Last night I had my first music dream in a long time, certainly the first one since we launched tMiM. My parents and I were going through some old boxes and I tearfully came upon my collection of old vinyl records. This much of the dream has at least some basis in reality: from about 1982 until the rise of the CD I was renown for my prodigious record collection. Where the dream takes a turn is that the LPs were lost in the first place, or that I even cared. I know exactly where they are, and most of them are old metal records: Anthrax, Slayer, the occasional Kim Wilde. I wouldn’t listen to this stuff even if it was loaded on my iPod.

All of the songs that matter, all of my Arcade Fire, Beirut, and Flaming Lips? Safely tucked away in MP3 format. What was your first CD? And your first legal MP3 purchase? In my case those are Ministry and (…let’s say…) Pete Yorn.

Recently I searched Google’s vaults for “song written in a dream” and was largely disappointed. I write probably 10 songs in dreams every year, and I must boast that the material is absolutely ready for prime time, although normally I forget the tune within minutes. But if I could refine the skill — to say nothing of leaving a recorder near the bed — the LP would be good. You’re hearing it here. So you would think the men and women whom are paid to create music would mine the resources that an amateur would. Or maybe that’s what makes me an amateur.

Yet Barry Manilow once stated on American Idol that such-and-such track was a song he dreamt into existence. I believe the track to be “Looks Like We Made It,” but for all I know it was “I Haven’t Changed the Room.”

Patrick thinks the last track on the new Mastodon LP sounds like Dream Theater. I think it sounds more like Voivod. Either way, I’m formally nominating Crack the Skye for Best of 2009. It’s dreamy!