What is Mike up to these days?

Okay, so here's part number 2 in a 500-part series... "What is Mike Up To?" If you somehow missed the chance to have your life, your beliefs, your very soul changed by reading my first submission, here's the link to catch up.

You're welcome.

Pure and simple, I'm going to give you a list of some of the things that have caught my attention/obsession over the last month or so, just in case any of you out there in web-land care to know. And, in case you don't care, you can click here or here to go to much more fun ways to kill time.

(If you followed those links, I've already suckered you into doing what I suggest! Muah-ha-ha-ha...*cough* *hack*... that was my best attempt at an evil laugh. I think I hurt a lung. Let's move on...)

The Best of 2007

It's been suggested by a wonderful, faithful reader that I write more about music, which actually surprised me, because normally when I start talking about music in a bar, everyone around me either decides to go to the bathroom or their eyes glaze over and they start staring at the shapes the foam makes on their glasses. But maybe things are different when I talk about them on the 'net... so here goes nothing...

(Wait, what's that sound? Hundreds of mice clicking away from my site?)

Anyways, I used to compile top-10 lists of the year's best music, but I'm not going to do that this year. It's actually a ton of work because, heaven help you if the list doesn't stand up to the test of time or you leave something out. So, instead of giving you my top 10, 25 or 50... I'll give you links to some experts with much better ideas on what you should be buying:

Woxy's top 97 of 2007
eMusic.com Listeners' and Editors' choices
AllMusic.com's alphabetized list and their Editors' Picks
Pitchfork's staffers' favorites
Spin's random selection of 50 albums that contain no surprises and a sucky, cop-out #1 pick


And, while I'm not going to do my own list, I will give you a list of albums that would probably make it and you should go buy. In no particular order:

Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City
I found it extremely surprising that this record didn't show up on anyone's top-2007 list and I have to chalk that up to the band being a victim of its own success. Their debut, Silent Alarm, was THE ALBUM of 2005 - the one everyone bought, everyone loved, everyone talked about. So, when 2007 rolled around, everyone was Bloc Partied out.

That's too bad, because A Weekend in the City is a great album. It still rocks with the band's signature, frenetic, alt-punk energy, but has some lovely ephemeral touches painted on its canvas. It's as if the politically minded band is now less concerned with blowing up the world and more interested in bandaging the wounds it perceives. Solid.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I arrived to Spoon late, having bought Kill the Moonlight last year and then forgetting to listen to it (a really bad habit of mine). I finally did crack the spine on the CD case when their latest record dropped and all the indie sites started buzzing with glowing reviews.

Let's just say that Spoon is now one of my favorite bands.

The Texan trio isn't supremely talented in any one aspect... vocals aren't outstanding, music is simply arranged and hardly uses more than four or five chords a song, lyrics are fun but not special... but they do know how to be a band. The guys work function well together and don't try to push the envelope further than they can deliver (yes, I just mixed two cliched postal metaphors).

If you want a free sample of their music, I can burn you a copy or you could just rent Stranger Than Fiction (solid flick and the soundtrack is mostly Spoon songs). If you're not singing Spoon's songs in your head the next day, then I'll give you your money for this post back.

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
This disc should come with a warning label - "Listen at your own risk. Kings of Leon is not responsible for any injuries sustained by bourbon-drinking, beard-growing, tight-jeans-wearing boogieing down while listening to this album."

Because that's exactly what happens. I find myself having to shave every time I listen to this Southern rock masterpiec and that has really worn down the blades on my Mach 3.





Radiohead - In Rainbows

It's Radiohead. Tons of people have written about it. Go out and buy it, you'll like it.

(By the way, I wrote about this album in a previous post, so feel free to check that out, too.)









Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
I have a thing for acoustic, singer-songwriters. Maybe it's because I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, so I can be the center of attention at every coffeehouse, fireplace and drum circle I visit.

Bird probably put out the best solo project of the year. His light, airy guitarwork accompanies twisting, complicated lyrics perfectly... he doesn't try to overdo anything. It's the perfect cloudy-day album (and Lord knows we'll have enough of those in the next few months).

