*My Music

OK! Wake up! It's time for you to get turned on to some really good music. Put down that Christina Aguilera! Throw away Hilary Duff! Toss out Britney, Brandy and Justin! Fuck you, Jessica! Country music, you say? What?! You only listen to the radio? Get with it! I present to you My Music, part deux. So I last left off at around age 15, when I was a big-time lo(s)ner whose favorite activities included making out with posters, reading and pretending I was a professional dancer in my parents' garage. The radio was my best friend, and I often played games like Monopoly and Uno by myself. You wouldn't have fucked me, either, would you? Well, things change. My junior year in high school, I got a job and a boyfriend and became an even bigger outcast at school. But, wow!, I grew boobs (finally!) and the longest legs in the universe, got a good hairstyle, lost the glasses and became a Goth bombshell almost overnight. I started smoking and drinking, my grades went from 5 As and 2 Bs each grading period to something hovering around 3 As, a B, a couple Cs and, always, a D or an F. My downward spiral was greased with bands like Guns n' Roses (My dad gave me the Appetite for Destruction tape for Christmas when I was 15 after I begged for it for hours. We would sit on the patio playing backgammon and listening to it. I think he liked it!), the Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, The Cult (Sonic Temple) and The Cure with, thanks to my new skater buddies, a little Dead Milkmen, Circle Jerks and Minor Threat thrown in. I introduced my high school to Jane's Addiction after I stumbled upon an interesting-looking album cover containing two mannequins with their heads on fire. I had no idea what a Jane's Addiction was at the time, but I learned quickly and ended up seeing the group in concert not long before it split up.

High School Love and Rockets

Jane's Addiction - My two favorite J's A albums

Sex Pistols

Violent Femmes - Spent most of my senior year listening to this one

Pixies - Way cool guitars. Frank Black is a genius!

Concrete Blonde - What was I thinking?

Just after high school I moved out of my parents' house about two weeks after I graduated from high school. My life was so chaotic at this point, I didn't really have time for new music. But, in addition to the above-mentioned bands, here were some of my favorites. I had them all on tape. the Stone Roses

Sugarcubes - The Icelandic band that eventually gave us Bjork. This album is my favorite of theirs.

Around this time or earlier, I started listening to Nine Inch Nails. Somewhere in here came Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam, a one-good-album wonder, in my opinion.

Bjork

Fugazi - I became a HUGE Fugazi fan around this time and had the group's first album on tape. The band, now defunct, hailed from Washington D.C. The lead singer owns the Dischord Records label. I saw the band in concert in Pinellas County and, for a while, became a pen pal with the bass player, Guy. Because of him and his acrobatics on stage (while playing!) I bought a bass guitar and started learning some of the band's songs. They sold concert tickets for $5 and refused to come out with so much as a T-shirt. Hated commercialism, ranted against the government and kicked people out of their concerts for being violent. I own all of Fugazi's albums on CD, but these are my favorites.

MC 900 Ft Jesus

Portishead - Moody girl stuff that will make you want to kill yourself

Massive Attack

Single Gun Theory

Mazzy Star

Coil - One of the most interesting albums I've ever heard. I believe they're German.

Rosewater Elizabeth - The lead singer in this now-defunct band was a friend of a friend from the old days. I saw the band play twice, once in an abandoned cigar factory in Ybor City and once at the on-campus bar/club at FSU. I wish I had a huge voice like this tiny woman. I normally don't like ethereal music, but this music is ethereal in a really good way. One of my favorite bands of all time. I'm not sure if you can find any of the band's albums. I own them all.

I was in college at FSU during the time I got turned on to the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy. It was like a dam broke in my brain, even though an ex's friend from Germany told me rather smugly, "All the music in Europe sounds like this. What's so great about it?"

Brainticket - Kraut rock from the 70s that will blow your mind. It's weird.

Talvin Singh

PJ Harvey - This feminist hard rocker knows how to make an album. I own everything she's ever come out with, but these are my favorites. Are you man-size?

Tricky - These are my favorite albums of his. I have seen him in concert twice (NYC and Portland). He needs to lay off the coke, but his music is fabulous.

Rage Against the Machine - All the albums are great

Lamb - Electronic girl music. These albums are great.

Kruder & Dorfmeister - Modern bossanova by the masters. Fabulous music for road trips.

While I lived in NYC, I discovered very few bands. I was too busy just trying to survive. Here is where I gained a love of jazz and began listening to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. What better place to do it? In Portland, I worked for Border's and got paid to stand around all day and listen to music and talk about music and books. My favorite job ever. I was introduced to a lot of great bands here, but I will mention only the big ones whose albums I own.

DJ Krush - Another band I listened to as I drove to and from work in Portland. This is my favorite album by the Krush. Japanese breakbeat.

Roni Size - This is the best Roni Size album. I listened to this album a lot when I would go for walks in Portland.

Radiohead - I know I don't need to say more about this band. These two are my favorite albums. I came to like Radiohead pretty late in the game. I would say I jumped on the Radiohead bandwagon, but I like Amnesiac far too much to say that.

Joe Henry

I'm back in Tallahassee now. Here are some bands to which I was introduced when I first moved back here. Photek

Amon Tobin - This is my all-time favorite band. I have everything made by Amon. These four are my absolute favorites. This is the jazz of the future. The music contains jazz influences with all different sounds mixed in. Many of the songs have their own individual, distinct feel. Good to dance to and go crazy with. Some songs have D&B mixed in as well. This band is a MUST!

Ohgr - Industrial. This is my favorite.

Pigface - Introduced to me by an ex as was Ohgr, Bonobo and Dieselboy (below). This band is mostly a revolving band with some central characters, but other musicians float in and out. It's mostly industrial, but each song has a distinctly different feel. I saw this group perform in Tallahassee.

Goldie - This is his best album by far. I think I had this album much earlier, though. Oops!

Dieselboy - Any of his albums will do. All his stuff sounds the same. For the hardest D&B around, come knocking on Dieselboy's door.

Polar - Good luck finding this one. It's an electronic band from the UK. Not available on Amazon.

Bonobo - Dial "M" for Monkey, baby! Electronic.

Coldcut

DJ Spooky - I'm not a fan of his other albums, but this one is to die for. Love the moody strings in the background.

Jeff Buckley Within the last two years

Goldfrapp - Electronic to the max

Jolie Holland - Old timey country sounds and a bunch of other influences. I love her voice.

Four Tet - Electronic music. One of my favorites. I listened to the first album below the whole time I was in North Carolina. Perfect music for driving through mountains.

Matmos - Experimental band that is one of my current favorites. There is a new album coming out May 9.

Celebration - One of my favorite new bands. Is the lead singer a male or a female? Read the liner notes.

Hooverphonic - Electronic

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dark and moody German jazz. Would jazz from Germany be any other way?

Odd Nosdam - Experimental music. Cool sounds

Infusion

The Octopus Project - An experimental band that has some neat sounds

Bloc Party

Adult

Sigur Ros

Wilderness - A rock band that hails from Baltimore. I heard them play at Black Cat in D.C.

The Evens - A mild folky rock band featuring former lead singer of Fugazi, Ian MacKaye

*This post contains just a tiny sampling of the music I dig.