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The Soundtracks of Our Lives

About a Son

Two of my favorite film bloggers Karina Longworth and Agnes Varnum have sent out the APB on the big New York City opening of AJ Schnack’s film About a Son. I was lucky to meet AJ and catch his film at the 2007 True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri. As I raved then, it’s an amazing picture, a very sensitive portrait of an artist. Go see this film! (For you Philadelphians, it opens at the Ritz on October 19th.) Here’s a clip:

To drum up some interest for the film, we’re calling for a little social media guerilla marketing by way of a Soundtrack of Our Lives meme.

Here’s mine. Apologies for not pulling out exact songs, but I’m an album man. Always will be. I don’t think I’ll ever succumb to the single. That being said, here are the albums that were stuck on rotation during various periods of my life ’til now:

    Pre-High School: The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” and “25th Anniversary Box Set”. What can I say, I wanted to be a surfer kid growing up in California. Lucky for me, great music went hand-in-hand with that desire.

    High School: Nirvana “Nevermind” (obviously) and The Pixies “Doolittle”. I can’t hear either of those albums and not be immediately transported back to skateboarding around good ol’ Nazareth, PA.

    College: Grateful Dead bootlegs. I was a hippy in college! I’d put Phish bootlegs in here, too, but that would be too embarrassing. I’m ashamed.

    The Travelin’ 20’s: Air “Moon Safari”. An album I first heard in a cafe in Laos and have yet to grow tired of.

    Late 20’s - now: I don’t think I can pull out just one. Would it be all my friends here in Philly who I hear practice and play shows all the time? Lately I’ve been really into Grizzly Bear “Yellow House” and The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”, but that would be selling short hundreds of other bands I’m into. I’m a music fanatic. I guess only time will tell what has made the most lasting impression on me.

Okay, now I’m tagging a couple of you. I’d like to hear about the Soundtrack of Your Life:

Lord Whimsy / Sara of GirlsCanTell / Stellargirl (who’s always up for a good meme game)

UPDATE: Read Lord Whimsy’s Soundtrack in the Comments!

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 1:50 pm and is filed under love!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    Pre-High School: I grew up with rockabilly, 60's garage, funk and soul in my house. When my father wasn't working nights at the liquor store (try reading about heraldry under a checkout counter), we would listen to his old 45s after dinner, wrestle on the floor, and dance our little butts off. Plenty of disco, but that white guy Prog and that sprawling 70's stuff didn't exist in our house--went straight from Johnny Cash and ? and the Mysterians to the Sex Pistols and Lipps, Inc. Still loathe post-Barrett Pink Floyd. The other soundtrack of the time was the soundscape in the woods and near the ocean--spent a lot of time alone, collecting shells and butterflies. Prop planes and laughing gulls are still happy sounds to me. There used to be tons of little bait and tackle shops along the bay in Somers Point, and the hundreds of rental boats in the slips would bob in the water, making the rusty pulleys squeak. It was an inadvertant musical instrument strummed by the sea. The marinas are all gone now--I suppose I'll never hear that music again.

    High School: Used to listen to The Cult, The Alarm (ugh), Sex Pistols, and all that New Romantic stuff. Wore a lot of things with zippers, checks and flaps.

    College: This was the age of 4AD for me. I devoured their entire catalog (Vaughan Oliver made the artists seem better than they were--very few of them lived up to the album sleeves). I was also a devotee of Felt, Echo, Close Lobsters, all that C86 power pop--but most of all, the Pixies and the Smiths. Had the clunky shoes, denim jacket and monumental pompadour quiff a la cliff. Local bands like Ruin, Woofing Cookies, Dead Milkmen, etc. were a guilty pleasure--I knew they weren't very good, but hey, I was in South Jersey, it was Saturday night, and the Cramps were touring the west coast. The first time I heard Cocteau Twins, I was shocked by its beauty--I never experienced something so otherworldly and unapologetically ethereal. It felt like losing one's virginity--although it didn't take long to tire of their cloying wails. Never liked bands like Minutemen, Husker Du, etc. that supposedly echewed artifice--it all felt too normal, and that meant BORING. I wasn't going to drive two hours to hear a godawful racket made by a bunch of slobs in jeans--I could see that in my flat gray hometown. I still remember the first time someone threw in a cassette of Psycho candy--I rear ended a car in a toll booth. Likewise Skinny Puppy. My Bloody Valentine were just peeking over the horizon...

    Early 20’s: Ah, this was the age of shoegaze and ambient. I was working a job I hated, and desperately needed escape. Enter MBV, Lush, Ride, Chapterhouse, Slowdive, Telescopes, Lilys, SeeFeel, Spoonfed Hybrid, Pale Saints, Aphex Twin, etc. Have a striped shirt to prove I was there. The larger the wall of sound, the better. Any album that had an oceanic theme found its way into my hands. I was a worshipper of Poseidon at the time. I avoided that Lollapalooza pap and "mallternative" like the plague. About this time, the kids who listened to too much of that "regular guy" stuff I'd mentioned started forming an armada of horn-rimmed, prim blandness the underground had never seen before: "indie rock". Thanks, Pavement. I remember liking Suddenly Tamy. Nice people.

    Late 20’s: By this time I was about to shoot myself--it was like the Shakers had taken over all the bands in America. If I had to endure one more goddamn Karate album I was going to vomit frogs--this mediocre oatmeal indie sludge was so bland that it was offensive. No dancing, no style, no showmanship, no smiles, NO FUN. It was all insufferably white and pious, and no one was getting laid, not even the married people. Then, the Make-Up came along, and tmade it all better. More importantly, they made it cool. They're still the best live act I've ever seen, and I'll always be grateful to Ian for bringing back the magic for me. I also listened to a lot of albums that had stamps and 70's clip art on them--American Analog Set, etc. S'nice.

    Early-mid 30's: After the Make Up called it quits, so did I. Started listening to obscure experimental classical music and field recordings. Mamoru Fujieda's "The Patterns of Plants" is an exceptional work. Also started really getting into Baroque chamber music, fin-de siecle French composers, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Finally got around to exploring the 70's. Wore out my copy of Hunky Dory.

    Late 30's--old age: What are you listening to?
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    (Forgot about my early obsession with Adam and the Ants...so, yeah.)
 

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