Albums.
Okay, so there’s apparently been two versions of this floating around, a 25 album version and a 14 album version, so I’m gonna do 13 just to spite all of you.
Whatcha do here, apparently is list the albums that influenced or really meant something to you, and you talk about why. Simple enough, but I’ve got a few drinks in me, so we’ll see how this goes. +laugh+
1. The Smiths - Louder than Bombs
Anyone who didn’t see this coming off of the bat needs to get their third-eye checked. I’m not sure how the Smiths’ did it, but they’ve made almost a perfect album here, from Is it Really So Strange winding all the way down to Asleep. There’s no way to stop this album half way through. It starts and grabs you and then you laugh and then you cry and then you want to do horrible things to Moz circa the year I was born. Okay, maybe that’s just me. I was actually introduced through the Smiths two ways at about the same time in middle school and they’re both pretty goofy. The first was through the Charmed theme song (I DON’T EVEN LIKE CHARMED!) and the second was through a friend I met on the intertubes who still gives me swell new tunes from time to time. Dankeshen, William.
2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Confession: I only heard about The Arcade Fire last year, but this is one of the albums that you listen to once and it somehow reminds you of things without even knowing any of the songs. I put this on while riding the bus on a spring day and god, it seems like that’s almost what it’s meant for: sitting on a bus, letting the sunlight flicker over your eyes, and thinking about where you’re going and who you used to be.
3. AFI - Sing the Sorrow
Not the first AFI album I ever owned but the first I ever bought myself. I’m just gonna come out and say it: teenage angst. I could listen to this album forever. The hidden tracks are beautiful. AFI was also the first concert I took Chris to, and it was the first significant road trip we ever took together, way out to good ol’ Columbus, in February.
4. Donnie Darko - The Soundtrack
I’m kind of just using this to sum up all of the 80s goth stuff that I love to death whose albums have a few good songs but really are nothing special album worthy. There’s a lot of it, but without those few songs, the earth would have imploded sometime around 1987.
5. The Beatles - The White Album
This is my mom’s favorite Beatles’ album, and therefore, is my favorite Beatles’ album, probably because it was one of the first sounds I ever heard in life (something like, AW LOOK AT THE BABY I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS), and because me and my mom and brother used to dance around in the living room, but we had it on vinyl, so we would jump around and the album would skip and it was wonderful. Also, if I had to pick a favorite Beatles’ song by itself, I’d have to go with Happiness is a Warm Gun, so there you go.
6. Beirut - Flying Club Cup/Gulag Orkestar
I really honestly cannot decide between the two. Beirut is another band I kind of “just” discovered (about a year ago, again), but these two albums have so very much influenced my musical tastes since then that it would be stupid to leave it off of this list. Whatever kind of music this is, it is my new favorite kind of music.
7. The Clarks - Let it Go
This was one of those summertime albums in high school that no one could ever make me stop listening to. They were local, they were fun, they were good, and my dad liked them, so I think I went to literally every Clarks show between 2000 and 2004, which I think was around the same time I started smoking.
8. Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Not only is this not the kind of album you should play for a newborn, it’s the kind of album you shouldn’t play for your children. My parents thought it would make a good lullaby (admittedly, I’m sure they just wanted to play Sweet Child of Mine since this was the number 1 single month I was born, but after a while, they would just start the album at the beginning with Welcome to the Jungle and they tell me that by the time it got to the end of Sweet Child, I was passed out cold. I still get kind of sleepy when I listen to it. DAMN YOU PAVLOV).
9. No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
I listened to this tape so much as a kid I freakin’ wore it out and had to buy a new one. I think it was also the first album I learned all the words too, like all the words, and from that time on I could (and still can) do an uncanny Gwen Stephani impersonation. Ask me sometime.
10. Roxette - Crash Boom Bang
For Christmas when I was six, my dad bought me a CD player. Man, it was bitchin’, I was the first kid on the block with a CD player (though I’d already had a computer for two years. And you people wonder why I’m such a geek). This was the CD my dad bought me to listen to on my shiny new boom box; he thought I would like it because it had songs about motorcycles. I did. I also liked that it was a brilliant album and that Roxette was that lady who sang that song about musta been love or something. But mostly it was the motorcycles.
11. Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Oh fuck off. Bon Jovi was the first concert I went to - IN THE WOMB (I also saw Lost Boys in the womb)! It was also the first concert I went to post-natal, and me and my mom still do a mean rendition of You Give Love a Bad Name, when she’s not too busy giggling her ass off. I also still force my dad to play the opening of Wanted Dead or Alive every time I see him, even though he’s never owned a 12 string guitar.
12. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
When I first met Chris, we would drive around all night and just play this album over and over and over until our throats were raw from singing and we ran out of donuts and Red Bull. It’s also one of the only albums I’ve ever given my mom that she’s continued to listen to after I stopped making a fuss about it. So we traded boys from Jersey. She gave me Bon Jovi and I gave her MCR. Years later, we saw Bon Jovi and MCR give a joint show in New Jersey. Hell yeah, mom.
13. Pink Floyd - The Wall
Fuck you, yes I like The Wall better than Dark Side of the Moon. Bite me.
