this is a post about some albums we really dig
(like you really care about how we got here)
by Michele Christopher

Andrew over at Bloggedy Blog has decided he wants to do the 100 albums that changed his life. Good luck with that. It almost killed us here to do it. I have no idea what his format will be but he has asked some of us to throw in ours. Once again, I have no idea what he is going to do. He asked so we sent. So most likely, from what I have seen, I looks like that they are his top 100. So other then sending him a list, which we did, we decided to do our top ten. Agree with us or not. These are albums that we drank to, skated to, broke things to and genrally had fun to. Life defining moments? Maybe not. Don't get all crazy on us. But these were albums we listened to when when we neede a boost. Something that mad made Michele and turtle who they are today. I'm not suggesting you go all out and give us ten, but we would be interested in hearing a few of yours. Ones the changed your life, or had some kind of impact on you personally.

MDC - s/tmdc2.jpg

Like you guys didn't know I was going to do this first. Every song on here was a little piece of me. Breakneck speed. Blistering lyrics. No hiding behind bullshit political correctness. They didn't like you cause you did this. You piss them off cause you do that. They told you what they hated. Texas style. When they got to San Francisco, they took the town over. Gilman was theirs and they knew it. This was their town now. They played at small gigs, big gigs, fuck, they even played at house parties if you got them drunk. This album was a blueprint for punks. So you're out to kick some ass? You're a brainless goon and got no class! Perfect music for a little turtle to swim too.

MDC - Violent rednecks

Black Flag - Damaged blfagd.jpg

Crap. How times have I wrote about this album? Great from start to finish. This was something that almost made your cock hard with all the blood racing thru your body. Even the cover was something to behold. Something that hit me hard. Maybe it was teen anger. Maybe frustration with life. Maybe puberty. Fuck, who knows. But it hit me in the face. Fuck "TV Party" . That was fun for about ummmmm....about three minutes.

Black Flag Depression

SNFU - and no one else wanted to play...snfu.jpg

You all know this cover freaked you out. Kinda scary. A kid with a hand grenade standing in the park. Not many people remember that cause they were sued for using it, but when it was out, it was something to behold. This was when the turtle learned what a halfpipe was. Learned what a ditch was. This was punk. This was the background music while cops yelled at us for skating some abandoned canal. The hell they find us? This was always the music that after I lit a smoke and watched them write me a ticket would still be playing. Cops. Loser at life, loser at death. Let's find another ditch.

SNFU She's Not on the Menu


RKL - Keep Laughingrklkl.jpg

More skaterock. But by this time, skaterock had a new King. And the King was RKL. MRR was breaking out and so was Mystic Records, who single handly destroyed a scene while created a new one. Without them fucking over all the bands, you would have never seen Fat Wreck, but you make your own decision if that's good or bad. A long forgotten album. One that had a huge lawsuit againt it for a simple Star Trek sample. But that's beside the point. The album was shelved for many years. Only existing on tapes and others recording. It wasn't until years later they got the rights back and started putting it out again. But, by then, most of the band was dead. They had missed it come back.

RIP guys.

You fucking rocked.

RKL - Keep Laughing


Black Sabbath - Paranoidbsab.jpg

Light a joint. Puff. Pass. Pretty much the way this whole album goes. This was the start of my drug career. Who among us hasn't been stoned mumbling "Electric Funeral?" Sure, in my time the band was long gone. I had to pick up Ozzy first with a bunch of old stoners telling me that he sucks. What? This is pretty good stuff. No. The true Ozzy was with Black Sabbath. Take a few hits and get ready to be educated. That was this album. Drug album? Oh come on. Let's not be naive.

Black Sabbath - War Pigs

Bad Brains - Rock For Lightbbrains.jpg

I bet you think you're at the movies somewhere, I bet you think you're at the movies somewhere. This album was a personal vendetta against another band. Well that song was. This one is about some weird Jamican thing. Maybe that's what this about. Well, no wait. This song is about hating the government. Well, no wait. This one is about loving Jah. So that's what this album is abou.....well no wait. This one is about being banned from clubs. What the fuck is this album about? Didn't matter. Cause it was cool. Except for the reggae songs. Why did they have to put those in there? A cool album and being positive, staying stoned and getting their amps stolen. Which, I would find later in life, getting your amps stolen sucks.

Bad Brains - At the Movies

Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengencepriest.jpg

Ok. I can cop to this. I was a huge Judas Priest fan. I was very metal when I was a kid. Rock, rock on! Yes, I knew they were singing about gay sex. Yes, I knew. Well, I know that......now. But back then I had every record. I wanted to be KK Downing. I wanted to wear all that leather and just watch the crowd move as I just walked around smiling. Hey dude. It's better then me wanting to be Rob Halford cause if I went thru on that dream there wouldn't be a FTTW, I wouldn't know Michele, and I'd be riding in some Gay Pride Day float.

