What was your favorite song in high school? Why did it resonate?

"Check the Rhime" is a song that definitely lasted the entirety of high school (and even to present day!) Hip Hop was the first music genre I fell in love with as a kid in the 80s and A Tribe Called Quest is near the top of my all-time favorite artists list.

The song (and ATCQ in general) resonated with me through the melding of jazz and hip hop. The boom bap drums with jazz bass and horn loops are like peanut butter and chocolate for me. It just sounds so good to my ears.

Lyrically, ATCQ contrasted with gangsta rap's rise to popularity through positive and socially conscious lyrics. As someone who was also getting exposed to punk and hardcore at the time, the similarity in message was hard to overlook and made it easy to love both genres.

What is a song that instantly energizes you?

It's Tyler, so you know it's high energy... and this song has some great beat drops.

He's one of the few current artists that my kids and I both like. I absolutely love the bonding moments when songs like this come on, especially since all three will be graduating high school in the next 15 months.

A song for the current moment and a reminder that even the smallest joy you can add to the world is something.

Are you ready to see

A world where we could all be free

As branches of an endless tree

May we seek and find it

Although we might not all agree

Still live together peacefully

Watching the news almost every night

Telling the stories of all that ain't right

But what could be done from a house and a home

Sink in the sofa and feel so alone

Getting the courage to do something small

Lifting the spirits of all that you saw

Feeling the tiniest spark in your heart

'Cause only an ember can light up the dark

This track took a turn. I was listening to Nell Smith's full album for Crucial Tracks (the blog) and loved the idiosyncratic nature of her songs. She can certainly write catchy indie pop songs, but mid album things get kind of weird: noisy, chaotic, weird instrumentation... but still catchy as hell. One of these songs had to be my track for the day!

So I started researching to learn her story. Apple Music usually has a decent bio so I started there... and saw she did a Nick Cave cover album with The Flaming Lips at 14! I vaguely remember hearing about that, but when I expanded the More link to show the rest of the bio, I read that Anxious is a posthumous album and she died at 17 in a car accident. Wow, what a talent we lost way too early.

The modern day Veruca Salt and I love it. They know how to write ear worms too.

I got the repressing of the remastered Siamese Dream in the mail today. Blasted at full volume! I got the cassette version of this album in Bozeman, MT while on vacation with the family in the summer of 1993. Listened to it on repeat for the entire trip.

Can't remember what site I saw this band on this weekend, but I totally missed it for my initial pass of albums to check out for Crucial Tracks, the blog. Anyway, it's exactly the kind of hardcore I like: a little youth crew, a little metal, a little melody. Very similar to Looking Back- era BOLD (1993)... who just happened to be on Revelation Records too.

This song is great. Watched Japanese Breakfast on the Coachella livestream with the family. They opened the show with this one -- one of my favorites on the new album.

I just happened to tune in to the Coachella livestream at the right time to catch Julie play some tracks off one of my favorite albums from last year, my anti-aircraft friend. So good live too – they need to be bigger.