This Post Is Boring (Music Is Important)

I’m going start cross-posting some of what I write at my self-indulgent MySpace blog on this website. Don’t like it? Don’t read it.

-Earlier this week, I was thinking about the first time I saw Bjork’s “Human Behavior” video. I remember it distinctly. It was three in the morning at my friend Zach’s house. We were bundling Sunday newspapers and watching 120 minutes. When that Bjork video came on, we watched it, confused. “Human Behavior” is a good song.

-I remember a lot about music. The first song I ever danced to with a girl? “Soul to Squeeze” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Whereas you were busy remembering the Pythagoream Theorem, I remember my seventh grade dance at Suncrest.

-The first ever tape that I bought? “Flood” by They Might Be Giants. First ever CD? “Greatest Hits” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

-When I was in high school, during my junior year in the midst of intense anger, I had this strange night when I was manically happy. I remember just being intensely ecstatic, for no real reason. I called my friends and talked to them, and the whole time, I listened to Edie Brickell’s “Shooting Rubber Bands at the Moon.” In college, when I had a shaved head and big sideburns, I borrowed that album from Sue, a girl living downstairs. I’m pretty sure she thought I was strange for looking like that and listening to Edie Brickell.

-Converse to all of my memories about music is the fact that rarely, if ever, can I remember song lyrics. I have friends who remember every lyric they have ever heard; I can’t remember lyrics to They Might Be Giants songs that I’ve heard hundreds of times.

-I get sucked in by songs and terribly disappointed by albums. Story of my life. Want to know what the great albums are? “Graceland” by Paul Simon and “Endtroducing” by DJ Shadow. That’s it. The other day, I was fighting with Julie about music, and she pointed out that I listen to songs but not albums. The hint was pretty clear: I shouldn’t claim to like or dislike bands based on single songs. I ought to listen to more before I pass judgement. But what are you supposed to do when albums are always disappointments?

-One night in high school, I rode around with my friend Aaron. He was a couple of years older than me, and if it wasn’t his car that he was driving, it was soon to be his. We listened to Bob Marley and drank Den sodas. That night sticks out to me. There was something vaguely free about the experience. This is what adults do, I might have been imagining.

-The first time I ever rode in the car with people my own age, it was with a guy I know named Eric. He was playing some tape by Skankin Pickle. I never got into ska music, but I remember that.

-I can’t disconnect music from my memories. I really liked Justin Timberlake’s newest song “My Love,” but now I can’t listen to it. I was into it when things were falling apart a few months ago. It’s all I can think of whenever I hear it.

-Right now, I’m listening to Cat Power’s cover of “Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Apparently, there’s a debate between Beatles fans and Rolling Stones fans as to which band is better. How about neither? Can I go with neither? I hate the Rolling Stones. I used to think Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction” was the best, but this one is better.

-I have a cousin named Evan. When I was in high school, I visited him on Cape Cod. He sat around smoking weed and being cool. Needless to say, we didn’t hit it off. But he listened to DJ Shadow before anybody I knew, and when I later discovered him, I was blown away. I saw him a few years later and asked him what he was into. Jamaican Dance Hall Music, he said. So of course it was popular a few years later, with Sean Paul leading the way. Don’t ask me how he predicted two trends.

-When I was in sixth grade, we had exploratory days on early dismissal Fridays. Professionals would visit our school and host hour long sessions. We got to pick two to attend. One time, U92 came to visit, and gave us a chance to be on the air. The person on the mic asked us our favorite music. Everybody said Mariah Carey or Madonna or whatever was popular those days. I said They Might Be Giants. The person on the mic thought that was cool. And for the first time, I felt like it was cool. Obviously, I wasn’t then, nor am I now, cool. But that validation was important to me.

My Dad picked me up after the final day of school that year, and we ran errands in his yellow Volkswagen Rabbit. He let me pick the station, and so we rode around listenined to U92. And wouldn’t you know it, that the best part of that station is stumbling onto unknown songs that blow you away? The albums almost always suck, but great songs are great songs are great songs. Regina Spektor? Meredith Bragg and the Terminals? Mount Sims? I’ve gotten great songs from that station.