My friend Marissa wrote ‘My love letter to compilation CDs,’ and it’s been on my mind.
“(T)he first one I can really remember is Punk Rock Strike Vol. 1 by Springman Records. My gosh, as a young punk trying to discover new bands, that thing was a game changer. It was my first exposure to bands like The Wunder Years, No Use for a Name, and The Amazing Transparent Man, just to name a few.”
Spoke with another friend today who mentioned the Lumberjack Distro samplers we all used to get, which reminded me specifically of the ‘Lumberjack Distribution Spring 2003 Sampler.’
I had two MP3s saved from those days, the first of which was Kid Gorgeous‘ ‘Anyone Ever Tell You That You Talk Too Much.’
Most of it was standard metalcore fare, but the ending chorus section, those guitar harmonics or whatever? I LOVED that.
The other was ‘Missives On a Recurring Theme’ by Theory Of Ruin which I can’t find streaming anywhere, but here’s a link. Like, can’t even find it on YouTube. If I didn’t rip this song back in the mid 2000s, would it even exist anywhere online?
These are from over 20 years ago, from the year 2003. This was just two years after I started my music blog, and I was like a kid in a candy store, just devouring this type of stuff.
All these years later, yeah, it’s harder to get excited about finding new music, just because, dammit… I’ve listened to such much music over the last 30 years, you know?
When I was a kid in the late 80s, we had hair metal and Guns N Roses ‘Appetite for Destruction’ and Metallica’s ‘… And Justice For All.’
Then I was in high school in the 90s, so that means Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana and SoundGarden and Alice in Chains and Primus, like… my god.
Then yeah.. early 2000s up till like 2010 I was drowning in music, having run my own music blog, then started NoiseCreep for AOL Music in 2008.
That’s a long time to have been focusing on music with such intent. All the shows I went to, bands I interviewed, albums I listened to.
Right now, at 48, it’s just so much harder to get excited about new music. I absolutely love some of it (Knocked Loose comes to mind, of course), but… dammit, I’m not in my 20s or 30s anymore.
This is growing up, huh?