songs on this iPod that had reached the 1,000 play count plateau. The Killers' Somebody Told Me (my favorite song EVER!) and Daft Punk's Instant Crush (my second favorite song ever, probably).

Now the only remnants of what was once my iPod is a white screen of death and a library of what was once inside when I connect it to iTunes.

I suppose I could take it to an Apple Store to see what can be done about it, but I'd assume the answer is zero. This is a six year old device, what are they going to do about it?

I guess I could see if anyone has ever successfully fixed this by themselves but I'm not too handy when it comes to electronics so... :P.

For now I'll keep it as is as a momento.

Now begins the search for a new iPod.  I went to a local Apple Store to ask about any iPods they had, the ones they had were around $150. Yikes. I know what I'm getting myself on X-Mas though.

But for me this brings up the question, how do people listen to music nowadays? My iPhone definitely can't serve as an iPod because all of the apps and the two pictures I took take up most of my phone's memory. And that's to say nothing of how the battery would be annihilated if I listened to music on this thing like I did with my iPod.

I understand that young people nowadays use streaming or something but screw that. I'm a 20-something who grew up in the 2000's, meaning I need a device that plays digitally compressed audio files at my command that I don't have to waste data on.

And no I am not getting a CD player, cassette player or record player. I am not lugging around machinery popularized during the last century.

Oh well. Thanks for lasting nearly a decade though iPod. You lasted three more years that I thought you would, that's for sure.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).