Yes, Jane's Addition is kinda weird, dude...

"Believe in me
As I believe in you
Tonight
Tonight, tonight"

VEEN and I were talking on the train this morning, and we started thinking back to our early adolescence. All the bands and music we loved. How I used to go from Nirvana to Boyz II Men, Live to Dr. Dre, and so on. Toni Braxton, in her 4'10'' build, would belt out songs and it hit me at my core. Hootie and the Blowfish, who I've seen in concert since I bought their album, made you think and dance, and paved the way for me to get into Dave Matthews. I started my journey with this era, going to see Bush and No Doubt in 7th grade on a Tuesday - I remember getting literally scared because I was up so late, and I had to go to school the next day. I remember the Montell Jordan's, K7s, Pearl Jams, Batman Forever Soundtracks, the Brandys, LL Cool J, Soundgarden, and so on. The songs were cheesy, the lyrics over the top, especially with the R&B, but it never phased me. All that music could just swallow me up. I could float between groups at school, who liked the new alternative rock or the others who liked the new hip-hop that was emerging. Bands like Oasis made me so happy to listen to, and I remember singing "She's Electric" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" over, and over, and over.

I used to have my room in my basement downstairs, and I bought my first ever CD player for 125 dollars on layaway at K-Mart on my 13th birthday. It was a Sharp 5-disc changer, and I remember liking it because my best friend Mark had the same one. We used to put in Boyz II Men "II" and jump on his trampoline, singing our brains out. We used to skip some songs because we didn't know them, but one day I made Mark listen to the skipped songs. That's when I began to love songs like "Jezebele" and "50 Candles". In fact, the first time I ever heard the Beatles "Yesterday", I was jumping on Mark's trampoline, and it came on as an accapella rendition. I thought it was a BIIM song, a la "Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." I first heard Wu Tang then as well, sitting on Mark's porch. He played it for me, and it was almost like a comedy sketch, we couldn't stop laughing, in a good way. I got it, right away.

I started in the 90s, in the present at the time, and gradually I would start going back. The 80s, I was told by friends, was forgettable and just plain weird, and when I heard a Talking Heads song on the radio, I certainly agreed. Where did THAT come from, I would think. So we went back to the Beatles, the Stones (as per my father and his tapes in the van), and some Led Zeppelin. I never really got it though. I was still reeling from the newest Sublime self-titled CD, which had more swear words in it that any music I had every heard. Each time the work "fuck" dropped, I would get all bug-eyed and think "Oh man, I hope my parents aren't going to like drive by..." Then, Green Day's "Dookie" record hit me in such a way that I thought, "you know, I really don't like this type of music, but man, let's listen to the WHOLE record ONE more time!"

Sigh, what a wonderful set of years. I feel like this music greeted me, welcomed me into the world as a thinking, rational, spirited person. I would spend hours upon hours upon hours laying on the bed, singing, listening, getting so lost in someone's ability to speak to my core. The music was so accessible, so real to me.

I think I'm going to try my absolute best to download all of this music as soon as possible. From "Glycerine", "The Freshman", to "Hey Lover" and "I Only Wanna be with You," I can really construct the soundtrack to my life. I can tell you the first time I ever felt in love, the song I was listening to was "Crash" (could this BE more cliche? haha but it was beautiful, so buzz off haters). When my sister Elicia would get mad or upset with my parents, she would go in her room and blast "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit. I personally used to blast "Greedy Fly" by Bush, or maybe even classic Bush like "Everything Zen." I don't know. I lived and died on the music, it was as a part of my as my fingernails. What a wonderful, innocent, and true time.