drawingfromusic

It's official..if this doesn't prove I have some serious Obsessive Compulsive issues, I don't know what would. I mean.. I knew when I first saw this @bloghomework assignment it would take me way longer then normal to wrap my head around since music is such a huge source of inspiration in both my work and my daily life..but wow..I sometimes joke with my ex, music is my yoga. It puts me in my happy place and always has my brain working on some sort of creative level. It's my constant and I'm not sure what I'd do without it in my life and I mean c'mon are you surprised given my name on here? Thank you @rambo @missy and @lyxzen it has been thoroughly fun reliving various phases in my life as well as listening to the different styles and genres that truly represented those stages for me. I really loved how @lincoln approached the assignment and came away with super solid Spotify playlist..If you haven't had a chance to check out her life soundtrack yet, you definitely should. I figured the easiest way to approach this was to break things down to specific periods in my life and touch upon those key bands and music I listened to during those times. My Spotify playlist will be slightly more expanse and will cover some of those musicians I couldn't think of at the time of writing this mini novella on music.

Childhood-PreTeen:

Anyway, let's get things started with two classics Michael Jackson's Thriller and Madonna's Like A Virgin pretty much covered the early years up until second grade when I was introduced to three specific records that forever changed my perspective on how I saw/listened to music. Run DMC's King of Rock, The Cure's collection of singles, Standing on a Beach/Staring at the Sea and the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. Each having a different approach to their craft, even though two are in the same genre . I'm pretty sure my buddies at the time and I were one of the only second grade trios you'd find doing a rendition of the Beastie Boys record for the talent show at a catholic private school.

I think it was more about making this discovery of something new and the music I was finding was a perfect outlet and allowed me to zone out in my room making art. Yup, from what my mom says I was pretty much that stereotypical kid early on..blasting loud music and ignoring her complaints to turn it down. I'm pretty sure in hindsight now, it had to be a release for me from all the strict rules and expectations of a private school eduction. My adolescent and early teen years had such an eclectic taste in music that varied from Talking Heads to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, INXS and Two Live Crew.

At the time I had such determination to skateboard and some of the older kids and friends who were much better than me had such an influence on the music I was listening to not to mention my cousin was both a break dancer and DJ so I was always drawn to the sort of music he listened to as well. So A LOT of old school rap and a strange fashion choice on my part to wear Starter labeled Detroit Piston garb, overalls, rayon shirts and have zigzags shaved into the back of my head. Let's face it, I'm pretty sure I thought I was a mix of Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark (In my defense I was in private school so wearing uniforms everyday, I really didn't have much fashion sense).

Yup in hind sight pretty embarrassing but I have to admit those years in my life ended with some really solid music Bell Biv Devoe, Boyz II Men, Public Enemy, NWA, De La Soul, 3rd Bass and Digital Underground.

High School:

When I got to high school it was such a life changing experience but not in any sort of spectacular fashion. My parents had gotten divorced that summer before so my sisters and I had moved to a completely different area in town with our mom and had left our dad in the house and neighborhood we had only really known all of our lives. Also..new school meant new friends or really lack there of so the music I found and really got into during these years really defined a path for me as well as a more directed taste in music and a strong basis for stylistic choices for the rest of my life as well as the type of artist I've become. The biggest change was the slight transition from listening to mostly rap music to a lot of alternative rock or so that's what they began to call it at that time since it was considered different from what the standard idea of rock n roll was. Bands like The Beatles, U2, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers and peculiar rockers like They Might Be Giants were now being heavily played at audibly unbearable levels in my room.

Mainstay favorites the Beastie Boys who were turning their genre on its head changing the face of rap at its time with Check Your Head, mixing their punk rock skater flair with their already established rap stylings.

In that first year of high school, my mind was also blown by a group of these bands coming out of Seattle Washington and its surrounding areas who were also redefining the face of music and would ultimately change it forever. Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and oh yeah..Nirvana were a few of these bands who were marching to a beat of their own drums and this style of music would go on to be remembered as Grunge Rock. I still remember the afternoon I stumbled upon this cd in a pile of demos my cousin had brought me and put it on and don't think I stopped playing for at least a week after hearing it..that cd was of course, Nevermind. It didn't matter the weather outside, everyone was wearing their fathers old flannel shirts and old torn sweaters when they left the house..You could blast their music as loud as it could go and yell at the top of your lungs whatever your interpretation of the songs' lyrics were, there was something about these bands and their songs that made you feel alive..

