Listography : My Music "Bucket List"

This category isn't a part of the "Listography : Your Life in (Play)Lists" book, but I've been thinking a lot about this recently. Basically, I grew up on music and spent the better part of eight or so years "working" music in some capacity. I'm constantly thinking, talking, writing, working, listening to and watching music and I've had a hard time finding hobbies or social skills outside of it (not that I'm complaining).

At any rate, as a fan or as a music businessladyperson, there are certain things that I've been fortunate enough to experience but other things that I still want to do in order to fully understand the entire process. I'm not getting any younger, unlike the average age of a lot of us working in music, so before I get to old to rock or stop liking music (whichever comes first), here are the things I'd like to do:

1) Go out on tour for two weeks.
-This could be in any capacity: tour managing, merch girl, shooting content, etc. I just want to know how it feels day to day and do some traveling.

2) Take a class on ProTools.
-I have a very basic understanding from working in college radio, but certainly fudged some of it.

3) Sit in during a band's writing process.
- I'm still so fascinated by the way a song is written since I can't write myself.

4) Learn to play the guitar.

5) Go out for a week on Warped Tour.
-Preferrably not through Arizona or anywhere where its 115 degrees in July.

6) Go to the following festivals:

• Sasquatch
• Bonaroo
• Coachella
• Glastonbury
• Lollapalooza
• Newport Folk Festival
• Soundwave

7) Speak on a SXSW panel
- Y'know, about . . . uh . . . something?

8) Convince SXSW to hire me.
-Seriously though, WHO GETS TO WORK ON THIS FESTIVAL?!

8) Be a part of a band's entire recording process.
-From pre production to mastering and everything in between. Not sure what I'd contribute, maybe just being there to watch.

9) Write a treatment for a music video.

10) Start another live music radio show
-Or podcast, or video blog, whatever.

11) Finish reading "All You Need to Know about the Music Business"
-Before another new version comes out, which I'm sure will be soon.

12) Take a class on Entertainment law.

13) Learn to Swing Dance.

14) Work in some capacity during a band's appearance on a late night talk show.

15) Dance on stage with a big group during one of my favorite bands' sets.

16) Sing with a band on stage.

17) Work at a record store.
-Even if only for a little while. I never got to growing up, even though I tried.

18) Go to a music award show.

19) Sequence a movie or TV show soundtrack.
-In the romantic way of just picking songs that sound awesome and of course the paperwork.

20) Have one of my favorite artists perform at my wedding.
-Right now I've narrowed down my wedding song to either "Re:Stacks" by Bon Iver or "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. Both are welcome to come party.

Listography : List a Song That Reminds You of Each Boyfriend You've Had

The trick is that I won't tell you which song is for who. :) Sorry boys. Some of the boys have multiple songs and many reference the crushes, the not-quite-boyfriends and dead-ends that we're all familiar with. . .

1) The Brilliant Dance - Dashboard Confessional
2) Blizzard of '77 - Nada Surf
3) Carry You - Jimmy Eat World
4) Don't Get Spin Spin - Skybox
5) Satellite - Dave Matthews Band
6) Photobooth - Death Cab for Cutie
7) Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
8) Time Restrains - Goodbyetomorrow
9) No Sensitivity - Jimmy Eat World
10) Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches
11) I Am Yours - The Adicts
12) Skies So Blue - The Rocket Summer
13) Galaxy 500 - Reverend Horton Heat
14) Midwestern Dirt - Dear and the Headlights
15) Suspended - Matt Nathanson
16) Janet - The Format
17) Suspended in Gaffa - Ra Ra Riot
18) Suicide Medicine - Rocky Votolato
19) The Engine Driver - The Decemberists
20) Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits

Listography: List the First Albums You Ever Owned

Clearly, once upon a time, I used to listen to female singers and Christian ska music. I only really accounted for records I remember listening to in middle school or earlier. Many of these records were likely purchased by my brother (and stolen over time) or through the Columbia Record Club way back when. I think I still owe them $13 or something, but now they employ me, so we're even?

