Do you find it hard to enjoy music made by people you know?

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I was just thinking about this, since over the past two days I've decided that the new Devendra Banhart album is easily my favorite record of the year so far. The fact that it transcends my weird but long-standing hang up about not getting into music made by folks I know is further testament to its greatness. I've really fallen hard for this record this week.

Generally, though, I've found it hard to continue obsessing over somebody's records once i've met him / her, and find it even harder to listen without prejudice to music made by friends of mine. As great as some of the music being made by my friends is, I usually can't ever see myself pumping it up in the car, ya know? Is this just a weird, heterosexual complex? Like, does it go back to the animal kingdom? I'm standing there with Vic Chesnutt or even somebody like Arthur Doyle, and thinking, "Wow. What a little man. I've spent so much time in the headspace of this little guy who has beer on his chin and smells kinda weird." Or, "I used to fight this dude over baseball cards and knock hockey. Now I'm spinning his 12" during my DJ set?"

Perhaps it goes back to the myth that the musicians you like are immortal somehow. Like how Glenn Danzig always seemed larger than life to me growing up. Like he'd tower over me and have a really deep, scary voice. Like, you wouldn't wanna meet Mark E Smith and have him offer to make you a mix cd, right? You'd want him to spit at you for not liking soccer or something.

Reminds me of something I heard Treach from Naughty by Nature say a few years ago, something about how he doesn't listen to any other MCs, just himself. Obviously an extreme example, but still...

am i alone here?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it changes the way you listen to their music, although I suppose it really matters on how well you know the person. Over the past ten or eleven years or so, I became good friends with the lead singer of a favorite band of mine (I'd interviewed them originally, which is how I first met'im). Once the strangeness of hanging out with someone whose albums you played a lot wore off, it seemed completely fine, but it defintely leant a strange air to listening to the music again.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

KNOCK HOCKEY!

God, that is great game!! I didn't realize any other boards were extant!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:41 (twenty-two years ago)

. Like how Glenn Danzig always seemed larger than life to me growing up. Like he'd tower over me and have a really deep, scary voice.

Glenn's a bit of a gnome, really. A burly, scary one, mind you, but well far from being the tallest creature in the forest.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I bet I could beat Glenn at knock hockey.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Imagine if you knew Glenn when he was simply....

http://people.freenet.de/misfits374/anzalone.gif

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Glenn these days...I guess "trade school" didn't really work out.

http://danzig-verotik.com/danzig/photo/anaheim_8_4_02_fin/images/anaheim_8_4_02_16..jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus, what nips!

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 27 February 2004 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

where are his sideburns???

― k (blue), Friday, 27 February 2004 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I have the reverse effect in a way...

1) Liking too much or too easily, music made by friends. Critical faculties are dimmed but then, as huey one said, Bad is bad.

2) Thinking about it, meeting famousbod has had no effect on my appreciation of their music, maybe with the exception of Rick Wakeman but I didn't really know his stuff and I thought, "Nice bloke". So I checked his stuff and kinda liked it (heck, I wuz 15). Marc Bolan, I loved his stuff and still did/do.

< / namedropping>

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 27 February 2004 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm the same as Mark, I tend to enjoy stuff by people I know more readily than I would stuff by people I don't know.

― tomp (tomp), Friday, 27 February 2004 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i agree with the last two posts. i find myself less critical and more inclined to enjoy music made by people i actually know. and i've had great experiences of meeting people whose music i had previously adored, ending up in great relationships. of course, i've also met teenage idols and they were wankers...

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 27 February 2004 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I've bee talking about this very subject a lot this week. A local guy just released a comp of local bands that I like most of -- but I don't know if I would like anything on it if I just picked it up randomly at a record store and didn't know and love a lot of the people on it and know where they came from, etc.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 27 February 2004 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I also am more likely to enjoy music made by my friends, especially if it's in genres I don't usually listen to. For instance, I don't usually listen to power pop/emo rock or whatever you want to call it, but when a jazz guitarist I know handed me this great record that he did in his house, I was super impressed and it stayed in my car for a week. The fact that I knew his sensibilities, what he listened to, etc. made it even more interesting.

The same goes for jazz or whatever as well, I get nice warm feelings listening to good solos by guys that I'm good friends with. I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't be paying as close attention if I didn't know them.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 27 February 2004 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, if I engage in tokenism, it's usually because of my friends. I don't listen to enough punk rock to know who's hot shit these days, but I think my friends' band The Modern Machines is fantastic, and that's enough for me.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 27 February 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Reminds me of something I heard Treach from Naughty by Nature say a few years ago, something about how he doesn't listen to any other MCs, just himself. Obviously an extreme example, but still...

I bowled with Treach at a friend's party once (our team won), and I still love "OPP". But that's neither here nor there. I tend to love my friends' music, esp. since it's enjoyable for me to try and catch hints of what I perceive to be their personality in their music. But I find it's the other way around when it comes to friends enjoying what I do. I have one or two who are usually glad to hear whatever I'm working on, but the majority of them ain't too supportive. *shrug*

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark Grout --- yr post has blown my mind (,man). You really know/knew Wakeman and B-B-Bolan? I swoon.

Yeah - I dig Wakeman, What about it?

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

If anything, I'm waaaay more critical of it, because I am so proud of what my "friends" are able to accomplish, that I just want it to BE perfect. I want them to be, musically speaking, everything that I am not, due to my limited technical skill. So I'm probably the dictatorial and controlling father figure in this situation. Although they could honestly give a FUCK about me and my music, even when I taught most of them to play guitar. Sick, innit?! So why should I care about the music. 'Cause...I think it's THAT good. I don't think it should go unheard. So...check out the website, por favor (PITY STORY!):

www.geocities.com/dukemelaza/spacepoop.html

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 27 February 2004 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I always like music better if I know or have met the person who made it, especially if that person is nice or interesting. It's as if I have something concrete to root for and will overlook the fatal flaws.

― scott m (mcd), Friday, 27 February 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

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