Some Songs Considered

“You Can Never Quarantine the Past” - A Personal Listening History

First, I owe all of you an apology for generally disappearing since June.  Just when I thought I’d have more time to write, I subconsciously decided that I needed to stop for a little while.  After a year and a half of writing just about every day, I needed to take some space.  I needed time to myself, I needed to listen to music again without an agenda, and most importantly I needed to miss writing.  A few weeks ago the itch returned and aimed at this week for the return.  This time, it came with a new idea.

So for the next indeterminate period (basically once this idea has run its course), I am going to start combing through music made during my lifetime.  This week, I will start with songs released* in 1983 all the way through songs released in 2010.  I haven’t settled on how many songs per year - originally it was one per year, but the list got harder as I got older, but it will move chronologically.  

Of course, the framing idea almost mandates a personal bend to these posts.  This is the most attractive part of this idea - along with helping me pick out songs (which was often the most difficult part), personal context will come out immediately.  This isn’t to say this will devolve into journal entries - I’m still interested in the songs primarily, but in many cases it’s next to impossible to completely take my experience out of my opinion.  Instead, I envision this as a “personal listening history” - one that tries to connect the dots between these songs and the different versions of me who listened to them.  If you’ve read many of the first five hundred-something posts here, you know what to expect.  

The most intriguing part of this whole thing will be the arc it takes.  I don’t have any memories of my first couple years of life, and the first memory of a contemporary music event I can think of comes in the early 1990s.  So I imagine the 1980s will jump around a fair amount, then gradually shifting into my “formative” years in the 1990s, and then shooting off in another direction after 2000.  Part of the fun afterward will be retracing my steps!  

Finally, in the spirit of variety, I’m going to generally stick to one song per artist per era.  There are a few bands that will get repeats if I end up writing about more than one or two songs per year, but otherwise I want to touch on as many different directions as possible.

So this is where I’m going for the foreseeable future.  If I end up sticking to one or two songs per year, I’ll be done in a couple months.  Or, if I end up devoting a week to each year, I’ll end about six months from now (appropriately, into a new year of my life).  In the short term, it’s another excuse to write again, and that makes me happy.  

I’ll tag all of these posts with “personal listening history” (unless I decide on a better tag) and I would love hearing your take, especially when a song dovetails with your own personal history.  You know where to find me.

If I’ve learned nothing else since starting this blog, it’s the way that my personal experience shaped my thoughts, taste, and preferences as a listener.  Thanks for indulging me as I hone in on that more specifically.  

*In general, I’m using album releases as the identifier (and generally the US release).  The exceptions come when I had a particularly strong reaction to the single, when an essential compilation included a song (but generally not a “best of” album - those get backdated), or when I have a particularly compelling live recording.  Generally, I hope to be in the right neighborhood at least!

SSC Redesigned (And Soon: Returning!)

Hi everyone,

I’ve made a cosmetic change to the site by installing a modified version of the Solaris Theme for Tumblr.  Click through and check it out! I think I’ve updated all of my minor tweaks, but if something is broken or looks weird, give me a heads up.

Also, while I’m writing to you, I’m happy to say that my “summer vacation” from SSC is ending and soon (read: in the next few days), I will be back to a semi-regular posting routine.  I have an idea to go along with that, but I’ll save that for a few days.  

See you in a few days!

Sporadic Summer / Lollapalooza

Hi folks,

You probably noticed the sporadic nature to my posts the past two months or so. The time felt right to slow down a little bit; summer brings travel and reasons to travel. It’s also been nice to “refresh” my ideas about songs and write when I feel moved to write. Thus, August will probably continue with a couple posts a week and some kind of regular (read: more frequent) schedule come September.

This weekend I’ll be in Chicago for Lollapalooza (and the Devo/Dirty Projectors show tomorrow night). If you’re going feel free to say hi on Twitter (@somesongs) or in the comments or whatever and I’ll keep an eye out for you! I’ll probably have pictures and things to say during the weekend as well.

As always, thanks for reading. You Tumblr folks are tremendous.

