Time Machine
November 2002
by Michael Walls

I drove to work this morning rather then take the train. In anticipation of my hour-long drive, I wanted to grab some CDs to listen to. After all, it's not often I get an entire hour to myself. So, traffic or no traffic, I was going to be able to listen to anything I wanted without the interruption of family or the invasion of space by fellow commuters.

I was running a bit late, so I didn't have time to peruse my rather large collection of CDs to determine specifically what I felt like listening to, so I simply grabbed a random stack from the far left side of the second shelf – what I call the "blue bin".

I feel I need to explain what the "blue bin" is. A few writers on this site (Fitch, Orcutt) should have a knowingly smile on their face by now, because they know exactly what I'm talking about.

Like most people with a large CD collection, I organize my CDs in a particular way, so as to allow quick searchability. My self-built, customized entertainment center has three dedicated shelves (which are height and depth-sized exactly to fit a CD) to hold 100 CDs per shelf (total of 300 CDs). CDs are delegated to a shelf, based on their rotational status in my current musical preference list. I know, I know…this is rather John Cusak-like in "High Fidelity" ("I'm organizing my records by release date…"), but I assure you, I thought of this before that movie.

The first shelf (which is at perfect eye level, by the way) contains my top 100 CDs in rotation. This is my "red bin". These CDs are regularly played a couple times a month. CDs further to the right side are played more often. Bands like Coldplay, Better Than Ezra, and a lot of indie artists reside in the "red bin".

The second shelf, my "blue bin", contains CDs that are played every couple of months. Usually when we have guests or a less tolerant crowd. Here resides my Clash and Replacement CDs, Joe Jackson, REM, some classic rock, some blues and soul, and the few classical CDs I own.

The third, and highest (thus hardest to reach) shelf is my "yellow bin". Here resides CDs that are forever classics, but do not get rotated all that much. Maybe once a year. Classic alternative CDs that I want my kids to listen to someday, like The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Church, Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, as well as some classic high school favorites like The Cars, Foreigner, Journey.

What's even more anal about my system is, I break up artist collections based on their rotation. For example, I don't group all nine of my REM CDs together. Rather, I placed them on shelves based on how often I listen to them. After all, I'm not going to take up space on my high rotation shelf for "Out of Time" and "Monster" (which I never listen to) just to keep them next to "Dead Letter Office" and "Life's Rich Pageant" (which I listen to often).

As a side note, I have another 100 or so CDs sitting in a box in the basement which do not warrant a place in the "bins".

Now the explanation for the "bins". The history of the "bins" goes back to college radio. During my 4 ½ year college experience, I obtained a three-hour shift at my college radio station. WMEB 91.9FM - "Radio Free Orono", at the University of Maine.

As many college radio DJs will agree, a three-hour shift at the helm of a radio transmitter tower, with the ability to send out a wavelength full of music, or chit-chat, or whatever nonsense you could think of, to the mass of listeners within (in our case) a ten-mile radius, was perhaps the greatest three hours of your life. It didn't matter if you had mid-terms to study for, or a date with the hottest girl on campus, or the building was on fire. You were responsible for those three hours of air time, and your listeners were depending on you.

Plus, it was the only place to copy all of you favorite records to cassette tape.

Well, at 'MEB, the radio station management had devised a fairly rigid playlist requirement. All new records (what was called alternative music back then) were delegated to three bins - red, blue, and yellow - which sat next to the turntables. Each DJ, each hour, was required to play six songs from the "red bin", three songs from the "blue bin", and one song from the "yellow bin", and was allowed to fill the remaining hour with any songs from their personal list of favorites.

The "red bin" contained all of the new releases from name brand alternative acts, like U2, INXS, The Cure, The Smiths, etc.

The "blue bin" contained up-and-coming alt bands like New Order, The Pogues, The Church, The Nails.

The "yellow bin" contained music that was "out-there", and was sometimes down-right awful. Bands like The Woodentops, Pailhead, The Single Gun Theory, Gene Loves Jezebel, and hundreds of other bands that never made it past the "yellow bin".

The system worked. And apparently left an indelible mark on my music organizational psyche.

So this morning, I grabbed from the "blue bin", because I didn't want to listen to the same old stuff I've been listening to for the past several weeks. I wanted something old, but something good. "Blue bin" material.

When I got on the highway and promptly hit a traffic jam, I sorted through the five CDs I had grabbed. Since I grabbed from the far left, I dipped into some of the classic rock and soul music that sits there. Van Morrison, The Commitments soundtrack, The Commitments soundtrack part II, James Brown, and Grand Funk Railroad.

It felt like a Grand Funk Railroad kind of morning.

"Step into my ti-ti-ti-time machine…"


(Michael Walls is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)