November MUSIC COLUMN: Thanksgiving! (Patreon)

This month being American Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to share the musical things I'm thankful for. Here we go! For starters, I'm thankful for good headphones! Most people these days seem to be using either stock Apple earbuds (ugh) or Beats, and they don't know what they're missing. If you're into music at all, you owe it to yourself to save up for a decent pair of cans. I'm partial to Sennheiser- their HD280s are the best headphones you can buy for the money in my opinion, and will bring out nuances you've never heard before in your favorite songs. I'm also thankful for music review sites- as much as people poke fun at Pitchfork and their ilk, they remain a useful tool for discovering new music and catching up on bands one might have overlooked. My personal favorite site is Resident Advisor, since I listen to tons of electronic music and generally find their reviews and recommendations useful. I'm SUPER thankful for phone/car integration. No more sifting through a binder full of CDs or, worse yet, the RADIO on long drives. Which leads me to the #1 thing I'm thankful for... DIGITAL MUSIC! I'm dating myself here, but I'm in the last generation to grow up when music was a physical object you had to go out and buy if you wanted to be able to own it. People wax nostalgic for record shops, but I'd never choose physical stores over the internet. Nowadays, if there's a song or album you want, you can find it within seconds. 15-year-old me would be amazed. It seems like an obvious thing, in this day of ubiquitous MP3 storage and streaming music, but I still think it's worth taking a moment to consider how fortunate we are. What are YOU thankful for?