Martes 8 Feb 2011, 16:21

25. Dinosaur Sounds
When I first started getting into Punk/Ska/Music-in-general, Catch-22 was the top band to listen to. Dinosaur Sounds was everything I was about when I first heard it. In fact, when I first got it (which my dad had mistaken for a child’s dinosaur album) I listened to it constantly. The intro song “Rocky” starts out with power riffs and during the whole song the guitar has no classic upchucks while the horns are barely in it, which shows a lot of maturity from the band to be more punk driven. It also doesn’t take a genius to figure out the line “It started with you/it ends with me, wait and see” is directed to either. Overall, this album was very influential to a lot of music I listen to today. Because ska is a gateway genre of punk, I was able to broaden my music and get into some great bands because of this album. Even though I don’t play them as much as I used to, I can go to any show and bring this album up and start a conversation about it with anyone in the room.

24. How To Save A Life
Sometimes an album can just stick with you longer than you anticipated. How to Save a Life was definitely one of those albums for me. Basically long story short, I got into this band because of a girl. However, I felt like even though this was just some popular mtv faux indie rock music, I still really liked them. I had a weird connection that I was almost afraid to admit. It was something I was not proud of at the time, mainly because this was during my super punk-punk phase, but the lyrics really resonated with me because this was douche rock and all the songs are about love and how they don’t get enough of it. I felt as if I understood what he was saying and going through. After the girl and I broke up, I still listened to them. The opening piano line to “How to Save a Life” still puts a smile on my face and I always turn up the volume if I’m in my car. The Album spoke to me on a very high level that I don’t think I will ever be able to look past or forget.

23. Into Lake Griffy
When I first saw Lemuria, only about 12 people showed up (this was much different from when I saw them at Fest a few months later). The opening band was called Good Luck and when they first took the stage I thought to myself that I have never seen a more awkward looking group of people in my life. However, I was soon put in my place when they started playing. They were full of more energy than I’ve any other band have (excluding the cartridge family). With only 12 people at the show, and even less standing on the floor listening, they still acted like they were playing for a thousand people. Into Lake Griffy has an incredibly original sound that feels like a blend of pop, punk, folk, and a something that I can’t even explain but will attempt to compensate by using the word “afunkadouche™”. Despite that, the album was one that I could not stop listening to. The song “Stars Were Exploding” just puts you into a simpler time and reminds you of all the good moments you had with your friends, family, and yourself (HEHE). The combination of hearing every track on the album and seeing them live as well, gives you this feeling that they would probably be the best friends you could ever have.

22. American Rubicon
Think Misfits if they watched too much CNN. Cobra Skulls have that music that can you actually want to hear what they’re saying because while having politically driven lyrics, they are still fun and don’t come off too forced. A mix of rockabilly and punk in a perfected form plus their semi-political lyrics are what put them on this list. When I first heard American Rubicon, I thought this was exactly what I wanted my band to sound like. The cover with the leather jackets and devil locks showed us exactly where they stood on their influences. These guys were punk rockers and they were going to play just that. “H.D.U.I” is probably one of the top songs on the album about the Iraq war that no one was ever heard in the modern punk scene before. The line “I was down in the desert/on my second tour/I didn’t want to do the first/but I wanted to be sure” sounded like it came with immense experience and understanding about the soldiers more the politics about the state of Iraq. Over all, the album really spoke to me and helped my get back into punk at its roots. Despite users on punknews constantly hating on their fans, I am very proud to be one of them. I’ll never forget them thanking the audience at Mac’s Bar for not just moshing and running around and actually listening to their music; which I am glad people didn’t do either, because they had some interesting stuff to say.

21. A Record
Holy Ghost
So Let’s just start off from the bat; yes, these are two different albums. However, since I believe “Mouthbreather” is her best song that has been released to date, it only came out in a 7” with three songs and I did not think that reflected a great album the band put out. That is why I pushed these two together. Plus, if you want to get technical, when Asian Man Records re-released the physical format for A Record, it included the three songs from Holy Ghost. So take that! Anyways, Laura Stevenson and the Cans are one of the best indie punk bands out there today to include a banjo (Take that, Defiance, Ohio!). Laura’s style of singing in very unique and gives off this soft feeling and makes you never want to stop listening. The Banjo at the end of the opening song “Baby Bones” works as a great transition almost seamlessly into the next song.
Lyrically, the songs are really easy to connect to. “Nervous Rex” is a song that you restart repeatedly because you want to hear every word and don’t want to drift off. But “Mouthbreather” off of Holy Ghost! is really the song that gets you. The emotion put into it really comes out during the interludes and abrupt build ups. The trumpet solo beats out any ska bands attempt at one and is definitely a song makes you only anticipate what the band is going to put out next (Hurry up, April!).

