5. Relationship of Command: At the Drive-In

I mostly listened to grrl rock like Tori and Fiona, but something about the rawness of lead singer Cedric Bixler’s (now of the far inferior Mars Volta) voice and the frantic intensity of the music really appealed to me. Maybe it was an outlet for my teenage anger and angst, or maybe it just made me feel cool. Either way, the album still kicks ass.

4. Rated R: Queens of the Stone Age

I listened to this album over and over after I broke up with my first boyfriend. It’s not an especially sad album, so I don’t know why it brought me so much comfort, but it really became a security blanket. I can’t listen to it now without feeling a little sad and really, really nostalgic. Which is a shame, because it also kicks ass.

3. The Blue Album: Weezer

The World Has Turned and Left Me Here was the theme song of my junior year, also known as the year of awful braces and being overlooked for a good part in the school play. I was a nerd, and Weezer understood that–they spoke for me in the most beautifully simple and poignant way a band could. Sadly, I’ve listened to this album so many times that I cannot listen to it ever again.

2. Doolittle: The Pixies

Immediately when I heard this album I knew without a doubt that the Pixies were going to be my favorite band. And seven or eight years later, they probably still are.

I wore out every Pixies album I could get my grubby little hands on and I never, ever grew tired of them. Doolittle was schizophrenic brilliance and I felt better, smarter, just listening to it. It made me want to leave my small town and strike out, it made me want to dance, and it gave me one of my most persistent role models in Kim Deal. Minus the whole alcoholism thing.

1. Boys for Pele: Tori Amos.

This album will always make me think of my best friend in high school, and driving around at all hours in her old car that hardly ran. We listened to this album and talked about our lives, our fears, our crushes, our futures, loving Tori’s impertinence, her boldness. She was the adult version of what we wanted to be, wiser for all of her youthful indiscretions.

The album, too, was all about frustration with men and relationships, and although our situations were greatly different, I felt like I understood everything she sang about.

What albums defined your teenage years? Can you still listen to them?

[Photos from Wikipedia]

I was spoon-fed Nirvana and multiple other Seattle bands from my older brother during my preteen years. I was just learning what it was to be attracted to a boy then and Kurt Cobain was the first object of my displaced infatuation. His mystique to me was an amalgam of talent, drug use, insanity, humility, and…oh yeah…the fact that he was dead. I focused so much of my hormonal energy on Kurt Cobain that I never looked behind the drum set to scope out that long haired drummer who kind of looked like a horse. Dave Grohl, as far as I was concerned, was just Kurt’s drummer. And I wasn’t the only person who saw it in this stupidly ridiculous way.

Over the years, I’ve grown older and beyond my stage of having crushes on deceased boys. As I’ve become more in tune with the world of music with each day, it’s been hard not to notice something about the former Nirvana member: He never quits. When I found out he was playing with one of my favorite bands, Queens of The Stone Age, a few years back, my interest was aroused. It seems as though between the Foo Fighters, his own metal throwback band Probot, and countless other projects…the man just never stops.

So while perusing the biography section at the library a couple weeks ago, I had to give the Dave Grohl biography a bit of a double take. Sealed together with a black and white cover that gracefully stretches his married and not-so-horse-like-anymore face across it, the book simply called out to me to take a peek. Not only was it an easy read, but I now officially have a new crush.

Why Dave? Well, it’s easy:

–He’s got his sh*t together. He’s organized, a workaholic perhaps, and committed to his dreams.

–He’s a friendly guy! He’s definitely a rockstar; yet from all reports, he’s a sweetheart to everyone who crosses his path.

–When things got hard (aka, singer dying), he kept making music. Resiliency is hot.

Of course I’ll never hold hands while walking down a brick road and sharing an ice cream cone with Dave…BUT, I will profess my new crush on him to the internet. Dave, if you’re reading this, tell Novoselic he’s probably next.

“Superheroes” By Esthero

“Black Milk” By Massive Attack

(Every single song from Massive Attack’s Mezzanine. I stand by the assertion that this is the single best love making cd ever made.)

“Strangers on a Train” By Lovage

“2Wicky” By Hooverphonic

“#1 Crush” By Garbage

“Glory Box” By Portishead

“Overcome” By Tricky

“Lusty” By Lamb

“Inertia Creeps” By Massive Attack

“Digital Bath” By Deftones

“Rev 22:20” By Puscifer

“Skin on Skin” By Queens of the Stone Age

[You KNOW you have some additions. What's on YOUR Sexy Playlist??]

I “spring clean” at least once every season. Nothing thrills me more these days than getting rid of crap I don’t use. It’s refreshing, it’s helpful, and it’s totally impossible without a good playlist to get you up and motivated enough to start, continue, and FINISH the job.

I’ve got a pretty sweet playlist on my Itunes for these special cleaning days and I would highly recommend that you investigate getting some of these songs for your busy bee days, too.

“Blanket” by: Autolux –it’s: Indie/Rock

“Grow up & blow away” by: Metric –it’s: Rock

“Non Photo-Blue” by: Pinback –it’s: Indie/Alternative

“A perfect day Elise” by: PJ Harvey –it’s: Indie/Alternative

“3′s & 7′s” by: QOTSA –it’s: Rock/Alternative

“Straight Lines” by: Silverchair –it’s: Rock/Alternative

“Jumpers” by: Sleater-Kinney –it’s: Pop Punk/Garage

“Bohemian Like You” by: The Dandy Warhols –it’s: Indie/Rock

“Love is Paranoid” by: The Distillers –it’s: Punk/Grunge

“Sideways in Reverse” by: Mark Lanegan –it’s: Rock

Throw on some of these songs and then try to tell me you weren’t motivated to clean!