The Some Songs Considered 500

I started writing this blog not too long after The Pitchfork 500 came out.  It was not the catalyst for this project, but it was and remains an influence.  For a while, I deliberately avoided songs covered in the book in order to distance any comparisons that are, quite honestly, out of my league (or worse – repeating their interpretations).  At some point, I found that I had my own interpretations of those songs, so the overlap embargo ended, but the book continues to be the kind of thing I’ll flip through from time to time and read a few entries.  For someone like me who geeks out about music writing, it’s an essential anthology of some of the best writers from the past few years.

A little more than a week ago, I wrote about the five hundredth different song, and in a moment of reflection, I thought about The Pitchfork 500.  This wasn’t a quality comparison; first, I’d lose that by a landslide (I don’t hold a candle to it), and secondly that wasn’t the purpose of my project (nobody wants this as a book, trust me).  I started writing about songs that I love in order to learn about my taste in music and to give myself something to write about everyday.  It’s become something more than that – at times it’s conversational, at times it’s a place to sort through personal memories, and at times it’s an intellectual exercise.  It’s probably the best creative decision I’ve made in my entire life, and the idea that I’ve stuck with it through five hundred (plus, at this point) songs makes me incredibly proud of myself for sticking it out so long.

Anyway, this milestone was a good point to stop and think through the entire project, and I have on and off for the past week.  I’ve come to the following conclusions:

1. At one point, I expected concrete revelations about my taste in music, and while there are a few, they are tiny at best.  I’ve also realized that I’m not as interested in that anymore – the tiny revelations about individual songs are enough for me.
2. I need a break.  I thought after hitting every day in 2009 that I could slow down but couldn’t bring myself to lessen my schedule.  Still, as the reposts suggest, there are some nights where Real Life gets in the way of writing.  Thus, I’m making a compromise with myself – I’m going to continue to write every day with the option of taking a day (or weekend) off from time to time.  At this point, writing a good (or at least decent post) is more important than simply just writing. 
3. While I have no plans on ending this blog soon, I’ve also accepted that it can’t run forever.  I don’t have a number in mind, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s closer to 500 than 1000.  Then again, it might adapt itself into something different by then – a lot can happen in five hundred songs’ time.
4. That said, I’m open to trying some new things.  I’m not really sure what, save for my podcast idea that may or may not come about in June, but I’m willing to think about it. 
5. Finally, I’m humbled that anyone reads this blog.  Quite honestly, more people read this on a regular basis than I ever imagined.  Whether it’s the Tumblr community or subscriptions or blind luck that leads you here, I’m constantly moved that people spend a little part of their day on my site (let alone the kind and encouraging words and recommendations).  Simply put, I would have closed up shop a long time ago.

That’s it for now – no new post tonight, a few new posts the rest of the week, and perhaps something new at some point in the not-too-distant future.  Thanks for sticking with me through the first five hundred songs, and rest assured that there are plenty more in the future.

Perpetually grateful,
Brian

Brainstorm

With another recent rush of new readers, let me first take a minute to say thank you.  I’m humbled that you spend part of your day sharing music and reading what I have to say. 

One of the things I’ve enjoyed writing about songs is that I get to read the stories that all of you have about these songs as well, whether in comments, reblogs, or tweets.  I try to at least skim all of the reblogs, and in last night’s post on the Smiths’ “Ask” I’ve already seen a lot of people who have strong memories or emotions attached to that song.

It got me thinking back to an idea I had last summer than never really got off the ground.  I’ve thought about starting a podcast where you get to tell your own stories behind songs.  I’d give a topic, whether it’s “favorite songs of this year” or a specific song or artist, and then if you have an interesting story/opinion/whatever, you could share it with me (via e-mail or Google Voice or something else I haven’t thought of yet).  I’d tie them all together somehow and post it.  I imagine it as a music-related mutation of This American Life, I guess.

Anyway, this thought is in its infancy, and quite honestly I don’t have the time right now to put it together.  I guess I’m floating it out there for two reasons.  The first is that if I say it, you can hold me to it.  The second, and much more important, comes as a question to you: would you listen to something like this?