20. Feed the Animals
Attention ADD sufferers: You have a new genre! Girl talk is for people who love good beats and playlists without having to do any work themselves. Hearing Feed the Animals for the first time was like experiencing something totally new and scary but exciting at the same time. His mash up of rock and rap/hip-hop makes everything Aerosmith and Run DMC did look like pubic hair on a toilet seat. His creativity and, let’s face it, bravery to make this music has changed the way a lot of people look at music. Who else would put Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” with Nine-Inch-Nails?
A message that I got from the music that may be unintentional by him, but I feel adds even more to his music, is the compatibility of the songs he puts together. He can put the lyrics to an Outkast song mixed with the piano riff to Journey’s “Faithfully” and show almost a mutual integrity for both of the artists. Showing off that even though some people have particular taste when it comes to music, in the end, we’re all just people appreciating the arts. It’s almost as if the reason the two parts of the songs mashed together fit so well is because they both artists have the same respect and belief in their music. This may seem out there, but it made me appreciate a lot of genres I never listened to before and gave them a change. And yes, I still hate country (less T. Swizzle). In all seriousness, this album really challenged me on what I thought was good music and I became a lot more diverse in my tastes. Girl Talk also may have potentially made the greatest sing along album of all time!

19. Strange Spring Air
This album, when I first got it, probably generated about 300 plays within a week because I could not stop listening to it. To quote Marky Ramone when he first heard the Ramones play, “Shit, I wish I was in this band.” I played it over and over again. After the baritone intro, these songs just come out one after another of this type of music I had never experienced before. I acted as if I understood everything Mike was singing about, yet desired at the same time to try them out for the first time. Contradictory? You betcha! But that was how I felt at the time. It was an array of emotions coming down on me and I’ve never forgotten that if it wasn’t for this album, who knows what an arrogant asshole I still would be.
The best song on the album is “Antarctic Stare”, it had this low-fi guitar distortion and an excellent bass line that was filled with emotion. It came off to me that these guys really cared about the music and they weren’t these phonies that just wanted to be in a punk band. The lyrics run deeper than I had ever heard any band play before. “all you ever wanted was perfection and acceptance and the people of the world have just been rearranging faces and the truth about the people is that people are just people, you know?” from “Cetacean History” became the deepest live that I’ve heard in a song ever. It was so minimal, but yet made so much sense. Nothing with this album was terrible expect that it didn’t last forever (insert sad face emoticon later).

18. Is This It?
Eighth grade got a little easier with this album. One of the first bands I really got into that wasn’t played on mtv every ten minutes or that I bought because I thought I was “cool”. Is This It gave off this sound from the 70’s that I enjoyed, but also put a modern era setting over it. It’s hard to explain, but this was a great album to come out when it did because it influenced me a lot to really start listening to music that I liked, not just Eminem. Transitionally, it helped me figure out more of my own taste sort of like trying to find your artistic style by trying new things. This was also the first album that I would drum along with because I was also just starting to take up the drums as a serious instrument (three years after I started playing). And I still cite Fabrizio Moretti as an influential drummer in my life.
A lot of great songs that I still listen to today were on there, such as “Alone, Together” Which I thought at the time had the best bridge in a song with this distorted sounding vocals that I thought was the coolest thing ever. Finally, I have to credit them with knocking over mics. They did it first.

17. Sing Loud, Sing Proud
LET’S GO BOSTON is a great way to start an album. Especially if it’s the college anthem to a place you’ve never been to before. Sing Loud, Sing Proud was probably the only album I had in my cd player for most of middle school (See No. 18) and freshman year. Celtic punk is a good way to start listening to punk without actually knowing anything about it. This album was probably the quintessential concept of that idea because they basically took a bunch of old Irish drinking songs of folklore and history and just played them really fast. AND IT WAS GREAT! You could really feel the energy that they put into the album even though they were singing songs about unions, early 20th century America, and some guy named Finn McCumhail. I remember wishing I was 21 and could go spend all my money at the bar and start singing “The Wild Rover” and hope everyone would join in (Dublin Square is a disappointing piece of shit!). Overall, this was one of the greatest albums to that again, came out right around the perfect time for kids just getting into punk.

