Music has been a big part of my life for basically my whole life.  I listen to it, I can play it (even though I never do anymore), and I was even a DJ on a college radio station.  Over the years, my musical interests have varied quite a bit.  When I was a little kid, I listened to what my parents listened to, which was basically limited to the contemporary christian genre.  As I grew older and had more friends, while still listening to that stuff, I began to integrate various other styles into what I listened to.  It started with rap.  First, a little pseudo-rap in the form of dc talk.  Then Gospel Gangstaz, A.1. Swift, etc.

I liked country for a month or so when I was 11.  That's about when the "Garth Brooks is from our home town" phase hit me and all my friends.  Fortunately (more on "fortunately" in a second), the phase was just a phase and it soon ended.

By the time I hit the age of 12, I was starting to make purchases, and pick up styles of music that I never dreamed I would like.  Enter modern rock, alternative, and a bit more rap.  When 14 hit, it was again time to shift.  One night, while listening to the local christian radio station, I heard a song that really caught my attention.  The artist - Magnified Plaid.  The song - Want Ad.  Anyway, it was that night that changed what I listened to for the rest of my life.  Not to say it wouldn't have happened some other way, but grant me this epiphanic sentimentalism, as it makes the story much more fateful and whatnot.

So I beg my parents for weeks to take me to the store and let me buy this CD.  I even offered to pay them, at their suggestion, to take me.  Finally they grant me the request and its off to the store for music and fun.

That year, I went to my first punk show.  It was MxPx (Magnified Plaid) and it was on my birthday.  It was only five bucks, so my parents paid for me and a few of my friends to go.

So I'm 15 now, and I'm listening to punk rock (or punk rawk, if you're so inclined.  I'm not.), and everything's great.  Then the ska craze hits, and I get wrapped up in it.  Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy, the Insiderz, and the list goes on.  Everybody's ska, and everybody's happy.  I quit listening to ska when when I was 18.

So then I start into my heavy stuff.  I had liked a bit of the heavier stuff for a while.  Mortification, The Crucified, the blamed, and other growly, loud music.  But when I was 18, I bought what I consider to be the definition of what good heavy music is supposed to sound like.  Zao's "Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest" has all the intensity of hardcore and the complexity of metal without all the cheesiness and hair.   It is still my favorite metal/hardcore/heavy stuff album of all time.

The same day I bought Zao, I picked up another album that I would listen to for years to come.  That album was Slick Shoes' "Burn Out." A very good day in my estimation.

Ok, that's senior year of high school.  The next year I go to college and am introduced to a new style of music.  Emo is hard to descirbe.  It's basically emotional indie rock.  beyond that, I don't know what it is.   It takes its form in The Get Up Kids and influences The Ataris to some extent.  These were the bands of the first year of college.  And they were good.  

The end of freshman year, I pulled out a CD that I had bought during senior year and hadn't listened to much since.  It was The Juliana Theory.  Their blend of emo and rock turned out to be very, very good.  The next year was more of the same.  The Juliana Theory, The Get Up Kids, The Ataris - those seemed to be the big three, along with classics like MxPx, Zao, and Slick Shoes.  

Enter New Found Glory.  Aaron, my roommate, actually found this blend of punk and emo.  I'll be honest, and Jessica and the Mixons can attest, I listened to New Found Glory's self-titled CD the entire summer of 2001, and I loved every minute of it.  Sure there was the occasional Philmore or The Juliana Theory, but not for long.

Ok, this is getting really long and boring, but its better than nothing, right?

Since that fateful summer of pop-punk delight, things have gone pretty much as before, except slower, as I am getting old.  Due to Aaron's influence and general dominance of the dorm room soundspace since fall 2001, I have become much more accustomed to the sounds of a man who knows what heartbreak is all about, or at least is really good at faking it.  Chris Carraba sometimes angelic, sometimes gritty voice has been soothing the savage emotion-beast in me since my birthday in october 2001 when I got 2 Dashboard Confessional CD's.  

Another giant of '01 made its way into my collection that birthday in the form of Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American." What a CD that is.  Wow.  Man.  It is good.

So let's skip ahead to summer 2002.  You remember what happened last summer right? New Found Glory? Well Jordan and the boys returned with another disc that consumed and musically defined my summer.  As in 2001, NFG rarely made its way out of the CD player in my car.  This CD somehow was even better than the first one.  No sophomore slump (big label that is) for these guys.  

Senior year of college is kind of strange in my head.  I can't really remember what I was listening to all that time.  There was probably some carry over from the summer and junior year, but alas, it is an enigma to me.

A few bands did show their faces toward the end of senior year.  A pop-punk band from Stillwater, OK called the All-American Rejects came out with an album a while back.  My roommate had it and one night I stayed up listening to some of it.  It was only a matter of days before it was mine.  The Juliana Theory put out another album too.  Two words describe it better than a whole paragraph: pure rock.

But really, the shining star of Spring 2003 had to be The Ataris.  This was much to my surprise, as I hadn't really enjoyed their previous album, and expected that they would give more of the same.  I was dead wrong.  "So Long Astoria" is one the best, most sentimental albums I own.  Just listening to the songs and thinking about the days of old could force me to tears if I hadn't already shed so many for those days.  Thinking back to high school you know exactly what Kris is talking about when he says that, "being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up, those were the best days of our lives."

So I listen to The Ataris for a long time and think back to the observation deck with his and Denise's name on it and laugh about what that means to me.

Well, after the summer of The Ataris, I spent my first year out of the dorms.  Now, this may not seem so significant to my musical history, but it is.  Being out of the dorms means more driving.  Instead of walking to class and to work, I was driving to both.  More driving = more time listening to music in the car.   More time listening to music in the car = a greater appetite for new music.  

In fact, I am beginning to think it was the reduced amount of driving during the first 4 years of college (yeah, go ahead and laugh) that resulted in the decline in music purchases I made.  That and the lack of money.

So, back to the music.

My fifth year of college saw more driving, and as a result, more listening to music.  During this year, I opened my eyes to a band with which Aaron had been in love for years.  In his own words, out of the 5 units of happiness in his life, 3 of them were Further Seems Forever, or maybe it was 4 out of 6.  Whatever the number was, Furhter was great.  I picked up "The Moon is Down" at Mardel for $6, and I was instantly a fan.  It obviously helped that I had been exposed to the band quite a bit through the years.

Among the other albums that had their part a great year of listening are Further Seems Forever - "How to Start a Fire", Dashboard Confessional - "A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar", Third Day - "Offerings 1 & 2", and Switchfoot - "The Beautiful Letdown."

During the summer of 2004, I got a job in The Woodlands, TX working for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation as an intern.   Like the previous summers, there was one definitive CD.  This time, though, I chose it.  Well, actually I chose two.  When I first got to The Woodlands, I bought blink-182's self-titled CD and New Found Glory's "Catalyst."   Which CD won?  blink-182, but certainly with some help.

July 11, 2004 was probably the most challenging day of my life ... musically.  On that day, like any Sunday morning, I walked out to my car in the parking lot of my Houston apartment to find something dreadful.  Someone had broken into my car and taken all but 5 of the CDs I had with me.  The total number of CDs stolen was about 70.  God is faithful, though, and I found myself thanking Him for the fact that I had CD's to steal and reminding myself that they were really His CD's anyway.

So what was left?  Well, that's where blink-182 got some help.  I was left with the blink CD, "How to Start a Fire," and The All-American Rejects.  So blink won for the summer, but I think they would have anyway, as their self-titled album is awesome.