5-10-15-20

[TomAz]

My parents were huge Beatles fans

I feel really lucky that I had/have such a cool mom.

Memories of dad's hi-fi

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have grown up with parents who listened to rock music. The only cool music my parents listened to was The Mamas and the Papas and Johnny Cash. Everything else was bad early 60s folk (the Limeliters), bad jazz (bebop was too radical for my dad), bad pop (The Fifth Dimension) and "easy listening". They were too old for the Beatles and too east-coast-snooty for Elvis.

[roberto73]

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have grown up with parents who listened to rock music. The only cool music my parents listened to was The Mamas and the Papas and Johnny Cash. Everything else was bad early 60s folk (the Limeliters), bad jazz (bebop was too radical for my dad), bad pop (The Fifth Dimension) and "easy listening". They were too old for the Beatles and too east-coast-snooty for Elvis.

I can sympathize. As I alluded to in my list, my parents were too square to partake in the mid- to late-60's rock music extravaganza, even though they were almost the exact right age (born in '46 and '47). I don't know how I ended up the way I did.

[algunz]

My parents, especially my dad, were great when it came to music. There was always music being played at our house growing up and usually good rock - lots of Zeppelin and Stones. Unfortunately as they have aged, their music world has grown smaller. They're open to new music, but now around the house it's usually U2. Which isn't bad, but ALL the time? Geesh.

[weeklymix]

I'm glad this thread took off. It's been really great reading all of these entries.

[miscorrections]

Rob, you inspired me to listen to Kitchens while doing some shit at work this morning.

In other news I love this thread.

[fancy restaurant]

i also approve of this concept.

[roboticwaltz]

Turning 20 in a couple months...

5:

My mom had me when she was 18, so she was still caught up in the generation X thing when I was born. Music has always been very prominent in my life, and aside from Led Zeppelin and Rush, she was constantly listening to grunge/alt-rock. Out of all the things she listened to, I remember enjoying Blind Melon the most and ALWAYS asking her to play "No Rain". While I didn't understand it at the time, I'm sure I got sort of a "best of both worlds" feeling from the band. Classic rock meets alt-rock.

10:

This was the first CD I ever bought with my own money. It wasn't because I knew the Beatles at all, but because I kept seeing commercials for it on TV and really enjoying the songs. From the first time I heard it, my life was changed. I was COMPLETELY obsessed with the Beatles for at least a year, and all the kids at school thought I was lame for liking them and not Destiny's Child or Eminem. This CD was the seed of my infatuation with music.

15:

High school was tough and I always felt like Tool spoke to me in ways that no other band could. The combination of their dark, metallic sound mixed with Maynard's beautiful vocals seemed so fitting to my angst-ridden mind at the time. I was also really getting in to playing drums and guitar by this point in my life. As a result, I was full-fledged Tool fanatic for a good part of high school. Lateralus remains one of my top-ten albums to this day.

20 (will be soon):

I know this album came out last year, but I only got into it when I saw them on the Coachella poster. Since then, I've completely fallen in love with this album, as well as every other album they've put out. Veckatimest has so much more depth then any rock album I've heard in a while. Still bummed that I had to miss their Coachella set (TCV conflict).

[bmack86]

Hey, this took off!

It is really interesting to see how much you change in 5 year periods. For me, those first 15 years were fairly unhurried musically, but after that, I really started to listen out and find new stuff as well as catch up on things I'd missed.

[liquidsnake28]

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have grown up with parents who listened to rock music. The only cool music my parents listened to was The Mamas and the Papas and Johnny Cash.

Ditto. Although my parents did occasionally listen to good stuff like Beatles, Stones, Doors, etc. They just never listened to much music period and never exposed us to anything good.

[amyzzz]

I can't imagine what it would have been like to have grown up with parents who listened to rock music. The only cool music my parents listened to was The Mamas and the Papas and Johnny Cash. Everything else was bad early 60s folk (the Limeliters), bad jazz (bebop was too radical for my dad), bad pop (The Fifth Dimension) and "easy listening". They were too old for the Beatles and too east-coast-snooty for Elvis.

