25 Life Defining Albums (Or Something)
I had to do a note for Facebook because it was one I actually wanted to do. I thought I would copy it here because I am so blog negligent today. I still write a few times a week at Waiting For Next Year.com if anybody is interested.
I am going to try and list the 25 albums that stick out in my life. I also liked Mike’s rule about limiting it to one album per artist.
I am also going to attempt to do things chronologically. I am sure I will leave something out, but here goes anyway. My best attempt for now. If you do this, you don’t have to be as wordy as I am being.
Remember this is my attempt chronologically.
1. New Edition – New Edition (Released 1984) – I heard a promo commercial for “Mr. Telephone Man” in a 30 second snippet on Nickelodeon and it quickly became the first TAPE that I ever desired.
2. Bon Jovi – New Jersey (Released 1988) – I loved the first album by Bon Jovi, but this is the one that I ended up listening to obsessively. “I’ll Be There For You” is still in my brain. I can still sing Richie Sambora’s high harmonies. Yup.
3. Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion (Part II) (Released 1991) – This ended the Guns N’ Roses era for me. I could have picked any of their albums, but this is the one that was last. I listened to “Don’t Cry,” “Knockin on Heaven’s Door,” and “Civil War,” to the point of insanity. To this day, I represent a generation of music fans that know the epic speech from the epic movie Cool Hand Luke more from a record than because of the actual flick.
4. Pearl Jam – Ten (Released 1991) – This was another turning point. For me, this album was more about the brooding stuff. I loved all the songs on the radio like Even Flow and Alive, but the real selling point was Release. To this day, I consider Release to be “the way” you end an album. That style of song is also something I aspire to. I was on the Pearl Jam bandwagon from this point until Yield (fittingly enough.)
5. Prince – Diamonds and Pearls (Released 1991) – Dangerous songs like Gett Off were excuses to buy something that sounded so pretty to me. I was not in the target demo for this album, and I wouldn’t have admitted it being one of my favorites for a long long time. Now, I am kinda old and I just don’t care. I missed out on Purple Rain, but I didn’t miss out on Prince.
6. Tool – Undertow (Released 1993) – This was the beginning of truly hard music. The high ranging vocals are amazing. The drumming made me wish I was a better drummer. The moods and lyrics made me, at 14, wish I was smarter. This album was one of the first times in my life where the music actually felt sacred to me.
7. Dinosaur Jr. – Without a Sound (Released 1993) – This is one of the defining albums of my musical collection. I loved this record and none of my friends did. It was one of those bands where I was out on the limb all by myself and yet I felt very comfortable as I listened to J Mascis do amazing guitar work and sing in his distinctive, yet below average drawl that I loved so much. The rest of the world knows this band for their cover of The Cure or “Feel the Pain,” but for me it is “Start Choppin,” from “Where You Been.” “Start Choppin” is still amazing today. Go find it and listen to it. You will be screaming in your falsetto in no time, I promise.
8. Counting Crows – August and Everything After – (Released 1993) – Counting Crows was one of those bands that differentiated me from my other friends who I talked music with. They HATED stuff like this for the most part. At the same time, with the raw emotion, melodies and extended vocal range, I was destined to fall in love with this album. “Raining in Baltimore” is still the highlight. I love LOTS of sad songs. This album also defines a freshman year of highschool trip to Spain. I listened to this album over and over and over going through batteries in my “Discman.”
9. Acid Bath – When the Kite String Pops (Released 1994) – My first death metal record. Should be sold like a fisher price toy. Muddy, dark, dirty and trudging is how I describe Acid Bath. Combine it with cover art painted by John Wayne Gacy, and you got yourself a teenage boy hook line and sinker. Acid Bath is also the first time I felt the need to create a web page. I ran the unofficial Acid Bath homepage for a couple years. Wrote that web page with a text editor and an HTML manual too. Uploading pictures on a 28.8 modem sucked.
10. Coinmonster – Guido El Sorrio (Released 1995) – One night in Peabody’s Downunder in Cleveland I saw the most amazing band I had ever seen. A drummer who played so fast and hard that I was sure he must do a lot of working out just to be able to do it. The guitarist was a riff magician. They had no gimmicks, world’s of talent and just killed the room that night. It made me rethink the idea of an “opening band” being crappy. I ended up becoming a bigger fan of Coinmonster than the band we originally went to see. I spent the next decade practically following them around. Worcester Massachussetts? Check. Youngstown, OH? Check. Akron? Check. Cleveland? Check check check check check… I have seen Coinmonster more times than any other band, probably including my own.
11. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (Released 1973) – I didn’t discover Floyd until late. I didn’t like the people who listened to Pink Floyd so I never gave them a chance. Today I am a giant Floyd fan, but I missed all the hoopla of 1994 and the Division Bell reunion tour. I missed out on a lot by not getting on board this train earlier.
12. Deftones – Around the Fur – (Released 1997) – I love this album because it defines my freshman year of college. I bought it on the day it was released in October and there were still some sunny days left in Boston. I took extra long ways back to my dorm so I could continue to escape into these tracks. Every single one sticks out, but I will never forget the bass drum from the title track or the weird groove provided by Be Quiet and Drive.
13. Alice in Chains – Unplugged (Released 1996) – I didn’t include other AIC albums so that I could use this one. This album survives as my go-to AIC album. The fragility of the sound as they are “applauded in” by MTV’s studio audience is amazing. I remember sitting there wondering what exactly Layne Staley was going to sound like and being honestly scared because of his frail look. As he started singing Nutshell though it made me feel unbelievable. Alice in Chains was like that cautionary tale that we all learned in our youth. It encompassed the “one bad apple” and “wasted talent” lessons all in one. They were a painful band to invest in, but you couldn’t help it.
14. Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape (Released 1997) – I didn’t want to like the Foo Fighters. “Big Me” seemed like a total joke and really, who would take the drummer from Nirvana seriously as a songwriter. Well, after a friend made me listen to this album, I would forever take Dave Grohl seriously. This used to be my go-to album for drives from Boston to Cleveland when I had ten hours to kill. I can sing every word of this album today. My favorite song on this album even today is February Stars. I have yet to meet another fan of the Foos who would count that as their favorite on this album. Yes, I take an elitist pride in that as a music snob.
15. Mineral – End Serenading (Released 1998) – This was Mineral’s “breakup” album. It seemed so strange to me that a band with songs this amazing could break up as they are finishing their second record, but whatever. End Serenading is so overly dramatic and “pansy” that I probably will someday be embarrassed that it meant so much to me. For about 5 years following my discovery of this album, it became my ode to winter. Whenever it started to feel like winter to me, I would drive around listening to this album singing it embarrassingly loud to myself and harmonizing with the lead singer. It is whiny, and self-important, but then again so are most people from ages 18-25′ish.
16. Hum – Downward is Heavenward Released 1998) – Hum was an obsession. Their short-lived career is on my ipod Nano today for quick access. It is also one of the most amazing concert experiences of my life. I will always remember being borderline crushed against the stage of the Middle East in Boston as a sweaty mess of humanity lost their minds to this ridiculously average band that insisted on playing as loudly as possible. I had earplugs in and they were no match for the band’s three full stacks of guitar amps aimed at obliterating even the sounds of the drums. But it worked. Sure we didn’t hear a vocal for the whole concert, but we might not have heard them above our own singing anyway.
17. Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (Released 1999) – One of the most amazing musical compositions in my collection. Trent Reznor introduced themes that kept re-appearing throughout this double album and yet somehow managed to have 3-4 single-worthy songs. I am sure this isn’t the top choice for most NIN die-hards, but I left all the others off this list so I could use this one.
18. Radiohead – Kid A (Released 2000) – I didn’t know where to fit Radiohead in so I went with the album that has Idioteque on it. I have a lot of Radiohead influence in my life. They started out of place with Creep on MTV in the middle of the night. I loved them from that point. The Bends was a revelation as was OK Computer. Kid A, though sticks out most. It was brave, but still completely amazing. I don’t know what my musical taste would be like without Radiohead specifically Kid A.
19. System of a Down – Toxicity (Released 2001) – This album is important for a couple reasons. First, I was searching the Internet every day for leaked tracks of this one. When I was working at Commerce One in Cambridge Mass, I finally got a rip of “Chop Suey!” off of some radio station rip from Oklahoma or something. The beginning of the track had the fading sound of a song by Nickelback as the crappy station had System battling Nickelback for some cheesy “rock song of the night” honor. I had this song playing on winamp with repeat going and I must have listened to it for 4-5 straight days. Honestly.
20. Death Cab for Cutie – We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (Released 2000) – This album was amazing because it wasn’t amazing. It was so opposite anything that I had ever liked before. It was slow and didn’t try too hard with its dynamics. It was subtle and left room for lyrics. It opened my eyes to the idea that music didn’t have to be the most complicated thing in the entire world to just plain rock. When you muddle along in the middle, the highs seem really really high in the scarce times that you reach them.
21. Iron and Wine – The Creek Drank the Cradle (Released 2002) – I was listening to this album downloaded from the internet because it was recommended. When I was listening to it for the first time, I thought I was listening to something at least 20-30 years old. After some research and after going into a real store and buying the CD I found out that it was a recent release. This was like my late-life intro to folk music. And it taught me that folk music doesn’t have to suck. Combine that with the really tight vocal harmonies and this album encompasses a lot.
