 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
There is nothing more fun or ridiculous than hopping in the car in the middle of the night and taking a long ass road trip, traveling the open highways and seeing states (via highway) formerly unviewed. Things get better when there is an actual event, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Concerts make for great road trips. I've been to North Carolina to see Prayer for Cleansing's reunion show and Virginia to see Between the Buried and Me. Granted, they play locally a lot, but I had nothing else to do since I was out of work at the time. This trip has Matt and I heading west to Kentucky to see Propagandhi, a band I've been dying to see since I was 14 or 15. They cancelled the one time I remember them playing a Rhode Island show, and its finally time to see these guys live.
As fun as the concert will be, the actual drive itself is the big event, and the music taken is key. Luckily, I have enough music to keep a kid with ADD occupied for months on end, so the challenge is determining which albums should come along for the ride. I know what my musical tastes are, and I have to take Matt's musical tastes into consideration, trying to pick out music he will enjoy as well. I'm pretty sure we're taking his Sirious radio, which will provide some entertainment, but even Howard Stern and commercial free radio will get sickening on just over a days drive.
There are three things that need to be taken into consideration when picking out music for a road trip: music both of you like; "blasts from the past;" and music that you want to expose someone to.
The music both people like is an easy no brainer. I know that Matt is a huge fan of metal, so albums from bands like Between the Buried and Me, Dying Fetus, Converge and Deadwater Drowning are no brainers. But, metal isn't the only style of music he likes, and over 24 hours of driving listening to nothing but metal and heavy music will no doubt take its toll on anyone. This will lead to albums from bands like Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, NOFX, Descendents, Red Hot Chili Peppers (which albums of theirs will be taken could be a whole other paragraph) and Silverstein coming along for the ride as well. And, even though we are going to see them, all Propagandhi albums have spots in my CD book, for no other reason than they're all great albums, great driving albums, and listening to them will add a little bit more excitement to finally seeing them live. Other "no brainer" albums will be coming along, and those will dawn on me as I am looking through my collection.
"Blasts from the past" are a ton of fun to find, as I try to look for albums that neither of us have heard in a few years, rushing back fond memories of growing up as they erupt from the stereo. Showcase Showdown, Dropkick Murphys, Bastard Squad, No Use for a Name, Operation Ivy all come straight to mind, and I'll probably also toss in albums by Side by Side, Guns n' Roses, Rancid (their self titled debut), Fear, Minor Threat and Strung Out to keep things fresh.
The third category will probably take the most work, seeing as I will have to think of bands/albums that Matt hasn't heard yet but will still enjoy. Three that come straight to mind are the new albums by Poison the Well (Versions), Hopesfall (Magnetic Front) and From Autumn to Ashes (Holding a Wolf by the Ears), albums that he has yet to hear. After that, I'm gonna have to spend a good deal of time looking through albums that will appeal to his taste. This may take a lot longer than expected, but the end result should pack at least a couple hours of exposure and discussion.
There is a fourth category, but this one is purely selfish. Though we both do have similar tastes, there are some genres that I like that he doesn't, and I would like to take some of those albums along as well. I've been listening to a lot of country and alt/country lately, so bands like Lucero, Drag the River, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash will be coming along with me. I'm also going to take Against Me!, Pennywise, Old Crow Medicine Show, Tim Armstrong's new one, The Little Willies, Amy Winehouse and Fiest with me, even though I know that he will hate some of those albums. The reason for me taking these bands is for the times that I'm driving while he is catching some sleep. These are albums that I have really been enjoying lately and wouldn't want to be so far from home without them. There's no better way to stay awake while driving in the middle of the dark night (morning) than singing along (silently) to albums that mean a lot to you and have been getting a lot of spins lately.
Its always a good idea to overpack music, and you have to leave for the trip knowing that not every album you take will get listened to. I would argue that packing music for the trip is more important than packing clothes or whatever else you may need (especially when you're only going for about a day), because the music you listen to is what is going to keep you from going nuts in the car for that length of time.
Written by: RF