old friends

I've been listening to some of my old cds lately.

I get a little overwhelmed sometimes, thinking of all the music that I have, and now that has just about doubled just by getting married. We've been good about not buying too much music lately, being on a budget and all, and there are still about a half dozen different CDs that I would LOVE to purchase, butI'm biding my time, we'll see if I can't make a big score for my b-day or something...But I've been nostalgic for some stuff that I haven't heard in awhile. And so I pulled it out, dusted it off and put it on, and man, it takes me back.

That's good times. I've been listening to Cake this morning, and I can remember hearing them for the very first time. I was a junior in college, listening to the radio in my dorm room, and Never There came on, I had to stop in my tracks - I think I was even talking on the phone with someone, and I stopped everything just so I could listen. It was amazing. I listened to Starflyer 59 earlier this week too, which was all about the last couple years in high school, when I was at the New Union (now Club 3Degrees) all the time for all sorts of different shows. And of course (for those "in the know") Starflyer ties into Joy Electric, one of my favorite bands back then. There's also Dimestore Prophets, Pep Squad, the Miscellaneous, MxPx, Quayle, Poor Old Lu, and Shaded Red, ORU's very own alumni band. (Jon, you missed out, they were before your time)

In the early 90s I would listen to just about anything coming from Tooth and Nail or 5 Minute Walk records; I also had this REX sampler (right before the label bit the dust) and I ended up buying albums from about half the bands on it. Argyle Park, The Waiting, even Sixpence way back when. This was before I really started listening to a whole lot of secular music, because I was too busy hunting out the quality Christian stuff - it was hard, but definitely worth it. There were only a select few that actually knew of these bands and were excited about them with me (seriously, who else has heard of the Miscellaneous?? Besides John LaTourneau, he me their CD. Anyone?) To me, that was the best era of music. I'm a little biased, but I've already mentioned several times how I'm just not super excited about a lot of the music coming out lately, especially from the new bands. It's hard to find stuff that doesn't sound like 90% of what's already popular. Boring! So my new answer is just to go old school and keep listening to what I already know and love.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go listen to some Steve Taylor...