twenty plus albums
Yes, I participated in this disease-like meme. Cross-posted from Facebook. Probably I'm missing a lot of important stuff in here, but these were a few of the signposts:
In roughly chronological order.
Hank Williams: Everything
My parents didn’t listen to music very often while I was growing up. It was the opposite of a musical home. However, they had a turntable and a few albums. My dad had a two-LP set of Hank Williams originals that he played three or four times a week and the lonesome swamp sound of his band ingrained early into my consciousness. His other contribution was Johnny Cash.
Beatles: Love Songs
My mom's major contribution was this album, with songs like “This Boy,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” I used to think the guitars on those old songs were impossibly sophisticated.
Stevie Wonder: Hotter than July
My mom’s other album. I was so little I didn’t even realize race had anything to do with it. I just loved it. How’s that for utopia? There’s a sound of shattering glass and conversation in between the songs that still transforms me every time I hear it.
Nirvana: Nevermind
I was literally in high school before I bought my first album of music. That’s how weird and book-oriented my family was. I was about thirteen and I would always listen to shit like Poison on the fucking “Power Pig” rock station in Florida. Then I heard the opening chords to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I was literally never the same again. It may sound cliche but it’s true.
Motley Crue: Shout at the Devil
A girl I was in love with in high school walked into my Spanish Class and stuck this tape in my bag with a smile. Say what you will about Vince Neil; he sounds intense, sexy, and possessed on this album. Some of these songs have real tragedy at their heart and I was starting to see what music could do.
Nine Inch Nails: Pretty hate machine
She passed me this, too. And oh boy, I was down in it.
Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A'Changin’
An uncle gave me this a year or so afterwards. I must have been fifteen. After all that Motley Crue, at first I couldn’t believe a skinny guy with a guitar could be cool. But as I listened to this over and over again, I started to see how important the words in music could be, and how a spare arrangement could allow their power to shine through. They could make the emotions a hundred times more intense. Right around here I got my first guitar.
Leonard Cohen: Songs from a Room
Again, the words. A friend in high school turned me on to this and I started to have visions of the apocalypse. I liked the softness and the crooning combined with a dystopia based on the holocaust. The sadness was thick enough to catch you falling from the thirteenth floor.
Tom Waits: Bone Machine
Connected to the apocalypse I've mentioned above. A music that's full of pictures.
Master Musicians of Jajouka: Everything
I found out about this through my teenage worship of William S. Burroughs. I had my first entheogenic experiences with Brian Jones’s field recordings on the CD player and I still keep them ready for any trek across the sahara of the mind.
Throbbing Gristle: DOA
Also something I discovered in high school. I fell in love with noise and never looked back. Tenderized my mind in preparation for Merzbow and Skinny Puppy.
PJ Harvey: Dry
I think I picked this out ‘cause I liked a review of it I’d read in the newspaper. I used to listen to it every day on the hour-long bus ride to school. Probably she was the first one to show me how to look at the world through a woman’s eyes. Prepared me for Kate Bush.
Nick Cave: Let Love In
Self-mutilation and beauty combined. Fucking gorgeous. Shut up.
GG Allin: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Mario gave this to me, and our high school band immediately developed cover versions of “Dope Money,” “Cock on the Loose,” “Everybody knows I’m a Scumbag,” and so on. We still play them when we get together today. Deepened and scarified my sense of punk rock.
Skinny Puppy: B-Sides
I got this from a goth girl who lived with us for a while and never paid the rent. I stole her music collection as revenge, and then she bombed an email account with spam to get back at me. Anyway, this was my favorite album in the collection. It was hard, artistic, experimental, creative, uncompromising. I often put this on while making political signs and banners.
PTV: Allegory and Self
Got this in my dark days in Chicago and it carried me through. “In the Scarlet Mire” used to transform me. I’m always screaming for PTV to play “Just Like Arcadia” at their recent shows, but they won’t do it.
