I don’t know why, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Not necessarily what my favorite song, album or band is, but what criteria go into making a decision like that.

This may sound a little Rob Gordon of me, but here goes my definition of what qualifies as each.

Favorite Song

This can — and often does — change frequently. For most people. You find that new “jam” and listen to it 80,000 times a week until it wears out. You play it until you know the lyrics by heart, can hear the melodies in your head even when you’re not listening to it, and you’ve noticed every subtle nuance of the singer’s breathing.

But the question that often comes to mind: does your favorite song need to be from your favorite band/artist or on your favorite album?

For me, it’s a no. My favorite song can be from a completely random artist or band, separate from my favorite albums of all time.

How? Glad you asked.

Right now, my favorite song is a toss up between James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go” and Queen’s “Somebody To Love”. Queen’s song may be — in my opinion — the most perfect song ever written. It has harmonies and crescendos and excellent lyrics. It rises and falls, it builds you up and settles you back down. And it’s got Freddie Mercury, which is hard to beat. James Arthur’s song, on the other hand, has an incredibly story to it. For me, that’s an important part of a good song – telling me a story. As a creator of content, stories are important to me.

That said, neither James Arthur or Queen are my favorite artist, nor do either of them hold a position in my list of top albums.

The reason for that is actually quite simple. Keep reading and you’ll find out why.

Favorite Album

In order to be a favorite album— or, for me, it’s a top five list of albums— it has to be a solid album from start to finish. The songs need to flow into one another in a sense-able fashion. Every track has to be listenable. You can’t have a favorite album that you like every song except for one or two.

“Say You Won’t Let Go” is on Jame Arthur’s album called “Back from the Edge.” Is it a good album? Yes. Do I love every single track on it? No. There’s a few I could live without.

Same applies to Queen’s “A Day At The Races.” Does it have some absolutely amazing songs? Yes. Are there some I could never hear again and not care? Yes.

So what’s my favorite album then? Like I said, I have a top five list. It doesn’t change, as nothing’s ever bumped one of these albums from it.

• Boston by Boston
• Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater
• Letters by Butch Walker
• Candlebox by Candlebox
• Ugly by Life of Agony

Favorite Band/Artist

Much like a favorite album needs to have all good songs on it, a favorite band or artist follows the same thought process.

Every album the band/artist puts out has to be good. Perhaps not perfect (or they’d end up on the Favorite Album list), but good. Listenable. Enjoyable. There has to be an overall good sensation from listening to any and every album that he/she/they release.

This, as you can imagine, gets tough. Many bands put out an excellent first album but then suffer from the “sophomore slump.” A second album isn’t always nearly as good as the first a band puts out. There’s a lot of pressure from record labels, the artist themselves, society, etc. to put out a good second album. This often leads to a disappointing follow-up to their debut.

Up until the last few years, I always knew who my favorite bands were. I had a few and I toggled back and forth between them. As of right now, I’m not really sure who that is. Let me explain why I’m straying from my all time favorites.

Dream Theater.  Fourteen studio albums. Twenty+ live albums/DVDs/performances. I own them all. I love most of their music. However, their last album (“The Astonishing”) didn’t hit home with me. It’s a concept album (much like my beloved Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory), but it just didn’t work for me.

From Wikipedia: “The Astonishing is set in a dystopian future United States and follows the Ravenskill Rebel Militia in their efforts to defy the Great Northern Empire of the Americas using the magical power of music.”

It just missed the mark for me.

Life of Agony. Five studio albums. Five+ live albums/DVDs/performances. Mostly great. Some of my previous favorite songs were on some of their earlier albums. Some of their lyrics helped me through a lot of my growing up in my teen years.

But their last album (“A Place Where There’s No More Pain”) — after a 12 year break — just did not hit the mark with me. Is it great to have them back? Yes, because I feel it may lead to another album that I really enjoy. But this one didn’t do it for me. I find there’s hardly any tracks I seek out on it, none that really hit me in the heart, and none that I feel I couldn’t live with never hearing again.

Tool. Four albums. (A fifth is supposedly in the works).  “Undertow” and “Ænima” are both incredible albums. I still remember someone playing “Ænima” for me for the first time in high school when it came out. It changed me.

