These guys are seriously the greatest, most generous act in indie rock and I can’t help but think people still take them for granted, because, well, they do.

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t link over to Jesse Jarnow’s online home, Frank & Earthy, for full setlists from these shows.)

I’d love to see them add a bookmark feature so I could catalog titles I find as I surf around the web. Think Instapaper, but for music.

This year I planned on ripping all my CDs to my MacBook. Didn’t happen. It’s tedious, there’s never time, the litany of excuses goes on and on. That changes next year.

Why? Because if we’re planning on buying a new home in 2013, I need to shrink my portion of digital goods considerably. There’s no excuse to not have everything loaded onto a computer that can be accessed via home sharing. Flipping content from computer to other devices in the home is really awesome and I’m finally seeing that potential.

What does it mean? I need an iMac. While everyone is going smaller — whether that’s iPads or MacBook Airs — I’m realizing that I need a machine that can comfortably store all the CDs and DVDs I own locally that I can then access on mobile devices. My MacBook just won’t cut it. I want something that can whirr quietly upstairs and be the classic home computer. I think iMac fits the bill.

Wish me luck in 2012 in getting our digital life together! (Do people still even buy used CDs and DVDs?)

I know people have cooled on their steely grooves, but I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through 2002-2007 without steady doses of Spoon. Two songs in particular that galvanized my will when it was bent near the breaking point: “That’s the Way We Get By” and “The Underdog.”

Can’t listen to either of these tunes without being transported back in time. The former reminds me of a sweaty summer spent in Brooklyn, punching F5 on craigslist or interviewing for jobs for which I was but one of hundreds of applicants. I’d turn this all the way up as I sat on my futon, scraping by on adjunct lecturer’s wages and whatever was left on my student loans. The latter takes me to a better place: finally back on the job after nearly a year out of work. It was their brand new album at the time and I had a hard time believing that “The Underdog” wasn’t my personal anthem that summer.

A few years on and I keep finding myself coming back to these records. I can’t think of a band whose body of work has more closely fit my moods over more than a decade of fandom.

Now it’s not so easy. I still really enjoy music and film, but there’s just no pressing need for me to “own” any of it. Does this mean I’m facing a future of ties for every gift going forward?

I’m going to be pretty aggressive about what I’m ditching, so we’re talking about some 600+ cds or so. If you’re interested in any and are willing to stop by the house to have a look, they’ll be sold for $3.50 a piece, give or take.

Now I’m getting serious and I’ve begun in earnest. Sure, I’ll keep some hard copies as backup, but the bulk of it is going in a box and is headed for A.K.A. Music.

Wish me luck.

Less than 10 years ago I would still scurry to bookstores and record shops, or spend beyond my means on DVD sales online. Then that suddenly stopped.

Now, as I try to make sense of my home without being overrun by my toddler’s toys, I find myself wishing I’d made better use of the library. Where’d all this stuff come from? When did I ever think I’d read all the books I bought on whims, or watch all the DVDs I hoarded. Let’s not even talk about the music that accreted in my apartments over the years.

Since things started going digital in one form or other I’ve been reluctant to go all in. For those of us who’ve had physical media all our lives, a hard copy is a reassuring thing. Now I wish I’d taken the plunge sooner.

This is all to say I’m purging vast swaths of my cultural collections. If you’re someone who still likes these things, be in touch. You get dibs.

What have I learned? Who was that guy? I remember spending many a night at Mondo Kim’s or AKA or pretty much any record store, fiending in the used bin for anything noteworthy. Now I’m reaping the whirlwind.

There are discs that I’ve owned for ages that remain unopened, yet they still have sentimental value simply because I can remember buying them and then carrying them from dorm to apartment to dorm to apartment to house. Yet I can’t part with them.

I’ve come to the decidedly rockist conclusion that the endgame of this purge is to select those artists whose work has ongoing meaning in my life and hold them fast and shake the rest out. Another way of saying this is that I’m applying the auteur theory in the most vulgar manner possible to reduce the number of total CDs in my collection, those that I won’t just rip and forget for all eternity.

For those of us clinging to physical media in a digital media world, it’s a game of “desert island discs” renewed, with a twist. What CDs would you keep to avoid your favorite tunes vanishing into the ether after your harddrive crashed?

Special thanks to Brian McTear and Weathervane Music for a lovely evening of great music, food and friends at Miner St. Studios, right around the corner in Fishtown. Port St. Willow’s music was perfect in that intimate setting. What a great way to start the Private Concert Series!

This is an amazing project that deserves more (and your) attention. See what Weathervane Music is up to here!