10 Songs I Used To Sing In Front Of The Mirror

Ok so clearly I'm not getting any writing done today, instead here are ten songs I used to (and sometimes still...) sing into my hairbrush... in front of the mirror... in no particular order.


I had the single of this song on tape; I bought it at the Sam Goody in Kings Plaza… probably with Hanukah gelt. I still know all the words. I learned how to do the Roger Rabbit to this song and thought it was genius until I learned what sampling was all about... it still is kind of genius. Cute babies doing the Running man!



My first boyfriend gave me Violator for my 12th birthday because I liked the song Enjoy The Silence. I was hooked after that, most of the CD’s in my early music collection consisted of Depeche Mode releases. I had absolutely no concept of what they were singing about as a 12 year old, but who cares, this song is totally worthy of brush singing.



I was OBSESSED with this song. Obsessed! When Rhythm Nation came out I wanted to dress exactly like Janet. I got as far as a black hat; Mona cut me off after that.




When I was 16 I did this program called SCA, I went to the backwoods in Nowheresville, Colorado we weren’t allowed to have any technologic implements with us… You know that I snuck in my yellow Sony Walkman. I had one mix tape one side was Suede and the other side was U2. I listened to this song the entire summer at 9,000 ft.



The first two bits of vinyl I owned aside from Sesame Street 7” were Madonna’s Like A Virgin and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I grew up in a very large apartment building, the boy who lived upstairs from me would come down and we would jump on the couches singing along to this song.



I don’t even know where to begin with Erasure, in 1988 my aunt and her friend Randi bought The Innocence and put it on in her apartment. She had just graduated from college and it was the first adult apartment… literally one building over from where my Grandparents lived. The two of them danced to this song like there was so tomorrow, pin wheeling around this empty space. I think that was the day I fell in love with music. Erasure would later be my first concert at The Beacon theatre, the night I learned the hard way what a drag queen was.




This song was also on the mix tape I had with me in Colorado, it was playing as we were driving from Gunnison to Creede, Colorado. If I were in a movie I couldn’t have placed that song in the better spot. The San Juan mountain rage is G-D’s country. Joshua Tree is still my favorite U2 album.



I didn’t get to Morphine until my senior year of high school, it seemed all the smart kids were listening to Morphine or maybe they all played wind instruments in band or whatever… I didn’t drink, smoke or do anything bad except cheat in high school. I literally got drunk three times before I went to college, and once was in San Nicola on the beach… So I don’t count that because I was on exchange in Italy. I remember when Mark Sandman died, I remember thinking that I was so lucky I had the chance to meet my lyrical idol who told me at the H.O.R.D.E show that he was glad he didn’t inspire me to be a serial killer after I confessed to him that Morphine inspired me to pursue a career in the arts. F.T.W



Blur. What can I say? I was (and still am) an Anglophile. My cousin Keri gave me her 10-hole DM’s and everyone at school called me Frankenstein until they showed up at the mall and then everyone was wearing them. I have two older British cousins who treated me like a younger sister when I was growing up. Imagine, you’re 19 in London at Soho House with your cousin watching Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn play a game of Snooker… I don’t even know how many times I played hardcore air guitar to this song.



I used to edit music videos to the songs on I Should Coco, when In It For The Money came out it blew my mind. I think I actually learned how to play this song on guitar. I still have this CD but it won't even play through anymore it's so badly scratched.




That’s all. Who did you sing into your hairbrush and play air guitar to?