Download: III
This is the one with all the moths on the cover. This, and the other Download albums, helped ramp up my passion for electronic music. Still a great one to put on when you're tripping. There's a horse in there that whinnies. Listen carefully and you can ride it.
Uz Jsme Doma: U Prostred Slov
I discovered this during my year in Prague. Insanely creative horns, vocals, experimental concrete poetry in the lyrics. I used to write with this on a lot.
Radiohead: Kid A
Came across this during a sad lost year in Los Angeles. People are still alive, I thought. People are still breaking open the nut of life and biting down on the fruit.
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works
This came as a gift along with a small bag of ketamine. The two things are forever associated in my mind. Probably this has been on, at least part of the time, for the writing of every one of my stories…
Howling Wolf: His Best
Some of the tightest blues songs. Everyone constantly rips these off and you’ve got to back to the source and hear the original. The lead guitar player hits it just right.
Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music
This was my life support during the Bush years. Every time it seemed like America was a country of fools and dupes, I would put this on and contemplate the older sources of yankee wisdom and strength. Essential for lots of other reasons as well.
Morrissey: Vauxhall and I
I used to listen to this all the time around 2002-2004 when I was feeling a particular sort of sadness that only Moz could comfort. Not so much anymore, but I still know all the words to every song on here and some of his other albums as well.
Autechre: Incunabula
I’m currently deeply into this, again, and often put it on when I’m writing. There’s so much invention in every track that it’s a little hard to believe. The synths are juicy and sweet like a big fat flower my mind can curl up on.
Misfits: Static Age
I got into this way later than everybody else. But the main reason for that is that I had so little money to buy albums and also I had no older brothers to turn me on to shit. Anyway, I’ll tell you I made sure my cousins got their hands on this when they were fifteen. “Hybrid Moments” is one of those perfect songs.
Leaetherstrip: After the Devastation
This gave me a sense of what EBM and contemporary industrial could really be and it's a big influence on my work with Experiment Haywire. “Back in Control” had this weird mix of mechanization and emotion and I was like “That’s where I’m going. That’s where I’ve got to be.”
In roughly chronological order.
Hank Williams: Everything
My parents didn’t listen to music very often while I was growing up. It was the opposite of a musical home. However, they had a turntable and a few albums. My dad had a two-LP set of Hank Williams originals that he played three or four times a week and the lonesome swamp sound of his band ingrained early into my consciousness. His other contribution was Johnny Cash.
Beatles: Love Songs
My mom's major contribution was this album, with songs like “This Boy,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” I used to think the guitars on those old songs were impossibly sophisticated.
Stevie Wonder: Hotter than July
My mom’s other album. I was so little I didn’t even realize race had anything to do with it. I just loved it. How’s that for utopia? There’s a sound of shattering glass and conversation in between the songs that still transforms me every time I hear it.
Nirvana: Nevermind
I was literally in high school before I bought my first album of music. That’s how weird and book-oriented my family was. I was about thirteen and I would always listen to shit like Poison on the fucking “Power Pig” rock station in Florida. Then I heard the opening chords to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I was literally never the same again. It may sound cliche but it’s true.
Motley Crue: Shout at the Devil
A girl I was in love with in high school walked into my Spanish Class and stuck this tape in my bag with a smile. Say what you will about Vince Neil; he sounds intense, sexy, and possessed on this album. Some of these songs have real tragedy at their heart and I was starting to see what music could do.
Nine Inch Nails: Pretty hate machine
She passed me this, too. And oh boy, I was down in it.
Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A'Changin’
An uncle gave me this a year or so afterwards. I must have been fifteen. After all that Motley Crue, at first I couldn’t believe a skinny guy with a guitar could be cool. But as I listened to this over and over again, I started to see how important the words in music could be, and how a spare arrangement could allow their power to shine through. They could make the emotions a hundred times more intense. Right around here I got my first guitar.
