By this point I was listening mainly to the alternative rock station. During this summer I watched a lot of mtv, also. I'm going by the list on wikipedia, but all the same... It looks to me like a few songs are missing from this.

"Barbie Girl" - Aqua. As I said in the last entry... the beginning of the mechanical "dumb girl" pop.

"Bittersweet Symphony" - The Verve.

"Block Rockin' Beats" - The Chemical Brothers. I remember this being on late weekend nights apart of some radio thing where they remixed songs together...

"Breathe" - The Prodigy. I saw this for the first time this summer, and thought it was the coolest thing EVER. I wanted to be Prodigy when I grew up.

"Da Funk" - Daft Punk. I think I have a clip of this song somewhere in my nonsensical tapes.

"Dammit" - Blink-182. And the trend that plagued my high school days began. You fucking assholes.

"Don't Speak" - No Doubt. This song irritated the fucking hell out of me. It wouldn't go away on the radio or the tv. "Spiderwebs" (year before?) was way better.

"Everlong" - Foo Fighters. I quoted this song at someone the following year because I wanted to love them long time. They totally ignored me. Six years later, they sent me the song like I wasn't the one who had introduced them to it in the first place. It was weird.

"Firestarter" - The Prodigy. Can't hear this song without picturing Drew Barrymore.

"Gone Away" - The Offspring. And it feeeeeeeeeeeels. like, heaven, so far away.

"Honey" - Mariah Carey. And here's where Mariah started comping. And the videos all became stupidly flashy/expensive looking in the genre.

"Hypnotize" - The Notorious B.I.G. I say that songs get stuck in my head a lot, and they do... but this one was one of the worst I've ever had stuck in my head. Just, over and over, BIGGIE BIGGIE BIGGIE CAN'T YOU SEE...

"I'll Be Missing You" - Puff Daddy. This was so fucking popular this summer, and single handedly popularized Puffy...

"It's All About The Benjamins (Remix)" - Puff Daddy. Didn't really care... and though it's not on this list, these videos are reminding me of the song "There's No Sex In The Champagne Room", aka the best video ever.

"The Impression That I Get" - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I'm pretty sure my reaction was WHAT THE FUCK?

"Karma Police" - Radiohead. Oh Radiohead, why... Do you exist to just irritate me, or what?

"MMMBop" - Hanson. I was told I looked like a member of Hanson this year. My niece is a bitch.

"Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters. Somebody got a haircut...

"Mo Money Mo Problems" - The Notorious B.I.G. SHINY!

"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" - Busta Rhymes. Oh wait, I was wrong... this is the best video ever.

"Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" - Backstreet Boys. This and similar bands coming up at the time seemed like a total musical reversion to me. Even having listened to mainly lowest-common-demoninator popular music for most of my life, plus being young and female (aka the intended demographic), I still could not get into this shit in the least.

"Semi-Charmed Life" - Third Eye Blind. This was my first sincerely favorite song, and its popularity coincided with my first "relationship" (the quotes are important) and when I started journal writing.

"Song 2" - Blur. WOO HOO. I remember talking about this song with my first "real" boyfriend. He liked it, too.

"Truly Madly Deeply" - Savage Garden. One of my friends liked this band/song and made me listen to them on a very long drive to the beach once. I didn't think they were bad, but seriously... I do not have the freetime emotion for this kind of stuff.

"6 Underground" - Sneaker Pimps. I remembered this song with fondness. Picked it up again recently and... I can't remember why I liked it.

"Tubthumping" - Chumbawumba. All I remember about this song is how vapid american kids are, not understanding "pissing".

"Walkin' on the Sun" - Smash Mouth. Liked them okay until they became overplayed. Then my boyfriend went and did or said something or other with one of their songs, can't remember what, but it put a bad feeling for me on the band.

I did not realize how draining these yearly posts would be. Have a break with this (really great) Black Cobra video I just found. Two songs.

This was the year I decided I'd had enough with pop music. I went into 1998 casually listening to music, not really caring that much what it was as long as it sounded good enough, and left the year stuck on the hard rock/metal radio station, a CD stereo of my own, and the beginnings of my crush on Tool. This was an amazing year for me, and everything I do now has roots here... It's when I first used the internet, had my first relationship, and of course began to learn about music.

My favorite song from this year, "Space Lord" is not on this list, and it should be. Dave's voice broke my brain. I bought Powertrip at Fry's, listened to it, thought some of the songs were great. I brought the CD for some car trip to play for my friend/friends, and I remember their reaction. Silence, nothing. My best friend laughed at the lyrics in Baby, but maybe only because I prepped the song with a story about it being odd. That's it. I was really disappointed. A new rule was later enacted: no new friends who don't "get" music. Still in place.

In the meantime...

"Are You That Somebody?" - Aaliyah featuring Timbaland. I thought this was alright. I remember my really hot kind of gay younger male blonde friend with his little red shorts dancing to shit like this. Tease.

"Ava Adore" - Smashing Pumpkins. I don't remember this video at all... I had a friend that looked a lot like BILLAY here.

"Believe" - Cher. do you BEH-LEEEV IN LIFE AFTA LOVE?!

"The Boy Is Mine" - Brandy and Monica. It was amusing the first time. After that, obnoxious.

"Celebrity Skin" - Hole. I avoided this because of Nirvana. Didn't give a crap about the politics involved, just wanted to be far from it.

"Closing Time" - Semisonic.

"Crush" - Jennifer Paige. I made fun of this song mercilessly for a while, and then formed a piece of one of my shows around it. It was really stupid... I didn't even try. But the song is just so gay.

"Doo Wop (That Thing)" - Lauryn Hill. Hate.

"The Dope Show" - Marilyn Manson. I knew of Marilyn Manson about a year. I liked them only just enough, and my boyfriend sent me Mechanical Animals. I hated it at first, and this song gets on my nerves, but they definitely wore off after a while.

"The First Night" - Monica.

"Fly Away" - Lenny Kravitz.

"Frozen" - Madonna. This video was on every morning when I got up for a while. Obnoxious. It's so boring, and Madonna's holier-than-thou bullshit going on around this time made it even worse.

"Got The Life" - Korn. Korn and Tool came in together for me. I still love this song despite wanting to hate Korn so bad. "Freak on a Leash" isn't here, but I recall listening to it one night and, for the first time, being overcome by the need to be in music somehow.

"Gettin' Jiggy wit It" - Will Smith. This was really popular that summer... and therefore annoying.

"Hard Knock Life" - Jay-z. I only heard this a couple of times before I went into radio/tv silence. My friend(s?) liked this a lot... Didn't give a crap. I could watch Annie instead.

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - Aerosmith. TOO SAPPY. My boyfriend saw the movie before I did and was talking about it a lot at the time. Thus, permanently connected, and no thanks.

"I Want You Back" - *NSYNC. Yep, this is exactly why I stopped listening to the fucking radio.

"Intergalactic" - Beastie Boys. Hated despite being not even a hundredth as gay as the previous song.

"Iris" - Goo Goo Dolls. "And I'd give up forever to touch you". Welljesusshit, I think you about covered this year for me there, man.

"My Heart Will Go On" - Celine Dion. She's shown up on almost every year so far... and I was doing a great job of avoiding her until the god damn Titanic. What a bunch of garbage.

"Never Ever" - All Saints. Liked.

"Never There" - Cake. Cake gives me a headache.

