Wake Up

It's nice to have woken up and rediscovered music again. I feel like I've been lost in the woods with a yellow waterproof walkman and a very small box of cassette tapes for about 3 years now. Now that I've stumbled out into the sun-soaked clearing, I find the world seems much bigger than when I left it. If then there was too much to manage, to keep up with, now--it's not even worth trying. And it's a beautiful thing.

A conscious effort to open my mind to all music, to exclude nothing from the realm of possibility, is proving worthwhile. We develop strong opinions about music. Prejudices. We use music to define ourselves, and therefore we reject things that we do not want to be a part of our images of ourselves. I used to dismiss all electronic music as bedroom laptop wanking. What an idiot. It's as rich a musical field as any in pop--and more than many, since it's essentially open to anyone with the time, equipment, and dedication. In fact, it seems to me that homemade versions of electronic music are the new punk rock. True DIY stuff--hell, you don't even have to know how to play an instrument.

We've met a few people here in Boise who are rabid enough fans of music to start a regular exchange of finds and ideas and favorite new and old stuff, and that's what does it. After leaving Austin, I felt on my own in this, and since I had consciously shifted my priorities from that life (of a Chronicle music critic type, slogging through show after show, consuming it like heroin, feeling that it was rare to hit on something life-changing but not wanting to give up the steady diet), I refocused and turned my attention to what this city and its surroundings have to offer.

I'm not changing that, necessarily. I'm still hooked on the wide open space and access of this empty state. But I don't have to shove music and the pursuit of that art form from my daily life. They can co-exist, and with the frenzied use of the internet within the music business nowadays, with the exception of a constant plethora of live shows, I can be as plugged-in here as I was in Austin. (And, to be fair, Boise's getting a much bigger and better selection of touring acts these days, which is very welcome.)

So. Good morning. Nice to hear you all again. Can't wait to find out what else is going on.