MUSIC-RELATED THINGS I FORGOT ABOUT

That mid-200s mix CD from the person who had a crush on you
All of the songs were good, some were sappy. Other songs were definitely targeted towards you, making you feel powerful instead of vulnerable or like a "victim" of the imagination of your crush. There were enough lo-fi songs on the CD to break your heart and enough hearty jams to make you self-consciously dance in your head. The track list has been uploaded on your iPod; there is no denying that it was a great mix. It will forever be the sound of unrequited love.

Chicks on Speed
Holy riot grrrl in high school. I'll have the anonymous phone number "987 6511" stuck in my forever after hearing the song, "For all the boys in the world". When was the last time you thought about this group? Probably not since that song! File under: Junior Senior, Scissor Sisters, Le Tigre.

Screamo
I had Saetia on repeat as a teenager. I hadn't thought about them in 6+ years until this year when someone bought my copy of their discography from Amazon Marketplace. I still smell the stench of nostalgia in the hardcore/screamo genre on my iPod, but it would be a crime to delete such meaningful moments in my history. Not surprisingly, the hardcore genre holds some of the most underplayed songs on my iPod. I will not touch them with a ten foot pole as they sit there, collecting digital dust, yet I cannot let go of them.


Life before minimalist Deustch techno
What kind of electronic music was I listening to (other than Justice) before I discovered Ellen Allien in 2008? Probably nothing important, and certainly not anything as crucial as Kompakt total series (6, 7, 9, 10 in particular). Minimalist German techno was my 9/11; every day since my discovery of the genre has been September 12. My brain had to adjust for a while, now that shit is like speed.

Arcade fire, pre-Suburbs
I forgot that Arcade Fire released anything else besides "The Suburbs". Remember when they had two other really great albums? Why does it seem like this one matters the most? It was the Grammy, wasn't it?