Five records that changed your life

[ronniethebear]

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Maybe an obvious choice, but some of my earliest memories involve singing The Beach Boys' songs with my brothers in the car, or at home in front of the family. They continue to be a huge source of inspiration to this very day, and Brian Wilson truly wasn't made for those times.

Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

Yeah, go ahead and joke but the dude could write a fucking solid pop song. Another record with sentimental attatchment.

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

I sort of got into Pearl Jam late, compared to most of my friends. I finally decided to take the plunge and bought this, Green Day - Dookie and The Cranberries - No Need To Argue, all at the same time, on cassette (I didn't even have a CD player yet). This was probably one of my earliest forays into heavy/aggressive music, and it felt good to know that someone else out there was feeling "angsty" too. Oh, to be a teenager.

Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

I bought this on a whim, sometime in 1999 when I started getting into "indie" music. I had heard a couple friends mention them and I was on a new music kick; I was absorbing all this stuff at a really rapid rate and loving every second of it. I remember getting home, putting on my headphones with the portable CD player and just lying down on my bed. I was hooked from the first thirty seconds or so of "Table For Glasses", all the way through the end of "Goodbye Sky Harbor." I think I ended up listening to it all the way through three times before falling asleep. It was nice to know that pop/rock music could still be smart.

Refused - The Shape Of Punk to Come

A lot of people include this for a lot of the same reasons, but one of the things that really grabbed me was the sense of urgency and genuine passion behind the music. It's like they had a message they believed in, and they didn't care what it took to get that message across. Plus the mix of hardcore, punk, rock and jazz was something the "scene" had never really seen or heard up to that point. This will continue to influence bands for years to come.

[skumbucket]

i love reading shit like this.

1. Radiohead - OK Computer

"The Bends" got the ball rolling, but i thought there was still plenty of weak tracks on it. "OK Computer" killed me when i was only 15 from the first time I heard 'Paranoid Android.' I totally didn't understand how a song could be that long. It messed my head. Then when I heard the whole album i totally just wanted to make everything better for Thom Yorke and save him from himself. Fuck is that just the best album ever. Taught me that intentional complexity and mental instability can be incredible creative tools -- and that just because a band/record is famous doesn't mean its a bad thing.

2. Green Day - Kerplunk

I was blessed to have a rock and roll sister that was always one step ahead of the curve. She saw Green Day live on their last pre-"dookie" tour and wouldn't stop raving about them. I dubbed her cd onto a tape and listened to it all day every day that summer. The next year every kid in my class was into them -- but i don't think i've ever loved a Green Day record as much as this one. Totally taught me that age isn't a defining factor in succeeding at something you love.

3. Tool - Ænima

Totally missed the boat on this one. I didn't get into it until like 2000 or so. A friend I was playing music with had the casette in his mom's minivan and i was just as floored by the spacey, nonsensical interstitials as i was with the enigmatic lyrics and the brutality of "Hooker With A Penis." To this day "h." remains one of my most treasured songs. Once I started to learn about the back story, theories, and explanations for the artwork/lyrics, I realized that music can be just as valid and complex an art form as the most revered theatre work or painting.

4. the Lawrence Arms - the Greatest Story Ever Told

This album came to me at one of the most conflicted times of my life. My last year in broadcasting school was so cathartic because I was at the top of my class, i was enthralled with the work i was doing and the skills i was learning, and I was employed in a field that provided endless possibilities. My home life with my live-in girlfriend was also falling apart, as she was paying less and less heed to our classes and our relationship as she was to cocaine and partying all night. At some point it became apparent that there was no way for me to save our relationship, so I put it on myself to make sure she stayed as safe as I could make her and still get her through school. So I wrote every project she was assigned, got her out of bed and into the recording studio so she could still track the bands she was recording, and did the final mixes for her, helped her edit her video documentary project. While I was falling deeper and deeper in love with this album, i was also finding out that the a friend of hers that was actively trying to steal her from me was also turning her on to the same album. The record taught me that even when music is completely intertwined with the shittiest experiences and emotions you've ever felt, you can still love and enjoy it. Listening to "Fireflies" and some of the other tracks on this record still leave me a little short of breath, a little desperate, and a lot sad...but they're some of my favourites ever.

5. the Weakerthans - Left & Leaving/Bad Astronaut - Acrophobe

When I decided to leave my hometown to take my broadcasting class, I was really conflicted. I'd never been separated from my family and loved ones for such an extended period of time, I'd never lived on my own in a place I literally knew no one. I was also coming to grips with losing the first real significant love of my life. I had burned both albums onto one cd as a sort of misery double feature and it was playing in the car the last time I saw her. We had breakfast, and as I was driving her home she told me it was really beautiful music. Both still remind me vividly of the moment I saw her for the last time ever and finally had to accept that it just wasn't meant to be.