1) The Cranberries - "No Need to Argue"

2) No Doubt - "Tragic Kingdom"

3) Alanis Morrisette - "Jagged Little Pill"

4) Five Iron Frenzy - "Upbeats and Beatdowns"

5) The O.C. Supertones - "Supertones Strike Back"

6) The Insyderz - "Motor City Ska"

7) Reel Big Fish - "Turn the Radio Off"

8) MXPX - "Life in General"

9) The Cardigans - "First Band on the Moon"

10) Clueless - OST

11) The Hippos - "Heads are Gonna Roll"

12) Noggon Toboggan - "Snapcase"

13) The Ataris - "Blue Skies, Broken Hearts . . . Next 12 Exits"

14) Celine Dion (shut it) - "Falling Into You"

15) Mariah Carey (shut it again) - "Butterfly"

16) TLC - "CrazySexyCool"

17) Ace of Base - "The Bridge"

18) Green Day - "Dookie"

19) Nirvana - "Nevermind"

20) The W's - "Fourth from the Last"

Listography : List Your Favorite Cover Songs

1) Matt Pond PA - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (by Neutral Milk Hotel)

2) Ra Ra Riot - "Suspended in Gaffa" (by Kate Bush)
3) Jimmy Eat World - "Half Right" (by Heatmiser)
4) Matt Nathanson - "Romeo and Juliet"(by Dire Straits)
5) New Found Glory - "Glory of Love" (by Bryan Adams)
6) Jeff Buckley - "Hallelujah" (by Leonard Cohen)
7) The Format - "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" (by Sparks)
8) Band of Annuals - "Echo" (By David Williams)
9) Ben Folds - "In Between Days" (by The Cure)
10) Five Iron Frenzy - "Sweet Talkin' Woman" (by Electric Light Orchestra)
11) Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" (by Paul Simon)
12) The Fray - "Heartless" (by Kanye West)
13) Go Big Casino - "I'm Leaving" (by Reubens Accomplice)
14) The Hippos - "Always Something There to Remind Me" (by Naked Eyes)
15) Iron and Wine - "Such Great Heights" (by The Postal Service)
16) Joshua Radin - "Only You" (by Yazoo)
17) Lenka - "Gravity Rides Everythig" (by Modest Mouse)
18) Ryan Adams "Wonderwall" (by Oasis)
19) Ted Leo "Since U Been Gone / Maps" (by Kelly Clarkson / Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
20) Ben Folds "Bitches Aint Shit" (by Dr. Dre)

Listography : List Your Favorite Live Albums

[For you live music fans, I highly suggest NPR's All Songs Considered Live Concert Podcast. They are amazingly up to date and include the Tiny Desk Concert videos. I listen to them constantly at work]

1) At the Point - Matt Nathanson
2) Clarity Live from The Marquee - Jimmy Eat World
3) Proof that the Youth are Revolting - Five Iron Frenzy
4) Last Show at The Glasshouse - Jefferies Fan Club
5) Unplugged in New York - Nirvana
6) iTunes Live @ London Festival '09 - Mumford and Sons
7) Live Warehouse EP - Band of Annuals
8) Live at the Electric Factory - The Fray
9) The Daytrotter EP - Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos
10) Cabin Ghosts - Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons

Listography : List Advice You Follow from Song Lyrics

Listography : List Advice You Follow from Song Lyrics

1. "This is what she says gets her through it: If I don't let myself be happy now then when? If not now, when?"
   - Jimmy Eat World "For Me This is Heaven"
   
   
2. "Do you believe in something beautiful? Then get up and be it!"
   - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists "Me and Mia"
   
   
3. "I wait in 4/4 time and count yellow highway lines that you're relying on to lead you home."
   - The Weakerthans "Left and Leaving"
   
   
4. "You can own the stage, but the lights and glare will not make you real."
   - Margot and the Nuclear So and So's "A Light on a Hill"
   
   
5. "Sees the ocean fall and rise. Counts the waves the somehow didn't hit her."
   -Elliott Smith "Baby Britian"
   
   
6. "Signing up for that second semester cause you won't marry me without the degree. Once I fix things up right you won't be so embarrassed of me. I'll never make it now but at least looking in the mirror won't feel like lying."
   -Dear and the Headlights "Grace"
   
   
7. "Dancing out on 7th street. Dancing through the underground. Dancing little marionette, are you happy now?"
   - Ryan Adams "When the Stars Go Blue"
   
