Fifteen Albums

Taken from Facebook, these are the 15 albums that have influenced me the most up until this point in my life and beyond. The following are more important to me than most people I know.

maudlin of the Well - Bath

I remember reading about this band when I was a sophomore in highschool. I fired up Kazaa and attempted to download "Geography" and was able to hear the first few seconds but couldn't get the rest. The first few notes had an intriguing tone to them and I had to hear more. Luckily fellow S-Wood Academy alumnus Diego owned both this album and its counterpart, "Leaving Your Body Map". He let me borrow "Bath" and I listened to the whole thing in study hall that day. From the opening chords of the first track, "The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth", I was entranced by these unheard of musical expeditions into beauty and anguish; and they quoted William Blake and Final Fantasy in the liner notes. Toby Driver's music is unparalleled and continues to enrich my life to this day. My favorite. Ever.

"It hurts remembering/the fragrance of Heaven."



Metallica - Ride the Lightning

When I first heard "Ride the Lightning" in 8th grade, my favorite bands were Korn and Limp Bizkit (that was painful). This changed everything. It was my introduction to true metal and I became obsessed with this band for the next couple years. Whatever crap I was listening to at the time fell out of rotation and out of mind and was replaced by Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, etc. This is probably where my musical elitism began.

"Out for my own, out to be free."



Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

First CD I ever bought. And still throw it on occasionally, even though I hate techno.



Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

Not sure what got me into this album considering at the time all I listened to was metal, but Dylan's gravelly, out of key voice fascinated me, as well his wild and exhausting lyrics. And his music stood apart from all that terrible hippie music of his era, and outsider music makes for the best.

"Now the winter time is coming. The windows are filled with frost.

I went to tell everybody but I could not get across."



Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks

Though I was anti-punk(rock) at the time (for whatever stupid reason, I was against a lot of music back in highschool), I enjoyed the hell out of this album. It's grimy and poorly-played but it planted the seeds for my later love of punk and hardcore.



Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

"what once was is now lost"

Wandering snowy forests as night sets in during depressed teenage winters and this album makes perfect sense. Never heard anything quite as horrifying and meaningful as early Burzum. Varg's reputation and politics aside, he made some utterly profound music; I was forever changed. It's music like this that exposes the emptiness and frivolty of the modern world and alludes to the inimicability and infinite nature of reality.



Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue

To many, this album wouldn't even sound like music, but to me it transcends the limits of musicality. It's a glimpse into eternal consciousness, which is the basis for my current philosophy. More importantly, I have very fond memories of riding alone at night (execpt for the Zebra or his brother) listening to "Amaranth the Peddler" and that being the best times I was having at that shitty point in my life. And Kayo Dot's music has nothing to do with this temporal, contrived world. This is musical perfection.

"almost condescending it looks on from inside/I feel strong this day will never wither"



Shearwater - Rook

Granted I think Palo Santo and the Golden Archipelago might be "better" albums, but I acquired this one through chance, as I have so many good albums when I worked at Border's (free promos were the best perk). I randomly grabbed it from the promo box and threw it on in the car on my lunch break. The first track is exceedingly quiet and subdued which made me turn the volume higher than I thought it was. About a minute in there is one of the loudest and most surprising crashes of music I've ever heard; it scared hell outta me. From then on my obsession for this band grew and in turn the next one on the list.

"well, i've had enough, wasting my body, my life i'll come away, come away from the shallows"



Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

It should make no sense that I like this band. Well, that's an understatement, because I fucking love this band and this album especially. It's sappy, melodramatic, and hipster-ish, but every track is a gem, and I don't know how many times "Blue Tulip" and "On Tour With Zykos" were playing in my car as I thought about heartbreak/stupidity. Will Sheff's dexedrine-inspired lyrics are beautifully executed and always hit your heart the right way. And this band and Shearwater catalyzed my interest in indie folk, but other than the next band on the list, there's no one quite as good in the genre.

"with every single inch of me I'm going to make you mean it

with every single cell of me I'm going to make you mean the words you sigh"



The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts

I avoided this band for a long time, just because I saw a picture of them on a magazine and immediately judged them as hipster assholes. Years later (thanks Pandora) I heard "Leslie Anne Levine" the first track on this album and I was immediately haunted by the music. Colin Meloy is a remarkable storyteller and, while appearing whimsical and innocuous on the surface, the subject matter ranges from ghost stories to murder to some seriously perverse tales ("A Cautionary Song"). "The Legionnare's Lament" played constantly the first few months of this year. One of my favorite songs ever.

