But anyway, what you're here for. Picking back up with the list of "Life changing" records, and note: that's not current favorites or all time favorites... they're "life changing". You know, after the first few times you hear it you know some small or even very large part of your life will never be the same again. It's that kind.
So here we go...
11 - Refused, "Shape of Punk to Come"
This is another of many on the list that I was late to getting around to. I started listening to this band a lot more when I was in college and getting more and more into recording. Nowadays this is the album by which I quality test all other recordings (production wise). It's perfectly cohesive, fantastically produced, and a big part of what makes those elements so good is how well written and thoughtfully planned every detail of it is. It kind of proves the old saying of "good songs + good musicians = good recordings". Well the actual saying goes "good songs + good musicians + good mic placement + one or two other things I don't remember off the top of my head = good recordings"... the other stuff is important... but not that important.
12 - Tom Waits, "Blood Money" ties with "Rain Dogs
I had heard a few Tom Waits songs before I got "Blood Money" but not a whole lot. I was very intrigued though. Once I picked up this album I was hooked and now am convinced he's one of the greatest song writers ever because aside from his voice he's unique in that he can get away with anything and do it well. I got "Rain Dogs" shortly thereafter and just couldn't bring myself to shun it because while my life was changed and my mind was blown by the seemingly melodic dissidence throughout "Blood Money" that was so foreign to me until then... "Rain Dogs" is just perfect and I got them pretty close to the same time, so... s'all good.
13 - Rancid, "And Out Come the Wolves"
Every fan of punk rock no matter how "advanced" or "adult" they like to pretend their tastes are; all of them have to admit that this record was in their library at some point and they listened to it a lot. The first time I heard it was at a swim meet where my sister's friend Allie, who knew I had just started listening to punk rock, played it for me on my Sony Discman (rofl at the 90s). It was totally awesome and just last week Kyle played "Journey to the End..." on the jukebox at Murphy's, which reminded me that I can't deny that I still kind of love it.
14 - Mos Def, "Black on Both Sides"
I wasn't really that into hip-hop for a long while after seventh or eighth grade aside from the occasional awesome release like Outkast's "Stankonia". But somewhere in the past three years or so I stumbled upon this album and got myself re-hooked on the stuff. It inspired me to go back and explore a lot of stuff I've been missing out on and rediscover the awesome jams that are...
15 - Public Enemy, "Fear of a Black Planet"
Like I was saying, after getting back into hip-hop this album is pretty much the epitome of what hip-hop should be, to me. Somewhere in the 90s, about when I stopped listening for a while, rap music got caught up in the game of money, money, MONEY! RAP ABOUT GETTING FUCKING MONEY!! Every 50 Cent and Gucci Mane wannabe (or even those guys themselves) out there needs to go back to this record and remember what hip-hop has the potential to be, a platform for a misrepresented culture to make it's voice heard. It's a platform from which you can be pissed off and be yourself but still get your point across in an intelligent manner whereas the "get money/my swag" generation is just perpetuating a negative stereotype over and over and over again... but Lil Wayne says some wild shit, so I'm okay with him.
16 - Kid Dynamite - "Shorter, Faster, Louder"
Before this album the only hardcore I was really into at all was Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys (do they count), and Gorilla Biscuits, so I thought all hardcore after the 80s was just the tough guy, muscle bound, straight edge, way too expensive clothing, BS that is still kind of the trend these days. Then I got this and found out that there's still awesome hardcore out there (since this album, this band and the surrounding scene has split off to form and inspire a lot of really good bands). It showed me that it can be melodic and thoughtful, but still fast as hell. And that's pretty sweet.
17 - The Slackers, "Wasted Days"
I'd heard the Slackers on all the Give em' the Boot compilations and kind of bobbed my head to their songs whenever they came on. I also had their first record "Better Late Than Never" before I got this album and wasn't quite hooked yet. But this album had "The Nurse", a song which is still mind blowing every time I hear it (as you can see this is makes a lot of things life changing... it's ability to still blow my mind over time). It is now my theory that the Slackers are the most objectively good and likable band since the Beatles... It's just that no one knows it yet.
18 - Bob Dylan, "The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan"
Growing up my parents were always into "that old timey stuff" and had us listening to it, and I was always okay with it because I figured I could have grown up in a house with parents who were into Christian Contemporary or something worse. Is there anything worse than that? I dunno... I never thought much of Bob Dylan aside from him having a pretty good voice for a guy who can't sing until I started checking out his bootleg release series that started a few years ago and reading up on the guy. During the period at which this album came out he was still awesome, but I honestly don't care too much for the stuff that came out after he didn't want to be stereotyped as a "folky". The lyrics are great because people think of them as being iconic of the generation in which they were written, but for myself getting into it about four years ago, I was identifying with a lot of what Bob Dylan was saying, even though I'm pretty sure if you ask him to this day what his lyrics mean he goes, "I don't know what they mean! They're just words! I wrote em' down and sang em'! They don't mean nothing!" (no seriously, he says that).
19 - Defiance, Ohio "Share What You Got"
This band is what I listen any time I need a good old fashioned "heart warming"... I really don't know any better way to describe them. It's a bunch of midwestern kids who see the same problems with the world that I do, so it resonates pretty well with me. But they have a way of looking at things with a bit of an optimistic hopefulness through their music that I am never able too. And I like that. I on the other hand am usually a pessimistic bastard about everything... Not nearly as cool. Plus I love sitting on porches and there isn't much better porch sitting music than this. PLUS, "share what you got"... what a nice little motto to live by... If you've got more than enough... why not just share what you got? You'll find that not only does it make life more enjoyable, but it comes back to you when you don't "got".
20 - The Lawrence Arms, "The Greatest Story Ever Told"
This was another band I was kind of late getting into as this was one of the first albums I heard and now they, and all their side projects, are among my favorites and one of the biggest influences on our new greatest band ever... Bears. Sloppy drunken live shows aside, this band puts together thoughtful and fresh songs in a genre that many people think has been beaten to death. Well sucks to all of them, because bands like this (and D4, like I said yesterday) show us just how good and diverse punk rock can be if you take the time to write some good songs.
All right. That's ten more down and I'm getting tired and I want to drink beers and i want some one to get me the Micro Force shaver so I can shave my face in the swimming pool. Guys. That's awesome.
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