30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Thirty: "It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer"

78. Kraftwerk - K4: Bremen Radio 1971 (1971)

Before they became robots, Kraftwerk still employed Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger. This live recording from an on-air studio session cements these German cats as the masters of electronic improv, like a binary-driven Mothers of Invention.

An honest revelation upon my first listen.

Recommended Listening: Heavy Metal Kids, K1, K4


77. CAN - Future Days (1973)

If I hadn't taken the plunge into krautrock upon my moving to Minneapolis from Illinois I wouldn't be in an awesome band right now.

For years I felt alienated in the music scenes I found myself. Punk was full of energy and politics, but also fashion and substances abusers. Rock-and-roll bred mediocrity instead of danger. And the "alternative" crowd...well - Incubus is a fine band, I suppose (until you're 17).

If I couldn't burn flags in the name of the MC5 or change my local legislation through punk protest, then I would turn to the stars. Bands like Uriah Heep and Hawkwind tripped the light fantastic, but CAN were another story all together. CAN were the light--bright, shimmering, fast, intangible, singular, enveloping.

Space is endless, and so are the jams on Future Days.

Recommended Listening: Future Days, Spray, Bel Air


76. Assjack - Assjack (2009)

Never count a man as a soldier of one camp. Though he may be the grandson of the greatest country singer of all time, Hank Williams III wears many colors with pride (oh, the pride), and most of them are allegiances of his own invention. I have an extra soft spot in my heart (probably from alcohol) for solo artists, and this fella doesn't disappoint.

If you've ever wondered what the guy at the bus stop arguing with himself is thinking, it's this - this is what's going on inside his head. Because he's high on cocaine--lots of cocaine.

But drugs aside...dammit, can't do it - Assjack is the sound of primal indulgence, and I like it.

Recommended Listening: Tennessee Driver, Wasting Away, Gravel Pit, Cocaine the White Devil



75. The Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979)

The punk rock Beatles, the Buzzcocks were made of hits for about three years. They questioned everything around them before questioning themselves. Then their leader went and formed Magazine.

But we still got these dozen or so solid gems, everybody. Don't worry. And man are they solid. The Buzzcocks are a language all to themselves, influencing and directing other artists in ways they can't even appreciate. Holy moly does this collection of songs prove that a great band can do something transcendent.

Recommended Listening: Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get?, Ever Fallen In Love?, Oh Shit!, Autonomy, Noise Annoys, Why Can't I Touch It?

74. Stevie Wonder - Songs In the Key of Life (1976)

I've never been much of a religious person, so this is my gospel music. Songs that celebrate life are probably the closest thing an atheist/agnostic can get to praising the holy spirit, and Stevie Wonder is the best singer of such songs there is. He loved us so much he gave us two discs full of passion. What a nice guy...



Recommended Listening: Love's In Need of Love Today, Village Ghetto Land, Sir Duke, I Wish, Past Time Paradise, Isn't She Lovely, Joy Inside My Tears, Saturn


73. The Who - Who's Next (1971)

"Classic rock" doesn't get better than this, folks. Listening to the Who in their prime, basically inventing modern rock, is like listening to the first French speakers. Vowels flow like wine, but stay sharp and stay on the pallet long after they're gone. And it all comes a head with "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Damn.

Recommended Listening: Baba O'Riley, Love Ain't For Keeping, The Song Is Over, Getting In Tune, Behind Blue Eyes, Won't Get Fooled Again


72. The Who - Live at Leeds (1970)

Pete Townsend needed to remind people that he pretty much invented the modern rock song, and Leeds was the right time to do it. Just before dropping their best album, the Who made Led Zeppelin look like school children in an assembly hall.

Though not as cathartic as Kick Out the Jams (1969), Live at Leeds showed me that a live rock band that worked hard could provide an indispensable product that demands attention.

The Who were always better than the Rolling Stones, and they knew it.

Recommended Listening: Young Man Blues, Substitute, Shakin' All Over, My Generation

30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Nine: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us"

83. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works (2007)

I was aware of this band for a while before finally jumping on the boat, and seeing them on Conan O'Brien changed my cynical opinion in a hurry. Where the Bad Brains harnessed passion and energy, the Dillinger Escape Plan lived up to their name through aural chaos, a connect-the-dots rendering of the Sistine Chapel drawn by a palsy patient.

