Work-Free Zone

I've been following Michaelangelo Matos' Slow Listening Movement blog with sympathy. Anyone who is on a significant number of PR lists eventually accumulates so much new music that it becomes a burden that only other music writers can appreciate. One side effect of those stacks is how they affect your listening habits in ways that can become burdensome. Because of OffBeat's focus on Louisiana music, it dominates my listening and there's no joy in yet another CD by an identity-free jazz/funk combo or trad jazz revivalists remaking the most obvious songs in the New Orleans repertoire.

The concept is to spend more quality time with the music, which I appreciate because much of what I listen to is shaped by what I'm doing. I tend to check out DJ mixes, jazz, dub and electronica when editing because the lack of vocals - or their de-centralized position means they don't interrupt my train of thought. Music that makes me notice it through that process gets a second or third listen. I often listen to CDs I'm trying to review in the car because it's the least multi-tasked listening that I do in a day.

That means, though, that most of my listening in a day is work-related, and the wall of CDs go largely untouched. I finally had to make certain decisions about listening to keep from losing the fun of music in the work. I only listen to music that has no work attached to it in the house. Still, there are limits to what I listen to at home because my wife can't stand Motorhead - and I married her? - and drone-oriented music. The only place I can hear Alan Vega next to the Undertones next to the Stooges and John Barry is my iPod, which I declared a work-free zone.

... and while writing this, I've been checking out Zu's Carboniferous, which ends up as annoying as most Ipecac releases. Free jazz squeaks and squonks tied to metal crunch and fidgety beats just aren't that much fun, no matter who plays them.

How Far Do We Have to Go?

There's a new album due out by a New Orleans hip-hop artist that I'd like to review and possibly do a feature on. The catch? So far, the only way to hear the CD is at a listening party or a private listening session in an office. I admit I feel like I'm being manipulated as I'm being treated like someone special enough to attend a party or merit a private session, but that might just be me.

That aside, I have definite issues with having to rearrange my life to review an album. I'm being inconvenienced because the company is afraid someone will leak or bootleg the music. The publicist reassured me that I wasn't suspected, but what she meant was that I'm not personally suspected. Anyone who might hear the music in advance is viewed as a potential pirate, which means they're still suspicious of me, but in a general way.

I wonder if I'm overreacting to this, and I realize I'm bargaining from a weak hand. New Orleans hip-hop has largely worked around the print media, though to be fair, New Orleans' print media hasn't strained itself with its efforts to cover bounce, Cash Money, No Limit and the like. Still, if the label controls the way the music is heard, it exerts some control over the way it's covered, and that's not right.