I think it’s safe to say we all love music.  Music can range from background noise, to a job, to an obsession, to EVERYTHING.  It’s something to occupy our numb thoughts on the drive home.  A song somehow manages to connect a bunch of instruments and painfully truthful lyrics to create a symphony of sound that somehow magically applies to you and millions of other people.  Sometimes, we may separate the tracks in our minds…somehow ignoring the bass, guitar, and vocals, only to pay attention to the steady beating of the drum.  Other times, we resonate with a piercing lyric.  No matter which way you slice it, or how you listen, music has this remarkable power to bring us all together, or to lift us up when we are so far down.

Music is my obsession.  My addiction.  My formula for a better day.  An impetus for productivity.  My cure for a broken heart.  Often times I will simply listen to the same song for hours.  Albums eventually end up representing parts of my life.  This probably happens to you, too.   The National represents a very cold, lonely, and depressing winter.  Coldplay was when “the accident” happened.  Guster was college.   Modest Mouse is that summer we filmed the documentary.  Rilo Kiley was California.

At any rate, nothing is more satisfying than discovering new artists, or finding that band you can listen to over and over and over and over again.  Here’s where the obsession part comes in.  I’m a member of an online music community called Last.fm.  If you know what pandora is, last.fm is pandora on steroids.  Last.fm has better accuracy, and really enables you to discover new artists.  Another great source for music are podcasts such as  indiefeed and NPR’s All Songs Considered.  I purchase music from eMusic at about 40 cents a track.  Awesome.

Also, radio is not dead.  You are just listening to the wrong station.  People think they are cool by saying, “Oh, I don’t listen to the radio.”  I feel sorry for them.  They don’t know what they are missing.  Listening to the radio has multiple benefits.  When a great song comes on, it’s comforting to know that thousands of other people are listening to this along with you!

What about NPR?  It’s difficult for me to listen to talk radio while at my computer, but in the car it makes perfect sense.  It keeps my boring stop and go ride to work interesting -  fascinating stories about people’s lives and unfiltered news.  I consider all cable news networks “entertainment.”  NPR is my only source of actual news…

Radio is not dead.  We must keep supporting it.   Local radio stations are an integral part of society.  They give you free concert tickets.  They sponsor concerts in your town.  They inform you.  Find your local non-profit radio station and donate now.

Rochester: WBER 90.5
Los Angeles: KCRW 89.9

Local LA artists to check out: Meiko, Silversun Pickups; Low vs. Diamond; Local Natives; Princeton; Rilo Kiley (of course)

Toronto Bands (because I like pretty much any band that calls this glorious city home): Feist; Broken Social Scene; Small Sins; Tokyo Police Club; These Electric Lives; Amy Millan, The Cliks; Stars…

Most Recent Concert Attended: Anthony Raneri; Troubador, Los Angeles 01.07.10

Previous Live Events:

• Neko Case; Beacon Theatre, New York 11.16.09
• Gregory Alan Isakov; Union Hall; Brooklyn 10.28.09
• Bayside; The Filmore at Irving Plaza, New York 09.29.09
• THE NATIONAL.  at THE WILTERN.  08.29.09
• Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band; Sunset Junction Festival, Silverlake 08.22.09
• Jenny Lewis; Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles 07.12.09
• The Rural Alberta Advantage; The Echo, Los Angeles 07.10.09
• Telekinesis; The Echoplex, Los Angeles
• The National; Electric Factory, Philadelphia 05.29.09!
• The Straylight Run; Mohawk Place, Buffalo 05.26.09
• Ben Folds; Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles 05.20.09
• Telekinesis; The Troubadour, Los Angeles 05.18.09
• Person L and Mae; The Troubadour, Los Angeles 05.07.09
• Bayside; The Avalon, Los Angeles 03.28.09!!!
• Ra Ra Riot; The El Rey, Los Angeles 02.28.09
• Meiko and Joshua Radin; The Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles 02.21.09
• Of Montreal; Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles 11.22.08
• Frightened Rabbit; Middle East, Boston 10.19.08
• Rilo Kiley; Greek Theater, Los Angeles 06.18.08
• The New Pornographers with Neko Case; State Theatre, Ithaca 04.13.08

Next Concert: we shall see