I have musical A.D.D. I like a huge variety of music. But I have a hard time allowing my iPod to just shuffle. I am constantly skipping to the next song, "No...hmm...no...eh...no...", click click click on the iPod wheel. Lately I'm trying to just let the iPod chips fall where they may and see what shuffle gives me. The shuffle has brought to the table a few things:
1. I need to clean out my iPod. Why is there so much Pearl Jam on there?? (Spencer loves PJ, so every b-side is in our Library, and apparently also on my iPod)
2. I really love and miss a lot of bands that are no longer making music. It makes me kind of sad, but really happy that they made such great music before moving on to other things in life.
3. I also really love a lot of new music. I've felt out of touch with what's happening in music for a while, and Vegas has hardly no local music scene anyways. But I've been trying to stay current and aware of new bands/artists and not turn into an old lady who surrenders to Sunny 106.5. It's a slippery slope.
In honor of bands gone-by, here's a few I'd drop everything for, and even get a sitter, to go see live if they were still playing shows.
AT THE DRIVE-IN. One of my favorite bands to see live back in the day. I lost track of how many times I road-tripped to California to see them play in high school. Listening to their albums now makes me want to track Cedric down and orchestrate a reunion tour. 
THE FORMAT. I liked their first full length album, it was fun to sing along and drive to. But then their 2nd album came out and it was...blech. But then they were playing a show in town and my sister and I decided to go hoping they'd play old songs. Then they played mostly the 2nd album and it was CRAZY good live. It's one of my favorites to this day. Seeing a band live can be a real game-changer. 
THAT DOG. They actually recently played a couple reunion shows in Southern Cali. Really sad I missed that chance. Love them and never did see them play live. Retreat from the Sun is all about boys and crushes and it defines me at 17. 
PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS. Saw them play a handful of times. They always smelled like the bottom of a garbage can and played loud, fast and heavy. Seriously, the dirtiest dudes ever, it was kind of a trademark. I mostly loved watching Spencer go nuts to their songs, it was a rare treat.
RAINER MARIA. Luckily, I saw them play with The Format years back. I'd loved this band for a really long time and I never made it to Cali for any of their west coast shows. They were amazing live, just like their recordings. They wrote beautiful songs. 
THE MOVIELIFE. Some of the nicest guys and they played really fun shows. 
Never saw Operation Ivy live and as much as I know people gasp when I say it, I've never loved Rancid. I know I should, since I loved Op Ivy, but I just can't get into them. Would love to see Operation Ivy live. I might even wear wingtip shoes and my hair in ringlets like I did a LONG time ago. Boy, I thought it was a good look at one time. Clearly, clearly, I have total musical A.D.D. Look at that sprawl of music!
