Aural Therapy

Yesterday I had a near breakdown as I fell victim to Justin Bieber’s "music."  Granted, it was self-inflicted, but I had to see for myself what had brought so many haters out of the woodwork.  The most common comment I’ve come across is how much he looks like a girl.  And he does, but that’s not what caused the near breakdown.  I watched two videos, or should I say, half of two videos which I guess makes a whole video, and decided that I wanted to curl up in a ball in a closet and weep for the future of music.

He had taken what might have been a decent song at one point and just auto-tuned the shit out of everything.

I know auto tune has been gaining a lot of popularity, but here’s the thing.  Auto-tune was a neat effect when Cher used it to accentuate one small part of a song a few years back.  What’s not neat is using it heavily throughout a song like you’re some kind of malfunctioning robot from the third moon of Planet Jackhole.  It amazes me that these people make more money than teachers and soldiers and police officers.  Use your voice, your actual voice.  Some of the best voices I’ve heard lately have been during karaoke night at my new favorite watering hole.  I would pay money to hear some of those people sing as opposed to watch some teenager flop around like a baboon on speed.

So, as I was cleaning house today, I found myself in desperate need of some aural therapy.  I have a lot of music on the computer, but I haven’t yet worked out a way to pipe it into my receiver without it humming.  I felt the need to let my neighborhood know that it doesn’t get any better for me than mid-to-late 90s alternative.  Okay, I’m into more genres than that, but that’s what I felt like soothing my aching soul to today.  So, I blew the dust off of my rarely used 25 disc changer and loaded it up with albums from that era.  Here’s what made it in:

Pearl Jam – "Ten"
Gin Blossoms – "Congratulations I’m Sorry"
Better Than Ezra – "Deluxe"
Fuel – "Sunburn"
Third Eye Blind – "Third Eye Blind"
Smashing Pumpkins – "Siamese Dream"
Garbage – "Garbage"
Smashing Pumpkins – "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: Dawn To Dusk"
Green Day – "International Superhits"
Fountains of Wayne – "Fountains of Wayne"
Smashing Pumpkins – "Gish"
The Verve Pipe – "Villains"
Alice In Chains – "Dirt"
The Refreshments – "Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy
Foo Fighters – "Foo Fighters"
Weezer – "Pinkerton Heights"
Third Eye Blind – "Blue"
Oasis – "What’s The Story Morning Glory"
Weezer – "Blue Album"
Dishwalla – "Pet Your Friends"
Presidents of the United States of America – "Presidents of the United States of America"
Bush – "Sixteen Stone"
Live – "Throwing Copper"
Stone Temple Pilots – "Purple"
Foo Fighers – "The Colour And The Shape"

There are several perfect albums in there.  To me, a perfect album is one of those ones you pop in and you feel like you’re cheating yourself if you don’t listen to the whole thing.  It’s something that I’ve found to be becoming rarer and rarer as time goes on.  Kings of Leon’s "Only By The Night" has come pretty close, and some of their other albums have been good as well.  The more I listen to Tenth Avenue North, the more I like their album, too.

Either way, I have a lot of hope for music. However, if Justin Bieber is the shape of things to come, then I guess I need to find a cave to hole up in with my precious silver discs.

Over and out.

Brian