For the longest time, I swore I had been a fan of Depeche Mode since their album Violator dropped. However, I recently looked up the release date (March 19, 1990) and that just doesn't jive at all. I know, for a fact, that I've been listening to them (along with The Cure and Duran Duran) since middle school, which, for me, was 1987-89. That was my personal British Invasion. So I guess that means I've been listening since the days of Music for the Masses although I've never owned that album, though I do know the songs.

No, not the social media site that is supposed to be a portal for professionals to network with like minds and find jobs, that's LinkedIn (although after using LinkedIn for three job hunts, I can safely say it has not gotten me a single job). Also, no, not the neighborhood in Chicago that plays home to one of my favorite pizza joints around (Piece Pizza), that's Lincoln Park. 

Back in 1989-90, during my freshman year of high school, I bought my first Sony Discman and hooked it up to a cassette boombox I owned to be able to play and collect compact discs for the first time. And while I remember this time well, I can never quite remember which was my first CD... was it The Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker or the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Mother's Milk? 

When Soul Asylum broke through to the mainstream with Grave Dancers Union in 1992, I was all on-board for the ride. Not just because of "Runaway Train," though. In fact, the album had been out for a year before that song was even released.

Throughout the history of modern music, there have been special pairings of songs that, while perhaps they were meant to be separate entities when initially recorded by the artists, the fans have forever entwined them so that they almost sound strange if played separately.

February 13 of this year marked the 30th anniversary of the debut album by a band I've loved since shortly before the day that album was released. The band? The Black Crowes. The album? Shake Your Money Maker.

One of my very favorite bands to arise from the post-grunge 90s is Chicago’s very own Urge Overkill.

“Woah” is right. 

Yesterday I posted an embedded video copy of David Lee Roth’s “A Little Ain’t Enough” without watching it first.

As in David Lee Roth.

Diamond Dave.

The wild man with the high kicks and the distinctive gravelly voice. 

I was listening to some music this morning on the way to work and thought, "Wow! This would be a great band to highlight in My Favorite Song. What's it been? A couple months since I've done one?"

Another band that has been a part of my lifelong playlist is INXS. The six-piece team from Australia has been rocking my life since 1987 and, even in spite of frontman Michael Hutchence's suicide in 1997, I still listen to them on fairly regular rotation.

A few weeks ago, I lamented an underwhelming “anthology” of songs released by Prince between 1995 and 2010. Specifically, I was upset the entirety of Prince’s 2004 album Musicology was not there. 

I'm still in shock that George Michael is no longer with us (yes, I know it was almost two years ago now). Prince and David Bowie and Tom Petty were bad enough. But George Michael, too? It's just crazy the amount of talent we've lost in the last few years. Alas, he is gone and we have to content ourselves with the material he produced during his far-too-short career. But it's magnificent material, isn't it?

Cinderella and I go way back. And I don't mean the Disney or Grimm princess, either. I mean the glam metal band. They're actually one of the first glam bands I really began to jive with after my self discovery of music kicked into full gear in middle school. 

When I first started high school, I started taking guitar lessons. I was never very good at it, but I enjoyed it overall. I continued for just about a decade until grad school and then sold off all my gear. I just wasn't playing regularly, if at all, and my stuff was collecting dust.

When Warrant, the Hollywood glam metal band came crashing on the scene in 1989 with their debut album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin’ Rich, I was immediately hooked. The red hot guitars of Erik Turner and Joey Allen were complemented nicely in the backend by bassist Jerry Dixon and drummer Steven Sweet.

During my sophomore year of high school in 1990-91, I was very impressionable with regard to music. I had my favorites, don’t get me wrong, but it was a time of great discovery for me. Everywhere I looked, there was rock, metal, grunge, alternative, electronic, funk, synth-pop, rap, blues, Motown... I listened to it all. 

For this edition of Tu(n)esday/My Favorite Song, I would like to talk about one of my all-time favorite bands. A band that I have known longer than any band and been a fan of longer than just about any other. That band? KISS. 

In grad school, I took a music video appreciation class. In it, I was introduced to the electronic/synthesizer stylings of Richard D. James, AKA Aphex Twin.

I have been listening to Beck longer than I realized. The same probably goes for you, too. Seriously, give it a moment while you think about the first time you ever heard a Beck song. Probably been 20-odd years, hasn't it? Yikes.

A week ago, my BlogBrother Marty Mankins of Banal Leakage started a new feature called "My Favorite Song" in which he highlights his favorite song from a musician or band. I liked the idea a lot, so I asked him if I could steal it and he said yes. At least I think he did. Let me check...