Nature of the Experiment (Part I - A-K)

Over the last 6 weeks or so (4 weeks down, about 2 to go), I have listened to every song in my iTunes library (4368 songs). 

The list of bands I've listened to is as follows:

The Academy Is... ~ The Album Leaf ~ Alexi Murdoch ~ All Night Radio ~ All Time Quarterback! ~ Alpha Road ~ Ambulance LTD ~ The American Analog Set ~ American Football ~ Amy Winehouse ~ Andrew Bird ~ Anna Ternheim ~ Anton Barbeau ~ Anton Barbeau & Su Jordan ~ Antsy Pants ~ The Arcade Fire ~ Art Brut ~ Ashtar Command ~ Athlete ~ Badly Drawn Boy ~ Band of Horses ~ Barry Louis Polisar ~ Bat for Lashes ~ The Beach Boys ~ Bearsuit ~ The Beatles ~ The Beautiful South ~ Beck ~ Belle & Sebastian ~ Ben Folds ~ Ben Folds Five ~ Ben Gibbard ~ Beth Orton ~ Bloc Party ~ The Blood Arm ~ Blur ~ Bob Dylan ~ Bobbie McGees ~ The Breeders ~ Brendan Benson ~ British Sea Power ~ Broken Social Scene ~ Buddy Holly ~ Buggles ~ The Calling ~ Camden ~ Camera Obscura ~ The Can't See ~ Carla Bruni ~ Cary Brothers ~ Cat Power ~ Catatonia ~ The Catheters ~ Chomsky ~ Chris Townsend ~ Chris Walla ~ The Clash ~ The Clientele ~ Cloud Cult ~ Cold ~ Cold War Kids ~ Coldplay ~ Colin Hay ~ Comets on Fire ~ The Constantines ~ Corinee Bailey Rae ~ Creamy ~ CSS ~ The Cure ~ Damien Rice ~ The Dandy Warhols ~ Dave House ~ David Bazan ~ David Bowie ~ David Ford ~ The Dears ~ Death Cab for Cutie ~ The Decemberists ~ Dido ~ Dirty Pretty Things ~ The Dismemberment Plan ~ Dogs Die In Hot Cars ~ Doves ~ Down to the Bone ~ Earlimart ~ Eels ~ Eisley ~ Elbow ~ The Elected ~ Electrelane ~ Elliott Smith ~ Embrace ~ Emiliana Torrini ~ Emmy the Great ~ Errors ~ Eva Cassidy ~ Feeder ~ The Feeling ~ Fields ~ Finley Quaye & William Orbit ~ The Flaming Lips ~ Foals ~ Foo Fighters ~ Franz Ferdinand ~ The Fratellis ~ Frausdots ~ The Fray ~ Frightened Rabbit ~ Frou Frou ~ Gavin DeGraw ~ The Get Up Kids ~ The Go Find ~ The Go! Team ~ Goldspot ~ The Gossip ~ Grant-Lee Phillips ~ The Grates ~ Gravenhurst ~ Guillemots ~ Hal ~ Harvey Danger ~ The Helio Sequence ~ Hello Saferide ~ The Hives ~ The Holloways ~ Holly Conlan ~ Holy Fuck ~ Hot Chip ~ I Am Kloot ~ I'm From Barcelona ~ Ian Brown ~ Idlewild ~ Imogen Heap ~ InMe ~ Interpol ~ Iron & Wine ~ Jack Johnson ~ Jars of Clay ~ Jarvis Cocker ~ Jay Clifford ~ Jeff Buckley ~ Jem ~ Jenny Owen Youngs ~ Jens Lekman ~ Jeremy Warmsley ~ Jess Blair ~ Jessica Bailiff ~ Jessica Riddle ~ JET ~ Jimmy Eat World ~ John Paul White ~ John Vanderslice ~ Johnathan Rice ~ Johnny Foreigner ~ Joni Mitchell ~ Jose Gonzalez ~ Joseph Arthur ~ Josh Weller ~ Joshua Radin ~ Kate Voegele ~ Kate Walsh ~ Katie Melua ~ Katy Rose ~ Keane ~ Kelly Clarkson ~ The Killers ~ Kimya Dawson ~ The Kinks ~ Kinski ~ The Kissaway Trail ~ The Kooks ~ KT Tunstall ~ Kurt Adam ~ Kyla Bowen-la Grange ~ The La's ~ Le Tigre ~ Leonard Cohen ~ Letters to Cleo ~ Liam Frost & the Slowdown Family ~ The Libertines ~ Light.Colour.Sound ~ Lightspeed Champion ~ The Like ~ Lily Allen ~ Liz Phair ~ The Long Blondes ~ The Long Winters ~ Longview ~ The Lord Henry ~ Los Campesinos! ~ Lucie Silvas ~ Lykke Li ~ The M's ~ The Magic Numbers ~ Magnet ~ Malcolm Middleton ~ Maroon 5 ~ Martha Wainwright ~ Martin Youth Auxiliary ~ Marvin Gaye ~ Mateo Messina ~ Mates of State ~ Mazzy Star ~ Menomena ~ Mercury Rev ~ Metric ~ MGMT ~ Micah P. Hinson ~ Michael Andrews ft. Gary Jules ~ Michael Cera & Ellen Page ~ Michelle Branch ~ Minus the Bear ~ Modest Mouse ~ Mogwai ~ The Moldy Peaches ~ Monkey Swallows the Universe ~ Mott the Hoople ~ Mum ~ Muse ~ Mystery Jets ~ Nada Surf ~ Nat Johnson ~ The National ~ New Radicals ~ The New Year ~ New Young Pony Club ~ No Doubt ~ Noah & the Whale ~ Norah Jones ~ Nouvelle Vague ~ Oasis ~ Of Montreal ~ Okkervil River ~ Panic at the Disco ~ Paolo Nutini ~ Pedro the Lion ~ The Perishers ~ Pete & the Pirates ~ Phantom Planet ~ Pinback ~ The Pipettes ~ Placebo ~ Polyphonic Spree ~ Porcupine Tree ~ The Postal Service ~ The Presets ~ The Promise Ring ~ Queen & David Bowie ~ R.E.M. ~ Ra Ra Riot ~ Rachael Lampa ~ Rachel Unthank & The Winterset ~ Radiohead ~ The Ramones ~ The Rapture ~ Razorlight  ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers ~ Regina Spektor ~ Remy Zero ~ Richard Ashcroft ~ Rilo Kiley ~ The Rocket Summer ~ Rogue Wave ~ Rooney ~ Rose Kemp ~ Rosie Thomas ~ Santana ~ Sarah McLachlan ~ Save Ferris ~ Say Hi to Your Mom ~ Schuyler Fisk ~ Semisonic ~ The Shins ~ Shitdisco ~ Sigur Ros ~ Silversun Pickups ~ Simon & Garfunkel ~ Sister Hazel ~ Sixpence None The Richer ~ Sleater-Kinney ~ Slow Club ~ Smashing Pumpkins ~ Snow Patrol ~ Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin ~ Sonic Youth ~ Sophie Nash ~ South ~ Spiderbait ~ Spook the Horse ~ Spoon ~ The Starlight Mints ~ Stars ~ Stars of the Lid ~ Starsailor ~ Stereophonics ~ The Stone Roses ~ The Strange Death of Liberal England ~ Strokes ~ The Subways ~ Sufjan Stevens ~ The Sundays ~ Sunset Valley ~ Switchfoot ~ Syd Matters ~ Tall Pony ~ Tally Hall ~ Tegan & Sara ~ Telekinesis! ~ Thao With The Get Down Stay Down ~ The Thermals ~ Those Dancing Days ~ The Thrills ~ Tim & Sam's Tim & the Sam Band with Tim & Sam ~ Tokyo Police Club ~ Tom McRae ~ Toploader ~ Train ~ Trend ~ Turin Brakes ~ The Twilight Sad ~ U2 ~ The Undertones ~ Vanessa Carlton ~ Various Artists (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory OST) ~ The Velvet Underground ~ Via Audio ~ The View ~ Viva Voce ~ Voxtrot ~ Weebl vs Chris Thomas ~ What Made Milwaukee Famous ~ The Who ~ Willy Mason ~ Wolf Eyes ~ The Wreckers ~ Yann Tiersen ~ Yelle ~ The Young Knives ~ Youth Group ~ ZOX ~ Zut Alors ~ The Zutons ~ The 88.