"One Week" - Barenaked Ladies. NU rock.

"Ray of Light" - Madonna.

"Save Tonight" - Eagle-Eye Cherry. Best friend liked this for a while.

"Sex and Candy" - Marcy Playground. Another hated song. They played this too god damn much.

"Slide" - Goo Goo Dolls.

"Still Not a Player" - Big Pun feat. Joe. Heh! I'm pretty sure I haven't heard this in ages, but it's like it never left. Still stuck in my head. I'm not a player, I just crush a lot.

"Torn" - Natalie Imbruglia. I tried to write a parody of this song. I ended up listening to it fifty times to write out the lyrics/inflections so I could get my parody right. I never finished it, and I never want to hear this ever again.

"Turn the Page" - Metallica. I loved this song when I heard/saw it. I think I was hearing it a lot when I was having hard times down on the homefront.

"The Way" - Fastball. An-y-one can see that the road that they walk on ....

"When the Lights Go Out" - Five. Another boyband. That's exactly what I wanted.

"Whiskey in the Jar" - Metallica. Uh, no.

Song: "Twin Sisters And Half a Bottle of Bourbon"
Artist: Karma to Burn
Album: Karma to Burn (1997)

Dear this song,

I may have posted you before. It doesn't matter. I still love you so. There will be daisies. Und keine Eier.

Hm, upon further inspection, I did not post you before. Not even as "One". I fail.

Song: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
Artist: Van Halen
Album: Van Halen (1978)

There are a lot of apostrophes in this song title.

Song: "Toxic Garbage Island"
Artist: Gojira
Album: The Way of All Flesh (2008)

I've already established that "The Art of Dying" is amazing with you guys, but I had a moment with the song about a week ago that threw me right into Gojira mood. I've been having a little trouble getting through all of their latest album, but the songs I'm fine with... are freakin' great. I'm soveryreally glad they're headlining a states tour.

That said, paaaaain is killaaying maaaay.

The "pure" part cracked me up, but otherwise? Watch it.

Song: "The Desert Song"
Artist: Masters of Reality
Album: Give Us Barabbas (2004)

I've got nothin' for ya. It's good enough, so search away if you don't have it already.

Song: "Big Spider"
Artist: Helms Alee
Album: Night Terror (2008)

Heavy and loud Akimbo-ish start that floats off into something more like Torche on a sad day. Get it, it's good.

Song: "Strike"
Artist: Sepultura
Album: A-Lex (2009)

This song is a bit like the beginning of the Helms Alee song I just posted.

And, as may be apparent from my repeat postings from it, I highly recommend this album.

Ninety-nine sucked for me. It started off bad but I was still maintaining because I was delusional, still. A month later, the shit hit the fan and did not, at all, let up, for the entire year.

This was the year I finally got a copy of The Downward Spiral - THAT is EXACTLY the mood I was in. Then, between Slipknot's self-titled and The Fragile, I'd found my personal musical mecca of the moment. Pretty much all of this popular music sounded like crap to me.

These were my songs of the year (among a bunch that didn't come out this year):
"Purity" - Slipknot
"Mudshovel" - Staind
"The Big Come Down" - Nine Inch Nails

"All Star" - Smash Mouth. This one reminds me of my ex. Fucking happy jerk.

"American Woman" - Lenny Kravitz. One asks why.

"Ana's Song (Open Fire)" - Silverchair. Oh boy, popularizing misery, that's what I love. I remember "Anthem For the Year 2000" better because, well, it was supposed to be my generation's "song". Not that my generation doesn't listen to any of this other garbage and think it's the greatest thing ever. Fucking idiots.

"Angel" - Sarah McLachlan. No.

"...Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears. It wasn't immediate hate. I have to say I relate to some of her apparent issues. But the differences mean a lot...

"Bawitdaba" - Kid Rock. All I remember about Kid Rock other than the obvious mass suckage is that one of my internet friends was talking about her love for Kid Rock shortly after this period... and yeah. She's not my friend anymore.

"Beautiful Stranger" - Madonna. Was pleased she didn't continue on with the goth thing.

"Blue Monday" - Orgy. Reminds me of another ex for no apparent reason.

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" - Eiffel 65. Do I even need to say this is annoying? I thought this song was hilarious the first time I heard it because of a private joke I had with a friend about the word/name/title "Blue". I wanted really badly to call them up that second to tell them about it, but I didn't hear the song until after they were raped from my sphere. Sucks.

"Californication" - Red Hot Chili Peppers. Didn't like it. Thought I'd heard enough of his thoughts on his location.

"Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" - Baz Luhrmann. Oh god, I remember this being popularized again around the time of my own graduation...

"Every Morning" - Sugar Ray. This song disturbed me.

"Falling Away From Me" - Korn. ARGH. I hated Issues SO BAD when it came out. And for the next several years. I don't know HOW I grew into it, but it somehow happened when I wasn't paying attention. But yeah. The production really got to me. I was used to Korn's self titled... This was, just... gay.

I remember the first days of high school, in 1996, knowing a girl who wore a black and white oversized Korn t-shirt all of the fucking time. She was not "popular" in the least. By the time Issues came out, all of my friends - male and female, online and at school and everywhere else - liked Korn. They had tons of radio play. It had somehow become "cool" to like Korn. WHAT?

But yeah, the production... it was just, fucking fuck this radio friendly, mute garbage.

"Genie in a Bottle" - Christina Aguilera. You can probably guess how I felt about this.

"Have You Ever?" - Brandy. Loved someone so much it made me cry?! Not this week, Brandy.

"I Need To Know" - Marc Anthony. Yuck.

"I Want It That Way" - Backstreet Boys. x2.

"If You Had My Love" - Jennifer Lopez. Brainwashing.

"Kiss Me" - Sixpence None the Richer. Maybe this should be called "Herp-es". Ha?

"Last Kiss" - Pearl Jam. Some guy I knew in a band, I can't remember which guy I knew in a band because there's just so many to pick from, but... some guy told me his band was going to perform this song for some school thing shortly after this time. I was confused and yet awed that anyone my age could do this.

"Learn to Fly" - Foo Fighters. AIRPLANES.

"Lit Up" - Buckcherry. I'd rather not, but at the moment I, too, loved the cocaine. One of my friends in more recent years is (was?) obsessed with Buckcherry... I don't really get it. Maybe one day he'll reform back to Black Sabbath-inspired stoner rock with me. I have tons of that to share. You just have to ask. Seriously.

"Livin' la Vida Loca" - Ricky Martin. I don't know how, but I forgot what this song sounded like...

"Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" - Lou Bega. ... Dion - The Wanderer.

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" - Shania Twain. Your attempt at irony angers me.

"My Name Is" - Eminem. It was interesting enough a few times in, but... you know, there's only so much of this you can take.

"My Own Worst Enemy" - Lit. Lyrics WTF?

"No Scrubs" - TLC. I guess it has some kind of weird feministic application, but.. no.

"Nookie" - Limp Bizkit. At first I wasn't caring or paying much attention to what was going on over here, but it was soon realized what an obnoxious fucking asshole this guy is. ... and this whole genre.

"Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" - The Offspring. I knew a guy who fit this song. I don't know if he was retarded or autistic or what, but... yeah.

"Praise You" - Fatboy Slim. WORST VIDEO OF ALL MANKIND EVER.

