A year ago, I was working a job I despised. The job didn’t pay much, but by living on site, I got out of paying rent, so it evened out for the most part. I always had plenty of time to listen to new music, roam the internet for new music and news to post on the site, and always had the luxury of having plenty of extra cash around to buy basically however much new or used music I wanted. I never really understood why so many people were against buying music, to me throwing $30, $40, even $50 a month on music seemed like something (most) people should be able to do, especially the ones I personally knew who exclusively pirated music. I mean even one album, $10 a month seemed like nothing.
On March 16, 2012, my balls grew twice their normal size, and I (as nicely as I could) told my work to go screw themselves and quit. I moved from my cozy room in Fort Collins, down to Colorado Springs and became the 27-year-old uneducated metalhead who lived in his parent’s basement. Okay, so I had my degree and they didn’t have a basement, but if they did I would have been rocking out in it all night long. It was a rough and stressful two months with no job and no money. I found plenty of ways to keep occupied, and had some fun in the process, but overall I hung out, and listened to a LOT of music.
Two month later I had a job and moved to Denver. Got my own place, and gained back all those responsibilities I had forgotten about while under the parent’s roof. I soon realized I was back in the real world… bills, student loans, automobiles, insurance, and RENT. You know, the same shit that EVERYONE else deals with day in and day out. After a couple months on working, I found it hard to get ahead, still to this day, it’s hard to get ahead. I kept up for the most part with concerts and releases on Spotify and free streams, but realized my extra income wasn’t going towards buying music. Suddenly that $30, $40, or $50 a month isn’t a small number to me anymore. I’ve gone from one of those people who had the money to spend on music and told everyone else to buy stuff too, to the guy who relies heavily on Spotify and free streams the week of release to hear new music. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Actually, I feel pretty shitty about it. I’ve picked up a couple releases this year, and bought some used stuff as well, but nowhere near what I used to. The thing that bothers me the most is that I don’t have the TIME I used to have to listen to stuff.
I’ve embraced Spotify. I use it almost every day, even listening sometimes to items I OWN on there, just for the convenience. I’m still on the fence whether to fully buy digital, or keep buying CD’s. However I have no problem at all with the self funding bands are doing, in fact I think it’s awesome. I donated to the record-breaking indiegogo campaign Protest the Hero completed, and would easily do that again for a number of other bands I like. I guess I really have no clue where I’m going with this besides the fact that buying music really ISN’T as easy as it seems sometimes. I will right my wrongs though!
While I haven’t written much of anything, the year was packed full with moments of metal awesomeness. Plenty of shows, including mind-blowing awesomeness from Rammstein, a small club show from Trivium, last summer’s Mayhem Festival, and an awesome evening with Clutch on the night the world was supposed to explode, implode, or something generally bad or awesome was supposed to happen. Needless to say, we partied.
While I still love my metal, I’ve been exposed to a variety of new music, from solo acoustic awesomeness, to electronic jazz, but I’ll find a way to share that at some other point down the road. I guess this is just my way of saying I’m still alive and that will be back soon with stuff for the site. To all you other bloggers who work full time and still manage to post stuff every day, cheers! You ladies and gentleman are far better than I.
So, I’ll end this post with a song that describes how I felt writing this. If you can truly make it through this entire song without stopping, hit me up. I owe you some kind of gift.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no4nepUkn94
-Chris