But when “Lateralus” came out, it wasn’t the same. There’s some good songs, but it doesn’t move me as a collection of work. There’s some weird stuff on the album, too. “Eon Blue Apocalypse”, “Mantra”, “Ticks & Leeches” and “Triad” just don’t jive for me.

Same applies to “10,000 Days”. There’s a few great songs on this album, but overall it doesn’t mesh for me as a whole album.

Hopefully, their next album will be great again, though it’s tough to say at this point.

So, I don’t think I have a favorite band right now. I know that’s sort of anti-climactic after over a thousand words of me rambling. But it’s true. I have bands and artists that I really love and enjoy most of what they put out. But I don’t have that one that really stands out.

If — gun to head — I’m forced to choose, though, I’d pick Dream Theater. After 14 studio albums, I guess I can forgive one blemish and pretend it doesn’t exist. They’re in the studio now working on another album, so hopefully they’ll make up for it.

What about you? What’s your favorite song, album and band/artist? Leave a comment and let’s discuss!

I had just turned twelve years old when I saw the video for “Smells Like Teen Sprit”, a title that to this day makes no sense to me at all. It was back when MTV played music videos and bands cared about that sort of thing because it got them on TV and helped sell more records.

I remember sitting and watching the video, not quite understanding what was happening, who this band was, or what it all meant. I remember wondering what this unusual guy was doing behind the drums. At this point, I hadn’t started playing the drums yet, I’d only wanted to. So, as I often did, I focused on the drummer. I wanted to see what he was doing, how he was doing it, what he hit when. But all I could see was this giant mane of brown hair flopping up and down and back and forth. I was so distracted by the man, that I didn’t see what he was doing.

It was the first time I heard Nirvana. It was also the first time that I knew and sort of understood what grunge was.

That weekend I had my mom drive me to Tower Records in Burlington – I don’t think Newbury Comics existed yet – and she bought me a copy of Nevermind. I remember having to fight with her over it. She didn’t approve of the naked baby on the cover, an argument I imagine many teenagers and pre-teens had with their parents. But in the end, I prevailed.

I listened to it over and over that day and the next. I loved that album and still do to this day.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the first song I tried to play on my first drum set two years later. I say tried there because you’d have never known that’s what I was trying to play along to. It was pretty sloppy and didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

It seems like such a small thing, but having literally tens of millions of songs available to choose from to be the first song you ever play on a new instrument actually meant quite a lot. I remember toying with the decision for days when I knew I was getting my first drums.

In 1994, just a few short years after I’d gotten to know the band and listened to everything they put out, Kurt Cobain died. Whether you believe he was killed or he committed suicide is up to you, but the fact of the matter is, he died.  Like many people who were into the band, I was upset. It was the first time in my young life that I remember watching people mourn on television. MTV covered it as part of MTV news (which I don’t think they even do anymore) and I watched as thousands gathered near his house to pay their respects.

It shook me. It was the first time I could remember someone that I looked up to dying.

Later that year, Dave Grohl emerged as the musician that other musicians wanted to work with. Once Nirvana was no more, Grohl got call after call from musicians who wanted to recruit him and work with him. But ultimately he had other plans. Those other plans turned out to be Foo Fighters.

His quote about why he decided to be a frontman and start his own band instead of working with an existing band is quite great:

I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life, I thought that I would rather do what no one expected me to do. I enjoy writing music and I enjoy trying to sing, and there’s nothing anyone can really do to discourage me.

That quote really moved me when I read about it – I believe in Rolling Stone. He decided to go against the grain because that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t bow to pressure from the record label, he didn’t just jump behind a drumkit for some random band. He went into a studio, by himself, and recorded almost an entire album. He played all of the instruments, produced all of the tracks, wrote everything, and was the everyman.

The plan for Foo Fighters was supposed to be anonymous. No one was supposed to know it was Dave Grohl that did it all. But once the demo got out there, record labels were fighting over it. So much so that Capitol Records gave Dave his own imprint label, Roswell Records. Roswell released the first Foo Fighters album, followed by public appearances, tours, and the rest is, as they say, history.