"She's So High" - Tal Bachman. hiiiiiiiiii ee iiiiiiiiigh.

"Sleep Now in the Fire" - Rage Against the Machine. Well ok.

"Smooth" - Santana feat. Rob Thomas. Oh wow, someone won over a new crowd! Congratulations, you're still a bandwidth-wasting asshole!

"Steal My Sunshine" - Len. One of the few songs that was interesting this year, yet not overplayed.

"The Bad Touch" - Bloodhound Gang. Everyone liked this, then. I hate all of you very much. Fucking die. Seriously, right now... Kill yourself. You have nothing to offer society or the world in general. There's no point. Just do it.

"Waiting for Tonight" - Jennifer Lopez. I could not fucking believe I liked this song. I was listening to the near-exact opposite spectrum of music at this time, and yet... I didn't cringe or want to hurt anyone hearing this.

"What It's Like" - Everlast. No, and fuck you.

"What's My Age Again?" - Blink 182. This band's attention span is greater than my own.

"Where My Girls At" - 702. Owning people is great.

"You Get What You Give" - New Radicals. PEEEEACE ISWHATYOUGET FROM THE CHEMICAL KING.... Not that I'd heard Spine of God yet, but yeah. Time to go listen to it, now.

Welp, that was fun.

What songs were popular in the year 2000 was pretty much irrelevant because, by now, I'd quit listening to the radio except in small bursts/by friends, quit watching mtv or any other music channel, and had begun to rely on mp3s and friends to help me discover new (or old) music.

I'm going to do the rest of this by memory, so I may be a little off.

Coldplay. I remember being very surprised when one of my internet associates liked Coldplay's "Yellow". There was no rhyme/reason to it. They didn't seem the type.

This year, I flirted with a guy who liked the Deftones' "Change". One of my friends had White Pony but I didn't feel particularly inclined in that direction yet. I remember quoting "Intolerance" by Tool around him once and he seemed rather confused... Hm, thanks, but perhaps you're not my type.

I don't know if it was late this year or early the next, but whenever it was... the new Staind songs pissed me off. Tormented is a really great album. The next one was okay in places. After that, pure garbage. The acoustic thing was hellish, and then they just made it fucking worse by joining up with fucking Fred Durst of all people. Of all people in the entire fucking world.

STP's No 4 came out close to this time. I was upset and couldn't identify why. Now, this album reminds me of the sick feelings I was having around the time I graduated.

SALIVAL! SALIVAL SALIVAL SALIVAL! I bought that motherfucker. It took three or four months to get to me. I keep it in a safe place, now. Sometimes I take it out of its plastic box and hold it like a baby and sing it pretty songs. And I tell it I'm sorry it's VHS, but I couldn't afford the DVD version. I couldn't afford it, period. But I loves it. It's so purdy.

Also this year, I bought NIN's Things Falling Apart. I built a few websites listening to this one.

Mer de Noms by APC. I heard about this project before it physically happened, and one day my friend told me that the APC songs were on a website. I checked the site out, and they, indeed, had every single one of the songs up online. I downloaded them all. Loved them to death, and was otherwise really caught up in all of the APC hype. It was weird for me, however, when I knew all of the songs well before I saw them live, mere days after the actual release of the record. I felt like I was the only one in the room who knew them... which is altogether possible because kids those days didn't use the internet to enhance their listening experiences yet. Just us computer geeks.

And apparently there was Holy Wood by Marilyn Manson. I got into Antichrist Superstar about this time (would have been earlier but "research" was not easy online pre-2000 aka google/napster), so it was good timing. I liked MM in general, and though Holy Wood never stuck, at the time it was good as a whole product and some of the songs are still nice to visit. Especially "King Kill 33".

I'm sure there were a couple of other albums worth mentioning... but it's way too early for memory.

That said, I can't do this yearly thing based on the top hits or albums that came out that year anymore (hooray, right?) and may stop this here.

What the hell, let's keep going. I'm going to have to backtrack a little, though, so here we go.

In the mid-late 90s, I realized I was not a typical listener. I wasn't sure about this at the time because I never had a favorite band, didn't feel like I was a "fan" of anything, and though I liked some songs, I didn't really care about the band or whatever. The kids in school who liked music were either possibly retarded, obnoxious band geeks, or the "metal"/"punk" crowd who took their appreciation of bands to their absolute limits, or one of the endless supply of girls who said they liked music but actually just liked to dance/have fun/appear like a fuckable human being. I hated cliches even then, and was not going to be participating in any. I would have to approach music in my own way.

Being poor worked against me, having deaf and immigrant family worked against me, having parents twice the age of anyone else's parents worked against me, and not being the type to do things for myself worked against me. In high school, I made friends with someone who would provide "interesting" for me. Soon, my social sphere opened up... and in time I was introduced to "real" music.

The first band that stood out to me in a serious context was Nine Inch Nails, specifically the song "Down In It". I heard it through the radio. Soon after that, my social sphere opened up. One of the people liked Tool a lot. It was played a lot when they were around, then in general. It wore off. I was not interested in being like any of these people, being that most of them were fucking full of themselves (as music geeks are inclined to be), so I was resistant.

Around this time, I was noticing that my taste in music was not what was becoming OF music. Socially, music was cleaning up and had always been pretty superficial. I was attracted to songs that were more bassy, deeper, lower, or lyrically "risque". I really liked the song "Obsession" by Animotion. Then there was Stabbing Westward's radio songs at the time. Then it was Gravity Kills. And then I heard Monster Magnet's "Space Lord".

The next school year, I met a guy who I thought was just the hottest jerk and stingiest asshole in the whole wide world. He quoted "Swamp Song" at me for no apparent reason, and I asked what the hell that was about. I was amused that "belligerent fucker" was apart of the lyrics of a song. I had no idea about Undertow, so I bought it. Meanwhile, I met other Tool geeks who I also thought were interesting in their own little way. One of them told me "Hooker with a Penis" was his favorite Tool song, and I busted up laughing and said "that figures".

At the same time, my best friends threw Korn at me. I didn't particularly care for Korn in the way my female friends did, where it seemed largely superficial as if they had never actually listened to Korn ever, but the angst present in the music helped me turn my mind on that.

In 1999, I met some people online that were each different sorts of music geeks. One of them really, really, really liked Insane Clown Posse. I did not and was not going to participate in that, but I was in awe of how far he took his love for ICP. Another guy was a metal geek, in a band, smoked his brains out daily. I also knew a girl who loved feministic punk rock to death - L7, Bikini Kill, Hole... And there were all of the Tool geeks. I wrote one of the girls a story called Mary the Anorexic Lesbian Cow, about a cow who loved Uddertoe and wasn't having any of the other cow's Ricky Mootin's music... She loved that.

The guys introduced me to Slipknot. I was hesitant because, well, ICP. I heard "Wait and Bleed" first. The jerk who got me into Undertow was talking about how he liked it. I got the album. We talked about how great "Purity" is when it peaks at "you all stare but you'll never see".

A few months later, Slipknot became really fucking popular. I heard them played in the parking lot at school. I was annoyed and disgusted.

At this same time, I was listening to The Fragile pretty much constantly.

Somehow, ICP guy got me to download one of their songs. I think the first one was "Boogie Woogie Wu". It took a few listens but I figured it was okay enough, and got The Great Milenko. Despite being obnoxious, I figured it had a better "message" than the vast majority of music.

