The following archive (.zip) contains eight mash-ups of blink-182, Angels & Airwaves, and Boxcar Racer songs. They we’re not created by me. Because of the copyright protected sources they cannot be sold. So it’s your lucky day — I’ve compiled all the mashes I could find into a single download. An early merry Christmas. For you anyways. I have to go back to studying. 
Happy holidays.
There’s a general idea that creativity tends to bloom out of controversy, heartache, and anger. How many of your favorite artists achieved their goals and success not because of their background but in spite of it? Our country realized a second revolution in the 1960’s as a direct result of both the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war and many would argue it’s a time period that has also spawned some of the most emotional and honest music to date. It’s a generation of music which will never age and will be a major influence on future musicians, whether they are aware of it or not.
Now while I can appreciate my parent’s generation of music and understand what it’s meant for generations to come, I cannot call it my own. I also can’t compare the impact of the music to the albums that are going to follow. Anyone who would make such a futile attempt to would come off looking like a jackass. But I can list my generation’s artists who’ve impacted my life. So I leave you with the following list — five albums that I think you should check out. Five albums that have influenced me creatively or have had some significance on music that I think is important. Five albums that I just think will put you in a better state of mind. Here are my top five albums for the past decade.
1) The Ataris - End Is Forever (2001)
The Ataris made a name for themselves in 1999 with their sophomore effort Blue Skies, Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits, an album full of emotional lyrics and big, pop-punk guitar riffs. Their third album, End Is Forever, continued where that left off but turned the volume up. Warm over-driven guitars and Kris Roe’s blunt words about growing up, breaking up, and giving up blend in a more mature production without ever taking themselves too seriously. (see: Welcome to the Night) This is a band I’ve gone over on the site before and they’re one of the bands on the list that made it simply because I can get into the band regardless of my mood.
2) Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American (2001)
People often attribute emo music with stereotypes of dark clothing, guy-liner, and and dudes in their sister’s jeans. Those people don’t listen to Jimmy Eat World. Founded in 1993, front man Jim Adkins and company defined 90’s emo before the scenesters were able to eat solid food. 1999’s Clarity, while an initial commercial failure causing them to get dropped from Capitol Records, would eventually achieve cult status with an album that showcased a much softer alternative rock not heard on the band’s first and second efforts.
Clarity’s failure would soon be a turnaround for the band, earning them enough to start recording Bleed American on their own while being free of contractual restrictions with Capitol. Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American released mid-summer 2001 to critical acclaim. The album hits much harder than Clarity and features a much more commercial sound while maintaining a unique feel that’s clearly Jimmy Eat World. With the second single The Middle getting massive video rotation on music television networks, Bleed American has since gone platinum. It should be noted that the album became self-titled after the September 11TH attacks and the lead track was changed from Bleed American to Salt, Sweat, Sugar.
3) blink-182 – Self-Titled (2003)
blink-182 gained popularity in the mid-to-late 90’s when their three-man line up solidified it’s sound with Travis Barker replacing Scott Raynor. The band, infamous for dick and fart jokes, unabashed nudity, and simple “three chord” pop-punk split vocal duties between guitarist Tom DeLonge and bassiest Mark Hoppus. With DeLonge’s knack for melodies, Hoppus’ bright, crunchy bass, and the extremely talented Barker on the set the band has a simple but effective recipe which has made their popularity blow up and created thousands of “copy cat” bands over the years. The 2003 self-titled album put aside the dick jokes and humorous bonus tracks in an effort to show off a more mature and skilled band. The album has gone on to sell over two-million copies since it’s release. Unfortunately the band’s popularity and years of touring took it’s toll in 2005 and the band went into a mysterious hiatus. A blame-game between DeLonge and Hoppus would surface in interviews and the band appeared to be permanently done. DeLonge would go on to form Angels and Airwaves and it wasn’t long before Hoppus and Barker followed suit with their new project +44. After four years of silence the three members of blink-182 would reunite as friends following Travis Barker’s close brush with death in 2008 and as a band the following spring. blink-182 recently completed a successful summer tour and is currently recording their sixth studio album. I didn’t really get into blink-182 until after they broke up. I knew some of their big songs but I didn’t really get into them until the fall of 2005, but when I got into them I got into them hard. I still get together with friends and play old blink tracks from time to time. Their the only band to which I’ve memorized the guitar, bass, and vocals to most of their albums. This site wouldn’t exist if this band didn’t.
4) Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism (2003) 
I first discovered Ben Gibbard through his electronic efforts with The Postal Service. I was trading a music a lot back then with friends when someone I went to high school with overheard me talking about the lyrics to one of the bands songs and recommended Death Cab. My first experience with DCFC was their 2003 album Transatlantiscism, a lighter indie record. I was pretty much hooked when I heard Title & Registration, the albums second track and third single. Guitarist Christopher Walla’s rhythmic hooks and Ben Gibbard’s airy voice are prime examples of indie nirvana. If there’s any doubt of Ben Gibbard’s abilities I would only ask you to keep in mind he recently married actress Zooey Deschanel. I’d consider that an impressive feat of its own.
5) Motion City Soundtrack – Commit This To Memory (2005) 
Motion City Soundtrack competes with blink-182 for one of my favorite band. Let me just get that out there. I love Motion City Soundtrack. There are no MCS tracks I ever hit skip on because I’m not into the song. The guys in the band are awesome, down to earth dudes. Alright? So my unconditional support for this band is out in front. Feel free to judge me for a second before you continue reading.
Motion City Soundtrack is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They’re a pop-punk outfit with an original sound featuring Justin Pierre’s high voice exploring tales of love, childhood, mental stability and drug and alcohol abuse. Commit This To Memory, produced by blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, is the band’s sophomore release following I Am The Movie. Making MCS different from every other power pop group is Jesse Johnson on the Moog, a special keyboard synthesizer that the band manages to use correctly when so many bands can’t seem to. The only thing better than their ability to mix in that synth as a band in the studio is Jesse’s awesome moog-stand skills, as shown to the left.
So much for the afterglow. Just shy of my 11TH birthday I got my first NOW! CD for Christmas. I played that disc until it literally cracked one day. I can sing a long with Harvey Danger, K-Ci & JoJo, All Saints, Tonic, Everclear, & Lenny Kravitz word for word to this day and I haven’t listened to some of those songs in a very long time. I got most of the Now! CDs up until 12 or 13 when I got less and less into contemporary pop. Back then we did a lot of traveling as a family, which was great because every new trip meant I could get a new CD to listen to on the road.
My music tastes have fluctuated a lot over the years, but I think I have a pretty open mind. I can judge pretty quickly what I like from what I don’t and I’m pretty opinionated, which I think gives the impression that I have extremely specific tastes. I don’t.
Growing up I listened to a lot of country. I also listened to the radio all the time. I picked up a lot of music interests from my family. I spent most of my childhood bouncing between one home in Independence, another home in Waterloo, my aunt’s home south of Jesup, and finally my grandparent’s home in Jesup, the last two being where I spent the majority of my time and were really what I considered my home. Now staying at my grandparents meant lots of bike rides, football at Pioneer park, & pink lemonade, but staying at my aunt’s probably had a far greater impact on who I am today. There was music blaring anywhere at any time over there. 70’s, 80’s, hard rock, R&B, pop, and country. From the garage, the kitchen, the living room and everywhere in between. Looking back, this was probably the single greatest impact on my music tastes. I was exposed to everything and I loved it. My cousins were way more like siblings to me than cousins. Lots of memories and firsts took place on that farm.
Lately I’ve been trying to get find new music to get into. It seems like I’ve been in a listening rut with the same stuff which prompted me to look back at some of the stuff I’ve loved over the years.
Anyways. My birthday is January 27TH. I’m not usually big on celebrating birthdays but this year I’m looking forward to it. Motion City Soundtrack is playing January 23RD at First-Avenue in downtown Minneapolis and I’m going with a decent sized group of friends. It”ll be their first show following the release of their new CD and in their hometown, so it should be a good time.
