What I'm currently… (2023)

Some notes on what I’m currently listening to, reading, and thinking about (see the archives for entries from 2022).

What I’m reading shouldn’t be considered as recommendations—indeed, I often don’t enjoy them and don’t finish them. However, what I’m listening to definitely can be considered as recommendations.

For what I’m listening to, I typically link to YouTube for the songs—for lack of a better option. I highly suggest using the uBlock Origin browser extension (and the Firefox browser).

There is also a YouTube playlist of all the songs referred to below.

December, 2023

Listening to

New(ish) music from old favourites.

  • Grandaddy - Watercooler
    Grandaddy might be my favourite band at the moment — they scratch an itch that no other band does, or even tries to. This is the first single off their album coming out next year, “Blu Wav”, and I really like it. Hopefully bodes well for another great album. I’ve also been listening lately to their recently-released album of Sumday B-sides, Excess Baggage (e.g., Build A Box). The solo stuff from their frontman, Jason Lytle, is also great — e.g., Ghost Of My Old Dog and You’re Too Far Gone.
  • Built To Spill - Comes A Day
    Another band who is right up there with my favourites and is still making great music. Their album from last year, When The Wind Forgets Your Name, is consistently really good (the new bassist and drummer are great) — this track, the closer, being the best. A couple of other recommendations from that album are Alright (with a great example from about 2:07 and 3:13 of how they can lock into a groove that I could listen to go on forever) and Spiderweb (a bit of a different vocal approach for them, works really well).
  • Bonnie “Prince” Billy - Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
    I actually didn’t like his recent album titled Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You all that much — not that it was bad, just not particularly memorable. Maybe I need some more time with it. But although sharing the album name, this isn’t actually on the album (admittedly a pretty Will Oldham thing to do) — I like it quite a lot. I’ll have a lot more to say about the Will Oldham discography in the future.

Reading

Thinking about

  • I watched a stimulating talk by Cory Doctorow titled “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Ensh*ttification”, which got me thinking about the sorts of goals I have in tech and related spaces and prompted me to write a few down (I’m not suggesting that these should be anyone else’s). This topic has been particularly in-mind lately with the recent takeover of Bandcamp.
    • Use the Firefox browser and encourage its use by others to make sure it stays in the web browser conversation.
    • Use Linux rather than Windows or Mac OS.
    • The mobile phone ecosystem is just sad — minimise usage.
    • Have your own website that you host. Post stuff on it, whatever you like. Use RSS to let others know about new content, and follow the RSS feeds of others.
    • Ensure at least some version of your published work is freely available, such as via a pre-print server. Don’t pay ridiculous open-access fees to publishers.
    • Support businesses who resist conglomerate takeover or that provide an alternative. This includes things like software and hardware companies, independent breweries and music labels, websites, services, etc.
    • Use self or public transport where possible.
  • Feeling nostalgia for my first over-18’s gig: Mr. Bungle in 2000. This was at a small nightclub in Newcastle (Fanny’s, at the time), and we were pretty much the first ones into the venue. Mr. Bungle then proceeded to put on an amazing show, complete with a Mike Patton stagedive during the crescendo of Retrovertigo as the final song of the night (very briefly captured on video). This nostalgia has been brought on by the announcement of an upcoming Mr. Bungle tour — looking forward to seeing them in Melbourne in April!
  • Doing my first parkruns in six months or so — I have missed them.

November, 2023

Listening to

Some ‘unfashionable’ music that I enjoy.

  • The Cranberries - Dreams
    My favourite song of theirs, their first single. While the vocals are the most noted aspect of The Cranberries, the instrumentation is also great—which is more obvious in live versions (I used to watch that concert a lot; it was often on Channel V in the early days of pay television in Australia). Having said that, the vocals can also carry instrumentally-sparse songs like No Need To Argue. It is unfortunate that Zombie, being somewhat trite and unrepresentative of their broader catalogue, is their most well-known song. The earnest Ode To My Family is another highlight, as is Dreaming My Dreams (and its excellent cover by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy).
  • Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart
    Stone Temple Pilots started out in the grunge era and were unfortunately labelled as hangers-on within that genre. They never really fit in that mould though, and they have an impressive and diverse range of great songs—this song being a particularly good example (love the bass in particular). Big Bang Baby is another ripper from that era (again, the bass), but I was most familiar with them around the time of Purple—which had great songs like Interstate Love Song, Big Empty, and Still Remains. There are some good songs on their debut too; most notably, Plush and Creep.
  • Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
    I get why this sort of music is unfashionable, and I’m not generally one to go for bombast and theatrics—but I do really enjoy this album. My feeling for this sort of music is captured perfectly by Tom Breihan (in his great series The Number Ones for Stereogum) about another ripper with a Jim Steinman association, Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler:
    Nobody’s entirely sure what “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” is about, and nobody needs to know. “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” overwhelms the idea of songwriting specificity in the same way that a tidal wave overwhelms a rowboat. Spend enough time with “Total Eclipse,” and you might find yourself wondering if that isn’t the only way to write songs.
    Actually, I need to quote another section from that column:
    It’s pop music as heart-pounding, chest-thumping, blood-gargling, heavens-falling passion explosion. It’s sheer spectacle. It’s fireworks and lasers and lightning and thunder. It soars and swoops and barrel-rolls. The song flies along from one fiery climax to the next, and right when it seems like it’s about to end, it takes off again and somehow becomes even bigger.
    Back to Bat Out Of Hell (the album)—it is an album to listen to front-to-back, but I find the closer For Crying Out Loud to be a particularly interesting song.

