I’m sitting here on the couch, headphones on, music playing.

This is my favorite thinking time…sitting here listening to music.  I’ll go from Foo to N.W.A. to the Kingston Trio, back to Outkast then to the Police and top it off with Smashing Pumpkins with a Pearl Jam on top.

Just like everyone else some songs take me back to a very specific time.

Billy Joel takes me back to my teen years and really fueled my drive to learn to play piano.  I remember driving around with Dave Stalker, Eric and Craig Faulkner, Dennis and Bill Foley singing Joel.  A memory that sticks with me to this day.

Judas Priest takes me right back to the McDonald’s parking lot, playing hacky sack and “fishbowling” in every car with a great bunch of H.S. friends.  Those friends are now spread across the U.S. but I think of them often…especially when I hear JP!

I lived in Italy for my 12th and 13th years and have a very small collection of cassette tapes for that two years.  I had Genesis 3 Sides Live, a Rolling Stones live album, AC/DC for those about to rock. the self titled “Dire Straits” and a Rick Springfield tape.  Needless to say, the Springfield never got played.  Dodo/Lurker REALLY takes me back.

If you don’t have “10″ by Pearl Jam in your collection then stop reading now…I don’t know you.  This album came out during a difficult time in my life and I ate it up.  I was a new father and in the Coast Guard so there was plenty of frustration which seemed to be echoed in this album.  I related and the rest is history.  I’m embarrassed to count the number of shows I’ve been to and the amount of money I’ve spent on collecting tour poster lithographs.  I’m their biggest fan…as is Sweets!  Pearl Jam still makes me get up and rock.

The late 90′s were saved by the Foo Fighters who took the pop-rock mantle and smashed an amp with it.  Their first album was great but it was The Colour and The Shape that shook me in ’97 and each successive album got better.  This was an amazing time in my life…professionally I was in a good space, but I was still unsatisfied personally.  ”Hero” takes me back to a night in ’99 at a fancy French restaurant celebrating all the amazing things to come with Abuzz.com.  Ah, if I could have seen what was coming!

The soundtrack of the past decade, for me is ALL of the Wes Anderson film soundtracks.  Rushmore is one of my favorite movies EVER and it’s got an amazing soundtrack.  The Life Aquatic is my favorite of this group as it features the gifted Seu Jorge who single handedly reinvents Bowie…believe it.

Excelsior!