I'm So Cool

So, for the past several months I have been trying to shift my buying and listening habits more toward the enthusiasm I had when I was younger. When I would buy stuff because it would get stuck in my head or I'd get fascinated with it and just HAD to have it. This has meant that I'm questioning my loyalty to artists more. So artists that normally would get my money automatically just for putting stuff out, aren't anymore (sorry Gomez, Peter Murphy, Moby and Chad Van Gaalen). Certainly, I'm still loyal and will pick stuff up from favourite artists, but only after really investigating and listening (good job Junior Boys, Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes and Arctic Monkeys). The upside to the savings is I get to experiment more (hello Clearlake, James Blake, Do Make Say Think, and Minor Threat) and buy a whole pile of reissues with my Birthday money. One of the ways I've been experimenting is by exosing myself to new music through free listening thanks to a number of podcasts such as NPR's excellent All Songs Considered, Greg Kott & Jim DeRogatis's Sound Opinions which will help me explore tUnEYaRdS, and the Hype Machine Radio Podcast which is probably the most cutting edge thing I listen to. But this month's podcast saw a breakthrough. Instead of just knowing about some of the artists played, I actually identified two artists before they were announced: Bjork, who is admittedly easy to identify, and Washed Out who just released his debut yet is old news to the hipsters on the Hype Machine.