Moods - Forgotten

Coming up towards the end of our salute to Alternative Rock, I flip idly through the records I keep of every MP3, cd, and vinyl album I have. Thousands upon thousands of listings, in alphabetical order of course, serve to remind me of something: there's a lot of forgotten music in the Alternative genre.

They come to me in snippets sometimes, these songs that I always catch the tail end of while flipping radio channels or when I catch "Pretty In Pink" on some forgotten cable channel. I always had much love for Iona and could never buy into the idea that James Spader was a high school boy, but the soundtrack always made up for that. These forgotten Alternative songs pop up while I'm watching those "teen dramas" I sometimes favor. There's Joan telling Adam she's not crazy even though she sees (and talks to) God on Joan of Arcadia while The Flaming Lips play in the background and Grant Lee Phillips popping up at least 4 times a season on the Gilmore Girls. It's apparently hip and very retro to use Alternative Music in shows like that and I when I hear them, I always say to myself "I totally forgot about that song."

My problem is I never remember to seek them out and give them another listen. Not today, though. I've been keeping a list this entire month of songs I've forgotten but wanted to give a listen to again. Some of them I still love, like The Cardigan's "My Favorite Game" and "Closing Time" by Semisonic. Some of them I wish I'd never heard, like "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo and "Laid" by James. People forget that Alternative Rock covers so, so much musically and to overlook them is almost criminal. Just because you hear it on a Soft Rock station doesn't mean it's Pop, not every time.

I'm just waiting for the day when it's official that these songs are considered "Oldies" and take the place of Elvis Presley and The Byrds on Oldies stations across the country.

There's a lot of greatness out there and I'm confident I'll rediscover it as time marches on. Hopefully, this play list will inspire you to seek out those songs you've forgotten and give them a whirl to see if they do stand the test of time...

Forgotten, as defined by Websters:

1. to cease or fail to remember; be unable to recall
2. to omit or neglect unintentionally
3. to leave behind unintentionally; neglect to take
4. to omit mentioning; leave unnoticed
5. to fail to think of; take no note of
6. to neglect willfully; disregard or slight