Watch Me Jumpstart

Right before last New Year I had a sinus infection and had to go to the doctor.  I got on the scale and almost fainted.  My blood pressure was ridiculous.  The doctor even made a crack about me not missing any meals.  I was pretty depressed and promised myself that getting this under control was a my goal for the coming year.

This is me in November 2011.

So I kicked ass this year.  Thanks to my wife who got me a gym membership, I've lost about 50 pounds.  I started in March on the treadmill and soon added walks with Julia when the weather warmed up.  I started the stationary bike in July and added lifting weights in August.  I also listened to a shit ton of music, which is always a great motivation.

Hey same clothes!  December 2012.

My New Year's Resolution this year is even more important than last year's.  I need to keep the weight off.  I've lost weight in the past only to fall out of my exercise habits and slowly watch the weight come back.  Last year was the easy part.  This year will be more difficult, but I have faith I can achieve my goal. 

My theme song this past year was "Keep It In Motion" by Guided By Voices.  I muttered this phrase to myself many times when I didn't feel up to doing the extra ten minutes on the bike or when I didn't feel like spending an hour walking in snow flurries.  It shall be my theme song this year.  Hell, it has become a way of life.

Dig Me Out

For the fourth time in three days I found myself outside shoveling snow.  I would complain but I only had to once all of last winter.  Over the course of these three days, I've found something of great scientific importance.  The enjoyment of the tedious task of shoveling snow improves tenfold when the music of the Brothers Gibb is involved.  I came up with this hypothesis on the first day and tested it over the course of the last two.  I now believe that said hypothesis to be scientifically proved.

Here is proof.

First Twenty-Two

I've wrote before how I am using the Under Pressure list for my workouts on the stationary bike as a list for my favorite albums.  My goal is to figure out my top 500 albums.  As you will see below, I am not even attempting putting them in order.  I had intended to post the albums here fifteen at a time, but I got a little behind this week, so here are the first twenty-two.  These albums can officially drink now.

Guns N Roses-Appetite for Destruction

Cheap Trick-In Color

Neil Young & Crazy Horse-Zuma
Big Star-Radio City

Sugar-Copper Blue

Beatles-Revolver

Beatles-Rubber Soul

Boston Spaceships-Zero to 99

Replacements-Let It Be

Thin Lizzy-Jailbreak

Guided by Voices-Isolation Drills

Minutemen-Double Nickels on the Dime

Husker Du-New Day Rising

Elvis Costello & The Attractions-Get Happy!!
Pixies-Doolittle

David Bowie-The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Go Betweens-16 Lovers Lane
Nirvana-In Utero
Beach Boys-Pet Sounds

Pearl Jam-Vitalogy
Grateful Dead-American Beauty

Quick fact:  One of my favorite Flyers of all time, Marques Bennett, wore number 22.  He is the basketball equivalent of listening to Double Nickels on the Dime.  Here is a picture of Mr. Bennett during the game that he scored five points in five seconds and was named MVP of the Dayton/Xavier game many years back.  Now that was a fun day.

Happy Holidays

This year I am feeling extremely lucky this holiday season.  It is important to cherish your loved ones and not to take them for granted.

Here is a collage I made on my iPhone of my best friend.

Miuzi Weighs A Ton

I'm not sure what cars passing us by yesterday thought was more amusing:

It was 26 degrees outside, and felt even colder in the wind that was unrelenting.  It wasn't the best day to walk the dog.

or

My dog's coat.

Either way, I am sure the two of us turned some heads.  I wanted to get a couple miles in since I will more than likely not be able to get any exercise in today.  I was trying to do so without the dog noticing, but she didn't let me off the hook.  I tried to break her little heart and sneak out the side door, but my wife pointed out that we had a "winter coat" for her to wear.  So I caved and this is what we looked like after fifteen minutes.

Did you know that my dog was a hippie?  I guess she really took to heart that Dead live album I was listening to yesterday.