The motivation for this epic task was purely because I noticed that out of the 4368 tracks I had, I hadn't listened to around 1000 of them even once. And so it began, on the 3rd August. The main part of this perfectly coincided with my boss's holiday, meaning that I could listen to as much music as I wanted to, and therefore managed to average about 100-120 tracks per day. I would've left it playing when I was asleep, but it kind of seemed to defeat the point, as I wouldn't actually be listening. 

So, here comes the breakdown. In the interests of fairness, I've tried to comment on one band from each letter, but some letters will have more, which is fairly self-explanatory.

A  - Started fairly well, the first horrible hurdle was Alexi Murdoch. I have to say, although he's good, the music just tended to drag and I couldn't wait to get 'Time Without Consequence' out of the way.  The American Analog Set came along like a dream. They're one of those bands I'd heard about, and had been meaning to listen to for a while, and now that I'm free from the constraints of the alphabet, I will be listening to them a lot more - highlight * 'We're Computerizing & We Just Don't Need You Anymore'. 

By the second or third day I'd started to feel that the decision was definitely a mistake. Forced to listen to Art Brut whilst walking home (normally I like them, but this was not the time to be listening to them). I thought I wouldn't last the week, but I accustomed myself to not always listening to the same couple of bands and got on with it. 

B - For the first time in my life I listened to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I thought it was about time I listened to the Beatles, so I downloaded the album and then never listened to it. It's a great album, and knowing me, if I hadn't done this, I never would've listened to it and totally missed out. Other good B moments - Ben Gibbard and British Sea Power (who I saw at Latitude this year and absolutely love) highlight * 'Canvey Island'. 

C - This letter didn't have a particularly good start. Whilst I liked the Calling when I was 14, I don't really anymore, so whilst I should've deleted their two albums from my library, I never did, and was made to suffer for it. Things picked up after that, with Camden, a band I never listen to enough but are great, sadly no longer, and it's near impossible to find their CDs. 

