I am very attracted to rampant mingling of musical styles, appropriating rhythms or melodies to coexist within something completely foreign to completely something else entirely. Talking Heads found the sweetest balance between intercontinental and metropolitan, mining those deep latin rhythms with synthesizers and twangy guitars. Flex your mind as well as your glutes.
124. The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991)
Duane Denison's guitars are the perfect switchblade to compliment David Yow's Beat berserker rage fits while Sims and McNeilly swing that shit like a baseball bat. It's hard to miss the beat when it comes crashing down over your head.
Thinking cave man's music.
123. Tori Amos - Boys For Pele (1996)
I came by Tori Amos in high school, but wasn't quite sold on the tracks being sent my way by popular media outlets. So I started a band. Our singer brought this album with him, along with Tool and a few other indicative adolescent discoveries, and completely changed my mind.
Boys For Pele is Amos's Trout Mask Replica, a pristine display of all her powers at their most potent. Weird, beautiful, touching, and frightening (often all at once), you can't do much better for singular songwriting.
Recommended Listening: Father Lucifer, Mr. Zebra, Muhammed My Friend, Doughnut Song, In the Springtime of His Voodoo
122. Dustin Wong - Infinite Love (2010)
I'd just moved to a Minneapolis and was reassessing what music meant to me. Rock-and-roll was my pedigree, and I understood how to speak my mind with three chords and the truth. But saying something, especially something beautiful, doesn't require words; shit, it doesn't even require a voice.
Dustin Wong gives a forty minute soliloquy with a few pedals, a guitar and a whole lot of love. I would recommend ingesting this beautiful thing in one sitting; side A being 'Brother' and side B being 'Sister'. Family time, y'all.
121. Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti (1979)
This is the first solo Zappa I found, and it's still my favorite. Zoot Allures (1976) has a little more coherence, and the playing is better, but Sheik Yerbouti's gonzo live presence only enhances the pleasure.
Also, my dad had several Dr. Demento tapes, so "Dancin' Fool" and "Jewish Princess" were part of my song book since grade school. I was never encouraged to sing them in public, of course, but they were there, nonetheless.
Recommended Listening: Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, Tryin' To Grow A Chin, City of Tiny Lites, Dancin' Fool
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