“A” Part 3 of 4

Altar Boys - A student of mine introduced me to this 80’s Christian Rock band. Think Stryper toned down. I only have one album, Against the Grain. If you don’t like old-school Christian rock, then don’t bother, but if you do . . . .

Amber Pacific - albums The Possibility and the Promise and Fading Days. My brother-in-law introduced me to this band and at first I thought it was a girl lead singer, but the band name was deceiving. A progressive rock band with many fast-paced songs and a male lead singer.


American Analog Set - “Ice King” from the REIGoPlaylist.com. I was offered this free compilation online through REI, so I took it. I have heard of only 1 of the bands on it and this is not it. Interesting songs on the compilation.

American Hi-Fi - “Another Perfect Day” and “Flavor of the Week” American Hi-Fi has a Blink-182 sound and like with many other songs I enjoy, catchy lyrics.

Among Thorns - Received this album (Draw Near) as a gift from an old boss. A great contemporary modern worship band.

Amy Grant - albums: Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits 1986-2004, Heart in Motion, House of Love, and Rock of Ages. I have loved Amy’s stuff since before I even became a Christian. Her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” is awesome.

Amy Winehouse - “Rehab” Which is exactly where Winehouse probably still is. All troubles aside, a great song.

Andrea Marchant - “Autumn”, “No One Else”, and “Run”. Andrea went to the same small private college here in Colorado that I did, but she is now out in Southern Cali working on making it big and I know she will, amazing voice. If you live out in the LA area, go see one of her many shows, she will blow your socks off! Also looks like a record is in the making.

Andrew Bird - “Fitz and the Dizzyspells” from Noble Beast. Another song from Starbucks’ ’Pick of the Week’ promotion. This vocals in this song remind me of “Human” from The Killers and the whole track is similar sounding too, although with less percussion.

The Angels - “My Boyfriend’s Back” A classic from who-knows-when; probably the 50’s. If you heard it, you would recognize it.

The Animals - “House of the Rising Sun” from Absolute Animals 1964-1968 and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” from Retrospective. I guess these were big hits when my parents were growing up, so I added them to my collection. “. . .Rising Sun” is a great hit, don’t really care for “We Gotta Get . . .”

Anna Nalick - “Breathe (2 A.M.)” from Wreck of the Day album. When I first heard this on the radio, I thought the name of the group was Ann and Alec, later I found out the true name of the performer. She kind of sounds like a cross between Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton.

Annie Lennox - “Walking on Broken Glass” and her songs from the movies Lord of the Rings and Serendipity.

Apples in Stereo - “(Baby It’s) So Cold” from the REIGoPlaylist.com. This is also not the band I have heard of from this compilation. Nice track though.

Apt Core - “The Way” from the Mix This: Extreme Music sampler. This track has me hooked and I always sing along with it. A great uplifting message as well.

Another Bad Creation - “Iesha” I first heard this song while in college and I thought it was so hilarious. It sounds like some kids from the neighborhood got together and sang about a girl they thought was hot named Iesha. Gotta love the synthesizer used.

Aqua - Aquarium album. “I’m a Barbie Girl”; probably their biggest hit, but the whole album is just as good.

“A” Part 2 of 4

Alabama - only complete albums: American Pride, Cheap Seats, For the Record, Live, Super Hits, Volume 2, Ultimate Alabama: 20 #1 Hits, and When It All Goes South. My favorite Alabama album would have to be Cheap Seats. I remember listening to this with my mom in the summertime. One of the few musical groups we both appreciate.

Alan Jackson - three of his greatest songs ever; “Chattahoochee“, “It Must Be Love“, and “Summertime Blues”

Alana Davis - “32 Flavors” from her Blame It On Me album. This song sums up my music collection as the lyrics proclaim, “I am 32 flavors and then some”.

Alanis Morrisette - Some of my friends hate her voice, but her lyrics are catchy and sometimes creative. She is even featured on the soundtrack for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I have the following single songs, “Uninvited” from The City of Angels soundtrack, “Still” from the Dogma soundtrack, I possess the following partial albums, Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. I also have the full album of Under Rug Swept.

The Alf Clausen Orchestra - The Simpson’s theme song. As you will find out, I love TV theme songs, old and new.

Algebra Blessett - “Run and Hide”, album: Purpose. Another freebie from Starbucks. Not a big fan of this one, but it was free and its not bad enough to delete. A slower R&B track with a tap-your-toe beat.

Alice Cooper - “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, “Feed My Frankenstein”, “Poison”, “School’s Out” and the complete album Prince of Darkness. I always have wondered if Alice wrote “School’s Out” for school teachers.

Alicia Keys - “Karma”, “If I Ain’t Got You”, and “Fallin’”. Great piano player, just haven’t had any desire to purchase full albums.

Alien Ant Farm - Full album: ANThology. I first discovered AAF when looking for Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”; AAF does a sweet cover of it. I also have one song from their TRUant album; “Glow”.

Allison Krauss and Union Station - entire Lonely Runs Both Ways album. I’m not sure why, but this group appeals to the country side of me. Krauss has an amazing voice and she’s not too shabby looking either.

The All-American Rejects - complete self-titled album and Move Along album, also have their recent hit “Gives You Hell” from When the World Comes Down. These boys write some tunes that will stick in your head until you replace them with something else.

