🎵 Experience Playlist | Badge of the Month | July 2025

What a great play list! I am a big U2 fan so those speak to me but I will say I can remember the 90s and singing along to Shoop with my friends and now this meme cracks me up:

I fully agree ​@AdamK12! Criminally underplayed, indeed. So much of her library of work was really ahead of it’s time. I also read recently that audiophiles play “Fast Car” when testing speakers and headphones because of how great the musical structure is! 

What a great play list! I am a big U2 fan so those speak to me but I will say I can remember the 90s and singing along to Shoop with my friends and now this meme cracks me up:

 

This is great, ​@SlyNick! 😀 Another musical group that was really ahead of its time! 

There are so many music and songs linked to important memories I wouldn’t know where to start… Lately, I’ve come back to Wish You Were Here a lot.

OK, here’s another one: Elastica was huge in the mid-90s when I was just starting out and I couldn’t get “Connection” out of my head for about a year. Their whole debut album was fantastic.

Frontwoman Justine Frischmann has kept a low profile, but she’s moved from music to painting and you can see her work here: JUSTINE FRISCHMANN

I absolutely love this question...and it’s very difficult to pick just one song (especially because I built an entire dashboard on the topic)!  If I had to narrow it down to one, I’d pick Absolutely Cuckoo by The Magnetic Fields.  Hearing this song immediately takes me back to 2006 when I was driving cross country by myself heading to graduate school.  It was July...and on most days of the trip the temps were in the triple digits...and this song was the first track on the first burned CD that I listened to (thanks to all my friends who made those CDs as parting gifts).  I lost count of how many times I played this CD and cried because I was already missing home and my friends.  Nearly two decades later I still have a visceral reaction when I hear this song...and yearn to be on the road again headed to the New Mexico desert.

2 songs - Emptiness’ and ‘Teri Yaadein’ take me back to my college days, when we were captivated by the story of Rohan Rathod—an IIT student whose heartbreak was said to have inspired the song ‘Emptiness.

But it was all fake news triggered between college students :)

When I need to breathe and reset, I turn to "Raatan Lambiyan" (Shershaah). It became my quiet companion during evening walks after long workdays — those walks helped me unplug, reflect and come back fresher the next day. 

Has to be Blink 182’s Dammit. Everything from the opening instrumental to the other songs on the Dude Ranch album. Might have been the first CD i went to buy.

The song also takes me back to being in the front row pit with Taking Back Sunday and the Used opening for Blink 182 on an amazing summer evening.

This is so fun to see what music inspires people! Really enjoying the music references, bringing back memories for sure

Crazy thing - when I started reading this post, I was listening to Sia’s Cheap Thrills 😁

Some of my favorites… so hard to narrow down!

Killers - This River is Wild or Sams Town are my favorites I’m new to the community so missed the X4 show sadly but did get to see them when they came through Portland a loooong time ago!

Offspring - Amazed. We’re hoping to catch them in September in Washington. My husband has seen them multiple times.

AFI - Totalimmortal or The Interview. Just love their sound.

Zach Bryan - Spotless. Got to see him in concert last year as a surprise from my husband and it was an awesome show!

I love this comment ​@VirginiaM! Road trips and good music go hand in hand 😀

this question is so difficult to answer! I think I’ll have to pick In The End from Linkin Park as it’s been my favorite band since a very long time and they have recently reunited. it brings back memories of a specific show on the plains of Abraham in Québec city. It was pouring rain and it remember it as if it was yesterday!

Cheap Thrills – Sia

Every time I hear this song, it takes me back to a last-minute road trip with friends. We had no plans, barely any budget, just a car, loud music, and the excitement of going somewhere new. Cheap Thrills was playing the whole time, and it perfectly captured that feeling of having the best moments without needing much—just good friends and pure fun.

I’m writing this on Monday morning after I learned over the weekend that Tom Lehrer, the most brilliant satirist of his time, passed away at 97. I count the experience of listening to his records with my parents, as one of the touchstones of my childhood and over the years it’s been a rare, but occasional, pleasure to run into other people who know about him and his work. (If you watched The Electric Company on PBS as a kid, which I most certainly did, you’ll remember “Silent E” and “L-Y”.) He wrote parodies and songs about the Russian mathematician Lobachevsky, the Vatican, nuclear proliferation, and this, probably his best work, setting the periodic table of the elements to “The Modern Major General” from the Pirates of Penzance. This version also includes the Aristotelian version as the bonus track:

Love this! I completely understand this feeling of adventure and not knowing where you’re going but just enjoying the ride 🤙🏼

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts and getting to see the amazing moments from your lives! For me, one unforgettable experience was the summer right after high school graduation when my friends and I went to the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state for our very first music festival. We were all wide-eyed and excited only a few weeks away from starting university. One artist that really stood out during that festival was Avicii and his song "Levels", and hearing it with that breathtaking landscape behind the stage made it even more magical!

One of my favorite experience-related songs is "Tujhe Dekha To" from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It instantly takes me back to the iconic scene in the Swiss Alps—lush green fields, snow-capped peaks. It reminds me of a family trip to Switzerland where we visited some of those exact spots. The song captures the magic of love, travel, and unforgettable memories.

This really pumps me up and makes me feel happy. Not sure if it's the beats or the fresh lyrics, but I love it!

“Plus tôt” by Alexandra Stréliski.

It’s a beautiful piano piece that always makes me think of my aunt, whom I lost a few years ago. She was a huge inspiration in my life and played a big role in the woman I’ve become. We both shared a love for piano music, and this song brings back quiet, emotional memories of her - her kindness, her strength, and the bond we had. It’s a piece that captures both loss and love in a very personal way.

When my wife and I were planning our wedding, we wanted our first/family dances to reflect our personalities and our sense of fun, rather than sticking to tradition. Instead of a classic waltz, we chose "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues; a song that’s a “little rough” around the edges, but full of character. We adapted it into a waltz for our dance, surprising our guests and making the moment uniquely ours.

Every time I hear that song now, I’m reminded that the best experiences are the ones where you make your own rules and celebrate what makes your story special.

​@Romanoman thanks for sharing this beautiful moment!

What a fantastic idea for a first dance! It’s in triple time and is so evocative of the city, and the holiday time of year.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this month’s BOM! I’ll see you tomorrow for another new topic!