Discussion: What Was In Your Discman?

Last week, I was thinking about my state of mind in '99, specifically: What was I thinking, buying the LFO "Summer Girls" CD single? What was I thinking, buying any CD? I know I was thinking about trying to be cool, but I was also thinking about "relating" to a singer and feeling related-to. Meaning: I was a huge giant fan of Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, and Fiona Apple. That part of my 14-year-old self makes sense to me now.

But what could explain this funny little mixtape I found while unpacking?

Side 1:

1. NOFX: Olive Me (Fat Wreck Chords compilation opened a lot of doors for me)
2. Beck: Hotwax
3. Beastie Boys: Intergalactic
4. Lipps, Inc.: Funkytown
5. The Cardigans: Lovefool
6. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh: Dúlamán (got a pretty sweet Celtic compilation)
7. Dave Matthews Band: One Sweet World
8. Ben Folds Five: Don't Change Your Plans
9. Smashing Pumpkins: Thirty-Three
10. Jars of Clay: Tea and Sympathy
11. Led Zeppelin: Battle of Evermore
12. Ani DiFranco: Gravel
13. Fiona Apple: Never is a Promise (made myself sad there toward the end)


Side 2:

1. Tahiti 80: Mr. Davies (put a high premium on things I didn't think anybody else had heard of)
2. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes: Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard (I was cool, so I wrote this like MAJDBTS for short. also, again with the Fat Wreck Chords compilation/striving for "obscurity")
3. Tom Petty: Crawling Back to You
4. James Taylor: Fire and Rain
5. Radiohead: Thinking About You (clearly ruminating on some imagined heartache at this point)
6. Simon and Garfunkel: Cecilia
7. Barenaked Ladies: Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank
8. Weezer: Tired of Sex (my edgy side)
9. The The: This is the Day (was i into Empire Records very much???)
10. Poe: Fingertips
11. Moby: Porcelain (#'s 10 and 11 both clearly influenced by the Saint Mary's modern dance ensemble)
12. Goldfinger: Mabel
13. They Might Be Giants: Istanbul
14. Steve Miller Band: Jungle Love
15. Tori Amos: Yes, Anastasia (saving the best for last)

So what about you? Don't pretend like you never went through a fratty-jam-band phase, especially if you grew up in Raleigh--I can think of only five people who can truthfully claim they were never tempted by DMB. What was your big jam: was it Destiny's Child? Usher? Cherry Poppin' Daddies?????

lets hear it for these two!

Back in elementary school, my musical taste could be accounted for by whatever they played the most on G105. Who knows, I still might be listening to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Linkin Park; thank goodness I had older siblings. To me their music was cooler and always made me curious about what else was out there. GrRl PoWeR was strong in the nineties and two girls I'm thankful for were Tanya Donelly and Juliana Hatfield. Sorry, Courtney Love.

I'm not necessarily talking about their solo careers here. I'm talking about their bands: Belly and The Blake Babies, respectively. For Donelly the music created a feeling; the lyrics were kind of mystical and metaphorical.For Hatfield it was more like, she had something she needed to get off her chest. I'm partial to Donelly because her voice could be sweet as well as scary and when she hit some high notes she sounded like she was from another planet. Belly's best album was probably "Star". Donelly also played in The Breeders and Throwing Muses, FYI.

That being said, I'm really into Pink's "Please Don't Leave Me" (even though the video is atrocious), and there's just something about "Boom Boom Pow" thats so stupid its good. Fergie does not embody GrRl PoWeR to me, however.