Sounds inside

Sitting here late on a Sunday afternoon, I'm immersed in working and playing on the internet, and as always, music of some kind accompanies me. Being a music freak in general, and having been a club/coffeehouse/backroom/radio DJ over the years as well, I'm acutely aware of how my listening choices affect my mood and my ability to process other types of information.

Consequently, it can actually be a bit daunting to put something on, because I see the next hour of my life unfolding before me and I know the music will help to shape my state of mind. Silly, perhaps? Yeah, I always marvel at how I can listen to seemingly anything coming out of the speakers when I'm out at a coffee shop with my laptop, and still think deep thoughts and type long, overwrought sentences. But when I'm at home, the music takes on a more direct role, for some reason. It's just one of those strange things.

So, do I put on a long-time favorite like Sun Electric's Kitchen, which is guaranteed to get my neurons firing at a rapid clip as my fingers hunt and peck over the keyboard? Do I go with the pleasingly eccentric and eclectic compilation from the Swarf Finger label that I bought last year, which led to me to some really nice stuff from the likes of Spleen/Rob Ellis (like his Soundtrack to Spleen album, which is full of interesting sonic experiments and features guest vocals from longtime collaborator PJ Harvey)? Do I go with one of the first three albums from Norway's Bel Canto, releases that have stayed with me and proven their mettle for well over a decade? Or last year's Blue Eyed in the Red Room from Boom Bip, something I encountered on the Current when they first went on the air? Or my favorite Art Blakey/James Moody CD, New Sounds, with tracks that were released in 1948 but sound as fresh and exuberant as the first Clash album?

It's hard, it's really hard some days. Sometimes I fret about it, feeling like anything I put on, much as I like it, feels all wrong - or discovering that what I feel I want to hear actually eliminates any possibility that I'll be able to focus on my work. Then I often switch to radio, and am reminded for the thousandth time that I'd be lost without KSJN, and hosts/DJs like Valerie Kahler, Jeff Esworthy and Bill Morelock, people who've made life considerably more compelling at 9PM or 3:30AM or whenever else over the years. (As for the Current, that's a whole 'nother topic, but props to Mark Wheat, Kevin Beacham, and the Rhythm Lab for keeping things fresh in the Twin Cities... more on that station to come in a future post, no doubt.)

But now the stereo's gone silent, and the sound of my fingers hitting the keyboard is accompanied by the hum of the refrigerator and the cars sloshing through the wet, snowy streets outside.