Without a doubt the best part of C was being able to listen to Chris Walla's 'Field Manual' as loud as possible. It's one of my favourite albums of 2008 so far, and it just flows so perfectly, there aren't any weak moments - highlight * 'St. Modesto'.

Occasionally I look at my last.fm recommendations and believe them. Sometimes it works out brilliantly (examples to come later) ... other times, not so much. Cloud Cult was one of the 'not so much' bands. Not only was the album I got 19 tracks long (so it wasn't even over quickly) it was just horrible. Horrible horrible. And it annoyingly coincided with walking to work, meaning I couldn't even try to ignore it. They're being deleted. 

D - The Dears. What a great band. That's all I have to say. 

My level of devotion to Death Cab for Cutie has finally come back to bite me in the arse. 130 songs, 9 hours, Sunday at home, listening non stop all day. You have to understand, I love Death Cab in a way which I love no other band (except for Nada Surf) and after those 9 hours, I never wanted to hear Ben Gibbard's voice again. I think I could've taken it if it'd been split up over different days rather than just all in one go. The problem with listening to their albums alphabetically, is that you get 'Narrow Stairs' first (another great album of 2008, possibly my #1) and then the last is 'You Can Play These Songs With Chords', which just drags on forever and especially when you've already listened to 8 hours of Death Cab, you want it to finish quickly. But it doesn't. That has easily been the most testing part of this whole experiment. And honestly, I broke, and I had to listen to Tegan & Sara (the only times I've gone off the A-Z rails is to listen to T&S, and it's been rare). 

Never have I been so pleased to hear Colin Meloy's voice. It was a voice which used to annoy me so much, and only in recent months have I come to like The Decemberists. I've listened to 'the Crane Wife' a fair amount, but never bothered much with 'Her Majesty the Decemberists' or 'Picaresque' - but I can now say that I appreciate them, even though 'the Crane Wife' is definitely their best album - highlight * 'The Crane Wife 3'.

E - Began with Earlimart, one of the aforementioned brilliant bands found through last.fm recommendations. I downloaded their newest album, 'Hymn & Her', and have not been disappointed. It's hard to give an accurate description of how good it is after one listen a few weeks ago. But if you like Rogue Wave, Elliott Smith or Mates of State (lastfm's words not mine) then they're probably worth a shot. 

Not too many complaints for E. Admittedly, Elliott Smith did drag a bit after 5 albums, but luckily I wasn't in the same situation as I was with DCFC, so it wasn't as bad. 

I'll just put in a quick mention to Elbow - who again have released one of my favourite albums of 2008 - 'The Seldom Seen Kid' - truly great - highlight * 'One Day Like This'.

F - Feeder. Were my favourite band from when I was 13 til about... 17. I've only recently relinquished their rights as my all-time favourite band. Since then I've not listened to them that much. I was at first very disappointed with their new album 'Silent Cry', but it's grown on me. Anyway, more tracks than DCFC - 139. However, I enjoyed it much more than DCFC as I hadn't listened to loads of the songs for months. And it wasn't done in a 9 hour stint. 

To be honest, when I first listened to Foals, I thought 'what the fuck is this?' and 'their album artwork is crap'. After giving their album a second chance, and seeing them at Latitude, I'm starting to change my mind. 

Frightened Rabbit. Frightened Rabbit. Frightened Rabbit. Again, one of those albums I downloaded and hadn't bothered to listen to. What a mistake. As soon as 'Modern Leper' started, I didn't want the album to end. The whole album was the highlight of F. I'm seeing them next Saturday, can't wait. I'm unrealistically hoping to get this finished before I see them so I know the album better (at time of writing I'm at R with 1200 songs to go). I may argue special circumstances with myself, and buy their CD. They are by far, without question, the best find of this whole experiment. 

G - Not much to be said, as I only have about 30 songs for artists beginning with G. The first few songs of Guillemots'  'Red' are okay, but then it gets boring. 

Oh, and I also experienced a horrendous cover of Modest Mouse's 'Float On' courtesy of Goldspot. This is what I get for liking the OC and getting their OST. 

H - Lots for H. Harvey Danger. A band I discovered because a) I watched a DVD called 'Burn to Shine, Seattle WA' and b) because they used to be/are (I can't work it out) on Barsuk - so basically a product of my interest in bands from NW America. Anyway, after a few days of not much interesting music, I was feeling very grateful for them. highlight * 'Moral Centralia'. Also, as a side note, Sean Nelson (lead singer) used to be a member of The Long Winters, who I will be writing lots about a little later. 

I think it was around now when I really started to enjoy this whole experiment. Mostly because listening to The Helio Sequence's 'Keep Your Eyes Ahead' was something I'd so been looking forward to. It's actually made me appreciate my favourite bands more (...well, maybe except for Death Cab...) because I've had to trawl through a lot of other stuff to get to the bits I really love. And the above album is one of those bits. Yet another of my favourite albums of 2008. There's been so much good stuff this year. It's practically neverending. Anyway, this album is definitely their best album, more poppy than their previous ones, and just so damn catchy. I get their songs stuck in my head for days. Literally. I was sad when it was over... highlight * 'Hallelujah'.