Because I got ICP, I said it was only fair for him to listen to Tool. He was the only one who had not jumped on the bandwagon, and it was time. He kept saying the usual regurgitated crap people say when they supposedly hate Tool even though they've only ever heard "Sober" or been in the presence of one of the more obnoxious members of the Tool geekdom family. I got him to listen to some songs off Opiate. A few months later, he was listening to Aenima.

At this time, I was listening to a few albums a lot - Antichrist Superstar, Darkest Days, Mer de Noms, and Undertow. I'd had the latter for almost two years at this point, but was just coming into my appreciation of it. The others, I'd just recently bought or found.

The song I brought into 2001 with me was Union Underground's "Revolution Man".

Napster was having issues about this time, and I was wondering if I should utilize the service while it was still running. My boyfriend recommended a bunch of songs over the course of this time, almost entirely nu metal. A few passed my filters but most did not.

I found a live APC song somewhere, "Diary of a Madman", which resulted in me getting the same song by Ozzy. At this time I'd just recently begun writing publicly online, and I appreciated the coincidence. I remembered that I had been interested in discovering more about Black Sabbath/Ozzy before but simply hadn't bothered because they weren't relevant. I got "Paranoid", the song. I said something vague about it online.

My boyfriend reacted that he hated Ozzy and Black Sabbath and it was all crap because Ozzy's an asshole, etc, and therefore I was dumb for listening to them. I picked apart his logic, which he did not appreciate. I think it was the only actual fight we ever had.

At the same time, he said he had a song stuck in his head all day. I asked what song. "Silver Future" by Monster Magnet. WHAT? MONSTER MAGNET? GIVE ME THIS SONG! I got the song, and a few others from the recently released God Says No. Hm. I didn't get it. I wanted to, but... nope, not happening.

I heard "What a Day" by Nonpoint in the early spring of 2001. I was impressed at the lyrical ability of this guy, and got a few songs from the same album. I thought about making a new website and having a feature on it where I wrote about my favorite albums/bands at the time, with Statement being my first one... but I got sick.

And stayed sick.

Lateralus came out. My mind was thoroughly blown. I could have listened to it 24/7...

My boyfriend's last present to me was talking about Mudvayne, their LD50 album I was stuck on for about a year.

System of a Down released their Toxicity album with AMAZING timing with 9/11.

And, suddenly, I was listening to Alice In Chains all of the time. I had a lot of research to do with music, I realized. I'd missed a lot as a kid, and as a teenager, and due to my obsessions. It was necessary to expand my horizons. AIC was safe enough, as I knew them well enough already from brainwashing radio play. I loved the song "Again". I made a background for my desktop, that just read "again and again" over and over. It was great, I used it for years. I'm sorry for my sense of humor.

And "Angry Chair". I was sitting in my angry chair, too. All god damn year.

But then there's "Bleed the Freak", aka Freak the Bleed. Love love love love.

I was pissed when Layne went and died (in 2002). That meant he was going to gain a bunch of post-death groupies, in the same vain (VEIN, LOLZ) as had been with Nirvana, and that was going to be in my fucking way. Sure enough, five minutes later, my ex loved Alice In Chains even though he hadn't to begin with. Nice one.

Anyhow... Napster died. I found Audiogalaxy, and 2002 began...

Song: "The Sermon to the Hypocrites"
Artist: Behemoth
Album: Satanica (1999)

I finally listened to a Behemoth song all of the way through, seeing as it came on when I was busy doing something and I didn't think to turn it off. I suppose this is familiar to a few things I've posted in the past... but it's still left field for me.

What do you think? Behemoth: yes/no?

Song: "The End of the Road"
Artist: Twin Earth
Album: Black Stars in a Silver Sky (2000)

The start of this song is great. Very Kyuss influenced despite the Monster Magnet band name. Warm, familiar stoner rock for you all...

Most of 2002 sucked for me. "Important" things happened, and I suppose things improved over the course of the year, but I felt like shit. Any music that I took into this time was making my heart hurt.

I did some searching to figure out that bands that I didn't love but merely liked worked for the moment. I listened to a lot of Deftones and Nirvana for a while. I needed less bass, though. Maybe something in my exact opposite mood. Maybe something I wouldn't care if it got ruined by my shitty moods and disgust with humanity.

I heard The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl" somehow - perhaps the radio. I did my research, and their style struck me as really familiar even though I knew I'd never heard anything like it before. I downloaded a bunch of random songs.

At the same time I heard The Strokes' "Last Night" which resulted in some minor downloading.

This fresh newness was nice. I started looking for other stuff, something nice and simple and popular and meaningless.

A friend of mine online liked the band Le Tigre. I looked them up to discover their most popular song was "Deceptacon". I gave it a listen, and... WHAT THE FUCK. NO. I had another friend who had "I'm a gasoline gut with a vaseline mind" quoted on some site of hers, and I needed to go back to it and find out why...

The song somehow stuck. And then I was listening to "Friendship Station" because it was about how I was feeling then. Or "Let's Run", aka give me attention every day and every niiiiiiiiiiight. And then there's "The The Empty" which made me notice that perhaps those lyrics were intelligent enough to look up.

I'd known of Placebo a few years at this point, but hadn't bothered much with their music. I downloaded some. It fit my mood really well... and they were just varied enough to not become boring. At first I loved songs like "Allergic" and "Drowning By Numbers".

Towards the end of the year, I was screwing around and bored one night, so I ended up fishing the radio again. It all sucked. I found myself on the classic rock station for some reason. After a song or two, I realized I needed to do this... I was fucking ignorant about classic rock. I knew things in a vague sort of way, and that wasn't good enough. I needed to hear more, and learn something...

Randomly, in 2003, I had a new boyfriend again. He was interested in music in a hoard-ish, sampling way. He liked a wide spectrum and didn't seem stuck like the former.

Of course, we tried to discuss music with each other. By this point I was stuck on the classic rock and had a pretty strong opinion about what I was/wasn't going to take in, in general... but he was listening to motherfucking dance music. I wasn't digging metal anymore, or anything like it, but come on... Dance music? I realized it had a lot to do with where we "were"... I am simply not a "fun" person. AND I was in a shitty mood pretty much constantly around this time. He went "dancing", drank, smoked, fucked around, and whatever else idiots do when they're 18-21 that qualifies as "fun" but sounds more like punishment to me. He'd also pretend to be happy and pleasant for the sake of others - LOL! Sooo not me.

I felt like a fucking asshole about this and made attempts to like the pussy rock and dance music... but... eh. He tried to please the beast by sending me things like Pink Floyd. I mean, c'mon... Try harder. It's not like I knew everything they had or anything, but I definitely knew Pink Floyd by now. I was not impressed.

He threw Muse and Queens of the Stone Age at me. I was disappointed. I'm sure he had a whole album's worth of either of their songs, so why in the world would he chose "Hysteria" knowing I got pissed off at girly sounding music? Methinks it should have been "Time Is Running Out".

A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step came out. Finally something to share. But, by this point, he was grumpy with me most of the time so that was a bit futile... heh. This album makes me think about a time we got into a retarded fight because he had no sense of humor about some pictures I took.

This was the time I picked up L7 after going through a someone a few years older than me's CD collection, particularly "Wargasm". HELLO. And there was Bikini Kill's "Resist Psychic Death", a song made of pure awesome... even though the bass in "Rebel Girl" is better. Yeah, bass. I'd renewed my appreciation.

