My Musical Genealogy (Abridged)
PRE-HIGH SCHOOL (From birth to Freshman year)
The Beatles
When I was like 5-7 I was obsessed with the one cassette I owned that was actually "grown-up" music. This was The Beatles greatest hits. I listened to this thing day and night and can honestly say The Beatles were the first band I was ever obsessed with. It doesn't get much better than "A Hard Day's Night."
Coolio
The first cassette I ever bought with my own money was Coolio's "Gangster's Paradise." It was at K-Mart in Massachusetts where I lived and it was $17.99. So if Dan ever tries to explain that he got me into rap, you have the proof that he was wrong.
Aerosmith (1998)
Rockin' out pretending to play guitar with my best friend Peter who lived up the street. Seriously we spend every waking second together, writing spin-offs and sequels to our favorite action movies (Independence Day II, with Aliens and Terminators). One distinct memory was us playing along in my living room to Aerosmith's Big Ones blaring. Also the day he got Pandora's Box, the 3-disc set of rarities and copied them on cassette for me also stands out.
Eminem (1999/2000)
I bought The Slim Shady LP at Barnes and Nobles for $21.99 after tricking my mom into letting me buy it. Upon listening to it again I realize I had no fucking clue what he was talking about. But I knew it sounded great, he said bad words and rhymed funny.
By the time The Marshall Mathers LP came out in 2000 my mom already knew of Eminem's reputation and refused to let me get the cd. For one reason or another I got it anyways and began to understand more and more of the mysterious pictures of violence, hatred, rape, and homophobia he painted. What a fantastic album.
Limp Bizkit (1999/2000)
This was around the same time as Eminem. A kid in my 5th grade class listened to Eminem and was singing this song called "Break Stuff" one day. That started my infatuation with Limp Bizkit. I bought "Significant Other" on cd and got "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog flavored Water" the day it came out. Man I wore those cds out! Distinct memories include listening to it on the bus on the way home from a hard day of middle school, listening to it with my friend Jon across the street and listening to it on headphones while being teenage in the empty halls of the middle school during one of my brother's many basketball games. I remember blaring it in the front seat of the car with my mom driving and thinking I was completely shut off from the world. Turns out she could hear every word. But for nearly 3 minutes I was invincible, living inside of "Break Stuff." My brother got me the "New Old Songs" remix album for Christmas one year and I laid on the couch in the other room and listened to the album in its entirety.
Britney Spears
I bought the albums because I was a teenage boy who was just starting to notice girls. As far as I'm concerned, this was just an excuse for me to look at pictures of hot girls and listen to Eminem without anyone knowing.
FRESHMAN
Deftones
One of the first, if not the first album I bought at Newbury Comics with my dad. This was the soundtrack to my teenage anger and angst. Great album to scream to, or to listen to on headphones with your head down during study hall. Yeah, I was pretty badass.
Green Day
The year "American Idiot" came out. I remember hearing it and thinking, "this is gonna be big." Their first stop in New Hampshire on their American Idiot tour was my first concert as well. Went with like 7 or 8 of my friends up in the nosebleeds. We were sneaking around the entire show anyways. Ah, to be young.
SOPHOMORE
Tupac
I used to get rides to school with my neighbors Tim and Dan and Dan was obsessed with Tupac at the time. We would play it in the car on the way to school almost every day. I would always be stuck in the back so I would be totally immersed in the music, almost to a point where the bass gave me a headache. I have two distinct memories.
1. On our way to school sometime after Christmas but before Spring Tim put on this song Thug Luv by Tupac and Bone Thugs N' Harmony. The beat was a weird sci-fi laboratory concoction with huge bass and gun shots keeping the tempo. That day at school that was all that was in my head.
2. Dan and I were cruising after school in his Civic hybrid. It was his dad's car but he always treated it like his own. I remember pulling into the Olympic Video parking lot for some reason (maybe that was the same time we were buying alcohol for the first time) and he was explaining the mythos of Tupac and he put on "Ambitionz Az A Ridah" and explained that at that certain moment, that was his favorite song in the entire world. And for the 4 minutes and 39 seconds it lasted, it was the only song that mattered to me as well.
Nirvana
While Dan was hardcore into rap at the time, Nirvana was literally the only thing that existed to me. Kurt Cobain knew exactly how I felt and blah blah blah. For the anniversary of his death I even went silent for an entire day in my black nirvana shirt and wrote "remember" on my arm. I have two distinct memories.
