My 2012: The Second Annual Jaybee-bies

And what a mediocre year it’s been!  - Jaybee
No, that’s not really true.  I wrote that in November, just before everything came together.

That’s what I get for getting sucked into that very common, but very bad, habit of reviewing something - like a year - way too soon.

And, it has the paradoxical effect of stretching things out into the new year. My unofficial resolution to get this done much sooner than last time has fallen in the crapper. It’s almost February for God’s sake. I’ve already gotten new music. Time to get my ass in gear and put 2012 to bed.

How did I do on those other resolutions anyway?


2012 Resolutions:

1. Getting More Current Music: On this, I totally sucked, managing to get only one measly 2012 album (Fiona Apple) and that one only on December 31. Nutboy is laughing his ass off right now. On the one hand, it was due to there being so many possible candidates, none of whom I trusted enough to follow through on. There were dozens of records that somebody was enthusiastic about. I just couldn’t distinguish the momentary enthusiasms from the keepers. Every time a promising record appeared, there was old Christgau
snickering at it, or not liking it quite enough. I had to wait for the year end polls to enlighten me.  While I waited for it all to get sorted out, I got distracted by records that just happened to come out, oh, forty years ago.

My middle name is After the Fact. C

But the other thing was that most of the highest rated records fell into the soul and hip hop (Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Killer Mike, etc) genres - ones that I’m not too good with. Or not as good as I should be. So rather than waste a lot of time trying to make myself a better, more rounded person, I’m opting for happiness.

I feel bad that I’m shying away from these genres. I guess it’s selfish, and short sighted, but when I look ahead I’m not seeing all that much time. I can’t afford to experiment like I did when I was in my twenties, assuming what I didn’t like today, I might like years from now.  I don’t know how many of those I have. This wasn’t even a resolution but I’m giving myself a C on it anyway.

2. More Downloads, Fewer CDs: I did pretty good. By my rough count I ended up with 19 CDs and 16 MP3s. So it’s evening out. Still too many CDs, though.  B+

3. More Current Books: Well, I started off pretty good and read a handful of books from this century (Zazen (very powerful), The Hunger Games (brilliant) and Ready Player One (great fun) but then trailed off, and by the end of the year, I hadn’t read all that many from last century, either. C+


So the 2013 Resolutions are:

1. No CDs: Mrs. Jaybee is REALLY doubtful about it.  As long as I can stay away from downtown, where J&R and Other Music are located, I’ve got a shot.

2. At least 3 albums released in 2013: Nutboy’s probably managed more than 3 already.

3. Get Less Music: I did get more MP3s, but I didn’t get fewer CDs. I got way too much music, and need to focus. (I have to, before I toss out a family member.)  But Amazon is doing their yearly 50 million albums for $5, and I’ve already gotten three. None from this year, by the way.

4. More music books!  I had great fun doing this in 2012, and realized I’d been remiss for many years. I don’t know why. Probably some combination of the books not being available at my library and me being too cheap to buy them. I also have a fear of reading about music at the expense of listening to it, as well as a dread of the potential Deadening of Joy Via Theory Effect, which happens to me when the writer is thinking it, but JUST NOT FEELIN' IT.


So How Good a Year Was It?

Things were so good that I’m not going to just mention one or two Best Albums of the Year with a handful of runners up.  I’m actually going to supply a top 10 list, which goes something like this:
1. Ogden’s Nut Flake by the Small Faces (1968)  
2. Sea Change by Beck (2002)
3. On by Imperial Teen (2002)
4. The Wild Hunt by the Tallest Man on Earth (2010)
5. The Mysterious Production of Eggs by Andrew Bird (2005)
6. Give Up by Postal Service  (2003)
7. Music for Airports by Brian Eno (1978)
8. So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon (2011)
9. Whitechocolatespaceegg by Liz Phair (1998)
10. Spinning Around the Sun by Jimmie Dale Gilmore (1993)


Biggest Disappointment:
Wild Flag - Just not feelin it.

Strangest:
Jens Lekman - Expecting pop, got a big lump of cheesey weirdness, which I didn’t think was possible.

Biggest Stretch (for me):
Wu Tang Clan - Strong music, stronger subject matter.

Artist of the Year:
The Small Faces - For blowing away my assumption that they were just another 60s band.


Onward:

So that’s it. I’m finally done with a very rewarding year and hoping I can keep it going without wasting a lot of time and money on misfires.

Well, are you going to help me out with that or what?

My 2012: Cloud 2, or Return of the Downloads

Summertime, and the Downloadin's Easy:

So I keep going back and forth on my preferred method of music acquisition. A trip to the record store give me an opportunity to browse, and I get to hold something in my hand, which is important to us guys.