   
8. "C'mon c'mon, spin a little faster. C'mon c'mon, the world will follow after."
   - Counting Crows "Accidentally in Love"
   
   
9. "There's still some living left when you prime comes and goes."
   - Jimmy Eat World "Big Casino"
   
   
10. "Please don't put your life in the hands of a rock n roll band, they'll throw it all away"
    - Oasis "Don't Look Back in Anger"
    
    
11. "I'm trying to find truths in words and rhymes and notes and all the things I wish I wrote."
    - The Format "I'm Ready I Am"
    
    
12. "And I do need the wind across my pale face. And I do need the fern to unfurl in the spring. And I do need the grass to sway, yes I do need to know my place."
    - Bowerbirds "Northern Lights"
    
    
13. "I sat and stared at the sky, I knew I'd find myself there again. I wondered how else to cope with the air. And I know, I won't feel it again if I just played along. "Stupid games are for stupid people" and they end just like a song."
    - New Found Glory "2s and 3s"
    
    
14. "To find someone you love, you gotta be someone you love."
    - Nada Surf "Concrete Bed"
    
    
15. "I always wanna feel like part of this was mine."
    - Jimmy Eat World "A Praise Chorus"
    
    
16. "Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls that brought me here. And in a wide sea of eyes I see one pair that I recognize."
    - Ben Folds "The Luckiest"
    
    
17. "What a curious life we have found here tonight, there is music that sounds from the streets. There are lights in the clouds and there's ghosts all around, hear their voice as it's rolling and ringing through me, soft and sweet, how the notes all bend and reach above the trees."
    - Neutral Milk Hotel "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
    
    
18. "Head under water and you tell me to breathe easy for a while. The breathing gets harder, even I know that. Made room for me it's too soon to see if I'm happy in your hands. I'm unusually hard to hold onto."
    - Sara Bareilles "Love Song"
    
    
19. "Don't test the ones you love, it will only tear us down. If you want to feel alive, then learn to love your ground."
    -Mumford and Sons "Sister"
    
    
20. "When I accellerate, I remember why it's good to be alive. Maybe this weight was a gift, like I had to see what I could lift."
    - Nada Surf "Do it Again"
    

New Blog Series! : Listography

So it's been a while since "The Loop" series ended and I posted my top 10 albums and top 25 songs of 2009. I spent a lot of time over vacation thinking of what to do with this blog. Let's face it, EVERYONE HAS A BLOG. If I were to make this a "music news" site, it'd probably just be news recycled from other (better) music blogs. Not to mention that I work a regular 9 to 5(ish) job so my news would be lagging since I'm supposed to be working during those hours (ha).

I really liked having a "series" as part of this blog with the decade retrospective, so I think I'll try it again, but with a different theme. For Christmas, my coworker Todd gave me a book called "Music Listography : Your Life in (Play) Lists", which is basically a journal with pages of themes for several different "mixtapes", not to mention some really cool artwork. I really like the idea of it, very much a challenge in this iPod shuffle world of ours.

When I was in high school, up until about halfway through Senior year, I had a walkman and made mixtapes with various themes, one that I specifically remember being the "emo" mix. Some of my favorite gifts were tapes that friends made for me. There was such a personal element to all of these tapes, not only because you're hand choosing each song, but because you have to record it in real time, listen to every song in full and carefully piece it together. I loved how invested you could get into it, even moreso than a mix CD or shuffle on iTunes. I have been thinking about this for a while, but after seeing a friend's top 100 songs of the decade list, and extra free time thanks to a slow Winter concert season, I was inspired to get this going.

So here's the plan : I'm going to spend this the next few months (through the end of February) and go through some of the pages of this book and make my lists here on the not-so-personal internet. Feel free to comment on the songs or make your own list, I'm curious what everyone else feels fits these categories. I won't go through the WHOLE book, but a few fun pages. If you like it, you should buy the book and do it yourself. Books will probably last longer than the internet, anyway.

This won't be everyday (or multiple times a day) like "The Loop" was, so hopefully by being a little less daunting, I can have a little more fun with it. We've got nothing but time to explore old tunes. And maybe by March, I'll have figured out what to do with this blog. Or at least a new series.

Enjoy!
-Smashley