Something New

I’m in the mood to write and I’m generally torn between two different versions of “100,000 Fireflies,” so I’m going to write about both.  Off to write!

Happy 2010 (A Month Late)

This is my third attempt to write a beginning of the year / thank you post, so I will be brief.

Thank you to everyone who read, subscribed, reblogged, shared, and otherwise visited Some Songs Considered in 2009 (and in the first two thirds of January 2010).  Running this blog is a labor of love (in the fullest sense of both words) and without the support of so many kind people.  Specifically, I want to thank Tristan from A Post Punk Tumblr and Tom Ewing for early links to the blog, The Hype Machine and Tumblr for indexing the blog, and all of the wonderful people on Tumblr I’ve interacted with as a result of writing this blog (please forgive the general thank you).

In particular, thank you to the folks at Tumblr for listing Some Songs Considered on the new Directory page (in addition to previous versions of the directory and recommendations pages).  I’m in debt to their platform and community that makes this blog so enjoyable to run.

To all of the new people here - welcome!  In short, I write about a song a day.  In 2009 I wrote about a different artist every day (I recommend the search box or the random button at the left if you want to get a sampling of what I’ve written about before).  I don’t think I’m going write about a different artist every day, but I’m going to keep to very limited repeats.

I always want to hear from you, whether it’s sharing a story about a song, voicing an opinion, or giving a suggestion for the blog.  Here’s some ways to get in touch:

• Email: somesongsconsidered-at-gmail-dot-com
• Twitter: @somesongs
• Some Songs Considered on Facebook
• Subscribe to the RSS Feed
• Follow SSC at the Hype Machine

Again, I’m extremely humbled to be a small part of your day and can’t wait to hear from you!  Tonight’s post will be up in a little bit.

November Updates

Happy Sunday, Internet!

A few new wrinkles I wanted to point out this afternoon.  First, I reorganized the sidebar slightly.  While doing this, I added a search box that searches the 300+ posts this year.  If you’re looking for something new, try typing in something you like and see what comes up!

Also, I added a “shuffle” button that brings up a random post.  I don’t know how to make the Streampad player shuffle through my posts (it plays from the most recent in reverse chronological order), but feel free to use this to shuffle through the songs and posts on here.

I’d love to hear if you have suggestions as well - please let me know!

Again, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who comes by, reads the posts, and listens to the songs.  Whether you come here via Tumblr, The Hype Machine, a search engine, or any other way, I’m humbled to have you spend part of your day here.

Welcome, New Visitors!

Monday was the single highest trafficked day to Some Songs Considered ever (largely thanks to being #2 on the Hype Machine’s popular tracks over the weekend!), so I briefly wanted to say hi to all of the new visitors and offer a few ways to keep up with SSC.

I’m on Twitter - follow me @somesongs and say hi.

SSC is on Facebook too - if you want to get updates in your Facebook newsfeed.

Of course, you can always join Tumblr and follow me there or subscribe to the RSS feed in a reader (Google Reader being my personal choice).

Thanks for visiting and don’t be a stranger - comment, reblog, tweet and share your own stories about these songs!

More Songs Considered

I started this blog with the idea of writing about a song a day, and since then I’ve refined this idea.  Specifically, I want these songs to be ones that I’ve lived with a little bit.  Thus, I decided early on that I wouldn’t write about music released in 2009 (at least not until the end of the year).  Since then, I’ve decided that while I’m trying to explore my taste by looking through my musical history, it shouldn’t be at the expense of neglecting the present era entirely.

So from that thought comes a new idea I’m calling “More Songs Considered.”  These will be posts about songs released in 2009 that I love.  Since Tumblr only allows one song upload per day, these posts will not replace the usually daily song post.  Instead, they will be videos or links to hear the song elsewhere.  These will occur irregularly – when I have a new song to share with you, I will post it – but I imagine there will only be a handful of these posts throughout the year.

Feel free to treat these posts however you would like to treat them, as every day I post a “More Songs Considered” post I will still have a regularly scheduled post as well.  The first one will go up sometime in the next day or so!

More Songs Considered Posts:

1.  “Lisztomania” - Phoenix