Eclecticism

Another blog meme! This one I found through Elena’s post, and honestly, I debated diving into this one, as it’s primarily made up of questions that I really don’t like — not because of anything wrong with the questions themselves, but because they’re so difficult for me to answer. :) But what the heck, let’s give this a shot.

One major disclaimer, though: Most of these answers could change at any moment depending on any number of reasons. This is a snapshot of a very brief moment in time.

What are 5 of your favourite albums?

Props to the original author for making this “five of your favorite”, and not “your five favorite”. That makes it easier (though not easy) to answer.

• Soft Cell‘s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
• Underworld‘s Dubnobasswithmyheadman.
• The original Jesus Christ Superstar concept album.
• Nine Inch Nails‘ Pretty Hate Machine.
• VNV Nation‘s Automatic.

What are five of your favourite songs?

Albums was bad enough, but songs? This is where things really get difficult. Again, I appreciate that this isn’t supposed to be my five favorite songs, just five of my favorites.

• Apoptygma Berserk, “Suffer in Silence”
• Soft Cell, “Seedy Films”
• Pet Shop Boys, “It’s a Sin”
• Faithless, “Insomnia”
• Pigface “Sick Asp Fuck (Full Gimball/No. 1 Club)”

Favourite instrument(s)

Cello, probably. I played violin (never terribly well) as a kid, and I’ve long wondered if I’d stuck with it more if I’d picked cello. As it was, my brother, who started with cello, went on to bass (both standup bass and electric bass guitar, depending on whether he was playing in an orchestra, a bluegrass band, or a punk band, any of which have been and still might be possibilities), while I started with violin and went on to DJing.

What song or album are you currently listening to?

Right at this moment, nothing. This week, it’s mostly been the six-disc 40th anniversary re-release of Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret that I picked up last week.

Do you listen to the radio? If so, how often?

Not unless I happen to be somewhere where someone else has it on. What with the annoyance of commercials, the lack of stations that reliably play what I want to hear, and my extensive music collection, there’s just no reason to bother.

How often do you listen to music?

As often as possible. I used to have a near constant soundtrack going, but these days it’s primarily when I’m working or puttering around on my own.

How often and how do you discover music?

“How often” is a hard one to answer, as it just kind of happens when it happens. As far as “how” goes, sometimes it’s hearing something good when I’m out clubbing, sometimes friends introduce me to new stuff, and sometimes some other way.

I’m a big fan of compilation albums, and have a few labels on Bandcamp that I’ll regularly pick up annual or themed compilations when they appear. These days, those labels are Re:Mission Entertainment, Alfa Matrix, Artoffact Records, Infacted Recordings, and Sideline Magazine.

I also enjoy a lot of mashups and get a lot of those from Bootie Mashup. Since I don’t listen to the radio or much pop, mashups have introduced me to a lot of pop that I’d otherwise not have heard (and I’m often amused when I hear a song that I recognize but it sounds weird, and realize that I’m hearing the original when I’d only heard bits and pieces as used in mashups).

What’s a song or album that you enjoy that you wish had more recognition?

Many years ago, when I visited Germany in 1990 or ’91 (I can’t remember which trip this was), I discovered the band Poems for Laila and picked up their first two albums, Another Poem for the 20th Century and La Fillette Triste (which doesn’t appear to be available as a YouTube playlist). I think both are extremely good, and have often recommended them to people, as they never got much play here in the United States (I’ve rarely found anyone else who’d heard of them).

What’s your favourite song of all time?

There is absolutely no possible way to answer this question. Too many possibilities, too many variables.

Has your taste in music evolved over the years?

Oh, absolutely.

Growing up, dad contributed a lot of rock, folk, and classic country, and mom contributed a lot of classical. Our family was very involved with the music in our churches. I spent many years in a local children’s choir (first the Anchorage Boys Choir, then the Anchorage Girls and Boys Choir when the two choirs (run by the same people) merged, and then as they changed their name to the Alaska Children’s Choir), which exposed me to a wide range of choral music.

As I grew, while I was certainly exposed to a lot of pop, I soon found myself being drawn to what was then termed “alternative” music. I started going to my high school dances, and though I was at first a definite wallflower, with regular “they’ll all laugh at me” thoughts keeping me off the dance floor, eventually I started heading out to the floor, and discovered a love for dancing.

High school dances encouraged my appreciation for pop, and after high school, I started exploring the local all-ages club, eventually finding Sharkey’s, which had pop upstairs and alternative down in the basement. Sharkey’s and the DJs there exposed me to both dance/electronica and goth/industrial, and I found my home.

Since then, I’ve mostly considered the goth/industrial and electronica/techno/dance genres to be my favorites, though I still have a love for, well, just about everything. While I used to profess a disdain for hip-hop and rap, there were always “acceptable” groups, and I’ve come to realize that there was a lot of unconscious and unexplored systemic racism and classism wrapped up in that, and I’ve been gaining more of an appreciation for both classic and modern rap and hip hop.

Eventually I found my way into DJing, and spent about ten years spinning at all-ages clubs in Anchorage as my alter-ego DJ Wüdi. Finding music for the clubs and picking up songs from requests exposed me to a lot more stuff I might not have found otherwise.

Basically, while there are certainly bad songs (though even many of those can be enjoyable at the right place and time), and lots of quite unfortunate artists (even when they produce tracks I like), there’s no such thing as universally bad genres.

Except for smooth jazz. The exception that proves the rule, right? ;)

Tag, you’re it

I’m not one for tagging people in these sorts of things, but if you come across this and want to play along, jump in!