My Life in Music: Undergrad, Take 2

Like many people I know, my college days are partly defined by the music I listened to. The lists of musical groups and songs are too long, but the list of key albums is relatively small.

Undergrad, Take 2

• New Order, Low-Life
• Violent Femmes, Hallowed Ground
• Beastie Boys, License to Ill
• The Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
• Pat Metheny, Travels
  

Each of these albums has its own set of memories that comes along with the music.

Low-Life and Hallowed Ground both conjure up memories of hanging out in Chris and short, hairy Steve's dorm room. To me, these albums sound like a college dorm and like WHFS in its hey-day. They are dark and fun albums, which makes them the perfect soundtracks for angst-ridden college students. Specifically, these albums were played at Poseurs, a niteclub in Georgetown where one could see spiky, fluorescent pink mohawks and lots of crazy stuff. It was the place to be for folks who were into alternative music.

License to Ill is the sound of Friday afternoons. I knew that Steve was out of class on Friday as I walked across campus and could hear License to Ill blasting from the speaker Steve had pointing out his dorm window. This is some seriously happy music because it is "Friday afternoon and classes are done" music.

A bunch of my friends and I saw Stop Making Sense a few times. Chris had it on video and knew the tape so well that he could fast-forward to a seemingly random spot, hit play, and sing along without missing a step. We were seriously into that movie and album. Now, My Boy loves the album. He often asks for Talking Heads and to him, that means Stop Making Sense.

Travels is the music I listened to while getting ready to head to class. I also saw Metheny in concert at Wolf Trap and he was amazing. Metheny and his keyboardist Lyle Mays are absolutely virtuosos and the concert was full of energy. At least half the songs were given standing ovations.

As I said, there are many other songs and artists that made up my undergrad days, but these are some of the albums with the most vivid and lasting memories.