1. In Dan's Civic flying, and I mean 70's flying down Turkey Hill Road going towards the high school. It's a friday night and we're going to pick up Carly to get drunk or something. Did we have one beer? I can't remember. Anyways we were blaring "Territorial Pissings" off Nevermind and we both screamed every lyric. You know that infinite feeling. Yeah, it was totally there.
2. The winter of my sophomore year of high school was probably my worst as far as substance abuse goes. I was drinking every weekend and watching my friends come in hammered to school. It was euphoria while it lasted but I guess there was a lesson to be learned from it all. Anyways this was back when we were infinite, before anything bad happened. The lot of us were hammered and drove back to Eric's house, having just ventured out to Wendy's to get a bite. We were hanging up in his attic listening to Nevermind with the lights off. And "Something In the Way" comes on and rips my fucking heart out. What a great moment.
The Used
So I liked this girl and like any guy my age, I surrounded myself with everything she liked. And she loved The Used so, naturally, I loved The Used. This is when I finally got into them, but wouldn't come to appreciate them as much as I do until around a year or so later. I did see them at the Taste of Chaos tour, which was my second concert. I got really drunk with Billy and Carly, chugging water bottles of vodka in the parking lot. My Chemical Romance opened which wasn't half bad, 'cept Billy passed out during their entire set and threw up during "I'm A Fake."
JUNIOR
The White Stripes
So I'd heard a bunch of their stuff and I think I got "Elephant" the mast day of my freshman year of high school or something. I remember listening to it. And one day, on FNX while going up to my grandparents with my dad driving I heard "Blue Orchid" premiere on the radio and I didn't know who it was. I remember thinking, "Man this sounds just like The White Stripes, but way cooler." And I was right.
For some reason I bought 2 front row seats for their Boston show at the Opera House. My cousin from Arizona came down and saw them with me, even though she was more into Oasis at the time. That was probably the best show I have ever or will ever be to, but I didn't know it at the time. From what I can remember I knew most of the songs and was completely blown away by the ones I didn't know. That show changed how I looked at music from then on. Get Behind Me Satan was the definition of cool for the rest of that year to me. I blared that in the car so many times I've lost count.
Radiohead
I first heard Radiohead properly on the VH1 show "I Love the 90's" where they played "Creep." Before the show even ended I was up in my room downloading "Creep." The first time I listened to it all the way through was on my bedroom floor, with the lights off. I knew they were gonna infiltrate my music tastes soon, but I just didn't realize how soon.
Soon after I had my first-ever sleep over on a school night at Billy's house. We tried to teach each other how to play chess and after getting bored he asked if he could put on Radiohead. I obliged, realizing the importance of the moment. He started up "Hail to the Thief" and from the moment "2+2=5" drops into Hell I was mesmerized. I downloaded everything they did and for my birthday saw them live with the guy who got me into them. I underestimated the importance of the concert once again, not realizing it was a very special, intimate show. Yeah, they defined my entire Junior year.
Arctic Monkeys
My friend Lindsay played blasted their first cd on the way to the beach and I realized I was behind on the times. Every friday night I would blast this cd to get ready for the weekend. In the spring I saw them at a small club in Boston with my girlfriend after being fucked over for the tickets by my friends. I ended up paying a shit-ton to see that show, but it was worth it in every way. Almost exactly a year later they played another show at the same venue. Both times they rocked the house and created an experience I will never forget.
Panic! At The Disco
One of those bands I got into way too late. I had never properly heard them and of course wrote them off as horrible. But I was proven so wrong once I gave them a chance. Their first cd was another I would use to pump me up on friday nights. Their live show was amazing, despite being overpopulated by teenage girls with cell phones. I only wish I knew all the words to their songs when they played that night.
SENIOR
Radiohead
Senior year marked the time when I got hardcore into Radiohead. I bought all their albums and OK Computer became the soundtrack to my morning for almost the entire year. My brother and my neighbor were sick of it in no time. To me, it never grew old.
Neutral Milk Hotel
I grew to understand their second effort, "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" to be the greatest piece of music ever laid down on track. This will always be known to me as the album that inspired my dream of merging film and music and the last track, Two Headed Boy, Pt. II belongs completely to you, you know who you are. Blaring and screaming the lyrics on long rides home and listening privately on Christmas Eve in my bed have become official traditions.
