In 2003, my senior year of high school, I borrowed a friend’s vehicle and drove across Washington State, into Missoula, Montana, and back. To meet a girl, of course. You think I would do that for fun? High school was a memorable time, and events like this are concreted deep into my mind. I can recall my senior year of high school being the year of my life that catapulted me into expanding upon my musical tastes and influences. It was 2003 and forward where I was introduced to so many new artists, more specifically genres of hardcore, emo and metal. I can remember the first time I heard bands, such as Eighteen Visions and Bleeding Through, and my reaction being: “Holy shit, people make music like this!?”
Below is a playlist of the songs that I was listening to in 2003, and no doubt listened to during my wild adventure across Washington State. I listen back to some of these songs with a slight shock, with a recognition of how groundbreaking, heavy and unique some of these tracks were. There are also a few that I listen back on with a suffocated ear, cringing, barely able to subject myself to the entirety of the track, most notable being Atreyu’s, Tulips Are Better. Nonetheless, these were the songs, the bands that pushed me to explore and realize there is a lot of great stuff out there. Since then, my tastes have become much pickier, and ironically, I have expanded my musical horizons even more (if this isn’t evident in any episode of the Rad Dude Tunes Podcast (RDT)).
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