5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 30

Pitchfork Media is running a reoccurring feature called 5 - 10 - 15 - 20, in which they ask their favourite indie artists to talk about their favourite records at the ages of 5, 10, 15, 20 and so on. I figured I'd get on top of the meme, and contribute my own formative soundtrack to my early years.

5 - "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"

My aunt, whom I assume reads this blog, had a K-Tel record called Goofy Greats, in which this song figured prominently. I don't know who sung it, as I'm too lazy to go into my closet to look it up. (I now own the record.) But I assume I must have nearly worn out the grooves of this album playing it. I recall sitting out on the back porch of my grandparent's house in Barry's Bay when I was about 5, playing the song non-stop. I think my grandma asked me to quit playing it so often. Nothing like a song about a girl afraid to go into the water to stir the heart and imagination as a young child.

There are some notable runners-up. There's the aforementioned (on this blog, anyhow) Muppet Movie Soundtrack, which I wore out the grooves of. I was big into movie soundtracks at this time, as I had the soundtrack to the Jungle Book and somehow managed to punch a hole in the middle of the record. I forget how it happened, but I figured it happened when I was playing it at one of my birthday parties. Then, there was something called Mickey Mouse Disco, which I recall really liking because none of the songs sounded like kiddie songs -- instead, it had the "adult" feel of a disco record. (I haven't been able to find it in the stack of records my parents most recently gave me.) I was also into "Red Rubber Ball" by the Cyrkle. That was another favourite of mine from those years. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 45 rpm that my dad had, and it is remarkably scratch-free. "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago figures in there somehow, as we had both the 45 and a concert band recording of the song on a long-player put out by my high school circa 1975.

10 - Hunting High and Low by a-ha

I was big into trashy Euro-pop when I was about 10 or so. I was really big into "Take On Me" and, particularly, the video when I was this age. I thought it was, like, the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I recall being into the follow-up album even more, that'd be Scoundrel Days, despite some silly songs being on there, like "We're Looking For The Whales". But that came a bit later, probably when I was about 12 or so.

Honourable mentions would have to go to the Ghostbusters soundtrack, which was the first thing I owned on cassette tape, along with Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair (which I now own on vinyl).

15 - A Farewell To Kings by Rush

When I was in my mid-teens, I voraciously ate up everything by Canadian power trio Rush. I recall getting Chronicles on tape from the public library and just having my world blown open. A Farewell was the very first CD that I owned, which I purged myself when I was about 22 or so when I thought I was too cool for Rush, and I rabidly started to own every Rush album that I could get my hands on. For a time, there was nothing more that I owned but Rush CDs. Farewell still is my sentimental favourite, and to this day think that "Cygnus X-1" still rocks, and remember being profoundly being disappointed by the sequel, a side-long epic on Hemispheres, the follow-up. Strangely enough, I had been previously introduced to "Subdivisions" on a K-Tel cassette compilation called Rock '83, but thought nothing of it at the time. I guess I needed a few years for the high-school angst of Rush to grow on me.

I was pretty big into Wang Chung at this time too. I think I wore out my cassette copy of The Warmer Side of Cool, a lost classic I'm hoping to find on vinyl.

20 - Warehouse: Songs and Stories by Husker Du

When I was in my late teens, I got into hardcore punk in a pretty big way. I was all over the grunge scene in Seattle, and linked the linage back to this group from Minneapolis. Warehouse doesn't get much love these days, even though it got a five-star review in Rolling Stone at the time. But it is still among my very favourite albums of all time. It is one of my desert island discs, for sure. I recall listening to this in the tourist booth that I used to work in back in the day almost non-stop. I was blown away by the bombast and the tenderness of the album, and the fact that it didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard before. "No Reservations", "She Floated Away", "Turn It Around", "It's Not Peculiar", and on it goes. The whole record, a double, has a natural progression to it. It is one of the few records out there that actually has a climax.

I also call this record the Rosetta Stone of pop music, because it's all there: power-pop, punk, psychedelia, and on it goes. I once got rid of the CD when I was going through a tough time a few years ago, because it was just so emotionally raw. I wisely bought it back a year ago, and whenever I go on vacation somewhere, this is the disc I usually bring with me as a traveling companion.

I was disappointed when I saw ex-band leader Bob Mould last year live in that he never played any songs off this record, but otherwise touched on much of his back catalogue. I think I still have a CD-R somewhere of a 1987 Huskers show where they played the entire album start to finish live.

25 - Bee Thousand by Guided by Voices

I don't know what to say about Bee Thousand by GbV that hasn't been said before. This is simply a low-fi pop masterpiece that, sure, has its share of filler, but the filler is actually there to bolster the incredible songs (and make them better) that are "Smothered In Hugs", "Echos Myron", "Tracker Rape Chain", etc. etc. Band leader Robert Pollard had a profound effect on my writing at the time; I just marvelled at the way that the guy could knock off classic songs in the space of time that it takes most people to eat dinner. We all know what became of Pollard: a little bit too self-indulgent for his own good, he now releases records at a rate of nearly a bajillion a year. (Seriously.) But this album was the pure distillation of his talents. Alien Lanes is nearly as good, but I didn't get into that one until I was closer to 30.

As a side note, I think it was just after this time that I got into alt-country in a pretty big way. Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, and Sparklehorse (along with Golden Smog) were getting plays on my CD player just shortly after this time. Nothing much more to say about that except it's strange I didn't get into Gram Parsons until much more recently.

How could I also forget that I got into Steely Dan at this point in my life. I used to be a big fan of Aja, but these days I'm more of a Katy Lied kind of guy. I love the Dan, for their weird lyrics and smooth '70s rock stylings. I wish contemporary radio would play something other than "Do It Again" or "Reeling In The Years" because they have an impressive back catalogue that goes beyond those hits. Not too fond of their newer stuff, but it's good to see them working and touring again. I wish I'd still been in Ottawa to see them play BluesFest last year.

30 - Something/Anything? by Todd Rundgren

This one is another desert island disc for me. I got into Rundgren in a big way when I heard "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" from this record on the soundtrack to Almost Famous. (There's those soundtrack albums again.) Naturally, I have since hunted down nearly everything the guy has put on vinyl, even the self-indulgent messes that made up part of early Utopia. I just love this record. There is hardly a bad track to be found, and it's a double album. The guy played nearly every instrument and sang on it too, except for the band concept stuff that he did on Side 4. It really is a power-pop classic, and one that I find myself taking off the shelf often as I slide out of my Christ year. It has really stood the test of time. There's even a song about my mom on it: "Marlene". A true power-pop gem. What more can I say?

As a final side-note, I picked up the jewel of my vinyl collection around this time: Radio City by Big Star. It's a mint condition record from the original pressing that came out back in 1972. It set me back about $30. I play this one often too. A friend of mine dubbed it the premier example of a genre known as "cottage rock". I have to agree. It's just solid from start to finish. I guess you can say that between Big Star and Rundgren, I was big into power pop at this time of my life.