terminal-boredom.com
Terminal Boardumb => Music Shit => Topic started by: grievous angel on June 26, 2020, 08:05:28 AM
-
How is it different from 10 to 15 years ago? Obviously this board is not nearly as active as it used to be -- is that because this style of music isn't as popular as it once was, or because there are more channels to communicate now, or just some other sign of the times?
For me -- I still check out as much music as ever, but I burned out hard on garage/punk/hard rock gradually over the last ten years. There are still some albums within those genres that I love to play, but there are probably only two to three new albums each year in that particular style that I play more than a handful of times.
As ridiculous as it sounds, my nearly lifelong love for the Grateful Dead eventually led me to focus on what made them a total game changer -- improvisation -- which led me very heavily into jazz, which led into the general realm of experimental/avant-garde, and that's where my current interests still are mainly. Jazz, acoustic Fahey style rural jams, and most things free form.
I have never to this day used Spotify, although I might check it out at some point-- still buy as many records as I can bear to look at without hating myself and go to Soulseek for just checking things out.
-
Its been an evolution of how I consume the medium that's for sure! Early 2010's my actual need to own physical media dropped off a cliff, made way more CD-R's during the start of the decade, purchased an iPod and was obsessed with constantly changing out the library on that, that progressed to getting my first cellphone which acted in the same manner as my iPod for a while. I'm now at a point where the Spotify library satiates most of my musical consumption needs. If I do need to dig deeper Bandcamp or Youtube works at the moment. I just moved recently and lugging 1300 plus records out of my exes place was the pits!
My taste has pretty much remained the same, though I fall in line with you that my punk/garage listening habits are not at the forefront as they used to be too. I was pretty depressed last year so my habit of listening to nihilistic/depressive music increased tenfold. Lots of early industrial, darkwave, harsh noise and gloomy post-punk.
My curiosity for new sounds still remain, I'm still trawling the internet on a regular basis hoping to find an active and interesting spot like this board used to be in its heyday.
-
I'm still a music nerd and early punk nut, but youtube.com takes care of a lot of my needs. I had a weird transition from music to film/books like seven years ago, and don't really buy as much music. I would say that with age, music has transitioned to being less at the forefront of my life...certainly way less so than it was at 16, or even 29. I also began writing more and playing the guitar less, so...
Music and how I dress are both a lot less important to me now than they were as a kid.
-
The Terminal Boredom board isn't as active as it once was because the site isn't being updated with content. I don't think there's any mystery there. Thankfully, Rich is still chugging along with the thankless task of keeping this board alive. This site was (and remains) important.
"More channels to communicate from..." Whatever channels there are -- they're more dispersed, receiving less traffic. For the most part -- this isn't universally true -- but sites with heavy traffic are overly reliant on public relations outlets for their content. The often banal content reflects this dynamic. Established labels put a premium on a popular website rewriting the one-sheet their PR company gave them, reinforcing their symbiotic relationship. My information on music mostly comes from books. People like Tim Lawrence, Greg Milner and Alex Ogg. Some sites receptive to peripheral music -- what Dale Merrill or WFMU, KDVS, etc. are covering. Maybe Friedl's hyping a new LP Goner got. Gerard got something out on 12XU. Importing Goodbye Boozy 45s. MRR ceasing print was a shame cuz with Layla Gibbon, Cardwell, etc. they were doing some great work. The infrastructure for this type of music has been hollowed out. It's the same thing for journalism generally. The advertising-supported business model has imploded. Robert McChesney has written numerous books on this topic. It's like private equity got to it; Barbarians at the Gate style. In fact, private equity now owns at least one massive record pressing plant...
My own observations (cont'd): I always likened to to the Big Three by the 1940s. If you hadn't established a formidable independent record label (or quasi indie) by 2000, you were gonna have a very tough row to hoe. There are a few people with considerable wealth putting out great records right now. Kind of like Michael Zilkha in the late 1970s. They're rare. The problem some new folks have is they can't pace their releases. They burn out after three years. You've gotta understand the numbers of you'll get overwhelmed. Even SST did before, well, y'know...
Record sales are down. I used to press 500 copies of a 45. Over time, you could sell them all. For example, it took about seven years to sell out of Electric Blood, our first 7". Nowadays, I'd press 300 copies and be grateful to move all of them. We're co-releasing this Red Lights record with In the Red. Outside of that, I think we're strictly 45s from here on out. Less hassle and it's easier to project/curtail losses. European mail order dying thanks to the 2006 Postal Accountability Act has hurt sales. Understandably, COVID stopped our distributor from working; recent releases weren't getting out...I can only imagine how brutal it is running a brick-and-mortar record store right now. I talk with Friedl about it periodically. Months of inactivity. I'm just glad everyone I know seems to be healthy.
In terms of music -- it's mostly getting out there more. In terms of interests. I was chatting with Adam Smith today. That got me into JD Blackfoot's The Ultimate Prophecy. I've been really into Lora Logic's Rough Trade-related stuff. Stef Petticoat. Trisome 21. East German stuff like Zwitschermaschine. And new-wave stuff like Human League (Fast Product and Dare), British Electric Foundation and early Simple Minds.
I don't like Spotify. I never owned a iPod and I've never downloaded music on my phone. I listed to records at home or CDs in the car.
This type of music will always be there. But I don't think it'll reach the amount of people it once did. At least in the same way it did back in the Forced Exposure days -- which I never caught anyway, being too young.
