Musical memories. Memories tied to music. The soundtrack to my life. Good. Bad. Ugly.

I love/loved:

- The sound of Smashing Pumpkins while sweating profusely in a hotel room in Athens, Greece at age 16.

- Rain spitting at me on a mountain during a performance of Paranoid Android.

- Thrashing to a variety of punks band in dank, sweat-filled basements and clubs 10 years ago.

- Sitting on a roof at 3 in the morning listening to shoegaze.

- Mozart on headphones set to 11 while looking at a Picasso exhibit.

- The fact that I'm alive during an era where recorded music is available.

I hate/hated:

- Drunks flirting during a particularly quiet moment at my last Pearl Jam show.

- Musical snobbery.

- Doing the standingstill.

- That Sleater-Kinney is no more.

Peace.

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brittanybf says:

3 a.m. rooftop listening is a fine idea. i've got to find a roof now.

Posted 2 months ago | Delete

1991:
- The year I REALLY got into music.
- 13 years old.
- The cusp of the grunge explosion.
- Freshman year of high school.
Thought I'd go back and see what I my favorites were then, and what albums from that year I listen to the most now.
Have to admit, I was spoiled in that my musical awakening occurred at the same time as the Nirvana revolution....
Then:
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
2. Metallica - Black Album
3. Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion
4. Nirvana - Nevermind
5. Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91

Comments: Peppers were easily my high school favorites, and the Metallica/Gunners combo is no doubt a tribute to the hard rock dominating the hallways of jr. high and high school. Nirvana is obvious, and Public Enemy was all the rage what with their pairing with Anthrax & all.... I wanted to drop Pearl Jam's Ten in here, but I really didn't fall for it that hard until 1992. Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger is similar...
Now:
1. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
2. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
3. Slint - Spiderland
4. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
5. Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing

Slanted & Enchanted is probably my favorite album of all-time. Nothing else to add there.
Uncle Tupelo's Still Feel Gone barely missed, but Steady Diet of Nothing might be Fugazi's finest hour, and that's saying something for a band as consistent as they were.
Looking at it now, I find it crazy how little I actually listen to music from this year. Pavement and Tribe are the only two that get spins on a consistent basis, the rest mainly as my mood strikes. Pearl Jam probably could have made the second list as well, but I never listen to the proper albums, mainly just live stuff.

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brand X says:

Coincidentally, that's also the year punk broke... According to some, at least.

I'm was thirteen also, and I was starting to come out of my rap phase and headed into my country phase. I was listening to these albums a fair bit (I'm not even bothering to look at when they actually came out):

Eazy E - Easy Duz It Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs... Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit REM - Out of Time Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion

Can't say that I am terribly ashamed of any of those, although the Eazy-E is much more comical to me now than it was then and I can't really think of a reason I would ever need to listen to "Out of Time" again.

Seems like we share a couple, at least. I never owned "Blood, Sugar..." nor "Black," but I did have a couple Metallica albums I listened to at the time. And I still don't know why I rarely listened to Public Enemy, most of my friends did...

Posted 10 months ago | Delete