The Offspring: Prologue

Posted by prla1983 on August 06, 2008 • 1 commentsEmail This Post

I've got about 2500 music albums. As of today, my main iTunes Library claims to house 1774 albums from 876 different artists. That adds up to 20666 songs, which would take me no less than 66 consecutive days, no stops, to listen in their entirety. Every day I learn about different bands, every day I download new stuff I never even remotely heard of and often I go out on a rampage and buy a lot of CDs at different stores. I got a couple of iPods (one of them is dead) and recently I've acquired an iPhone which also acts as an iPod in its own right. I listen to music while I'm at home, I listen to music at work on my laptop and I listen to music every minute I'm inside my car, wherever I may roam. I've attended dozens of great live shows, most of which I have fond memories of, others which sucked on end. It's been like this for about 15 years and I'm proud to be a true music lover (because I am), regardless of my shortcomings. I have a few favorite bands and don't even get me started on the amazing people I've gotten to know and cherish a friendship with, thanks to the music.

And that all got started back in day with three bands, all of which I still love with a huge passion after all these years. I often joke that music lovers should be like sponges in that they absorb whatever they get to know without the need to purge what came before. "I don't listen to insert genre or band here anymore, that's for kids" is something only a dumbfuck would utter. So, whatever people might say forgetting that music is all subjective, I kinda wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Nirvana, Green Day and The Offspring. I would simply be a different person that the one who's writing this post right now. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

The Offspring - and music in general - came into my life through a close friend back when "Smash" came out, so that would be about 1994. I listened to that record like there would be no tomorrow and then I found out about "Ignition" and the self-titled debut album. Soon they came up with a new album, "Ixnay on the Hombre" which had a few songs that really kicked me into high gear though I began to understand they were going in a different, poppier direction. I kept avidly listening to every The Offspring album that would come out, "Americana", "Conspiracy Of One" and I culminated almost a decade of fandom seeing them live in Lisbon back in 2001. One mofo of a show, if you ask me, with all the classics being played.

Anyway, I've recently been going through a massive Offspring overdose, with almost 400 plays in a single week so I thought the time is as good as any to write about one of my favorite bands. Listening to the entire discography, I've understood that I love every album in a certain way and each of them evoke a different period of my life. With that in mind, in the coming weeks I'll be posting a small article on each of their albums, as a kind of homage.

Labels: , , , , ,

Stuff To Check Out Later

Posted by prla1983 on May 07, 2007 • 2 commentsEmail This Post

  • Rome - The Complete HBO Series 1 (6 Disc Box Set) (IMDb)
    Heard nothing but good things about this one and the IMDb rating is huge for almost 5,000 votes. Guess I'll have to pick it up as soon as I get my degree done with.

  • Six Feet Under (IMDb)
    Somehow I ended up buying the second season a couple of years ago without having seen any of the first beforehand (yeah, dumb me). Saw a couple of episodes the first time around and I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind because I detested it. One day, a few months later, on a whim, decided to put it on again and it blew me out of the water instantly. Saw the entire season two, and though I'm sure I could have enjoyed it even more had I seen the first season previously, it was still a huge kick. Isabel has the first season (I should know, I gave it to her last Christmas *grin*) so I will pick that up as soon as I got some free time. Looking forward to move on and catch up on seasons three, four and five!

  • The Proposition (IMDb)
    Have had this one lying around (regretfully alongside many others in the same situation) since Cláudio offered it to me last Christmas. Sounds like it can be a very good one, and I really need to see it. Again, time... and the fucking degree out of the way.

  • Dalí and Pablo Picasso (Taschen Basic Art)
    The enlightening and stimulating conversations with Pedro are starting to pay off in a most unexpected way: I'm starting to feel inclined towards learning about painting! Which is a good thing, of course. I'm also really glad I found out about Taschen, because their catalogue is nothing short of amazing. Saw these two at Fnac earlier today, just didn't pick them up right away because, honestly, I'm really low on currency right now. But that's a whole different story...

  • A Letter Concerning Toleration
    Entirely thanks to Pedro again, following a quick chat about tolerating other people's actions and reactions and basically what's that all about. In the end, how to live better with ourselves and alongside the people that we really care about with conflict and unhappiness reduced to a minimum (this could really lend itself to an entire post about it... maybe some day).

    Any thoughts on these ones?

    Labels: , , , , , ,