For some reason I looked up Monster Magnet and discovered they had a new album out soon, Monolithic Baby. I found it online. It was better than what little I'd retained from God Says No, and I liked its.. synchronicity. I felt inspired enough from it to finally get a copy of Spine of God and Dopes to Infinity... and in time the brain was breaking again.

I can't remember offhand when I looked up Fu Manchu. It was apart of something else, some random search. I ended up getting "King of the Road", "Neptune's Convoy", and "Saturn III" to begin with. I pretty much immediately knew I'd found a winner.

I suppose because of his momentary QOTSA-ing, the boyfriend recommended Welcome to Sky Valley at me. His tastes thus far had not met anymore than briefly with my own, but I knew one of Kyuss' songs and gave it more of a shot when he sent a couple of songs my way. I had been listening to a lot of nondescript, who-cares classic rock, so it fit well enough. Over time, though, I noticed I was listening to "Whitewater" a lot...

We broke up, and I was doing new things, so at this point I shut off my mind on everything but "new". I wanted to continue exploring music, but the break up feelings were going to ruin anything good, so I went with the next level up: 80s music. There is no possible way that 80s music can get ruined because it's already terrible.

A little time passed, and I remembered that I had bands in queue to learn about. I certainly loved "Whitewater" by now, and "Demon Cleaner" passed years of inspection, and "Space Cadet" was interesting... so why not get their albums?

My life started to improve in late 2004. Coincidentally, this is when I downloaded all of the Kyuss albums - Wretch, Blues for the Red Sun, Welcome to Sky Valley, and And The Circus Leaves Town.

I knew, beforehand, that this was going to be something epic so I wrote down all of my first thoughts on the songs. This resulted in a comment from a guy I knew who didn't listen to fucking garbage, telling me to check out the band Sheavy.

I tried to listen but I never gave a fuck about Black Sabbath despite my one-off argument with the ex about them, and didn't really want to hear a vocalist that sounded like Ozzy. This was not appealing. Take your BS obsession somewhere else, asshole.

Then I actually listened to the lyrics in "Electric Sleep". "Cyberspace is no place for the real world" about covers it. My wordy friend went off on tangents about the band, about Black Sabbath, about a whole genre inspired by the same sort of crap... He sent me Unida and Dozer. I gave them all a listen... I liked them better. But, in time, I was coming back to Sheavy and getting used to their 'sound'. Before long I was even broken on Black Sabbath. Apparently, covers aside, I'd just never heard Vol 4.

Meanwhile, I talked to one of the guys from Sheavy. I could not fucking believe it. I was coming from bands like Tool where band contact is pretty much impossible. This guy fucking found ME. THE HELL. Theoretically I'd been friends with people involved with music before, but not a member of a now-favorite band. Crazy.

About that time, my friend introduced me to Dream Theater. I liked some, but... what a bunch of wankery.

He also went off about Fiona Apple. I knew her from 1997 or whenever it was, but singer-songwriter wasn't really my cup of tea. I downloaded some random songs that I didn't already have, anyway... and subsequently became very caught up in the drama going on about the release of Extraordinary Machine. Fucking bullshit. I bought everything she had and pre-ordered the album.

With Teeth by NIN came out. Pretty much everyone around me were saying it was a joke, even though most of these people were not "typical" listeners of NIN. I was a bit sad that it wasn't really that great, but that didn't stop me from buying a ticket to see them the second it went onsale for me.

And I got DSL. I needed to utilize this for music. I found 20 years worth of top-100 billboard songs for each year, and downloaded every single one. I wrote about them all. I was reminded about a lot of artists I hadn't bothered with in years, resulting in a little more downloading. I'd gotten a last.fm account a few months beforehand, and during this time my charts were fucking schizophrenic because I was also listening to a lot of Sheavy, Monster Magnet, Kyuss... 80s and 90s pop right next to stoner rock.

Madonna came out with Confessions on a Dance Floor. I didn't really want to like it, but I was stuck on it for a while.

Extraordinary Machine came out, naturally great.

Sheavy's new one, Republic? came out. I was disappointed.

I listened to Autolux's album in preparation for their show with Nine Inch Nails.

I also did Queens of the Stone Age research, though I was still sick about them. I ended up looking at a link on their site for the band Eagles of Death Metal. I figured I had nothing to lose, I guess, and watched the "Speaking in Tongues" video... and died laughing. HOLY SHIT THIS WAS BRILLIANT. It was a tutu'ed death metal growl about ponies and rainbows short of my ideal band. MORE PLS.

I saw Nine Inch Nails live... In itself, it was a great experience. The first time I saw them, and the first time I saw Tool in 2001, I was a little sick afterward because I didn't have the money to be spending on concerts but I really liked the whole feeling/experience. Now I had some expendable money. I could do this if I tried to. I wasn't sure. I was scared. My friends now didn't listen to my music. And they were "old" in my eyes, "over" the inanity of momentary experience, more interested in security and assurance. Bleh. I didn't want to do this alone but I was going to have to if it was going to be accomplished.

Seeing Queens of the Stone Age... just, what? They'd been this awesome all of this time? How the fuck? Where did I go wrong? I got a bunch of their albums starting with Over the Years, and probably got Desert Sessions at this time as well.

I had to see another show soon, so I went to Fiona Apple. It was my first non-arena, middle-sized venue show, and my first non-rock show. It was really great and just what I needed. Yep, more concerts...

The first band I discovered going in to 2006 was The Gossip. I read about them on some obscure music website and listened to the only songs of theirs I could find, which was a grand total of two songs. I couldn't find SHIT on them. About two months after hearing them for the first time, they had a concert nearby and I finally found That's Not What I Heard. I asked a friend if they wanted to go because they'd bitched about me going to Fiona Apple by myself without telling anyone I was doing it. They said no. The place was too far out for me to get to and from entirely on my own, so I skipped it slightly pissed off about my daft friends.

Standing In The Way Of Control came out. I liked it okay but not in the way I liked the more raw sound from the other stuff. Somehow, from it, they became insta-popular. I have to say I'm still a little annoyed that I never made that show, their "last" as a semi-obscure band where their fanbase wasn't yet made up of socially climbing fucking idiots.

It took me a really long time to find the album Superjudge by Monster Magnet for some reason. I didn't actually get a copy until 2005. Initially, besides the more acoustic tracks, it sounded like shit to me. Just pointless noise. I knew it would just take time (even though no Magnet record had ever taken me long to get into). I tried to come back to it, but didn't really succeed in any breakthroughs.

I was about to write it off, when suddenly I had "Evil" stuck in my head. YER A LONG WAY FROM HOME... It wasn't the noisiest track, but it was more on that spectrum. Interesting. I started coming back more often... Slowly, each song was sticking. It'd been at least a year since I fell in love with "Third Alternative" (going by the evidence that I named a website "third alternative" in 2004), and I was appreciating similar lyrics... but I hadn't listened to any new/relevant metal after Tool turned on me, and this was a little surprising.

I had a crush on a guy who listened to the worst music in the world short of country, hardcore rap. I'm also pretty sure he had no idea who the fuck Nirvana was. My thought was, well, at least no music's going to get raped. Nevertheless, I had to turn the Monster Magnet off for a while because... Monster Magnet is greater than boys.... human beings in general. I tried to listen to entirely new shit, things "normal" people listened to that would go away in a month when it got tiring to the masses, when I got tired of blatant musical idiocy.

