I tend to think of myself as a semi decent music critic. I have Sirius Satellite radio in my car so I tend to hear songs and bands months before regular FM radio does. This is both awesome and shitty at the same time. It's awesome because I hear all the new music. It's shitty because once I am tired of a song is right around the time they break into the rotation on FM stations and you get to hear them every 35 minutes all over again.
Because of my music critiquing capabilities, I feel that I am certified to change the station based on the name of the band. I will judge a fucking book (band) by their cover (name) and not think twice. I literally have a slip of paper in my car that I use to write down shitty bands that I turn the channel when they come on. This list is tentatively entitled "Shitty Bands That I Usually Turn The Station When They Come On." So it's quite serious.
This list contains both new and established bands, all of which I choose not to listen to based solely on their names. Once on this list, I imagine it is quite difficult to be removed and be given a fair chance. I say I "imagine" because it has never happened. I will immediately change the radio station if the following bands start playing: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girls, Metric, Green Day, Waka Flocka Flame, Jimmy Eat World, Kasabian, to name a few. (The list is in my car and my car is about 200 feet from my desk so this will have to do).
These bands may be perfectly capable of producing good, if not great music. I personally do not believe that to be true and thus they have entered on to my shit list. A literal shit list. These are not just subjective bands that have been chosen, there are behind-the-scenes reasons. For instance, the first song I ever heard from the band Girls was titled "Vomit." The only song titles worse than "Vomit" would be a song called "Cuddle." Or "Student Loans." Or "Let's Go to This Chill Bar and Drink Non-Alcoholic Beers." For the sole reason of the terrible song title, the band Girls will never be given a fair chance from me.
Jimmy Eat World and Waka Flocka Flame are the worst band names I have ever heard. My dad has this old joke that goes "why did they name the Beatles, the Beatles? Because they didn't want to name them Shoes." I would listen to a band named Shoes before I listen to Jimmy Eat World or Waka Flocka Flame. Any day. And yes, it's a shitty joke, dad.
Kasabian is another band that has a terrible name and I've never really given them a fair shot. They are actually quite successful, even having two of the 150 best songs of the last 15 years according to NME. (NME.COM's Best Tracks Of Its Lifetime) That's a Spotify link to the playlist of all the 150 songs, if you're so inclined. It's a good thing they have qualified music critiquers coming up with these lists, because they would have been left off by me.
I'm trying to keep the reasons for not listening to these bands relatively legitimate. But Metric and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs basically boil down to one thing: chicks. I don't hate chicks. I'm a fan of Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac, and even Adele. But some bands with chicks just don't do it for me. Both Metric and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fall into this category. (Full disclosure: I thought both of these bands were made up entirely of females until I just looked them up.) It seems that the chick lead singers just don't do it for me in some bands. I'm a big fan of Florence + the Machines though so it's not all chick-led bands. Sexist or not, it's my thoughts.
Last but not least, Green Day. The epitome of punk rock in the early '90s. Dookie was a great CD. But then they went all political and became unlistenable. New word. American Idiot was an awful song and CD. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was played every six minutes the summer it came out. That's the problem with FM radio. It's the same shit over and over again. No station has the balls to put new music on for fear that listeners will change the station and thus they miss out on the all-powerful revenue money from ads.
One of the only alternative stations in Chicago recently was sold and changed formats to some other bullshit (talk radio). Q101 was the station to listen to while growing up. They used to have a Cage Match every night at 9pm which pitted the previous day's top song against a newcomer each night. The Bloodhound Gang's "Fire Water Burn" (we don't need no water, let this motherfucker burn) was the nightly winner for an incredible number of nights, something like 20 straight. This was the first time I had ever heard their song. It would be years before I realized I had only heard the censored version and the actual lyrics weren't "We don't need no water, let the mother burn/ burn mother, burn."
(There are other bands that I hate and don't listen to as well, most notably Rush. I cannot fucking stand lead singer Geddy Lee's voice.)
Music is fun to write about because I can go from bands that I hate to radio stations I used to love in just under three paragraphs. Hire me, Rolling Stone.
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The move into my new place was seamless. I had four amazing volunteers from work help me out and things went so much quicker than they should have. Seriously, total time spent moving shit from my old place to the truck, driving to my new place, and unloading everything into my new place was like an hour and a half. Twenty-five minutes of which was spent driving between the places. I had amazing help.
I've finally settled in and made the new place my own place. I have pictures on the walls, my hair in the sink, and even my own bedroom! No more sleeping, eating, changing, cooking all in the same room. Unless I fall asleep in the hallway/kitchen. So if anyone wants to come visit, you will no longer be required to spend every second in the same room with me. Tempting right??!!
I now have more room than things to fill them with. My dresser is in my living room as my TV stand, meaning that besides my bed, my actual bedroom is empty. And I'm single ladies!!!
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I signed up for a men's basketball league and we started this past Thursday. I will attempt to keep running statistics from my games: 1 game- 0 points, 0/2 FG, 0/2 FT, 3 assists, 1 rebound, 0 fouls, 1 mild heart attack. At 24, I should not be laboring this much to run up and down the 94 foot court. But I am.
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I bought an iPhone today. And yes, it came with skinny jeans and a bad beard. But to be fair, I returned the bad beard because I can already grow one.
One of the many positives to me having a smart phone is that I can add pictures on here again. Unfortunately, I do not currently have any pictures to add.
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Family shit: my sister just started her own blog today. Blog envy much Ker? She is a first time mother (we think) with a 4-5 month old boy and nothing but time on her hands. I've met the kid once or twice and he seems legit. Feel free to amble over there and see what kind of shenanigans he's gotten himself into this week! If you need another reason, she uses the word fuck a lot. So there's that too.
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Y'all come back now.