I don’t want to say that everyone was surprised at how good Foo Fighters were right out of the gate, but I think that word’s fitting. Here was this guy that we’d known, in the main stream music industry, for a few years as a really good solid drummer. And now here he was, in front of us, with a guitar, singing. Not only playing guitar and singing, but doing it really well. The songs he wrote, the melodies he came up with were almost so anti-Nirvana that it was hard to believe this was the same guy.

Today, Dave’s sought after for a number of collaborations between himself and other bands. He often joins bands he’s friends with on stage to play drums on a track or two, or fills in for other bands when their drummer is unavailable for whatever reason. He’s the go to guy in all of music and rightfully so. He oozes talent from almost everything he touches.

He’s an inspiration to me not just because of what he’s done and how far he’s come and how he’s overcome negativity and troubles in his life. He’s an inspiration to me because all of his success hasn’t changed him. He’s still the carefree, teenager-stuck-in-an-adult’s-body that he’s always been. He comes across as a true rockstar in interviews while maintaining his ability to remain humble.

Just this past weekend, Foo Fighters were playing a show in Sweden and Dave fell off of some speakers and hurt his leg. He went off stage for a short while and drummer Taylor Hawkins took over singing while medical staff checked Dave out. It turns out that he’d broken his leg in his fall. What does Dave Grohl do? He comes right back out on stage, sits down in a chair and finishes the set while a doctor puts a cast on him. On stage.

Not only is that inspirational, but that is truly badass. That’s a true definition of “the show must go on”.

Almost everything Grohl has done with the Foo Fighters in the last 20 years has been good and golden. Grohl has the magic hand that makes almost any piece of music he’s involved with listenable and worth your time. For that and many more reasons, Dave Grohl inspires me to be a better musician, stay humble through any fame, and never let anything get you down to a low point that you can’t bounce back from.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Rolling Stone (August 2013) after Dave played with Rush the night before. Proof that even famous people are just regular people.

Absolutely. When I got 2112 when I was eight years old; it fucking changed the direction of my life. I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer. At rehearsals the other day, I had never met Neil Peart before. Alex [Lifeson] and Geddy [Lee] are the nicest people in the world. I was coming to rehearsal and I was meeting Neil for the first time, and this man was as influential as any religion or any hero or any person in someone’s life. He said, “So nice to meet you. Can I make you a coffee?” And he made me a coffee, man. And later on that night, I went to dinner and had a couple glasses of wine and I started fucking crying because my hero made me a fucking coffee. It was unbelievable, man. So that’s kind of how this whole experience has been.

 

This is the first in a (hopefully) ongoing series I’m working on about musicians who inspire me in some form or another.

We start by going back to my teenage years. The first time I heard Life of Agony, I was a little over 13 years old. My best friend Dan had an album called “River Runs Red” by a widely unknown and mostly nobody band from Brooklyn New York.

I remember sitting on the floor of his house listening to it like it was yesterday. The entire album played all the way through and we looped it back to listen to it again. By that time, Dan had already heard the album plenty of times. But my first two listens were special. They would, unbeknownst to me, change the way I look at music, song writing, and drumming.

Behind the drum kit on that album was a man I’d never heard of before, Sal Abruscato. A seemingly giant man who could make drums boom and sound like thunder in a way I’d never heard before. At that point I hadn’t gotten my first drum set yet – that didn’t come for another two plus years – but I remember thinking to myself “I want drums that sound like that.”

The way his toms sung, the way the China symbol made just the right mix of crash and trash and clang was perfect. It wasn’t just the way the drums sounded, no. It was the way the drums sounded with the music. The way it all flowed together and made a melody, it made a song that was more than just a bunch of guys playing their respective instruments. It made sense.

It wasn’t so easy to find out information about things back then. I know it makes me sound really old saying that. But it wasn’t like you could just pop online and go on Wikipedia and look someone up. So I did what I’d do a thousand times in those days – I read the liner notes.

I learned quite a bit about the band, but not about the man. Not about Sal.

Come to find out, he was on loan from a much larger band that you may have heard of, called Type O Negative. Sal had been their drummer for a while when he somehow got involved with Life of Agony. I don’t know the story there, but I’m guessing he knew some of the band members somehow. Since they’re all from Brooklyn, there had to have been some sort of connection.

When I left Dan’s house that day, I took “River Runs Red” home with me and listened to it more times than I can count. It just resonated with me and still does to this day.

