I know, I haven’t posted in awhile. But for good reason. I realized recently that for the most part I don’t remember things straight up - but i will if I hear a song that was around at the time. So I started making this “musical history” for myself, documenting the songs that I listen to and the associated memories and such. It was alot of fun for me to make, and I hope you enjoy it.
too young
- beach boys - barbara ann: My Parents used to sing this song to me when I cried as a baby, or when we were driving on long trips. I don’t really remember this, but I still know all the words.
- beethoven - fur elise: I was a geek as a kid. I didn’t listen to anything popular and stuck to classical music. I remember being at a friend’s house in elementary school and he was just learning to play this on his piano. I still wish I had learned the piano.
- beatles - twist and shout: I blame my mom for these next two songs. She listened to the oldies station whenever we drove anywhere, so I was exposed to lots of different music from the 50’s onward. This is the obligatory Beatles song.
- temptations - my girl: My mom loves motown. She would probably be impressed that this is on my list.
elementary school
- weird al yankovich - eat it: In the 5th grade, I met a kid named Darryl who lived down the street from my house who loved Weird Al. I had never heard of him. After hearing this song, I went out and bought all of the tapes of his I could find. I think they’re still in a box in storage.
- green day - basket case: This was the first rock song I ever remember hearing and liking. My friend Joey bought this tape and I had to go over to his house to listen to it because it had “language”. Later I finally bought (or downloaded, I can’t remember) the whole thing, and it’s on my list of top albums ever.
middle school
- mighty mighty bosstones - impression that i get: This is the first CD I ever bought for myself. I think it was recommended to me by Larry Redden, a friend that I went to church with. It was very happy, which I think sucked me in. “The Impression that I Get” is still one of my favorites.
- foo fighters - monkey wrench: This is the first rock CD I ever bought. If I remember correctly, it was because it had a cool cover, and I thought the name of the band was “neat”. Funny how chance picked my favorite band. I never listened past track 9 on the album (I forget why, to be honest), leaving me to never hear “Everlong” until Freshman year of college. Which is sad, considering it’s now one of my favorite songs.
- they might be giants - particle man: This is the first MP3 I ever downloaded, and I played it using Winamp 1 beta on the old 66mhz Dell that we had. This was back when you could just do a Yahoo search (cause Google didn’t exist!) for MP3 and find plenty of websites with them. I remember having to turn down the quality because 66mhz just wasn’t enough power.
- omc - how bizzare: I remember some friends of mine sitting on a couch during one of the summers during middle school picking who was the “cool asian dude” in the back seat of the car in the music video. I think I won out.
- dave matthews band - ants marching: Ross Gajewski introduced me to Dave Matthews Band, and I actually went to my first concert to see DMB on his birthday. I love Dave’s mix of folk, jazz, and rock. And this was back before they were super huge, if I remember correctly.
- the offspring - smash: This one is Ben Cheney’s fault. We used to play Starfox 64 at his house and listen to Smash and Ixnay on the Hombre on loop. That, and play Quake. I tried to get my parents to let me get Smash at one point, but they turned me down.
high school
- less than jake - automatic: This is the “first” ska album I bought, and I think it was the first album I just bought without asking my parents. At the time, I didn’t know what ska/punk was — I had just heard my friend Blake Magdits playing it at his house and asked what it was.
- weezer - say it aint so: I got this album from a friend I worked with at my first job working at a skating rink. Then, I just thought it sounded completely awesome. Now it reminds me of Oliver Burling, a friend of mine who died of a brain tumor a few years ago.
- count basie - shiny stockings: I joined the jazz band my freshman year of high school. I got to play with Chaz Smith (even this guy’s name points to kick ass jazz), who is still one of the most amazing trumpet players I’ve ever heard. I remember a guy coming in from a local college to help us out with this song. We performed it at UNC at the jazz festival.
- the association - never my love: This one was one of my favorite songs that we played in the jazz band. You wouldn’t think it at first, but it sounds awesome in the jazz context.
- maynard ferguson - chamelion: Chamelion is one of the first “jam” songs I learned — we used to warm up to it before jazz band practice. It’s a simple beat but alot of fun to mess around with.
- bach - contrapunctus 9: I joined the brass quintet my sophomore year of high school and we rehearsed this one, but never played it. I was 2nd trumpet, and this one starts off with trumpet solo that I would have played.
- catch 22 - on & on & on: My infatuation with ska continues. This one is a cool rendition of Pachebel’s Canon. I got this freshman year, I think, Catch 22’s first album. After I moved away to New York their second album came out, and I was going to get it for my birthday — except Jessica Potter got it for me first and mailed it to me.
- reel big fish - sell out: This song inspired me to join a ska band. My friend James Huneycutt and I started “St. Elmo’s Fire”. I saved the webpage that James made for our band, one of the first I ever helped make with AOL’s help. Maybe I’ll post it sometime.
- foundations - build me up buttercup: I ran cross country my first two years of high school on a dare from Ross. We used to sing this song to our coach as we ran by. I forget why, but I know Ross’ brother Alan started it.
- rob d - clubbed to death (kurayamino mix): This song is here because at this point I saw the Matrix. I remember walking into the theater while the credits were still rolling from the previous showing and hearing Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up playing. I knew before the movie started it was definitely going to be something different.
- linkin park - crawling: I don’t remember anything particular about this song, but I put it here just because this came out during my angry rock phase. When I moved from North Carolina to New York, the only good radio station around in Syracuse was K-ROCK. I listened to it constantly on the way to and from work at the Finish Line at Carousel Center.
