Soundtrack To Your Life
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Middle School - Rap
This was the early days of Yo MTV Raps. My first cassettes I got when I was in 8th grade were Young MC and Biz Markie.
YoungMC->Biz Markie->Poor Righteous Teachers
High School - Jazz
I was in HS Band and played trumpet. I had dreams of being a big time jazz trumpet player. Freddie Hubbard's Breaking Glass was my first CD ever. I actually got it before I owned a CD player.
Freddie Hubbard->Miles Davis->John Coltrane->Charles Mingus->Roy Hargove
Late High School -> Early College - Ska and Punk
I hit the ska and punk pretty hard. Went to lots of shows at the Tune Inn and the El N Gee. Played trumpet in a couple of bands that never progressed past the rehearsal stage to gigs stage.
Mu330->Skoidats->Slackers->Gadjits->Dropkick Murphys
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Late College
I spent some time in Lincoln Nebraska and found a Lullaby for the Working Class in the used CD bin. The scene out there was pretty incestuous with bands like the Faint, Bright Eyes, and Cursive. Bands would sometimes play at tKnickerbockers in town or I drove over to Omaha to hit a LOT of shows at the Cog Factory.
Lullaby for the Working Class->Bright Eyes->Cursive
Post College
I'd heard about Songs: Ohia, but it was kind of hard to get into but when Magnolia Electric Co came out it was spectacular. I later came to love the earlier Songs Ohia stuff. It's a real shame Molina died. But since they were on the same label and since I loved going to shows at the Space in Hamden, CT I checked out both Damien Jurado and Richard Buckner at the same show. It was purely epic and at the time I had no idea of the greatness I was witnessing.
Songs: Ohia->Magnolia Electric Co-Jason Molina->Damien Jurado->Richard Buckner
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Last 5 years
I started doing messing around with songwriting and have been drawn to more of that vein of music. Bill Mallonee was a local guy at the time in the Atlanta area and I saw him on a whim at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA and loved it. Townes' music is something special and Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown is great.
Bill Mallonee->Townes Van Zandt->Ryan Adams
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Freddie Hubbard. Straight Life and Red Clay. Formative stuff for me…. Great history man.
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Man, I love this thread. I need to devote a couple of hours to organizing my thoughts, it's just so hard to make sense of it all with Ritchie Valens, Garth Brooks, the Fat Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Wu Tang, Tom Petty, Bob Marley, The Dead Kennedy's, The Reverend Horton Heat, Danzig, A Robote Ate Me, Cursive, The Notorious BIG, Willie Nelson, Sepultura, LCD Soundsystem, Outkast, Dick Dale, Miles Davis, Howlin' Woolf, and She Wants Revenge all rolling around in my head. I'm so conflicted and confused. This whole process is drumming up all sorts of weird feelings that I'm not sure I'm ready to confront. Like, why do I like what I like? How much of it is the music versus the nostalgia for an ephemeral time and place. What is everyone going to think about my fucked up musical past? Am I cool? Why do I fucking care? Was the music, in that long since past moment, genuinely important, or simply an attempt to find acceptance? How is that different from now? Was it the same as my shorn scalp or under shaved butt-cut? Baggy jeans sagged with a braided belt hanging down to my knee? A tie-top beanie and an OPP jacket? Wranglers, Justin's, and a Mo-betta shirt? Was my musical choices simply a cultural signifier that I belonged to a certain group? How much was it Trent Reznor's haunting mania that I was connecting with versus how much was it wanting to ride skateboards with Jody and Will? To do whip-it's in the elementary school playground and say cuss words? To get into skuffs with other fuck off kids? To smoke stolen Benson and Hedges while drinking a boosted bottle of peppermint Schnaps? Or was it about driving to high school with the windows down on my pickup, blaring Hank Jr and spittin' plug chew in my sonic cup? Was it about that cold drizzly night in a college town walkin' to that house with all the vintage furniture and old record player. "We don't give a fuck" hip chicks in thrift store dresses drinking yellowtail talking the merits of some fuckwits latest attempt at creativity. Like we were fucking superior? "Connor Orbst is so incredible." These words, sliding out of my mouth like a big runny dump. The sheer audacity is somewhat embarrassing. The sheer manufactured inauthentic veneer of it all is quite depressing. Except that I still love it. That just this morning, I was shouting King of Rock with the Reverend Run as I was pulling into work. How many fucking lives can one kid try and live? Fuck, this is getting weird and way too deep. I'm going all stream of conscious like fucking James Joyce, whose books I still hate. I better get the fuck out, I'm starting to sound like Monday. Peace. To be continued.
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So good, I had to read it out aloud…..
What an amazing piece of soul-searching prose! @D666, do you realise what you've started?
Shall look forward very much to JSJ's continuation…
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JSJ's post was the reasoning for the this entire thread. A chance for the writer to stroll down memory lane, laugh, cry, kick them self in the ass and get back up. A chance for us to get to know a little bit about the "REAL" you. Thank you for opening up and being vulnerable, thank you for being "YOU"!!!!
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JSJ i read the post in an accent & it made it even better, my only beef is the following:
I better get the fuck out, I'm starting to sound like Monday. Peace. To be continued.
WTF, son
hahahahahahaha, nah dope post
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Love this guy. Great post man and it really resonates. It's going to be in some ways hard to write this which is why I haven't done it yet.
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Thanks y'all. It was a bit of a dump. Definitely went super roots today at work to clear my head. It was all Smithsonian Folksways Recordings, all day. Our rep from Toyota Financial was like, what is that, Mariachi? Nope, just some early 20th century Irish jig. Felt wholesome, like some beans and cornbread, good for the spirit, cleansing, if you will. May be riding the roots train again tomorrow, see if I'm over my post yet.
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Stevie wonder, "I don't know" 100% pure awesomeness sourced strait from the master.
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After today I'm off for the rest of the year. I'll finally have time to do this, should be cathartic for me.
