Music influences and the album reclamation project

I love music, I really, really love music. I own over a thousand CDs and I have downloaded many, many more albums since acquiring my first iPod as an anniversary present from my wife Erin.

My older brother Frank and close friends Earl Maneein, Chris Gavagan, Chris Brady, and Shannon Gramas have each had major impacts on my musical choices throughout the years. Growing up Frank opened up his vast music collection with only two rules: put it back where you found it and don't leave the house with it. He's also the reason why my own collection has always been in alphabetical order by artist and chronological order within each artist.

Earl and I have been close friends since we were 11 years old way back in 1987. At the time our musical obsessions were hard rock bands like Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses. This led us into an obsession with metal acts such as Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, and Pantera. We later shifted over into alternative acts such as Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam.

In my later High School years Frank's growing obsession with New Wave, Industrial, and Brit Pop began to take over my musical interests. Soon enough Frank's favorite band became mine and it's the same band for the both of us to this day, Depeche Mode. Through Frank I was introduced to the bands that are still my favorites to this day: Depeche Mode, the Cure, the Smiths, Morrissey, U2, and Nine Inch Nails. I also found a love for Duran Duran, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ministry, Nitzer Ebb, Joy Division, and Erasure. Earl became a big fan of these bands as well and introduced me to Alphaville.

My New Wave & Industrial obsession continued on in college and flavors of Goth were added to the mix with Bauhaus and Cranes leading the charge. I began going to clubs two to three nights a week and dancing my ass off to retro 80s New Wave as well as 90s synthpop, goth, and industrial.

I met Chris Gavagan in January of 1996 and we formed a quick and close bond based on music, film, hockey, Star Wars, & GI Joe. Chris was into a lot of the bands I was like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Depeche Mode, the Cure, Duran Duran, and Rollins Band. He helped me get into the Dead Kennedys, Sublime, 311, and Cat Stevens. I have many fantastic memories of driving around in Chris' blue camaro blasting DM, 311, and Sublime and singing our hearts out. In later years Chris and I have handed each other tons of CDs peaking each others interests in many bands like Alkaline Trio, Coldplay, Anti-Flag, and Mindless Self Indulgence. Chris and I also share a love of tattoos and have been there to watch each other bleed many a time!

Chris Brady and I met when we both worked at Tower Records. Our friendship started with common interests in stand up comedy, music, and pro wrestling. Chris is responsible for getting me into bands like Flickerstick, Wilco, Ryan Adams, and Ben Kweller. I'll never forget that New Year's Eve we spent at a packed Irving Plaza watching Vida Blue blow the roof off the place. When midnight struck and they played Instant Karma, it was an awesome experience. In recent months Chris and I started taking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu together and it's a real blast training twice a week with one of my closest friends!

I met Shannon Gramas in February of 2005 when I first started working at ITN. I happened passed his cubicle when I heard music playing. I saw this dude sitting there with stacks of CDs on his desk and I was digging the music he was playing. I struck up a conversation and I've been friends with the guy ever since. He's one of my favorite people to talk music with and I love waxing nostalgic about 80s cartoons and comics with him. Shannon got me into Jeff Buckley, Iron and Wine, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Neutral Milk Hotel, Cat Power, M83 and a slew of other artists. The Gramas is a musical encyclopedia and I love sharing music with him.

A lot of people out there like to blame iTunes and the iPod for ruining the idea of the album. I decided to do a bit of musical soul searching and I realized that I most often either had my iPod on shuffle or would be listening to one of my play lists. Now, shuffle is one of the most fantastic things about the iPod or any digital music player. Especially when you have over 6,000 tracks on your iPod covering a vast array of genres. One minute I am listening to Depeche Mode, the next Cat Stevens, then James Brown, then Pop Will Eat Itself and so on.

However, I realized that the only time I had been listening to albums was when I downloaded or uploaded a new one. So I decided to do a little project, I was going to listen to all the albums of some of my favorite acts in chronological order. This way I could appreciate the individual albums and the growth and change of the artists themselves.

I started off with my all time favorite act, Depeche Mode. Listening to the whole albums really makes you remember how much you loved certain tracks that weren't necessarily hits or the best tracks on the album, but that struck you anyway. I love Puppets and Love In Itself! I finished off my DM experiment last night and I can say that Black Celebration is still my favorite album of theirs and that Exciter is still my least favorite. And Blue Dress off of the Violator album still mesmerizes me like no other track.

I took a brief detour in my project with the release of Morrissey's latest album Years Of Refusal. Holy crap am I in love with this album! It's just a wonderful example of Morrissey's incomparable lyrical wit and some great rocking guitars featured on quite a few tracks. If you love the Moz, buy this, now!

And I am back on track with my little project now moving on to...the Smiths! I decided to go with the Smiths next after drooling all over Morrissey's latest solo triumph. So far this morning I've listened to the Smiths and began Meat Is Murder. Goddamn this is a fantastic band that wrote fantastic music!

I think I've gone on long enough about my musical interests and my ongoing album reclamation project for now. I hope everyone reading this is happy and well. Until next time, keep your head up.

Hunting For Joy

Pain is a necessity, grief is a given, joy is an endangered species. Let's go hunting again.