190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Four: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

109. Sebadoh - Defend Yourself (2013)

There are more hallowed entries in the band's catalog, but this disc was the first major spinner I subscribed to at a point in my life that I really needed a sugar sweet audio-valium.






Recommended Listening: I Will, Defend yr Self, Oxygen, State of Mine, Can't Depend


108. Metallica - St. Anger (2003)

No.

If indigestion were rendered into a record album of 75 minutes, this would be the result. Pure shit.

But I bought it anyway...



Recommended Listening: Some Kind of Monster, Invisible Kid, Shoot Me Again, The Unnamed Feeling, All Within My Hands


107. Primus - Pork Soda (1993)

I could do without the overtly steampunk aesthetic Claypool has taken with the band in the last ten years or so, but this slab of weird still holds up as my favorite. Like Jaco Pastorius tearing up a jam session with the Magic Band, Primus create something totally else altogether.



Recommended Listening: My Name Is Mud, Bob, Nature Boy, Mr. Krinkle, The Air Is Getting Slippery



106. Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh (2005)

A little less Cthulu than, say, Sunn O))) or Boris, yet not as fluorescent as My Bloody Valentine, Serena Maneesh make a wonderful Nordic noise.


In a way, I needed to discover and enjoy Serena Maneesh before I could understand Sonic Youth. Which I eventually did.


Recommended Listening: Drain Cosmetics, Candlelighted, Don't Come Down Here, Your Blood In Mine



105. William Shatner - Has Been (2004)

I didn't expect an album of spoken word lounge rock performed by Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise to change my life, but here we are.

I had the great fortune to catch Bill's live 2004 television performance of "Common People". With Ben Folds behind the keys/wheel and an absolutely show-stopping cameo from Joe Jackson, I was converted to the Shatner namaste for life.

His prog rock project Ponder the Mystery (2014) is a fine continuation of form, an evolution, even. He composed all the lyrics and themes himself, with a little help from the scene's brightest and best, of course. But Has Been is a thematic triumph in its own right. With a little help from his friends, William Shatner tells stories of self-revelation and resolution as Robert Goulet headlining a Dada showcase. And it's fucking awesome.

Recommended Listening: Common People, You'll Have Time, That's Me Trying, Has Been, I Can't Get Behind That/Real