For a long time, probably since the day I upgraded to a 160gb iPod, I've been constantly struggling to listen to all of the music in my library. When I finally filled it to capacity, the chase became a little easier to handle, and I gradually wore down my "Zero Play Count" playlist until it reached zero, a milestone I reached sometime last summer. Unfortunately, on June 25th, my iTunes library was corrupted, along with every other previous library, so I was forced to start back from scratch.
Not only were the play counts reset--I had to completely rebuild the library. I managed to eject my iPod successfully, so I had a copy of my original library to work with, but it was still a monumental pain in the ass. Any normal person would've taken this as a reminder that iTunes is a piece of shit program, but I apparently hate myself, to the point that I got a sick sense of satisfaction from staying up for weeks on end putting it back together.
It ended up being a positive experience though. I ran into a lot of bands in my library that I really didn't like. Animal Collective, for example. I cut down a lot, I upped the quality on a ton of old downloads, and just generally made my iPod better. But there's no way in hell I would do it again.
Not having to focus on emptying that playlist opened me up to listening to a lot more music. At work, I now simply shuffle my entire library to pick an album to listen to. At home, I still use the "Zero Play Count" playlist, mainly because there's a sizable chunk of my library that is not exactly work-appropriate. Noise, hardcore rap, grindcore, etc. It's been a rewarding system so far, one that I plan on keeping up in the near future.
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PLAYLIST:
The Sonics - Psycho-Sonic
The Sonics are a great band. Probably the greatest garage rock band. But they're still insanely overrated. People like to make garage rock out to be way more proto-punk than it really is. The Sonics recorded in an ridiculously lo-fi fashion, which made the songs themselves come off way more aggressive and "punk" than they really were. (Though Gerry Roslie really was an insane lead singer.) Psycho-Sonic is a compilation that just becomes overkill after about 15 tracks. By the 29th and final song, you just have to wander how many versions of "The Witch" a person really needs. But while the compilation is flawed, the music is still undeniably awesome. (4 stars)
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
This album is easily in my top-ten favorite albums of all-time. I've probably listened to it a thousand times. It's deliriously imperfect and infectious like a venereal disease. Just sloppy, incredible pop delivered with all the lo-fi charms that I adore but cannot defend for the life of me. Every song should have the lead guitar drop out of the mix a few times. (5 stars)
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
For a band that started every variation of doom metal known to man, Black Sabbath sure put out a bunch of shitty hard rock albums. "Changes" alone is enough to trash this thing, but even the so-called hits like "Snowblind" are garbage. I'll never understand why people call themselves fans of "metal" while they listen to weak-assed shit like this. (2 stars)
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
I'm almost ashamed of how much I love The Hold Steady. And Lifter Puller, for that matter. Craig Finn works the same rock 'n' roll-as-mythology black magic that Bruce Springsteen did at his peak, only Finn throws in a lot more drug abuse and spiritual crises than your average Boss joint. His lyrics paint horrible pictures of wretched people slowly destroying themselves and everything around them, yet he still manages to make you yearn for pain as pure as what his characters are experiencing. He makes you want to feel as alive as the broken figures he leaves hanging in garish strings of gut-wrenching self-realization and inescapable streaks of masochism. There's a celebration going on amid the walking dead, and everyone just wants to be invited. Or maybe we all just want to party a little more. (5 stars)
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
I'm almost ashamed of how much I love The Hold Steady. And Lifter Puller, for that matter. Craig Finn works the same rock 'n' roll-as-mythology black magic that Bruce Springsteen did at his peak, only Finn throws in a lot more drug abuse and spiritual crises than your average Boss joint. His lyrics paint horrible pictures of wretched people slowly destroying themselves and everything around them, yet he still manages to make you yearn for pain as pure as what his characters are experiencing. He makes you want to feel as alive as the broken figures he leaves hanging in garish strings of gut-wrenching self-realization and inescapable streaks of masochism. There's a celebration going on amid the walking dead, and everyone just wants to be invited. Or maybe we all just want to party a little more. (5 stars)
The Black Crowes - Before The Frost...Until The Freeze
I'm a bigger Black Crowes fan than anyone should ever be. I might be the only person on the planet who actually sorta enjoyed Lions. But even for me, it's hard to make anything out of this album. Before The Frost is easily the best chunk of songwriting that has ever come from the Robinson brothers. There's nothing as hard-hitting as even the weakest track on Shake Your Money Maker, but I think that was the point. I can only imagine it was as easy to write as it is to listen to. It just sounds like a bunch of guys making music they truly enjoy. Until The Freeze follows the same breezy style, only with a much more deliberate country vibe that was hard for me to deal with. As I once drunkenly tried to explain to a friend at a local honky tonk show, I don't know how to deal with twang. I don't hate it, I don't like it...I just don't get it. But these guys certainly do. (4 stars / 3.5 stars)
Radiohead - Kid A
I can't think of a more overrated album than Kid A. We probably have Pitchfork to blame for that (though I've read just as insane thoughts on it from Chuck Klosterman). It's a fine album. It sounds great. I love Radiohead, but this is maybe my third or fourth favorite album by them. People always praise the general feel of this album, which does portray modern paranoia better than perhaps any other album I know, though it probably sounded more groundbreaking 12 years ago. Now...it's okay. It's grown on me more and more over the years, but then again so have OK Computer and In Rainbows. (4 stars)
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CHANGES:
- Fixed a typo on "Girl O'Clock"--I upped the bitrate on Emergency & I last night and missed that mistake
- Fixed a typo on "I Ain't Hiding" from Before The Frost
- Deleted Psycho-Sonic and replaced it with the original three Sonics albums--Here Are The Sonics, Boom, and Introducing The Sonics. They don't make album titles like they used to.
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DELETIONS:
- Black Sabbath - Vol. 4. See above.
- The Sonics - Psycho-Sonic. See above.
- The Meligrove Band. These guys were one of the few remaining bands from my early college indie phase--and I use "indie" in the worst sense possible. I finally came to the revelation that the only song I liked by them was "I'm Easy." And it only took half of one track to figure out.
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ADDITIONS:
- Howling Hex (#412). Side project by Neil Hagerty, of Royal Trux fame. Added All-Night Fox.
- Thee Mighty Caesars (#811). One of the many bands from the incomparable Billy Childish. Added Caesars Remains, John Lennon's Corpse Revisited, and Acropolis Now.
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