What was the first concert you ever saw?
Beatlemania in the late '70s. Sadly, not the cast with Marshall Crenshaw as Lennon.
What CDs are in your changer right now?
Most of my audio listening is done out of iTunes, but here's the closest approximation: Sneaky Pinks single; John Adams, Century Rolls; Channel 3, After the Lights Go Out, Maureen Dowd, Are Men Necessary?, Pink Section, Everything! (bootleg) and a lot of Doug Stanhope live bootlegs.
How many total albums do you own (CDs, vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks)?
About 1,400 manufactured CDs (maybe 700 home-burned), about 2,000 LPs, 1,100 singles, 900 cassettes, six 8-tracks and 44,573 digital files. I have exactly one Edison Cylinder.
Do you download music, and if so, legally or illegally?
Yeah, I do both, obsessively and constantly. I hit around 20 MP3 blogs every day and am probably downloading two or three albums right this very second. It's gonna be interesting to see how our concepts of ownership and copyright evolve thanks to the easy exchange of digital files.
What was the first album you owned?
At 2 or 3, I used to scratch up my brother's Beatles records trying to play them, so Sgt. Pepper's was bought for me as an audio pacifier.
What song would you like to have played at your funeral?
I'm angling for "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, but will accept John Cage's "4'33"."
Musically speaking, what do you love that your friends don't know about? What's your favorite guilty pleasure?
Well, I love fluffy pop from 20 Fingers to the Outfield, but there's no guilt there.
What band or artist changed your life, and how?
In first grade my brother gave me a bunch of his old hard rock records, so I think Black Sabbath, Kiss and Alice Cooper all helped set the stage for this wretched path.
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
I hate music.
