Soundtrack of Life

I grew up in a musical family: my grandmother play any almost song on the piano by ear, my mother teaches music in the Palo Alto public schools and my father played a range of folksy instruments including guitar, country fiddle, banjo and washtub bass. Dad and his friends even had a band with the cheeky name "The Harmony Grits." I always admired his adventurous taste in music. His interests ran the gamut, from blues to classical, Simon and Garfunkel to Led Zeppelin. He devoured books about composers, bands and music history.  Even though I was not blessed with musical talent, I always prefer living with music to living in silence.

My biggest offense in regards to music is that I consistently overplay the same things until everyone around me rolls their eyes. Case in point: Death Cab for Cutie. I'm a little lazy and find discovering new music I love can be a bit of a chore, so I usually rely on the advice of friends to help me diversify my collection. Over the past few months, my best music purchases have resulted from searching for things like "Cadillac CTS commercial music" on Google and then quickly adding them to my iTunes. Buick might make cars for retirees, but the ads feature The Airborne Toxic Event. Cadillac features a clip from Phoenix's brilliant album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix." Compilations are also a great source for discovery. For instance, the movie "(500) Days of Summer" also had a splendid soundtrack featuring The Temper Trap, whose album "Conditions" makes fantastic accompaniment for running.

So the next time I find myself fast-forwarding through commercials on my DVR – I'll remember I might be passing on the opportunity to find my next favorite band.