I remember staying up all night sometimes listening to the radio in the summer between 8th and 9th grade. When I finally got my driver’s license, I didn’t know how to drive unless I had the radio turned all the way up. And there were many evenings during that first semester of college when I would put on some headphones and take my discman for a walk around campus. Usually I’d end up sitting on a bench or some steps somewhere listening to a few choice songs and staring at the stars.

Somehow, though, over the last four or five years, I stopped listening to music. I turned the radio dial to NPR in the car and Morning Edition and All Things Considered became the soundtrack of my commute. I discovered the joy of a really great audiobook and the hundreds of podcasts where charming people talked about my favorite topics. I stopped going to shows because thy were too late and I had to work in the morning or because I didn’t want to spend the money or I didn’t have anyone to go with or all those hipsters would judge me. I used to listen to music while writing my college and grad school papers (the Cocteau Twins, M. Ward, His Name Is Alive were all excellent paper-writing companions). Now when I work on the computer, I have an episode of something or other playing on Netflix.

I still listened to music sometimes. I would get tired of hearing so much chatter throughout the day and just wanted something different, but more often than not, I chose the spoken word over music.

But I miss it. So I decided to make a conscious effort to incorporate it back into my life. At first, I thought that maybe I’d only watch tv one night a week and then listen to music or read or whatever all the other nights. But I never got started with that plan because there was always something that I wanted to watch. Then my older and very wise brother suggested that I reverse it. Instead of excluding television 6 nights out of the week (which, let’s face it, wasn’t going to happen), I just take one day out of the week where I only listen to music. Brilliant idea!

I decided to rededicate Monday as my all-music day. So I pulled out the old ipod on my way home from work and started scrolling around in there for something to listen to. I landed on the Pixies and they just totally hit the spot. I’m going to post one of my favorite songs (though it was so hard to decide which). You can listen to it on your computer if you want, but I would encourage you to download it, put it on your phone or your ipod or on a CD or whatever, and play it in your car with the sound turned up and the windows rolled down. That’s my favorite way to listen to the Pixies.

Pixies: Velouria

So now I have a several years’ worth of music to catch up on. Anyone have any suggestions?