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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Becuase I can't shut up about music
Johnny B came up with around 50 and Chris came up with 20. While I originally had something around 55 albums I love (and showed no signs of stopping) I decided to whittle it down to a simple 20. So let's look at what music makes up me (listed in no particular order).
1. Iggy and The Stooges - Raw Power
This is everything I love about rock 'n' roll. James Williamson's guitar crashes through your eardrums and Iggy sounds like an escaped mental patient with a heavy sexual appetite. I turn it up real loud so I can forget about everything else in my life and only concentrate on the aural anarchy.
2. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Kevin Shields gives up pop music worthy of the British Invasion, just filtered through guitars so loud they sound more like ocean waves more than anything else. This is what The Ramones would sound like if they created music only by dreaming.
3. Nirvana –Nevermind
Kurt Cobain, on this album more than anywhere else, created music that could be abrasive, disturbing, crushing and also quite tuneful. It was a style of songwriting that seemed to be in love with contradictions, and completely fearless.
4. The Who – Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy
This collection of early singles presents the band as their best. Probably the first rock band to combine violent sounding rock music with brains and craft (those harmonies!) and still one of the best to do it. “Can’t Explain” sums up a lot of what is great about rock ‘n’ roll.
5. Bikini Kill – The Singles
A lot of punk rock is rage and volume that leads to nothing. This band used anger to address matters both personal and political in a way all there own. Kathleen Hannah’s voice is one of the greatest instruments in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.
6. Prince – Dirty Mind
Prince used technology to create music that was anything but cold. The grooves and hooks are there in a record that decided it will be sexy at all costs.
7. Pixies – Doolittle
I listened to this album everyday for a year. It starts as power pop but then Frank Black lets things get weirder and weirder. In that case that means better and better. “Here Comes Your Man” is perfect pop music.
8. Parliament – Mothership Connection
If you can’t dance to this your body must not be connected to your brain. As psychedelic as anything the rock guys were doing, but a whole lot funkier and funnier.
9. Handsome Boy Modeling School – So, How’s Your Girl?
It’s a toss-up whether this or Doctor Octagon is Dan the Automater’s finest hour, but with Prince Paul here as well this record can not be counted out. A fantastic and fun look at alternative hip-hop circa the late-90’s.
10. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030
Or maybe this is Automater’s best? It’s Del the Funkee Homosapien’s unrelenting flow that touches on all things sci-fi that makes this record for me. “Time Keeps on Slipping,” with Damon Albarn, is one of the most beautiful hip-hop songs ever.
11. Velvet Underground – Velvet Underground
Lou Reed’s brilliance was made obvious right from the get-go it seems. AM radio sensibilities mixed with the dark and hedonistic wonderfully. Nico has the type of voice that shouldn’t work but does so here. She’s like an android Lesley Gore, which is perfect for this record.
12. The Beatles – Revolver
With perhaps the exception of Magical Mystery Tour, this is The Beatles doing psychedelic music at their best. “Tomorrow Never Knows” certainly helps the case, but there are also wonderful moments of plain ol’ guitar pop with “Taxman” and my favorite Bealtes song “I’m Only Sleeping.”
13. The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album)
There here twice because they’re the greatest band ever. Here they are giving you everything. Paul will come in a happy, jumpy number and then a few minutes later John will devastate you with something like “Julia” (you have read my subtitle haven’t you?). One album that proves how amazing they were.
14. Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet
If anyone was wondering if hip-hop could get as loud and angry as rock, they weren’t wondering after this one. The Bomb Squad’s production would be considered avant-garde art in the 50’s but here it’s the soundtrack to Chuck D’s booming delivery and Flava Flav’s antics. Again, the politics and music fit here so well it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.
15. Minor Threat – Discography
Before this I listened to punk but never knew how powerful it could be. After this it went straight into my brain. The sentiments behind songs like “Straight Edge” are laughably naïve now, but that’s just the beauty of music made by people all in their teens.
16. Husker Du –Zen Arcade
Bob Mould is my personal guitar hero. Anyone who ever decided to mix good punk with good pop (and you can find some of them listed above) has this album to thank. It almost takes a surreal turn it’s so good. Basically, this is punk’s “White Album.”
17. Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
No band has ever captured the excitement of an electric guitar playing through a cranked up amp than this one. They were intellectual about it, sure, but they never lost sight of what it was really all about on this album.
18. The Clash – The Clash (U.S. Version)
This is one I also listened to about everyday for a year. Even at the beginning The Clash were about more than just punk rock (although they did it well, if you ever listened to “Janie Jones”) and in fact were trying to mine all territory to get their feelings on politics and themselves known. It instills a sense of “anything can happen” into any person listening who’s willing to believe. “Complete Control” remains Mick Jones best work as a guitar player and it’s a song that never fails to give me goosebumps.
19. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home
Dylan starts it off by giving you lyrics that sound like they’ve been sent through a Tommy Gun. When he says later on in “Maggie’s Farm” that he’s got “a headful of ideas that are driving [him] insane” you believe him. “It’s Alright Ma” is the ultimate Dylan song, a composition that seems intent to rebel against everything on the planet. This album is the closest thing that I have to a Bible.
20. Buzzcocks – Singles Gone Steady
Before Husker Du came around, this was the best place for punk rockers who wanted to get real melodic. It’s just as nervous and loud as anything else, but you could also hum the songs once they were done.
There we go. You probably found certain themes running throughout, which is what I wanted. If I could I would also list The Smiths, Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Can, The Rolling Stones and many more but I think that’s enough. Now, you do yours.
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