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While I got started with my first MP3s in the early/mid 90s, and started expanding my tastes during college, it wasn’t until my post-rave days in the early 2000′s that I became truly “music obsessive”. Part of that change probably had to do with exposure from new coworkers and friends after I graduated. And, while I have fond memories of Amoeba and KCRW, a lot of it probably also had to do with my finally crossing the physical/virtual threshold and fully embracing MP3s as my “collection.” Shortly after, I went “all in” on the cloud, storing all my music on my server.

While I hadn’t gone to many concerts growing up, in my new life I more than made up for it. I became a regular at the Derby, Spaceland, the Troubadour, the Henry Fonda, The El Rey, heck, even the Glass House (and anywhere else playing music). Multiple shows a week were not uncommon, sometimes with friends, but more often than not by myself – heading in early and catching all the opening acts just in case they were any good (not often, but those sometimes seemed to make it worthwhile). After Upcoming got rolling, my show-going time dropped significantly (something something irony about seeing all the events but being too busy), and after moving up to the Bay area (and travelling frequently), this trend has worsened (only slightly offset by an increase in festival going, and by finally succumbing to SXSW Music: The Best Thing Ever).

Still, my music consumption has continued unabated (out of control might be a more appropriate description). It’s continues to fascinate how much my musical tastes/experience has been shaped/facilitated by the new media landscape (where attention, not distribution is the limiting factor). And while it’s been enormously interesting/satisfying watching the future of music coming (Topspin, Spotify, etc.), what’s even more interesting is looking more closely at my own personal musical journey and what has enabled it.

All of this which is, I guess, to give preface and context for what I’ve put together. A couple weeks ago, I got it in my mind to try to make my own “decade” list – not something authoritative, just something to map my musical (and of course in turn, my actual) decade. Rather than a short list of albums, I’d pick out songs. This was at first rather discouraging, but with some encouragement, I redoubled my efforts and over the past few days I’ve plowed through my collection and culled almost 1200 tracks (and over 500 artists) from this decade. I then wrote some code to process those lists and dynamically generate a playlist that I’m calling “Songs from the 2000s.”

Each time the player is loaded, 40 songs, 4 from each decade are randomly picked (in year order, of course) from the aforementioned set of songs. An artist will only be called once. Rather than try (or rather, pretending) to be comprehensive, what I’m hoping give is a taste of my musical journey.

Here’s to the next decade.

For a bit more info

Like last year, I tried to shoot some video of the sets I went to for SXSW Music. This time, I tried to get more substantive clips. I also upgraded from a Leica D-Lux 3, which had OK video quality but very poor sound quality to a Samsung NV24HD, which shot 720p H.264 video and higher bitrate audio. The sound (mics) still leave a bit to be desired, but overall I was pretty happy with the results, especially since the camera is very pocketable (camera battery life was my main bane).

I’ve finished posting most of my videos on Vimeo. Here are some of my favs:

I wanted to catch them after hearing them on the SXSW torrent and saw they were only playing once. They got started a bit late (good for me, since I first hit the British Embassy), and didn’t disappoint.

I tried to catch Yppah last year after discovering him on a Ninja Tune compilation, but it was just a DJ set. This year, he was w/ a live band which was more along the lines of what I was expecting.

Just a tiny clip of Amanda Palmer in church. The funny story behind this is that there are two church venues right next to each other and I was totally confused on why the schedule was all off…

Unfortunatley, by the time I got a better view, my battery had given up the ghost. He played a song at the end of Quincy Jones’ keynote, so I knew I had to see him play at the Elephant Room that night…

For whatever reason I never gave them a good listen, which thankfully is rectified because their set was great.

The only artist I saw twice this SXSW because I lurve Alcatraz Kid (his first album) so much. The venue was a bit out of the way, but I also had flan while I was out there, so that worked out.

Tell me when P.O.S. will be in town and I will be there.

The best set I saw this year. Great songs, amazing performance, front row. Damn skippy.

One of my few “I wanna catch that” artists, I missed him in the previous days, and with the venue opening super late, I was fearing the worst, but I got to see a great, if short set, so that worked out.

I had only caught one track from the torrent, but got it in my mind to check her out and was pretty pleasantly surprised.

This isn’t the greatest clip, but Nosaj Thing’s set roxored. Will definitely need to catch him next time he’s rocking a party in SF or LA.

I didn’t catch as many day shows as I had some work to do, but overall, I was again very happy w/ my SXSW Music experience.

This was also my 10th SXSW Interactive – which flew by way too quickly (and was surprisingly, even larger than last year). I want to say that maybe next year is a good time to take a break, but I can’t say that I didn’t have a lot of fun catching up with old friends again.