And then I found youtube. People had songs in their videos. Because I was listening to crap, I discovered Scissor Sisters and Lily Allen and loved the fuck out of them both.

Tool's 10,000 Days came out. I tried my best to wait for it to actually be physically released, and I was doing really good. I avoided every website that might talk about it. But, one of my friends who I could not avoid and knew would talk about it (probably purposely just to piss me off) downloaded it... It was, do I let him ruin it for me or do I just download it now?

It was fucking great... Especially "Jambi". Most of my associates at this time went nutty over "Rosetta Stoned", but I feel Jambi's the true winner. I listened to it every... single... day. I couldn't leave the house without some Jambi.

At this time, I met a new guy. He seemed interesting, and knew plenty about music, and seemed to have diverse tastes despite being a bit stuck on metal-isms and extremely strong opinions. I think we had one good month of contact before we got into a huge fight, obviously about music, to the point that it was fucking impossible to talk to him after that even though we never talked about the reason for the fight again. He kept saying other shit, random things that seemed like he was trying to control what/how I thought... which was ultimately incredibly inspiring (resulting in Sounds of Sagittarius) but at the time I was frustrated as fuck by it.

He threw Meshuggah at me, some songs from Catch 33. Yeah, that's where a beginner on Meshuggah who hasn't listened to much actual metal in their life wants to start. Great job. I obviously didn't like it.

He talked about a bunch of other bands. Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mastodon... I knew Mastodon was touring with Tool, so I gave them a listen. Nope, still too "out there". I needed a bridge to cross this river...

I kept coming back to "Iron Tusk". I kept confusing it with "Iron Swan" by The Sword, a band who I'd downloaded the year beforehand who was also a little over my perspective at the moment, so I kept coming back to The Sword as well... Hm, "Freya"...

My friend had whined about Isis being great, so I was expecting them to actually be great. I saw them open for Tool. At this point I was completely jaded on anything my friend was telling me or saying in general... Isis sucked live.

To go with my Scissor Sisters and Lily Allen, I bought She Wants Revenge. This was a little bit of compact brilliance for a while.

My life changed a bit about this time, and I had more actual free time. I tried to put together a list of all of the bands I'd listened to, ever. I didn't complete it by any means, but I asked people to help me fill in the blanks. A couple sent a bunch of bands my way, most of which I knew by name but had never actually listened to...

The first one was Ministry. I swore I'd heard Ministry before because I knew their name and had an idea of what they were like... but damn, I hadn't actually listened to them. This took up some time...

The other major band was the Melvins. I knew them, I'd seen them on tv at some point in my youth, I knew who Buzzo was... but god damnit, I hadn't actually ever listened to them. Why not?! I went about randomly getting the albums that contain "With Teeth" and "June Bug" for reasons that should be obvious... sat on those a bit... needed to get more... and they released A Senile Animal. I'd jumped on this train right on time - this album is fucking amazing. Awesome? One of those words.

At this point I was pissed that these bands had existed my entire life (literally), I had had opportunities to see them as a living band, but nobody around me then knew music or cared about music. I was discovering them very late in the game. While it would be understandable that I'd discover a band like Led Zeppelin or The Doors "late in the game" due to their lack of relevance to the music I grew up on and me being younger than their albums, the Melvins was inexcusable. Why had NOBODY, EVER told me how good this was? Why did nobody I ever knew talk about them? Did anyone I knew even know them? Why was everyone jerking off about Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains back in the day... when two steps to the left there was this GREATER band?

Meanwhile, Blood Mountain came out and I finally downloaded it around December. It might have taken ten minutes total for me to lose my fucking mind. Well, twelve and a half minutes is the length between "The Wolf is Loose" and "Sleeping Giant". I was immediately sold on "Sleeping Giant".

I remember the beginning of 2007, musically, in a vague and distorted sense. I was working on my list and trying to sample a lot of different artists. I'd also found a site that shared individual songs, mostly indie but I found some good dance/electronic stuff from it. I was using last.fm for searching similar artists quite a bit, too. In general, I wasn't thinking too hard about what I was taking in, just trying to be "open".

I noticed that my tastes had become rather diverse. I approached most music in a superficial way, but at the same time I was listening to "Jambi" and "Crystal Skull" all of the time, I was discovering Felix da Housecat and Peeping Tom and The Faint... or, mid-spectrum, Porcupine Tree and Kings of Leon and Muse... or even new-to-me stoner rock bands like Karma to Burn and Sleep and Slo Burn. I was very much diversifying going into this year...

Ironically, I was feeling frustrated at the same time. On one hand, my "friend" was still giving me shitty vibes. If I openly talked about music, there would be bitchiness and holier-than-thou comments. I knew I was bad about not being open, and I definitely get stuck on myself and my opinions and what is/isn't reality, but fuck... There was no way I was going to be able to explore music in my own backwards way with this asshole around. I would never 'ascend', would merely become a clone or antitheses of whatever the shit he was doing.

On the other hand, I was frustrated because I had been sampling a lot in recent months and nobody around me or online had nearly the mindset to appreciate that. If I could listen to Hot Chip at the same time as a bunch of stoner rock and appreciate them both in their own ways, why couldn't anyone else? Even in writing/talking regularly about music, even music specific people WOULD like FOR SURE, nobody seemed to be paying much attention and I didn't otherwise feel supported in the least. It was getting more and more frustrating...

So, Nine Inch Nails released Year Zero. The means of advertising this was next to brilliant, and I was caught up in it.

I saw a bunch of bands live. The third of the year, Peeping Tom, was great, much closer to where I "was" now and I preferred the more masculine energy by comparison of the first two.

On a whim, I bought a ticket to see Mastodon. I had the the time off and I needed to know whether or not they were any good. It was still possible that I was only feeding off my friend's energy, that my appreciation of the few songs I'd gotten into off Blood Mountain were merely representation of something else going on. The live setting would break me of that, if so.

This show was exactly what I needed at that moment. It was amazing. I was really, really glad I did it, glad I conquered the show, glad I did this unusual thing not only for myself but for people's perceptions of "me".

Meanwhile, because I instantly loved Peeping Tom, I checked out Tomahawk. They had been sitting on my hard drive a while before I actually gave them a proper shot. Even then, I was sitting on "Mayday" and "God Hates A Coward" for a while more.

And then Anonymous came out. I was in the mood, so I just let it play from the beginning instead of my usual random picking. "War Song" isn't much for an actual "song", but it was a nice mood setter. The moment "Mescal Rite I" began = HOLY SHIT. And those vocals. I was instantly sold. This album was the weirdest fucking shit I'd ever heard. If you've never heard Tomahawk's Anonymous, seriously, go listen to it right now... It's an "experience".

I tried to talk about this... everywhere. I kept writing about it. More people needed to hear it - at least be AWARE of it. Two people who would have found the album anyway responded - otherwise, nothing. I know you can't make people like what they're not inclined towards to begin with, but... RGH.

Queens of the Stone Age's Era Vulgaris came out. It made par but I was not impressed to begin with. Nevertheless, at this point, I loved them enough to buy a ticket to go see them in another city since they weren't locally touring yet. It would be a nice opportunity to 'get away' and do something chancy.

