How to (not) listen to music: Study Jam

I don’t know about you but I can get lost inside my mind. I have yet to lay an effective crumb trail for finding my way out once I get too far in, but I’ll get around to it eventually. Until then, I try to avoid it at inopportune times like when I’m organizing my decorative sock collection or studying within 12 hours of an exam. It’s times like these I need to focus my attention — I need caffeinated jams to keep my motor humming at a steady rate. I need some great music to study to.

The best study music accomplishes two things: It keeps you focused and provides periodic release from the mental heavy-lifting of cramming two months of material into a three hour time span. Certain albums/songs lend themselves to this more than others. My go-to study band is Pelican, a  post-hardcore staple that dances between the threshold of marching guitar drone and conceptually engaging beauty. Ridiculous I know, but Pelican is a musical force — just stand back and take it in.

I find myself listening to M83, Russian Circles, Wilco (but only A Ghost is Born) and never Animal Collective. The bands I study to though are really less significant than the intended mood or musical element I’m looking for. I’ll use my favorite study album of the past four or five days as an exemplary…example. First song — ”At Least That’s What You Said” — is easy to zone out to. You get situated, readjust in your seat a couple times and pretend like you’re actually going to get all the way through the chapter about soil density. And then out of nowhere, you get hit with this monster slow-jam solo that makes you happy to just be living. Mollisols ain’t so bad after all.

After that gem, Tweedy and Co. dish out a solid twenty minutes of acoustic, trance-vibe voyeurism through the next three songs (“Hell is Chrome”/”Spiders”/“Muzzle of Bees”). That is a productive 20 minutes of information binging for your brain; then “Handshake Drugs” hits you and you pay attention for the release and the animated grin that song gives you every time. Well, you would if you were me.

Studying is a chore — no doubt about it — but music is so awesome it doesn’t have to be. I can spend two or three CDs cleaning my bathroom if the music is hitting me just right. I want everyone to study more, if nothing else to spend some quality time with music.