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Every week the writers for The Onion AV Club answer a question. I thought I’d share my own answers to one of their previous Q&A’s.

This week for me is: What was the first album you bought with your own money?

I don’t remember exactly which album would be my first since my memory is just garbage. There’s a good chance it was Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker’s Greatest Hits, but my dad might’ve bought that for me. Instead I will tell you that I distinctly remember buying Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” at Bizzy Bee music in my hometown of Naperville, IL. Paul the owner was a great guy who ran the shop out of his home and later would make fun of me endlessly for all the Green Day I bought and how I thought they were better than Nirvana.

Click here to watch one of the greatest music videos of all time. Landmine!

Happy New Year Everyone! Here’s a quick wrap up of my favorite music from the year.

Best 5 Albums
5. Crooked Fingers – Forfeit / Fortune
4. Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, Tell Tale Signs
3. Vampire Weekend – self titled
2. The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound
1. Chuck Ragan – The Blueprint Sessions

Best Album That Was New to Me
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985)

Best 5 Tracks
5. Vampire Weekend – A-Punk
4. Chuck Ragan – Done & Done
3. American Steel – Old Cory Road
2. Tom Gabel (Against Me!) – Anna is a Stool Pigeon
1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazurus Dig!!!
If you only listen to one thing on this list, please, let it be this one.

Best Track That Was New To Me
Iron & Wine & Calexico – A History of Lovers from In The Reins (2005)

Me listening to Chuck Ragan & Austin Lucas: Bristle Ridge.

In a recent post on her blog Carrie Brownstein (from the great Sleater-Kinney) talks about listening to new music.  It ends up we have more in common than just a love of both “Fast Car” & “Paradise City.” Here’s her process & mine too:

“With CDs or vinyl, the tearing off of the packaging and the opening of the booklet is part of the process. Often, the first track is playing and I’m still exploring the artwork, the lyrics, the production credits, and the “thank you” list. These distractions often force me to go back to the first few tracks again…With these formats, it becomes more than an aural experience, but a fully sensory one. I like to think that hearing a new album is like a first-time meeting: You try to have a mix of open-mindedness, curiosity, and a bit of healthy skepticism.

I’m often fidgety at first. Sitting, then standing, then pacing, noticing each time I’m drawn in or losing interest. Other times, the ritual involves doing something other than merely listening — for example, putting on the album and then cleaning the house, making dinner, or talking on the phone.”

There’s something special about all of this futzing around and I think it helps make me, to borrow from White Man Can’t Jump, to “hear” the music and not just “listen” to it. An extreme example of this is on the few occasions where I buy an album through iTunes* where I go through the same motions after burning the MP3’s to a disc.

* I’ve purchased the following albums on iTunes:
- Alkaline Trio “Agony & Irony”
- M.I.A. “Kala”
- Soundtrack to “I’m Not There”
- The Weakerthans “Civil Twilight”
- David Cross “It’s Not Funny”