The most hilarious part is what I was really listening to on this walk.  Public Enemy.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Off work until after Christmas.  Disgusting snow on the ground.  Third cup of the coffee of the day.  I guess it is time to get in the mood for Christmas.  No better way than to listen to my Christmas Mix.  From the Volumes of Secret Constellations I present entry #29-Christmas:

Ronettes-Frosty the Snowman

Leon Redbone & Zoey Deschanel-Baby It's Cold Outside

Mark Mothersbaugh-Snowflake Music

Bing Crosby & David Bowie-Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy

Bruce Springsteen-Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

Darlene Love-Marshmallow World

Johnny Cash-Blue Christmas

Burl Ives-A Holly Jolly Christmas

Frank Sinatra-Jingle Bells

Ronettes-I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Louis Armstrong-Winter Wonderland

Thurl Ravenscroft-You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Beach Boys-Little Saint Nick

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-Noel

Eddie Vedder & Mike McCready-Let Me Sleep (It's Christmas Time)

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band-Merry Christmas Baby

Jackson 5-Up On the Housetop

Bing Crosby-White Christmas

Dean Martin-Let It Snow!

Harry Nilsson-Silent Night

Paul Westerberg-Away In a Manger

Bobby Darin-Go Tell It On the Mountain

Crystals-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Perry Como-Home For the Holidays

Brenda Lee-Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Darlene Love-Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Bobby Helms-Jingle Bell Rock

Vince Guaraldi Trio-Christmas Time Is Here

She & Him-I'll Be Home For Christmas

Carpenters-Merry Christmas Darling

Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans-Here Comes Santa Claus

Judy Garland-Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

John Lennon-Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Great for listening once a year.  So it leans heavily on the Phil Spector album, but that is a great album.  The rest, like actual Christmas music, is a solid mix of cool stuff with a ton of cheese.  Absent of course is that Paul song I am not very fond of, but I might listen to that one as well.  I guess I'm just in the spirit a little more than usual this year.  I am not really sure why.

Cold Rain and Snow

Getting ready for work this morning, sad that I didn't get to take Julia on our normal Thursday morning walk.  Listening to Grateful Dead Dick's Picks Volume 9 from Madison Square Garden in 1990.  A great version of "Cold Rain and Snow" came on, fitting since we missed the morning walk due to rain.  I guess our first winter weather will be appearing by the end of the night.  Sigh.  I guess I'll spend the rest of my day thinking about better weather and draining threes.

Let Me Roll It

My thoughts on the Hurricane Sandy Relief show earlier this week:

-Always love hearing the E Street Band.  Really liked hearing "My City Of Ruins."  Don't really care for Jon Bon Jovi joining in on "Born to Run," but I understand it probably brought the house down with so many Jersey residents in attendance.

-I really regret not going to see Roger Waters do The Wall last year.  Who is this guy, though?  He looks like he is having a blast up there.  Eddie Vedder guesting on "Comfortably Numb" was fantastic.

-Yeah, The Stones look old.  But damn, Keith Richards rules.  What is he 70?  Yet, he could take every new rock band to school.  There will never be another Keith Richards so every opportunity to see him is gold.  It is pure bliss watching him rip into the opening riff of "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

-The Who are touring Quadrophenia.  I've heard show reports that have been pretty positive.  I thought they ruled.  I am super pumped up for the show in Columbus in February after seeing them last night.  Remember the Super Bowl performance?  It was the exact opposite of that.

-Can't say I've really listened to much Coldplay, but I did enjoy Chris Martin and Michael Stipe doing "Losing My Religion."  That was a nice surprise.

-I don't get all the negative feedback about McCartney playing with the remaining members of Nirvana.  I thought the song was cool.  I will listen to anything with Dave Grohl drumming, but I think the highlight was Pat Smear grinning the whole time.  It was awesome seeing those guys get an opportunity like that after what they went through at the end of Nirvana.

-Paul's performance reminded me of seeing him last summer.  What a great night.

So yeah, not the greatest musical night of all time, but I admit I liked it a lot more than I was expecting.  Now, is it February yet?

