I'm Officially Old

Because I hate my neighbor's son's music. Six years ago, he would play portions of Metallica songs and practice his base guitar to it. I didn't mind. But even at that time it was weird because he played only one Metallica song and practiced it over and over again. I never heard anything else from him. The practice sessions would be 45 minutes every other day and then kaput, apparently he lost interest. Now fast forward to 2014. This kid now plays microphone and speaker feedback with thundering percussion - ZZZZ Whomp Whomp ZZZZ Whomp Whomp, a little rap, a little chant for 2 seconds, then back to the loud as hell obnoxious thumping. All I hear is thump, thump, thump and no other instrument. Guess that's all he likes. Man I'd love to tell him his music SUCKS! It seems to be a more obnoxious version of techno.

And no, he's not fucking anybody.



Post Edited (04-03-14 21:15)

Our older son is 10. A few years ago, my wife started him on piano lessons. 6 months in, he heard a friend play Mozart's "Carol of the Bells" and picked it out 20 minutes later. He's gone from "At the Hop" to "Twist & Shout" to Henry Mancini to a bit of Bill Evans. Once again, he is 10.

He started playing drums at the end of 2012. You don't want to know.

My wife signed him up for guitar lessons 4 or 5 months ago. He now totes one of my old Ibanez acoustics wherever he goes. He's way already better than I'll ever be – mind you, I'm not a complete novice. When I asked him how he learned guitar so quickly, he explained to me that most western music is based on chords, which for someone with his understanding of theory would be rudimentary...

hoip, I might not mind living next door to your neighbor.

Take a microphone, then hit it against a speaker. Whomp, whomp, whomp at high volume. Are you sure you want to listen to that? I'll invoke my TP license and hit him up to Lydia Lunch. The '80s live forever.

music for the masses!
good on yA hoops

Hoip, what are the kid's parents like?

The microphone/percussion tomfoolery you described may be unbearable noise (it sure would be to me), and may even be devoid of musical merit, but if the music sets him apart from his parents, then it's probably invaluable to him. That's been a primal drive behind changing musical tastes, probably ever since Isaac started blowing his first shofar and Abraham told him to knock it off.

The father used to yell at the kid a lot and the mother keeps out of the way. Their dog is a real bastard who barks and snaps at the neighbors, as it's integrated the father's blowhard personality. What's your diagnosis, Doctor?

My little brother (who actually became a hotshot guitarist in adulthood) would continually play the opening figures of "Hey Joe" (Hendrix version) on his white Strat knockoff for days and hours on end when he was 14. It made me hate a perfectly unhateable song.

My daughter (13) is into musical theater--a medium and genre that I have hated with all of my soul for 40+ years. I am nonetheless very supportive of her endeavors: attending shows, picking her up late from rehearsals, and biting my tongue as she trills pleasantly through the house (a musical number always on her lips).

Yeah, I'm officially old too. I also wake up early, like old people do, and putter around the house (after being a night owl by natural inclination).

So that's the point . . .



Post Edited (04-04-14 17:58)