16. Can't Maintain
First reaction: “Why does everyone listen to them?” Second reaction: “Holy fucking titties these guys are sweet! Also, I wonder if his dad listens to this?” Andrew Jackson Jihad is something that can only be explained by using a time machine and a picture of Karl Marx. Or if I really tried to, I would say that they are a phenomenal folk punk band that really made you think about life and other crappy shit that goes on. Dealing with issues like alienation, abandonment, embarrassment, and regret is what makes this album so great. It reads out more like a book than anything else really. You hear him as he is and you learn from his experiences that he sings about. “Self Esteem” is a great song that he basically calls out all his problems and what makes him who he is today.
Listening to the album makes you rethink your life and what you’re doing with it. It makes you want to improve who you are and just be the awesome, jubilant, self loathing person that we all are inside. I will admit that at times it gets a little too hick for me. Like in “Olde(y) Tyme(y)”, That Dukes of Hazard beat got to me until he said “I don’t have a drinking problem, but I have a drinking solution”, I was able to get past the music because the lyrics were so in tune to what the album as a whole was trying to accomplish.

15. When Broken Is Easily Fixed
HOORAY! When this album came out I officially stopped feeling like a poser! Before this album I did listen to some punk and some other rock bands, but this was the band that was my stepping stone into listening punk that was actually released by independent record labels. The album debuted right before the mainstream explosion of post hardcore when all those dudes on Mtv started wearing scarves and faux hawks (I would have made the best VJ). Aside from just feeling cool by owning the record, it was a great album that I really connected to. Most of the songs dealt with loneliness and love, which as a 14 year old boy, was something I could listen to and understand, I think?
Songs like “November” and “Bleeds No More” were the hardcore breakdown songs that made me want to jump around and be cool like the kids that did on youtube in supermarket parking lots. But the song that got made me even want to buy the album was “Friends in Fall River”. The secret about this song is it has nothing to do with friends, but rather a girl that he likes. This song had little screaming and more of a punk back beat and heavy power chords at first then moved into this light break down that made me wish that I listened to this music my whole life and that I’ve wasted everything I’ve down with my life thus far. Without this album I would probably be buying the newest Lady Antebellum album on itunes because that would be my idea of a good. (I would probably cry a lot to, I’m sure).

14. Juno Sountrack
I credit Kimya Dawson as the major contributor because she appears in seven of the nineteen tracks while the official composer of the movie had one track in the soundtrack. And on top of that, he said he based that one song off of the tracks Kimya Dawson selected for the movie. So that explains that, hopefully. When I first saw the movie, it had been out for awhile because I assumed as the punk rocker that I am, I would not be interested in a movie that fat emo chicks are running walking to go see. This is probably one of the biggest regrets I’ve had about a movie that deals with teenage pregnancy and co-starring Olivia Thrilby. After seeing it, it was all I could talk about and I loved the music so much that I got the soundtrack that night. Everything Kimya Dawson sang made me feel like I was hearing something special just for me and if anyone else was listening then….well fuck them; I’m better than them somehow. (Fun fact about Kimya Dawson: before moving to New York City and becoming famous, she developed a drinking problem while living in Lansing, Michigan.)
“Loose Lips” was the song that ran during the ending credits that I rewound several times before I finally gave in and admitted that I was into indy-rock. After getting the soundtrack I had a whole new opinion of Belle & Sebastian and Cat Power. Not to mention Antsy Pants! Whatever that was, it was great. After I got this album, I really changed and broadened what I listened to and gave things a chance rather than ignorantly just dissing other music for not being loud and fast. Appreciating this also made me feel older or more mature. I wasn’t just this kid that wanted to break windows because I heard one too many Reagan Youth songs. I was someone that could appreciate good music now.

13. So Jealous
First off, I would have to thank my brother for getting me into this album when he first got it. Having said that, listening to Tegan and Sara is like having a three way with lesbian twin sisters that are also an indy rock duo (Probably). So jealous is one of those few albums where you don’t want to skip around on the tracks because every song is great. If you have a craving to hear one of the songs, 40 minutes later you will realize that you stayed for the whole album. The mellowness of the album gave it a great flow to which you could just close your eyes and get this feeling that everything just might be alright as long as you keep listening. The title track “So Jealous” talks about self image and dealing with issues internally. “How can they ask why I feel so angry/Do you see my problem if I never explain it” is a great line about how sometimes you just want people to understand you’re upset and somehow help without having to explain your problem.
Another great song is “Walking With a Ghost”, which to this day I have no idea what it means (Something about death or a really interesting date). But the riff and distortion of the guitar makes it a great song still. Despite Tegan and Sara playing with several different techniques on the album, none of it sounds out of place. They are the sort of band that can have the power chords and hard drum beat on one song, then a synth and acoustic guitar in the next and have the listener still just sitting silently wishing they were in a coffee house performing these songs as their own.

