I came across this history of rock music today, and after reading through the history of the 1990s, I found that while the author was tracing the patterns of indie music, I was tracing my past, as defined by the music I listened to. I’ve always thought that life would be better with a soundtrack, and one of the things I love about films is the juxtaposition of images, themes, and music. Back in the days when I fancied myself a writer, I would almost always write a story with a song in my head. I couldn’t always convey that to the reader (short of putting lyrics into the story, or making the song a part of it), but it was, to me, the soundtrack.

So, that said, it’s easy for me to read a list of bands, and immediately think about how their music defined different parts of my life. I’ll spare you the gory details, here’s a rough overview of the music that has defined the various eras in my life….

High School
The Specials
The Toasters
U2

College (I suddenly become much more musically literate)
Galaxie 500
Pavement
Luna
Mercury Rev
Uncle Tupelo
Polvo
Stereolab
REM
Madder Rose

Post-College
Loads of no-depression/alt-country/cow punk
Sunday Puncher
Bailter Space

The Electronic Period
Autechre
Aphex Twin
Squarepusher
DJ Spooky

This Present Age
Death Cab for Cutie
Citizens Here and Abroad
Bedhead
The New Year
Pedro the Lion
Solex

Obviously, this isn’t any sort of exhaustive list. But, for each era, I do remember nearly wearing out the CDs of the bands listed. But reading that history was like a trip down memory lane. And I’ve been amazed at the number of bands that have just fallen off my radar. Looks like I’ll be dusting off the CDs tonight…..

Posted on 25 August 2004