Reading

Thinking about

  • My desktop computers are typically salvaged from machines heading to e-waste, which is fine for my mostly terminal-based interactions on Linux systems. However, it does mean that I can”t really play recent games and so I need to go back a decade or so if I want to play anything graphically-intensive. A consequence of this is that I find out about wonderful games long after they are released. My most recent example is having the pleasure of playing through Tomb Raider (the 2013 version). What a great game! Fun to play, intuitive controls, and very immersive—my fear of heights was strongly activated at many times while playing.
  • Does performance in running marathon distances reveal character? If so—and I think it might—I have failed that test once again. My planned solo marathon did not go to plan; I conked out at 35km and had to stop. Sore left hip and screaming stomach muscles, as usual, and bruised ribs from my vest and its water bottles—despite having trained hard this time, keeping to a program completely. But maybe I am just too quick to give up (relevant). Oh well, back to a regular training regime.
  • As mentioned previously, I have started cycling now that I have sold my car. I have bought myself a beautiful bike (a Surly from Minneapolis, which I take as a good sign—particularly as I used to drink Surly beer when I was there!). I’m slowly practicing and getting myself familiar and comfortable with riding again and gradually commuting to work. Happily, the cycling infrastructure is pretty good here in Melbourne—certainly much better than Sydney!

October, 2023

Listening to

With the recent death of one of the Stars of the Lid pair, an ambient theme this month. Note that Loscil would be on here, if I hadn’t talked about them a lot already.

Reading

Thinking about

  • I have sold my car and am enjoying being car(e)-free again. I am now in the market for a bicycle; mostly to commute to and from work, but also perhaps to travel around generally. I haven’t ridden a bike properly in, what, 25 years or more—so it will take a bit of time to build up skill and confidence again. But I’m looking forward to it.
  • I have been on the waitlist for the Melbourne Marathon on October 15, but it doesn’t look like I will get an entry. Oh well, I will run a solo marathon instead, probably along the great Merri Creek Trail for most of it.
  • I saw the movie The Banshees of Inisherin recently, and it is one of the most interesting movies I have seen in a long time—it keeps coming up in my thoughts. Siobhán is the best.

September, 2023

Listening to

For no particular reason, a few tracks about dogs.

Reading

Thinking about

  • I’ve bought a new running watch: a Garmin Forerunner 265S, to replace my old Garmin Forerunner 245 which, after around four years of great service, couldn’t hold a charge for longer runs with bluetooth headphones active.
    A few positive aspects of it:
    • It is nice to not have to worry about the battery going flat on longer runs.
    • I like waking up to the “Morning Report”, which is a neat feature.
    • The extended sleep, body, and running metrics are useful.
    • I like the smaller sized watch face.
    And a few disadvantages:
    • I find the AMOLED display harder to read while running in the dark (which is when I do most of my running)—a bit halo-ey and unstable.
    • The pace alerts on workouts seemingly can’t be turned off, and can be very annoying—particularly as they now seem to be based on the moment-to-moment pace rather than the average pace for a workout segment.
    • The weather widget seems very useful but is finicky about updating.
    • Having to perform a glance action to show the display (well, to have a longer battery life anyway) can be a bit annoying, particularly when the glance sensitivity seems a bit off.
  • Keen to see Alex G in concert in December.
  • Preparing and giving a talk to the Complex Human Data Hub at the University of Melbourne on my past perception research. Getting my head back into that space has been interesting.

August, 2023

Listening to

The theme this month (this has morphed into being theme-based rather than what I’m actually listening to, and I’m fine with that) is one-offs — songs that I love but only really listen to the one song by the musician.

Reading

Thinking about

July, 2023

Listening to

Apropos of nothing, a few of my favourite songs named “Untitled”.