Holly Conlan. This girl can sing. Good travelling music. She has a very bittersweet quality which I love. I'm waiting for a new album from her, as all I've got at the moment is her 'Bird EP' - highlight * 'Home'.

I - I'm From Barcelona. A band I saw at Latitude last year, spent ages singing 'I have built a treehouse, no one can see us, cos it's a you and me house', but never got their album until recently (and then I didn't listen to it... surprise!). So I was glad to find that the rest of the album was as good as 'Treehouse'. 

My friend Chris gave me Ian Brown's 'The World Is Yours' - I specifically didn't listen to it for a reason, I think I just had negative connections with his name, immediately questioned Chris' judgement and it just sat there with no plays. And my judgement was about right. I mean, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't very interesting. I talked to Chris about my less than thrilling experience listening to this album, and he agreed with me, but said it made good walking home late at night music. I'll try that one when I'm finished. 

Having an InMe album was the product of my friend Jess' bullying about 3 years ago. Another one I really should've deleted but I didn't. What a fool. To be fair though, there are some good tracks on 'White Butterfly', but it's not really for me anymore. 

Interpol are awesome. Enough said. highlight * 'Pioneer to the Falls'.

J - I still toy with the idea of whether I should be judged for listening to Jack Johnson. Does anyone else I know with reasonable music taste listen to him? I don't know. Would they admit it if they did? Who knows. I do quite like him though for what it's worth. And so listening to him wasn't all bad. 

Jenny Owen Youngs has to be one of my favourite people that I don't know. Every time I've been to see her she makes me laugh so much, and her music is so brilliant. Someone who writes lines like "if we weren't such good friends, I'd wish you were dead" and does covers of Nelly and Britney Spears... well, she's definitely worth a listen, and worth seeing.

Aww Jens Lekman. You always make me smile. 

Jimmy Eat World, another band with too much music - 75 tracks (and I don't even have all their albums), varying from the very annoying to the seriously great. As is the way. You always have to be in a certain mood for Jimmy, and luckily I was. 

I'd bought John Vanderslice's album 'Cellar Door' before realising I wouldn't be able to listen to it until I got to J. Serious disappointment. This happened quite a bit as I bought a fair few CDs from the wonderful Barsuk, and was like 'hm, all of these are in the second half of the alphabet... it's going to be a month before I can hear them'. Vanderslice is another one of those NW American people I discovered through love of Barsuk... in case you didn't guess. And he's very good. Once this is over, and I'm in America, I'm going to buy the rest of his albums (I can't find him in HMV or Fopp here).

I made a mental note to get Johnathan Rice's new album.

Johnny Foreigner. I wanted this album to last forever. When I got it, I wasn't sure, and I've listened to it quite a lot between then and now(ish) and I absolutely love it - another great album of 2008 - highlight * 'Eyes Wide Terrified'.

I've written quite a lot for J, so I'm going to keep this brief. Like Jose Gonzalez and Joshua Radin. Hate Joseph Arthur, except for that one song 'In the Sun' which has probably been played in every American drama/teen/comedy programme ever. 

K - A couple of embarrassing ones in here. Namely Keane and Kelly Clarkson, which provoked my friend Fi to laugh at me and say "why are you listening to Kelly Clarkson?!". Honestly, I don't know. I bought her album, and it's stayed there. Sometimes I listen to it when I feel like having something to sing along to. Finally listened to Keane's 'Under the Iron Sea'. Is not that good. 

I almost feel sorry for the Killers. They started off so promisingly in 2004 with Hot Fuss, and Sam's Town is half good, half crap... and don't even get me started on Sawdust - the biggest waste of £10 in... well, as long as I can remember. I went to HMV to buy a CD I really wanted, and instead came out with that, because they didn't have the CD I wanted. Idiot. 

Kyla Bowen-la Grange (or Kyla la Grange as I do believe she has now shortened her name to) - I opened for her for my first ever gig, and she's really good. I've only got a couple of her tracks, but I do believe she's working on an EP or something, and she plays around London a fair bit I think. 

Second part to come when I've finished. So in... 7-10 days. 

Venice Queen

Hai.

I've started documenting my epic journey through the alphabet on iTunes. I'm actually really enjoying this playing everything thing now, I think I might do it once a year...or two years, depending on how much music I manage to accumulate. I've got about 1250 songs to go, 720 of which are by artists beginning with S. I'll be at Rilo Kiley, hopefully, by the end of today. 

In other news, I went to Southwold the other day. It was good. We stood in the sea and got hit by waves, and went on the pier, and I found myself with a gambling problem after playing on the 2p machines for far too long - I spent about £3 (which is quite a lot in 2ps) and came away with nothing, except wanting to find more 2ps so I could do it all over again. Seriously addictive. 

We stopped in Bury St Edmunds on the way back to get dinner, and ended up at Pizza Hut, which for the night was 'Pasta and Salad Hut'. It was kind of crap, because there wasn't much of the pasta that I ordered, so I was starving by the time I got home. But y'know, shit happens. 