When I did finally get my first drum set at Christmas two years later, the first three albums I learned to play start to finish were “River Runs Run”, Silverchair’s “Frogstomp” and Goo Goo Dolls’ “A Boy Named Goo”.  I had been air drumming to these albums since I got them and knew the notes, the hits, the fills, the melodies down pat by the time I sat behind my first drum set. While the songs were not very complicated, these albums still helped me learn how to really play the drums. They helped me to get my own style, my own feel behind the drums. They helped me to find my flow and get my timing down.

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down and played “River Runs Red” through start to finish. But I have no doubt that my muscle memory would bring me back and I’d immediately be able to get through the whole thing.

Life of Agony’s been through a lot of ups and downs over the years and is unfortunately no longer around. (Edit: according to Wikipedia, the original lineup has reformed for a second reunion and is touring and recording again.) Their singer Keith Caputo transitioned into a woman and is now known as Mina Caputo. She struggled with drugs – thanks to her parents for both being drug users – her whole life and had ups and downs with it. I imagine struggling to let the world know that you believe you’re a woman trapped in a man’s body your entire life will push you to use and abuse drugs.

They had their typical fifteen minutes of fame in the summer of 1997, right after I graduated high school. Their album “Soul Searching Sun” had a “hit” song called Weeds that got them quite a bit of radio play, while the rest of the album was still relatively un-listened to by the masses. Sal didn’t play on that album, but was their touring drummer both before and after the album.

Thankfully, I had the honor to see Life of Agony at the Worcester Palladium, a relatively small venue. I believe it was around 2005. I was right in the front row, dead center, the entire show.  I watched as this band that I’d been listening to for over 20 years thundered away, commanding the stage, playing these songs that I’d known so well and loved so much.

A drumstick that Sal handed to me after the show is still in my possession. When I finally get around to setting up my drum kit at my new house, it’ll proudly be mounted on the wall. Not because I want to brag about it. Not because I want people to see it and ask to hear the story of how I got it. Not because I want people to ask me who Sal Abruscato it. But because it reminds me that no matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter how long it’s been since you do it, it’ll touch someone. It’ll make someone, in some way, feel better about themselves. It’ll make someone aspire to be better, to try harder, to work longer. It’ll do something.

I’d love to tell you how I got really into all of the other bands Sal’s been in over the years. How I’ve followed his career and bought everything he’s done, how he’s been my hero. But that’s not the case. The reality is that I only know him from Life of Agony. I know the songs that he was a hired hand on. I know the albums that have worn themselves out in my CD player and eventually made it to the top of my iTunes Most Played lists. I know the smashing and the banging and the perfect sounding drums that inspired me to want to be able to make my drums sound like that, the perfect timing and monstrous fills that I wanted to be able to do myself. I knew the drummer that I wanted to be able to imitate.

I’ll leave you now with the song that I most identified with in my late teen years. A song called “Lost at 22”. A song that I couldn’t wait to turn 22 and listen to, so my angst would make sense. So I’d finally be able to play the song and say “that’s me. I get that. I’m 22 and I have no idea what I’m doing.”

I decided that for tonight (and Saturday’s) drum time (my affectionate name for when I play my drums), I will make a special playlist, containing some of my favorite songs, and some that I haven’t played before.

I know you’re dying to know, so here’s what I’ll be playing along with for my next two sessions:

• Passenger – Deftones & Maynard James Keenan
• Come Undone (Cover) – Adrenaline Mob (featuring Lzzy Hale of Halestorm)
• Brother – Alice in Chains
• Breathe (2 A.M.) – Anna Nalick
• Cover Me – Candlebox
• Far Behind – Candlebox
• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
• The Red – Chevelle
• She Said – Cinder
• Clean My Wounds – Corrosion of Conformity
• The Downfall of Us All – A Day to Remember
• Arterial Black – Drist
• Barely Breathing – Duncan Sheik
• White Rabbit – Egypt Central
• Where Did You Go – Full Devil Jacket
• Levitate – Hollywood Undead
• 2 Minutes to Midnight – Iron Maiden
• Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
• San Francisco – Madam Adam
• Dyers Eve – Metallica
• Everywhere – Michelle Branch
• Cemetery Gates – Pantera
• Purple – Pop Evil
• Look In My Eyes – Rains
• Bully – Shinedown
• Wait and Bleed – Slipknot
• What do I Have To Do? – Stabbing Westward
• 22 – Taylor Swift
• If You Could Only See – Tonic
• Not Enough – Van Halen
• Fallen – Volbeat
• Shoot It Out – 10 Years

