Answers for Steven Hyden
8:27 AM
1. Who are your favorite artists? Do you listen to any classic rock or other artists who were active before your time?
My favorite genre of
music is rock n roll, meaning that the vast majority of the music I listen to
is way before my time. My favorite band of all time is The Replacements, who
released my favorite album ever, Let It Be, in 1984. This was twelve years
before I was born. My second favorite band is Big Star. Big Star is pretty much
the standard by which I hold all "good" music now, and they peaked
even before my parents were coherent enough to have opinions on music.
The other two bands
who have had the biggest influence on me as a music lover are The Beatles and
Nirvana. The first CD I remember buying is The Beatles' 1 when I was in sixth
grade. Listening to a collection of the Beatles' finest tunes was my gateway
into the music of yesterday. Up until that point, I was into bands like The
Killers and Coldplay (who I still like and will be seeing live this summer for
the first time). I realize it is absurdly cliche, but The Beatles are the band
that got me INTO MUSIC. They taught me what it means to be a good songwriter
and how improvement it is to have variety in your sound. I mean, come on.
They're the fucking Beatles.
As a VERY angsty teen,
listening to Kurt Cobain poetically whine was soothing to my soul. I will never
forget the first time I heard Nirvana - I was "grounded" and my mom
took away all my electronics except the radio. I was listening to Milwaukee's
most popular alternative station and "Lithium" came on. I was
immediately OBSESSED. I read books about Nirvana, watched movies about Nirvana,
and listened to Nirvana nonstop. There was a point where I felt like I could
probably write my OWN book about Kurt Cobain because I had acquired so much
knowledge being obsessed with him and Nirvana. A large chunk of the music I
currently listen to can be traced back to Nirvana and the bands Kurt would
often reference in interviews and in his writing. Bands such as The Pixies, The
Stooges, The Buzzcocks, Sonic Youth, The Clash, etc. are bands I listened to
via Kurt's recommendation, and are bands I still love today (and, frankly,
listen to way more than Nirvana. I overdid it, man. I still love them, but I
can barely force myself to finish one side of the Unplugged LP). Pretty much
every band I like can be somehow traced back to The Beatles, Nirvana, or The
Replacements.
My favorite era of
music, though, would have to be the proto punk era. Bands like The Stooges,
MC5, Television, Modern Lovers, Death (from Detroit), Richard Hell & The
Voidoids, etc. created a sound that created a movement and changed the course
of music. It's just difficult for me to call any of these bands my favorite
because it's hard to be obsessed with bands who had such short life spans
(compared to bands like The Replacements and The Beatles who each have tons of
albums and very rich histories).
Beside the previously
mentioned bands, other artists I listen to a lot are The Beach Boys, Thin
Lizzy, Neil Young, David Bowie, and a lot of local Milwaukee bands. The
contemporary bands I love the most are Downtown Boys, GLOSS, Parquet Courts,
Pussy Riot, Sheer Mag, and Screaming Females.
2. To what degree do
you care about seeing bands live? Have you been to any concerts yet? Do you
feel that it's important to see a band live in order to "get" them?
I went to my first
concert when I was seven years old. I won tickets from Radio Disney (does that
still exist?) and saw Aaron Carter. My second concert was when I was eight, and
I saw the Beach Boys. This is obviously pretty fucking cool in hindsight, even
though I don't remember much about it. (I bought tickets to see Brian Wilson
perform "Pet Sounds" in full this summer at Pitchfork Music Festival.
I can't wait!!!!)
I didn't start to go
to shows regularly until high school, and didn't start going to shows A LOT
until the past two years or so. According to the "Bands I've Seen
Live" note on my phone, I've seen 127 live performances in my 19 years. Is
that a lot? I don't know.
I love going to shows,
and try to go to as many as I can between work/school/not being 21. Being an
under age music fan in Milwaukee sucks. The three all ages DIY venues that
existed /ALL GOT SHUT DOWN/ in the past year, and no one under 21 is allowed to
go to bar shows because of Milwaukee's very strict tavern license laws. As of
late, my show options here are quite limited. However, I recently started
working at a Milwaukee music/theater venue group, so I get paid to go to shows
now, which is of course awesome (even though they don't really book too many
artists I would actually want to see).
As far as
"getting" bands via seeing them goes, I have had many bands ruined
for me after seeing them live. Despite my lengthy Nirvana paragraph, I listened
to a lot of indie/Pitchfork/Tumblr-ish hype bands in high school (think Vampire
Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, Best Coast, WAVVES, The Vaccines... I can't even
remember most of them now). Two bands I saw that stand out in particular are
Vampire Weekend and Best Coast. I was a pretty big fan of bands, and both put
on very disappointing live shows. I'm pretty sure their sub par performances
were partly why I distanced myself from that sect of music (Also because I've
listened to a lot of much better music since that time, but still).
Today, I much prefer
seeing bands live and THEN listening to their recordings instead of the other
way around. The reason I listen to a lot of Milwaukee bands is because I've
seen their performances at street festivals, the (now extinct) all ages venues,
bars (sometimes...), pretty much wherever I can. For me, it is much more
rewarding to see a band live, think they're pretty good, go home and listen to
their recordings, and find out they're GREAT. It's very disheartening to be a fan
of a band for years, see them live, and find out they actually aren't that
great and are fortunate to have auto tune.
3. I'm really curious
to see what younger people think about albums, i.e. do you listen to albums
from front to back, or do you end to sample here and there or construct
playlists? Do you think about albums the way you would a novel or a film?
I am a very firm
believer in listening to albums front to back. I think they are pieces of art
and are meant to be experienced as a whole, not in separate pieces. The analogy
I often use is "I wouldn't only look at one tenth of a painting, so why
would I only listen to one out of ten songs on an album?" I also wouldn't
only read one chapter of a book or only watch the beginning of a movie. Albums
are constructed by artists in a certain way for a certain reason, and I want to
experience them the way that the artist intended.
I'm not really into
making playlists unless they are for special occasions. I made my high school
prom date a playlist that spelled out "WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME".
I made my best friend a playlist of "Songs that define our friendship"
for her birthday. I'm going on a road trip next week to see Beach Slang/Potty
Mouth/Dyke Drama. I'll probably make a playlist for that. I don't even like
listening to music on shuffle most of the time.
If you made it all the
way to the end, thanks for reading. Nobody ever really asks me these questions,
so this was a nice chance to discuss these topics in depth. Hopefully you can
use some of this.
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