First

Hello. Nice to meet you.

My name is Dan. Some basics about me:

• I live in Binghamton, NY.
• I'm a math teacher/tutor by trade.
• I'm married. My wife and I are expecting our first child in April 2012.

Anyway, there's a book called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, compiled by Robert Dimery. Basically this anthology is a tool for expanding one's popular music literacy from the 1950's to the present day. From Frank Sinatra to Arcade Fire and encompassing virtually all significant artists/bands and genres in between, the book stands as a somewhat intimidating primer. My goal is to listen to all 1001 and give my thoughts on each of them, right here in this blog.

I should disclose before I go any further that I'm somewhat well versed in the canon of Western popular music, so I'm not really coming to this project as a "blank slate," so to speak. I voraciously listen to music of all kinds already, I have a CD collection of nearly 2000 discs, and I served as a DJ in college for four years. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to alternative rock of the 90's and indie rock of the last 30 years, and I've heard a good number of so-called classic albums from the 1960's and 1970's as well. I even have a fairly strong taste for jazz, having played saxophone for many years growing up. If you're really curious about what I listen to, check out my last.fm profile. For those who like lists (and if you're here, you probably do), my top five "desert island discs" as of right now, January 15, 2012 are probably the following:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer
2. The National - Boxer
3. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
4. Slowdive - Souvlaki
5. Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac

Tomorrow, that list could be entirely different. By the end of this project, I'm guessing it definitely will be.

I have many reasons for attempting this project, but basically it boils down to a few things:

1) I can't stand knowing there are albums out there that I will inevitably love that I haven't stumbled across yet. I want to find some new favorites, and rediscover some great albums I've already heard at some point or another.

2) I am a learner by nature (as all humans should be, I suppose) and I want to know as much about music as I can. I want to listen to music that's outside the sphere of what I would ordinarily listen to. I want the full picture of how and why pop music developed as it did.

3) I'm the kind of person who has a hard time completing projects like this, so it will be a good challenge for myself.

I'm not setting any kind of timetable for myself with this project. I figure there will be weeks where I can listen to 10 or more albums, but other weeks where fitting one or two into my schedule will be challenging. I also haven't decided if I'll do the albums in order, or just kind of randomly. We'll see how it goes.

Please feel free to leave comments as I go through this journey. I ask that you keep your comments respectful.

And with that, expect to see my musings on Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours in a little bit!