They are mathy, brutal, scary, exciting, and catchy, sometimes even at the same time. "Thinking man's metal" for the tech generation, like solving a physics equation after too many ritalin while updating your Instagram.

Recommended Listening: Black Bubblegum, When Acting As A Particle/When Acting As A Wave, Milk Lizard, Party Smasher, Mouth of Ghosts

82. Cypress Hill - III: Temples of Boom (1995)

My favorite offering from B-Real and the gang. Though their first album is still probably their best, the beats herein steal the show. Murking the air with more than smoke, DJ Muggs shines brighter than a propane torch. More paranoid than their previous two offerings and thicker than indo, Temples of Boom shows the way.




Recommended Listening: Illusions, Boom Biddy Bye Bye, Locotes, Let It Rain


81. Leonard Cohen - The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002)

A true master and lover of songs, I've sort of considered Leonard Cohen the "real" Bob Dylan since my father once told me exactly that when I was very young: "This is what Bob Dylan was after."

Poetry never sounded so palpable.



Recommended Listening: Suzanne, Bird On the Wire, Famous Blue Raincoat, Hallelujah, If It Be Your Will, Everybody Knows, I'm Your Man, Tower of Song, Democracy, A Thousand Kisses Deep


80. Killing Joke - Killing Joke (2003)

A slap in the face when I needed it, Killing Joke's return to form slays pretty much everything around it at a given moment.

When faced with relevance in an age of indulgence and extremism, Jaz Coleman made the right decision: shame everyone. So, he got the band back together...plus Dave Grohl on drums. Dave Grohl kind of gets them their boner back.

Politics, love, mysticism (oh, the mysticism), and war are still the focus - everything, long and short of it. Killing Joke polish a wiiiiiide lense, and it can shine deadly when it needs to.

Recommended Listening: The Death and Resurrection Show, Asteroid, Total Invasion, Loose Cannon, You'll Never Get To Me, Dark Forces


79. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (2000)

My most favorite power-pop album in the whole wide world. Also, thank you, New Pronographers, for introducing me to Neko Case.

I'm a sucker for tuneful melodies and beats, and this super-group collective more or less farts hits. I bet they don't even rehearse without penning two to three guaranteed gems.

Four albums into their career and they still haven't touched this nova of a debut. Every song is meant to be sung aloud by a large group of people. Enjoy.

Recommended Listening: Mass Romantic, The Slow Decent Into Alcoholism, Letter From An Occupant, To Wild Homes, The Body Says No

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Eight: "The best way to predict the future is to create it"

88. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)

The best band out of Washington, D.C. during the late seventies boom was undoubtedly the Bad Brains. They brought musicality to the aggression of punk supported by unparalleled energy.

Besides picking up the 'Best Live Band in the World' sash the Stooges left behind, the Bad Brains also brought a social conscience to the violence-prone slam floor. They're mad about social policy, but you will lose your mind when they drop a beat on you along with their manifesto.


Recommended Listening: Sailin' On, Attitude, Banned In D.C., Jah Calling, Supertouch/Shitfit, Fearless Vampire Killers, Right Brigade


87. Moondog - More Moondog (1956)

I went on a sort of weird music walkabout for a few years during college, and of all my discoveries, I am most endeared by Moondog. A free spirit since birth but blind since 16, everything is music to this gentlemen, and why not? The more accessible compositions are sublime; but it's the collage material that makes it for me.

The Viking of 6th Avenue made the world a much better, stranger place.

Recommended Listening: Duet: Queen Elizabeth Whistle and Bamboo Pipe, Hardshoe Malone, Tugboat Toccata, Autumn, Seven Beat Suite, All Is Loneliness, Moondog Monologue


86. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1993)

Before I found Funkadelic or really got into Curtis Mayfield and James Brown, I'm sorry to say this was the hardest, funkiest shit I could find. And I grew to like it, too.

Frusciante plays the hell out of that guitar; and the rhythm section brings it every second of the way.
The compositional scope of this album is also unparalleled in the band's catalog; it's like they used up all their good ideas.
And Anthony Kiedis could probably be replaced by a Casio playing his "vocal melodies" and the album would be improved thrice fold.

