buzz bin...

something's gotten into me lately (student loan money in my checking account, perhaps?) that's got me on this lame indie rock consumption kick. and by "lame" i mean that i'm collecting all this music that's fairly new (i.e., it's not from my beloved pavement/sonic youth-era indie rock heyday), but to which i've been hopelessly oblivious because, well, i just don't put nearly as much energy into keeping up with new music as i used to. i've recently acquired albums by such old-fangled groups as neutral milk hotel and the decemberists and broken social scene. and my friend chris gave me a DVD with about a billion gigs of music on it that i've only just begun to give my attention to (seriously, chris -- i've only really gotten through maybe a dozen of the albums on that disk. but i'm really digging the butterglory and the holly golightly. and i know everybody loves clap your hands say yeah, and i'm sure rolling stone suck-azine is touting them as the new white stripes and all, but i really like them, too. oh, and mates of state? rad.).

and it's nice. i gotta say, it's nice to have music that i don't know. i have a tendency to compulsively consume music that knocks me out (see, e.g., my sufjan stevens obsession) until my brain is full of every timing quirk, every harmony, every misplaced electric guitar track (does anybody else share my frustration that sufjan had to go and ruin "springfield...", which is a fucking beautiful song, with the guitar track? does anybody else even know what i'm talking about?!?!)

like, if i can round out this cliche for you, on sunday afternoon i was at [ahem] a tiny coffee shop in shadyside, listening to [erm] my ipod, while i read for my [eyeroll] gender and the law class [AND YES, GODDAMN IT! I _WAS_ WEARING MY NEW FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC BLUE ADIDAS GAZELLES! but let the record show that i was NOT drinking a latte or anything like that. and i had all my stupid colored pens--my intricate and effective multi-colored note-taking system--all laid out in front of me on table. see??? i'm NOT a hipster!!! I'M NOT A HIPSTER!!!] and i managed to listen to five albums while i was reading, none of which was familiar enough to me that it posed a threat of distraction from my reading. not too bad. not too bad indeed.

[file this post under "impending mid-life crisis". did i mention that this is the last week of my 20s? hello 30! goodbye dignity.]