Brian Eno Tribute

For those that will tolerate more than fifteen minutes of conversation with me, you may know that I tend to geek out on modern music history from time to time (for instance this and this and this). In furtherance of this pursuit, I came across an article this morning, titled Five Things Your Favorite Indie Band Owes to Brian Eno, which details a few of the many influences that Brian Eno has had on modern indie music. Which is cool, 'cause up until this point, I didn't have a fucking clue who Brian Eno was. Boy was my face red. Here's a bit of what I didn't know:

Eno famously developed his conception of ambient music while recuperating from a car accident. Stuck in his hospital bed, he couldn't adjust the volume of some music a friend had brought him. After struggling for a while to hear it, he realized it was better to just let it meld with all the other sounds in the room. (He may also have been on a shit-ton of morphine.)

Among other things, this confirms one of my long held but controversial beliefs that artists do drugs, and sometimes it works out pretty good. [UPDATE: It also works for Adele.]

The article also included a number of tracks to help demonstrate five influences identified, which include i) ambient soundscapes (Tracks 1 and 2), ii) theatrical flamboyance (Tracks 3 and 4), iii) songs as collages (Tracks 5 and 6), iv) the use of guitar with echo and swirl to create awesome (it's pretty scientific) (Tracks 7 and 8), and v) a methodical, intellectual approach to creativity (Tracks 9 and 10).

Coincidentally, Eno's got a new album out called Drums Between the Bells. You can check it out on Rolling Stone.