Rock 'n Me

In elementary school, while my friends were raving over Hansen, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, and the like, I was sneaking into Kathleen's room and listening to the Jamiroquai, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Hootie & the Blowfish albums she left behind in her room at home while away at Centre.  To be accurate, it all began around the age of seven, when she gifted me with my first tape, Alanis Morissette's single "You Learn" (it was also the first time I heard the 'f'-word, on the B-side live version of "You Oughta Know"). That day, sitting in Kathleen's little white Honda in the driveway, gripping the green-and-yellow cardboard cassette sleeve, my love affair with alternative rock commenced and would continue throughout my adolescence.

By the early 2000s, indie rock began to emerge from the alternative scene at a commercial level, and in 2004, just as I had been endowed a genre of music by my older sister, my friend Sarah experienced the same with her older sister, Meg, in the form of a mix CD Sarah would later title "Wierd" (yes, it's spelled incorrectly, but I'll cut her some slack--she was only sixteen).  Sarah, of course, shared with me the CD--which, I believe, had originally been burned by one of Meg's friends at college--and to this day I keep it stored along with my other favorite CDs I have vowed never to throw out.

While I realize not all of the songs fall under the indie rock category, I generally attribute my current appreciation for the genre to this compilation:

1. Anecdote--Ambulance LTD
2. All the Way up to Heaven--Guster
3. Baby Britain--Elliot Smith
4. Magic--Ben Folds Five
5. In the Aeroplane over the Sea--Neutral Milk Hotel
6. Strange Condition--Pete Yorn
7. She Sends Kisses--The Wrens
8. Where Is My Mind?--Pixies
9. Flake--Jack Johnson
10. Comfortable--John Mayer
11. Jesus, etc.--Wilco
12. White Christmas--Guns N' Roses