But the trouble is that the only thing downloading requires is for me to be sitting on my ass (I'm an expert) at a computer, while going to the record store involves, well, going to the record store.  

Thankfully the download gods became more forgiving as the year went on.

I’m still not sure these albums really are. And what better start with than an album of music that’s barely there? 


Eno Music for Airports:
It’s been about 30 years - and a zillion records he’s sold for other artists - since  I’ve gotten an Eno record. This one is from his prime and I wasn’t disappointed.  Without going into a whole lot of detail that will mean absolutely nothing to you, I’ll just say that it’s the ambient music you’d expect. Just done better than anyone else, and with the beauty more out front than on Another Green World.  A-
Here's the whole thing.



Bob Marley: Legend:More music for specific occasions, like a hot day by the pool (do you actually have a pool? Why don't you invite us over?). Funny but this doesn’t sound that much better than Natty Dread, which leads me to suspect that I’d really love some other stand alone albums. (I wonder if I could say the same about Blur?)  But as it is, this one flows by flawlessly. A-
Dig the audience participation on "No Woman No Cry".



Postal Service: Give UpA mere side project for Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, and another guy. Said other guy sends BG some tracks that are kind of electronica in nature, and BG adds the voice, melody and guitar. And it all adds up to a very pleasant record. Which finally makes me interested in DCFC. A-
"We are Silhouettes"


Best of the Monkees:At $2.99, another bargain. But the sound is crappy,and my version would have been a little different. I miss the liner notes, too.  B+
"Sometime in the Morning"



The Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake:
Who’da thunk an obscure sixties album with bonus material would be so great? I’ll admit that the first spin was almost painful, with the limited sound quality, quaint narration in spots and some music that’s aged just slightly (hmm, just like me!).  But the tunes emerge, the band proceeds to rock, and we catch Steve Marriott at just the right amount - a wee bit before all that swagger in Humble Pie.  Wonderful. A
"Afterglow"



Imperial Teen: On
I always root for a band with women in it. Here the boy/girl breakdown is 2/2, with the gals handling the bass and drums, quite well, thank you very much. This one hits you softly, but immediately. The spare but decisive instrumentation, the quiet yet expressive vocals and the words that are still waiting to get into my brain. It’s the great tunes that keep getting in the way.  A-
"Million Dollar Man"



Stone Roses:
I’m liking this more as time goes on, but I must admit that at first it sounded like phony poseur pop music that could only come out of England. Everything was just too perfect - the jangely guitars, the echo - and the vocals far enough back to suggest that they had nothing to say. Now that I’ve given it time, the sound is sticking better than fake stuff normally does.  B+
"Waterfall"


A Pre-Thanksgiving Strike That Didn’t Quite Work Out:

Right around early November, I begin to play for my holiday music link, and reach out, hoping for gentle pop/ songwriting/textures/emotion, hoping for nothing too harsh.

But the critical thing is that it’s got to kick in right away, or at least before Thanksgiving Day.



Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...
What I get instead is frantic, but very fun pop (even if it doesn’t fit the holiday mood at all) music. But hey, it’s not their fault I didn’t buy it in the summer, when I can better handle the overflow of words, instruments, beats and hooks. B+
"You! Me! Dancing!"

Andrew Bird: The Mysterious Production of Eggs
So I was hoping that Andrew Bird might save the day. Well, he kind of did, eventually, which really isn’t saving the day at all when you really think about it. Now that it's mid-December, and he’s having the calm, soothing effect I was hoping for. I just needed it a month ago. B+
"Tables and Chairs"


Overall, not bad, huh?  A lot of really good records, with an ever so slight misfire at the end, which has a lot more to do with my needs and expectations than the quality of the music.

One might think that downloading would be the way to go from this point on.

Uh, well...

Being and Nothingness, or Jaybee Sartre's Virtual Record Store Trip, or Something

One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to buy more digital music. My goal was to make 50% of my music purchases mp3s. I’d dipped my toe in the digital water the year before with tUnE-YarDs
W H O K I L L , which , coincidentally, was my top record of the year.

My only complaint so far is that, with no jewelry case cover to look at, the tiny picture of the cover, which looks like this:


reminds me of nothing so much as a Subway sandwich ad.  Just looking at it makes me hungry. (Someone please tell me what this is.)

But above and beyond my obsession with seeming cool to young people, there was the very practical possibility of literally running out of room in our house.

Most family members would like to be preferred over inanimate objects, so when a pile of one falls into a pile of the other, said family members prefer that I save them first. Daughter has stack of CDs fall on her, daughter prefers that father pull her out before checking if the CDs are scratched, etc. Quite reasonable if you’re normal.

Thus, another good reason to take advantage of the odd iTunes gift card and Amazon sales to get mp3s whenever possible.