2012 Favorite Things (Music Division)

Here is a rundown of my Favorite Things This Year (Music Division):

1.  Guided By Voices-Reunited with THREE great albums.  "White Flag."  "Waves."  "Chain to the Moon."  These are the things I live for.  Honestly, just reuniting and putting out one decent album would have made the number one spot.  But these three albums exceed expectations and I am glad there is more coming in the new year.

2.  Neil Young & Crazy Horse-Reunited with TWO albums.  The covers album Americana came first and was a great way to get reacquainted with this wonderful band.  But man, Psychedelic Pill is the stuff of dreams.  It is The Horse stretched and rambling in 2012.  "Ramada Inn" might be my favorite song since "I'm the Ocean."

3.  Emmylou Harris-I've been a fan for a few years, but this year she became one of my favorite artists.  Everyone talks about the voice, which is heavenly, but she also has a gift in picking out great songs from other artists and making them her own.  See: "Every Grain of Sand."

4.  Thin Lizzy-Jailbreak-Renewed interest in this band came in March, but this was my album of the summer.  Perhaps my favorite single moment was sitting on my porch after midnight in a light storm listening to it.  I can smell the humidity.

5.  Cheap Trick-In Color-This one could probably show up on every year end list for the rest of my life.

6.  Bob Mould-Silver Age-Bob Mould's Sugariest set of songs since Copper Blue backed by Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster.

7.  OFF!-It was a frustrating year at work.  This album was the perfect stress relief in the car on the drive home.  Who knew hardcore could age this well?

8.  Ice Dragon-Couple of great albums and singles by these guys, but I think I liked Dream Dragon the best.  All of their albums are different yet unmistakably Ice Dragon.  This one is like a demented, psychedelic take on folk.  They are on Bandcamp and you should definitely check them out.

9.  Robthebank-They reunited!  I love buying an album and knowing all the words to the songs before I even hear it.  Great album that I was sure was lost to time.

10.  Motel Beds-Dumb Gold-I got into these guys about a year ago and their new album is great.  Maybe this will be the year they get more well deserved attention.

11.  John's DJ Set-He owned it.  If you are getting married/having a house party/need someone to follow you around with a boom box, call John.  I even got him to play "Ripple."

After midnight with Thin Lizzy, Summer 2012.

I Got the Blues

Finished up The dB's on my morning walk and moved on to Outkast.  I don't have a lot of their stuff in my music library but I am checking out their first album right now on Spotify.  Pretty cool.  I remember reading somewhere that the group cited Kraftwerk as an influence.  I was intrigued but for some reason never really checked them out until "Hey Ya!" became the biggest song in the world.  When I first heard the song I told a friend, a big hip-hop fan, that I thought "Hey Ya!" sounded like a Cheap Trick song.  I later read that The Ramones where the influence on that song.  I wasn't far off.

I've got the Pixies Doolittle queued for the bike this afternoon.  I have seven straight days of exercise in and will be ahead of my goal.  I think I've earned my rest day tomorrow.  First, though, I have to a get my quarterly haircut.  I hate getting my haircut these days because it seems like every time I go there is more and more gray hair on the floor.

So now I'm depressed.  Luckily, I have a good cure for the blues.

Tales from the Rock Room

Okay, so that game was fun.  Surprising.  I loved the way the Flyers came out with so much energy and did not let up.  On the road.  Against a good team.  Yeah, that was fun.  It also provided me with a chance to travel deeper on the spotify adventure I've been writing about.  Basically I went from Funkadelic, hit classic country, Motown, grunge and ended up in old folk music.  Pretty entertaining.

I have Isolation Drills queued up for the bike tonight.  Day off from work tomorrow.  I bet I end up in the rock room.

