by Bobby Burnside
I am the youngest of five children in my family, there are three girls and 12 years between my brother and I, yet we have always been very close. He introduced me to Star Wars, important books, and punk-rock. I realize that these things may seem silly and insignificant to some, but I have come to place heavy value upon them, as they helped form pillars of my personality.
1-Jellyfish: Ignorance is Bliss
There was a time when my life consisted of eating hot lunch before recess and playing Super Nintendo as soon as I got home from school. I shared a room with my brother, and everything in the room was his, including a large collection of CDs and a stereo system that the seven year-old me found both as complicated as times tables, and literally out of my reach. The first CD my brother deliberately played for me was the Jellyfish song “Ignorance is Bliss.” I only cared about this song because the lyrics referred to Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and King Koopa. I vividly remember laying on my top bunk, asking him to put in, “That Mario song.” I have never forgotten the purple spine of that album amongst the numerous other CDs in his collection.
2-blink-182: Dammit
One year for Christmas I got a transparent blue Sony boom-box, sadly I only owned one CD, Smashmouth's “Astrolounge.” I constantly asked my brother for CDs, one day he handed me “Dude Ranch.” I spent the next hour laying on my stomach in front of the boom-box doing three things in sequence: 1-Gushing over the guitar intro, 2-turning the volume knob down before the F word, and 3- pressing repeat.
3-blink-182: A New Hope
My brother programmed me to love Star Wars at a young age. So when he found out I was constantly pushing repeat on his CD he was upset, and not just because I was ruining it, but because I wasn’t listening to the song that he purchased the album for. Personally, I was never attracted to Princess Leia, but I knew what an “Alderaanian” was, and that “Mos Eisley” was on Tatooine.
4-Eve 6: Inside Out
My brother was driving me and two of my sisters to my oldest sister’s wedding in my families ’91 GMC Suburban when this song came on the radio. I sat alone on the last row of seats and wondered what the words meant. I learned the definition of “oblivion” that day, but I had to wait for the video game Goldeneye to come out before I ever understood what “rendezvous” meant.
5-Jimmy Eat World: The Middle
I saw the music video of this song on MTV quite a few times before my brother burned the whole album for me, (It was the first burned album I ever had.) I remember singing what I thought were the words to the chorus of this song and air-guitaring the guitar solo alone in my room after my brother moved out. This album still holds up on my top five all-time list.
6-The Get Up Kids: Forgive and Forget
This was the first Get Up Kids song I ever heard. I sat next to my brother while he went through his digital music library choosing which songs to put on a mix for me, he played the first half of this song and I told him to put it on. I vividly remember this mix because he wrote the track listing in a spiral on the actual CD-R. For whatever reason I have always loved the lyrics “Let sleepers lie, bygones have all gone by.”
7.The New Amsterdams: Hover Near Fame
It was easy to love The New Amsterdams after I already loved The Get Up Kids. My brother saw The New Amsterdams at Kilby Court and bought a sticker for me, it was yellow and said “The New F****** Amsterdams,” I never found out what the “F” stood for as he had scribbled the rest of the word out with sharpie. In most cases the lyrics or vocal melody are what makes a song catchy to me, in the case of this song it is the perfect harmony of the drums, bass, and cadence of the lyrics.
8-Brand New: Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades
My friend Cliff bought “Deja Entendu” for me while we were at Circuit City together on my 15th birthday, I only liked the single, “The Quite Things That No One Ever Knows.” My brother found it in my room and seemed interested so I let him have it, after a while I wondered why he wanted it, so I had him burn me a copy. Listening again, knowing I missed something the first few times I heard “Sic Transit Gloria,” and followed the narrative not the music. In my mind I pictured a kid clothed in school uniform of red and blue being broken, although I didn’t like the image, I loved that a song created it.
9-Me First & The Gimme Gimmes: Where do Broken Hearts Go
I also received, “Take a Break” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes for my 15th birthday, from my brother. I love the entire album, but I remember sitting in my room listening to the first song, ("Where do Broken Hearts Go",) and laughing. I loved that they made this Mo-Town hit into a punk-rock anthem, and they didn’t take themselves serious in the process. Spike’s vocals are both impressive and hilarious throwing in three, “Yeahs!” to end the song.
10-Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly: I-Spy
Just after my senior year of High School my brother had some side job that entailed a lot of free music. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly was one of those free albums that I really enjoyed. Somehow the mixture of acoustic guitars, electronic drums, and sythesizers worked perfectly for this song. The imagery I always think of while listening to this song is playing Super Mario World, when you can obtain a yellow cape and fly over the entire level.
11-The Avett Brothers: Murder in the City
My brother sent me a YouTube link to this song a few years ago. I was pretty grossed out by the Avetts’ long beards and wife-beaters, but loved the song. I don’t know if our relationship as brothers matches with the lyrics in the song, but you can definitely feel the sincerity while they sing of their own relationship. The single greatest moment of the song is when they question which brother their parents love the most, I love how they harmonize their father’s words, “I love you and I’m proud of your both, in so many different ways.”
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