Our side ‘pet’ project, Sudsonbleeker, was started last night with a review of Coldplay’s new album, Viva la Vida.  Sudsonbleeker will deliver rich content to SongMeanings every Wednesday. 

Downloaded the new Moby album, Last Night, and it’s really good.  Last Night is a drastic change from 1999’s Play — a bit more dancier (is that a word?), certainly less alternative.  Definitely check the album out if you’re a Moby fan.

As a side note, has it really been almost 8 years since I stopped listening to all electronic and industrial music?  Holy crap.  Freshman year of high school, all I would listen to was electronic with a bit of industrial thrown in.  DJ Shadow was on repeat, practically always.  I worshipped Prodigy’s Liam Howlett.  KMFDM got me through being suspended for a week.

Driving down to Florida one year, I had a cd book filled with my favorite electronic and industrial albums.  When we stopped at one of the rest areas, the cd book must have fell out of the car.  I didn’t realize until we were long gone.  I was absolutely heart broken — worst feeling ever.  I remember I wanted to cry.  I had so many wonderful albums in that book.

It’s amazing how music really defines certain times of your life.

I remember in 7th grade, I was absolutely obsessed with Jimi Hendrix — couldn’t get me to stop listening to him.  I have no idea how I got into Jimi that year, but I learned the majority of his songs word for word.  Then again in 7th grade, all I did was lock myself in my room programming away in BASIC on my donated 286.  So perhaps Jimi fit in perfectly.

Early 8th grade, I discovered Prodigy’s Experience and Music for the Jilted Generation.  Most of my friends were making fun of me while I listened to them, but I ignored most of the comments.  There was just something about those albums, something that I clung on to.  They were different than the norm at the time.  And I suppose that’s how I felt about myself during that year.  Not that I was different than my friends, but I was discovering my creative side and I was more interested in creating than anything else.  Sadly, when Prodigy’s Fat of the Land started getting really popular, my interest in them faded.  As my friends began listening to them (the same friends who previously made fun of me), I felt like I no longer had a connection to the music.  And thus, I moved on.

9th grade was all about the KMFDM’s, Nine Inch Nails, DJ Shadow, Orbital, Chemical Brothers — anything to get me pumped up for ice hockey.  9th grade made me want to become a DJ.  When I got suspended for a week, I locked myself in my room and just listened to KMFDM over and over again.

My 10th and 11th years is when I started discovering the music that would lead me into what I typically listen to today.  I discovered so many wonderful bands and artists those years.  But I also listened to a huge mix of things.  I cannot really define these years with one set of artists.  I do, however, remember finding the first Webster Hall album and over playing it to the point where I couldn’t listen to it any longer.

Years after high school, my music has been almost everything and anything.  Nine Inch Nails made a huge come back in my life in 2001 as it got me through a relationship break-up.  I remember continually putting up Nine Inch Nails away messages to the point where Robin actually called me out on it.  Maroon 5 and Jason Mraz made me happy again as I began dating my wonderful fiance in 2002.

And since then, the Jack Johnsons, Matt Costas, Ben Folds, and the rest, have crawled and consumed my life.   Oh, and I also have a man-crush with Justin Timberlake.

In the mix, too, rap and hip-hop has always been playing during these years.  Early on I was a huge Digital Underground and Arrested Development fan.  They spawned me into listening to Outkast, A Tribe Called Quest (loved the Anthology album), Jurasic 5, etc.

And to close, I’ll always have a spot in my heart for Das EFX.

We created a (very) random playlist the other night. We tried to stick to the popular rap/hip-hop genre of our yesteryears. It wasn’t meant to be ‘The List’ of lists, or anything like that. We wanted to include songs that everything just about remembers, laughs about, and ultimately wants to dance to. Feel free to add to it through the comments.

Having a stiff neck is absolutely the worst thing in the entire world. Well, besides listening to that horrible Weather Channel music over and over again.

Seriously. I don’t know about you, but I strictly go to the Weather Channel for weather updates — I don’t pay attention to that elevator music playing in the background. Apparently, some folks like it. And by some folks, I really mean, more than likely, old folks which flip between the Weather Channel, Judge Judy, and Girlfriends on UPN.

But hey, at least it plays more music than MTV these days.