And, in case this isn't enough to keep you entertained and Santa's given you more dough than you know what to do with, go buy: The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, Raine Maida - The Hunter's Lullaby, The National - Boxer, Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War and, yes, even Paul McCartney's "my career isn't dead yet" release - Memory Almost Full.

Once You Pop, You Can't Stop

Even though it looks like microwaved popcorn may cause deadly lung diseases (see this story, about a guy who eats two bags a day and will now die because of it, but not before winning a giant lawsuit), I'm still eating more of it than ever.

Why, you ask? Well, it's because of this - Mr. Orville Redenbacher's delicious Natural Buttery Salt and Cracked Pepper. Oh. My. Goodness. It is the most amazing snack I have ever microwaved. If you could make something taste like stardust, rainbows and cute puppies, this would be it (except for the dog parts).

AND it's good for you! It comes in individual-serving bags that are under 200 calories. The popped kernels aren't covered in that fake orange butter-like substance, rather they are "all-natural popping corn" and are lightly salted with a hit of butter taste and sprinkled with pepper for some yummy kick. The flavors are natural, too, so this stuff is actually good for you. At least it's marketed that way.

So, yes, of course I eat two of them at a a time while drinking beer and sitting on my couch, but I could be injecting black tar heroin, so it's not the worst thing ever.

Christmas Cards

No, I don't send them out. But I have gotten quite a lot, which means that... A) I might be popular and B) my friends are apparently getting older and doing more "adult" things. I feel as if I should be doing the same, but I'll probably wait it out... My thinking is I should be married and have a shot taken of myself, my spouse and my Labrador retriever all wearing matching sweaters and sipping cocoa first.

Because, right now, my picture would probably be me alone, wearing sweatpants and a flap hat and shoveling my parents' driveway.

Once I get a shot of that, I'll put it up here for you all to appreciate.

Seriously, though, thank you to everyone kind enough to send me a card... I've put them up on my bedroom dorm, a la dorm style 2000. They make me cheery and holiday spirity in the morning, when I'm stumbling out of bed and groping for the shower and coffee.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season

And while we're on the subject of J.C.'s birthday, I just finished reading Lee Strobel's best-seller, A Case for Christ.

Without getting all religious on you, I do highly recommend this one. Heck, if you want to borrow my copy, you're more than welcome to. Just shoot me an email (or, better yet, leave me a comment! I love comments! And exclamation points!) and I'll send it over to you.

Here's the thing... too often, people get all in a tizzy about different faiths and religions without really researching their background from a open and, for lack of a better term, academic mind. This book takes care of that, when it comes to Christianity... it visits the questions of Did Jesus Exist? Are the Gospels historically accurate? Did early Christianity draw on other, more ancient, religious traditions? Are there other, non-Biblical, sources that can confirm the historicity of things like Christ's birth, death and resurrection?

It's a fast read in itself and simply touches on the surface of many of these questions, but does give resources for additional research. I'll leave it at that, but I do think that this book is more than worthwhile for anyone who's questioning some of religion's big questions or just looking to know more about Christianity.

Chris Carrabba is killing my street cred...

I fancy myself to be a sort of music snob. I'm kind of proud of it, in fact. One of my (sad?) life's little pleasures is to hand someone my iPod and have them tell me one of the following:

A) "Wow! You have a ton of music!" (To which I nonchalantly toss off a "Oh, that, well, you should have seen it before I reorganized.)

B) "I've never heard of any of these bands." (To which, I always respond, "You must have completely crappy taste in music," but never out loud.)

C) "Wow! Your record collection is amazing!" (To which, I nod and ask what their latest purchase was and then we can bond over our shared delight in that disc and collective hatred of all things Snow Patrol.)

There are problems with my snobbishness, though. And not because it leaves people thinking I have a giant stick up my cornhole. That, I can live with.

No, the real problem is liking a band that you know is crappy, the trendily-tattooed, ironically-coiffed clerk at Newbury Comics knows is crappy, heck, even my mom knows is crappy. How are you supposed to maintain any sort of indie credibility with such obvious bad taste in your CD stacks?