The Great Spotify Adventure:

(Left off with The Pink Fairies-City Kids)

Funkadelic-Maggot Brain

Jimi Hendrix-May This Be Love

Alice Cooper-I’m Eighteen

Motorhead-I’ll Be Your Sister

Clash-Protex Blue

Police-Driven to Tears

U2-New Year’s Day

Patti Smith-Rock N Roll Nigger

John Lennon-Give Me Some Truth

Ronettes-Be My Baby

Everly Brothers-All I Have to Do Is Dream

Roy Orbison-Only the Lonely

Buddy Holly-Everyday

Hank Williams-Alone and Forsaken

Faron Young-It’s Four In the Morning

Louvin Brothers-If I Could Only Win Your Love

Flying Burrito Brothers-To Love Somebody

Townes Van Zandt-Waitin’ ‘Round to Die

Fred Neil-The Dolphins

Tim Hardin-Lady Came From Baltimore

Tim Buckley-Song to the Siren

Nico-Afraid

Scott Walker-Angelica

Fall-Cosmos 7

Killing Joke-Requiem

Helmet-Overrated

L7-Pretend We’re Dead

Screaming Trees-Nearly Lost You

Mother Love Bone-This Is Shangrila

Stone Temple Pilots-Big Bang Baby

Alice In Chains-No Excuses

Queens of the Stone Age-You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire

Soundgarden-4th of July

Hole-Credit In the Straight World

PJ Harvey-Down By the Water

Tori Amos-Upside Down

Joni Mitchell-A Case of You

Paul Simon-Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard

Dion-I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound

Del Shannon-Runaway

Ricky Nelson-Poor Little Fool

Bobby Darin-Dream Lover

Righteous Brothers-Unchained Melody

Hall & Oates-Sara Smile

Marvin Gaye-You’re All I Need to Get By

Otis Redding-These Arms of Mine

Sam Cooke-Having a Party

Bobby Womack-Across 110th Street

Ike & Tina Turner-River Deep Mountain High

Dusty Springfield-I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore

Elton John-Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Billy Joel-She’s Always a Woman

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-The Tracks of My Tears

Diana Ross & The Supremes-Someday We’ll Be Together

Temptations-Cloud Nine

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas-Nowhere to Run

Box Tops-The Letter

Hollies-Look Through Any Window

Troggs-Love Is All Around

Zombies-Care of Cell 44

Monkees-Love Is Only Sleeping

Neil Diamond-Solitary Man

Carpenters-Rainy Days and Mondays

Harry Nilsson-I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City

Band-The Weight

Buffalo Springfield-Flying On the Ground Is Wrong

Jefferson Airplane-Volunteers

Joan Baez-Here’s to You

Burl Ives-Mr. Rabbit

Pete Seeger-Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Serious As a Heart Attack

Wednesday has become my go to day for the long workout.  My wife works later in the evening so I go after work and get down to business.  I usually put in between 75 to 90 minutes.  So I have to plan ahead and make sure I've got the old Under Pressure play list loaded with something both longer and awesomer to keep me motivated.  Last week it was the great one/two punch of Rubber Soul and Revolver.  One day a few months ago I wasn't feeling really up to putting in that much time so I went with Quadrophenia.  Needless to say, it did the trick.  I ended up finishing the album and re-listening to the first side again.

Today I decided to go with Double Nickels on the Dime by the great Minutemen.  I first heard this album fifteen years ago and it still amazes me how wonderful and unique it is.  Seriously, name me another album like it.  At first it all sounds like a blur.  Before you start to process what is going on in a certain song, you realize it was over two songs ago and it is impossible to catch up.  It probably took five years to sort out the damn thing.  But when it starts to sink in you realize what a great album it is. 

While I am a fan of all of their work (and I'll add fIREHOSE and Watt's solo stuff here too), I don't think they ever topped this.  I am not sure where one would even start to attempt to.  There are too many classics here to name.  Their playing is tight.  Hell, the thing just sounds great.  It is just a magical document of one of the most original and interesting bands at their absolute peak.

