You know you're getting old when...

I have a lot of catching up to do, I suspect. I realised this when I saw Donnie Darko and wanted to go out and buy Tears For Fear's back catalogue... gah.

and the clouds were australian, and it sounded like they were smiling superior go-gos types (like the pixies used to smile cf: curt cobain)

who cares what mags from overseas are recommending when it cames to big production techniques paradoxically applied to dirge rock -- at least the birthdy party had humour

People of a certain era (we are the same age, it seems) appear to have been almost programmed to look for certain things in music - is it also the *texture* thing for you?

I *crave* texture in music. So much of this neo-retro-rock (Future Rock N Roll? Oh, please! Why does it all sound so much like the 80s, then?) just lacks texture to me. I don't hate it cause it's derivative or whatever, it just doesn't move me cause it hasn't got that texture that I like so much.

Me, I've moved even further backwards. I can't stop listening to this 60's bubblegum compilation that a friend burned me. I've no idea who any of the artists are, but I suppose that's the *point* of bubblegum. No one goes, "Oh, this is Wrigleys, or this is M&Ms/Mars" they just go "aaaahhhh, grape flavoured bubblegum, this tastes so GOOD!"

But, erm, yeah. If you're getting old, we're all getting old at the same speed.

This is getting old. Trust me. It is really fucking depressing. Sorry guys.

I *totally* get what you're saying. I couldn't understand why people were getting so worked up about BRMC. Just got this overwhelming sense of "they're not even doing it WELL..."

Maybe there really *is* no original music or art or anything left in the world, and each generation of pop music has to reinvent the wheel and we're just sitting here, going "man, wheels are so Neolithic, man..."

I don't necessarily crave originality, I mean, I'd go off and listen to Peruvian noseflute music if I wanted to hear something I'd never heard before. But you're right, it does get harder and harder to get that ZING! oh my god! of hearing something fresh for the first time.

But it does make it even nicer and MORE special when it actually happens.

I think Howe Gelb is still older than me but in case the Mountain Goats became my favourite band I'd guess I'd be old. Not 100% sure though.

But siriusly - as one of the most elderly people here I can tell you young uns that feeling too old for pop/rock/whatever is just a temporary (and reoccuring) thing and if you have any real interest in music you'll find something new. I stopped listening in 1982, 1989 and last year because I thought I'd heard everything worth hearing and nothing new was worth bothering with. But something always dragged me back, although each time it was after I'd got rid of stuff I wish to God I'd kept. Being twice as old as the people who make the music that most excites me feels a bit weird at times but they can't arrest you for it.

Nirvana make me feel old.

You know you are old when you have an 11 year old that listens to the entire Foo Fighters catalogue day and freakin night and you get so sick of it you tell her, "hey, when I was a kid I was Dave Grohl's supervisor at Tower Records in DC." Sure, he only worked there for three days and I don't think I ever laid eyes on him. I didn't even believe my coworkers when they told me this and I had to verify it by looking at my employee phone list...but anyhow...so you tell your kid, "Yeah, he forgot to show up for work one day. He used to be in Scream. Seems he up and moved to Seattle and joined this other band, Nirvana, and forgot to call in and tell me he wasn't coming back to work - EVER." So, not only does she really think she is hot stuff now that she is two degrees removed from Dave Grohl, but she runs out and buys the freaking Nirvana catalogue...and you can't take listening to it anymore, so you go out on your own, looking for some Scream to turn her on to, just to bring some sanity back into the home.

Yup.

Old.

I will say, though, you really should check out that late Talk Talk stuff, no doubt of that. :-) And the Kitchens of Distinction are wondrous beyond description...

If you look, you will always find art/music that will deliver, but it's rare that it'll drop into your lap. It's true that you might not find the exact same thing that will yank your chain ('cause it probably won't.) Something new, however, it just as likely to sneak in a back door and get past your guard, but it's unlikely that it'll be the same sounds that got you when you were 13 or 23 (or 35, like me). It's called growing up, and it's far from a bad thing (though i might argue that point in another ten or twenty years.)

It certainly might take longer for things to grow on you or for you to find them, but take heart in the fact that nobody has heard everything and that there's still stuff to discover, whether it be records that came out nearly thirty years ago or today.

So, to answer your question, none. Nothing i've heard convinces me that there's nothing else worth doing.

-Matt, being helpfully unhelpful.