Around this time, I finally got myself a portable mp3 player because I was doing a lot of walking and solo most of the time at work. At first I loaded up bands I already knew/loved, but I deleted the most of that and replaced it with new-to-me stuff so I'd be working on my musical endeavors at work.

I'd had Gojira thrown at me before, and I liked "Flying Whales" okay but the rest of From Mars to Sirius was way too far out for me. I decided it would have to reveal itself randomly, and threw it on my mp3 player.

Sure enough, "Backbone" caught me off guard one afternoon on the way into work. I was in a horrible mood, was not at all pleased to be working that day, and the song was making me... happy? Either way, it clicked with my mood. Oh,-I-get-it-now...

The week that I went to see Queens of the Stone Age, I finally gave Big Business a proper try - I think because I got "Another Fourth" stuck in my head. I knew they were touring or had just toured with Tool, and that was about enough for me to prove their worth. Anyhow, pretty much the entire time that I was gone, a couple of their songs were stuck in my head. This... needed to be explored.

The QOTSA show was followed by a few days of massive angst in addition to already hating everything by default, which collectively resulted in some soul-searching. I decided there needed to be some big changes to ultimately aid the lifestyle I wanted to be having. Musically alone, I knew I needed to get more involved, especially in metal.

The last week of suck, I was listening to a lot of The Atomic Bitchwax's self titled...

The following week, I discovered Boris' Pink album.

Then High on Fire's Death Is This Communion.

Then Battles' Mirrored.

Then, I heard "We Hate You" by Electric Wizard. I was talking to the ex who hated Ozzy at that exact moment, who now turned his nose on metal in general. Fucking beautiful synchronicity (and so incredibly backwards). This resulted in downloading Witchcult Today. Where have you been all my life?!

The week I heard Electric Wizard for the first time, I was thinking a lot about starting a new project. My first idea was to do some astrology videos or blogs, maybe some tutorials or something. Listening to Witchcult Today made me realize that this needed to be heard, and I should instead talk about that. I'd seen a few download blogs by now, and I'd seen plenty of review sites before which are always thoroughly fucking boring, but I nevertheless could write about and share these bands... The place I was already writing would not do, if only for the drastic change it would require for me to do it right.

So, I came up with a format, wrote up a layout in MT, and began the blog on my already existing domain.

At first I had a backlog/queue of plenty of amazing songs, so I wasn't having to work too hard on anything besides the writing. Still, I knew I'd lose inspiration soon, so I needed to go searching out new stuff to talk about. For now, I mostly just downloaded a lot and didn't do much actual listening outside of what I already had...

Song: "Forever My Queen"
Artist: Pentagram
Album: Review Your Choices (1999)

I'm late.

As in, literally. This song made me pregnant.

Obviously I have to abort. All of my hangers are made of plastic, so could someone please send me a care package?

Hm, that's how I got in this mess to begin with. Nevermind.

Song: "Zodiac Lung"
Artist: Monster Magnet
Album: Spine of God (1991)

It's amazing how, when you know a band well, you can easily tell where a person is coming from in their life based on their favorite or most played songs of said band. Or, sometimes, even how old they are. And it's all so arbitrary... Not to mention judgmental.

And it's also amazing that I haven't posted this before, what with my astrologeekin' and all. Not that I have a fucking clue what the hell a zodiac lung is supposed to be.

Anyway, song? Angst.

Song: "The Perfect Fit"
Artist: The Dresden Dolls
Album: The Dresden Dolls (2003)

Time to do an unusual song. I haven't listened to this at all in a long time, but there were a few months sometime around 2004 where the overall sound coming from The Dresden Dolls was interesting and I really liked this song.

You might know this artist between the songs "Girl Anachronism" and "Coin Operated Boy"... Well, this song is way more mellowed out. Maybe a little sappy.

PS. http://twitter.com/amandapalmer

Song: "The Kiss"
Artist: The Cure
Album: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987)

And another one that's unusual for the blog. The fucking Cure?! Yeah.

This song takes a while to get to the point, but the minutes spent on noise-making create the right mood for the vocal portion of the track. I recommend that you get this song as it is on the album, because the screech coming from the live videos I found has been toned down a lot. If you go to their myspace and in the player click "Albums", scroll through to this album and you will find a decent version of the song.

While you're at it, listen to "Why Can't I Be You?" ... and "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" because that song... is one of the best, ever.

Song: "Black Betty"
Artist: Ram Jam
Album: Ram Jam (1977)

I'm fairly certain I downloaded this song right after seeing a movie, probably Blow (thanks, wikipedia!) but it's one of those songs I'd known forever without knowing its place.

I'm not sure what to say about it... so, you know, if you don't recognize the name - just listen to it.

Song: "Touch, Peel & Stand"
Artist: Days of the New
Album: Days of the New (1997)

Brainwashing! This was on the radio so fucking much when I was a teenager. I don't know why it's good listenings, but it simply is.

I also can't fathom that the vocalist here is only three years older than me. He sounds older...

Song: "Clone"
Artist: Gojira
Album: Terra Incognita (2001)

Thanks to Angrychairs for uploading this album... I'd forgotten about it.

Song: "Gallop Song"
Artist: ASG
Album: Win Us Over (2007)

At this point, I can remember next to nothing about seeing these guys live even though it's only been just over a year. I was probably more concentrated on the fact that I was standing next to some freak I'd just met (I kid, you're the best freak ever). Either way, I didn't care for what they did live and dropped them from my view.

I recently started listening to "Right Before Death" a lot, and this song crept in with it. It's good... a bit hard to describe, though. They come from the same sort of thing as Torche, where the genre is metal, sludge, stoner(?) but they feel much lighter. This song definitely is like that. I have to say I like its beat, too.

Song: "It Ain't Love"
Artist: MSTRKRFT
Album: Fist of God (2009)

This wore off... even though it's still "meh".

Song: "Druganaut"
Artist: Black Mountain
Album: Druganaut EP (2005)

The song I am talking about is the one currently on their myspace, on the EP... because it's better than the one on their self-titled album.

This song is committing an act of 70s abuse. Maybe it's 60s, I haven't done my math on this. Either way, it's a sparkling gem on the I-don't-get-it mountain-side.

PS. Dragonaut.

Song: "I Love It When You Crawl"
Artist: Cable
Album: Pigs Never Fly (2004)

So, you're going to have to go find this one yourself. I actually meant to post this ages ago but I couldn't find anything worth posting for the song. I guess I imagined that would change, but it did not. You can get an idea from last.fm, but the track there is live and... it's not the same.

I prefer less/no screamy vocals in my mellow guitar/drum, but all the same this song is great. If you don't have this, go get it.

Song: "Feeding"
Artist: Tarantula Hawk
Album: Tarantula Hawk (2002)

This song is called "Album 1 Track 3" on their myspace, if you're sampling.

I got an idea to do a video for this song. Unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult to do a six minute long video with only a very basic idea of what you want to accomplish and very limited "footage" that cannot be recreated. I've tried clips, but it just isn't right. The song is way too mood-driven for a clip.

Anyhow, if only for the creepy/weird factor, this song is needed in your library. Or on your shelf. Or in your folder. Or on your head underneath your hat. Or in your pants. Or in your backpack. Or under your pillow for safe-keeping. Or wherever you happen to put songs this week because you're, like, totally anti-library, k?