Leonard Cohen: Songs from a Room
Again, the words. A friend in high school turned me on to this and I started to have visions of the apocalypse. I liked the softness and the crooning combined with a dystopia based on the holocaust. The sadness was thick enough to catch you falling from the thirteenth floor.
Tom Waits: Bone Machine
Connected to the apocalypse I've mentioned above. A music that's full of pictures.
Master Musicians of Jajouka: Everything
I found out about this through my teenage worship of William S. Burroughs. I had my first entheogenic experiences with Brian Jones’s field recordings on the CD player and I still keep them ready for any trek across the sahara of the mind.
Throbbing Gristle: DOA
Also something I discovered in high school. I fell in love with noise and never looked back. Tenderized my mind in preparation for Merzbow and Skinny Puppy.
PJ Harvey: Dry
I think I picked this out ‘cause I liked a review of it I’d read in the newspaper. I used to listen to it every day on the hour-long bus ride to school. Probably she was the first one to show me how to look at the world through a woman’s eyes. Prepared me for Kate Bush.
Nick Cave: Let Love In
Self-mutilation and beauty combined. Fucking gorgeous. Shut up.
GG Allin: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Mario gave this to me, and our high school band immediately developed cover versions of “Dope Money,” “Cock on the Loose,” “Everybody knows I’m a Scumbag,” and so on. We still play them when we get together today. Deepened and scarified my sense of punk rock.
Skinny Puppy: B-Sides
I got this from a goth girl who lived with us for a while and never paid the rent. I stole her music collection as revenge, and then she bombed an email account with spam to get back at me. Anyway, this was my favorite album in the collection. It was hard, artistic, experimental, creative, uncompromising. I often put this on while making political signs and banners.
PTV: Allegory and Self
Got this in my dark days in Chicago and it carried me through. “In the Scarlet Mire” used to transform me. I’m always screaming for PTV to play “Just Like Arcadia” at their recent shows, but they won’t do it.
Download: III
This is the one with all the moths on the cover. This, and the other Download albums, helped ramp up my passion for electronic music. Still a great one to put on when you're tripping. There's a horse in there that whinnies. Listen carefully and you can ride it.
Uz Jsme Doma: U Prostred Slov
I discovered this during my year in Prague. Insanely creative horns, vocals, experimental concrete poetry in the lyrics. I used to write with this on a lot.
Radiohead: Kid A
Came across this during a sad lost year in Los Angeles. People are still alive, I thought. People are still breaking open the nut of life and biting down on the fruit.
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works
This came as a gift along with a small bag of ketamine. The two things are forever associated in my mind. Probably this has been on, at least part of the time, for the writing of every one of my stories…
Howling Wolf: His Best
Some of the tightest blues songs. Everyone constantly rips these off and you’ve got to back to the source and hear the original. The lead guitar player hits it just right.
Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music
This was my life support during the Bush years. Every time it seemed like America was a country of fools and dupes, I would put this on and contemplate the older sources of yankee wisdom and strength. Essential for lots of other reasons as well.
Morrissey: Vauxhall and I
I used to listen to this all the time around 2002-2004 when I was feeling a particular sort of sadness that only Moz could comfort. Not so much anymore, but I still know all the words to every song on here and some of his other albums as well.
Autechre: Incunabula
I’m currently deeply into this, again, and often put it on when I’m writing. There’s so much invention in every track that it’s a little hard to believe. The synths are juicy and sweet like a big fat flower my mind can curl up on.
Misfits: Static Age
I got into this way later than everybody else. But the main reason for that is that I had so little money to buy albums and also I had no older brothers to turn me on to shit. Anyway, I’ll tell you I made sure my cousins got their hands on this when they were fifteen. “Hybrid Moments” is one of those perfect songs.
Leaetherstrip: After the Devastation
This gave me a sense of what EBM and contemporary industrial could really be and it's a big influence on my work with Experiment Haywire. “Back in Control” had this weird mix of mechanization and emotion and I was like “That’s where I’m going. That’s where I’ve got to be.”