So I knocked it out with a great album and now plan to spend the night in the Rock Room watching my beloved Dayton Flyers take on Alabama.  I like Alabama because their coach is Anthony Grant, a former Flyer that my brother and I loved when he played in the late 80's.  I don't expect great things tonight.  Maybe partying will help?  That is why I bought a 12 pack and plan on continuing The Great Spotify Adventure in the Rock Room.  Results to follow tomorrow if I wake up in time.

Roll It Up the Hill

Yesterday was fantastic.  Today was the opposite.  It was as if the world remembered it was December and snapped it's fingers, taking us right back to rainy and cold weather.  As quickly as the wonderful weather came in, it was gone.  Despite the ugliness outside, I did manage to get a three plus mile walk in.  The rain let up enough to knock that out,  though it was not as much as I would have liked to get in.

I listened to The dB's Like This on the walk.  I bought their first two albums Stands for Decibels and Repercussion years ago and really enjoyed them.  This past year they reunited with a new album so I decided to check out their other two albums Like This and The Sound of Music.  Like This is slightly more slick than the first two albums, but I enjoyed it.  I am a huge fan of the jangle element and this band's unique blend of jangle and new wave is right up my alley.

I ended my walk pretty early so my wife and I have been watching the X-Files.  We are about to watch the episode "Soft Light" which was written by Vince Gilligan (BREAKING BAD FAME!) and stars Tony Shalhoub (MONK FAME!).  Too much nerd overload going on here.  Luckily the UDF by my house started carrying these for a buck fifty.  Score?  Yes, score.

New Day Rising

Morning Walk: The dB's-Repercussion

What an absolutely beautiful morning.  Every Monday before go into work I take Julia for a walk.  At 60 degrees and slightly cloudy, today would have been nice for September, let alone December 3rd.  I'll take it.  My Monday morning walk is key to my exercise agenda during the week.  It is a short walk but it sets the tone for the rest of the week.  Miss it and I'm playing catch up all week.  It is also important to get Julia out.  We've found that when we get her out and about she is happier and more social.  Lots of pressure on Monday!

I've settled into a pretty good flow with my exercise.  I go to the gym four or five times a week and ride the stationary bike.  For these workouts I use my "Under Pressure" playlist.  This basically consists of my favorite albums of all time.  I balance out the gym with walks with Julia and longer ones around our neighborhood.  I try not to burn myself out by doing just one type of exercise.  For the walks I use my "Workout" playlist.  This consists of me picking a certain artist and loading up their discography in chronological order and slowly getting through it.  I've been listening to The dB's of late.

At the gym after work I listened to New Day Rising by Husker Du.  I just finished Bob Mould's book See A Little Light and really enjoyed it.  I am not sure New Day Rising is my favorite Husker Du album, but it does have "Celebrated Summer" and "I Apologize," my two favorite Husker Du songs, so it won it's Under Pressure status.  I imagine there will be other Husker Du albums showing up before it is all said and done.

So now you are all caught up on my exercise agenda.  How interesting!  As a reward for reading that I give you more entries in The Grand Spotify Adventure:

(Left off with UK Subs-Down on the Farm)

The Damned-Neat Neat Neat

The Undertones-Teenage Kicks

Buzzcocks-Why Can't I Touch It?

Wire-Outdoor Miner

Gang of Four-I Found That Essence Rare

Television-Venus

Big Star-September Gurls

The Replacements-Little Mascara

Nick Lowe-The Beast In Me

Joe Jackson-Steppin' Out

Prefab Sprout-Faron

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions-Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

Echo and the Bunnymen-The Cutter

Velvet Underground-I Can't Stand It

Love-Andmoreagain

13th Floor Elevators-Don't Fall Down

Skip Spence-All Come To Meet Her

Spirit-Nature's Way

The Pink Fairies-City Kids

Also, a picture of Julia at Halloween:

Grand Spotify Adventure (Enough to get me back?)

So I don't use this blog.  I want to.  From here on out I am just going to post what I listen to in any given day so I can look back at my stupid choices. My listening history is really only important to me so I understand if no one reads this.  Hell, I might not.  It is going to be pretty boring, right?  I may add a picture here and there.  Of my dog.