During this time a few more other artists were starting to emerge as well or differ from their original style of music including Porno for Pyros (Janes Addiction's front man, Perry Farrell's newest band) Metallica, NIN and Guns N Roses.

Honestly, I don't even know how to stop listing bands because as I keep reminiscing those days and keep coming up with more bands..Sonic Youth, Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Faith No More, Live and Primus..Les Claypool was such a god on the bass..I was just learning of bands like the Pixies who couldn't make bad music at the time if they tried.

Some of the rap groups at the time included De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets. It was just such a killer time for music and what made things so much better was I had hit an age where I was allowed to go see bands live..It introduced me to a whole new world and pretty much became the main reason to find a job during my years in high school. If I haven't aged myself enough already, it was the first year of some sort of circusesque music festival called Lollapalooza which its original format was a touring festival and the lineups altered based on the regions of the country. It was an amazing mix of both alternative and grunge bands along with different genre musicians but was by no means the size we've come to know/expect it to be these days in Chicago. It was pretty insane the number of bands I had an opportunity to see all over town in various sized venues.

Most notably seeing Nirvana on one of their last US tour dates with The Breeders opening up for them, my mind still melts a bit just thinking of it..I'm sure you can imagine what my 16 year old brain was doing at the time. Even as high school was finishing up I was still coming across new bands and artists like Beck this self proclaimed loser from LA and This English band Radiohead with their own proclamation of being Creeps. But don't forget Weezer, Offspring, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins and Björk was just releasing her first solo album.

She wasn't the only female rocker who I had in my regular cd rotation at the time..There was Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, the Breeders, Cranberries, L7, Sleater Kinney, No Doubt and yes I'll admit it Alonis Morrisette.

It seems starting at this time in my life I started appreciating some existing bands either "classic rock" or artists who had released music during my childhood. Jimi Hendrix, Rush and The Police, Pavement!! How could I forget about Pavement!!

Finally one of the biggest moments during this time for me personally that left me with a heavy heart was the death of Kurt Cobain. Learning about and finding Nirvana and their music so early on..I had identified so much with everything they had created during the band's existence..Not to mention I had found my own way/style as an artist during that time which has stuck with me since.

By this time in my life, most of the money I made had me going to live shows or buying CDs.. A lot of those bands I had come to love in high school were still big favorites of mine..Smashing Pumpkins released their double LP, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Pearl Jam had their fourth record, No Code come out and I had finally come around and started listening to Foo Fighters.

I still had some rap in the mix with the Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill and House of Pain, Atlanta's own Outkast..not to mention this skinny little white guy out of Detroit who wasn't afraid to rap what he was thinking about his life and everyone around him, of course I'm talking about Eminem.

The biggest change in musical taste was adding bands like Dave Matthews Band and Phish into the mix. Growing up the only son with three sisters I joined a frat and fell for the whole idea of brotherhood and honestly it did what it needed to for the first couple years.

I really got into Grateful Dead and The Doors and smoking a lot weed, watching the Simpsons and playing video games.

I remember we made a trip up to Atlanta to see 311 and Cypress Hill play together..that was a killer show..At this point, Les Claypool had started a few other bands/projects along with Primus, Rage Against the Machine were still heavily listened to as well as Beck who was constantly reinventing his sound album to album and Ben Folds Five made us feel and think about the more serious aspects of romance while Cake made things simple with a solid bead and clever lyrics.

Soundtracks and the next stage:

This is where things get slightly grey as most people graduate college and then get some sort of adult job, at least that was the running mindset at that time. This period for me only lasted a couple years so I figured this would be great opportunity to mention other aspects of my music listening experience. During this time, I gained a great respect and enjoyment of Led Zepplin, The Who and The Rolling Stones.

Radiohead couldn't make anything bad and I was obsessed with live bootlegs from mostly Phish,DMB and Pearl Jam (who have all changed the standard at time and began releasing official recordings of their live performances) Also..Coldplay was like the younger version of U2.

I grew up a fairly big movie nerd, worked in video stores I wanna say like six years. I would bring movies home everyday to watch and had an aspiration at one point of my life to direct movies for a living..You never know still, my life's not over yet..Anyway, I bought hundreds of movie soundtracks and scores; if this was @bloghomework were being written based on instrumental music it would've been split up between John Williams, Danny Elfman, Thomas Newman, Mark Mothersbaugh and Alexandre Desplat.

