I can quit any time I want!

Hello, my name is Rob and I'm addicted to eBay.

Hey! It's better than needle drugs!

It all started shortly after I got out of high school. I had a disposable income, a steady job and no girlfriend. The significance of a significant other (or lack there of) is that I had plenty of free time to spend my money on stuff that I didn't need. So I started buying this stuff. It started out innocent enough, a cd here, a VHS there. But it wasn't until I discovered records that I became hooked. They just appeal to me. Not in the hipster "they sound better, therefore I'm cooler than you" kind of way. I have an extensive cd collection that I don't listen to, so that isn't it. The best way I can put it is that I like the feeling of owning something historic. I'm instantly drawn to the limited amounts of certain releases. I love color vinyl also.  Once I met my significant other I put my addiction on the back burner for a long time. No more disposable income. I had to buy things like flowers, presents, and dinners. The focus was no longer on me. I even sold much of the stuff that I had originally bought. This included my Nirvana collection. I went around telling people that I lost a bit of my soul, and I meant it. The desire to order crap off of eBay faded away because I couldn't afford to buy anything. This all changed when I got my current job. By then I was married, so I had a little bit more leeway with my money (she can be a free spender, why can't I?). I first sought out getting back the missing piece of my soul. As of today I'm just one record away from doing so, and I'm happy to say it's neither an expensive piece, nor hard to find. If I would have stuck to just this plan it wouldn't have turned into a relapse. But I'm a weak person, and I'm trying to fill a bit of a hole in my life, so I started to buy other records. Now I have a pretty nice collection of records, if I do say so myself. I'll put it on here to show it off if I get the time. Ok, fine, here's a sneak peak of some of my favorites in my collection:

Three things

Those that have known me for a while remember I did a "three things" post about all my friends on myspace. It was both rewarding and challenging. But I won't do that again, I'm old, and nobody cares. But I got to thinking about a lead singers the other day and I thought I'd dust off the format one more time.
David Lee Roth (VanHalen) Dr. Rockso, Might as well jump when your career is over, funny how he thought he was bigger than the band, how'd that work out for ya Dave?

Ozzy (Black Sabbath) Sharon!, doves or bats?, the Alamo seemed like a good place to take a piss at the time.

Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) Maroon 5 and Ke$ha name drop, his favorite flavor is cherry red, what kind of cigarettes make a man?

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) Shotguns, depression, and heroin don't mix, he was worst at what he did best,  he swore that he didn't have a gun.

Eddy Vedder (Pearl Jam) Ticketmaster sucks, may be the only person on earth that understands "Yellow Ledbetter", don't call him daughter.

Buddy Holly (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) He loves Peggy Sue, the music died when he died, the originator of "Geek Chic".

Freddie Mercury (Queen) What other gay man could get an entire sports arena to sing along to his songs?, Live Aid, nuff said, scalamoosh!

Geddy Lee (Rush) Seriously, is there any band worse than Rush?, no, really, he's a dude, they call him the working man.

Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) Ended up a big ol pile of them bones, his pain was self chosen, he's the man in the box.

Jack White (White Stripes) A seven nation army couldn't hold him back, dude, it wasn't his sister, he just took HER last name, who'd a thunk, icky thump.

Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) Driving backwards in the fog doesn't remind him of anything, he shot his love today, would you cry for him?, he wants the spoonman to save him.

Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) Tight pants + bulge in crotch = burning loins, he knows a lady who's certain all that glitters is gold, in the darkest depths of Mordor he met a girl so fair.

Thom York (Radiohead) Hey, don't make fun of his eye, he can't help it, anyone can play guitar, you kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never, ever stop.

Roger Daltrey (The Who) He's not a deaf, dumb, blind kid, he just played one on tv, like that Rush guy he didn't write the songs, he didn't die before he got old.

 2-D (Gorillaz) He's quite animated!, made an entire album on an iPad, the revolution will be televised.

I think you get the idea, this is getting trite.

The 90's

The popular IFC show Portlandia started off its first episode asking the question "Do you remember the 90's?". Looking back today they (the 90's, not Portlandia) are just a dot in the rear-view mirror. Although I had many of my most fond memories in the last decade of the 20th century I also had some of my worst. I was a social reject who couldn't form the most basic sentences even amongst friends for much of the time. A little self confidence would have gone a long way. BUT, that's not what I'm here to talk about. Let's discuss something near and dear to my heart...musical diatribe! The 90's started out with boy bands and glam metal and ended with boy bands and rap rock. Some of my favorite bands started out in the 90's, but for every Radiohead there was a Creed, for every Alice in Chains there was a Nickelback.

My thinking at the time was that this was the best time ever to be around and that for the most part the music was great. Although I've realized that not to be the case, it's hard not to look back and see the various pockets of awesome sprinkled amongst the crap in popular music. I missed out on Nirvana, caught only the tail end of AIC and Soundgarden. I hated the Smashing Pumpkins at the time because all of their fans at my high school were douche bags. I hated the concept of hip hop so much that Rage Against the Machine might as well of been Vanilla Ice. Despite my sister's best efforts to influence me I didn't take to Pearl Jam, the Deftones, or Tool until much later. Hell, I didn't even like the Foo Fighters until I heard "Everlong". My point being is tastes change over time. Acquired tastes need to be acquired.

So what bands did I like then that I still like now? Green Day were introduced to me by Mtv with their album Dookie. Stone Temple Pilots were through my cousin with their album Core. These two albums are the cornerstones of my musical database. A little later I saw the video for "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead. Their album The Bends is the third corner-stone. This was the first band that I liked and I didn't care what others thought. Somehow I missed their song "Creep" completely when it first came out. So this album was what got me into them and is my favorite to this day. The fourth, and final cornerstone is held by Smash by the Offspring. I think my cousin and Mtv can equally take credit for this one. These four albums are where it all starts. While my friends were listening to Aqua and Blessed Union of Souls (really?) I was trying to figure out why Scott Weiland wet his bed and looking up the meaning of "Libido" and "Albino" (thank you KC). I watched the video "Ruby Soho" by Rancid, which prompted me to buy And out come the wolves on cassette the same day as purchasing The Bends.

Two tapes for the price of 1 cd, as it turns out was a great deal. I didn't appreciate Rancid until MUCH later, but it was a feather in my cap at the time. Where is this all going? I don't know. I'm just trying to prove to myself that despite the decade ending with Limp Bizkit, Korn, Back Street Boys, and Kid Rock, I can't hold that against the decade any more. Times have changed, the cd and music video are essentially dead formats. The masses still like crap that is here one day, gone the next. The girl I married will inevitably like what ever crappy song comes on the pop radio station. I suppose that is my punishment for being so cool. It keeps me grounded and stops me from venturing too far away into the indie genre.