I'm not talking about artists like, say, Justin Timberlake who are so-uncool-they're-cool-to-like. For those guys (I'd also include: Michael Jackson, Styx, Northern State and maybe Kelly Clarkson in this category), you're not cool if you think they're not cool but in a totally uncool sense, get it? And, let's face it, J-Tims is downright catchy and did put on one heck of a show back in August at the Garden. (Check out this clip... during the bridge, he starts to cover Ryan Adams. Yes, Ryan F-ing Adams.)

Back to the point, though. I'm talking about the artists that make "those of us with taste" recoil a bit... Britney, the Killers, Matchbox20, the Fray, John Mayer et al. Like a band in that category and you instantly drop down a couple notches with the people who know what's up.

This causes some problems. Like this week, for instance. Dashboard Confessional released its 4th full-length. And I wanted to buy it.

For those of you not familiar with Dashboard, it's basically the project of singer/songwriter Chris Carrabba. Carrabba's strained vocals, furiously strummed acoustic guitars and lyrics about lost love appeal mainly to 14-year-old girls. Oh, and dudes who like having sex with other dudes, as the joke goes.

So how am I, a self-respecting music aficionado, who listens to Woxy.com faithfully, reads Mojo, avoids pop radio and had hundreds of CDs organized alphabetically AND chronologically, supposed to walk into a record store and buy that album (on the day it comes out no less)?

Every time Dashboard comes out with a new record, I'm faced with that conundrum. The last time, I wound up buying three other discs (all of which were artsy, underground bands worth of hype and respect) and stuck the other in the middle. It made me feel better; the clerk couldn't judge me! Look what great taste I had! That Dashboard one was probably for my girlfriend or sister or maybe I was out of coasters for my DIY furniture?

But this time around, I couldn't do that again. A) because I'm broke B) because I sold my CD collection and don't really want to buy more discs and C) nothing else came out this week that I really wanted.

So, all Monday, I steeled my reserve as I prepared to walk into the store to *gasp* buy the album.

First, I thought about stealing it... but I don't steal and how embarrassing would that be to get caught with that record? It'd be like stealing a Sam's Choice bottle of soda from Wal-Mart.

I considered about giving cash to one of the homeless guys outside the store to get it for me, but Newbury Comics is right above a liquor store and I don't trust a crackhead to determine the finite differences between "MadDog 2020" and "Dashboard Confessional" or "Drinking it all down" and "Giving it to the person who gave me the money."

Also, I thought about maybe distracting the clerk by asking if they were going to the Minus the Bear show that week at the Middle East, or when Tokyo Police Club's full-length was due, but then I figured that minimizing my time and, hence, potential embarrassment would be a better idea.

Seriously, I thought about this all day. What else was I supposed to do? I was at work and all the internet and phones were down... (How the heck did people do anything before the Internet?)

But I was unable to think up a non-humiliating way to go about buying the CD myself. I just had to do it. I would have to walk in there, go to the rack as fast as possible and hand the disc and a credit card to the cashier and hope they didn't burst into a fit of giggling while I shamefully studied the gum stains on the carpet.

Listlessly, I surfed the web in front of SportsCenter that night. Even my resolve to live had tucked its tail between its legs, it was so ashamed of me. I was going to have to pay good money to get a CD that I'd probably like. Even knowing that I'd like it brought waves of nausea to my stomach and redness to my cheeks. Oh, the shame!

But then, I remembered that my month's subscription to eMusic.com had rolled over the week before. I had 40 downloads once again... and maybe, just maybe I'd be able to download the record. It was a long shot and I didn't have much hope - the major labels have been pretty slow to sign on with the website, which is okay because it gives their editors more space to tell me about the next all-girl, new wave band from Zimbabwe who combine a love of the Cure with references to pre-Pink Album Boris or some crap like that.

But then...

Right there on the front page...

Joy of joys! It was there! And I could download it without having to have any clerk stare me down, bringing my self-esteem crashing to the floor!

Thank God for the Internet...