Sorry to sound so emo, folks. I have a lot of happy music that changed my life too, just not as much as this stuff.

[jhulud]

5] shai hulud - hearts once nourished... - these guys helped finalize what tool started. i can safely say that if it werent for shai hulud id probably be listening to nu-metal, distraught over the loss of limp bizket or some bullshit. THIS RECORD SAVED ME. i cant stress that enough. introduced me to hardcore. ive never been the same since.

honorable mentions:

strongarm - advent of a miracle

Two great bands who both created the blueprint for today's metalcore...who would have thought that hardcore and metal melodies could be combined?...Not to mention deeply personal lyrics that even to this day still speak to me...

Fantastic choices Darrell!!!! +1 fo' sure!

[boizee]

Here's mine:

Social Disortion - Mommy's Little Monster

Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come

Pearl Jam - Ten

Rancid - ...And Out Come The Wolves

Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose

honorable mention goes to Roxette - Look Sharp. I still like it after being forced to listen to it by my babysitter 15 years ago.

[Guest scriptedrain]

skumbucket, I loved reading your notes about "OK Computer." I gotta ask you, what do you think of "Kid A"? A lot of the things you wrote I was thinking that I had similar feelings when I listened to that album.

[skumbucket]

to be honest the first week i had it i only listened to "idioteque" because i loved it so much. at first i kind of thought they were making desultory elevator music, but after i spent some time with it it opened up a lot and i got more of that sense of isolation and alienation that i think was their intent. to be honest, listening to it makes me really sad, which i think is the desired result.

[kirbypuckett]

punchline - rewind EP - I dont think it changed my life so much as it was a soundtrack to I think 18 months of my life in 2003 - 2004. I just realized it this morning when I listened to it on my way to work, but so many memories and old friends are tied to that album. so good.

That's when I stopped listening to Punchline because I thought Rewind was awful. I still listen to s/t all the time though.

[riddle350]

1.MxPx-Slowly Going The Way Of The Buffalo

I got this when I was in the seventh grade and I was already into Blink-182 but this was the first "punk" cd that I ever heard that had such a sense of honesty and passion. It was that sort of epiphany where I realized that not everything had to be shit and piss jokes. I was and am still to this day in love with everything about this album. This cd was the reason that I got into punk rock. It was the reason I started playing bass and going to show. I really owe a lot to this cd.

2.Saves The Day-Stay What You Are

I remember my mom buying this for me when I was in tenth grade while we were out running erands. We must have listened to it about six times that day. I was completly blown away by the lyrics. I could relate to ever single word of every song and it's been like that with everything else the band has done. This along with Through Being Cool have gotten me through some really tough times.

3.The Clash-London Calling

Another one I got when I was in seventh grade. I'd always heard about the Sex Pistols but I always thought they were trying too hard. I liked The Ramones but felt they were too happy sounding. I first was exposed to The Clash through a live performance on HBO's Reverb of Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. I think what set The Clash apart from the other old school punk bands was the intensity that Joe Strummer commanded when he sang. From then on I had a great deal of respect for Joe Strummer and The Clash.

4.Boys Night Out-Trainwreck

At the time this came out I was right in the middle of a five year long relationship coming to an end. It was at that point where I could see it going downhill but you hold on anyways. When I first heard it I felt like the Patient in the story. I was able to relate to the lyrics and emotions that they evoked better than anything else except for maybe Saves The Day. To this day, if I listen to the whole thing from begining to end I get chills.

5.Anti-Flag-Underground Network

This record made me actually start paying attention to the world around me. It made me want to know more and to understand why things are they way they are. It sort of forced me into paying attention to politics and world issues. Not to mention that I was completly blown away by the bass lines. Chris #2 can throw the fuck down that's for sure.

[cityturnedtostone]

Strung Out - Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues

This album taught me how to write melodies for punk rock songs, nowadays I'm not really that impressed by the second half of this album (i used to claim that every song on this was five star), but still..nothing takes away from the majority of the songs on here. Firecracker, Better Days, SOLITAIREEEEE, Never Good Enough, Bring Out Your Dead, Radio Suicide. Some of the best punk rock from the 90's. Sounds great on vinyl I think.