My resignation has been accepted, John was really nice to me about it actually, and so as of tomorrow I am on notice. I've said I'll stay for matriculation, which means by the time I leave, half of my month off will be gone. I guess things don't always go exactly to plan, but at least I'll have more money. And I'll be working part time again, so I will have some time at least. 

Not much else to report. I'm going to be concentrating on OU work and finishing the A-Z, so there might not be much to say in the next 10 days. 

bai.x.

[edit] Oh I totally forgot. McCain is a fool for choosing Palin as his VP. If he won and died in office, America would be screwed having a president who has been governor of ALASKA, and has seriously right-wing views and less experience than the Republicans argue Obama has. Also, just cos she's a woman doesn't mean the people who wanted Hillary are going to vote for him, because they have completely opposing views. The only people she's really going to appeal to are the hardcore right-wing Christians, who would've voted for McCain anyway. She's anti-abortion, anti-gay, a creationist, pro-guns, pro-hunting, and her husband works for an oil company, oh, and she doesn't believe humans are in any way responsible for global warming... well, she'd be great news for the whole world. UGH. 

[edit edit] I've changed the no sunlight link to something really worth reading. honest. 

Citizen Erased

Cambridge smelt of manure today. It was pretty gross. They must've been spreading it on the fields, but I could smell it walking through Trumpington, and even outside work. 

BoJo is trying to make shops only sell alcohol to over 21s. Stupid stupid man. It's not going to solve the problem - the people who want to binge drink are still going to find a way to. This includes 14 yr olds. 

Plot to kill Obama. Makes me scared. I don't understand how people think killing someone is the way to win in situations like this - how is it democratic to take your own selfish opinions and kill someone who has just as much right to be president? No one ever tried to kill Bush, and they'd have much more cause to. I wish people wouldn't think that a different member of the same party will offer something different to their previous leader. Gordon hasn't really offered us anything more than Tony ever did, and in the same way, McCain won't offer any more than Bush ever did, although he's probably got more problems to patch up. 

I got really angry at our country for the first time in a while last night. Watching a programme about how the banks have fucked up our economy. The guys who run the 5 major high street banks get paid an average of £1m a year, and then plus a bonus of about £2m. How is this right? And every single banker gets a bonus, regardless of the long term effects of their gambles (i.e. fucking up our economy), some in the hundreds of thousands. I don't give a crap what they do, no one deserves that kind of salary. Definitely not bankers. 

The thing that made me angriest was that Gordon set up the FSA in 1997, which was meant to regulate the banks, but it's basically owned by the banks. How can they be properly regulated if they're controlling it? 

See this is the problem, they're not properly regulated, then they go and make massive fuck ups, giving out loads of money for mortgages, and then when things start to take a downturn, repossessing people's houses if they can't pay up, and then because they're losing profit, they go to the government for a handout. £50 billion. Of taxpayers money. And Gordon gives it to them, because if the banks go under, then things get really really bad. But the money they've lost this year, it won't take them that long to make it back. 

They are the epitome of corporate greed. Nationalise them, put them into the Bank of England. 

bai.x.

Vampire Smile

My dad brought stripy apples back from France. I've never seen apples so stripy. 

Today I have eaten cake and chocolate, and done not much else. I snapped the front of the bit on my laptop, so now I've got sellotape holding it in place. 

I keep thinking it's Sunday cos I'm not used to having Saturdays off.

Zut were awesome the other night. New stuff was good - I'm going to buy their EP when it comes out in a few weeks :)

I've been looking for independent record stores in Chicago - there's loads - and yet, I've hardly ever seen any in England. So I made a list of CDs I need to get. There are 57 currently in total. Of course there are probably more that I want, but these are the priority ones.

I'm going to see Frightened Rabbit with Fi in a couple of weeks, which I'm really yay about, cos I fell in love with their album, (which I'm not going to be able to listen to for another 3 weeks until I've finished this iTunes thing) and I was like *grr* cos they're playing in Chicago the week before I get there. 

zebra

I like moths now. There was one in my kitchen today, and it was so pretty I took a photo of it.

Going to the beach on Weds. 

Not much else. 

Sweetness

So I told James. He was nice about it. "Why are you going to America? You don't even like America" however, today I realised that I am going to be subject to random outbursts of spite from him for the next 5 weeks - concerning me jumping ship. "I'm going to be unemployed!" "Yeah, but it's not like John sacked you, you CHOSE to abandon us"

I'm at Jimmy Eat World now. Currently listening to their cover of Last Christmas, which is painfully bad at any time of year - especially Christmas. 

High Fidelity is pretty great. I'm getting through it quickly, and then am moving on to the Echo Maker, which will hopefully mentally challenge me a bit. 

London tomorrow for Zut Alors. 

I'm really tired, and I've got lots of OU work to do cos I've been somewhat lazy. 

bai.x.

The World is Yours

I am not in favour of Ian Brown. 

Another day alone with far too much to do. Making mistakes. 

Can't wait for October. 

Contemplating purchasing a Polaroid camera for America. The photos are expensive though. 

Planning the next trip already. Going to Mt St Helens. 

pretty

bai.x.

Sewn

Hai.

It's been almost a week. But I've been busy. 