Shit. Now I want to put more albums on the list, but then I wouldn’t be spiteful anymore. Damn it. I guess I’ll just have to do this again sometime.
Whatcha do here, apparently is list the albums that influenced or really meant something to you, and you talk about why. Simple enough, but I’ve got a few drinks in me, so we’ll see how this goes. +laugh+
1. The Smiths - Louder than Bombs
Anyone who didn’t see this coming off of the bat needs to get their third-eye checked. I’m not sure how the Smiths’ did it, but they’ve made almost a perfect album here, from Is it Really So Strange winding all the way down to Asleep. There’s no way to stop this album half way through. It starts and grabs you and then you laugh and then you cry and then you want to do horrible things to Moz circa the year I was born. Okay, maybe that’s just me. I was actually introduced through the Smiths two ways at about the same time in middle school and they’re both pretty goofy. The first was through the Charmed theme song (I DON’T EVEN LIKE CHARMED!) and the second was through a friend I met on the intertubes who still gives me swell new tunes from time to time. Dankeshen, William.
2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Confession: I only heard about The Arcade Fire last year, but this is one of the albums that you listen to once and it somehow reminds you of things without even knowing any of the songs. I put this on while riding the bus on a spring day and god, it seems like that’s almost what it’s meant for: sitting on a bus, letting the sunlight flicker over your eyes, and thinking about where you’re going and who you used to be.
3. AFI - Sing the Sorrow
Not the first AFI album I ever owned but the first I ever bought myself. I’m just gonna come out and say it: teenage angst. I could listen to this album forever. The hidden tracks are beautiful. AFI was also the first concert I took Chris to, and it was the first significant road trip we ever took together, way out to good ol’ Columbus, in February.
4. Donnie Darko - The Soundtrack
I’m kind of just using this to sum up all of the 80s goth stuff that I love to death whose albums have a few good songs but really are nothing special album worthy. There’s a lot of it, but without those few songs, the earth would have imploded sometime around 1987.
5. The Beatles - The White Album
This is my mom’s favorite Beatles’ album, and therefore, is my favorite Beatles’ album, probably because it was one of the first sounds I ever heard in life (something like, AW LOOK AT THE BABY I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS), and because me and my mom and brother used to dance around in the living room, but we had it on vinyl, so we would jump around and the album would skip and it was wonderful. Also, if I had to pick a favorite Beatles’ song by itself, I’d have to go with Happiness is a Warm Gun, so there you go.
6. Beirut - Flying Club Cup/Gulag Orkestar
I really honestly cannot decide between the two. Beirut is another band I kind of “just” discovered (about a year ago, again), but these two albums have so very much influenced my musical tastes since then that it would be stupid to leave it off of this list. Whatever kind of music this is, it is my new favorite kind of music.
7. The Clarks - Let it Go
This was one of those summertime albums in high school that no one could ever make me stop listening to. They were local, they were fun, they were good, and my dad liked them, so I think I went to literally every Clarks show between 2000 and 2004, which I think was around the same time I started smoking.
8. Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Not only is this not the kind of album you should play for a newborn, it’s the kind of album you shouldn’t play for your children. My parents thought it would make a good lullaby (admittedly, I’m sure they just wanted to play Sweet Child of Mine since this was the number 1 single month I was born, but after a while, they would just start the album at the beginning with Welcome to the Jungle and they tell me that by the time it got to the end of Sweet Child, I was passed out cold. I still get kind of sleepy when I listen to it. DAMN YOU PAVLOV).
9. No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
I listened to this tape so much as a kid I freakin’ wore it out and had to buy a new one. I think it was also the first album I learned all the words too, like all the words, and from that time on I could (and still can) do an uncanny Gwen Stephani impersonation. Ask me sometime.
10. Roxette - Crash Boom Bang
For Christmas when I was six, my dad bought me a CD player. Man, it was bitchin’, I was the first kid on the block with a CD player (though I’d already had a computer for two years. And you people wonder why I’m such a geek). This was the CD my dad bought me to listen to on my shiny new boom box; he thought I would like it because it had songs about motorcycles. I did. I also liked that it was a brilliant album and that Roxette was that lady who sang that song about musta been love or something. But mostly it was the motorcycles.
11. Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Oh fuck off. Bon Jovi was the first concert I went to - IN THE WOMB (I also saw Lost Boys in the womb)! It was also the first concert I went to post-natal, and me and my mom still do a mean rendition of You Give Love a Bad Name, when she’s not too busy giggling her ass off. I also still force my dad to play the opening of Wanted Dead or Alive every time I see him, even though he’s never owned a 12 string guitar.
12. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
When I first met Chris, we would drive around all night and just play this album over and over and over until our throats were raw from singing and we ran out of donuts and Red Bull. It’s also one of the only albums I’ve ever given my mom that she’s continued to listen to after I stopped making a fuss about it. So we traded boys from Jersey. She gave me Bon Jovi and I gave her MCR. Years later, we saw Bon Jovi and MCR give a joint show in New Jersey. Hell yeah, mom.
13. Pink Floyd - The Wall
Fuck you, yes I like The Wall better than Dark Side of the Moon. Bite me.
Shit. Now I want to put more albums on the list, but then I wouldn’t be spiteful anymore. Damn it. I guess I’ll just have to do this again sometime.