love, love, love

When I was working on my undergraduate degree oh so long ago (the mid-'90s seem like yesterday, don't they?), my parents encouraged me to travel for a semester. They were thinking overseas. But since I'd never really left my hometown (at that point I'd barely left the neighborhood -- my first apartment was in the Student Ghetto a mere four blocks from my parents' house), I really wanted to go to New York. They protested, but I insisted. So I applied and was accepted to NYU for the summer of 1997.

It was one of the best summers of my life. I lived in a dorm one block from Washington Square Park. Ate amazing meals. Saw phenomenal bands. Bought tons of records. Met interesting people. Most importantly, I walked almost everywhere I went.

I wanted to SEE the city, so I rarely used the subway if it was somewhere I was going for the first time. Copying most New Yorkers, I began to listen to my Walkman (tape version) everywhere I went. One day I got a package from tw with a mix tape inside titled "Pop Side of the Moon." Its cover was a black & white picture of Rockefeller Center (my obsession with the RC Christmas Tree was already in full bloom), and the bands included such indie greats as Small Factory ("So What About Love"), Incredible Force of Junior ("Blue Cheer"), Air Miami ("Airplane Rider"), and Low ("Over the Ocean"). I listened to it so much that the songs on this mix tape are still, to this day, some of my favorite songs.

However, there was one song that I absolutely hated. It was stupid, atonal, and the lyrics made no sense. But since this was a mix tape and not a mix CD, it was a pain in the ass to fast forward through without missing the song after it, which is one of my undeniably favorite songs of all time, Courtney Love's "Uncrushworthy" (Courtney Love being the early 90s band fronted by Lois Maffeo, not the obnoxious Hole singer). So I suffered through it time after time.

But the hated song would just not go away. Unconsciously, it started to grow on me. I began singing it in my head. It popped up in the shower or when I was trying to fall asleep. Then, I found myself fast forwarding to GET to this song. Finally, I began searching for other songs by this artist, amassing a small collection of dubbed tapes and 7 inches. New York City became the place where I began my love affair with what would become my favorite band of all time, the Mountain Goats.

The stupid, atonal song with the senseless lyrics? "The Monkey Song"

late bloomer

I am late for everything. Not just late to appointments or meetings -- but late to new technology, fashion trends, you name it. That's where this story starts. I finally bought an iPod about a year ago and got around to actually putting music on it a few months later (thanks Josh!) Frequent trips to Clearwater and Jacksonville (not to mention the demise of "The Dan Patrick Show" on ESPN Radio) encouraged me to actually listen to music on my iPod. It's really helped bring my attention back to older albums I haven't bothered to pull out in years. One such album has really caught my ear in the last few months despite me virtually ignoring it when it first came out.

At least one song from Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" has been in my head daily for the last five or six months. I was vaguely interested in NMH in the height of their popularity (mid- to late-90s.) I tried to like the music of the Elephant 6 Collective because it was so prevalent in the indie music scene at the time (I'll admit to liking several songs off of NMH's "On Avery Island" and some Of Montreal), but my overall opinion was it was mostly just noise. When I re-listened to "In the Aeroplane..." I was blown away by the beauty of the album. The album flows together in such an effortless, unusual way. Jeff Mangum has a truly innovative musical vision.

So why am I bothering to post about it now? Well the album came out ten years ago this month. I encourage you to pull out your copy and re-listen to it now, or click below to hear my favorite song off the album, "Holland, 1945":



The combination of his voice and the energy of the music is ... amazing. Have you ever found yourself a late bloomer to such an album?