190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Three: "The best way out is always through"

114. Tears For Fears - Songs From the Big Chair (1985)

Technically this is a suite, one long beautiful, soulful, rockin', emotional piece of music with an over-arcing theme. So you have to listen to the whole damn thing.

Lucky you.

113. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (1983)

I'm not going to profess my love for this band, wallowing in the nostalgia of "finding a sound I could really identify with", or testifying that "these songs were written about me".

No.

I like this band. These are their best songs. Though not their best album, this one got me first.

The end.

Recommended Listening: Blister In the Sun, Kiss Off, Confessions, Good Feeling 

112. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (1988)

N.W.A. were the Black Sabbath of hip-hop, and that's how I've always digested their art. Heavy, hard, and head bobbing.

R.I.P. Easy E.

Recommended Listening: Straight Outta Compton, Fuck Tha Police, Gangsta Gangsta, Express Yourself, Dope Man

111. Guitar Wolf - Missile Me (1996)

Technically Guitar Wolf is just one man, but as a band they are a force of destruction. There are municipal codes written within the band's lifetime dedicated to their lives shows.

I know you have less than 30 minutes to kill today, so I'm going to recommend you listen to this whole thing. Each tune flies by pretty fast and loud, anyway; you won't miss the time.

Be sure to wear a neck brace.

110. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (1994)

I didn't get into this album until the last ten years, so I don't have the same conceptional buzz most NIN fans tote. Good for Reznor, though, for creating a theme and sticking to it, I say.

This is one of those albums that keeps popping up in the higher numbers of the list. An experience from front to back within the rules of rock-and-roll; and boy does this mother rock.




Recommended Listening: Mr. Self Destruct, Heresy, March of the Pigs, Closer, Reptile

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-Two: "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin"

120. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - This Year's Model (1978)

It's easy to understand why Declan McManus's head grew three sizes within three years. But so much has been said about this album...






Recommended Listening: No Action, Pump It Up, You Belong To Me, Living In Paradise, Radio Radio


119. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Armed Forces (1979)

...and this album, too, that I'll just let the songs speak for themselves.

I prefer Armed Forces, honestly, because of its concept album status. Also, Chaplin's The Great Dictator is my favorite movie, so Costello's references throughout give me an even harder nerd boner.

He also covers a great Nick Lowe song.

Recommended Listening: Accidents Will Happen, Oliver's Army, Goon Squad, Two Little Hitlers, (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding


118. Mission of Burma - OnoffOn (2002)

Twenty years is a long time for a band to be dissolved; but time doesn't quite apply to groups like Mission of Burma. I wasn't familiar with their classic catalog when I first popped this blistering disc into my car's stereo, but the ripping chords of "The Setup" made me a student into perpetuity. Signals, Calls, and Marches (1981) and Vs (1982) are the Genesis to OnoffOn's New Gospel - frantic, political, fragile, very human songs full of vitality.
And they're fucking loud, so much so that guitarist Roger Miller gave himself tinnitus.
I think it's a testament to a group's powers when they can disappear in one instance and then reappear just as vital in another. To be literate as well as furious is a feat.

I love these weirdos to death. Three more albums into the new millennium and this is still their best latter days release.

Recommended Listening: The Setup, The Enthusiast, Fake Blood, Wounded World, Nicotine Bomb


117. Pearl Jam - Vitalogy (1994)

Reviled and revolted in equal measure throughout their career, Pearl Jam really knocked it out of the park with this gem. All the Seattle bands were really at their peak, in fact; except Alice In Chains, who were about to plummet down a roller-coaster of shit.

But back to Pearl Jam.

Eddie Vedder's best lyrics, also his best songs. Dude really blew his load, but that's okay. We've got the Beefheart squeeze-box of "Bugs" forever. Amet weaves through these tunes like a snake stoned off its ass; Gossard and McCready slay with their six strings like samurai. Honestly, the drums are the most important part. They're really good, too.

All in all, this is a text-book rock-and-roll album. A performance from front to back, Vitalogy brings the Who and the Kinks into the dirty, cynical 90s kicking and screaming, but invigorated all the same.

Recommended Listening: Spin the Black Circle, Not For You, Tremor Christ, Nothingman, Pry, To, Satan's Bed, Stupid Mop


116. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000)

Possessing what just might be the heaviest tone in the world, Electric Wizard out-Sabbathed Black Sabbath with this, their magnum opus.

