15 Albums
Cross posted from Facebook
Think of 15 albums, CDs, LPs that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazu, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others, including moi. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good.
Johnny Cash - The Man in Black
I grew up in house with lots of late 70s, early 80s country, Kenny Rodgers, Dolly Parton, Billy Ray Cyrus back when Miley was just a glimmer in hes eye. I remember finding this album in my Mom's collection and thinking it was somehow different, somehow better then the rest of the stuff she played. So yeah this is an important album for me because listening to it caused me to have my first feelings of music snobbery.
ABBA - The Singles
Yep, first album I bought with my own money when I was 11 or so. I'll admit it, if I could just get over the whole sexual attraction to women thing I would make an excellent gay man.
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Hey, no one said these had to good influential albums. This is the album that started my unfortunate middle school hair metal phase. Think Stewart, the kid in the Winger shirt from Bevis and Butthead. This is the main reason I support an aesthetic amnesty for any music loved between the ages of 13-16.
Nirvana - Bleach
My friend Danny took me to a Nirvana show at an old garage when I was 17 and it was like a whole new world just opened its door to me and invited me inside. I actually found a photographer who took pictures at that show, and there's one of Cobain crowd surfing where you can see me holding up his leg. A print of that is at the top of my list of things to buy when I can spend $800 frivolously.
Singles - Motion Picture Soundtrack
Man I hated this movie when it first came out. I saw it as nothing but a bunch of Hollywood types coming north and ruining our scene. I was working at a Seattle area Tower Records when this came out and I brought the full weight of my record store employee disdain against any yuppie types that bought this. I didn't even see the film until 5 or 6 years ago, and while I still don't think its that good its sins can be forgiven for this admittedly great soundtrack and for all the footage shot inside the OK Hotel.
Nine Inch Nails - Broken
Trent Reznor, the man who showed me that fishnet stockings could be used as shirts as well. This album is still great to listen to while on the elliptical at the gym, second only to Nashville Pussy's Let Them Eat Pussy.
Wax Trax Block Box
OK, cheating here by including a box set but this is such a great cross selection of music I loved; Coil, My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, a bunch of Al Jourgensen projects. If only they had managed to clear up the licensing to get Front 242 on it would have been perfect. As it stands the Deliverance remix of The Revolting Cocks' Beers Steers and Queers is still my favorite dance song ever.
The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland
Oh Andrew Eldritch, how badly I wanted to be you at one point. How embarrassed that makes me now.
Ramones - Ramones
Great album, classic. For me though this one really sticks out because of seeing them live. It was the last Bumbershoot festival I went to, and I had just managed to get on top of the crowd when they started playing "Beat on the Brat". As I was literally thrown from one side of the audience to the other, I remember having the thought "I am getting too old for this" for the very first time.
Switchblade Symphony - Serpentine Gallery
I think the combination of how much I loved this album when it came out and how much I loved their show at A Winter Gone By when I came for a visit is the real reason I moved to San Francisco.
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Is there anyone who was in their 20s in 1998 who didn't make out to this album?
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Not my favorite Waits album, but it was released right when I went to work in Germany. It sparked a renewed Waits obsession that helped me through the low points of that trip and seeing him live in Berlin was definitely a high point.
Indigo Swing - Indigo Swing
Front to back, I still want to lindy to every track here.
Lavay Smith - One Hour Mama
Best album of the new swing movement period. More important for me, one of the first conversations I had with Wanda was over how great this album was, a trip we planned together to see Lavay in Seattle led to us dating and we saw her in SF on the night I proposed.
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
This was a nice reminder that I could still find a musician to go bongo crazy obsessive over. For a good 4 months in 06 I barely listened to anything besides this or one of her other albums and saw her in concert 5 times. New one drops next week, I can't wait.
Damn 15 albums aren't enough. Nothing from those artists where their entire body of work means a lot to me so single album doesn't stick out (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sleater Kinney) or those artists that I think of more by song rather then album (Sinatra, Creatures, Underworld) or those albums that relate intensely to a single period of my life but seem disconnected afterward (The Sundays - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic = my first semester in college ). Maybe next meme.
