Obligatory SOML posting

Brandon has been collecting these, here goes....

I have a confession to make. I've never been a habitual user of CCM. I grew up in the wilds of East Montanastan and my dreams are still haunted by the call-signs of my youth: KFLN, KIKC, KATL. Collectively, the Letters of the Beast. Beasts, actually - hog futures and calf prices for the most part, but if you could ride it, eat it or (in the deepest darkest dales of Carter County) screw it, there was a good chance that it was of great interest to the listeners of those stations.

Wait - does Anne Murray count as CCM?

Anyways when I moved to town I went to Catholic school and like all good Papists I looked upon the likes of Amy Grant & Stryper with a general air of suspicion. We listened to AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Metallica instead. We also played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.

I won't bore you with the more mundane details of my musical progression through my high school years, but I'll try to give you the general flavor:

Last Hair Metal Purchase: Judas Priest's Painkiller (I might be able to hit notes like that if you put my nuts in a vise. Halford may even be into that sort of thing)

First (and last) Experience with Art Metal: Celtic Frost's Into The Pandemonium (speaks for itself)

First feel copping: Suicidal Tendencies' Feel Like Shit (Most applicable track: I Won't Fall In Love Today)

Hit first home run: Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger (I really really hope it wasn't Jesus Christ Pose)

First First date with my wife: Red Hot Chili Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magic (In the end, none of the above)

Second First date with my wife (six months later): Jesus and Mary Chain's Honey's Dead (OT, but yesterday was the 12th anniversary of that date. I was an hour or two late because I had to dump the prior girlfriend first, and it took longer than I'd planned.)

College was something of a vast musical wasteland - I divested myself of a large portion of the CD's I had at the time (I'm still kicking myself for hawking Tom Wait's Bone Machine), and most (if not all) of the music I purchased during those five years sits gathering dust on a shelf here at work. I remember hearing Jar's of Clay on the radio (edgy, because they were a Christian band on an alternative station.) Thought it sounded cool, but didn't think it sounded cool enough to actually pay for it.

And then came Napster. Oh those where glorious and heady days - downloading "free" music on the broadband connection that work was paying for. My conscience (and the legal department) finally caught up with me, but not before I became excited about music again. While my primary criteria is still loud followed closely by obnoxious, I've started to branch out a little. I'm willing to concede that melody may be important as well.

One last thing -

Last Friday, my daughter informs me that she's going to make a compilation cd for her friend's birthday. We fire up iTunes, and I let her (mostly) loose amongst the tracks. Here's what she came up with, with only a little input from me:

Authority Zero Mexican Radio
Bowling for Soup 1985
Anthrax Belly of the Beast
Sarah McLachlan World On Fire
Dropkick Murphys Fields Of Athenry
Elvis Costello & The Attractions Oliver's Army
Pink Trouble
Living Colour Someone Like You
Lipps Inc. Funky Town
Frou Frou Holding Out For A Hero
Eddie Murphy & Antonio Banderas Livin' La Vida Loca
Jennifer Saunders Holding Out For A Hero
Billy Talent Voices of Violence
The Donnas Backstage
Lash Beauty Queen
Flogging Molly The Light Of A Fading Star
Flogging Molly & Lucinda Williams Factory Girls
A New Found Glory No News Is Good News
Dropkick Murphys Amazing Grace

Damn I'm proud....

Comments

[Brandon]

Antonio Banderas?

[greg]

Forgive Brandon. He must have missed the end of Shrek II. I've seen it with my grandons about 1 gozillion times. He even does the dance. For the record, he's four, not sixteen so that makes it all right.

[Benjamin]

Oh the sweet innocence of youth. Pretty soon Brandon will have some kids and he'll look back upon that era of ignorance with longing, as he tries to scrub that goddamned song from Pocahontas from his brain...