Current Tunage: The Blindfolded Pianist – Sonic the Hedgehog 3
I think his stuff is at videogamepianist.com – basically its all the classic video game music done with a single piano… brings back memories plus its good chill out music. Some of it is crazy complicated too due to pacing and those crazy old 16-bit composers (final fantasy 6 anyone?)

So, in an effort to rip off Noah’s ideas as much as possible (and also because I never did a ‘best albums of 2005′), here are MY “Ten Albums that Changed my Life”:

01. Project 86 – “Drawing Black Lines”
If I was stuck on a desert island with one album, this would probably be it. DBL got me through high school almost single-handedly. It was the soundtrack to living, and to top it off every word screamed personal reform to me – it is an album of rebirth and true worship in many ways to me.

02. Argyle Park – “Misguided”
I have always had a passing interest in electronic music, and industrial music (which fuses metal and electronic together creatively) has always been one of my favorite genres. Not only is this album a landmark industrial album, but it also helped me to develop the ability to question *intelligently* what I believe.

03. Further Seems Forever – “The Moon is Down”
The album that got me into what would come to be known as ‘emo’… also my introduction to Chris Carabba. Also the soundtrack to my 3-year relationship with a girl (insert shock and memories here).

04. Mars Ill – “Raw Material”
I’ll never forget listening to “Love’s Not” on a GAS compilation and getting hooked, then downloading 3 or 4 mp3′s with a dialup modem just to hear more. Mars Ill got me into rap/hiphop, and despite now owning everything they’ve ever released, this is probably still my favorite work of theirs. Personal challenges abound within.

05. Tonex – “Pronounced Toe-Nay”
Bought it on a whim (which I don’t do often) and it took me a good week to get into it, but otherwise I might never have gotten into jazz/blues and the whole hybrid urban music thing. One of the most diverse urban albums ever… like… I don’t play it for people often enough… but I should.

06. Deepspace5 – “The Night We Called it a Day”
If there was ever a hiphop album I’d consider a complete utter and total classic within which no weak tracks can be found, this is it. This is “hiphop complete” to me, the intro bangs, the skit bangs, and the beats are the most insane things in this world but they work so well regardless. This would be the other album I’d take to that desert isle.

07. Five Iron Frenzy – “Our Newest Album Ever!”
Yes, it is ska. But, it is FIF. FIF > You. Probably their best album ever too in some ways (though The End Is Here is close second).

08. MxPx – “Life in General”
Before Drawing Black Lines, this was the soundtrack to life. I listened through this over and over and over. I still remember flippin’ the tape I made of it in my walkman like at least 5 or 6 times a day. It was obsessive. I felt rebellious listening to it (in retrospect it isn’t even very rebellious as punk rock goes, but from my background it was I guess).

09. MeWithoutYou – “Catch For Us The Foxes”
Rarely has an album influenced my spiritual life as profoundly as Aaron Weiss and his friends on this record. Perhaps its his autistic ramblings about faith and existence, perhaps the bass guitar driven melodies that swirl around you… whatever it is its intoxicating and leaves an irremovable impression.

10. Pedro the Lion – “Control”
Control changed music for me. Control changed faith for me. Control changed literature and lyrics for me. My world hasn’t been the same since I listened through Control the first time, understood the story being told, and was convicted by it on a level that nearly parallels the way the Bible convicts me when I’m right with God.

.codE-