Hanging with my music buddy

Went over to Guitar Pastor's house last night. Showed up around 7:30pm; stayed until around half-past midnight. Clearly, we were both having a good time (otherwise, I would've made my excuses, or he would've kicked me out). ;)

I brought sixteen CDs that I thought he should be indoctrinated to: ones that were either Seattle bands, or ones that probably made the U.S. ''alternative'' charts but hadn't made it to Australia; or simply ones that I thought he might like. For each album, I chose -- often, with some difficulty -- the strongest track: the catchiest, and/or the most representative of the band, or that album.

It was much like a wine-tasting party: I'd give a little background to the band, how I discovered the band, and the general genre or sound of the band (e.g. ''folk'', ''goth''). Then I'd play the track; we'd respectfully listen thru the intro, verse, and first chorus, and then offer up short comments as appropriate. After the song, we'd discuss it a bit, similarities with other bands, etc.

Of the sixteen CDs I brought, didn't own any of them, although he'd heard of a few; for four of the songs, he'd heard them on the radio (and liked them), but hadn't known who'd done them. Five of the CDs he opted to borrow, to listen to the rest of the songs. He said he was pleasantly surprised in that he liked all of the songs I brought; all of them were consistent with his ''realm'' of musical tastes.

He moves to his new parish in mid-February, so we'll get together one more time, to do another listening party. This time, he'll supply most of the songs -- although I thought of three more albums I want to show him.


By the way, here's the list of albums; gives you a sense of my musical tastes. I excluded Devo, The Cars, and the Ramones, figuring that he would have been exposed to them already (he's my age). In no particular order:

1. The Pres. of the United States -- ((self-titled; has “Lump”, “Peaches”, etc.))


2. Cake -- Comfort Eagle


3. Jill Sobule -- ((self-titled; has “I Kissed a Girl”))


4. Smithereens -- 11 ((as in ''This one goes to...''))


5. Smithereens -- Green Thoughts


6. Dan Bern -- Dog Boy Van


7. Laptop -- User’s Guide


8. Love Spit Love -- Trysome Eatsome


9. David Francey -- Far End of Summer


10. Sisters of Mercy -- Vision Thing


11. Chumbawamba -- Tubthumping “single” (4 songs)


12. MC Lars -- The Graduate


13. Bell -- A Clear Sense of Beauty


14. Ani DiFranco -- Not a Pretty Girl


15. Psychedelic Furs -- World Outside


16. Michael Penn -- March

And, here's two of the ones I'll bring for next time:

• Material Issue -- International Pop Overthrow


• King’s X -- Faith, Hope, Love

Ayep! :)


Oh: Learned that his and his wife's parents both live in the other end of Brisbane from us: so, it's highly likely that he'll swing by to visit whenever they're in town to visit their family. As opposed to their family living out-of-state, so he'd have to make a special trip to Brisbane just to see me: not as likely.

Good stuff.


--GG