15 albums that melted my face off.

think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you.... they changed your life or the way you looked at it. they sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. these are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. they might not be what you listen to now, but these are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.


raiders of the lost ark
john williams

it's my favorite movie of all time, so i feel it stands to reason that it's one of the most influential music pieces of my life. i didn't know anything about film scores as a child, but i saw this film when i was 4 or 5 and when i went home i was rifling through my dad's records, and i saw this album. i instantly made him play it for me. i was so excited. i couldn't watch the film again, but i could live through the excitement and remember the awesome footage i saw by listening to this amazing masterpiece. good times that.

favorite tracks -
1. the raiders march
5. the basket game
6. the map room: dawn
9. desert chase
10. marion's theme
12. the warehouse
13. end credits


the white album
the beatles

growing up in my house there wasn't a lot of music. there was a great deal of classical, and i remember john denver and the carpenters. and the only radio stations we'd really ever listen to were oldies, which is cool. don't get me wrong. but the beatles i knew up to then was the i want to hold your hand, hello, goodbye, pop, which i do love. and then one day my dad bought this album, and a whole new world was opened. i remember having the tape and playing it so much that it wore out. that was a sad day. groove.

favorite tracks -
1. back in the u.s.s.r.
2. dear prudence
4. ob-la-di, ob-la-da
6. the conitnuing story of bungalow bill
7. while my guiatr gently weeps
8. happiness is a warm gun
10. i'm so tired
11. blackbird
14. don't pass me by
15. why don' we do it in the road
17. julia
18. birthday
23. helter skelter
25. revolution 1
26. honey pie
30. good night


crimson tide
hans zimmer

i watched this film. i liked this film. the music was good and haunting and choral and really grabbed you and held on. so i went to the mall and thought, 'man, i wonder if they still do those soundtrack thingies.' boy do they. i saw this and giggled. i may have jumped a little, too. i bought it and i remember listening to it for like three weeks straight. it was amazing. this is what introduced me to hans zimmer, and i know at this point in time everyone knows who he is, and i know all of his stuff sounds the same, but this score pretty much blew my face off.

favorite tracks -
1. mutiny
3. little ducks
5. roll tide


achtung baby
u2

johnny lloyd. i blame him. when i was 8 years old i remember seeing a commercial about kids receiving a free u2 song and i was thinking that they were such an evil secular group that anyone who listened to them would go to hell. well, here i am, 22 years later, and i guess with that thought in mind, i'm doomed. lloyd gave me a tape to listen to in my car the summer of '97 that had a great deal of songs from this album on it and i loved everyone on there. i think i wore that tape out too. when will they make a music listening device that won't get eaten by the stoopid tape deck? grr.

favorite tracks -
2. even better than the real thing
3. one
5. who's gonna ride your wild horses
6. so cruel
8. mysterious ways
9. tryin' to throw your arms around the world
10. ultraviolet (light my way)
11. acrobat


40 licks
rolling stones

so when i moved to georgia i really didn't know anything about music at all. at all. and i apologize to all of my friends and family that had to deal with me before that point. i'm sure i was embarrassing to be around. when i started rooming with scott tyson, he mentioned that he loved the rolling stones, to which i scoffed and said that they sucked and they didn't make any good music because they were old. then he played me a lot of their stuff, and i realized those were a lot of the songs i would hear on the aforementioned oldies stations. egg on my face. turns out, they're amazing and i love them. i know this is a best of album, but it's awesome. so there.

favorite tracks -
1. street fighting man
3. (i can't get no) satisfaction
5. jumpin' jack flash
6. you can't always get what you want
7. 19th nervous breakdown
8. under my thumb
11. sympathy for the devil
13. she's a rainbow
14. get off my cloud
15. wild horses
16. ruby tuesday
17. paint it black
18. honky tonk woman
20. let's spend the night together
21. start me up
25. don't stop
27. angie
28. you got me rocking
35. stealing my heart
40. losing my touch


doolittle
pixies

when i moved into the room with scott, his basic music taste was christian gospel sung by elvis, gospel choir music, and some band called pixies, that i'd never heard of. so he'd jam these tunes all the time in his car. i started to really like the pixies' album he played. oddly enough, at that point, there was a song 'hey' that he really liked the beginning to, but it was about prostitutes. he'd edit everything out after the opening line. hahahah. dork. this album totally reminds me of that first summer of cruising savannah.

favorite tracks -
1. debaser
3. wave of mutilation
4. i bleed
5. here comes your man
6. monkey gone to heaven
7. mr grieves
9. la la love you
12. hey
13. gouge away


come on die young
mogwai

still in savannah. jay and i would be chillin' out and he would pull this cd out and quickly, with the reflexes of a powerful mountain cat, put it on number 11 and turn the volume of his radio up to 'ear bleed'. this was the second summer i spent in savannah, and that was pretty much our theme song as we tore up the streets and bars and would roll into our house at 5.00 am. they're scottish, you know. they like rebel rousing, pints, and arriving home at indecent hours. in kilts. good times that.

favorite tracks -
2. cody
5. kappa
6. waltz for aidan
7. may nothing but happiness come through your front door
9. ex-cowboy
11. christmas steps


the boats
the boats

every song on this album is amazing. it makes it even better when i can say i know at least one person in this band. and one of the other people worked at my favorite pizza joint in savannah, so i can pretend i know him. jay played a couple of these songs in his ride often and we ended up being all sqooshy and singin' along and getting a little misty eyed. this was the perfect album for my first summer after college and getting dumped. driving in the caprice with the windows down whalin' to this noise was good for the soul.

