My Favorite Recordings
2013:
Vulgar Fashion (Self titled)
Discovered by Jesse: 2014
2010:
Ancient
Filth (Demo)
Neon Piss
(Demo)
2009:
Mastodon,
Crack the Skye
Discovered by Jesse: 2010
Favorite Song: The Czar
There's nothing wrong with this album; I only wish this had been recorded with
the equipment and techniques used to create Dark Side of the Moon.
Nachtmistum,
Black Meddle Part 2: Addicts
Discovered by Jesse: 2010
Favorite Song: No Funeral
2008:
Annihilation
Time, Tales of the Ancient Age
Discovered by Jesse: 2008
Favorite Song: Just Guzzlin'
Annihilation Time are a high speed mix of Black Flag and Black Sabbath, and with
Tales of the Ancient Age they continue to infect their vomit-stained skater punk
rock n' roll with some pretty depraved 70's guitar solos. But even though some
of their best songs are on this album, their must-hear material is spread out
between all their albums. This
One's for You, God and Annihilation
Time II are
really worth hearing too.
2007:
The
Dillinger Escape Plan, Ire Works
Discovered by Jesse: 2007
Favorite Song: Mouth Of Ghosts
Whereas Calculating Infinity rewards the listener's perseverance with
catharsis, The Dillinger Escape Plan's second masterpiece is pleasurable to listen
through from start to finish. When the band strays from its patented blast of
unpenetratable noise, it manages to evoke murky thoughts of unrequited love,
Metroid boss battles, and other forgotten memories (or were they only dreams?)
Short packets of brilliance are packed densely throughout, and each is given
just enough breathing room to make its impact felt before giving way to the next.
2006:
Rio
Grande Blood, Ministry
Discovered by Jesse: 2006
Favorite Song: Lieslieslies
After a couple of misfires, Ministry's mainman Al Jourgensen returned with two
blistering thrash albums targeted squarely at George W Bush. Together with 2004's
Houses of the Molé, Rio Grande Blood satisfies with pummeling, infectious
grooves and focused lyrics. These two albums are best enjoyed back to back, preferably
while speeding through the vacant ranch lands of Texas. It's a shame that more
people haven't heard these songs, because they're consistently solid. You won't
want it to end, and when it does, you won't mind starting over from track 1.
10,000
Days, Tool
Discovered by Jesse: 2006
Favorite Song: Wings For Marie (Part 1)/10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)
In addition to the release of Ministry's Rio Grand Blood, May of 2006 also saw the emergence of Tool's 10,000 Days, a darker and dare I say more meandering journey through the haze that has surrounded Tool's music since 2001's Lateralus. Although this album's most poignant moments won't become clear without repeated listening, tracks 3 and 4 combine into something as mesmerizing as past masterpieces Third Eye and Parabol/Parabola.
2005:
Hazardous
Mutation, Municipal Waste
Discovered by Jesse: 2006
Favorite Song: Guilty of Being Tight
I thought I'd never find a recording that I really liked from 2005,
until I stumbled upon this one. This 80s hardcore thrash music is
best enjoyed on vinyl, because the album's cover art is so good that
it deserves to be seen at full size. Check out my blog about the Municipal
Waste concert I attended in July of 2006.
2004:
Size
Matters, Helmet
Discovered by Jesse: 2004
Favorite Song: Smart
This CD sounds very clean and pristine compared to the group's earlier
muddy grooviness. The computer-aided precision
here does away with Helmet's dirty, organic grunge noise, with initially
detrimental effects. But the CD definitely got better with repeated
listening. What makes this album so cool is that while past Helmet
albums have each included three or four "perfect" songs
and four or five annoying ones, this one contains only a single fingernails-on-the-blackboard
moment (the opening verse of Surgery.) And after hearing the
album several times, its opening and closing songs, Smart and Last
Breath, begin to hold
up against anything the band ever put out rhythmically or melodically
during its previous incarnation.
2003:
Mit
Gas, Tomahawk
Discovered by Jesse: 2003
Favorite Song: Mayday
Mike Patton's most accessible work in years is bounded by menacing
birdsongs and hand-to-hand combat instructions from a VietNam vet who
finally paid the price for his three pack-a-day Marlboro habit. Yeah,
he's singing with an artificial larynx.
Cradle of Filth: Damnation and a Day
Discovered by Jesse: 2004
Favorite Song: A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon/The Promise of Fever
The first two tracks on this CD serve as one of the coolest intro sequences
I've ever experienced in any medium.
2002:
The
End of All Things to Come, Mudvayne
Discovered by Jesse: 2002
Favorite Song: Mercy, Severity
This one took me a while to figure out. Initially it sounded dense and
muddy, but eventually the songs opened up.
2001:
Lateralus,
Tool
Discovered by Jesse 2001
Favorite Song: Parabol/Parabola
Here Tool dances around the riffs and structures that exploded out of
their previous album, Aenima, without ever reaching the same highs or
lows. This album's lack of annoyances makes it great background music.
