My Life's Musical Road Map

I was born in California. I moved to Idaho in the middle of high school. I lived 2 years in Canada's British Columbia. I've now spent most of my adulthood here in Utah.
This is a blog post dedicated to the music of my hometowns.

CALIFORNIA
I lived in my childhood in California's Central Valley. Born in Yuba City, lived in Linden as a toddler, but spent most of these years on the East side of Stockton. Stockton CA was ranked the #1 "most miserable city" in America by Forbes back in 2009. I didn't live there at the time, but you get the point. It's a pretty stupid town. It's also home to a band with a pretty stupid name: Pavement.
Lead singer Stephen Malkmus eloquently describes Stockton like this:

"A suburban locale. Very flat. Very hot in the summer. Skateboarding. Policemen. Cheerleaders. Stuff like that."

...So that sounds pretty stupid. But it's true! In fact, the beauty of Pavement is that all their material is pretty stupid. And in doing so, I don't think any band is more true to their roots.
If you have never heard of Pavement, they were an indie band in the 90s that received much critical acclaim, and thanks to the internet, their lo-fi legacy will live on forever. Just Google-search "best 90s albums" and scroll around. There's a really good chance you'll come across their Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain LPs; both of which are listed among Rolling Stone's top 500 greatest albums of all time.
Just south of Stockton is the city of Modesto, home to another great 90's lo-fi band: Grandaddy. They also do a great job at personalizing their crappy locale. Try their albums Under the Western Freeway and The Sophtware Slump. And of course, Sacramento is just north of Stockton. While it's home to many bands, I think it's worth noting that it's home to one of alt-rock radio's most unrefined bands: Cake. Their vocal and instrumental performances all sound like they could be done by you. My older brother owned Prolonging the Magic when I was a kid.

It should also be noted that one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time was born in Concord and attended school at Stockton's own University of Pacific: Dave Brubeck. I'm just assuming everybody reading this has heard a Dave Brubeck Quartet song before. Unless you're an uncultured swine.
One of my favorite one-hit wonders of the 90s is from the Stockton/Modesto area: Chris Isaak. Famous for "Wicked Game."
Death Grips are from Sacramento. So are Deftones. If you don't like those band names, I'm pretty darn sure you'll dislike their music even more.
While many towns I'm tied to have had shout-outs in songs before--this even includes Tom Waits and Beck--no song can even touch the classic quality of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Lodi." San Francisco's CCR writing a bittersweet classic song about the town north of Stockton... Gotta be proud of that.

Also wanted to shout-out the music of Oakland. I love San Fran, and love acting like a tourist any time I go there. But between going to A's games and trips to the Oakland LDS Temple, I never felt like a tourist in Oakland. It kind of just felt like a Bay Area extension of the Stockton ghetto. Some original rap acts from the East Bay include E-40, Digital Underground, and Souls of Mischief.

IDAHO
My family moved to Jerome ID in 2006. I was 15. I've since spent 3 summers in the gorgeous mountains of Stanley ID and have lived some on-and-off years with my parents in the cow-pie desert of Jerome. West of all this is the closest thing the state has to a real city: Boise.
The main Boise band I think is import is Built To Spill. They're another one of those great 90's lo-fi rock bands like Pavement and Grandaddy. But Idaho is a much different landscape than California's Central Valley. Less people, more rolling yellow hills. I see frontman Doug Martsch as a guitar god. And I think Built To Spill has the finest album trilogy of any 90's band: There's Nothing Wrong with Love, Perfect from Now On, Keep It Like a Secret. I highly doubt you'd like his nasally, whiny voice and confounding lyrics, but that kinda shaped how a lot of indie rock bands would sound in years to come. Because whether or not you actually live in Idaho, everyone dreams about getting out of their own "Idaho."
Youth Lagoon is from Boise. I like them. Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter is from northern Idaho, and his music is just as rustic as that terrain. The best song about an Idaho town would either be Built To Spill's "Twin Falls" or boygenius's "Ketchum."

BRITISH COLUMBIA
I served a 2-year LDS mission in the province of British Columbia. This province is home to Vancouver 80s hit-maker Bryan Adams, and Victoria 00's hit-maker Nelly Furtado (whom I've seen in concert somehow). A lot of people don't know this, but Vancouver is a real city. It's urban enough to have a tough attitude, but often seen as safe-haven for West Coast pacifist hippies. It's culturally diverse, often based on which side of town you're in. If you can imagine, compared to any American city, Vancouver seems pretty weird. But also pretty cool.
The New Pornographers are both these things. Collaborating Vancouver's indie most diverse songwriting minds together shouldn't work so well, but it does. A.C. Newman is the sideways pop lyricist. Neko Case is the drunken roots-y heart. And Dan Bejar is the sideways drunken poet. While the NP's have mastered combining the "indie rock" and "power pop" genres, the individual works from these band members are just as rewarding. Gonna focus on Dan Bejar for a sec.
I was living in North Vancouver when Dan's band, Destroyer, released Kaputt. It was 2011, I was anxious out of my mind, and I wasn't allowed to listen to radio music until I finished my mission. While Destroyer have released plenty of material worth praising, Kaputt is personally a life-changer. All its vague lyrics about America, heartbreak, memories, and endings--with musical tastes of the cool/weird Vancouver aesthetic--it takes me there.

Another one of my favorite Vancouver bands is Japandroids. Saw them live in SLC a few years back. Before the show, their lead singer complimented me on my Cancucks jersey. I felt starstruck. This band isn't weird, but much like Bryan Adams before them, they scope the rough edges of the city. I recommend Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock for all you indie punks out there.
Black Mountain is from Vancouver, but I don't know much about them. I've been more into the Victoria indie rock band Hot Hot Heat, or weirdo songwriter Frog Eyes.

UTAH
When I first moved to Utah, people asked me what kind of music I listened to. I used to answer "indie." Then the Utah person in conversation would say "Do you like Imagine Dragons? They're pretty indie." And this is what Utah's brand of music is made of.
For the record, this was about a year before "Radioactive" blew up. But that band consists of old buddies from the private Mormon college of BYU. And in the eyes of the Utah/Mormon listener, if you are a Mormon, your artistry just magically became much more validated. An unfortunate example of this is rapper James The Mormon, whose fan-base consists of people who don't actually listen to rap music.
I'm just gonna add, there's a "BYU buddies" band from Minnesota that made a lot of cute popular hits in the 80's: The Jets. Every band member is related to each other, and have the same last name as my mission companion Elder Wolfgramm. There is no way they're not somehow related to him.

Neon Trees are from Utah. They used to be pretty popular. Speaking of "used," The Used are also from Utah. My personal favorite Utah band might be experimental metal outfit SubRosa.
But let's forget about experimental metal. When I served my mission for 2 years, half the music I listened to was by Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This is an group that has been doing things the same way for 100 years. It's a tradition. I guess there are some benefits to tradition... If you like hundreds of elderly people singing old hymns with the voice of angels, you're in luck! Cuz that's always what you're gonna get! And ff you don't like it? Well, you're probably not gonna make it through a whole album. And we hope we see still you at church this Sunday.
Mo Tab is a great place to end this. Being stuck in how the world was 100 years ago is a great musical analogy for the state of Utah.
But whether I like it or not, the music of my locale kinda artistically makes up who I am. There are pieces of me that want to depict the ugliness of suburban California, fill the wide empty spaces of Idaho, take weird paths into the Northwest cities, and sing quaint praises to Jesus. There are also pieces of me that wonder why I spent so much time writing this blog post. So. Yeah. Bye now.