Listening in Secret

I have a complex about music. I think I am supposed to be really good at playing it (really I am mediocre or just average) and I definitely think I am supposed to intimately know all bands seminal and obscure, local and current, hip and underground. I am a hipster, right? This is tough.

I have long been fascinated in how people get their information, especially when it seems like that information is immediately appropriated by said hipster to look like it has been part of his or her catalog of personal taste forever. The way I get my information about music is mostly from other people. I can't really read music reviews or criticism, I find it too dull. I don't read a lot of rock and roll bios, but when I have, I have mostly enjoyed them. No, for me it's all about the mixed tape and the casual conversation. Oh, and now I look at blogs and links pages on the interweb.

Lately, I have been attempting to repair a gaping and embarrassing hole in my musical knowledge by listening to a VERY IMPORTANT indie band from the 80s, 90s and now. I can't say who they are, because I was supposed to love them starting in junior high school, like everyone else. But I didn't. In fact, I never even really heard or listened to their songs until now. Which I am doing in secret, so I can catch up. Embarrassed, but into it. The worst part is that I really like their record that came out this summer. More than the other stuff, which is good too. Not very punk rock of me. I am always behind by a least a couple of years. Late, but not super late, I am lucky I figured out the Pixies early enough (mid-90s) so they didn't fall into secret listening.

I remember my friend Jenny busted me listening to Syd Barrett in secret a number of years ago. I was mortified, but only for a second. Jenny is my friend and will be no matter what I know or don't know. She just laughed at me. I laughed at me. Now Syd is firmly entrenched as part of my catalog of personal taste forever.