I just had a Fruit Salad bar. It was like being 10 again, and sooo good. I just went to Sainsburys, and at the entrance was greeted by an angry chav shouting "I'll break your fucking neck if you touch my mrs again" to a security guard. I think his "mrs" had been stealing stuff, but obviously angry chav man didn't like her being caught. If he'd had a knife he probably would've stabbed the security guard, which is very scary, yet true, because he was *that* angry. That's the most violent I've ever seen anyone be to another person in real life. Don't like it. 

On to happier things anyway...

Death Cab are playing at Alexandra Palace 4 days after I get back from America, and I'm debating whether to go or not. It may be a bit excessive, and after the experience of seeing Ben Gibbard in a horrible mood twice, I've been slightly put off. Nothing is going to beat that Electric Ballroom gig, and if I see them being angry at sound guys/generally unfriendly, it might ruin that memory even more. Decisions decisions.

I really want to be at the Democrat Convention. They're going to have good bands (like Nada Surf) playing there in support of Obama, which is really yay :). But obviously I'm not going to be there.

I saw a squirrel with an acorn in its mouth this morning. 

Now, to what has happened this week:

• Tuesday: Went to London with Smem, bought awesome jacket, wandered around Covent Garden. Went to see Jenny Owen Youngs at the Camden Enterprise, which is the smallest and hottest room ever. The ceiling is like Bush Hall, but it's about the size of the room in the Portland... if that. So it was absolutely boiling, but Jenny was amusing, talking about scones or scones (that was the posh pronunciation - and how she pronounced it and people were shouting NO! They're SCONES = lol), and how she cried the first time she swore, and that she feels bad about swearing in front of people older than her, or younger than 16 (which doesn't leave much of an age gap). She is always worth seeing, and finally seems to be writing a new album - hurrah!
• Wednesday: I have no recollection of the day. I wore my nice jacket, and printed photos for Fi. Then I went to see the X Files (which was okay, but had rotweilers and Billy Connolly's scary eyes) and ate Nandos. Om nom nom nom.
• Thursday: Was A level results day for people younger than me. I don't know where the last year went, but it lead to me and Chris talking at the pub about how old we felt, and what it'll be like when we're retired and how life seems to go much quicker now. He got annoyed by a guy sitting behind us who was apparently talking about WW2, with incorrect facts or something, which lead to Chris getting quite annoyed. Then we discussed BoJo and Obama over chips and chili. Om nom nom nom. 
• Friday: I went to work. I spent the morning trying to get the stupid mount printer to work. It hates me. I've acquired it because Lorraine is on holiday, which means I've actually got work to do. I don't find this that appealing. I went to the pub in Pampisford with Claire, unaware until it was too late, that like every pub in Sawston and its proximity, it was in fact a BNP pub - England flags flying and all. There were some delightful men chatting inside about how if they went to a market in Uganda they wouldn't be able to tell if they were buying human meat or not. Yes, because all Ugandans are cannibals...     Fun spelling mistake of the week: Psychic spelt Physic. Oh yes. So at the BNP pub, in Sept, it's going to be Physic night. Guaranteed fun for all. 

In news of my music listening feat, I am now at F. I hate albums that end with songs that are 8mins or more long just because the band want to have 3 mins of silence, and then a random 2 min song at the end. This is not acceptable, and should be made into a separate track with no silence. Please, have some mercy. 

By cut-off lastfm time tomorrow I will be at G. I've been through Feeder and Elliott Smith, and so I think only the Chili Peppers and Sufjan Stevens remain with lots of songs. 

I got my dreaded assessment back. I did lots lots lots better than I ever expected. I laughed. It was funny. 

Now the first America trip is planned, me and Marie have moved on to the second trip, vague planning, research is happening. A train from Seattle to L.A. takes nearly 36 hours, but only costs $154. To get to London on a normal adult ticket costs about a 3rd of that, and that's only 60 miles instead of... 1000? If we don't die of boredom on the 18 hr train to Chicago, it's a definite possibility. 

I think that's it for now. I'll be less busy next week, with any luck, so I might appear more often. 

bai.x.

Company Calls Epilogue

Who would've thought that only playing 3 songs for 2 months would impair your ability to play guitar? I wouldn't have. But apparently it's true. So now when I'm trying to write stuff, I can't play it properly, it's like chord *hesitation whilst moving fingers* chord. Of course, it's a bit different, and it's not like going from E to A or something that simple, but like...yeah? 

Anyway, I haven't got much work done today. I've been distracted. I downloaded Photoshop Elements (which is actually a really good cheaper option to Photoshop) and have been messing about trying to create artwork for an EP I haven't even recorded, and in fact haven't written half the songs I would realistically want to put on it. Oh well, it's fun. And now when I close my eyes I see a rainbow. 

bzzzz

This "listening to every song" thing is beginning to get tedious. 123 songs by Death Cab - believe me, even when they're your favourite band, it gets dull listening to them non stop all day. I have 405 4 times - the album version, the live version, and the acoustic version twice. And I'm sure there are a fair few other songs I have multiple times. 

How much longer can I hold out? I'm going to have to listen to 100+ Feeder songs in a row as well. 