My parents were also too old for The Beatles. However, they did see Elvis in Vegas in 1972. All they ever listened to while I was growing up was 50's & 60's 8 tracks, some light country pop, and muzak. The only Beatles song on those 8 tracks was The Yellow Submarine. Ugh.

[miscorrections]

My parents had good stuff on vinyl - Talking Heads, Prince, Oingo Boingo, loads of new wave shit, but they never really listened to it. They didn't really do music radio either; they listened to NPR. Mom'd occasionally pop on Van Morrison or Cafe Noir in the car but not frequently. Didn't have much exposure to music when I was young except for the forementioned gospel breakfast sessions.

[TommyboyUNM]

I'm 28.

5:

I remember the "Thriller" video scaring the crap out of me when I was little. I also remember everybody in my family (mom, dad, sisters, cousins) playing this album a lot. Yup.

10:

My sister went to California in the summer of 1992 and brought this back with her on tape. "Right Back" was my favorite track. It kind of surprised me when they ended up becoming really popular.

15:

While not my introduction to heavier music, Nine Inch Nails would be that band, I remember playing this album a lot around this time. I was a freshman/sophomore in HS when I listened to this a lot. It wasn't about angst for me, though. I had no angst, nor did I pretend to. I just liked the abrasiveness and was into hip-hop so it made me comfortable.

20:

This was a very popular album around collegiate circles. "Fuck You Lucy" was so raw to me. I liked Slug's story telling and the beats kept me interested. It was a nice change of pace from a lot of the violent and party type of rap that my friends listened to a lot.

25:

It had been a few years since I started listening to more indie rock and my tastes really started developing. So this album didn't necessarily introduce me to anything. But it is my favorite album to come out around this time. Every song, except "Bodysnatchers," moves me in some way. And this is my favorite band, so I feel they need some representation.

[rskapcat]

Interesting...I don't have any connection to "Bodysnatchers," either.

[amyzzz]

YOU ARE BOTH WRONG. I love Bodysnatchers.

[rskapcat]

It's not about like or dislike. I just don't have any emotional connection to it.

[fiopadp7791]

I'm 28.

5:

I remember the "Thriller" video scaring the crap out of me when I was little. I also remember everybody in my family (mom, dad, sisters, cousins) playing this album a lot. Yup.

God this thread kicks ass.

Tommy, since we're only a year apart, I put "Bad" as my Michael Jackson album (because it came out in 87?). But I will say my pops actually rented the Thriller video from the video store for me to watch around that same time. It was Jacko fever in the 80s in my house... my parents would let me watch MTV, VH1, and listen to most radio. But they wouldn't buy an albums for me except for ones they "approved" of. I had to beg and beg and beg for them to buy me "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" from MC Hammer in 89 or 90. I think i was in 2nd grade when that came out? Maybe 3rd?

[algunz]

High school was tough

It seems that this is a common motif in this thread. Was high school "good" for any of us? Seriously, I'm curious as to who would claim high school as the golden years. My husband does. Is he the only one?

[BlackSwan]

Looking back, high school was a blast for me. I would love to have that kind of freedom again.

[fiopadp7791]

It seems that this is a common motif in this thread. Was high school "good" for any of us? Seriously, I'm curious as to who would claim high school as the golden years. My husband does. Is he the only one?

Not necessarily my Golden Years, but in my reply to this thread-

15 (1996... although 1997 was so much cooler)- A tie between "Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" Smashing Pumpkins, and "Tragic Kingdom" No Doubt. I was a relatively happy high schooler, but every kid listened to these... When I was 16, and Puff Daddy blew up... awww shit! I was all over that too.

[algunz]

My blast came in college. In high school I was too busy building a private school worthy college application. I missed out on a lot, but I don't regret it.

[roberto73]

It seems that this is a common motif in this thread. Was high school "good" for any of us? Seriously, I'm curious as to who would claim high school as the golden years. My husband does. Is he the only one?