One of my ideas recently is the Grand Spotify Adventure.  You pick a song and go and see where it takes you.  Yeah, lets do that for now.  I will probably change up in enough time, but for now.

Oh, and I am exercising a lot.  I might add those playlists, too.  I call my exercise playlists "Under Pressure", because, yeah, why the fuck wouldn't you?!  Play Daniel.  But for now a wall of text:

The Grand Spotify Adventure:

Vivian Girls-Where Do You Run To

No Age-Glitter

Ty Segall-Girlfriend

Jay Reatard-It Ain't Gonna Save Me

Times New Viking-No Room To Live

OFF!-I Got News For You

Rocket From the Crypt-On a Rope

Quicksand-Fazer

Shudder to Think-Hot One

Mike Watt-Red Bluff

Frank Black & The Catholics-All My Ghosts

Meat Puppets-In a Car

Vaselines-Monsterpussy

Raincoats-Fairytale In the Supermarket

Sleater-Kinney-One Beat

Fugazi-Repeater

Minutemen-Beacon Sighted Through Fog

X-Johny Hit and Run Paulene

Husker Du-I Apologize

Mission of Burma-Academy Fight Song

Clean-In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul

Soft Boys-I Wanna Destroy You

Jim Carroll Band-People Who Died

Redd Kross-Stay Away From Downtown

Young Fresh Fellows-Picture Book

Lyres-Don't Give It Up Now

Real Kids-Rave On

Shoes-Running Start

Let's Active-Make Up With Me

dB's-Big Brown Eyes

Flamin' Groovies-Shake Some Action

Seeds-Can't Seem to Make You Mine

Pretty Things-Baron Saturday

Creation-Making Time

Emitt Rhodes-Lullabye

Bobby Fuller Four-Let Her Dance

Bill Fox-Get Your Workingman's Things

Zumpano-Throwing Stars

Outrageous Cherry-My Suspicious Midwest

Oranger-A View of the City from An Airplane

American Flag-Dr. Rock

New Radiant Storm King-Her Halcyon Days

Grifters-Spaced Out

Tall Dwarfs-Pictures On the Floor

Monks-I Hate You

Ex-Two Struck By the Moon

Evens-You Fell Down

Nation of Ulysses-Spectra Sonic Sound

Brainiac-Vincent Come On Down

Polvo-My Kimono

Chavez-Unreal Is Here

Swearing At Motorists-Feeling Transparent

Preston School of Industry-Caught In the Rain

Go-Betweens-Bye Bye Pride

Cinerama-London

Eugenius-Breakfast

Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair-Words of Wisdom and Hope

Swell Maps-Let's Build a Car

Pylon-Cool

Wipers-Way of Love

Rocket From the Tombs-Amphetamine

Dead Boys-Sonic Reducer

UK Subs-Down on the Farm

 

& it has just begun...

What a Nice Day

Ton of music today, feeling good:

Kris N.-Heart Scarf
Patsy Cline-Definitive Collection
Sebadoh-Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock
John Coltrane-A Love Supreme
The Chills-Brave Words
Sebadoh-Bubble & Scrape
Guided by Voices-Self-Inflected Aerial Nostalgia
Dead Kennedys-Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Boston Spaceships-Camera Found the Ray Gun
The Flying Burrito Brothers-Gilded Palace of Sin
REM-Eponymous
The Library Is On Fire-Cassette
Robert Pollard-Choreographed Man Of War
The Beatles-Revolver

I had to end it with Revolver. I love that damn record.

Waiting For Somebody

Top five artist for me.

Unlike most people, I got into Paul Westerberg before I even knew there was a band called The Replacements. I first heard him in middle school when I got the Singles soundtrack. I became a huge Pearl Jam fan in the summer before the 8th grade. They were playing "Even Flow" every hour on the hour on the radio and my brother and I became huge fans.