- counting crows - long december: This is the only real sentimental song from that year that I seem to remember. Some friends of mine and I were coming back from junior prom and this came on the radio. We all just kinda sat there in silence and listened to it.
- saves the day - at your funeral: My first exposure to emo, I think. Very cool bass line and it’s very catchy. I spent alot of time over at John Martellero’s house listening to this stuff and getting my first exposure to programming, which influenced my current major.
- the strokes - last night: I remember hearing this album for the first time in the back room of the Finish Line putting away the latest shipment. Matt Zipparo brought it in. I loved how simple the songs were.
- bush - machinehead: During my freshman year of college some “missionaries” (a simplistic term just on the sole fact that I don’t feel like explaining the whole program they were a part of) came to Syracuse that my dad worked with. They were all just a few years older than I was (21-23 when I was 17-18), and they were big fans of this stuff. I think I had heard this song once or twice before, but they prompted me to get the album.
- dashboard confessional - screaming infidelities: This is one of those songs you hear late at night and can’t help but listen to. I remember driving back from work and hearing it.
college: freshman year
- aphex twin - milk man: Pete Cook introduced me to techno freshman year as my roommate. He had umpteen million speakers at first (and eventually bought a really nice Klipsch system), and played digitallyimported constantly. He also got me into the more “obscure” electronic music, like Aphex Twin.
- massive attack - teardrop: Again with the techno. I first recognized at the end of a flash video that l33tified Romeo and Juliet.
- foo fighters - everlong: I FINALLY heard this song. Good lord. One of the greatest songs ever written.
- dispatch - the general: Kristen from down the hall schoolie year used to play this song all the time.
- five for fighting - easy tonight: At the time I was dating Catherine, and she introduced me to a slew of folky-type stuff. This is definitely a good one.
college: sophomore year
- rage against the machine - wake up: I finally got around to the rest of Rage Against the Machine’s stuff towards the end of my angry rock phase. Pete listened to “Killing in the Name Of” alot, and that prompted me to listen to the rest.
- the cure - just like heaven: I actually heard the Goldfinger version of this song first at a concert I went to — they opened with it. I wasn’t a student of 80’s music, so The Cure were totally new to me.
- evanescence - bring me to life: I remember sitting in the lounge with Alex Shannon and watching Evanescence on Jay Leno. I was impressed.
- daft punk - aerodynamic: Pete, Alex and I scoured the internet (and Direct Connect) for the music videos to the singles off of this album. They were some really interesting anime that was cool to watch. Alex eventually bought the DVD that had the entire album, which was fun to see.
summer in north carolina #1
- reel big fish - the set up: Music wise, all I remember of this particular summer was putting in Reel Big Fish’s “Why Do they Rock So Hard” in James’ car and singing to the entire thing at the top of our lungs. We used to do loops around Cary Parkway until the album was over.
college: junior year
- eliott smith - miss misery: This one is Sarah Landerman’s fault. She introduced me to some more folky stuff. This is actually the song playing at the end of Good Will Hunting.
- weezer - the world has turned and left me here: I had a re-emergence of Weezer for some reason. I love how the acoustic guitar is mixed in with the electric on this song. I used to sit at my computer doing work listening to this song on loop.
- the shins - know your onion: I first had this song recommended to me by Moby. Yes, Moby. Apparently at one time (or maybe he still does have) a show on one of the MTVs late at night where he DJs random songs he likes. This was one of them.
- minibosses - megaman 2: Megaman 2 was probably my favorite game on the NES, and when I saw something by these guys posted on Penny Arcade, I checked out their site. AWESOME music.
- the postal service - such great heights: I forget who recommended this band to me. It might have been Mike Buzzetti. Regardless, this became one of my favorite albums. It reminds me of just excited happiness.
summer in north carolina #2
- the strokes - reptilia: Andrew Eberbach played this song most of the summer.
- jay z - encore: I tried to expose myself to more music, and Jeremy Kohansimeh helped quite a bit with that. The Black Album (of which I heard the Grey Album version) had just come out.
- radiohead - everything in its right place: Andrew also introduced me to more Radiohead. They’re an amazing band that I have grown to like.
- theme - the terminator: My project that summer was with autonomic computing, which since we were geeks reminded us of the Terminator, HAL, etc. We used to come up with sweet ideas of stuff we were doing and then break out in to the Terminator theme.
- franz ferdinand - take me out: If you ever get a chance, go party with Scottish people. They’re totally amazingly fun. Sarah Boyack’s sister and mom had a birthday party that they invited me to, and it was a blast. They put this album on and the living room was full of dancing people.
college: senior year
- ben folds - in between days: This was the first song I bought off of iTunes. Ben Folds rocks, and this cover of The Cure is very awesome.
- kenna - freetime: This was the first song I bought off of iTunes by an artist I had never heard of before. It’s definitely fun to support more “underground” bands.
- coldplay - shiver: Coldplay helped me get through the 11 hour drives from Clarkson to Ohio and back. This song is fun to sing along to.
- dj tiesto - heroes: This song reminds me of the Terminator theme.
- travis - love will come through: Blame Zach Braff (i.e. Scrubs and Garden State) for this one. It was in one of the trailers from Garden State, but didn’t make it on the soundtrack.
- radiohead - fake plastic trees: More random searching online found this song for me. I can’t remember how many nights I’ve fallen asleep to this song.