Okay, so maybe it's all right to just enjoy something because you enjoy it. Music doesn't have to be about snobbery, even if it is kind of a sick pleasure to delight in that aspect. it should be about expressing personal choice and taste. I guess what's really important to remember that if you like it, then buy it.

Oh, and that my collection is so much better than yours.

To sell or not to sell?

My goodness, that's an awful and uninventive title... I apologize for making you read such tripe.

But, screw it, there are more important things to talk about.

I heart music. I really do. I spend way too much money going to concerts; for example, I'm seeing Tool for the second time this tour with my lady friend next week and I dropped $150 for tickets to see them in the exact same place, supporting the exact same album in almost the exact same seats that I did last September. I subscribe to eMusic.com and actually have a monthly allotment in my budget for "music" (this became necessary one month after spending all of my "food" money on CDs).

I bought a 60-gig iPod the day it came out, which was, at the time, the MOST POWERFUL PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER IN THE WORLD. And, even now, is pretty sweet. I also have an external hard-drive for the sole purpose of storing all of my ripped music files, because they won't actually all fit on my laptop.

To go along with all of this, I have an extensive CD collection, too. It's one I've been working on for over a decade... starting with buying my first CD player and CD (Newsboys, "Take Me to Your Leader" when I was 12.

I'm not entirely sure how many albums I own, but it's somewhere between 500-600. And that's after periodic culling of artists I don't listen to and re-selling them to my local Newbury Comics.

All told, these stacks of shiny discs in jewel cases has taken me years to amass and cost roughly the same as a halfway-decent car.

I baby that collection, too. The CDs are stored in those portable, zippered, faux-leather cases which are all alphabetized by artist, and then arranged chronologically. Heck, I even bought racks just to display the cases in my room, in case anyone wanted to be impressed by my eclectic taste while perusing my room.

I clean the discs before and after each use, ensure there are no scratches, make sure each is placed back into the space it came out of (right side up, as well). I hate loaning them out and I only do it to people who I know well and where they live. So I can kill them if they scratch one of them.

But now, I'm thinking of getting rid of my collection.

(Ouch. It pains me to think of such things.)

It all started with my brother, actually... he got me hooked on eMusic - but it wasn't hard to get suckered in. For $10 a month, the site will give you 40 downloads a month (actually, they just cut back new subscribers to 30, but it's still a good deal) and it has a ton of indie rock stuff that I like to listen to.

Also - and I hope no spies from eMusic are reading this - but all you need to download another user's purchased tracks are their login and password. Brian and I have traded this, and so we've doubled our monthly downloads to 80 apiece.

That's a ton of music... basically two albums a week. It's a lot to digest and, in fact, I've been downloading stuff and then forgetting to listen to it for months on end.

It's also put a damper on my weekly trips to Newbury Comics and the other record stores I used to frequent - why buy a CD when you could just download it for free? And, even when I had to buy it, most of the time iTunes or eMusic was a cheaper option. I really want to support my guys in the record shops and I do get a little thrill every time I crack open some fresh liner notes, but I don't make a ton of money, am trying to save up to pay of school loans and buy a place... every little bit helps.

Brian's in the same boat. He actually just sold his collection (almost as extensive as mine, ha) for $550 to Second Spin - enough to give him and his wife a nice, little first anniversary celebration and a terrific B&B in New Hampshire and buy some other new gadgets and such.

It got me thinking... albeit ruefully... about selling mine. I mean, c'mon, think of the things I could be buying with that money! And what would I really be losing? I don't own a CD player for my apartment (the closest thing I have to a system is my sister's desktop, which is hooked up to some of my speakers and a sub), can use my iPod in the car and haven't even really looked at any of the cases or pulled the CDs out of their sleeves in forever.

But selling my collection means letting go - giving away my anal obsession of alphabetizing and organizing, losing the ability to show off hundreds of jewel cases and breaking the delightful habit of browsing record store bins on the weekends or my lunch break.

Let's face it... the best-selling CD of last year was a blank one. Maybe, like the 8-track and the LP, the CD's heyday is in the past. Perhaps it's time to cut my losses and run.

Besides, if I do get an iPhone, I'd have a new obsession to replace the old one, right?

To be continued...