As you can see, quite the eclectic playlist.  I jump from Taylor Swift to Slipknot to Metallica to Michelle Branch.  Why? Glad you asked.  For one, it keeps a drummer versatile to be able to play along to various styles of music. Sure, I could just slam my head to pure metal the entire time I’m playing.  But there’s only so far that style of music can take you.  By adding in some pop and mellow tracks, it helps me be improvisational.  I don’t play those types of tracks note for note, but instead put my own spin on them, making them more fun, but also keeping me on my toes.

Classics like Dyers Eve and Cemetery Gates are just fun to play.  Of the 33 songs I put on this playlist, 22 I’ve never played before. So this should be interesting!

Have any suggestions that I should add?  I’m not leaving for drum time for 6 more hours, and will gladly take requests. (You’ll just have to trust me that I’ve played your requested song, unless you want to hike into the city at 5pm.)

Ever since I moved in May of last year, my drums have been at a music complex about half an hour from my apartment. Not ideal, and certainly not as cushy as I had it when I lived in my house. But it is what t is, and that’s the best I’ve got for right now.

Up until this week, I’d only been going there once a week, usually on Friday nights after work. They recently changed their hours, so they’re open much earlier all the time, so it’s slightly easier to go on Saturday morning. It’s also a lot quieter on Saturday mornings, too. Friday nights are hit or miss. Since there’s close to 100 rooms in the place, sometimes I get there and there’s no bands rehearsing. Sometimes there’s a bunch. And as soundproof as they built the place, it’s still pretty loud. Thankfully once I put my headphones in and start playing, it’s tough to hear any other musicians, so that’s okay. I think, but haven’t confirmed, that I’m l the only musician there that’s not in a band and just plays for fun. That’s probably because of the fact that the place is kind of pricey if you’re by yourself. Since most of the other renters are in bands, they get to split the costs between them, whereas I’m by myself.

Starting this week, I’m going three times a week. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. Not only does this make financial sense, but it’s good for my mentality and physicality, as well. It’s no secret that I’m out of shape, and have been for years. And it’s also me secret that I can’t go to the gym consistently. The only form of exercise over the years that I’ve ever been able to manage has been my drums. So why not take advantage of it?

I got myself an iPad mount a few weeks ago, which has worked wonders. I used to,play along to my iPhone in my pocket, but that wasn’t working out so well. If a song came on that I didn’t want to play, I’d have to reach into my pocket and take the iPhone and change the track. Which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you’re trying to play along to songs that may start instantly, it’s too to get the iPhone back in your pocket before the song starts. Now the iPad sits gingerly to to the left of my hi-hats at a height that I can not only always see what’s playing, but I can reach over and swipe to the left or right to change tracks. It works out way better this way.

Here’s a gallery of my drums. Because this post is really long right now, and your eyes could use a break from reading. And because you’re probably curious about what it looks like if you haven’t seen it before.

I’ve also been experimenting trying to play some songs that I’ve never tried before. I’ve always tried to stick to albums and songs that I was confident I could play, but that’s getting kind of boring. So why not try new stuff? I’ve got a playlist on the iPad that’s just called Drums, with tons of songs that I either know I can play, or that I want to try to play.

People often ask “Can you learn to play this song?” And drumming isn’t really something that you can learn. Either you hear what the drummer in the song is doing, or you don’t. Granted, you could read the sheet music, and play it note for note the way the composer did, but that’s usually not likely. More often than not, you just play along to what you hear. You may get to a part that’s hard to hear or too complex, and you improvise. Most of drumming is improvising. At least the way I play it is.

