90s alternative rock

After ghosting Spotify for 60 days to revisit my ’90s-’00s CD collection, I discovered that physical media is more than a nostalgia trip—it’s a necessary “slow tech” tool for reclaiming focus from the algorithm.

It was the fall of 1993.

I was standing in the late, great Tower Records on the southeast corner of East 4th Street—that glorious temple of discovery—holding Porno for Pyros’ debut in one hand and Dinosaur Jr.’s Where You Been in the other. I had exactly seventeen dollars and change in my pocket. As a high school student, I could afford one CD, a slice of Ray’s pizza and $1.25 on my shiny new Metrocard for the F train home.