There’s a cool project going on this week, if you’re inclined to join in on those sorts of things.  People all around the internet are taking part in Music Diary 2012.  For one week, from May 7 through May 13 we’re taking note of when, where, what, and why we listen to music.  You can read more about it at the NPR Music Tumblr (which is a cool thing to follow just because) and the blog that started it.  I’m a sucker for things like this, so I’m going to do it.  I’ll make one post a day with what I listened to on the previous day and any reasons or commentary as I see fit.  I’d love to see what you guys are listening to as well.

Monday, May 7

Whenever I’m in my car the iPod is plugged in.  It’s usual setting is just shuffle on my ‘Sing It Out’ playlist.  So on the way in to work in the morning yesterday it ran through:

  • Mumford & Sons – Dust Bowl Dance
  • Panic! at the Disco – But It’s Better If You Do
  • Cursive – Art is Hard
  • Cobra Starship – You’re Not In On The Joke
  • Empires – Damn Thing’s Over
  • Ramona Falls – Melectric

At lunch Alli and I headed out to Urban Hibachi.  Urban Hibachi is not one of those restaurants whose music I really pay attention to or even notice.  It’s usually set lower than the chatter of the patrons.  However, because I knew I was going to be logging the music I listened to this week I tried to pay a bit of attention to it.  It was mostly jangly pop/techno that I don’t really enjoy.  The kind with saccharine sweet female vocalists singing about love or getting it on on the dance floor.  (Have you ever tried to get it on on the dance floor?  It seems like an awkward place to do that to me.)  But then, incongruously, I picked up on

  • The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army

That mostly reminded me of how I really love the Glitch Mob Remix of Seven Nation Army that they play in the trailers for the new GI Joe film.  I have no interest in the GI Joe film, but I would really like that version of the song to play when I enter rooms.  I’ll have to work on learning how to override PA systems.

In the afternoon I was feeling pretty terrible about just being me.  When my co-worker went to lunch and left me alone in the library I did what I do in most times of trouble and brought up a whole slew of Decemberists music on Grooveshark to console myself with.  I find Colin Meloy’s voice strangely comforting.  I didn’t keep track of everything it played, but I know I heard

  • The Decemberists – The Bandit Queen
  • The Decemberists – Down By the Water
  • The Decemberists – Rox in the Box
  • The Decemberists – The Chimney Sweep
  • The Decemberists – Tain (Parts I, II, III, IV, and V)

I turned that off when she came back, because I try not to be a total douche to my co-workers.  Because I hadn’t gotten a chance to listen to my current favorite Decemberists song though, I toggled my iPod over to their artist directory when I got into the car in order to search for it.  I wanted ‘This is Why We Fight’, but Castaways and Cutouts is in my iPod before The King is Dead, so I got hung up on

  • The Decemberists – Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect

I just let it shuffle through their discography from there for the rest of the way home.

I didn’t figure I’d listen to much music after I got home.  I usually spend at home media time catching up on my YouTube subscriptions and the TV from the day before.  My YouTube subscriptions do sometimes pleasantly surprise me with music, though, so I had the pleasure of seeing

Lindsey Stirling is a pop violinist.  Or at least, that’s what I suppose we call her.  Her videos are usually wonderful, though.  My favorite is still Shadows, because it calls to mind Peter Pan.

I initially decided to keep this Music Diary here instead of somewhere else, because I was going to make myself write a fictional drabble every day using one of the locations and some of the music.  I may still for the rest of the week, but I didn’t really get to sleep last night and when I did I had a really disturbing dream, so I am just not in a small writing state of mind.  Hopefully I can be better about that tomorrow.

So, friends and denizens of the internet, what did you listen to yesterday?