I still
remember the first time I ever listened to a Blink-182 CD. I
had asked for, and received, their record Take Off Your
Pants and Jacket for Hannukah when I was 9 years old. I
slid the CD into my gold Sony Walkman, and I fell hard. I
fell hard for Blink-182, their loud, fast, melodic music and
snotty lyrics. I fell hard for the guys; they were my first
"celebrity crushes" and I probably have Tom, Mark, and
Travis to blame for my now lifelong habit of crushin’ on
smelly punks. But most of all, Blink-182 made me fall for
music; it was the first time music became more than fun.
Suddenly I could relate to music. Suddenly it was there for
me emotionally. Music became all I could think about; I
devoted my life to music, in large part thanks to Blink-182.
I still love taking out my Blink CDs and singing along with
the favorites. But as we all must grow up, my music tastes
have changed and wandered. I’ll always be rooted in the
pop-punk, emo, punk, and hardcore scenes that raised me. But
I do often enjoy something a little more complex. If you’re
confused where I’m going with all this, look no further: I
have found the Holy Grail. It’s adult music, but it’s also
Blink-182 ... kind of.
Leave it to the Canadians to come up with this kind of
brilliance: musician d’Eon released Music For Keyboards
Vol II: Variations on What’s My Age Again. It’s no less
than fourteen classical music takes on What’s My Age
Again, and it’s fantastic. It may sound weird or
repetitive, but d’Eon takes those simple chords in beautiful
places, and when I played some selections for my friends,
they didn’t even make the Blink connection until I told
them. I can’t really explain it further; it’s just one of
those records that you have to listen to. The whole thing is
streaming and up for download at
Stereogum; my personal favorite track is
Variation V.
:d'Eon
- Variation V:
And for good measure, possibly my favorite music video of
all time, What’s My Age Again (sort of NSFW).
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