I got a cellphone in August! The first cellphone I’ve had since October 2006. I swore them off for a long time and that wasn’t such a bad thing, I suppose. It did make me un-contactable at times, but I’ve never really had a problem with that, so it wasn’t a big deal to me. But I did it. I bit the bullet. I got a new phone.

Cellphones are science fiction in action. I like this. While sticking to my role as a perpetual cheap-ass, I did not go whole hog and spend an entire paycheck on an Iphone, Blackberry, or Palm whatever the hell it is you kids are spending your money on. I went for the free phone that had the most impressive qualities. In this instance, it was the Motorola Rokr E8. It features a digital camera, mp3 player, 3 gig storage space (when adding an SD Memory card), mobile internet, e-mail, instant messaging, a quaint blast from the past- FM radio, and a bunch of other interesting shit that my Grandparents…nay my Parents, would never have expected to see crammed onto a telephone. Oh yeah…it takes phone calls too. Looking over my used minutes in a month it’s clear that I am not doing a whole lot of that with this sucker.

But the MP3 player has become my favorite little part of this new toy. While I’ve started in awe of several friends IPod’s over the past few years, I still haven’t quite gotten to the point where I’ve decided I’m going to drop coin on one. My cellphone has made me realize the benefits of portable music players even more so. But I don’t really want to sit around talking about the phone itself for this entire blog. I’d rather talk about what I’ve been listening to on it.

At first, I was only loading a few songs by each artist I wanted on the phone for fear of filling it’s memory too quickly. However, this was not acceptable to me after about a week as I really am, when you get down to it, an album listener. I want to hear the whole damn thing, most of the time. Occasionally I’ll shuffle, but usually, if I’ve taken the time to pick out an album, I want to hear all of it. So, while this by no means covers everything I have in the way of MP3’s saved to my phone (I could have used up half the space on it with Mountain Goats & Hold Steady/Lifter Puller songs), it is a comprehensive list of all the full albums (or EP’s in some cases) I currently have on it:

100% Synthetic- The Honor System
2112- Rush
A Gentle Evening With Townes Van Zandt- Townes Van Zandt
Add It Up (1981-1993)- the Violent Femmes
Bee Thousand- Guided By Voices
Blanket Warm- Lullaby For The Working Class
Boombox by Bedside- Samuel Locke-Ward
Brighten the Corners- Pavement
Broken Star- the Broadways
Bushido Karoake- Mayday
Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat- the Minutemen
Cerebral Revolver- the Mousetrap
Dear You- Jawbreaker
Digi Snacks- RZA as Bobby Digital
Dignified Sissy- STNNNG
End Hits- Fugazi
Excellent Italian Greyhound- Shellac
Farm- Dinosaur Jr
Fiat Lux Tenibris- the Stay Awake
Goddamnit!- Alkaline Trio
Heavy Hands- Ladyfinger (ne)
I Never Even Asked For A Light- Lullaby For The Working Class
If You’re Feeling Sinister- Belle & Sebastian
In on the Kill Taker- Fugazi
Isolation Drills- Guided By Voices
KIDS: Soundtrack for the Movie KIDS
Left and Leaving- the Weakerthans
Live in the Studio- Joe Jack Talcum
Ok Computer- Radiohead
Pro Tools- GZA
Reunion Tour- the Weakerthans
Room Temperature- Simon Joyner
Sacrilege, Treason, Treachery & Thyme- Samuel Locke-Ward
Single File- the Honor System
Take a Look Inside- the Folk Implosion
The Sunset Tree- the Mountain Goats (also includes vinyl only version- “Come Come To The Sunset Tree”)
Trust- Low
Tweez- Slint
Wild America- Wild America
Wowee Zowee- Pavement
You’d Prefer an Astronaut- Hum
Zen Arcade- Husker Du