20 Years Gone, or "How I miss the CD"
My new favorite band these days is Silversun Pickups. Their newest CD, Swoon, is one of those that I can play beginning to end and be left wanting more when it's done. I can't believe I just heard them for the first time a few months ago. After hearing one song off of Swoon on XM one day - I think it was "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone", I bought the download of the whole disc from the Zune Marketplace. (The previous months before, I had heard OF their first single from this one, "Panic Switch", but never gave it or "Silversun Pickups" a second thought.) I was totally and completely hooked. Swoon actually made me feel 20 years younger as soon as I heard track #1 - "There's No Secrets This Year." It immediately brought back memories of listening to "Gish" from the Smashing Pumpkins for the very first time. (OK, Gish is from 1991, but close enough to 20 years.) Each and every track is awesome. But after listening for weeks to the downloaded Swoon at work, with headphones, in the truck...LOUD...I was left wanting MORE.
http://www.silversunpickups.com/ Yes, once I discovered Silversun Pickups, I quickly bought the downloads of their previous releases, and even started hunting down live and acoustic versions of whatever I could find, but I really wanted MORE from what I was listening to - SONICALLY. After spending so much time over the past few years to rip and digitize my music collection, I felt like the downloaded purchase of Swoon SHOULD have sounded better. Like it was meant to sound better. And I was convinced that it was likely engineered to sound better, too. I must admit, I didn't purchase it from iTunes, so maybe it would have sounded better. But when it came right down to it, I wasn't going to be satisfied until I tested the CD for myself. When I finally couldn't listen to it (SONICALLY) anymore, I went straight after work that day to the big box with the guys in Blue and Yellow and purchased the CD. It was an unbelievable NIGHT AND DAY difference. Listening loud, listening quiet, it was all there. the high end that was missing, the crunch of the high hats, the clearer thumping of the bass - the full spectrum of sound. WOW. Have my ears become that accustomed to ripped music that I forgot what a CD sounded like? Streaming music, Satellite Radio, the iPod, the Zune, the Blackberry - all for convenience. Space in the house...space in the truck...space in my pocket. I guess I really had to fall in love with something new and fresh to my ears - or more honestly, a familiar sound from nearly twenty years past when the CD ruled, and we were on the cusp of learning how to burn our own CD's - to really appreciate where we've come from. I don't despise where we are now, or how we listen to music these days. I owned, 8-tracks, vinyl, cassettes, CD's, MiniDics, DATs, and MP3's, just like I've owned VHS, (skipped Beta), LaserDisc, DVD's, and now Blu-Ray's. I do believe that forward progress is making things better. But I will always still be a bit of a "stereophile", with my big speakers and separate subwoofer. There is a time a place for everything, my friends. And this little journey just reminded me that sometimes, it never hurts to feel young again. Listen to a CD tomorrow - the old fashioned way.
