Peaches — Presidents of the United States of America
But while they were in grunge geography, they didn’t see themselves as part of the grunge scene. They were a pop band who just happened to live there.…
Cherub Rock — The Smashing Pumpkins
I put the disc awkwardly into the player—like a first encounter with alien technology. I pressed play. WOW. I had only listened to cassettes up until that point. I didn’t need to know the technical details. I felt them. It was truly a Wizard of Oz moment: going from black-and-white to color.…
Black Hole Sun — Soundgarden
Imagine you’re the frontman of a Seattle grunge band in 1993—you’ve finished three studio albums and you’re deep in a fourth. Your producer challenges you to write with more integrity instead of courting what you think fans want. On the drive home, a song starts to assemble in your head, and a stray line from the radio becomes “Black Hole Sun.”…
Tomorrow — Silverchair
In 1994, three teenagers in Australia, between the ages of 14 and 15, submitted their demo tape with two songs to a demo contest held nationally. One was called Tomorrow; the band was still Innocent Criminals. Tomorrow won, Triple J and a record deal followed, Silverchair finished Frogstomp—and when the single hit the US charts in 1995, that was when Tomorrow found me.…
Phoebe Bridgers @ Red Rocks
Red Rocks lived up to every photo, but the emotional core was hearing Phoebe Bridgers perform “Halloween” after it had already soundtracked our break with Iowa—proof-of-life for a move we’d rushed to make.…
America 2020
On Election Day 2020 I rewrote Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” verse by verse—the same road-trip frame, a much darker 2020 mirror—after reading Daniel Levitin on songs that force us to humanize instead of demonize.…
Vacation 2020
Three tent nights off the grid with the kids: black widows safely avoided, daddy longlegs dramatized, and a cold stream that became “our” hideout away from screens.…
Halloween
Phoebe Bridgers’ “Halloween,” from Punisher, nails the thrill of trying on a new self; for us it became an anthem for molting old routines and chasing a more adventurous geography.…
Black Lives Matter
Black. Lives. Matter.…
The Finland Sessions
Netflix’s Bill Gates documentary made me covet a yearly “go think in a cabin” ritual; a most-wished-for Minnesota Airbnb listing turned that itch into the Finland Sessions songwriting retreat.…