All Day Arcade - This Iowa-based band still exist as far as I know, but never made it onto the big stage. One of the members and I went to community college together. I have four songs from an unnamed album, “Kid Complain”, “Kid Complain (Semantic Overhaul)”, “Style, and “Melanoma Bright”. “Style” is my favorite; the lyrics speak for themselves, “It’s my style and I love it because I have to”.

The Allman Brothers Band - “Ramblin’ Man” and “Midnight Rider”. The Allman Brothers were big in the 70’s and I just love these two hits of theirs.

“A” Part 1 of 4

a-ha - “Take On Me” from the album Hunting High and Low A great 80’s hit.

Aaliyah - “Try Again” from Romeo Must Die good message and good dance hit

Aaron Schust - I had never heard of this worship artist until I heard his song “My Savior, My God” on the Christian station I listen to frequently. I have both the Anything Worth Saying album and the Whispered and Shouted album, great choices if you like modern worship music (not your parents’ or grandparents’ hymns)

Aaron Tippin - “Where the Stars & the Stripes & the Eagle Fly”. When I was in my first senior year of college (yes, I did two senior years), one of my roommates and I made a patriotic mix just around 9/11 occurred. This was one of the chosen tracks. A very patriotic country song.

AC/DC - Yes, I have AC/DC right near a Christian worship artist. I possess the entire album Back in Black, and the following songs from other albums, “Hard as a Rock”, “Big Balls”, “For Those About to Rock”, “TNT”, “Touch Too Much”, “Highway to Hell”, “Money Talks” (my favorite AC/DC song), “Thunderstruck”, and “Stiff Upper Lip”.

Ace of Base - A 90’s pop/dance group from Sweden. I own two of their albums The Bridge and The Sign. One of the first CD’s I ever purchased was The Sign.

Adam Sandler - How can you not laugh at some of the stuff this guy does, whether in movies or on an album. I have an obscure track entitled “Kermit and Big Bird Get Stoned” that supposedly is performed by Sandler. I also have “The Ottawa Song” (which makes fun of the Ottawa Senators, and Sandler just happens to be from Ottawa!) and “The Chanukah Song”.

Adele - Her recent breakthrough hit “Chasing Pavements” from the album 19. Often a Starbucks will have free music cards which allow you to obtain a free song legally from iTunes, usually a lesser-known artist, an unusual collaboration between two or more artists, or a live performance track. This is one of them. Adele has had a few other hits and someone wider-spread success since “Chasing Pavements”.

Aerosmith - A band that keeps on cranking out hits decade after decade. I have the following complete albums: Big Ones, Gems, Get a Grip, Just Push Play, and Nine Lives. I also have their songs from the Armageddon soundtrack, a few tracks from their Greatest Hits album, a few from Pump, and the following single songs: “Dream On (Live)” from their Classics Live! record, “Girls of Summer” from O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, and “Amazing [Orchestral Version]” from Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology.

AFI “Love Like Winter” from Decemberunderground. I love this track!

Akon - “Troublemaker”, Right Now (Na, na, na), “Don’t Matter”, “Lonely”, Locked Up”, and “Belly Dancer”

Intro

In early February of 2008, my very first iPod arrived; a black Classic 160 gigabytes (GB). I had been waiting for this moment for years and had already been preparing my iTunes account with music. Little did I know that it would take me over 6 months to put all of my CD’s onto iTunes and my iPod. I never really finished, because I kept accumulating music through purchased CD’s and online purchasing. I also borrowed a few CD’s here and there from friends. As of today, May 29, 2009, I have exactly 18,600 songs, 4 videos, and 8 Podcasts which translates into 84.7 GB. Now, of those 84.7 GB, 3.97 GB is the Bible, 1.18 GB is The Chronicles of Narnia books, and 258.6 megabytes (MB) is Oops! I Forgot My Wife (a hilarious collection of stories that remind us husbands not to forget about our wives). That leaves just over 79 GB of music. I love music and as you will see, I like many genres. Please do not judge me on my music taste, I simply love good music. I neither believe that music makes us do things we normally wouldn’t do, nor does it control our thoughts.

This is my blog: A Journey Through My iPod. I will proceed to educate you on new sounds, remind you of old favorites you may have forgotten, and introduce you to a diverse, wide-ranging collection of music. I will also keep you updated on what I have added to my collection whenever that occurs (which is quite regular).

I thought about how to lay this whole blog out, because it will be end up being fairly long. Back in October of 2008, my father-in-law and I were talking about iPods. He has wanted one for sometime and he still has not taken the next step of actually purchasing one. Anyway, he asked me how much music I had on mine at the time and I told him. I’m sure it was somewhere about 10,000 songs at the time. He continued by asking, “When are you going to listen to all that music?” Therein, my friends, lies the challenge that I embarked on almost 8 months ago. I began listening to every single song on my iPod sorting by artist and beginning with “A”. I am currently in the “P’s”. I do go back when I add music from an artist who begins with a letter I have already passed; for example, I am currently listening to Fleetwood Mac Rumors, which is no where near the “P‘s“.

Now, I could just compose one long entry chronicling my listening excursion from “A” to “P”, but that would just be a long read for anyone, so for you, I will start all over again at “A” and blog about artists each day, what I think of them, and maybe some brief history on the lesser-known artists. I will be skipping soundtracks and some compilations and save those for the end because when sorting by artist, these albums most times have multiple artists/composers. I will be picking apart artist by artist lesser-known samplers and compilations. I might also add that I will note when I have the entire album verses just a handful of songs. Enough intro, let’s embark together on this melodic expedition.