OK, I’m capable of being melodramatic.  I’ll admit that.  In high school and college, I would make mix tapes (and yes they were cassette tapes) that I titled Eclectic Mellow that I’d put on when I wanted to sit in the dark and contemplate the injustice of life.  This almost always coincided with periods where [...]

The first time that I can truly remember a song in a movie hitting its mark with me in the theater came in the opening credits of The Breakfast Club.  When Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me came pounding through the speakers, I instantly loved the song, immediately understood what I was getting in [...]

I am seriously considering buying a bunch of songs by The Offspring.  You know them.  They came on the scene in the grungy 90s, but never had quite the weightiness of a Nirvana or Pearl Jam or their ilk.  This is one of those bands that seems to linger, putting out a new album every [...]

So I’ve mentioned before that I on occasion alphabetize all the songs on my Ipod by title, just to see if anything interesting pops up.  For example, I discovered that I have two songs called Kite (U2, Ivy) and five songs entitled Lullaby (Alana Davis, The Cure, Jack Johnson, Dixie Chicks and James).
I also have [...]

Let’s take off our purist hats for a moment.  I would generally agree that if you like a band or artist, you should buy whole albums, rather than only the most popular songs.  An album represents a certain period in that artist’s creative life, and therefore it should be respected as an intended whole.  As [...]

OK, so suppose that you are really bored and want to learn something new about your music collection.  Suppose that you wanted that something new you learn to be completely trivial and of no real consequence.  You with me?  Good.  Then, try this.
Go into ITunes and alphabetize your entire collection by song title.  Yeah, 5000 [...]

My anniversary was yesterday.  We’ve been married for 11 years.  I spend a fair amount of time looking for new music that my wife will like.  At the five year mark, I made a double album mix tape (actually, CD) for her.  Here’s the playlist:
DATING 1993-1998
I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You - UB40
Under [...]

Because I am incredibly anal, more than a touch obsessive-compulsive and I generally just like stats, I went through my Ipod to figure out which bands/artists had the greatest representation among the nearly 5000 songs.  Here’s what I found:

R.E.M. - 149 songs
Dave Matthews - 107 songs
U2 - 64 songs
Indigo Girls - 48 songs
Counting Crows - [...]

First of all, let me say for the record that my wife will probably object to being deemed responsible for all of these songs.  And, of course, she’s right.  Some of these I can blame on my children — yeah, I’m looking at you, four-year-old who loves Pocketful of Sunshine.  Really the culprit for these [...]

Spend some time with me and my Ipod and you’ll find that I have a soft spot for covers.  A good cover, in my mind, is recognizable as the original song, yet is a completely new animal.  A good cover has evolved.  Suddenly, you can’t quite imagine anyone but the new artist singing it (even [...]