I’m deleting all the music from my iTunes collection which exists only because someone else was into it. I had the habit of downloading an entire discography if a friend mentioned some music I should check out. Or maybe I had the music because a girl I liked liked it.

I’m just over 100 gigs now, which is still a ton of music, much of which I may not have even heard.

As with JoCo, it seems that going to see Mike Doughty has become a yearly ritual. This time he dropped by the soon to be closing Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. Entering the sleek, hip student union made me pine for college and youth.

This was the first time I had seen the Question Jar show, where he answers written questions from the audience between every few songs. He kept the answers pithy and amusing. It was a typical Doughty set, with a few Soul Coughing tunes and stuff from the new album thrown in. I hadn’t realized how similar the guitar riffs were on about half of his songs. It created a perpetual anticipation: Which song is this? Is it going to be Circles?

He played Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well and Tremendous Brunettes, but no Gambler cover and no Pleasure on Credit. Can’t have everything.

As is the tradition for this time of year, I went to see Paul and Storm and Jonathan Coulton at Antone’s. Jonathan Coulton has become even more Jonathan Coultonier than last time.

I must get to bed. I have a plane to catch in the morning.

I had assumed I was heading toward the usual Friday night routine of XBox and Netflix, my faithful companions. Then I got a text from Reed, inviting me out to hear his roommate play a gig at Momo’s. It is always a good idea to say yes to Reed because a good time is assured. Read the rest of this entry »

My project to slough off all the excess stuff in my life continues.

My music collection has been digital for years, save for a few collectibles and albums by friends. I’ve gotten my DVD collection down to about 17 boxes. Out of print films that you can’t get on Netflix. So I’m no longer buying movies of the common variety.

I don’t have very many video games either. When I finish a game or get bored with it, I sell it. I just signed up for GameFly, so I will never buy another video game unless it falls into the small, evergreen category where Rock Band resides.

Movies and games are both heading into an all-digital delivery system. There are many reasons for this, but a big one for the publishers is that the secondhand market will die. You can’t resell your digital copy of The Dark Knight to someone on Amazon. GameStop will eventually become a store for classic used games from the 2000s. One day it will seem ridiculous that digital information was bonded to physical platters and cartridges.

I’ve thinned down my book collection to two small book shelves. As I finish books, I’ll sell them to Half Price Books or give them away. Again, I’m only going to be purchasing hard to find items or books which make practical sense to own. I converted a majority of my Amazon book wish list over to a reading list for my brand new account at the Austin Public Library system. Holy shit, is this a slick operation! The online catalog system is robust. I can have books held and delivered to my local branch. I only stumped the system once or twice whilst searching for graphic novels. Their collection of every series I care about is comprehensive. They even had a copy of the out of print Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, which is basically steampunk porn. All for free. Why didn’t I do this sooner? Also, if there is a Kindle version of a book available, I’ll buy that over the dead tree version. The Kindle iPhone app is actually pretty great and I’ve been enjoying 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on it.

The board game collection remains pretty large. I’ll probably thin it down over the course of a few years, getting rid of the so-so games, keeping only the ones I truly love.

I’ve also been untethering my online life. I’ve moved more and more documents up into the cloud so I can access them from anywhere. I stopped using desktop clients for mail, scheduling, spreadsheets, and twittering. It’s all web-based now. I can do all of my communication from anywhere. It feels good to shut my computer down when I’m done working instead of having to check in on it for new messages.

My iPhone is proving more and more invaluable. Today I set up a wireless storage app so I can keep my writing and important documents backed up on a password protected micro web server. It’s like having a magic extradimensional 16GB pocket I can reach into at any time.

When I can afford it, I’ll probably replace my computer with a laptop. I like the idea of being able to grab a backpack and take off, bringing my entire world with me.

I feel lighter.

We all get songs stuck in our head. Here’s my mental soundtrack of tunes that got stuck into heavy rotation this year.

So to Speak – DJ? Acucrack

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard

Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well – Mike Doughty

Tender – Blur

Lollipop – Mika

Going On – Gnarls Barkley

Chase the Morning – Sarah Brightman

That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

Mr. Doughty and his crew get on stage half an hour early, disguised as a noise jam band. They wear beards and funny hats, but the crowd is not fooled.

The Panderers pander and we accept.

Mr. Doughty returns. His voice is indeed golden and delicious. New tracks and Soul Coughing throwbacks. The crowd enjoys.

Mr. Doughty denounces the use of pot. It being 4/20, the audience misunderstands, screaming with joy.

Circles!

Mr. Doughty explains that he is going to throw the bridge out and replace it with “half-mumbled half-words”. The crowd accepts this proposition.

Mr. Doughty plays the best cover of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler ever performed.

Mr. Doughty plays a fake last song, asks us to pretend he has left the stage when he in fact is just turning to face the back of the stage, turns back around to play the real last song.

Crowd spills out of Antone’s.

Of course I couldn’t just leave that rich mine of musical data alone.

After much research I have determined what I can say are, in purely scientific terms, the greatest songs ever recorded.

Follow the link for a ridiculously long list: Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, a conversation came up about our favorite bands. As usual, I didn’t have a list of favorite musicians floating within easy grasp. I like lots of music. In fact, I’m not sure there is a kind of music I dislike.

So, my obsessiveness kicked in and I decided to figure out who my favorite bands and singers were by sifting through my music collection and counting up the number of songs I really enjoyed by each artist. I briefly considered working out some kind of signal to noise ratio, taking into consideration the volume of work, but that sounded too complicated. So I went for the sheer number of awesome songs.

Here’s what I came up with:

1. U2
2. Weird Al Yankovic
3. Steve Taylor
4. Toad the Wet Sprocket
5. Pink Floyd
6. INXS
7. They Might Be Giants
8. The Beatles
9. The Police
10. Indigo Girls
11. Billy Joel
12. R.E.M.
13. Sting
14. Nine Inch Nails
15. Moxy Fruvous
16. Syd’s Misconception
17. Pearl Jam
18. Soul Coughing
19. Bon Jovi
20. Jars of Clay

So there it is. I think this list comprises types of music that resonate with every aspect of my personality. I see passion, social change, sarcasm, unconventional spirituality, introspection, melancholy, regret, vast inner landscapes, fun, sex, nostalgia, innocence, poetry, feminine energy, anger, depression, friendship, longing, eclecticism, attitude, and humility.