Judas Priest - Electric Eye


Who - Who's Nextwhonext.jpg

I first heard this skating a half pipe in San Jose. The house was wrecked from boards going thru the walls. I stood on the deck wondering when the god damn intro would end so I could drop in. Man, this thing is going forever. But when it started, it didn't stop. Even "My Wife" was awesome. Broke my board. Shit. Well lets go inside and listen to the album. I traded my broken board to some guy for the album. He wanted my trucks, I wanted his album. It was mine now. "The Song Is Over" still haunts me. To this day, I still remember every Who show I have seen. Pretty big feat for me. But this was it for The Who. For me that is. This really showed what Entwhistle and Moon could do. This, in my opinion was punk. So why were they considered hippies? Why were they considered Mods? Honestly, I have better things to do with my life then research these things.

And Pokemon is on.

The Who - Baba O'Riley

Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Lovejimi.jpg

Gah! Another album by Jimi with a huge intro that didn't do anything. I won't say this is the worst intro anyone has ever had. I could make a list if I wanted to. Maggot Brain by Funkadelic is number one. If you have ever heard it, you know. If you haven't, don't go there. But, we are talking about Jimi. The album kicks off really with the second song. Then it just moves. Sadness, desperation and drugs. "Castles Made of Sand" is one of the best songs, and most forgotten, of Jimi's career. Which is really kind of sad. I mean "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze" are awesome, but really, they don't really say anything. Well "Hey Joe" does, but it's not on this album so I can't really talk about it. Althou Michele knows how well I sing it. Or, she is just bullshitting me. Anyways. This one really left you feeling empty inside but hopeful of the next next day. It really emptied you out and filled you back up. Just wait until tommorow and we can try this world again.

Plus, it had a really cool cover!

Take some acid and look at that for awhile. Kinda cool.

Jimi Hendrix - Spanish Castle Magic

Stooges - Raw Powerstooges2.jpg

I really don't like to talk about this album because of some really bad memories of it. But, I can't deny it had an impact on me. So I have to say something. This album was cool. It was playing when things were happening in my life. It kinda made me want to hate my friends, hate Iggy and hate life all at the same time. I had to mention this one because it still plays in my head when I have nightmares. So yeah. It had a huge influence on me. Sometimes things happen, mein readers. Sometimes things are playing when they are happening. Sometimes your life is changed in just one second. Sometimes a song is playing in the background. Unfortuntly for the Stooges, this happened more then once for me. So, if you notice in any reviews, Michele will review them. Not me. But this about something that changed your life. And this did. So I went with it. -

Stooges- Raw Power - T

Michele goes next.

The Who - Tommytommy.jpg

Nine years old. My cousin played it for me when he found me staring at the cover. It wasn't until the second listen that I figured out there was a full story going on and not just random songs. This was mind blowing for me. That morning I had been playing some cereal jingle on a cardboard 45. Everything changed that day. This was the first album I fell in love with.

The Who - Tommy Can You Hear Me

Superstars of the 70's ss70.jpg

That’s right. A record label (Warner) collection had an impact on my musical direction.
This box set came out in 1973. Which is kind of weird. Three years into the 70's and they’re already putting out a four disc set of the decade’s superstars? The people at Warner were either very hopeful or manipulative marketers. These are the bands you will love for the next seven years! I was eleven years old when a cousin gave me this for Christmas. He had already been feeding my music diet with tons of rock and roll, but there was something on here he wanted me to hear.

I sat through the whole album. Checking off songs I liked and songs I didn’t. This took a long time. Four albums, front and back. Zeppelin, the Doors, the Kinks, Hendrix, lots of stuff I was already familiar with, plus a lot of absolute crap like America. I finally got to the end of the album. Last song. Black Sabbath. Paranoid. I swear to you, I listened to it about 60 times in a row. That sound. Something about it grabbed me. His voice, the whole vibe of the song. I needed more Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid


Black Sabbath - Paranoidbsab.jpg

So my cousin recommended this one. I bought it. My ears, my mind, my musical tastes were never the same. The heaviness, the darkness, the whole sinister aspect of it (hey, I was eleven), the sound of the guitar...I was blown away that music could be like this. Sure, I had been listening to other rock, thanks to my cousins (most notably Zeppelin, the Who and T Rex), but this was different. It grabbed me in a totally different way. And Fairies Wear Boots is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

Black Sabbath - Fairies Wear Boots

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

I was a huge PF fan, devoured everything they did. But this. I listen to this album and I get a contact high just from the memories. This was the musical equivalent of staring at your hand while tripping and wondering why it's melting. This was acid for your ears. It was my "leave me alone and get ouf of my space" LP. Put on the headphones. Tune everyone else out. Drift away to another plane. I swear I had out of body experiences listening to this.

Pink Floyd - Breathe (live from Live 8)

Black Flag - Damagedblfagd.jpg

I wrote about this twice already. Maybe three times. My first taste of hardcore punk,. This album made me itchy. Restless. Angsty. And then it would take a wide turn on my emotions and make me feel apathetic, despondent, hopeless. That an album could be cathartic, energizing and paralyzing all at once is quite an accomplishment. And it totally changed where my music listening was going at the time.