22. The Velvet Teen – The Great Beast February (Released 2002) – I don’t know if this album would always make it onto my list, but it belongs because of “Mother of Love.” That is one of the songs that I had on my computer that I had on repeat for days at a time. It is just one of those songs that the world should be informed of whenever I have a chance.
23. Brand New – Deja Entendu (Released 2003) – This is a band that escaped the shortlived scream-o thing by being smart enough to stay away for a while and evolve. They had an album that I couldn’t stop playing over and over again, yet they didn’t just capitalize on the fact that kids from Warped Tour were anxious. They waited and got things right and set themselves up to have a long career. For me this was an album that I think has probably rubbed off on me a lot. They took notes from Pearl Jam on how to end an album with “Play Crack the Sky.” It is an amazing song if you have a chance to listen to it.
24. Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets… (Released 2004) – This album is amazing. I had to include Coheed and Cambria because the band is important to my musical history. I am pretty sure it was Coheed who was playing at the old Grog Shop on the night that I met my guitar player Todd in line for that show. Without that, I never would have ended up in The Company Line and making all the music I have made over the past five years. Either that or it would have sounded a hell of a lot different and worse. Todd and I have squandered a lot of time in the history of The Company Line, but I am never not proud of the things we do come up with. Coheed is a catalyst of circumstance.
25. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (Released 2007) – After being my own songwriter and in my own band, I kind of fell out of love with listening to music. One of my favorite comedians Jim Norton says he doesn’t listen to other comedians because he doesn’t want to be influenced. I think that is probably why I love The Arcade Fire. They are amazing, but even if I wanted to, I don’t think I would steal their sound or hardly anything from their sound. I love it, but it is almost a direct opposite of what I do. It is analog sounding, sloppy at times, kind of free form, yet highly organized chaos.
Sirius XM Should Acquire Pandora
Today on ArsTechnica, there was a story about Pandora and how they can’t make any money. The Cliff’s Notes version to get everyone up to speed is this. Pandora is a revolutionary online radio program that uses the music genome project to take user preferences based on a few songs and program a customized radio station just for you. If you like your death metal technical, and swedish like Meshuggah, Pandora will play some Meshuggah. And then they will find other bands that sound similar like Lamb of God, or At the Gates or some other Scandinavian death metal.
It is brilliant. It is the future of radio. It has no business model yet.
SoundExchange is all but guaranteeing that the business model is going to fail. They are the royalty-collecting wing of the RIAA. They are in the process of imposing a fee of 2.91 cents per hour per listener for the right to broadcast music. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is. Satellite radio has a rate of about 1.61 cents per hour per listener. The reasoning for making Pandora’s rate so much higher is basically because their service is so cool. SoundExchange treats Pandora differently because it creates something of a 1 to 1 relationship with each member of its audience whereas SiriusXM has a single playlist for a station that maybe thousands of people listen to at the same time.
I wrote about the satellite radio merger the other day and mentioned that the whole satellite delivery method of radio was eventually going to become obsolete with the proliferation of mobile internet. I still believe that, but here’s the thing. The proliferation of mobile internet is far from upon us.
So in the left hand, we have a brilliant company that can’t seem to make money and faces the eventual shuttering of its doors. On the right hand we have a company that looks to be healthy in the short term as time starts to run out on its proprietary music delivery method. Somewhere in the middle, these two companies need to meet.
SiriusXM is only going to survive in the long run with a mix of content and technology. The first portion of that is to have original, exclusive content. Their exclusive deals with sports leagues like MLB and the NFL are a great way to start. Having Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, and Ron and Fez is also a part of the equation. So where does the music fit in?
In the age of iPods you aren’t going to compete with an all-encompassing programmed radio station. So imagine if there were no music channels on SiriusXM. No adult contemporary channels. No hardcore punk channels. No hip-hop channels. Instead it was Pandora. Every listener has a few artists or styles and as they ride around in their cars listening to the music and giving minimal feedback, they are creating individualized music stations that will grow and change with them wherever they go.
It would be a big win for SiriusXM. It would be a big win for fans of music to not lose Pandora. Pandora needs subscribers. SiriusXM has subscribers and needs to make sure they futureproof themselves past the whole satellite delivery method. Pandora is a good way to do that.
Sirius-XM Merger Finally Approved
The FCC finally approved the merger of the only two satellite radio services in the country. It is kind of funny that it has taken this long, but we are starting to see the future for this new company. The funny thing is that I am betting it will only have to do with satellites in the very very short term.
