Anyway, it's the "25 Albums that changed your life" deal or whatever. I also decided to do it because it's something that's legitimately interesting to dwell on for a few minutes.... it's not your "Top albums" or "Favorite albums" but ones that changed your life. Interesting. So let's take a gander shall we... Also, beyond the first few these probably won't be in any particular order.
1 -The Queers, "Love Songs for the Retarded"
The first punk rock record I ever heard. It was the beginning of my eighth grade year I believe and my friend's older sister went to school at the University of Cincinnati at the time. She lived at (or near and hung out a lot) a house known simply as Glendora around here which was famous for putting on tons of punk rock shows. Anyway, she bought this record for her brother Brie's birthday to introduce him to punk rock. He brought it over and we listened to it in my tiny bedroom a couple times and my mind was blown. Until then I had no concept of "punk" I thought it was dudes throwing up on each other or something... I dunno. Some shit like that. But this was different. These dudes were pissed off like I was, but they were having fun and making jokes about it... just like I liked to do. I was hooked, and still am. Six or seven years later I found myself hanging out with the new residents of that house on Glendora and seeing and playing shows there myself. Small world.
2 -The Vandals, "Hitler Bad, Vandals Good"
Brie also got this album from his sister on his birthday and was part of that same listening session. Again... minds blown. Life changed.
3 -Beastie Boys, "Licensed to Ill"
About two years before those first two albums I was getting more and more into different types of music and thought, "Maybe I should start building a collection of my own music to listen to outside of MTV (they still played music videos at the time) and the radio. This was the first album I ever bought, and it is perfect.
4 -Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Let's Face It"
I haven't heard this record in a while, but it has influenced my taste more than most. My sister bought it when "Impression that I Get" was a big radio hit. We listened to it a few times and didn't really get it... but we really liked that song because it was on the radio. A few years later after I'd learned a bit more about punk rock and had at least heard the word "ska" tossed around we went back to it and were like "Ohhhh! This is fucking awesome!" Plus it taught me that you can use music as a platform to say "Hey dudes, being an asshole isn't cool" because there were a couple songs on there about fighting racism and such.
5 - Streetlight Manifesto, "Everything Goes Numb"
This record came out right before I started college and was pretty much my anthem for the first year or so of it. It also sort of started to show me the difference between "ska" and "punk with horns"... this album is more of the latter but it's so good and the songs are so epic and diverse (even though most of them are the same chord progression in the same key) that it makes you realize that most "punk with horns" bands aren't that good.
6 - Against Me!, "Reinventing Axl Rose"
This was also one of the anthems for my first year of college and as much as I hate to admit it, was the first step towards my musical tastes that make up The Best Revenge. Until then I didn't know that there was any way to combine the folk and blues music my parents had made me grow up on with punk rock. This album was like dipping a pinky toe into the pool of that whole idea I guess.
7 - Bomb the Music Industry! "Album Minus Band"
Two exclamation points in a row! Rumor has it that Jeff Rosenstock wrote and recorded this album by giving up drinking for a month and locking himself up in his apartment and doing the whole thing on a Mac laptop with a mic or two and a drum sequencer in his living room... and the songs were absolutely awesome. Sure the sequenced drums and amount of high end screeching from the synths is a bit grating to listen to these days, but the guy felt how I felt about the music industry, politics, the world in general and he expressed it all without help from anyone else... pretty inspiring stuff. And still today, every new album he puts out seems to be keeping up with where I am in my life and I'm like, "yeah man."
8 - The Clash, "London Calling"
I was a little late getting on board to this record. I bought it when it was re-issued with all those scratch recordings or whatever and before that the only Clash record I had was "Sandanista", so it didn't really make sense to me. Once I got into this followed by their self-titled I was like, "Oh. I get it now. Joe Strummer is my hero!" and he still is. Plus, just look at that fucking album cover.
9 - Dillinger Four, "Midwestern Songs of the Americas"
When I first started college I didn't really know much about punk beyond the NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion, what-have-you more mainstream stuff that most people are into at first because I was in a small town and bands didn't just show up all the time. So while I was assimalating myself into that culture my first few months of college I made friends with Dan who conveniently enough booked all the good punk rock shows at Radio Down (R.I.P.) which meant I got in for free since he was my only friend in the music scene at the time so he had to take me to every show. Anywho... he took me to see Dillinger Four and they're one of those bands that if you don't really know the songs ahead of time you can't really "participate" in the show... but still I saw that something pretty important was going on here. Plus, the bass player had a tattoo across his chest that just said "HOW MUCH ART CAN YOU TAKE" in big bold letters. Fucking rock and roll. I was sold. I bought this record and realized how much more there is to punk music and how diverse it can really be... and on and on and on. If you ever see me at Murphy's with an extra dollar in my pocket, you will hear a song from this record.10 - NOFX, "So Long and Thanks for all the Shoes"
At Christmas dinner for whatever reason we were talking about music and my parents were like, "so who is your favorite band?" I sat there for a minute and decided if we're going with most listened to and overall consistency in taste it'd probably have to be NOFX. That and the fact that they've always known exactly who they are and don't give a shit otherwise. They're drug sniffing punk rockers who are pretty into politics and sometimes just like to get drunk and play lousy... and that's perfectly fine. I bought this record when I was in eigth grade right after I heard those Queers and Vandals records and last March I got to see them play "the Decline" in it's entirety, which was one of the best shows ever. So... ten years and running as a huge fan... I guess I have to give them props.
Okay... this is taking way too long and I have to go teach kids how to make beats and get an oil change still today... So I'll do the next ten or so in the next post. Word dudes.
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