Sometimes you can get the same "sound" you are used to, but from an unexpected direction. I often feel very much at home with things that were obviously recorded in the 70's, but not necessarily things I grew up with (e.g., Lebanese music, Fela Kuti, salsa). I realize not everyone wants to go the culture-hopping route, but there's probably something on the periphery of what you listen to that you could move toward.

this feels true. just a month ago i was there (again). ILM helps though.

Now all I need is money! heh :-/

that said -- i do find the retro-fitting of late seventies/early eighties synthpop to be mostly amusing, and for what it's worth has made me spin the old Gary Numan/Human League/Kraftwerk/Depeche Mode cds for the first time in a long time.

Just found this on the Red Guitars guestbook:

"I wasn't born until 1989 so obviously wasn't around when the Red Guitars were. Stumbled across you guys by pure chance really, I was 16 working part time at a cafe. My boss had his mobile phone playing music in the kitchen as he washed up, on came Good Technology! I was amazed. I asked him 'Who's that band and what's that song called?' He told me, I went straight home after work and went on Youtube."

Mobile phone + Youtube, that pretty much sums it up.

Heh. This was my first ILM post (or thread I started, one or t'other). I've changed my tune massively since I started it. I listen to loads of new stuff again these days, and have dug through back cataglogues of so much awesome. What helped was the social recommendation tools of lastfm, emusic, and well - here, as well. If it wasnt for that I'd never have discovered Disco Inferno, Hood, Veil Veil Vanish, late Talk Talk (Mr Diamond was right!), Junior Boys, Home Video... all kinds of things.

I'm a year older than Trayce and Mr Diamond were when this thread started, and never mind retreating into music from my teenage years and early 20s (though I do like to hear these too, I just rarely think to put them on any more, and when I do it's often things I didn't really like at the time but have a sudden drunken nostalgic craving to hear), most of the music which has been delighting me these days came out when I was, oh, 3.

And I used to think my dad was oldfashioned for not having any records after he was about 21. I used to be deathly afraid of not keeping up any more, railing abt the music press's obsession with "classics" from 20-30 years earlier, but now I'm doing that too: I'm getting happier and happier to hide away with a bunch of new-to-me-but-old Italo or NDW or whatever, muttering "dubstep schmubstep" etc.

I am still listening to some new releases, though, and don't look forward to the day when that stops being true.

I did just make myself feel a bit old writing that and realising that the Clash records that teenage me thought were ancient history and everyone should shut up about weren't even 20 years old by then.

... when your teenkid comes into the living room to ask if you have any 'trap' music.

not only do i have none, i have no bloody idea what 'trap' music is.

official : old

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqmzLgoWl3w

I was told about 'trap' music a few weeks ago, by someone who is using it to influence his own music. But I haven't yet heard any 'trap' music per se.

it's a trap!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trap+music

Doesn't sound like it's my thing...

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old". The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old".

new-old vs new-new : thats a good point.

in the last few years my groove has mainly been all about new-old music.

I've been experimenting with my own genre - 'crap music'

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old". The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

Herein lies mostly everything that makes this the ultimate music message board. I have only used ILX for a few years. I found it accidentally when I googled hypnagogic! You learn more about new-new/new-old music here than anywhere else in the known universe. Nothing wrong with getting old, just don't shut up shop with your mind.

parrot's got some good points

He's earned tonight's crackers.

I know I sounded like a total purple veined dick, but I did mean it.

We all sound like dicks here. Or at least I do. I rarely mean it! :)

I fear I am the new millenium equivalent of an old hippy who only likes VU and Neil Young. HELP!

for what it's worth, i would like this old hippy

The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

I was never confronted with this until I went to my 25th high school reunion. For some folks, music taste and identity is tied up with their high school and college identities and years down the line music for them was more important for them as a catalyst for those memories than as an ongoing concern.

Tonight, bored out of my brain, I got out the Clouds "Penny Century" album. It came out in 1991. I had forgotten how much I adore this album, and how much of a perfect pop record it is (gorgeous female harmonies, crisp guitar work, lovely production, the whole nine yards).

Co-sign on this. Penny Century is one of my favorite albums and should be as well-known as Last Spash

It really is a great album. They were excellent live too.

I saw their one (and possibly only) Los Angeles show back when they were picked up/instantly dropped by Elektra in 1993. Terrific show indeed! Heard good things about reunion shows this year...

reunion shows were ok, some of the vocals were a little rusty but generally the spirit was still there

OK, how have I been such a massive Breeders/Belly fan for almost two decades and only heard of Penny Century on this thread ten days ago? This is a damn good record and if someone had given it to me in 1993 and said "oh by the way, this predates Last Splash and Star" I would've p. much died of instant obsession.

You start really liking Werther's Originals