Artist	Song
Bob Marley & the Wailers	Jamming
Adam & the Ants	Stand & Deliver
the Jets	Cross My Broken Heart
Bobby Brown	Every Little Step
Living Colour	Middle Man
U2	With or Without You
Public Enemy	Fight the Power
Depeche Mode	World In My Eyes
PJ Harvey	Dress
Fishbone	Housework
Alice In Chains	Them Bones
Nirvana	Dumb
Radiohead	Just
the Smiths	How Soon Is Now?
D'Angelo	Lady
Bj÷rk	Joga
Garbage	I Think I'm Paranoid
Hive	Ultrasonic Sound

Comment:

A kind of chronological CD of my life up until this point. Made for my birthday, kind of. I'd wanted to do this for a bit, but I was inspired by that scene in the book & movie High Fidelity where the main character rearranges his LP collection in chronological order after a breakup. Well, there's no breakup involved, but it is interesting to realize quite how important all this music has been literally my whole life. The liner notes will probably have more details including some of the stuff that didn't fit but should definately be there (I haven't written them yet), but here's a summary of the why of some of the songs' appearances:

"Jamming" is the very first song I remember hearing and knowing. Bob Marley along with my parents' Stevie Wonder, Santana, P-Funk, and, of course, my mother's gospel music were my earliest musical influences.

When I was three and until I was seven or so, my parents were stationed in England. this is where my brother was born. this is also where my parents started buying me my own albums by bands like Adam & the Ants, the Police, ABBA & Madness. I guess they weren't their cup of tea, but they were certainly mine.

When we came back to the States, I was very much into R&B & pop, represented by the Jets & Bobby Brown tracks.

Middle school was when my tastes started to expand into rock, and I fell hard for Bono (who didn't?) and for Living Colour. Their album, Vivid was the first I ever bought with my own money. I still have that cassette.

Then came the nightmare that was highschool & serious depression, political awareness, etc. Tracks 7-12 are about those years, & include Depeche Mode's Violator, the first CD I ever bought (welcome to the digital age), and ends with Kurt Cobain's suicide.

Then college...Roommate my first two years in the dorms did not get my musical tastes. She used to tease me about Leonard Cohen & Bj÷rk, but her favorite discs were the double disc Journey's Greatest Hits, so we were pretty much doomed. My last two years of college, I had a great roommate named Elisabeth with whom I shared more similar tastes in music, though we still had things that the other didn't like.

The Garbage track represents my first major venue, stadium concert. It also represents my short-lived graduate school stay.

Finally, Hive represents everything I love about music right now, & is kind of appropriate because Drum & Bass is influenced by many of the styles represented by the other tracks.

I suppose that's enough of the most self-involved mix I've ever made. Geez.

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