Age of Enlightenment.

The ground work was laid so it was only a matter of time before my music collection began to grow exponentially with the crossing paths of college and my first credit card.

It took me seven years to pay off that initial debt and music was the reason. Okay, some cigarettes were involved as well but most of my dough was blown on music.

Chia Pet, The Blue Meanies, N.I.L.8., Operation Ivy, Psychic TV, Public Enemy, Sisters Of Mercy, Smashing Pumpkins, The Stone Roses, Blur

Notice how there are no dates above? This is because at this point specific albums had less effect on me and the cumulative presence of a group really began to get its grasp on my head and heart. Each of the bands above made a singular mark on me and caused me to shake my ass and bob my head whenever one of their songs came on.

It gets increasingly difficult to track what effected me now in this time period since I was immersed in just this total flood of new music. In addition I was getting turned on to catching as many live shows as I could bluff my way past the bouncers at the only dive bar in town that put on live music worth seeing named The Gallery. Incidentally The Gallery would figure large in my future as it’s where I got both my DJing and bartending start.

Nothing really stands out from this time period due to the immense amount of tunes I was processing but I do remember the feelings generated by lots of cool live shows and sitting on the hill outside of my dorm with my stereo speakers facing out the window at top volume. Oh yeah, once I moved into an apartment my time was consumed with making mix-tapes for our weekly parties. This is back in the days when the kids danced to the rock and my downstairs neighbors would grab me every Thursday and make me watch their ceiling as it bounced back and forth under the weight of the mad dancing occurring upstairs.

It was at this time that I realized music was a powerful communicator and I needed to spread its gospel. It’s also about this time I started my first band and got in the habit of wearing a hockey mask and a skirt onstage. Also I learned that a girl dancing naked to The Cult was a good good thing.

God the late ‘80s and early ‘90s kicked ass.

BONUS ROUND

The Grateful Dead. I literally went through every single fucking musical genre at this point in life to see what stuck and what didn’t. I tried to dig The Dead since I dug smoking pot and hippies seemed okay (my view on this was to change soon enough) but I just couldn’t stand the band. I hated them. They became my musical arch-nemesis. I still think they are totally evil.

I do dig the Jane's Adiction cover of "Ripple" though. Funny, huh?

I hated the band so much that when Jerry Garcia died a number of my friends wouldn’t accept phone calls for weeks from me for fear I was only ringing them up to tease ‘em. Jesus, I'm not that heartless.