When I'm Not Listening to Kids' Music

I was rereading the "My Approach to Kids' Music" post and besides the amusing out-of-date comments regarding our kids' music collection -- nearly two dozen kids' records, can you believe it, folks? -- I also noticed the listing of my "adult" music preferences:

"I particularly enjoy the following artists, among others: Wilco, the Jayhawks, Spoon, REM, They Might Be Giants, Matthew Sweet, U2, Lyle Lovett, Kelly Willis, Patty Griffin, Miles Davis and most classical chamber music."

I'm one of those people who, when visiting someone else's house for the first time, is particularly drawn to CD collections, hoping to glean some piece of critical information that might help me understand the person just a little more. It's as if I was the "guess-your-age" guy at the carnival, except instead of asking questions about the person's marital status, I'm asking, so, uh, "which albums do you have on which Sting is a musician?"

In looking at that list from two years ago (and, frankly, with the exception of Spoon, it's really almost 5 years old), I'm thinking I need to update the list slightly, splitting it into two components -- artists I have 4 or more CDs of and bands with less than 4 CDs that I really adore, which basically gives you the list of bands that have been part of my life for a long time (even if they're not really any more), and newer bands I'm looking forward to hearing for many years to come.

Artists with 4+ CDs in my collection, in rough order of # of CDs: They Might Be Giants, Ludwig van Beethoven (yeah, I know he's not a band in the traditional sense), R.E.M., Matthew Sweet, U2, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, Spoon, Fountains of Wayne, The Dixie Chicks, Lyle Lovett, Kelly Willis, W.A. Mozart

With the exception of R.E.M., I really haven't "abandoned" any of these artists. (I'll still listen to R.E.M., but only the old stuff. Yes, in this regard I'm the snob like everyone else.)

Artists with less than 4 CDs that I quite adore: The New Pornographers, The Shins, The Futureheads, Golden Smog (OK, I'm ignoring the On Golden Smog EP), My Morning Jacket (OK, I'm ignoring their earlier stuff), Kathleen Edwards

I'm sure I'm omitting artists with, like, one CD that's just fabulous (see Patty Griffin, whose 1000 Kisses is incredible and whose other albums are mostly "eh" to me). If I had to make this list a year from now I'm sure it'd be different. But now you know where I stand. (And you can guess how old I am.)

Comments

[Eric Herman]

I'm with you on TMBG, Beethoven, Matthew Sweet, U2, Wilco, Talking Heads and Lyle Lovett. Only so-so on Springsteen, REM, Fountains of Wayne (though I like that thing they did in That Thing You Do) and the Dixie Chicks, and haven't really listened to enough of the others to make an opinion. Never really cared for Mozart all that much, though, as too much of his stuff is "peppy waltzy". As classical music goes I prefer the more dramatic stuff like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

[Eric Herman]

Oh, when you say 'classical chamber music' do you mean stuff like baroque, or just smaller scale classical pieces by whoever and whenever? I really like some of the music from the baroque period, like Albinoni's "Adagio" and "Canon in D" and Vivaldi.

[SAShepherd]

"That Thing You Do" is an almost perfect pop song.

Mozart is nice background music. I know it's much more than that (especially his operas), but it's what it gets used for. Beethoven is where it's at.

I prefer later chamber music, string quartets in particular (seeing as I've played a lot of it). Beethoven, Dvorak, Borodin, etc.

[deb in sf]

32.

[Katy Lloyd]

I would add Tom Petty, Eric Clapton and Barenaked Ladies to your great list.And I'm a sucker for great choral music, such as Faure's Requiem, black gospel music like Thomas Dorsey (not to be confused with Tommy Dorsey, another great musician), and Duke Ellington's spiritual compositions ("Come Sunday" is an all-time favorite). Not much into opera, but haven't tried much either, except for some light opera like Gilbert and Sullivan.Deb, what's with the mysterious "32"? Can you or someone else clue me in?

[deb in sf]

I was guessing Stefan's age...

I would never be one to recommend music to Stefan, dork-princess that I am. His taste is way better than mine. I prefer to learn from him. ;)

[Phil]

"That Thing You Do" is sung by Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers. You'd like any of their CDs, particularly Hang On Mike.

I also check out people's CD collections. But it would be really hard for them to do that in my house. A few years ago I ripped 1200 of my CDs to the hard drive and then sold most of them on eBay.

I have my 107GB of music backed up in three different places.

[Katy L]

I agree, Deb--Stefan is way cool, and much smarter than me, too, when it comes to music. I just try to keep up. I love this site because I learn as much about current adult music as I do about kid's music.By the way, both John Doe family concerts in Seattle today were sold out (why didn't I buy tickets in advance!?!), so I took the girls to see "Flushed Away" instead. The concert would have been great, but the movie was a lot of fun too.

[deb in sf]

Phil, me too. We didn't have nearly as many cds as you did (maybe 600, pre-kids?), and we didn't sell 'em, just packed 'em up, in case. I still buy cds for the liner notes and artwork (I'm not one who pines for the "good ole days" completely - you can guess my age). But on a day-to-day basis, I'd be happy never to have to touch another cd.

[SAShepherd]

Just because you can guess doesn't mean I'm gonna answer...

And, no, I'm not cooler than you. I just listen to a lot more kids' music.

But I am an old fogey when it comes to CDs. I just love the physical item and the liner notes.