But if you pay attention and let it sink in, it reveals itself to be
an epic, meaningful album.
Radiohead: Amnesiac
Discovered by Jesse: 2002
Favorite Song: Hunting Bears
2000:
Dead Prez: Let's Get Free
I like this CD's political message, and for a group that focuses on
lyrical content, Dead Prez do a pretty great job of constructing beats
and melodies. This is the only CD listed here that I would consider
as a 'manual for living' rather than as mere entertainment. Although
I don't ascribe to Dead Prez's most paranoid, outrageous proclamations,
such as "I don't believe Bob Marley Died from cancer, thirty five
years ago I would've been a panther" and "Who shot Biggie
Smalls? If we don't get them they gonna get us all", they're so
catchy that I don't mind singing along.
Marilyn Manson: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Discovered by Jesse: 2000
Favorite Song: The Death Song
Marilyn Manson got really serious on this CD. Although the subsequent
release of The Golden age of Grotesque confirmed my suspicions that
Manson has little to say aside from that which serves only to make
him appear intelligent, Holy Wood dupes the listener into believing
that his critique of American culture has some golden nugget of truth
buried within it–if only we were smart enough to put the pieces
together and understand what he's saying.
1999:
Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile
Discovered by Jesse: 1999
Favorite Song: The Frail
Filter: Title of Record
Discovered by Jesse: 2005
Favorite Song: Cancer
I believe this is the most pummeling pop album ever recorded. Nevertheless,
you may hear
Take a Picture if you linger long enough at the grocery store magazine
rack.
The Dilinger Escape Plan: Calculating Infinity
Discovered by Jesse: 2003
Favorite Song: 4th Grade Dropout
Listen with patience through the grating math-core aggression, and 'soap
opera-core' ambience, and you will arrive at occasional, brief, and
truly fulfilling interludes, most notably the beautiful '4th Grade Dropout'
and 'Weekend Sex Change' sequences. The knowledge of what is coming
will soon turn this impenetrable fog of thrash into a breath of fresh
air.
1998:
System of a Down: System of a Down
Discovered by Jesse: 2002
Favorite Song: P.L.U.C.K.
Pearl Jam: Yield
Discovered by Jesse: 1998
Favorite Song: Push Me Pull Me
1997:
Primus: The Brown Album
Discovered by Jesse: 1998
Favorite Song: The Return of Sauthington Willoby
Helmet, Aftertaste
1996:
Tool, Aenema
Discovered by Jesse: 2001
Favorite Song: 3rd Eye
1995:
Marilyn Manson: Lunchbox
Discovered by Jesse: 2000
Favorite Song: Down in the Park (Gary Newman Cover)
Mad Season: Above
Discovered by Jesse: 1995
Favorite Song: November Hotel
This CD has the distinction of being the first one that I ever bought
and paid for with my own money. Although Layne Staley is one of my favorite
singers, my favorite track on this Disc is actually an instrumental.
The best thing I heard on the radio in 1995 was probably Self-Pollution
Radio, which I listened to on January 8 of that year, on 104.1
FM, Hartford, CT (Before it was taken over by Clear Channel, and long
before its format was changed to hip hop and R&B). The Self-Pollution
Radio program was hosted by Eddie Vedder, who broadcasted out of
a rented Seattle house. The signal was picked up by many different radio
stations nationwide. The program introduced me to several tunes that
stick in my head to this day.
1994:
Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
Discovered by Jesse: 1999
Favorite Song: Ruiner
1993:
Pearl Jam, Vs.
Discovered by Jesse: 1998
Favorite Song: Rearviewmirror
1992:
Rage Against the Machine: Rage Against the Machine
Discovered by Jesse: 1999
Favorite Song: Know Your Enemy
Dr. Dre: The Chronic
Discovered by Jesse: 2005
Favorite Song: The $20 Sack Pyramid
There's nothing new under the sun, so the saying goes. And anything you're hearing in rap today, you could have heard on The Chronic back in 1992.
Nine Inch Nails: Broken
Discovered by Jesse: 1999
Favorite Song: Wish
Alice in Chains: Dirt
Discovered by Jesse: 1999
Favorite Song: Them Bones
I really love the first song 'Them Bones'. This CD ends just as strong,
with "Would?". I like everything Alice in Chains did, but
this CD contains more good songs than any other.
1991:
Pearl Jam: Ten
Discovered by Jesse: 1995
Favorite Song: Alive
1987:
Guns
n' Roses: Appetite for Destruction
Discovered by Jesse: 2002
Favorite Song: All of Them!
Napalm
Death: SCUM
Discovered by Jesse: 2009
Favorite Song: This album has songs?
The first grindcore album ever!
1986:
Metallica: Master of Puppets
Discovered by Jesse: 2003
Favorite Song: Master of Puppets
1967:
Martin Luther King Jr.: Beyond Vietnam
Discovered by Jesse: 2003 |