ilm snapshot: yr listening habits

for instance, i realized that i listen to a lot more idm/experimental techno in the winter months than at any time during the year. likewise, pop is mostly a spring-summer phenom for me with few exceptions.

my own taste is pretty much divided up between dance music/electronics, the post-punk/post-disco late 70s-early 80s axis, hiphop, early post-rock, shoegaze/dreampop/noisepop and of course, the typical: random unclassifiable weirdness (boredoms, etc.)

whereas in highschool i was raised on a steady diet of indie and hiphop, with a few outside influences beginning to creep in towards the end (hardcore/jungle, dub, freejazz, etc.)

For eight months (last year): FLEETWOOD MAC on replay until the stereo made screetching sound as allergic reaction...
Progression? I don't believe in personal musical progression. I only believe in enjoyment. (Fearing collective ILM board jumping on me now.)

When I lived on the coast of northest Maine during the winter...minimalism and all of it's bastard sons were the music of the time. It fits perfectly with a blizzard.

In NYC, the sound is more dangerous. Lots of stuff that goes "KLANG GLANK GKLANGK"

Jess, it's wacky how much our divisions resemble each other's; throw in an occassional jazz phase (heavy on early fusion) and some krautrock/spacerock for me (and, oh yeah--DRONE), and we're pretty much the same. What a bunch of dorky hipsters. By the way, I'm the biggest listening-in-phases listener ever. I get REALLY into a teeny corner of the musical omniverse, live there for a few months, explore fairly extensively, and move on. But I inevitably come back to each phase, a good thing that it took me a while (and quite a few "Why the fuck did I sell that back?" experiences) to figure out.

I find it depends who I'm seeing most often, rather than what the weather is doing.

Xmas: Xmas music.

Rest of year: Lloyd Cole.

another full of shit answer from pinefox (typed with a smile). listening habits don't exist, only passions of the moment (or a cheap excuse for feigning spontaneity, which lies at the heart of I Love Music?) music is about the moment? i ask questions because i don't know shit

right now, chet baker. and it is so cool.

Music for when I feel "upbeat": dr. john, the clash, bouncy indie pop, rock, blues + roots rock

Music for when I feel "meditative": classical, jazz, ethereal stuff

Background: more jazz (free jazz mostly), the few IDM releases I like ("Programmed" by Innerzone Orchestra, some Kruder&Dorfmeister, Yoshinori Sunahara.... don't even know if the IDM umbrella is large enough to encompass all the records I mentioned), still more pop (like kings of convenience)

progression/regression: I'd like to think I've progressed, being cringeingly indie-schmindie when at school: I have a signed bis 7", at least 5 helen love 7"s and once interviewed the bassist from urusei yatsura for a friend's zine. oh dear.

and having a postal correspondence with the drummer of one of belfast's mightiest bands, the late (much lamented) tunic. looking back on that whole period now, it seems faintly embarrasing, but I maintain I enjoyed myself.

now: "pastora" electronica (ahem), ambient nonsense, early post- rock/dreampop/slowcore/call it what you will, still some indie (the seed planted in 1994 won't die no matter how viciously pruned it is), and radiohead. sorry.

When I'm in my room studying, i try and listen to music that really has no defining beat, so that i won't be distracted too much. Gas' Pop is a great little diddy for that, as well as Fennezs' Endless Summer.

Driving, its lately been Beggers Banquet. I'm just now getting into my Stone's phase of life, and loving every second of it. Lotta Jay-z in the car, and, since I'm home for break in Virginia Beach, we have a no commercial hip-hop station that plays all the good commerical stuff.

Sleeping, its all about the Mum.

As you probably know I have a large and incurable obsession for country music. I don't know if my tastes change with the seasons but they do change with my moods. So if I'm feeling like shit it's out with the Merle Haggard and the Hank Williams and the Gram Parsons. However I also have a pretty big liking for breakbeat, techno once it's not too hard,

just reposting from the 'introductions' thread, it's wordy because, you know, what else do I do but listen to music? -

"my tastes evolve through the diurnal and seasonal cycles .. in the morning, on the way to work, I'll want something hushed like Songs: Ohia or Aixx Em Klemm .. in the afternoon, when the sun is bright, I want liveliness .. some John Coltrane or the Clash, some Miles Davis Quintet or Pavement, Led Zep or Jethro Tull .. in the evening, I need dark, lush sounds, preferably with deep bass or intricate electronic textures. Likewise, in the spring I find myself more in the mood for upbeat pop, in the summer -- aggressive rawk .. now that it's the fall I'm digging out my old Cure and Depeche Mode tapes for driving, the Smiths, Joy Division, etc ... and in the winter I expect to be listening to polarities, both minimalist ambient and experimental noize, romantic-period 'classical' and industrial/synthpop .. "

so, unlike Clarke, I don't spend much time investigating any one genre, though I'd probably be better for it. More like what I'm emotionally in the mood for. Funny, though, on the drive from DC down to Orlando for the holidays just now, I went from Cerberus Shoal to Appleseed Cast, Idaho to Mark Eitzel, Cannibal Ox to Prefuse 73 ... some days there's no rhyme or reason.

My listening patterns are driven to some degree by hardware. I buy 80% of my albums used, and a good chunk of those are vinyl. So at home, I usually want to catch up on my vinyl listening, which means old stuff -- jazz, rock from the 70s, the occasionaly new-ish thing that shows up in the used vinyl bins. The other half of my listening is what I hear on CD walking around town, & this tends to be the more current stuff. I'm noticing a strong correlation with how "social" I feel and how much I want to listen to songs v. instrumental electronic music. Lately the pendulum has been swinging toward the former, & been enjoying Smog, Silver Jews, Flaming Lips, Clientele, Biggie Smalls.

My Listening Habits Are: Obsess over band during couple of months. Suddenly loathe said band ( A decade ago Elton John). Reality: Obsession slumbers. After year or more it awakes and takes revenge. I am now in search of my Elton John records. Maybe I threw them away?