I also found out today that Chris Walla produced Camden's Reel Time Canvas, which is just awesome. Obviously the last time I read the album sleeve I had no idea who he was. 

I should probably get on with the work now. I was vaguely contemplating what I'm going to do in the month between leaving JET and going to America. Either I get a job or I have...copious amounts of free time, in which I can sleep and read and write and... throw all my old stuff away, and cook. But because of all this America travelling, I do actually need a job. Maybe I could get a new job, and then leave it when I go to America the second time, and then be unemployed for a bit when I get back from Seattle. Tough choice. I'll make it in a month's time I think.

Hop a Plane

My Tegan and Sara CD came! Yayayayay! I tried to watch the DVD on my laptop, but it's pretty much beyond repair now, (the DVD drive, not the laptop) so it just skipped every minute, which annoyed me, so I gave up. 

I've been keeping up with my OU work this week *pats self on back* 

1. A woman phoned up today and called me madam. MADAM!? It was just creepy. Like I was really old, or she was just saying it to take the piss. I couldn't work it out. I think I probably would've taken it worse if I'd been a man and she'd called me sir. But madam is pretty bad.

2. I've been laughing at this foreign student who gets on my bus, wearing a Cambridge University hat. He shoves his bus ticket so close to the bus driver's face that he has to lean back to be able to see if it's valid or not. 

3. There was something else that I forgot. So, a stranger added me on Facebook today. But I don't mind. I added her anyway. 

4. I had lasagne for lunch again today. 

5. I made an itinerary for my trip to America and I'm twice as excited as ever. 

6. I told Chris today that I'm leaving, it was really scary and I got sad and guilty. Afterwards it was okay, but I don't know how I'm going to tell James or John. I mentioned faking my death to my parents, but apparently that's 'melodramatic'. 

7. There are lots of gigs I want to go to in Seattle right now. I am not there though. I keep looking at pictures on flickr and dreaming. 

8. Flickr managed to inadvertently rob me of $24.95 because I got worried I wouldn't be able to put any more photos on there once I got to 200. Damn advertising. So I subscribed for a pro account, which is ridiculous because a) I don't use it that much and b) I could just delete some of the boring old photos. But now I'm £12.50 down, and as far as I'm concerned, it's too late to back out. 

9. I saw a squirrel yesterday. See, my walks to work are totally full of animals - I've seen deer (admittedly dead, but not the point), hare and squirrels... and lots of snails and stuff. Anyway, the squirrel scared me, I thought its tail was someone's head poking over the fence, and it made me jump. Then it ran along the fence and jumped into the tree and I realised it was a squirrel. There's a story. 

10. Orwell's blog starts tomorrow. I am excited. 

bai.x.

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Despite my frustration yesterday, the music thing is going a bit better. I listened to the Beatles, a whole album of theirs for the first time in my life, and it was pretty good. I might get some more once I've finished this epic task. 

My shipment from Barsuk arrived today. I can't express how much I love them. So I buy 5 CDs (Death Cab EP, Viva Voce, Starlight Mints, John Vanderslice, WMMF) and they give me free stickers and a free poster of You Can Play These Songs With Chords (i.e. the picture of Bellingham when there were cooler cars). They are so brilliant. The only problem with buying new music is that I now want to listen to it, but I have to wait until I get to the right place in the alphabet to do so - for Viva Voce it's going to be a long wait. 

But I'm progressing fairly rapidly, on Beck now, getting towards my first milestone  - Ben Gibbard. 

And I'm doing work. Well, not right now, but I am. Honest.

leafy

I started a mog today. I don't know why, but I thought I would, so I did. Haven't posted anything on there, don't know if I will yet. Maybe once I've started listening to the same bands over and over again. 

My Tegan and Sara CD was dispatched today, so I'll be getting that soon, and be able to watch the Con movie, starring T&S and Chris Walla. It's going to be funny, I've been watching loads of clips of Tegan and Sara's on stage banter on YouTube, and they're just so amusing. Yeah. This is how I spend my life. 

It's Matthew Caws' birthday today. Happy Birthday to him. 

I have to go back and do some more work now. I wish Beck's album would finish already, but I'm only just about half way through. Gah.

bai.x. 

The Shining

hot

So what started as a rather ridiculous experiment, has now probably turned into musical fascism, in that I'm forcing myself to listen to music I just don't want to listen to. I spent half of my walk home this afternoon praying for Art Brut's album to end. I have no problem with Art Brut in general, but sometimes you just have to be in the right mood to listen to some music. They are one of those bands. 

It occurred to me at that point how much other stuff I would have to listen to - 5 albums of Elliott Smith consecutively, the Beach Boys, Dido... I mean, it's pretty much never ending. And I'm finding myself with a longing to listen to music at the end of the alphabet, like Sufjan Stevens and Tegan and Sara. 

But I will get through it. If I make it through a week of this, I've promised to buy myself a Helio Sequence CD, which is probably like the best present ever. Today I've had the Arcade Fire and Athlete, tomorrow looks set for Bat for Lashes and Ben Gibbard. So, not all bad. 

On to other things...

