My "Taste" In Music

My first experiment in podcasting (see my last post) elicited much the same reaction that I got in the club when I DJ'd. One brave soul, who obviously had not yet listened to the music, volunteered that he was planning "to listen to it with my friends on our roadtrip for hardcore shows through the Netherlands."

Dear Yen,

I predict that your friends will beat you mercilessly and shove your body out of the car door somewhere between Utrecht and Amsterdam. Think twice about playing it for them.

Alice
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Thanks for all the feedback. I will continue to post these podcasts but be forewarned that my taste in music is somewhat eclectic and maybe not what you'd expect from "Alice Bag." I grew up listening to soul, pop and Mexican singers and I still favor pop music. The fact that I was once the lead singer of an aggressive and noisy punk band has more to do with my own childhood experiences than any Iggy Pop influences, of which I can honestly say I had none growing up. I recall that, even as a young kid growing up in East L.A., my taste in music was very different from my peers. I grew up loving my older sister's American soul records, but I also loved "Dominique" by Sister Sourire, "Pendant les Vacances" by Sheila and I adored Sara Montiel. So I guess that my odd taste in music goes way back.

I think that is something I had in common with alot of the other people I met in the early and pre-punk scene. We all had very different tastes in music from what was popular at the time, which may help to explain why the early L.A. bands all sounded so different from one another.

I think it's better for me not to try to predict how others will react to my musical choices. The stuff I picked for my first podcast was all upbeat stuff that I like to listen to, so it made sense in my world. And I think that's the great thing about mixtapes (which is what we used to call podcasting back in the days before the internet, when we would make cassette tapes for our friends). These song collections allow you to visit someone else's musical world. I still have a cassette that a very young Beck once made for me (I used to sleep in his bedroom when he moved out of his mother's house and I even inherited a pair of his old pajamas one night when I couldn't find my own). Anyway, the Beck tape is full of scratchy Appalachian folk 78's, Cajun and zydeco music and the other stuff he was filling his creative mind with.

So, stay tuned. I've got some ideas brewing for more podcasts that will show you more of my world.