Benjamin Clark

1. Of all the bands/artists in your cd/record collection, which one do you own the most albums by? -- Counting the box, I'd probably have to say the Smashing Pumpkins dominates my CD collection, followedly closely by Ben Folds and Soundgarden.

2. What was the last song you listened to? -- "Pardon Me" (Incubus) on the radio this morning.

3. What's in your CD player iPod right now? -- Oh, something like fifteen-hundred songs.

4. What song would you say sums you up? -- It's a cross between "Zero Chance" (Soundgarden) and "Muzzle" (Smashing Pumpkins), and maybe a little bit of "Kiss My Disease" (Virgos Merlot).

5. What's your favorite local band? -- Narwhal.

6. What was the last show you attended? -- Alphabet City (and friends) at Big Daddy's a few weekends ago. Before that, I think the last show I saw was Coheed and Cambria at the House of Blues Orlando back in November.

7. MIA?

8. What's the shittiest band you've ever seen in concert? -- Live on their Dolphin's Cry tour.

9. What band do you love musically but hate the members of? -- That's a tough one. I so often like the members of a band because of their music, so it's hard for me to separate them. I guess I could say Staind, but only because they're friends with Fred Durst. Ooh, nevermind, the answer to the question is Limp Bizkit. Their stuff with Wes was really great musically, but I could never get past Durst's ego.

10. What is the most musically involved you have ever been? -- Been in a band, recorded an album, played shows, still play every week (most of the time), and I record my own songs whenever I am inspired.

11. What show are you looking forward to? -- Either the Soundgarden reunion tour or the Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour. But seriously, I'd love to see Ben Folds in concert, and seeing DMB again would be nice. I'd also love to see Audioslave.

12. What is your favorite band shirt? -- My "Zero" shirt.

13. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day? -- Ooh.. I dunno. Kim Thayil always seemed like a cool guy to hang with. I'd want to hang with someone who was pretty down to earth. Maybe Ben Folds would be kind of interesting to hang with.

14. What musician would you like to hump for a day? -- "Hump?" I don't really know. Musicians don't really turn me on much, and the pickings are so slim to begin with anyway. Does Lindsay Lohan count as a "musician"?

15. Doesn't emo suck? -- I'd have to say some of it, yeah, it does suck. The genuine music to come out of that metagenre has endless merit, but I've noticed that we have all the knock-off imitators these days, and it bothers me. It's just another kind of music, though, hard to place a value judgment on it.

16. Name four flawless albums? -- Superunknown, Soundgarden, 1994; Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins, 1995; Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys, 1966; Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie, 2003. (Realize this is from memory and rather hasty. I'm sure I'm leaving something great out.)

17. Did you know that filling out this survey makes you a music geek? -- No, I didn't.

18. What was the greatest decade for music? -- There wasn't one. Every decade has had both great music and awful music. I'm tempted to say the 70s because of Led Zeppelin, Sabbath, Boston, etc., but, um, hello, disco and soft rock. I'm tempted to say the 80s because of Motley Crue and Whitesnake (partly an in-joke there), but there was also all that new wave crap. And of course, my first love will always be mid-90s grunge or alternative rock, but the 90s also brought us some truly awful music at each end (Vanilla Ice in 1990, Britney Spears in 1999).

19. How many music-related videos/dvds do you own? -- Only a handful. I don't really have the time to sit and watch concert DVDs, but they're cool to have on in the background.

20. Do you like Journey? -- Absolutely. Steve Perry can really sing those overly-generic Journey songs, and Neal Schon can really belt out those generic guitar solos. Not really being sarcastic either: there's merit in being meat and potatoes like Journey was in the 70s and 80s.

21. What is your favorite movie soundtrack? -- Almost Famous.

22. What was your last musical "phase" before you wisened up? -- Listening to Weird Al exclusively.

23. What's the crappiest CD/record/etc you've ever bought? -- I really didn't like the most recent Finger Eleven album. It's hard to think of all the crappiest CDs I've ever bought, because most of them I've sold back to Half.com or eBay.

24. Do you prefer vinyl or CDs? -- I have no preference because I have no vinyl. Everyone says analog is so much better, but I've never had the pleasure of hearing any different.

25. What is your guilty pleasure CD, that being the CD you love but would be ashamed to admit you have in your collection? -- I'm not ashamed of any of my CDs, but I think the one most people would raise an eyebrow at would be "Fairweather Johnson" by Hootie and the Blowfish. Sure, everyone has "Cracked Rear View," but most people don't have the follow-up album. :)