favorite tracks -
1. looking to connect
2. i never
3. get you back
4. two great actors
5. let's take a walk
6. oh boy waltz
7. i was the sand
8. eyes ferocious
9. the outside in
10. bad mistake
11. utah
12. doin' it
13. you were right
14. all in vain
15. give ear
16. it looks like snow


16 biggest hits
johnny cash

after i done gradumatated from the higher learning edumacation i received from that that art school, i rocked an apartment with scott ragan, fletch griffin and ian reves. good ol' fletch. there's two things that kid learned me about and the first one was j.r. cash. turns out, he's probably my favoritest musician of all of the times. i loved his deep gravelly voice, his truism with love, death, remorse, drinking and god. i really enjoyed in his later years how he started covering songs with only a guitar and his deep rumble, and made them something they hadn't been before. god bless you johnny cash.

favorite tracks -
1. i walk the line
4. don't take your guns to town
6. ring of fire
7. understand your man
9. folsom prison blues
11. a boy named sue
14. man in black
16. (ghost) riders in the sky


ok computer
radiohead

this is the second thing fletch taught me about. this album kind of blew my mind all over the place. i remember hearing airbag on the radio a couple of times, but not a lot. and then i moved in with fletch. that kid lived and died by thom yorke and his homies. it's understandable. they're amazing. and they can make the music. then scott (tyson, not ragan) started wailing on this album on his guitar and it was even more amazing. not because scott is an amazing musician, which he may be, but because it was always fun to hear the music acoustically and sing along. man, those brits make fine music.

favorite tracks -
1. airbag
2. paranoid android
3. subterranean homesick alien
4. exit music (for a film)
6. karma police
10. no surprises
11. lucky
12. the tourist


yoshimi battles the pink robots
the flaming lips

a couple more roommates of mine in savannah were huge fans of the flaming lips so i slowly started getting into them. when i moved back to ann arbor in 2003, they came out with this album. it was wonderful. it was happy, sad, peaceful, exciting and a little crazy. and the title song was about a little girl kickin' the noise out of a pink robot. that pretty much sold me. if you've ever seen a little girl kick the noise out of a pink robot, and liked it, this is the album for you.

favorite tracks-
1. fight test
3. yoshimi battles the pink robots pt. 1
5. in the morning of the magicians
7. are you a hypnotist??
8. it's summertime
9. do you realize??


the earth is not a dead, cold place
explosions in the sky

now that i was back in the ace deuce, johnny lloyd figured he could start making more mixes for me, and one he made had a couple songs from these cats. i remember rollin' down one of the back roads and 'first breath after coma' came on, and i was in shock. i had to listen to it like five or six times i loved it so much. and then i called lloyd up and asked him who the band was that did that song and it's really hard to explain an instrumental rock song. there aren't a great deal of lyrics to pull from. oddly enough, he knew anyway. yeah. i like 'em.

favorite tracks -
1. first breath after coma
2. the only moment we were alone
3. six days at the bottom of the ocean


takk...
sigur røs

i'd heard these cats and not even known it. they had a jam on life aquatic with steve zissou and people mocked me for not knowing. which is cool. i've written their names down. i know where they are. anywho, once they relayed the name to me, i decided i would check out their music. amazing. i've never heard anything like it. ever. what they do with instruments shouldn't be legal. i've been to two of their shows, and both of them were just about the most spiritual thing i've ever experienced. i definitely think god can rock to music that isn't only classified as christian, and i know that if he does, it's with these guys.

favorite tracks -
2. gløsøli
3. hoppipolla
4. mea bløanasir
6. saegløpur
7. milanø
9. andvari
11. heysåtan


pretty in black
the raveonettes

i had this birthday one year, and at this birthday party i had for my birthday, my buddy jeff bryan gave me a sleek little round disc with some digital data compiled on it, when placed in a machine with a laser would read said data and then recreate melodious sounds via audio-listening devices. one track, 'red tan' by a danish group called the raveonettes, was definitely read a great deal. so much so, that i actually decided to get their three albums and any related singles or eps. it's like someone took a 60's surf band, crazy random static and bass and sqooshed them all together and threw them out the other side. in a good way. a very good way.

favorite tracks -
2. seductress of bums
4. sleepwalking
5. uncertain times
6. my boyfriend's back
8. red tan
9. twilight
12. ode to l.a.


neptune city
nicole atkins

after realizing how awesome the raveonettes were, james 'the naughty monkey' petix, sarah b. and i went and watched them rock the house. but their opening act was, to me at the time, an unknown jersey girl named nicole atkins. i'm pretty sure as soon as the monkey and i heard her voice, time stopped. like...it was unreal. i decided to rock her ep that she was selling at the show and she was standing at the table and signed it 'to eddie - word. heart, nicole.' that was the selling point. word indeed. as a side, i also think she needs to rock the opening credits to a james bond film. for reals.

favorite tracks -
1. maybe tonight
2. together we're booth alone
3. the way it is
4. cool enough
5. war torn
6. love surreal
7. neptune city
8. brooklyn's on fire!
9. kill the headlights
10. party's over
11. skywriters