I’d already resolved to get used instead of new CDs whenever possible. To be environmentally correct? Of course! The fact that they are cheaper never entered my mind...

So this would be another year of great music, just taking up less room and costing less. This is called Continuous Quality Improvement.

So how’m I doing?  Let’s see so far:


January:

First there was Radiohead’s Amnesiac and David Bowie’s Lodger. An of-the-moment record store link trip yielded these two kind-of-want-to-haves-and-at-$4.99-who-can-resists?

I thought that would be it for the month. Every year I have a standing Slow the F*ck Down With the Buying of the Music Resolution that rarely lasts the winter. And this year, not even January.

Thanks to Amazon’s monthly $5 mp3 sale.  And for January, instead of the usual 100 albums, they’ve got 1,000! Now, I’ve finally learned how to keep this kind of thing under control, and after writing up a list of 50 possible buys, I settle for two:  Essential Leonard Cohen and Wild Flag’s debut..

So, what was my score at the end of this first month of the year?

MP3: 2
Used: 0
Cheap: 2
Brand New: 0

So far, so good!


February:

So my son Michael mentions Television (a girl he knows brings them up - the Official Best Possible Reason to Talk About Music) which results in a major (at least 3 CDs worth) mp3 buy, and using a gift card no less! I’d call it a two-fer but it also resulted in a blog post.  

Another trip to the record store unearthed two jazz cheapies: Sidney Bechet Ken Burns’ Jazz and Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul

MP3: 5
Used: 0
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Okay, not bad, but I can do better, right?


March:

Used record store Other Music strikes again.  This time with Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala.

MP3: 5
Used: 1
Cheap: 7
Brand New: 0

Meh.


May:

Cabin Fever motivated me to plan a trip to both record stores once the weather got better. This resulted in cheapies Beck Sea Change and Wu Tang Clan Enter the Wu Tang, and used Bright Eyes Lifted and the Best of Bush. In a fit of remorse, I realized I could have gotten Bush as an MP3 for even cheaper.  So I’m penalizing myself by marking it as New. Ouch!

MP3: 5
Used: 3
Cheap: 8
Brand New: 1

I appear to be succeeding on the cheapness front (lots of practice) I’m paying the price on the environmental one. (Except that I’m not buying something brand new and thus taking up new resources, thus my carbon footprint blah, blah, blah...)


June:

A surprise while on a visit to a friend’s art show - it’s taking place in a used CD store! Quick! Retreat! Ah, too late! Thus Liz Phair’s Whitechocolatespaceegg, the Hives Veni Vidi Viscious, the Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight and Wire’s Pink Flag.

But I try to make up for it by going to my iTunes card. (The old more-is-somehow-less argument.) and get
Eno’s Music for Airports.  

But at this point, like global warming, I hit my 350 and there was no going back for room on the CD shelf. May our children’s children forgive us! ( Well, me anyway.)

MP3: 6
Used: 3
Cheap: 13
Brand New: 1


July

Amazon comes to the rescue twice with Bob Marley’s Legend and Postal Service’s Give Up each on sale for $2.99

MP3: 8
Used: 3
Cheap: 15
Brand New: 1

Which is how it stands right now. All things considered this doesn't suck exactly, but I've got work to do.


But Steinski Asks What Does it All Mean?:

But I miss the thing-ness of the CD (just like I missed the size of the LP, with the possibility that the cover could be a thing of beauty. Maybe even framed.  (Well, no, I never actually framed an album cover, but that was for convenience sake.  I was too lazy to do it, and besides what if I wanted to hear the record?)

And I miss the CD covers. I miss the liner notes, even though I can’t read them anymore.

The more serious and unexpected side effect of this foray into mp3s is that I am beginning to lose track of what I actually have and don’t have.  When I got Postal Service, I also got some free song along with it.  Do I remember what song it is? No. Did I Even Listen to It? No.  Do I Care? No.

So when you get down to it, does it even matter whether I “have” it or not?

When you have a physical CD, you put it on. (This isn’t even getting into the area of If You Have It, You Can Burn It Right Onto Your PC So That When You Want to Play It, You Just Look It Up On Your Computer discussion.)

But if you only have the mp3 you look it up.

Aand if you don’t even “have” it, just search for it on Spotify or Youtube.  

What used to be the very solid demarcation line of ownership - you either have it or wait for it to get played on the radio - has virtually disappeared.

And when my PC’s hard disk dies, do I “lose” these albums? (Please let me know. I’m too lazy to find out.) And is it then pathetic of me to burn the album onto a blank CD that I then lose in my basement? I would have treated the official CD better.

And will we end up looking back on all this with embarrassment, like we do when we see 8 track tapes (which I’m still replacing)?

Well I never said I wasn’t getting old...