Call me Nano.

A little brother is like an iPod Nano, and not just because both are smaller and weaker versions of their older sibling, although that description certainly fits. The Nano was only born because the older brother wasn’t a total failure and mom and dad thought it would be a good idea to add to the family. The Nano is only recognizable as different from big brother by people who are familiar enough with the full iPod family, or when the two are standing next to each other in the family Christmas card. The Nano takes its cues from its big brother, and is in fact modeled after him. Essentially, the Nano does everything a real iPod does only with a smaller record collection. Even then, if you’ve a parent to both an iPod and a Nano, chances are there’s significant overlap in their musical libraries.

This is not to say that my brothers and I are entirely the same. Unlike my brother, Dan, I do remember what the first cd I ever owned was; it was the two disc soundtrack to Fantasia. The first pop album I bought was Third Eye Blind’s self-titled debut. Unlike Dan, I’ll probably wait a few more weeks before I drop 80 or so dollars to grab that Radiohead discbox. Unlike Dan, it took me more than just three or four tracks to realize that All About Chemistry sucked. Right here - with the Radiohead discbox or the Semisonic indiscretion - is the problem with little brothers: we are bound to end up in the same place as our older brothers, it just takes us longer to get there (To wit, Dan got his first post up before I did). Even in those rare instances where I’ve come across something first (for instance, lala), it is big brother who makes better use of it.

Of course, sometimes it pays to be the little brother. On May 2, 2003 Dan took me to Buffalo for my first concert, effectively ending my days as a casual Pearl Jam fan. When discs get re-released with bonus tracks that Dan absolutely has to have, I get the discarded first editions. These aren’t crummy hand-me-downs either (although I do inexplicably have a Busta Rhymes single somewhere). Re-releases scored me my first Weezer (The Blue Album) and Elbow (Cast of Thousands) discs.

You could make the argument that Nano’s tastes are essentially handed down to him from big brother iPod, although Dan and I do have some differences. He refuses to let Kanye West or the Killers into his life. I’m not wild about that People in Planes disc that he recommended to me last year (and by “not wild” I mean “if I listen to it too much, my head will explode”). The problem is that even when Nano makes a conscious effort to distance himself from big brother iPod, he rarely can do it. Take this conversation Dan and I had about a Brazil album at the record store a few months ago:

Me: Is this any good?

Dan: Yeah.

Me: It’s not prog, is it?

Dan: (Smiles) It’s good!

I bought the Brazil cd. It was good.

Anyways, this is our blog.