All absolutely brilliant composers and masters of their craft and not to mention creators of some of the most memorable music ever written in film history. Soundtracks are so much like mixtapes, songs are selected that beautifully represent a scene or a moment and are then compiled together to recreate the overall emotional aesthetic of that film or tv show.

Prince blew people's minds with his Batman soundtrack, the masterful minds behind most Bruckheimer/Simpson films in the late 80s early 90s films Top Gun, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Days of Thunder, Armageddon and Remember the Titans. Also I can't forget Footloose, at that time Kenny Loggins could seriously do no wrong.

The Crow, Wayne's World, Judgement Night, Guardians of the Galaxy round off a few unique and creatively minded soundtracks. Baz Luhrmann had a way to create these grand musicals for the big screen where the songs he selected played a role themselves in his movies reinventing popular songs and integrating them into the film's storyline like a family quilt. Most notably in his reimagining of Romeo and Juliet as well as Moulin Rouge. Other stellar soundtracks include Clueless, Singles, Reality Bites, Varsity Blues and She Married an Axe Murderer and duh..High Fidelity.

Some other directors who knew how to musically choreograph their films include Jon Hughes (Sixteen Candles,Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction,Natural Born Killers and Kill Bill) and absolutely can't forget Wes Anderson (Rushmore,Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic and Moonrise Kingdom) and don't forget Cameron Crowe who had a background in critical writing in the music industry and music has always played a large role in the subject matter of his films (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky) .

As of more recent years shows have gotten on the bandwagon and become more selective with song choices that tie into specific storylines throughout their seasons and episodes..The OC, The Leftovers, Gossip Girl, Chuck, Girls and even shows like Supernatural.

Finally I can't forget to mention the many many soundtracks for Disney animated films spanning from classics like Peter Pan, Aladdin, Lion King, Jungle Book and Toy Story

More College - Move to

Chicago:

So I would say this is that second period in my life where the music I began listening to and discovered had the most impact on a lot of things and would truly point me in the direction of what my musical tastes are still to this day. In 2001 I made the move up to Chicago for art school, coinciding at that time I had become interested in a few indie rock bands. It seemed at the time the only way to acquire this sort of music was to either catch a live show and buy it from the band directly at their merch table or have friends who would burn you a copy of the cd. Luckily and little did I know Art school was a "campus" (I use that term lightly given its a school in downtown Chicago) of new friends who all had their own burnt copies of favorite indie bands. I swear it was like winning the lottery for someone like me, I was discovering new bands everyday and quickly trading copies of my CDs with others. The Weakerthans, Jets to Brazil, The Anniversary and Cursive were some of the initial bands but quickly added Modest Mouse,Built to Spill,Bright Eyes and an Icelandic band, Sigur Rós.

Incidentally, Sigur Rós was the first show I got to see in Chicago and completely blown away. Moving to a city like Chicago allowed a lot more personal time with the music I listened to since much of the commuting is by train or walking earbuds became a necessity rather quickly which in turn meant more opportunities to listen to music on a more regular basis..I started to listen to bands like Blur, Wilco, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Walkmen, Bloc Party, The Flaming Lips, The Strokes, Rilo Kiley, Spoon and the red and white duo out of Detroit..The White Stripes.

The hopeless romantic in me grasped on quickly to Death Cab for Cutie along with front man, Ben Gibbard's side project, The Postal Service.

Can't forget about the Gorillaz, Sufjan Stevens, The Shins, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, Jimmy Eat World, The Wrens, The Vines, Band of Horses, Iron & Wine and The Decemberists.

Radiohead was still crushing it with their last major label release, Hail to the Thief.

Anyway, I think you're getting the picture another one of those periods where I can listing bands for days. Much of the work I was creating in school was drawing inspiration from this music and was being visually translated into the themes and undertones of paintings. Live shows were awesome especially since in a new city they allowed me to check out the various venues around the city. So many memories and connections were made during this period which I've associated with certain songs and bands and even though I've lost connection with some of those people I will always have those fond moments when I hear a song or a band.

This is a perfect point to stop and continue to gather my thoughts and images for the second part of this lengthy response. In the meantime, here is a link to the current soundtrack and please forgive it's sloppiness as I am still shuffling it around.

Drawingfromusic : Soundtrack of my Life

Also..please remember to check out and give lots of love to the three sets I currently have in members review..

@manic Wanderlust

@zelena Acquainted

@hensely Eat Me Drink Me

Also @midnightsun welcome back to Chicago 😁 I can't wait to hang out and make some photo magic together 💖

To be continued...