NOTE: This is a work in progress that is nowhere near completion.

Why did I make this page? Well, occasionally someone inquires about my musical tastes. Since I stopped listening to non-classic rock radio around 1998, my taste has been static enough (save anime/j-pop, random stuff my girlfriend sends me, and to a lesser extent techno) that I can try to tackle a description of what I like. My CDS I Want page might be a useful clue, but it doesn't cover what music I already have. Here's my first attempt to distill it into one sentence:

I like: "Alternative", Punk, classic rock, catchy but not annoying pop, a little electronica (drum 'n bass, trip-hop, big beat, and maybe house), and anime/j-pop music.

Now to me that sentence is pretty vague. Here are some examples to help explain what I mean:

These are the last ten songs I scrobbled: These are my top 10 musical artists of the week:		These are the last bunch of concerts that I've attended:
		Decemberists, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA The Killers, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA The Stills, Land of Talk, Showbox, Seattle, WA Guster, Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA Steve Miller Band, The English Beat, Spoon, Thee Emergency, Dengue Fever, Mates of State, mewithoutYou, Seattle, WA (Bumbershoot 2006) Phantom Planet, El Corazon, Seattle, WA Mellowdrone, Monsters are Waiting, Chop Suey, Seattle, WA Ozma, The Rentals, Neumos, Seattle, WA Crystal Skulls, Neumos, Seattle, WA (Suicide Squeeze anniversary party) Guster, Easy Street Records, Seattle, WA The Pillows, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA Mogwai, Showbox, Seattle, WA Phantom Planet, Hec Ed (BofA Arena), Seattle, WA The Appleseed Cast, Crosstide, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA noodles, The Stereo Future, Mon Frere, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA The Go! Team, Showbox, Seattle, WA The Gossip, Crystal Skulls, and The Stereo Future, Seattle, WA (Capitol Hill Block Party) Mono, Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA The Cure, Muse, Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, Camden, NJ (Curiosa Festival 2004) L'Arc~en~Ciel, 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD (Otakon 2004) angela, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD (Otakon 2004) noodles and Petty Booka, Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA (Japanese Girls SAMURAI US tour) Foo Fighters and The Crystal Method (DJ Set), Shoreline, Mountain View, CA (Live 105's B.F.D.) Sigur Rós, Upper Darby, PA Sigur Rós, Warfield, SF, CA Reel Big Fish & Goldfinger, Warfield, SF, CA (Crouching Fish, Hidden Finger tour) Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Billy Idol, Shoreline, Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit concert) Violent Femmes, Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA Weezer, Jane's Addiction, Chemical Brothers (DJ set), DJ Dieselboy, and more, Indio Polo Grounds, Indio, CA (Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival) The Who, Shoreline, Mountain View, CA War, San Joaquin County fairgrounds, Stockton, CA The Cure, Shoreline, Mountain View, CA (Dream tour) Save Ferris, Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA Joe Satriani, Warfield, SF, CA ancient history: No Doubt, Goldfinger, Metro, Chicago, IL

Alternative [Top]
I despise the moniker "Alternative," which lumps together such amazingly disparate styles that the term has become a complete joke. What I mean by "Alternative" are the staples of "Alternative Rock" radio from the era when I was first exposed to teen angst, circa 1995. This includes

• Nirvana, of course. I don't fall under the category of people who [still] listen to Nirvana because they're wannabe stoners and feel that grunge elevates them to a cooler plane of existence. Nirvana draws me in with their songs' raw emotions, the tumultuous angst burning deep into the soul of anyone who's felt confused, alone, or abandoned by the world, and the offer to channel those feelings through music.
• Pearl Jam. I actually liked the direction they were taking in No Code, and haven't been impressed with any of their new stuff since.
• Oasis. OK, so they have a very brit-pop oriented sound, and many criticize them for being shallow Beatles imitators. But when I listen to Wonderwall, with its depressing yet somehow noble mood, I couldn't care less what other people think. Noel Gallagher the songwriter (forget media bad-boy) is skillful, sensitive, and honest in a way that's very rare in today's musical landscape, where 99% of new songs try their hardest to sound like nothing at all (hello Radiohead[¹]).

Punk [Top]
I'm not really "punk," as in dyed hair, pierced, and otherwise unfriendly or scary to look at. Nonetheless, I can identify with the borderline rage embodied in Punk Rock. I think bands like Bad Religion, NOFX, Dead Kennedys, and others have a lot to say about the state of the world through their anti-rose tinged glasses.

Classic Rock [Top]
Classic Rock rocks. I think there's a definite musical heartbeat to classic rock that a lot of new music can't even begin to match. For example,

• The Beatles will always rule over all as the band of all time,
• The Who will always damned well make themselves heard,
• The Doors will always freak me out or get me humming,
• Eric Clapton in his many musical endeavors will always rock, and
• Jimi Hendrix will live forever, in the hearts of those touched by his music.

Pop [Top]
Here's a random sampling of some of the pop-ish stuff that I like (I haven't yet discerned a pattern):

• B-52's - Love Shack
• Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young
• Monica & Brandy - The Boy Is Mine
• Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
• Spin Doctors - Two Princes

Electronica [Top]
I consider myself a newbie with this, but I really like artists such as The Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Daft Punk, Luke Vibert/Wagon Christ, and Basement Jaxx. I dig the Pi soundtrack. My first quasi-rave was at the 2001 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. There I got down to the beats of Dieselboy for the first time, and It Was Good.

The first ever mp3s I downloaded (back in the spring of 1998, when there was no Napster and Scour was still new) were the tracks to The Crystal Method's debut, Vegas. I'd heard of them while listening to the Industrial program on Chicago's Q101 radio station late at night, but couldn't remember what their music sounded like, so I was inspired to find them and have a listen. I was immediately hooked (despite the protests of my then-roomate). Yes, I bought the CD soon after, so screw you and your lies about file-sharing being the death of music, RIAA.

Anime / J-Pop [Top]
If you're looking for my Anime and J-Pop/Rock song list, it's moved here.

Alan L. Liu <surak@tomorrow.dnsalias.org> / Last revised 19 December 2006

[2]: E.g., the sheer musical homogeneity of Days of the New and Creed, the "I'm so hardcore, it doesn't matter that my music sounds like crap, if you can even distinguish it from a string of obscenities with interference in the background" Korn and Limp Bizkit (yawn), and the sell-out cliche "punk" act Blink 182, all of whom are listed as the present examples of "Alternative" by people who have no concept of music (Columbia House being a good example).