Arguably one of the top twenty heavy metal releases to ever be carved into wax, Dopethrone will raze your village and then smoke the ashes.

Recommended Listening: Vinum Sabbathi, Funeralopolis, Barbarian, Dopethrone



115. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982)

The debate will rage until there are no more Iron Maiden fans (forever), so I'll just count The Number of the Beast as my favorite.

Another group to recoup a prolific muse in their silver years, Iron Maiden went and made the perfect Iron Maiden record in their debut with Bruce Dickinson. They have had the great fortune through most of their career to remake this album over and over again, and they just can't seem to screw it up. Impenetrable twin guitars, locomotive drums, ridiculous tales of wonder, and that trademark galloping rhythm set a precedent for quality seldom hinted let alone touched in the metal genre.

Recommended Listening: The Prisoner, The Number of the Beast, Run To the Hills, Hallowed Be Thy Name

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty-One: "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope"

125. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979)

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.

Recommended Listening: I Zimbra, Cities, Heaven, Drugs

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.

Recommended Listening: Mouth Breather, Nub, Seasick, Monkey Trick

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.

Recommended Listening: Brother Pt. III, Brother Pt. VI, Brother Pt. VIII 

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

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Twenty: "Time marches on"

130. Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Global A Go-Go (2001)

Artists like Joe Strummer were a dying breed, no pun intended. I've never been one to plant my flag in any one musical camp, so naturally I love Joe Strummer. Too passionate for the mainstream and too smart for his own good, Joe saved his best work for the last seven years of his life before shoving off this mortal coil. At least heaven finally has its DJ.

Recommended Listening: Global A Go-Go, Mega Bottle Ride, Mondo Bongo, Minstrel Boy




129. The Obsessed - Lunar Womb/The Church Within (1991/1994)

Any fan of heavy music comes by Scott Weinrich some time in their life. Whether he's croaking for St. Vitus, ripping a solo on a guest appearance, or piloting his own rock unit, Wino is an undeniable, albeit inimitable presence in the American underground.
The only thing more impressive than Weinrich's ethos (and recurring drug habit) is that guitar tone. The original tone hound has kept it hard and heavy for over thirty years, and these two official studio releases from his Obsessed are a testament to his road warrior legacy.

Recommended Listening: Neatz Brigade, Skybone, Back To Zero, No Blame, Touch of Everything, Lunar Womb/Embryo

128. Herbie Hancock - Headhunters (1973)

My high-school pep band would play "Chameleon" with gusto whenever we got the chance. Excellent boyant melody, miles of room for improvisation - plain fun. But the studio album exists in another hemisphere all together, less Pepsi and popcorn and more cold gin and cannabis.

Hancock's music runs deep through America's veins. Hell, RYKYGNYZYR owes much of its direction to the man's incomparable acid jazz.

Recommended Listening: Chameleon, Watermelon Man, Vein Melter

127. Howlin' Wolf - His Best: Chess 50th Anniversary Edition, Vol. 1 & 2 (1999)

Of all the great bluesmen, Howlin' Wolf is my favorite. Muddy Waters was suave, Lightin' Hopkins could play like a mother fucker, but Wolf was a force of nature. And his band never suffered for lack of talent, either. Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin provided the bite to Wolf's bark to an almost indiscernible effect. A whip of slide guitar was a whip of the tail, and on the steamroller went, mowing down grateful audiences packed into sweltering blues joints.

And that voice. If Chester Burnett had never become Howlin' Wolf, he would have made a fine vocal stand in for God.

Recommended Listening: Evil, Smokestack Lightning, I Asked For Water, Who's Been Talkin?, Spoonful, Killing Floor (Single Version), I'm the Wolf, The Natchez Burning, Tail Dragger, Commit A Crime

126. Black Flag - Damaged (1981)

I downloaded this album at age 12, burned it to a CD and took it to school with me. Convinced I was living dangerously, I suffered through Henry Rollins's braying over tinny angular noodling on the bus ride to and from school. Upon my return home, I shelved said CD with every intention of returning to it. I knew it was important, I just needed time. I went back to my Incubus and Pink Floyd in the mean time.

Five years later, I'm shopping by myself and decide to pop into the local Hot Topic. Why not? No one here to judge me, nothing else to do; and, I'll be honest, the girl working the counter is  quite cute. As I disastrously get my flirt on, I notice a bargain bin of LPs.
'Get your shit together before speaking again, why don't ya?' Alright, I'll browse through these mark down As I Lay Dying and Good Charlotte records while I think of something...say...Black Flag - I remember this. And for $10? Yeah--this is really why I came here.

