I truly feel that nothing says more about a person than his or her taste in music. It’s constantly evolving (unless you’re stuck in rut listening to the same shit you listened to in high school *cough* Motley Crue fans *cough*). Music is so personal and emotional—revealing your taste can be a very vulnerable experience. Luckily for you all, I’m not that shy about it.
The backstory: my computer got hacked recently, and in my effort to fix it, I needed to locate my proof of purchase (i.e. the Best Buy receipt from early 2013). Back in those days, I was still living with my dad, so I carted my ass back to my childhood home to search through the few belongings I’d left behind. Long story short, I found it and my computer is fine, but in the process, I noticed that I’d basically been hoarding the entire early ’00s in my bedroom closet. I went back the next day to rifle through everything, and boy did I find some gems! Lots of embarrassing diaries, my binder from AP European History, a copy of The Hobbit in Russian! I also found a truckload of CDs I’d burned, some of which were mixes. I had to check them out!
The following is the actual tracklisting to a mix CD I just found, made circa 2005 (age 14). *very Jean Valjean voice* WHO AM I?
1. Sparks – Suburban Homeboy
2. Sheryl Crow – Every Day Is A Winding Road
3. Eyes Adrift – Alaska
4. PJ Harvey – Shame
5. Jefferson Airplane – Somebody to Love
6. Sublime – Smoke Two Joints
7. Smashing Pumpkins – Zero
8. Jamie Cullum – All At Sea
9. The Waitresses – I Know What Boys Like
10. System of a Down – Hypnotize
11. Shocking Blue – Love Buzz
12. Madonna – Open Your Heart
13. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue
14. Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
15. Dead Kennedys – California Über Alles
16. Hole – Rock Star
17. Veruca Salt’s song from Willy Wonka
18. Procession of the Sardar (Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov piece)
19. Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
20. Marilyn Manson – Personal Jesus
This mix starts off with some very of-the-era cuts. It was December 19, 2005! At least four of these songs came out that year. But the rest of it? Why the fuck would I put a song from Willy Wonka on a mix CD? The orchestral piece makes sense—that’s what my middle school orchestra played at competition earlier that year—but the rest of it is mind-boggling. No 14-year-old should be jamming to “Smoke Two Joints” and “I Know What Boys Like”. And there is no way in hell I ever actually liked that Marilyn Manson cover.
The second mix CD I found is labeled “Ultimate Wedding Playlist”. I got married eleven years after this CD was created, and only one of these songs played at our wedding.
- The La’s – There She Goes
- Sam Phillips – Love Is Everywhere I Go
- Sam Phillips – Reflecting Light
- Sam Phillips – How to Dream
- PJ Harvey – One Line
- PJ Harvey – Dress
- PJ Harvey – Sheela Na Gig
- Rilo Kiley – Science vs. Romance
- John Lennon – Oh My Love
- The White Stripes – Fell in Love with a Girl
- Nirvana – About a Girl
- 311 – Amber
- The Cure – Lovesong
- Foo Fighters – Everlong
- Mazzy Star – Fade into You
- Pernice Brothers – Weakest Shade of Blue*
- Yo La Tengo – My Little Corner of the World
- XTC – Earn Enough for Us
- Duran Duran – The Reflex (this we did play at my wedding)
- Blur – Song 2
- Pearl Jam – Last Kiss
- Claudine Longet – I Think It’s Going to Rain Today
- Claudine Longet – God Only Knows
So, aside from the fact that some of these songs are depressing and deeply inappropriate to play at a wedding, this is also basically a rip-off of the “Our Little Corner of the World” Gilmore Girls soundtrack that came out in 2002. I trashed the 2nd CD after I wrote down the tracklisting (it was badly scratched), but I’m keeping the other. You never know when you’re going to need to bring the house down with some Hole deep-cuts.
What embarrassing nonsense did you listen to in early high school?
–DellaBites
*I have no idea, by the way, if that Pernice Brothers video is real, but it’s great. And that song is still great.
Della Bites 