It doesn’t take more than a couple glances at a post or two here to see how much music plays a part in my every day life. What’s kind of funny is how my subconscious attributes different soundtracks to different parts of my life. Sometimes they’re very obvious picks, like listening to Angels & Airwaves on the entire trip to one of their shows or rocking Motion City Soundtrack on the way to Minnesota to see them on Warped. Sometimes there a little more random. The Ataris’ Blue Skies, Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits album is tied very closely to memories of my high school band trip. More specifically, every song on that album reminds me of two things from that trip. The first was walking into a local music store in Milwaukee and picking up their So Long Astoria album. The other was a card game in the hotel hallway. Nothing else significantly sticks out. I have faint memories of a symphonic workshop and hackey sack at either the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or outside a museum. Maybe both.
My high school choir trip to Memphis, Tennessee is similar. My 30GB iPod was full but Cartel’s Chroma was pretty much the only thing I listened to the entire time. It was more or less exclusively on repeat the whole trip. I remember much more of the trip, but that album pretty much brings to mind the bus. Memphis is a trip I wish I could get a do-over on. It was way more interesting than my band trip and more my kind of thing, but I remember being in the worst mood ever the entire trip. Someday I’ll go back for a Memphis/Nashville double header. Chroma is still one of my favorite albums of all time, but sometimes it feels corrupted. That feeling sucks.
Then there’s the seasonal albums. The Format and Limbeck will always mark Spring and early summer on my audio calendar. Without fail. blink-182 is always going to be the hot, dirty part of mid-to-late summer. Fall is any indie and/or acoustic track I can find. Phoenix and Blind Pilot seem to be taking over this season. Fall is also when my pen hits the paper a lot more.
There are soundtracks for people, places, and feelings. Times and experiences. Rain or shine. There are tracks that will instantly put me in a good mood, regardless of who I’m with or what surrounds me. There are tracks that I can’t listen to anymore. There are albums that make me sick. There are songs that I’ve put in the back of mind. They are songs I cannot forget but need to find a mental cure for before I can listen to them again. These are the notes, the chords, the tempos, & the phrases that make us who we are. How could someone not be into music?
Dear Santa,
I want iTunes giftcards.
Sincerely,
Luke
I love the holidays.
I tried very hard to avoid this. I really tried. I didn’t want to write about this because it should be easier to just write it off as something very unfortunate. It sucks, but it happens. It always seemed very odd to consider a pet part of your family, but sometimes they just are.
Last night my step dad, Lyle, told me my dog wasn’t coming in. This is pretty normal. Both of our indoor dogs are very protective of the property and will chase off critters and not always come home immediately when called. I shrugged it off and waited twenty minutes to try him again. Nothing. Still not that strange — they’ve both spent the entire night outside before and usually come in in the morning when Lyle leaves for work. Something seemed off, but it wasn’t a big deal.
I didn’t sleep last night at all, despite my frustrated attempts. I was still up when Lyle left for work around 5:30 this morning and my dog still hadn’t shown up. When it finally got bright enough out, I could see Pip on the shoulder of the road down from house. My only thought process was a very literal, very blunt “Well that fucking sucks.”
And the day continued. I got asked several times if I was okay all day and yet no emotional flip switched. Nothing. I was bummed, but I wasn’t hit as hard as I thought I’d be. I went to class. I came home. I think the fact that my dog was gone was so surreal I didn’t understand it.
Tonight my step dad walked into the house. I met him at the door to let our other dog outside and he said he was sorry. We both summed up the day as shitty. And he was trying very hard to keep a stable face. It didn’t work. And then my switch got flipped. Lyle frequently wanted to get rid of that dog. For a dozen reasons that were all pretty sound. Then late last month Pip bit someone who was jogging by our house and we panicked. We thought we were going to have to put him down for sure. The deputy sheriff called and requested a fax to make sure Pip had all his shots, which he did. After reimbursing the person for their torn pants, we thought the whole thing was behind us. The deputy said this is a pretty common issue and to not get too worried about it. All that fucking drama — and today Pip gets hit by a car? Such a damn waste of time and worry. Such a stupid thing to stress about.
So today my step dad buried my dog in the rain because I didn’t think I could. Today my step dad shed some tears over a “pet”, who was more or less a nuisance for him. And so did I. Today was a shitty day.