Song: "My Friend Dario"
Artist: Vitalic
Album: OK Cowboy (2005)

This song isn't that great by itself, but good luck not remembering it in the future when you hear about people named Dario. I think this goes more for particular people, because, where I live, Dario's an unusual name... yet somehow now that I've heard this song, it's not so unusual anymore.

Song: "Creep"
Artist: Stone Temple Pilots
Album: Core (1992)

I used to have a cat. I bought him for something like $10 at a pet store in the neighborhood that my first sort-of boyfriend lived in, pretty much on a whim. He was screaming at me through his cage, and something about his outright craziness made me realize he needed go home with me (who am I talking about again...?).

Driving home, we were thinking of names. I decided because his nails were so incredibly sharp, like a paper cut, I would call him Avery after the office products company.

I soon learned his cage screaming wasn't conditional - he had something to say about everything. And he was hyper as fuck, even when he got older. He was very independent. He seemed very much a "gemini". We had another male cat later on, and I once found them bathing each other which resulted in a series of nicknames mostly circling around Gay-vry. ... I do what I can to support your -isms.

Anyway, Avery and I never really connected in an affectionate "pet" sort of way. He was a lively bastard and I need things to be centered/in control. However, I appreciate bright, shiny beings and he certainly was.

And then he was neutered. This didn't change anything, but the days afterward he was sooo low. I didn't like having the cats in my room, but I decided I needed to keep an eye on him and sat him in my chair in my room, where he slept most of the time he was down. I kept checking on him, talking to him, making sure he knew we weren't trying to kill him and that he was the greatest Avery, ever.

During this time, I heard this song... where the chorus is "I'm half the man I used to be". I fucking died laughing... I sort of knew the song, and didn't like it because it's god awful boring, but holy crap... Avery is totally half the man he used to be.

This became a regular thing... "Hey Gave, are you half the man you used to be?" "BRRMOW!" "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Of course, he got me back for laughing at his expense. But that's another long story...

Avery was awesome, and this song always reminds me of him.

Song: "Ostia"
Artist: Zu
Album: Carboniferous (2009)

This song has bass. And, apparently, saxophone on crack.

Song: "Drop The Phone"
Artist: Shy Child
Album: Noise Won't Stop (2007)

I didn't really listen to this band before I saw the live, opening for The Faint last year... and my only real impression of their set was that they were a pretty simple band (seeing as all they have is drums, keyboards, and vocals) and that the singer was grinning his head off. Positive enough, but not lasting.

I found them again on a mix later on... and learned that maybe I'd written them off as another member of the new cliche too early. I don't like this song as much as "Kick Drum", but this song has better press and might be a more accurate depiction of what they're like as a whole. In other words, if you like this, you'll like them.

Song: "Dancing on Landmines"
Artist: Snailface
Album: Snailface (2009)

Being timely and relevant is dumb. Even dumber, having a correctly organized folder of music. I lost and then forgot about this album. However, I was reminded of it again due to mindgrinder... so here you go. You have to download the whole album because it's free and because I said so.

PS. This is the project that the guys from Kowloon Walled City did for RPM Challenge. It is of near-equal greatness as their EP but much more mellow/stoner-ish.

Check out this youtube channel for a bunch of recent Oaks videos. Looks like it must be their whole set from a show.

When you're through: download or buy.

And seriously, don't hesitate. Oaks is better than the shit you've been listening to and you don't want to miss out on that album.

Go congratulate Hackman on their six seconds of fame. They still have 14 minutes and 54 seconds left, so don't act like a jerk or you're going to be forgotten when they're raking in the MTV cash.

Or whatever.

1:05 is what you're looking for.

Or this.

For anyone who isn't in my blog sphere, you should note that, today, Mind the Drift by Big Business was leaked.

Seeing as how I sort of heard it already, I have no comments to share on its songs.

Song: "Welcome Home / Sanitarium"
Artist: Metallica
Album: Master of Puppets (1986)

I'm not sure exactly why, but I thought the word was "sagittarian" (as opposed to "sanitarium") for all of my youth and teenage years. I would think that, wouldn't I?

Song: "Rickets"
Artist: Deftones
Album: Around The Fur (1997)

Looking at the wiki entry for the album, I decided to look up the day that this album came out in my own history.

Apparently a friend of a friend told me I was "cool" that day. That used to happen a lot. It seemed to be people's way of saying they liked me well enough at the moment but if I acted human later there would be consequences. Or maybe a rounded off version of "you seem nice but you probably have chains hanging from your bedroom ceiling" and/or "you seem nice and I'd probably do you... if I was drunk".

One of those times, I got a picture from a guy who I thought "liked" me because he flirted with me (unprovoked & constantly) that said "your cool" on the back of the picture. I wish I would have ordered pictures that year so I could have written on the back of mine "YOU'RE A FUCKING TEASE. LEARN TO SPELL, DUMBASS. 'YOUR' IN HIGH SCHOOL NOW."

And instead of just handing the photo to him, I would have thrown it on the floor at his feet and done a mexican hat dance around it. OLÉ!

And then gone home and listened to Pearl Jam's "Black" and sobbed into my pillow.

In other words, I like this song.

Song: "June Bug"
Artist: Melvins
Album: Stoner Witch (1994)

Here's the first Melvins song I knew by name and enjoyed, thoroughly, because it did not do me a disservice. Thank you, Melvins, for not putting lyrics in this song or otherwise ruining it somehow. I was beginning to think the title "June" could only inspire horrible emo bands and bad rhymes about the weather. There is hope.

...WHICH I WILL DESTROY. MUAHAHA.

Song: "Mailman"
Artist: Soundgarden
Album: Superunknown (1994)

This song reminds me of a particular time in my life. I was listening to Soundgarden anyway, but I couldn't get enough of this song, "4th of July", and probably "Homicidal Suicidal" as well. I was in a low mood, and I knew it, but I was not aware just how low a mood I was in until the time had well passed. Listening now, I can see it plain as day in my song choices.

At the time, Saturn had entered Cancer and was squaring my Mars in Libra. I guess I forgot I was a fairy and don't appreciate people who can't keep up with me... or don't understand the importance of rebellion. Perhaps it's more to do with my Gemini... but either way, Pluto is currently square my Mars, and Mars is currently opposite my Mars. I'm feeling about the same.

Song: "Good To Die"
Artist: Red Fang
Album: Red Fang LP/CD (2008/2009)

I woke up with "Prehistoric Dog" stuck in my head. Not sure what caused this. I wasn't thinking about it in any respect. But there it was.

I haven't posted this song yet. Red Fang uploaded it to their myspace, I think, last summer... but I had posted too many of their songs in short order at that time, so I decided to wait. I think it's been long enough now.

The best part of this song is the last minute and a half. Especially 2:35 on.

For those of you looking for or interested in Roadburn stuff, people started uploading some decent quality videos to youtube days ago... There's much more than this, but you'll have to go looking for yourself. Give it a month and I'm sure there will be ten times what you can currently find.

White Hills:

Neurosis:

Saint Vitus:

The Atomic Bitchwax:

Church of Misery:

Mono:

OM:

AmenRa:

AmenRa again:

Song: "Upon The Flesh of Angels"
Artist: Taciturn
Album: Demo (2009)

I just heard/heard of this band ten minutes ago while doing research for my shows list (June 26th). They have two songs up on their myspace currently and there's a bit of a dissonance between them so I'm not really sure what this band "does" as a whole yet... but this song ought to please some of you.