Staples-The Harlem Shakes' Technicolor Dreamcoat

Sometimes, you get lucky, truly and strangely lucky, and you listen to the right record at the right moment and it'll be with you forever. Granted, some records are so great that they're going to do that anyway, but not every record is Let It Bleed or Abbey Road or Blonde on Blonde, so you gotta appreciate that shit when it happens. I heard the Harlem Shakes' Technicolor Health at the best time possible. The record is hopelessly positive and forward-looking, so much so that it caused critics to wince, yet it was the best thing for me to hear at that moment. I listened to this record on repeat during a six hour drive from the Appalachians to Chapel Hill, and it became a staple of my music collection.

Volume 3: Rolling Stone Lists

I was back at my parents' house a few days ago, and as they often do, they asked me to clean out part of my old room (my dad has designs on putting in some sort of movie theater in there). So this time, I'm cleaning out my closet (what the fuck am I going to do with all of those baseball cards? Seriously.), and I stumble upon a stack of magazines. Many are worthless, but there's a few copies of The Rolling Stone that catch my eye. Namely, the ones with those altogether absurd and worthless but fun lists. You know the ones--500 greatest songs of all time, 100 greatest artists of all time, the 47 greatest bass solos, and so forth.