I've always loved music, but it wasn't until I was almost finished with high school that I really started devoting time to music. And there are a couple of artists/bands who were extremely influential on my knowledge of and preference in music.
It wasn't until senior year that my eyes were opened to the fact that there was music available outside of what you hear on the radio, and it was all thanks to John Mayer. When his first album, Room For Squares, came out, I was pretty much obsessed. I listened to it for like a week straight. On CD.
I don't remember how I realized it, but I found out that he had a lot of songs that weren't on the album, so I started poking around online. This led to my entry into a few worlds, those being 1) live recordings, 2) singer-songwriters, and 3)illegal downloads. I've pretty much moved away from all of these, now preferring recordings to live music (if I'm listening at home, anyway), expanding far beyond singer-songwriters, and actually paying for all of my music. But point being, I started downloading a bunch of live John Mayer tracks, plenty of which weren't on the album. And I started finding all kinds of new artists, mostly singer-songwriters, through sites I was led to by looking for more John Mayer music. So I definitely owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Mayer, who I am still a big fan of. And I can't even tell you how many live tracks I have by John Mayer, Jason Mraz and The Dave Matthews Band. It should be embarrassing, but it's not at all.
The step away from singer-songwriters into a more eclectic range of music probably started when I was studying abroad in China. I was introduced to the band Stars, which still remains one of my favorites to this day, and it was like opening Pandora's Box. Stars, being part of the whole Broken Social Scene/Toronto indie rock circle, opened my ears to all kinds of new music and resources to find new music. And now here we are. I guess the only differences are the range of sounds and the smaller number of indie dance parties in my room. I should do that more.
It was a sad day when Broken Social Scene decided to go on hiatus, though I guess with all the side projects I'm still getting plenty of music out of them. One of those side projects being the solo efforts of Kevin Drew. He put out an album, Spirit If..., back in 2007, which was alright overall, but had a few great tracks. One of my favorites off the album is Lucky Ones, which is probably also the longest, a trait not uncommon to Broken Social Scene and it's members.
And now, seven years later, he's getting ready to put out his second solo album Darlings. The first track, Good Sex, was released like last week, and it's great. Definitely maintains his/Broken Social Scene's sound that I love so much, so I'm very much looking forward to the album being released.
It wasn't until senior year that my eyes were opened to the fact that there was music available outside of what you hear on the radio, and it was all thanks to John Mayer. When his first album, Room For Squares, came out, I was pretty much obsessed. I listened to it for like a week straight. On CD.
I don't remember how I realized it, but I found out that he had a lot of songs that weren't on the album, so I started poking around online. This led to my entry into a few worlds, those being 1) live recordings, 2) singer-songwriters, and 3)
The step away from singer-songwriters into a more eclectic range of music probably started when I was studying abroad in China. I was introduced to the band Stars, which still remains one of my favorites to this day, and it was like opening Pandora's Box. Stars, being part of the whole Broken Social Scene/Toronto indie rock circle, opened my ears to all kinds of new music and resources to find new music. And now here we are. I guess the only differences are the range of sounds and the smaller number of indie dance parties in my room. I should do that more.
It was a sad day when Broken Social Scene decided to go on hiatus, though I guess with all the side projects I'm still getting plenty of music out of them. One of those side projects being the solo efforts of Kevin Drew. He put out an album, Spirit If..., back in 2007, which was alright overall, but had a few great tracks. One of my favorites off the album is Lucky Ones, which is probably also the longest, a trait not uncommon to Broken Social Scene and it's members.
And now, seven years later, he's getting ready to put out his second solo album Darlings. The first track, Good Sex, was released like last week, and it's great. Definitely maintains his/Broken Social Scene's sound that I love so much, so I'm very much looking forward to the album being released.
As we discussed, Room For Squares was a seminal album for me too. Great blog post!
ReplyDelete