Recommended Listening: The Power of Equality, Breaking the Girl, Mellowship Slinky In B Major, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Under the Bridge, Sir Psycho Sexy


85. The Cure - Seventeen Seconds (1980)

I do not care for the Cure. I think Robert Smith's talent is fine, he just does not make anything I want to enjoy. Except this album. Sparse, dark, icey, interesting...

But seriously, if every Cure album were at least similar to Seventeen Seconds, or enjoyed as much freedom of composition, I would probably be a Cure fan.
But, lo, I am not.

But seriously, this album made me think twice.

Recommended Listening: Play For Today, Three, A Forest, M, Seventeen Seconds


84. The Doors - Morrison Hotel (1970)

My favorite Doors record, though not as good as their eponymous debut (nothing they did ever was).

Robbie Kreiger simply slays with that SG, and Dunsmore carries the band with grace and swing. I could give or take some of Manzerik's decisions, but overall his arrangements aren't as distracting as The Soft Parade (1969).
Oh, and the singer sings.


Recommended Listening: Roadhouse Blues, Waiting For the Sun, Peace Frog, Ship of Fools, Land Ho!, Maggie M'Gill

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson: Episode Twenty-Seven: "When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment"

94. Mos Def - Black On Both Sides (1999)

What an opening statement.
Fresh off the heels of his Black Star collaboration with Talib Kweli, Dante Bey proved himself the Renaissance Man he boasted of being on the streets. Smart, angry and sexy with beats for miles, Black On Both Sides stands on a soap box with pride and dignity.




Recommended Listening: Fear Not of Man, Hip Hop, Speed Law, Umi Says, New World Water, Rock N Roll, Mr. Nigga, Mathematics

93. Hank Williams - 24 of Hanks Williams' Greatest Hits (1976)

Not just country, not just honky tonk, Hank Williams's songs are purely human. That voice, like a lost soul, pierces through time and genre to awesome effect. Any and every jukebox will have a few of Hank's tunes, and they always serve their audience well.





Recommended Listening: Your Cheatin' Heart, Move It On Over, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Kaw-Liga, Cold, Cold Heart, Ramblin' Man, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), Hey, Good Lookin', Half As Much, Take These Chains From My Heart



92. The Misfits - Collection I & II (1986/1995)

The greatest novelty act of all time. Undeniable melodies dressed up in Halloween costumes; not because it's Halloween, but because the Misfits are creeps.






Recommended Listening: She, Bullet, Teenagers From Mars, Night of the Living Dead, Where Eagles Dare, Vampira, Skulls, London Dungeon, Ghouls Night Out, Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?, Die, Die My Darling, Green Hell, We Are 138, Last Caress, Halloween, Braineaters, We Bite, Demonomania

91. Superjoint Ritual - A Lethal Dose of American Hatred (2003)

This is not pretty, nor is it nice; sometimes it's not even enjoyable. But goddammit, this little album will tear your head off and enjoy doing it. A testament to conviction, if anything.






Recommended Listening: Sickness, Waiting For the Turning Point, Dress Like A Target, Personal Insult, Permanently, Absorbed



90. John Zorn - Moonchild: Songs Without Words (2006)

John Zorn gets Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn to Bungle the shit of his mystic gobbledygook to spectacular effect.






Recommended Listening: Hellfire, Abraxas, Equinox, Moonchild



89. Goblin - Dawn of the Dead: Original Soundtrack (1978)

Italian soundtrack masters Goblin lend their inimitable talent to George Romero's best film. The soundscapes are ominous, but the themes are undeniably buoyant and tuneful, begging for the tapping of a foot. Slick and scary.





Recommended Listening: L'alba Dei Morti Viventi, Zombi, Safari, Zaratozom, La Caccia, Risveglio

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Six: "Freedom from fear"

99. John Fahey - America (1971)

John Fahey introduced me to the real blues. His readings of the classics, and his own compositions inspired by the original working masters, are a quintessential part of my musical education. It had been too long since I sat down with my guitar and taken a good look at the landscapes it could create. Finding this album at North Street Records more or less changed my musical world, or perhaps refixed it.

Also, his "Special Rider Blues" is the my wife's unofficial theme song.

Recommended Listening: Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker, Special Rider Blues, Dvorak, Dalhart, Texas, 1967

98. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - Doc At the Radar Station (1980)

Don Van Vleit helped me in so many ways that it's almost negligent to dedicate less than an entire entry to any single album of his material. I'm starting with his second latter day masterpiece and working my way up the totem pole.

