My First CD

The first recorded music I owned was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which is not a real surprise considering my age. Anecdotes of Jackson’s impact have been heard regularly since his death, with Thriller being a generational touchstone. At the time, I thought all music was bought on vinyl. My parents record collection seems to stopped right around the time of my birth, which also means I didn’t get to play around with the 8-track format. A few years after thriller, my parents decided it was time I had my own stereo, which meant cassette/radio. This was no “ghetto blaster”, but it certainly got the job done. My parents also allowed me to join the Columbia House Record & Tape Club. How could I dismiss an offer like 12 tapes for a penny? My parents would worry about the commitment to buy more tapes at highly inflated prices later. The gratification of receiving a box of music seemed too good to pass up. I can’t remember all my choices, but Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, and Simon & Garfunkel seem to be involved. As I moved into high school I explored the classic rock of Led Zeppelin, the Doors, and the Beatles, but also received my first exposure to important bands like R.E.M., Depeche Mode, and the Cure. In many ways, I resented not having an older sibling to steer me in the right musical direction. Musical mentors are very important in life. This was of course reaffirmed to me by a great scene in Almost Famous, where a young William Miller receives his older sister’s record collection. William Miller also receives mentoring from Lester Bangs, which doesn’t suck at all.

(A good excuse to share one of my all-time favorite movie scenes and quotes.)


(This scene where William inherits his sister's records is dubbed in Italian, but it's all I could find. However, you'll get the picture, especially at 1:44 of the clip.)



Anyways, it wasn’t until I was sixteen, that I acquired a Compact Disc player. These magical devices where amazing to me. The discs were portable, unlike vinyl, and you could skip to any track you like. I was also happy that not another tape was going to get destroyed by my tape player eating it. I still can’t listen to Midnight Oil’s Blue Sky Mine, without imagining the garbled spots left by my tape player. So once I got the CD player, now all I needed was the CD. When I went to Hasting's with my hard earned money, one title stood out to me, Trash Can Sinatras’ Cake. I had just seen them on an episode of 120 Minutes, MTV’s two hour oasis of alternative music, which I seemed to interpret as British. After an hour or so of deliberating, I pulled the trigger on the Trashcans and have been in love ever since, both with the band and with recorded music in general. I have thousands of CDs and have obviously made many good and poor choices. However, my first choice was one of my best.

The Trashcan Sinatras didn’t survive the nineties well. Their style just didn’t fit in with the harsh sound of popular alternative, most famously characterized by grunge. Their third album wasn’t even released in the U.S., and they just kind of faded away. In 2004 I learned that the band had some new songs and were putting out an album and even planning a tour of the states. It was amazing to see one of the bands of my teenage years make a comeback, and do it so competently. Tonight, the Trashcan Sinatras come back to Salt Lake City with a new album of quiet beautiful songs. I wouldn’t miss them for anything. Welcome back.

Trashcan Sinatras - "Hayfever"


Trashcan Sinatras - "The Genius I Was"