Leatherface - Mush

If Strung Out taught me how to write more expansive vocal melodies to punk music, it was Leatherface who reminded me how to write SONGS again. Oh yes, the oh so overlooked aspect of music in the punk world. The song. And this learning curve is all fairly recent! But Mush is one of the best punk albums ever. I Want the Moon is probably my favourite punk single from the 90's. Frankie Stubb's vocals and guitar playing. Excellent. I Want the Moon, Not Superstitious, Not a Day Goes By, How Lonely, Dead Industrial Atmosphere!!! Can't get enough of it.

Husker Du - Zen Arcade

The only concept album I've ever loved.

[rtw88]

The only album that's even remotely changed my life would have to be The Downward Spiral. It made being an angsty 15 year old so much more comfortable.

[skumbucket]

nice bump, newbs!

[martyk36]

Death Cab for Cutie-Transatlanticism

Got me through a really strange time in my life. My emotions were a rollercoaster and this album mirrors that. song after song, you feel yourself giving it all to life and love and losing it in a moment's notice.

Fugazi-Repeater

1, 2, 3....REPEATER!!! that chorus echoed through my life from the time I was 22 until I was about 26. Brutally Honest, thought provoking music that warrants more than just a listen. You really have to give yourself to this album if you want the best results.

Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Jeff Tweedy's songs have meant so much to me over the years, and I feel these are his best. The production doesn't just match the brillaince of the songwriting, it goes above and beyond...YHF is beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

Hot Water Music-A Flight and a Crash Most HWM fans stand by their earlier work as their best representation as a band, I guess I tend to disagree. While their early work is stellar (i.e., Fuel for the Hate Game) A Flight and a Crash is just a perfect piece of music from one of my favorite all time bands, cover to cover. and yes, this is the album that got me into the band, I don't feel that's the main reason why this is my favorite; It's just HWM hitting on all cylinders and pouring their hearts and souls. Seeing them play "choked and separated" at SXSW was one of the best experiences I've ever had.

At the Drive In-Relationship of Command

Sonically, I've never heard a more complete album. Soaring guitars layered over more guitars layered over bass and drums, and even piano/keyboard on a couple of tracks. As much as I love TMV and Sparta, This is probably the best piece of music Jim Ward and Omar Rodriguez will ever be a part of.

Honorable mentions:

Avail-One Wrench

Bright Eyes-I'm wide awake, its morning

Strung Out-An American Paradox

[controlthebleeding]

Black Sabbath - Paranoid - This is what got me starting me into the vinyl collecting phase. my grandmother purchased it for me on a trip to Sears to get new shoes and candy...i remember, i was bugging the shit out of her to take me to buy it because i liked it so much. While I had already heard it before, this was the actual time it had sunk in. it wasn't just something my uncle was playing in his room.. Luckily my grandmother had time before "Maude" started and decided to take me to get it.. I will always remember that day since that was the first record i ever owned that wasn't a hand me down like my Boston album or My Kiss Alive II record that had stickers all over it...sue me i was 5...

Ozzy - Blizzard of Ozz Now this album was the album that i first decided i wanted to play guitar. Listening to Randy Rhoads play his solo on "I Don't Know" was just new to me. Yea, i'd already heard "eruption" but this was something different. I guess i just liked Randy Rhoades' style alot more than Eddie Van Halen. To this day i still can't play nearly as good as Randy did, but I'll always remember that this album is what made me want to play music in the first place.

Descendents - Milo Goes to College - First punk rock/pop punk/whatever record i heard. Luckily one of the people across the street had kids and i would hang out with, we would hang out at his place and watch television shows...anyway, his brother listened to alot of skate bands like JFA and all sorts of other junk..anyway, this is the first intro to punk. I had my friends brother record it too tape for me... Weird thing is i never owned any punk rock vinyl till around 86' when i bought the CRO-MAGS - Age of Quarrel lp. I guess i was too busy trying to collect every Iron Maiden Single and LP...

Jawbreaker - Bivouac This album holds alot of memories for me. Every time i hear it, it reminds me of my weekly road trips to Austin to see bands. It was the first time i had gone up to austin to actually see a show. Before then it was going to San Antonio or Houston. It's what made me want to move to austin in the first place. I met so many new people here. I'm so happy i made the trips over, because who knows where i would have been if i hadn't taken those trips up here. I might have been still living at home...

Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night in short this album changed my whole way of thinking about music. i was 14 when i heard this at my uncles house and after a point it reminded there was other good music out there besides punk and metal. it gave me a reason to listen to other bands. not to be close minded to music of other genres. I'm really glad i took that route instead because there's alot of good music out there i wouldn't have heard otherwise if i still had the same mindset.

[dougyfresh]

Alkaline Trio - From Here To Infirmary

Saves The Day - Stay What You Are

Mates of State - Team Boo

Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave

88 Fingers Louie - Back On The Streets