College: A Retrospective (Part 1)

After five long years I am finally done with school! It was hectic at times but I got through it. One of the things that helped me through college (aside from my girl, family, and friends) was music. Instead of simply reflecting on my years in college I decided to explore some of the music I listened to and how it affected my life. Sound interesting? Well, you have no choice fucker. Read it or die. This is the first part and I will be updating on the daily (hopefully). Instead of

exhaustively listing everything I listened to, I only wrote about the music that I would say shaped my life or left a lasting impression on me.

Enjoy.

Freshmen Year: 2005-2006

This was a weird time for me. That past year a close friend of mine, Alex, had passed away and that really fucked me up. This was the only person that I knew that loved hip-hop as much as I did. Although I continued to listen to hip-hop I don't think I had the same zeal for it that i did during high-school. Because we were so similar I felt as if I had lost a part of myself. It sounds corny but it's true. At this point I was confused. I didn't know who I was or who I wanted to be.

By the time I left high-school I didn't know what the hell was going on. I had a pretty fucked up relationship with a girl (an ex with a kid but we still liked each other), I wasn't getting along with my parents, I wasn't sure college was going to work out, and I felt isolated from my friends. The music I listened to reflected this sense of isolation and frustration. This was when I started getting into Atmosphere.

I had God Loves Ugly in my car cd player for the entire Fall semester. I understood Slug's hate toward Lucy. It became the soundtrack to my life. I was in my full-blown "angsty-teenager" phase.

I don't think this album ever left my car. I listened to it on my way to school nearly every day of fall semester. At this same time I was also really into 2Mex. I haven't really listened to 2Mex in a while (except for The Look Daggers shit from a few years back), but I was a BIG fan. I mean BIG. Aside from my Atmosphere CDs, 2Mex is all I bumped throughout the Fall quarter. If you listen to the song below you can probably get a glimpse at my psyche at the time.

Pretty depressing, huh?

Because I was going to college and many of my friends weren't I felt as if I couldn't connect with them. I was trying to make my life better by going to school and they were doing the same shit. Also, I thought that by going to college I was going to meet plenty of new friends but that wasn't the case. I met a few cool people here and there during my Freshmen year but I've lost contact them. Actually, I became closer friends with people I worked with. And of course I was dealing with the pressure of studying and passing my classes. Well, things got better after Winter Break.

By the start of the Spring quarter things started to change. First off, I started to get over my ex. I started to hang out with my friends and getting drunk on weekends. Whatever works, right? This is when I started to listen to other genres of music aside from hip-hop. By this time I started to get bored of hip-hop--at least that was my explanation. Now that I look at it I think that I was pushing hip-hop away because it subconsciously reminded me of Alex. I jumped into the Arctic Monkeys, The Velvet Underground, and Le Tigre. What really opened up my appreciation for rock was the first Interpol album.

Honestly, as depressing as that album can be at times it really helped me feel better about my future. I remember one time I had to drive to the L.A Zoo for an Anthropology assignment and I was playing this album. For some odd reason it made me feel happy. I felt as if everything was going to work out for me. Every time I listen to that album it reminds me of that moment in my life. That's when things started to clear up for me. That's when I met my beautiful girlfriend, Brooke. I started going out with Brooke toward the end of Spring. At this time I was also being promoted at my job. And of course I was finishing up my first year of college. Things were getting better. She was more into commercial hip-hop so I started to school her. Now I find myself asking her to lend me borrow some CDs!