So this girl came into the shop today. I wanted to hate her first. Sometimes when you meet people and they're friendly and smiley and you're just like "I'm really not in the mood for this", you just hate people. But it did turn out she was a genuinely nice person. She reminded me of someone else, except a more genuine and reliable version of them. We had a mini chat, and she was like "wow" when I said I was doing OU. Apparently one of her friends had a "positive experience" doing OU. This has made me realise that I should probably quit bitching and do some work. I finally got my assessment done. 

That's the thing though, I make excuses, and I sit around, and after listening to John talking about what's happening in the next couple of months, I realised I could easily just sit in the same place for the rest of my life, working there, and then finding some other dull job to tide me over. I have to push myself outside of the box. Even if the easy options do appeal more. 

So now, I'm honestly going to go and do some work, listen to Badly Drawn Boy, and soak up the idea that my life has vastly many more possibilities available probably than even I can comprehend. 

(om nom nom nom)

bai.x.

Attention

I am now taking the epic journey through my iTunes and attempting to listen to every song. 

I'm two albums through. God knows how long it'll take me, it's 4459 songs, so maybe 3 weeks if I listen whilst I sleep as well. Otherwise... forever. Or 10 weeks. I listen to about 400 tracks a week on average. 

Good luck to me!

(I still haven't completed my assessment and am procrastinating horribly)

later on...

My mum buys this awesome battenberg from the farm shop near us. It's the best battenberg ever, I could eat a whole thing of it. It's nothing like the shitty stuff you get from Sainsburys or made by Mr Kipling (it is him that does it, right?) it's cakey and nice. Thought I'd just share that, because I just had some, and it was great.

My patience is already being tested by this listening to every song thing. Alexi Murdoch is pissing me off. If his songs were 3mins long I wouldn't mind so much, because he is good. But they're like 5,6,7 mins long, and the album is starting to drag. Starting to feel aware that this might've been a ridiculous thing to choose to do. I bet you a CD I won't last a week. (This bet, for obvious reasons is going to be with myself - if I do manage to continue all week, I'll buy myself a CD. If I don't...then I guess I fail.)

I should really do some work. Here I am talking about battenberg and betting with myself, when I should be writing about Medea. Seriously, if there was a course I could do on blogging it'd be much more straightforward. 

bai.x.

Hallelujah

(The Helio Sequence not Jeff Buckley)

This morning I got off the bus in Trumpington, and there was a hare in the gateway to a field. It sat there staring at me, and then hopped towards me as I was trying to get my camera out of my bag. I took a photo, and then it hopped away again, as though it was aware that the photo opportunity was over. It made me smile.

A few minutes later I came across a dead butterfly. I have real issues with dead animals at the moment, like if I see anything dead it just brings this horrible existential moment and I'm like "noo! :(".

But the hare was good. I don't think I've ever seen one in real life before.

I'm being absolutely blown away by the Helio Sequence at the moment. I feel like I should be listening to their earlier albums more, but Keep Your Eyes Ahead is such a great album. I'm so disappointed that I missed them playing in London earlier this year *hopes they come back soon*. They have to be my best discovery of this year. Top 5 albums of 2008? It's there alright.

This morning I found out that George Orwell's diaries from 1938-43 (I think) are going up online starting next week - it's going to be the George Orwell blog, 80th anniversary - and I am so excited. I will be reading it religiously every day for the next...however many years. I realised that him and Jack Kerouac were basically the same age when they died (Kerouac was just 47, Orwell was 46), how much does that suck? Maybe it's something about that age that just steals awesome writers. I can only imagine what they both might have achieved if they'd lived til their 80s.

Whilst on the subject of blogs, I went on the Long Winters myspace earlier, and found out that John Roderick (lead singer & songwriter) has a weekly blog for the Seattle Weekly. I read a few entries, and it's pretty funny (most recent was about keeping a beard) so I'll be reading that religiously as well.

It's probably bad that I'm finding more stuff to be distracted by on the internet when I'm trying (for the zillionth time) to get my act together with OU stuff, but what can you do? That said, I'm spending less and less time on things like Facebook - well, comparatively at least, so maybe it'll balance out. I just can't wait for the next two months to disappear, so I can start a new course, think about America and have autumn again. I'm not really a big fan of summer, and this one is perhaps one of the worst ever. It's been raining all day, but has suddenly now decided to turn sunny. I had to weave my way through crowds of tourists with umbrellas whilst on my way to get lunch. Grr.

I decided to dare to use our fairly old microwave at work today - and good results ensued! I bought lasagne from Sainsburys and had it for lunch, it was awesome, although just because it says serves 1 doesn't mean you can eat it all. Well, I did, but I was really full. It was nice though, having hot food which didn't cost lots of money. If I want a hot cornish pasty, I have to pay £2.80. Lasagne = £1.65. I will be doing this more often. Although it does seem a little backwards to decide to have hot food now the weather's hot. Never mind.

The day has gone really quickly - my first of 6 alone at work. Hopefully the rest of the week will be like this, and before you know it, James will be back, and John will be gone, and everything will be right in the world.

Now all I have to do is worry about finishing my assessment when I get home...

bai.x.

[p.s. i made the no sunlight link to John Roderick's blog. Read it, it's tres amusant]