So I've read in a few places recently the belief that music will hit you most when you are fifteen. That's the music that'll hold the most nostalgic appeal. I'm simplifying the thought, but just wanted to talk about what music I was listening to at age 15. Which just happens to be when my taste exploded, and I bought a lot of great fucking records.

On my fifteenth birthday, my brother gave me a copy of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and Modest Mouse's This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About. Didn't read the Siddhartha for two more years, and the first time I listened to the Modest Mouse record, I really hated Isaac Brock's vocals. Later that Summer I came across a copy of The Moon And Antarctica in a Tower Records listening booth, and started listening to it. It was fucking great, and I was sold on it after probably only thirty seconds. So I bought it, and later that summer, picked up The Lonesome Crowded West. Once school started, Kid A came out, and I bought it the week it came out, even though it was the first Radiohead record I'd ever bought. It was really good. That Christmas, I got more Modest Mouse, I believe, more Radiohead. I also bought a copy of Built to Spill's There's Nothing Wrong With Love. That Spring, I picked up Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. I think around this time I also picked up Clouds Taste Metallic and Transmissions From The Satellite Heart. I know that was sophomore year, when I was fifteen. I don't know when I got into the Pixies. After NHM, I got really into Pavement. So really fucking great music, really. I think I got into the Pixies later. But wow, that's a lot of music. Probably the biggest influx of music in my life until I got to college. And the music I got into then... Sure, some great records. But Neutral Milk Hotel and Pavement. That really can't be topped. So, fifteen, yeah. What a year. I guess that sixteen was a better year in terms of comics that shaped me, (I think, although some of that started at fifteen too, I believe) and movies happened later. (First movie to really hit me was Memento, which I saw the Saturday before it came out on video on Tuesday... the summer I turned sixteen) Funny is how I have such an anti-nostalgia stance, but it's pretty inescapable. I think a lot of it has to do with how much ass all that stuff kicked though. Well, I don't like Memento as much anymore. But the rest? Awesome.

And the stuff I listened to before I turned fifteen, I don't listen to anymore. Not noisy enough, I guess. Weirdly enough, a lot of it is still kind of respectable. Like, Ben Folds Five? That's nothing to be ashamed of, in terms of music you listen to in middle school. The first band I got into was They Might Be Giants. And even though I listen to them... never, nowadays, I still think they have some great songs in the repertoire, especially on Lincoln. I remember being in the shower back in December and thinking about how They'll Need A Crane is a great song, and how it's fatalistic view of relationships might've shaped my young mind, and how awesome it would be if it did.

Spent tonight with the "you don't have to wait until you die" line from Mirah's Apples In The Trees running through my head every time I was alone. The McSweeney's website has a place for essays about songs a la Nick Hornby's Songbook, so I wrote an essay. It's very short so I probably will not submit it. But yeah, that's a really good song, with a very strong ending.

Also tonight, Cartoon Network aired the last ever episode of Home Movies. Remember in 1997, when I thought that the one where they went camping and some Russian kid peed in Coach's canteen was going to be the last episode ever? Yeah... This episode had more of an air of finality to it. I'm kind of sad to see it go, but you know what? Four seasons is enough. Can't really complain about it being great and lamenting what could've been, and how there should've been more. I think that point disappears after two seasons. (the two season mark is arbitrarily based on the fact that Sports Night only had two seasons, and I actually really liked that show) Not the funniest Home Movies ever, but it didn't have to be. It didn't peter out into unfunnyville. The episode last week was hilarious, as were some others this season. That's a show that needs DVDs, though. I'd buy them.

Oh hey, and I missed an episode from two weeks ago. Which is awesome. Forgot about that. But yeah, that'll be nice.