The Marshall Occasional

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YOUR MUSIC COLLECTION

Sometimes the best compliment is no compliment at all, and this particular one came from a programmer visiting my cube. He nooticed my iTunes, scrolled through it and said: "Wow. You're pretty cool for an old dude."

Could have done without the o-word, but anyway...

I was probably 10 years old when it dawned on me that people listen to the music of their youth all their lives. I vowed not to do it, that I'd stay current forever. Well, as long as it wasn't disco or something.

In the early 70s, there was nothing -- nothing -- on the air that sounded like Steely Dan. At the turn of that decade the Police and Talking Heads sent Genesis and Zeppelin to the curb. Had a girlfriend once who asked me to put together an 80s mix for her. She was thinking Madonna and Prince; I gave her U2, REM, Guadalcanal Diary and English Beat ska.

In the 90s I was one of the few Americans catching the British trip-hop wave (Portishead, Massive Attack) and in this century few things have topped Radiohead or the Dandy Warhols.

But my tastes aren't your tastes, so that's why the list at right compares new artists to more familiar names. In some cases, the sound is really, really close; in others, it's more thematic. Die-hard Phish fans will balk at where I put them, but get over your own pretensions -- and leave the damn hippie merchants alone at your shows, will ya?

Mr. Marshall, who likes country when it's rocking and likes blues in smoke-filled clubs, encourages anyone wanting to expand their musical horizons to tune in to Bill Goldsmith's Internet station Radio Paradise.