After going through both sides a few times, I dug out that old burnt CD and put it into rotation in my car. Rancid and Green Day were usurped by Fear and the Minutemen, X and the Bad Brains. Thus began my retroactive listening trend that culminated with the singular discovery of the MC5 and the Stooges. As the old saying goes:
If we love something, set it free. But if it returns to us,
the bond was meant to be.
I love Damaged, and it loves me.

I just made that up.

Recommended Listening: Rise Above, Six Pack, TV Party, Police Story, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Room 13, Damaged II

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Nineteen: "You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles"

134. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)

I don't know about "the Boss", but Springsteen at least took the piss out those who maligned him as a stadium shining pretty boy. This is the very first record I bought with my own money. The Old Book Barn in Forsyth, Illinois gave me many things, but this is by far the most important. I don't know what the hell happened before or after this album, because this is the best thing Bruce Springsteen has ever done.

Springsteen is notably eloquent, but these are downright savage short stories. Sometimes I wonder if Cormac McCarthy took a few cues from these songs. Intimate (but definitely produced, no matter what the studio lore may say) and exhilarating - let's just take a look at one of my father's favorite lines, from "Reason To Believe":

Seen a man standin' over a dead dog lyin' by the highway in a ditch

He's lookin' down kinda puzzled pokin' that dog with a stick

Got his car door flung open he's standin' out on highway 21

Like if he stood there long enough that dog'd get up and run

Recommended Listening: Nebraska, Johnny 99, Highway Patrolman, My Father's House


133. Goatsnake - Vol. 1 + Dog Days (2010)

When Southern Lord Record's Greg Anderson decided to form the heaviest blues band in the world, he cast his players well. Scream's Pete Stahl brought his wonderful yowl to whip up the Obsessed's rhythm section into a projectile earthquake. They come and go as they please, just as vikings should, but they always flatten everything in their wake.

Recommended Listening: Slippin' the Stealth, What Love Remains, The Orphan



132. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (1968)

I would say the playing on Axis: Bold As Love (1967) is better, but Electric Ladyland was the pinnacle of the Experience. Hendrix got to cut loose in the studio, too, playing with loops, stereophonics, and samples to the point of collage. But, sadly, Jimi left this world before he had the chance to leave rock-and-roll for more ambitious galaxies.

The classics aren't near the best stuff on the album, just to say. Skip the pop songs and get weird.

Recommended Listening: Voodoo Chile, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, House Burning Down, Voodoo Child (Slight Return)


131. Tool - Lateralus (2001)

Yep - I had the CD with the layered packaging, and I thought it was awesome.

For fear of sounding like a prick, Tool is often the best band people with poor taste in music like. Having said that, I will always stand by them; I am a Tool fan through and through. My admiration began in high school (of course it did) and has stayed with me for over fifteen years. Because they accidently sold millions of CDs (a horse is a horse is a horse) they can afford to do whatever the hell they please - sabbaticals that last for years, annual April Fools jokes, elaborate abstract music videos. I'd love to do that.

Also a positive quality--they're really good. I've mentioned before that I love Maynard James Keenan's instrument. Aenima (1996) will always be his best forthright performance, but Lalteralus gives us a different, more mature Keenan with a few different tricks at his disposal. Vocal effects notwithstanding, the man fucking screams full force for over seventeen seconds before fading under a tidal wave of angular distortion. He doesn't stop, the guitars just get louder. Wow.

And Adam Jones, Danny Carey, and Justin Chancellor bring calculus to roaring life with their playing. I've always felt inclined to rhythms, and boy does this band tap into that. Some may find their playing trite or meandering, but a good player is a good player. In other words, don't hate the player, hate the game.

Recommended Listening: The Grudge, Parabol/Parabola, Ticks and Leeches, Lateralus

120n190: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Eighteen: "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm"

139. Sepultura - Arise (1991)

It took me a long while to really dig death metal, but these Brazilian maniacs gave me the push I needed. Peerless until the departure of leader Max Cavalera, Sepultura continue to play any country with electricity.

Recommended Listening: Dead Embryonic Cells, Desperate Cry, Altered State






138. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head (1992)

Undeniable as they were, it took me a long time to really get how necessary the Beasties were to rock-and-roll; more so than hip-hop, truly. They weren't just MCs, they were scientists.