Think of 15 albums, CDs, LPs that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazu, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others, including moi. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good.
Johnny Cash - The Man in Black
I grew up in house with lots of late 70s, early 80s country, Kenny Rodgers, Dolly Parton, Billy Ray Cyrus back when Miley was just a glimmer in hes eye. I remember finding this album in my Mom's collection and thinking it was somehow different, somehow better then the rest of the stuff she played. So yeah this is an important album for me because listening to it caused me to have my first feelings of music snobbery.
ABBA - The Singles
Yep, first album I bought with my own money when I was 11 or so. I'll admit it, if I could just get over the whole sexual attraction to women thing I would make an excellent gay man.
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Hey, no one said these had to good influential albums. This is the album that started my unfortunate middle school hair metal phase. Think Stewart, the kid in the Winger shirt from Bevis and Butthead. This is the main reason I support an aesthetic amnesty for any music loved between the ages of 13-16.
Nirvana - Bleach
My friend Danny took me to a Nirvana show at an old garage when I was 17 and it was like a whole new world just opened its door to me and invited me inside. I actually found a photographer who took pictures at that show, and there's one of Cobain crowd surfing where you can see me holding up his leg. A print of that is at the top of my list of things to buy when I can spend $800 frivolously.
Singles - Motion Picture Soundtrack
Man I hated this movie when it first came out. I saw it as nothing but a bunch of Hollywood types coming north and ruining our scene. I was working at a Seattle area Tower Records when this came out and I brought the full weight of my record store employee disdain against any yuppie types that bought this. I didn't even see the film until 5 or 6 years ago, and while I still don't think its that good its sins can be forgiven for this admittedly great soundtrack and for all the footage shot inside the OK Hotel.
Nine Inch Nails - Broken
Trent Reznor, the man who showed me that fishnet stockings could be used as shirts as well. This album is still great to listen to while on the elliptical at the gym, second only to Nashville Pussy's Let Them Eat Pussy.
Wax Trax Block Box
OK, cheating here by including a box set but this is such a great cross selection of music I loved; Coil, My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, a bunch of Al Jourgensen projects. If only they had managed to clear up the licensing to get Front 242 on it would have been perfect. As it stands the Deliverance remix of The Revolting Cocks' Beers Steers and Queers is still my favorite dance song ever.
The Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland
Oh Andrew Eldritch, how badly I wanted to be you at one point. How embarrassed that makes me now.
Ramones - Ramones
Great album, classic. For me though this one really sticks out because of seeing them live. It was the last Bumbershoot festival I went to, and I had just managed to get on top of the crowd when they started playing "Beat on the Brat". As I was literally thrown from one side of the audience to the other, I remember having the thought "I am getting too old for this" for the very first time.
Switchblade Symphony - Serpentine Gallery
I think the combination of how much I loved this album when it came out and how much I loved their show at A Winter Gone By when I came for a visit is the real reason I moved to San Francisco.
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Is there anyone who was in their 20s in 1998 who didn't make out to this album?
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Not my favorite Waits album, but it was released right when I went to work in Germany. It sparked a renewed Waits obsession that helped me through the low points of that trip and seeing him live in Berlin was definitely a high point.
Indigo Swing - Indigo Swing
Front to back, I still want to lindy to every track here.
Lavay Smith - One Hour Mama
Best album of the new swing movement period. More important for me, one of the first conversations I had with Wanda was over how great this album was, a trip we planned together to see Lavay in Seattle led to us dating and we saw her in SF on the night I proposed.
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
This was a nice reminder that I could still find a musician to go bongo crazy obsessive over. For a good 4 months in 06 I barely listened to anything besides this or one of her other albums and saw her in concert 5 times. New one drops next week, I can't wait.
Damn 15 albums aren't enough. Nothing from those artists where their entire body of work means a lot to me so single album doesn't stick out (Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sleater Kinney) or those artists that I think of more by song rather then album (Sinatra, Creatures, Underworld) or those albums that relate intensely to a single period of my life but seem disconnected afterward (The Sundays - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic = my first semester in college ). Maybe next meme.