My Chemical Romance
This album is Senior year to me. It came out in October, just after I had started to realize it was all going to change after that year. It was the soundtrack to everything I was feeling at the time, disguised in outrageously dramatic and gripping visions of Hell and the afterlife. Distinct memories include...
1. Skipping school a couple days after the album came out to see a very rare intimate secret show in Boston. Me and my best friend Brandyn skipped out in the morning, drove down and waited in line for almost 9 hours, not even sure if we would get in. To move up in the line to make sure we got a spot inside, Brandyn distracted the endless crowds of teenage girls with magic tricks. And it worked. During the show, the crowd was overpacked into a small venue, uncomfortably close to the superstar band. We were all sweaty as fuck and yelled and jumped our souls out. I even passed out from the heat and movement but it was so packed, I couldn't fall down. What a fucking memory.
2. Seeing their first "official" show months later with Anna. We Goth-ed up in tight black clothes and got front row. Even if the show didn't pale in comparison to the secret underground show, it was still something to be remembered. They performed the entire album like a story, my generation's answer to Pink Floyd's "The Wall." Complete with huge set pieces and pyrotechnics, it is amazing for completely different reasons.
3. Driving around filming my independent study overly-long opus, "Pie Squared" me and Brandyn blared this album to and from locations. We got Dunkin' Donuts at 5 pm, race the sun home, and do 90 on the highway, trying to get home right as the album ended. We were so close. Good times.
Honorable Mentions: Wolfmother, Dashboard Confessional
FRESHMAN (COLLEGE)
Of Montreal
After seeing their fantastic show the year before, I got into them hardcore, The Sunlandic Twins serving as the soundtrack to everything. Glam rock was at the height of my appeal.
Radiohead
Once again at the top of my list, this time because of their surprise release of their album, "In Rainbows." Which I ate up. The first record I owned, this was the time when I began to dig deeper, searching for meaning within the albums and songs.
Panic At The Disco
Their second album, "Pretty. Odd." came out on the perfect day. Although I didn't like it that much at first I still knew it would grow on me. It came to represent the exact changes I was going through, the harsh realities of growing up and moving on.
Neutral Milk Hotel
For a time it was the only thing I would listen to. And that time happened again in my freshman year of college. Still never loosing it's appeal, "In The Aeroplane.." rose to new heights in my mind that year.
M.I.A.
Before "Pineapple Express" and "the gun song" there was Thom Yorke introducing his new fad called "M.I.A." Freshman year meant I got into alot of dance/techno/electronica stuff, and M.I.A. was at the top of my list. I will still hold up my discovery of it months before anyone else knew it was great.
Justice
Their album is sheer perfection. Seeing them live this year only boosted their status in my mind. Not much else to say. Hear the album. See them live. Become a believer.
SOPHOMORE (COLLEGE) [SO FAR]
Girl Talk
Like Radiohead and Neutral Milk Hotel before it, Girl Talk, once I got into it, was the only thing I listened to for a long time. It made me want to quit school and become a DJ. The live show was the best thing I saw in 2008 and I eagerly await the day when I can see it once more. Perhaps setting the mood for a too relaxed, party-oriented atmosphere, Girl Talk was the only thing I heard the entire Fall Quarter.
Animal Collective
They, like Radiohead have been building up in my mind, waiting to burst. And burst they did, over this past summer. I saw them live and went crazy for their layered, pop beats. Their new album, "Merriweather Post Pavilion" only cements them as one of my new favorite artists.
Nine Inch Nails
Listening to him over the summer and seeing him live has made me realize he is the most innovative artist out there today. Although "Year Zero" is by far my favorite, I can't wait to see what he does next.
Kanye West
Recently I revisited his back catalog, experienced his new album the way it was meant to be heard and saw his live show. I have officially bought into the hype. Kanye can be as cocky as he wants because, frankly, he is savior of rap.
Lil' Wayne
This is a big one. Probably the biggest turnaround of my musical taste yet. I loathed Lil' Wayne but when I listened, I mean really listened to his stuff I got it. He is the future of rap. Like it or not, he took something that was stale as fuck and turned it on it's head. He has created something disturbingly simple and so complex at the same time. Lil' Wayne is the endgame of rap. There is no going back. He is the beauty in the destruction of the genre. And it's fucking catchy as hell.
Honorable Mentions: My Bloody Valentine, Bright Eyes, PJ Harvey
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