on Playlists: Music to Fuel Your Nights Out As Normal Life Slowly Returns

I’ve loved music all my life. You probably have, too, right? Ten bucks says you have. With hearts and brains like hard drives, we all move through this life constantly shuffling through thousands of songs triggered by memories and names, a certain season, or even just the way the light or landscape feels in a certain place. Maybe some of the songs are triggered by a specific small cluttered bedroom where you had to squeeze against a wall just to get around your queen sized bed to get through to your closet, but you didn’t care because this was your first place away from home and you felt like you had finally made it. And you used this apartment to show off to your ex-girlfriend who was already so done with you and admittedly more concerned than grateful that you felt the need to pick her up from work and “swing by your new pad real quick to grab something.” Or not, I don’t know, maybe I’m kind of doing what therapist refers to as “projecting.”

Anyway, the point is this: our hearts and heads are filled with music, and as years go by we continue to amass this catalogue of songs that permanently score some of the biggest moments and memories of our lives. Soundtracks that define a night, a summer, or, Jesus Christ, a decade.

We have this in common, no matter who we are.

I decided to make a few playlists that capture my own decade-long addiction to the fuzzy nights and head-pounding hangovers of my twenties. Music that, perhaps, could fuel your own bad decisions one night soon.

Mischief

Perfect for when you are sipping a flask on the train headed to a show at the Aragon Ballroom.

Stoned

Whatever your vice is, take some about 15 minutes before playing this.

Disgrace

This basically sums up my nights several years ago, when I would head to Pink Dolphin in search of molly.