190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Sixteen: "What's happenin', hot stuff?"

146. Green Day - Warning! (2000)

I may have jumped on the American Idiot band wagon when it came around (see what I did there?), but Warning! was and remains my favorite Green Day album, tied closely with Nimrod (1997).

It's their best, at least, by far, marrying everything they always excelled at and strived for. Lots of 'strummy-strummy, I-want-to-be-Ray-Davies' numbers, but more of them work than fall flat. Growing up never looked too attractive to Green Day, but I think they begrudgingly took it up with Warning!, no matter how much eyeliner and skinny jeans would come later.

And I'd be a liar if I didn't admit there's a great deal of nostalgia surrounding this record. I spent many hours driving around my home town and surrounding counties pumping these tunes at full volume, our favorite moment being bobbing along with the gypsy bounce of "Misery". Green Day are a great 'making friends' band.

Recommended Listening: Warning, Blood, Sex and Booze, Church On Sunday, Misery, Macy's Day Parade

145. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

A true heir to Don Vleit's crown of weird with an ear like Brian Wilson, Robert Pollard wrote one of the better songs about being an artist, "I Am A Scientist". I didn't really dig into the trove of curiosities that is their catalog until a few years ago, but once I heard this number I felt like part of the dialogue. One of the song's lyrics sums up GBV succinctly, in my opinion:
I am a scientist
I seek to understand me
I am an incurable
And nothing else behaves like me

Proving that great pop songs needn't be cohesive or even coherent, Bee Thousand, often lovingly partnered with its philosophical twin Alien Lanes (1995), stands as Guided By Voices' greatest declaration of independence.

Recommended Listening: Tractor Rape Train, The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, Smothered In Hugs, Gold Star For Robot Boy, Ester's Day, I Am A Scientist

144. Everlast - Whitey Ford Sings the Blues (1998)

"What It's Like" is the second song I learned to play on guitar right behind "Enter Sandman". That city-fied country lick switched something in my head that has yet to reset itself--and here's hoping that never happens.

Everybody needs an introduction to hip-hop, and this was mine. Everybody needs that one album their parents admonish them for blasting, and this was mine. Sure - Tupac or Biggie, or Anal Cunt, would have probably made more sense; but Everlast's pop-friendly sensibilities were the right kind of language for twelve-year-old Adam to get down on.

Whitey Ford Sings the Blues touches on a little bit of everything, a great reflection of the qualities of its composer. This is definitely the work of a capable and tested MC; but there are hooks and riffs peppered throughout that sing 'hail hail rock-and-roll'. And yes, Mr. Ford really does sing the blues from time to time.

The army of one attitude of this whole thing, along with its sequel Eat At Whitey's (2001), gave a young artist faith in his own abilities. My tastes were becoming more and more eclectic, shaping the collage of noise growing in my head. 'If Everlast can do it,' I thought, 'so can I'.

Recommended Listening: What It's Like, Hot To Death, Today (Watch Me Shine), The Letter, 7 Years

143. Nirvana - In Utero (1993)

An album of garage noise, an album of pop-rock gems, and then this - their finest hour.

My generation took Nevermind (1991) and it's B-sides cousin Incesticide (1992) as gospel, perfect proclamations submitted fully-formed. While they're both very necessary stops along Nirvana's life story, whatever Kurt Cobain heard in his head, In Utero is the closest we ever got to hearing the whole beautiful, mangled mess.

And for the record, I intensely enjoy the album version of "All Apologies" to their heralded Unplugged (1994) performance. No matter the public opinion, I think In Utero's original cut speaks to the tune's soul just a little better.

Recommended Listening: Scentless Apprentice, Rape Me, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, All Apologies