The years themselves were not always fun, but the schooling was fine. I knew how to play the game, put in an effort for the teachers I liked, killed time for everyone else, hung out with my friends, and got to spend part of my day doing theater and/or music. I never understood the people who hated it. Did I wish I was somewhere else? Sure, sometimes. But I wish that now, too, and I'm sitting in a decent apartment, listening to Pylon and drinking a Guinness. Occasionally you just have to put in your time.

[miscorrections]

It was both terrible and great simultaneously. My friends were/are amazing, and I'm sure it would've been unremittingly awful without them.

[fiopadp7791]

It was both terrible and great simultaneously. My friends were/are amazing, and I'm sure it would've been unremittingly awful without them.

That's the way I'd describe my 1st couple years of college in South Dakota. Why I decided, as a city kid from Minneapolis to go out to school in America's version of Siberia is beyond me. But the friends I made, the experiences, and the fact that I discovered my favorite group while out there (after thinking like everyone else they were a 1-hit wonder I'd never hear from again) I'd never trade for anything and wouldn't do it any differently.

[Courtney]

It seems that this is a common motif in this thread. Was high school "good" for any of us? Seriously, I'm curious as to who would claim high school as the golden years. My husband does. Is he the only one?

I am going to hypothesize here that in general, the kind of people who consider high school their golden years are probably not the kind of people who would spend time on the Coachella Message Board. Just a hunch.

[Courtney]

And also, I really really like this thread. More lists please. And less Radiohead. We know you all like Radiohead.

[fiopadp7791]

I am going to hypothesize here that in general, the kind of people who consider high school their golden years are probably not the kind of people who would spend time on the Coachella Message Board. Just a hunch.

[TomAz]

I moved from Ohio to Jefferson City, Missouri the summer before my sophomore year in high school. I didn't know anyone and I was in central Missouri. Also I was a year younger than my classmates and so couldn't drive til the end of my junior year. Guess how my HS years were?

[BlackSwan]

Guess how my HS years were?

Character building?

[amyzzz]

It's not about like or dislike. I just don't have any emotional connection to it.

Then I revise my wording to state that I do have an emotional connection to it.

[shmamber]

Amber, 27 (I will be 28 next month).

FIVE

To this day I still wear the 3/4 length sleeve sweatshirt my mom bought when she went to see The Boss on his Born In The USA tour in 1984. When I was 5, this was the music she played the most in our home.

Oh, and my mom is clearly where I learned the truly obsessive music listening habits I have today, so when I say it was "played the most" I mean it was the only thing played for weeks or months. :P


TEN

During 1991-1992 my mom was gorging on Roxette and The Animals, primarily. We listened to oldies radio in the car so I loved old music, and I soaked up any music like a sponge anyway so when she picked these disparate albums to exercise and clean to every morning over summer vacation, I LOVED it. To this day, I pretty much know all the words to both of these albums, and I used to be able to play "House of the Rising Sun" on my flute (hah!). She was just beginning her multi-year affair with The Doors at this point.


FIFTEEN

At 15 I had my GREAT MUSICAL AWAKENING after going through several years lost in country music (shame shame shame). Shawn Colvin and "Sunny Came Home" was the song that got me out of country music and onto the path that would lead me to the land of music snobbery I reside in today.


TWENTY

Obviously a lot changed between 15 and 20 for me, and by 20 I was living in a warehouse in West Oakland, California, with my house producer boyfriend, and firmly entrenched in the SF rave scene. I was formally re-introduced to EBTG by aforementioned house producer boyfriend and went absolutely bananas for them, traveling halfway around the world twice to see Ben Watt spin on subsequent London NYEs, etc. This band remains extremely special to me, but its hard for me to listen to them now.


TWENTY-FIVE

2007 was both the year I turned 25 and the year I discovered The Libertines and the year I had a major quarter-life crisis of confidence and the year The Libertines turned out to be a "gateway band" that led me to discover all of the music I love today, pretty much, and all of the intense concertgoing and crazy photography gigs and amazing times I've had since. YAY