Recommended Listening: Hot Head, Ashtray Heart, Run Paint Run Run, Sue Egypt, Flavor Bud Living, Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee

97. Tom Waits - Mule Variations (1999)

Mr. Waits is an appropriative artist, sure; but he's incredibly good at what he does. Every album is inherently different and yet the same. 

Like a Universal horror movie, Tom's sound is distinctly out of time. He pulls songs along with a horse and carriage, but also sits comfortably behind the wheel of a diesel-fueled hot rod.

The voice may be a real problem for some people, and for very different individual reasons, but I've maintained it's just another element in his medium. One of many, many inclusions herein, Mule Variations sits comfortably within a legacy of dependable strangeness.

Recommended Listening: Big In Japan, Hold On, House Where Nobody Lives, What's He Building In There?, Eyeball Kid, Chocolate Jesus, Filipino Box Spring Hog, Take It With Me

96. Electric Masada - At the Mountains of Madness (2005)

John Zorn is a hero of mine, and anything he sets his mind to is guaranteed to thrill. Marc Ribot is my favorite guitarist, so their working together is in itself a boner. That same flavor he lent to Tom Waits is palpable here - the savory flamenco snakes he dished out for Waits have become spicy gypsy pythons and they weave and squeeze with fire. 

The ensemble is on track, the melodies are engaging, and the solos are inspiring. "Metal Tov" is the icing, candles, and very first bite of the cake all at once. Two discs cover two separate performances with repeat readings here and there, though the results are nevertheless thrilling.

Without this album, I couldn't be in RYKYGNYZYR.

Recommended Listening: Lilin, Metal Tov, Abidan, Idalah-Abal, Kedem

95. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964)

Man am I glad I didn't give up on jazz.

All through my younger years I understood jazz to be blase, boring, cardigan music. Only the least offensive of adults listened to it, and any kid you saw jamming to a Weather Report tune was usually going to turn into a hip-hop producer six years down the road. Once I found John Coltrane, I realized I had only known "smooth jazz", and I was delighted to understand that I was actually a fan of jazz music.

Another thing I couldn't get behind was the apparently random soloing. A Love Supreme brings logic to all of that. Coltrane's themes are palpable, his arrangements flourishing comfortably.

This is one long tonal prayer, and it's all worth your time. The music does the talking here, sometimes literally, and its message is universal: A Love Supreme.

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Five: "Those who cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat it"

104. Six Organs of Admittance - Ascent (2012)

Not my favorite SOOA album, but my first. I'm new to the game, I'll admit; but what I lack in experience I make up for in enthusiasm.

Ben Chasney leads a full band through a rollicking good time, like a space shuttle drilling through the Earth. Inspiring as ever.



Recommended Listening: Waswasa, Close To the Sky, One Thousand Birds, Even If You Knew


103. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads (1996)

After the Birthday Party hung up their capes, Nick Cave went about mining American gothic for inspiration, and did a mighty fine job of it, too. Victoria's favorite son delivered his strongest offering in Murder Ballads, though. Cormac McCarthy would blush at some of these soliloquies, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Also, his ensemble reading of "Death Is Not the End" is inspired in its crass casting (albeit totally void of irony). Shane McGowan's staying power may just exceed Wolverine.

Recommended Listening: Song of Joy, Stagger Lee, The Curse of Millhaven, O'Malley's Bar

102. Neu - Neu! (1971)

My first taste of the fermented beats of krautrock. The landscapes these cantankerous studio wizards created go on for miles. And Michael Rother taught me very explicity that less is more. Thanks.






Recommended Listening: Hallogallo, Im Gluck, Negativland



101. Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men (2007)

Harvey Milk's second best album will make you want to kill your family and then yourself. Heavier than a metric ton, Creston Spiers must have had his Les Paul certified as a deadly weapon in order to make this record.





Recommended Listening: Pinocchio's Example, Plastic Eggs, My Broken Heart Will Never Mend, One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong



100. Morphine - Cure For Pain (1993)

If Mark Sandman were still alive he would still be dead.

This album is more or less dedicated to addiction, of one stripe or another, and it sounds like nothing but desire, sometimes deep and dark, sometimes straight with no chaser. I'm just glad this band existed at all.



Recommended Listening: Buena, All Wrong, Candy, In Spite of Me, Thursday, Cure For Pain

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