  • Neutral Milk Hotel - Untitled
    I love this instrumental and bagpipe-laden track from one of my favourite bands (if not the favourite). It captures a lot of the Neutral Milk Hotel musical aesthetic and is genuinely rousing, in a critical point in the wonderful In The Aeroplane Over The Sea album just before the closer Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2. I think the musical side of Neutral Milk Hotel tends to be underappreciated, with Jeff Mangum’s voice and lyrics tending to take focus. I have seen Jeff Mangum solo twice (in New Jersey and Minneapolis) and both were great, but seeing the whole Neutral Milk Hotel band (in Sydney) was a completely different level of great—perhaps the best concert I have been to. I’ll write more about Neutral Milk Hotel in a future entry.
  • Palace Music - Untitled
    From one of Will Oldham’s projects (of which the best known is Bonnie “Prince” Billy), this is a great ramble of a live track. I love the looseness of a lot of the Palace stuff, and the album on which this track is from (Lost Blues and Other Songs) is a favourite of mine (see Ohio River Boat Song, Lost Blues, Come In). Incidentally, I am looking forward to seeing David Pajo (as Papa M), who played on some its tracks, live in September in Melbourne. The vinyl release of the record contains a poster that I used to have on my wall; interestingly, so did Nick Sobotka in the under-rated Season 2 of The Wire. That reminds me of the appearance of a Liars poster in Julie Taylor’s room in Friday Night Lights (and I agree with the Liars that Tyra Collette would have been a more likely Liars listener; and Matt Saracen, of course). Again, I will write more about Will Oldham (and Liars) in a future entry.
  • Interpol - Untitled
    I find Interpol to be a bit uneven, but they can be great at their best — such as this song, the opener to their debut Turn On The Bright Lights. That album has some other great tracks also, such as NYC and The New (particularly the first half). Their follow-up, Antics, was a bit more consistent — with highlights such as Take You On A Cruise and Public Pervert. I think Wrecking Ball was the only real highlight on their subsequent album, even given that it had a track referencing the great White Noise novel by Don DeLillo. I lost touch with them after that album.

Reading

Thinking about

June, 2023

Listening to

I now work in an open-plan office, which has taken a bit of getting used to — headphones and music have been critical to being able to focus. Not including the venerable and highly-recommended musicforprogramming.net, the theme this month is music that I have been listening to at work.

Reading

Thinking about

May, 2023

Listening to

A covers theme this month.

  • Tool - No Quarter (Led Zeppelin)
    Tool should do more covers—based on the strength of this song, at least, which is one of the best tracks in their whole catalogue. I wonder if having the constraints of an existing song might rein in some of their more excessive tendencies. This track is just great.
  • Gillian Welch and David Rawlings - Abandoned Love (Bob Dylan)
    Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are among the best exponents of the cover song, with many great renditions—indeed, this song comes from a whole album of covers: All The Good Times (Are Past & Gone). I love the looseness of this song—does Gil not know the words and go with the vibe at points?—and the serendipitous ending of running out of tape. Of course, it is also a great song (though I don’t actually know much about Bob Dylan). Some more examples of their great covers are Hello In There (John Prine), Method Acting / Cortez the Killer (Bright Eyes / Neil Young), The Weight (The Band) (I love how much fun Gil is having in this), I’ll Fly Away (traditional), and Pochahontas (Neil Young).
  • Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)
    I think an underappreciated aspect of Nirvana, particularly for those who grew up with them as I did, is how much they used their spotlight to draw attention to other bands through their covers. Indeed, 6 of the 14 songs on their classic MTV Unplugged in New York album (from which this song is drawn) are covers. In addition to this fantastic rendition there are others in the Unplugged session like Oh Me (The Meat Puppets) and Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Leadbelly). Elsewhere, other great covers of theirs are The Money Will Roll Right In (Fang), Love Buzz (Shocking Blue), D-7 (The Wipers), and Turnaround (Devo).

Reading

Thinking about

  • Experimenting with an AI-driven running platform, TrainAsONE.
  • The best way to have a Linux-like environment on a work-issued Windows computer. I have been pleasantly surprised by Windows Terminal.
  • Using dask to work with data that is too big to fit into memory.

April, 2023

Listening to

In keeping with my recent relocation, the theme this month is musicians from Melbourne (or Victoria at least).

Reading

Thinking about

March, 2023

Listening to

Reading

Thinking about

February, 2023

Listening to

An early–mid 2000’s theme this month.

Reading

Thinking about

January, 2023

Listening to

An Icelandic music theme, as this month will be 20 years since I left Reykjavík after spending a semester as an exchange student at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands).

Reading

Thinking about

  • jsPsych
  • I popped a tyre while driving over the holidays; I wish I either knew more about cars or did not need to drive them.
  • A review of an enjoyable year of running in 2022:
    • Total distance: 1934km
    • Run locations: Bathurst, NSW (215); Little Bay, NSW (16); Wangaratta, VIC (8); Jindabyne, NSW (3); Lithgow, NSW (3); Forster, NSW (2); Albury, NSW (1); Carcoar, NSW (1); Firefly, NSW (1); Orange, NSW (1); Valentine, NSW (1); Warners Bay, NSW (1).