Get to Know TJM: Our First Great Music!

With Record Store Day coming up this Saturday, we were curious: What was the first song our TJM staff members liked well enough to want to buy? We wondered in what format they bought the song. And was it important enough to them to buy it in multiple formats? Here’s what we said:

Jamie Lachnicht

“Feel Good Inc.” – Gorillaz

I made CDs with this band, AND it was my first concert when they came from their very long hiatus, about 5 years ago. Before my car had that smart Apple CarPlay, I also made cassette tapes to put in while I drove. Now I listen to their new album on Apple Music

Kristen McKenney

“Basket Case” – Green Day

The first song I liked enough to buy the album for was "Basket Case" by Green Day. It was on their "Dookie" album. I bought the CD. Despite the name, it had a lot of really great songs on there that I still love today. Timeless classics. The album artwork was really cool too. That CD was the start of a substantial collection that eventually filled an entire case and rode around in my car with me everywhere.

Rick Cundiff

“Woolly Bully” – Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

From the first time I heard the count-in: “Uno, dos … one, two, tres, quattro!” I was hooked. I was five years old at the time. I loved it. Still do. First bought it (well, my parents did) on vinyl. Later added it on CD, and it’s still in a place of honor on my streaming playlists today, including cover versions sung in French, Swedish (!) and Spanish. Fair warning – you WILL see and hear me singing along with the car windows down …

[Editor’s Note: We have just learned that the NHL’s Utah Mammoth play Woolly Bully after every home win! Guess Matty told Hatty!]

Shannon Moore

NSYNC

We listened to the radio mainly when I was growing up, I don't remember the first song I wanted to go out and buy. I do, however, remember getting a little HitClips player and the chips to put in them. I think I had Dream Street and NSYNC, probably had Britney Spears too. For sure, I had NSYNC in both forms, CD and clip. I never bought them myself, but did have a few cassettes. I had a stand in my room for my radio, and I'd turn it on to sleep to and get ready to in the morning. 

Nyki Gillette

Christmas Songs

My earliest memory of some of my favorite songs were at Christmas time. My mom would play Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Elvis’s Christmas albums on vinyl. Now, every Christmas I play those songs and relive the wonderful childhood memories.

Also, I LOVE Woolly Bully!!!! It’s such a fun song to dance to. [Editor’s Note: Nyki clearly has highly refined musical taste!]

Matt Fischer

A Disjointed, Rambling Answer [Matt’s Own Description]

I will answer this in a disjointed and rambling way because they are all just fragments of memories. So I will take you through my brief journey into music during the ‘90s.

My first two cassette tapes were Pearl Jam's “Ten” and Kris Kross' “Totally Krossed Out” that my parents got me for Christmas in 1992.  I was in love with the song "Jump.” I guess the Pearl Jam one was an impulse buy for my parents, as it was their debut album at the time, and I wasn't familiar with their music yet. 

After that the other two I begged for were Alabama's American Pride because of the song "I’m in a Hurry" and The Lion King soundtrack - because well all the songs are fantastic (but really for “The Circle of Life”).  

As I got older and could buy my own things, but gifting was still the most common way I got music.

In 1997 I wanted Rammstein's Sehnsucht album because of the hit song "Du Hast". It had some very interesting cover art, and my parents were not on board. One afternoon, my mom surprised me with the CD and secretly gave it to me in my room, and quietly said "don't tell your father I bought this for you.” Thanks, Mom! [Editor’s Note: We have previously established that Matt’s mom is a saint. This is one example of that.]

Then my 7th grade girlfriend (and through a strange twist of fate, now my wife) got me the Korn “Follow the Leader” CD for me in 1998, because of the hit song "Freak on a Leash.” She had to have her dad buy it because of the Parental Advisory sticker, and we were not even teens yet. [Editor’s Note: Of course she’s now his wife. Where was he gonna find a better father-in-law than that?]

Following that was 1998, and was me actually buying the MDFMK self-titled CD from the mall record store after listening to a sample in-store (they used to have a handful of CDs on a large cylindrical rack with headphones and you'd press a button next to the CD to listen to a sample song from the album before purchase.) The opening track "Now" instantly gripped me and I needed to hear more.

Justin MacDonald

Music for Others

This is a tough one, because the first memories I have of buying music with my own money, while they were reflections of me, were purchased for other people.  Both while I was in middle school:

I bought my buddy Matt (who also works here) Iron Butterfly’s  "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" album on CD.  I loved this song in particular and thought he might too. 

On a cassette tape, which at the time, for whatever reason, was more expensive than a CD, was Don McLean’s “American Pie” for my Grandma.

Interestingly enough, both albums were titled with the song I bought them for.

For myself, I mostly foraged and traded for music until high school. The first music I traded for was in elementary school and it was Onyx's *[Expletive-Containing Title Withheld for Newsletter Purposes]* and Cypress Hill’s “Black Sunday.”  Given my age and the content of the music, there’s zero way I would have been able to buy those anyway. To this day, Black Sunday is still one of my favorite albums.