Rock & Roll & Tinnitus

A couple of years ago I began to experience a persistent dizziness, as though I were walking down a floating pier that rocked up and down with the waves.  I visited my doctor, and he sent me to a specialist, and he  told me to lay off the salt.  I did, and the feeling has gone away since, though it comes back occasionally if I go on a multi-day sodium binge.

But during the same visit the specialist told me that the thing he was most  worried about was my Tinnitus.  I said, "But Doctor, I don't have tinnitus."  He replied: "O yes you do son.  We all have tinnitus."

And when I walked out of his office I could hear a whistling in my ears.  It was the first time I had ever noticed it.

Long story short, the condition was probably caused by the invention of the Sony Walkman. I'd been walking around with one for a good 25 years, listening to screamingly loud music on it.  I can't do that anymore, or the condition will worsen, so I don't follow the new music scene as closely as I'd like.  Here are a couple of tunes, though, that I've been playing a lot the past couple of days.

The first one is from Titus Andronicus's latest, Local Business:

Note that frontman Patrick Stickles has shaven his beard off.  And he's not such an ugly young fellow after all.  I would encourage the youth of today to lose those ugly beards, esp. if they're women.

The next is from Dustin Bentall (that's Barney's kid):

And this last is an older tune from Rock Plaza Central, who made one fabulous album and then seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth.

So there you have it.