The reason? This product.
This, looks like an ordinary wireless router, but it isn’t. This is a mobile wifi router from a company called WAAV. It has been announced already that mobile wifi technology will be available in some of next year’s Chrysler cars. This device grabs the mobile data signals from cellular carriers like AT&T or Sprint and broadcasts it inside your car (and about a 50-100 foot radius outside your car) so you can access the internet on the go. This means laptops, video games, and soon enough wifi radios.
This is an important point because if the internet starts being an accessible network on the road in every car, it will certainly marginalize the need for a lot of satellite technology. All that money that Sirius and XM have spent over the years will seem completely wasted as more and more people stop bothering with satellite antennae.
Then, the new merged Sirius/XM company is no longer anything more than a content company. Instead of selling a technology, they are just selling Oprah, Martha Stewart, Opie and Anthony, Howard Stern, NFL Football and Major League Baseball.
Except those last two will probably stop renewing their contracts with Sirius/XM because they won’t need a middleman to broadcast the radio descriptions of their games straight to consumers. So there is one lost selling point for Sirius/XM.
Also, the Sirius/XM music channels will have stiff competition from Slacker and Pandora that use user data to customize radio stations just for you, not to mention iPods which will easily be connected in any car on the road in the next couple of years. As it stands now, I would guess that at least 50% of cars being produced today have MP3 player functionality, at least by way of headphone jack.
It is through this filter that I find all the debate over Sirius/XM so hilarious. These two companies have done an amazing job developing a technology that will be completely unnecessary in a matter of years. As that happens, the content producers will be able to go directly to the consumers more and more, thus marginalizing the need for a company to consolidate talent into a service platform once and for all.
Does this sound like a monopoly to you? It doesn’t sound like a monopoly to me either.
Hat tip to MisterCrunchy, who actually commented on this site well over a year ago that satellite technology was going to be marginalized and obsolete.
Josh Homme BLASTS Abusive Audience Member
Note to self: Do not mess with Queens of the Stone Age lead man, Josh Homme. Apparently someone was throwing things at the band. Homme was sick and perturbed already. He unleashes one of the longest expletive-laced tirades I have ever seen. Oh yeah and then he throws a water bottle at the guy.
So, needless to say, if you have your speakers on, this video is not safe for work. Be warned the language is INTENSE.
Dax Riggs – Yesterday Cover
Dax Riggs used to be my favorite death metal singer on earth when he was the lead singer of Acid Bath. It has been a long damn time since he played in that band. Now he is 1/2 of Deadboy and the Elephantmen which has achieved a lot of cult success. But, he also apparently has played some bar gigs where he has broken out cool covers. My favorite so far is his version of Yesterday. Check it out before Yoko has it yanked of the internets.
The Fire Theft – Heaven Video
It is nice to find that some of your favorite songs end up on the internets. Even the really rare-ish ones that never made it “big.”
Minus the Bear – I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien
A great band (Minus the Bear) and my favorite song (I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien) in a medium quality bootleg video on YouTube. Minus the Bear was tops on my list of bands for a little while. They have fallen off a bit, but still one hell of a band live.
The Dismemberment Plan – Time Bomb
Those are some weird words to have grouped together in a heading that also make me feel really good. One of my favorite bands. One of my favorite songs. Also a hell of a video. There was a hubub over this video once upon a time because apparently the concepts were seemingly ripped off by the Vines later for one of their videos.
But, here is The Dismemberment Plan.
Now for the video that a lot of d-plan fans thought ripped off Time Bomb conceptually.
Explosions in the Sky – Austin City Limits
Explosions in the Sky will never hit the mainstream. They play instrumental guitar rock. That’s right. No vocals. Still, their music has this ability to be passionate and emotional. Their music was one of the brighter spots of the Friday Night Lights movie starring Billy Bob Thornton. They have a bunch of albums out. And now, they have done Austin City Limits on PBS. I found the video online and if you have 20 minutes to throw it on in the background, you should.
Canadian Rock From YouTube – The Tea Part and Chore
I was pushing around YouTube last night and I got on a jag of Canadian rock when it occurred to me that I hadn’t listened to The Tea Party in a long time, while a couple of their albums were favorites of mine for a long time. I started looking for my favorite song by them called Psychopomp. People here in the US never became all that turned on to this song, but you will see by the reactions of Canadian audiences how big the song was.
Then I found out that the band broke up and the lead singer is still out on his own doing solo stuff. Check out the solo version of Psychopomp.
And after watching these two videos, I remembered how much I loved the band Chore, also from Canada. They never hit it huge in the States either, but they have some really amazing songs. Here are two of them, General Warning, and The Hitchhiker.