"If only summer rain would fall
On the houses and the boulevard
And the side walk bagatelles its like a dream
With the roar of cars
And the lulling of the cafe bars
The sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine
Lord I don't know if I'll ever be back again..."



Until the End - Blood in the Ink

Considered lame by many, but this was the first hardcore I ever got into, and I was especially not into it at the time. Not sure why I like it. The lyrics can be really dumb at times and the music certainly isn't incredible but it's furious and dancy and just sounds right to me. Listened to it at least a hundred times and will continue to do so.

"With the concrete to my back, i finally feel free.
I have only one problem,
You're in the passenger seat.
I'm never looking back again, i've failed enough before.
Only one more problem before i go and i'm ending it right now.
I'm driving straight at this wall. I'm ending myself here.
My problems will be over soon because you're in the passenger seat.
Accelerate. Tempt fate."



Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!

I first heard this about 6 years ago and I'm still blown away by how powerful this music is. To me, it sounds like Beethoven reborn in the modern world: music that struggles with itself to find the right voice to express a truth otherwise incommunicable. Sort of what my life is all about. This album reminds me, though, of a triumphant time in my life where everything, for a short while, was really really good. The first track "Storm" is music of explosive triumph and raging beauty beset by an ugly and harsh world. And they manage to do it with just a few notes in 3/4 times played methodically over and over until it can't go on, and just fades out. Everyone should hear this album at least once.

"they don't sleep anymore on the beach..."



Converge - Jane Doe

Another group that I strangely avoided for awhile and later realized I made a huge error. I would've obsessed over this album had I actually listened to it years ago. The title is perfect, the anonymous archetypal female who generated enough heartbreak and frustration to elicit an album as fiery and passionate as this one. "Abrasive" is an understatement for the vocals, but when you deal with said women, it makes perfect sense, along with the disorienting and violent music behind it. It cuts to the core of heartbreak and completely tears it out to start anew. It's easy to see that Converge has kept me afloat the past year or so. These lyrics sum up so much of that.

"And like that heart that got in the way
I'll become the lost cause
The child of burden and rage
Like the distance in your touch
Like the years we burned down
I heard that phone call
The hesitation, the awkward silence
I felt everything in those seconds
Splinters of sentence and heartless advice
Nothing's changed but these days entwined"



Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Vol. 1

The Technique (as I'm sure to many others) was a revelation to me in hip hop. This has absolutely nothing to do with hip hop that you would hear on the radio. He has a vitriolic hate that few can match, especially against popular rap music, that emphasizes nothing but bitches, money, cars, and shit-talking ego-stroking. This album explores the decay of modern society, the lies of the government and media, the rape and oppression of the third world, and the general public's stupidity of buying into commecialized garbage music. Totally rearranged my view on how effective this genre can be when the mc actually gives a shit about what he's saying; message before money. Again, something everyone should probably hear. "Dance With the Devil" is the rawest hip hop song ever written in my opinion. It's a frightening and grim view of living the life of someone who only cares about money and self-gratification. It's upsetting, but it needs to be heard.
"Some niggas dream of pushin kilos but I drop tons
with more facts formulatin philosophical logic
than a basement full of scientists puffin on chronic
dipped in mycopotassium cyanide and liquid bubonic
and use it as a sonic wand to find the spawn of the demonic"



Socially Retarded - 11 song cassette

I guess this isn't an album, per se, but it's better than most full lengths I've heard. This music describes my own frustrations and hostilities with frightening precision. It still weirds me out a little how exact the words here matched the words in my head. This isn't referential art, though, it's experiential, it's true in its anger and dissatisfaction. You're not being told about emotional alienation, you're living it with these songs. And I acquired this during a time when I was still dealing with people (as Carlin would say) that are stunningly and embarassingly full of shit. So strange to find such fulfillment in an nearly incomprehensible tapestry of hate-filled blastbeats and agonizingly sludgy beats. These songs speak to me like nothing else ever really has.

"I don't want to talk about sports
and I don't wanna hear about your new fucking boyfriend
I tried to go out and meet other people
but this just doesn't feel right"
&
"Don't forget the casual fake fucked smile
or gesture to compromise the fact
that you don't have the guts to open up your mouth hole"