Recommended Listening: Pass the Mic, Gratitude, So What'cha Want, Stand Together







137. Uriah Heep - Demons and Wizards (1972)

I had resigned the Heep to the same camp as Jethro Tull, Rainbow, and Mountain - good (well, alright, really), but just not good enough.

Then a friend played the second side of this record for me, and "Rainbow Demon" pulverized my opinion all for the better.

Recommended Listening: Easy Livin', Rainbow Demon, Paradise





136. Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal (2008)

I was lucky to discover this punk veteran at all, but even luckier to share these sharp, sweet songs with my wife. We saw him at the Minnesota Zoo in 2010 and were thoroughly impressed. A very real talent with the mileage to back it up.

Recommended Listening: Always A Friend, Sister Lost Soul, Swallows of San Juan






135. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988)

I kept hip-hop at arms length for a looooong time because I didn't quite see the art within. Then I finally got around to Public Enemy, and man...did I feel stupid.
What the MC5 did for rock-and-roll, Public Enemy did for hip-hop...and, let's face it, rock-and-roll. Slayer sample, y'all...Slayer sample...

Recommended Listening: Bring the Noise, Don't Believe the Hype, She Watch Channel Zero?!

190n120: 30 Years of Music with Adam Johnson...Episode Seventeen: "So many of the loveliest things in England are melancholy"

142. Duran Duran - Rio (1982)

My appreciation for stadium power-pop starts here. I dug into Fanotmas pretty heavy around the same time, too, so my endearment towards this particular Duran Duran album may be augmented a bit Fantomas' quixotic weirdness. But try to imagine the title track digested through Buzz Osbourne' and Mike Patton's sludgy tracts and you can see why...

..right?

Slick-as-shit guitars, buoyant synthesizers, bumpin' poppin' bass - it's like Duran Duran invented the 80s. Most of all, Rio is plain fun. Like Wham!'s Make It Big (1984).


Recommended Listening: Rio, Lonely In Your Nightmare, Hungry Like the Wolf, Hold Back the Rain, The Chauffeur


141. Wham! - Make It Big (1984)

Whomever may get the credit, be it exclusively George Michael or Wham! as a "band", this album is just plain fun, damn near perfect in character and quality. George Michael sings from the same place as Peter Gabriel, Freddie Mercury, and Florence Welch, and he has an impeccable sense of composition. Dude could write a song, s'what I'm saying.

Also, I think Fantomas could get away with covering "Freedom" or "Credit Card Baby". And that's what makes a good song--anyone may take a crack at the tune and come away with brilliant results. The proof is in the pudding.

Recommended Listening: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom, Credit Card Baby, Careless Whisper

140. 23 Skidoo - The Culling Is Coming (1983)

I've always had an interest in electronic music, though far removed from the EDM jawns fueling raves around the world these days. I'm more interested in the origins, the bricks and mortar that built the house that Skrillex subleased. Backtracking through the various British techno and house seemed to be the most logical place to start.

You’d be surprised how many Venn diagrams come out of a simple AllMusic search: witch house, acid, acid house, soundtrack, no house (not kidding), electro, techno. Beats were broken, tapes were traded, and sounds started becoming convoluted. The beat goes on, alright; and on, and on, and on, and on…

...and then – there was silence. There was 23 Skidoo.

That got my attention. A team with balls enough to quiet the room before breathing life into it again with atmosphere instead of alarms, 23 Skidoo were more in line with the dread beats of dub than the pulse of London.

Where groups like Madness pulled the hop and skip of Jamaica into their metropolitan beat rock, 23 Skidoo had fallen into the pocket, found it incredibly comfortable, and decided to stay. They pulled smoky sheets over their beats and played a tape loop like a piano, weaving sounds and samples through their compositions to spectacular effect.

Contemporaries Mission of Burma were utilizing tape loops to similar effect in Boston, Massachusetts. The punk rock stage was getting a musique concrete makeover, why couldn’t the dance floor?

This is 23 Skidoo's third release, said and told. It's an entire live set, one long invocation, but I've selected a few of the more notable sections of the performance piece. My best recommendation would be to enjoy the entire performance, but people are busy these days. I get it.

Recommended Listening: G-2 Contemplation, Stifling/Healing (For the Strong), Move Back - Bite Harder