I’ve had this particular drum kit for almost a year and a half now. I bought it for myself in September of 2011, as a birthday gift to myself. It’s my dream color, Pearl’s Ocean Sparkle. I’m a hit miffed that there’s two different shades of blue, but it happens. I got such a good deal on Craigslist, I couldn’t really complain. Perhaps some day I’ll replace the mismatched drums wit matching ones. The issue is that they don’t make this particular line or color anymore, so I’d have to custom order them. Price isn’t a big deal, but there’s around an 8 month wait for custom ordered drums from Pearl.

In short, or to sum this whole thing up rather, I’m going to start playing more. Not just because it makes me feel good, but because its good for me. I love drums.

I’ve been feeling kind of lackluster lately when it comes to being a “musician”.  I suppose that lackluster feeling is due to not really feeling like a musician.

In my younger days I used to write two or three songs a week, and be in a band.  We may not have been the best band on earth, but it was a fun way for us to get together and make (what we thought was great) music.  I don’t have that anymore.

I’ve toyed with the idea of trying to get a band together, but I honestly wouldn’t know how to go about doing it.  I have some musicians that I’m friendly with, but they’re all in bands already, which makes it hard to get them to join me. “Hey, I know you’re in a band already, but want to quit and join mine? I haven’t been in one in 16 years, but I’m sure I’m still pretty awesome to jam with!”

I’ve been getting back into writing lately — starting out with blog posts to get the creative juices flowing, and eventually I’d like to get back into writing as many songs as I once did.  (Note to self, I have to finish digitizing the rest of them.  That file storage box is staring at me.)  I feel better when I’m creating things.  Not to say I don’t feel good otherwise.  I just feel, I don’t know, free when I’m writing.  It’s an escape from the things I think and feel, even if those things aren’t daunting or scary.  It’s just a way to get down on paper what’s in my head.  (Or in this case, get them down in WordPress.)

Sometimes I read over some older songs that I wrote, and it’s almost immediate that I know what a particular song is about.  Spoiler: most of them are about girls.  Lesser-known-spoiler: a lot of them are completely fictional and aren’t based in fact at all. I’ve found that it’s easier for me to write a song about something (or someone) that’s completely made up, versus something that’s real.

Take, for example, Subtracted:49.  I wrote this back in 2001 during my “I’ll write stuff that isn’t real” phase.  If you read through the song, it’s very easy to interpret it as a son telling his father that he’s grown up, and is his own man.  The song ends with the line “I still feel it hurt, like the day you died.”  My dad’s not dead, he’s still alive and healthy.  Clearly this is a song created out of a fictitious story in my head.

I like to write songs that tell a story (which is clear if you read through anything I’ve written).  Whether that story’s obvious or not is up in the air.  Sometimes I like to leave songs open to the listening/reader to discover themselves. (Much like a Christopher Nolan movie.)  This particular song, Subtracted:49 tells the story of the young man telling his father that even after he’s passed away he should still be proud of his son.  The title, which I’ve never really explained before, is just a math problem.  At the time I wrote the song, it’s how old my dad was.  If you subtract the year I wrote the song, from the year he was born, you get 49.  (Which in hindsight I realize is incorrect. He’s two years older than that.  Younger me was either bad at birthdays or bad at math.)

It’s always fun for me to go back through stuff I’ve written.  While it never really took me anywhere, I like to think that I am a pretty good writer.  Sure I have my bouts with typos, but when you’re flying along at 120+ WPM, you’re excused for not being perfect.  I should get better about editing my own work, though. I’ll admit that.

In summation, even though I’m not in a bad. Even though I don’t write much anymore.  Even though I don’t practice as much as I would like to or should.  I am a musician.  And being a musician is something I’m proud to be.

I’ve been looking for a new theme for this site for a while. And I’m honestly too lazy to make my own from scratch, so I found this one. Modified it a bit to suit my needs, and voila. Here we are.

I’ve added back in the “Music” section, which isn’t complete yet, but it’s almost all of the lyrics to songs I’ve written in my lifetime.  I haven’t written in years, and I’m hoping seeing all of my past stuff on the site every time I come to will inspire me to write something new.

So, there you have it.  Read away. Comments are turned off for the lyrics, but feel free to send me a message if you’ve got any feedback, or even comment on this post.

Note of warning, try not to read anything from the ’90s, I was just a kid and wrote cheesey meaningless crap back then.  2000 and 2001 were good years for me, at least I think so.  Anyway, enjoy. Or not.