Back from a trip to South Bay, CA

Monday, March 12, 2007

I have just returned from a trip to the San Francisco Bay area.

Whenever I take a trip, I like to pick out a handful of CDs to listen to obsessively on the journey (typically I choose ones that have been neglected in my music collection and thus have no strong memories tied to them). The end result is that I begin to associate a particular set of songs with a geographic space and time. It is good way for me to remember phases of my life.

Margot & The Nuclear So And So's Here are the albums I chose for my California trip this year (making sure to rip them to my iPod before I left):

  • Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s “The Dust of Retreat” (2006)
  • Rilo Kiley “Take Offs & Landings” (2001)
  • Rogue Wave “Out of the Shadow” (2004)
  • Rogue Wave “Descended Like Vultures” (2005)

I also visited the San Jose and Monterey area in March 2006. Here are the albums I now associate with that trip:

  • Azure Ray “Hold On Love” (2003)
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah” (2005)
  • Mason Jennings “Mason Jennings” (2002)
  • Damien Rice “O” (2003)
  • System of a Down “Hypnotize” (2005)

I can make lists like this for pretty much every trip I’ve taken in the past few years.

So, here’s one more. My travels to California in 2001 remind me of these albums (and vice-versa):

  • Boards of Canada “Music Has the Right to Children” (1998)
  • Modest Mouse “This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About” (1996)
  • Morcheeba “Big Calm” (1998)
  • Morphine “Cure For Pain” (1993)
  • Various Artists “Ultra.Chilled 01” (2001)

For that trip I think I just grabbed some CDs from the ‘M’ section of my binder as well as a couple of electronica discs.

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