Jason's Music

Jason is a quintessential Gen-Xer with a music library that acts as a sonic roadmap of his life. Growing up in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, his world was a classic trifecta: the television, the stereo, and the Atari 2600. His musical origin story was forged in the glow of seventies variety TV, sparked by the Bay City Rollers on The Krofft Superstar Hour and KISS's pyrotechnic appearance on the 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Fittingly, his first two records were Dedication and Destroyer.

The eighties were a decade of obsessive discovery. With AC/DC, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Dio, and Metallica in heavy rotation, heavy metal became his dominant musical language. But the decade held more than riffs — by the mid-eighties, Devo, The Cult, and Billy Idol were quietly sharing shelf space with Dokken and Van Halen. By the decade's close, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Jane's Addiction, Pixies, R.E.M., and Talking Heads had all found their way into the crate, signaling a widening of taste that would define everything that followed.

The nineties detonated everything. Nevermind arrived like a grenade, and Nirvana, Soundgarden, Helmet, and Alice in Chains suddenly dominated the collection. But he never settled into one lane — by mid-decade, his shelves held equal amounts of Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Faith No More, Björk, Stereolab, and Juliana Hatfield. If the eighties were about the riff, the nineties were about the sprawl.

The past decade brought a different kind of discovery — less about chasing what was new, more about completing the map. The streaming era gave him the tools, and he used them: the back catalogs of childhood heroes like KISS, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, and Rush finally got the full treatment. Progressive rock became a new obsession, with Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, and Hawkwind all earning deep dives. He hopes you will find his collection intriguing—and ideally, that you'll discover something entirely new to put on your own turntable.