Black Flag No More

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machinenin.jpg

Wow. What the hell was this? For the past few years before this came out, I had been listening to a steady diet of punk and new wave. This was something else.This packed a hell of a punch. I didn't know what to call it. Intense? Sexy? This album makes me want to fuck. Hard, fast and sweaty fucking. Except for Something I Can Never Have. Which makes me want to cry. And then we can get back to Kinda I Want To. And the fucking.

Nine Inch Nails - Sanctified

Ramones - s/tramones3.jpg

From the first riff of the first Ramones song I heard (Beat on the Brat), the music hooked me in. There was something about it, something raw and exciting and...different. So different. The vocals, the chords, the energy, the sparseness of the music, the simplicity of it all. It made me want to jump around my bedroom. It made me want to play guitar. It made me want to buy a black leather jacket and cut my hair and stick a safety pin in my ear. This was my first glimpse of punk rock and it started a new phase for me, not just with music, but my whole outlook on the world and life.

Ramones - 53rd and 3rd

Led Zeppelin IV

Drop the needle. Hear the static of the vinyl. And then Plant's voice kicking in on Black Dog. That's the way every day began for me when I was in eighth grade. zep.jpg I was fixated on this album. Every day. All day long. I thought they were geniuses. The greatest band to ever exist. Those lyrics! So...existential. So cool. It wasn't until many years later that I realized most Zeppelin songs were nothing more than Tolkein fanfic and Jimmy Page was not the greatest guitar player ever. But you know what? This album still kicks ass. And listening to Black Dog takes me back to a summer spent sitting in a sump, getting high and feeling like I owed the world nothing and I wanted nothing from it. The freedom of a 13 year old. Remembering that feeling is kinda cool.

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog

Van Halen - Van Halen I

I wasn't going to do this. I had the Clash,vh1.jpg Give Em Enough Rope in this spot. I always feel the need to deny that I'm a VH fan. Or to justify it. It's their fault for letting things get the way they did. I have to clarify all the time. Van Halen. Not Van Hagar. Not that fucking waste of vinyl with Gary Cherone. Just Van Halen. David Lee Roth. I know Eddie was the music behind VH, but they were nothing without Diamon Dave. Yea, he's a clown, maybe an asshole, but he was one of the greatest rock and roll frontmen ever.

This album was amazing. From my very listen I fell in love with it. Between Eddie's turn on Eruption and Dave's ability to make every song sound like a party, this thing kicked all kinds of ass. It still does. That's right. I still listen to it. A lot. Atomic Punk. Runnin' With the Devil. This album is a party waiting to happen.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Van Halen - Runnin' With the Devil

Clutch - Transnational Motor Speedway

This is kind of a sentimental pick.clutchtn.jpg

The first thing I want to say about this album is that it rocks hard. Clutch is one of the greatest bands to every exist. I say that without any hyperbole at all. The first time I heard the first song on this - Shogun Named Marcus - it knocked me on my ass. I never heard anything like it. I've never heard anything like them since.

The other thing is, this is supposed to be about albums that changed our lives. And because the whole reason Turtle and I struck up a friendship in the first place is because of our mutual love of Clutch, I'll say that this album definitely changed my life in the best way possible.

Clutch - Shogun Named Marcus

This is about albums that changed our lives, but no one album every really changed us. No one album has really ever done that for us, this is more along the lines of albums that had some kind of impact on me, personally or musically.

So have fun guys and give us a few of yours.

Comments

New Model Army's "Vengeance". Damn. I was listening to punk rock all the time. Then i came across this album and Steve at the record store said i might like it. Fuckin A, what had i been missing?! It didn't really sound like punk rock, but it was so punk rock it was sick. This album changed how i categorized music, which sort of slowly changed my life.

Soundgarden's "Superunknown". Was having a rough time when i fell in love with "the Day i tried to Live". Kept me from pulling that trigger. Kept me alive. For months. I lived on Ramen and that song and the first thing my hand touched every morning was a pistol.

--------------


damn pril. i hope you are doing a little better now. I am glad you got yourself together. cause if you wouldn't have, the world would have lost an interesting and funny person.

glad you stuck around

--------------


Michelle - Embrace your inner Van Halen. Don't be afraid. Nobody can fuck with you. It's fuckin VAN HALEN. Anybody that says anything bad about that record just has their head up their ass. Or Doesn't know. Or both. And they can kiss yours.

--------------


i am doing a lot better now Turtle. ANd thanks :) Yah that was, what seems now, eons ago. '93.

--------------


Minor Threat's Complete Discography really changed a lot of stuff for me, just the ideas put down in the songs.

--------------


I cant believe i forgot to put "The Best of Cream". Really put the fire under me about playing my bass. Jack Bruce. Jeezus what a sound.

--------------


Great lists, guys. Thanks for participating in this little project. I'll be linking back to your entry soon.

Some good choices on this list. You see I've already put Paranoid on my list, and my top 100 will include some more overlaps with your ratings.

Just a clarification: My list isn't necessarily a "favorites" list, although many of the records that influenced me are among my favorites, and would make it into a top 100 countdown. But several of the albums that had an impact on my life aren't necessarily among my favorites. Stay tuned.

AC

--------------


Even though I'm an ancient woman, we have some overlap in the list! COOL! And you have a great blog!

--------------






eXTReMe Tracker