Pearl Jam had only one album but I wanted more. At that point the only other available material came in the form of two songs on the Singles soundtrack, so I picked it up. The album remains huge to this day. It introduced me to Mudhoney, Alice In Chains, and some guy whose two, melodic pop songs stuck out like a sore thumb on the otherwise Grunge sampler: Paul Westerberg.

I liked "Dyslexic Heart" okay but loved "Waiting For Somebody." I played that song over and over again. Shortly after discovering Westerberg, I found his album 14 Songs at a record store and loved it just as much. I still do. I especially loved the first side of the album - I would rewind songs like "Knockin' On Mine" and "World Class Fad" every time I listened to them. I was hooked.

Around this same time I also saw him on Saturday Night Live. I didn't recognize the second song he played and figured it was a new song that would be on his next album. I remember buying his second album Eventually and being disappointed when the song wasn't on the album. Later I found out it was "Can't Hardly Wait."

It seems funny now to think that I was a Paul Westerberg fan for a full three years and remained unaware of The Replacements. This was before the internet when this information was a google search away. But I was a teenager in Dayton, my only music resources were Rolling Stone magazine and books at the library. I never came across the name Paul Westerberg.

It is at this point that I introduce the most influential book of my early music journey: The Spin Alternative Record Guide. It arrived one day at the library and I instantly checked it out. Over the next five years or so I probably spent 1,000 hours reading the damn thing. Had I put that many hours into my actual studies....well I wouldn't be the music nerd that I am today.

The book was the first in the library to include my favorite band that I had stumbled across the year before, Guided by Voices. I thought the entry on GbV was pretty good, even if they did give their second album Sandbox a score of 1 (out of 10! but more on that later). This book would be the first place that I would hear about so many groups that would become my favorites over the years. Husker Du. The Minutemen. Sonic Youth. The Replacements.

I ran across the entry for this band and saw that they reviewed Paul Westerberg's solo album with it. It turns out Westerberg had been making music for a full decade before he went solo. It also turns out that their album Let It Be, besides being ripped off from another of my favorite bands, The Beatles, was one of their Top 100 Alternative Albums. It wasn't long before before I used a Christmas gift certificate from my grandparents to buy Let It Be, thus beginning my journey into the world of The Replacements.

Looking back it amuses me that two throw away tracks on a movie soundtrack led me to one of my favorite artists. I've connected to so many of Westerberg's tunes and there are so many memories connected to his songs. I'll write about The Replacements and his under-rated solo work in time, but I wanted to leave with a memory that popped up while revisiting 14 Songs for this write up.

We've all had our hearts broken. It is experience that has fueled countless songs and is a rite of passage to everyone who has ever experienced love. A few weeks after I first experienced this universal phenomenon, I remember feeling sad and lost. I was in a the rut, sitting around and feeling sorry for myself. I had a day off work and wanted to do something to get myself out of that rut, so I did what any music nerd would do: I went to Columbus for the day to shop for records.

I don't remember what records I bought that day, or even what shops I might have gone to. I assume it was Used Kids, but I really don't remember. All I remember is driving back to Dayton, and somewhere between Columbus and Dayton I heard "Things" off of 14 Songs. It knocked me on my ass. It is vintage Westerberg: a touch of heart break, some great one liners about love and falling out of it. I'd heard the song countless times over the past five years, but I never really connected with it.

That day that song provided me with a feeling I so desperately needed: It made me feel less alone.

Amazing Journey

In the past two years I've completed Alpha/Omega - basically listening to Robert Pollard's entire catalog. No repeating songs and no listening to anything else. It takes about two weeks. No doubt inspired by this, I've begun doing the same thing with other artists except I do allow myself to listen to other things. Because you need some variety.

I decided to use this process as a prompt to write about these artists. When I listen to these albums, many memories come rushing back that I want to get down. Because memories fade. I see this as a good opportunity to tell the story of the 2o year evolution to my current status of full-blown music nerd. There are so many stories, some boring, some great, and listening through these albums brings them all back.

Or, at the very least I can tell the story about how I got the album Shit, Shower, and Shave for Christmas from my high school girlfriend's parents.