-
abusive.
-
Ill probably be listening to more JJ Cale than (insert 2020 punk band here)
-
dysfunctional
-
when I was 14 I started listening to punk and metal
almost 11 years later I am now listening to...punk and metal, with jazz and electronic too I guess
-
drill on youtube.
-
I have been working from home with a spouse who is also working from home while we juggle an 8-month-old child, so I have been listening to lots of Raffi and Trojan Records compilations--stuff everyone can enjoy. I never listened to Raffi as a child and quite enjoy it.
I listen to music almost exclusively through Spotify. If I can't sleep I might listen to a cool record via Youtube and headphones.
I still mix and master music every once in awhile. I've had a few projects during lockdown that have helped me pay rent on our control room, but just barely enough to cover it. Going to record one or two more records in there in the coming months then call it quits.
-
I have been working from home with a spouse who is also working from home while we juggle an 8-month-old child, so I have been listening to lots of Raffi and Trojan Records compilations--stuff everyone can enjoy. I never listened to Raffi as a child and quite enjoy it.
I listen to music almost exclusively through Spotify. If I can't sleep I might listen to a cool record via Youtube and headphones.
I still mix and master music every once in awhile. I've had a few projects during lockdown that have helped me pay rent on our control room, but just barely enough to cover it. Going to record one or two more records in there in the coming months then call it quits.
Bro, you fucked up not listening to Raffi as a kid. Better than Bob Dylan
-
Bro, you fucked up not listening to Raffi as a kid. Better than Bob Dylan
You're telling me. I heard Chuck Mangione's Feel So Good in full probably 40 times before I was old to speak.
-
If someone appeared at my front door and offered to buy all my 7"s at a fair price, sold! But, list those 1000+ records, fuck, I got better things to do...otherwise, I still like music, 2020.
-
If someone appeared at my front door and offered to buy all my 7"s at a fair price, sold! But, list those 1000+ records, fuck, I got better things to do...otherwise, I still like music, 2020.
Fucking nailed it.
-
By 2012 I had little use for music in my life. I sold my collection of vinyl, and my record player. My show going had dwindled to nothing. Music still played a big role in my life, but I was experiencing everything through the fog of my addictions. I would still check out new stuff on bandcamp and soundcloud. I would still listen to old favorites and some new ones via youtube, but my music habit took on a different color. It all just seemed like the background music for my destruction. I started associating less and less with music people. Hell, I actually surprised myself with this. Before this I could say that all my friends and I had music in common. We were active participants in music. We shared strong opinions. But now most of my friends were people who had nothing in common with me musically. My lifestyle may have revolved around sex or drugs or drinking, but not rock and roll. I guessI didn’t need it anymore. Maybe it was a different kind of habit, rock and roll, and throughout my life I think I was just shifting these various habits around, replacing one with another, trying to fill the nervous void within me.
Well, been sober now for more than a year and discovered a few things about myself. Found out I enjoyed nature and the outdoors a lot more than I used to think. Found I enjoy quiet and contemplative noises, I don’t need a loud abrasive soundtrack following me through everything in life. These days I hardly listen to music for pleasure. Only when I work out (it’s been Back from Samoa for the past week) and sometimes when I’m catching nostalgia.
But I had a good run. I was a devotee of rock and roll from about 1999 to about 2016 or so. It was the main focus of my life. It saved me, you could even say, even though it ultimately nearly killed me.
I discovered punk through my cousin probably around the time I was 13. Before that he and his friends had introduced me to so much music: Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins. My cousin then went straight for punk. In my freshmen year of high school I won’t pretend I was a punk or even listening to much punk. My main music at the time was Nine Inch Nails, some 80’s goth (and some 90’s) and really bad rave music.
I had Green Day’s ‘Kerplunk’ on CD, which I like a lot. My cousin also taped me Dookie. He was mostly into a lot of bad skatepunk, mainly everything on Epitaph. Rancid, Offspring, NOFX, Operation Ivy. But let’s see. I had a dubbed copy of Minor Threat discography. Dubbed first Clash. Dubbed Gorilla Biscuits. Can’t say it was all great stuff he listened to. I also had a dubbed copy of “Heard they Sucked Live” I’m embarrassed to say that I loved back then.
Oh yeah, shame about musical choices. Something I don’t get anymore. Like the shame of not knowing about a band that’s been deemed seminal. Like when I eventually transitioned from bad rave and goth to punk, I never wanted to let on where my musical roots really were I felt so bad about it.
As my brother got heavier into punk he also got deeper into it. Next it was local bands, then Crass-style peace punk, then on to Profane Existance type hardcore. I was always very interested in what he was listening to even though it wasn’t really my thing. Yet.
I gravitated more towards the punk and new wave of the 70’s and 80’s. Then this older friend of mine who I had a huge crush on invited me to see the Cramps. This around 98. A year later I dove head-first into garage and punk and never looked back.
But I guess the music has to end eventually. Ok. I had a great run. Better than most. And I’m very lucky to have survived it all.
-
Almost forgot. Sometime after I stopped buying records, I got deep into comic books. And it became like another shameful kind of secret. I didn’t want to be seen as a nerd, but who fucking cares. Once I got clean, this habit fell by the wayside as well, and I’m fine with that. Also don’t feel guilty about being something of a comic book geek.