12. Destroy to Create
These guys…what can we say about The Flatliners? Well first we must ask ourselves “Who are The Flatliners?” The answer is a ska punk band that opened for Catch-22 that became the greatest band that I had ever heard. Prior to hearing them, I assumed that music like this died out in the eighties and that no one will every play like that again. Turns out I was wrong and that people have always been playing like this, I was just too dumb to know where. This album was just straight up-apologetic punk that I had longed for my whole life. The first three tacks “Fred’s got Slacks”, “There’s a problem”, and “Public Service Announcement” just went right into each other of hardcore punk at its best. Destroy to Create went to the top of my “to listen” list and I used my nineteeneightyfour like qualities to paint an illusion that I had been listening to this band my whole life.
The Flatliners opened a whole new world of music for me and showed the whole world of punk bands that were forming and playing around the country trying to be like the next Kid Dynamite (whoever that is). The Great Awake and Cavalcade took less of a ska form and more of a hardcore punk feel which worked out perfectly to the changing of my taste as they were released, but I never stopped listening to Destroy to Create because it hit home with me almost like Al’s right hand and his penis. “Scumpunch!” a song about punching scum obviously, was exactly the song I needed to hear to get me to start exploring new bands that don’t just have horns or bagpipes.

11.Three Cheers For Disappointment
That opening horn line, followed by three songs in five minutes is one of the most memorable intros to an album I have ever heard. Growing up thinking that ska was dead and only these 90’s ska bands are supporting these new mediocre third wave ska bands, ASOB totally made me feel like an arrogant piece of shit! Three Cheers for Disappointment is in my opinion one of the best ska albums ever put out. It takes a more aggressive style while still remaining true to its intentions of ska rhythm (I also am a sucker for Pootie Tang quotes). While it was released in 2006, the band had taken a two year hiatus between recording this and their last album. The last three songs on the album “Have fun rotting by yourself”, “Yeah, I don’t know what it’s like to be around a bunch of hipsters”, and “Last on my list”, sort of come off as what exactly happened and why they took a break during those times. The band split up shortly after the release of this album saying they wanted to end on a good note rather than the previous way they broke up and cried about it on punknews (http://www.punknews.org/review/4869).
BUT, let’s not forget the focus is how great this album is. It was so good that the great Dave McWayne even fucking sings in it! “Disappointments at the Taco Bell” is classic pure ska that I’m sure made Ryan Eldred say “Why didn’t I think of that?” and Tom Kalnoky go “What is the Arrogant Sons of Bitches?”. Although it pains me to say that I never got to see them live, I think that may also be a good thing. Their music is fast, distorted, and has horns. That makes it the prime candidate for a group of 30 kids circle skanking and ruining everyone else’s good time because they need 80 percent of the floor to run in a circle. However, that was all speculation and I’m sure they put on a great live show with their incredibly great music.

10. Say Hello To Sunshine
If I had to write a letter to Finch it would look a little something like this: “Dear Finch, Thank you for making 10th grade not suck. Your pal, Dave” Say hello to Sunshine was the album to listen to back in the day. If you didn’t have it, it meant that you bought the New Found Glory cd that was right next to it at Hot Topic and you were loved by all. Sunshine was Finch’s second album a follow up to What it is to Burn. Most Finch fans went two ways on that album, you either hated the song “Project Mayhem” or you thought it was the next big thing in music. The song was quite different than what I was used to listening to before, but when I first heard it I realized that music was just something people created and there is no standard for it. I may not know music, but I know what I like. So when Finch released a second album, a lot of fans (and some of the band members) thought it was just garbage, because it was this raw sound and experimental noise from the guitars mixed with metal and post hardcore.
This was also the first album that I got that was heavy on the symbolism and the first song I looked up the lyrics and tried to figure out what “Reduced to Teeth” was about. In the song the chorus talks about how he buried his wife and at the end he screams murder, but I felt that seemed a little bit too literal and obvious to be what the song was about. After this album, I started listening to the lyrics more and not just rocking out because the song was fast. I realized the lyrics in the songs were deeper than just the music. I credit this album for really helping shape how I rate or criticize an album when it comes out.
All of the songs are great, but it wasn’t until a few years after its release and their break up that I got a copy of the uk version which included a bonus track at the end called “Gak 2”. I have no idea why they didn’t include it in the American version because it became my favorite song by them. It was classic Finch at the best. Breakdowns, emotion, drums, insanity, everything you would come to expect from them. This was a great album (especially for England), and I wish they would get back together or at least stop breaking up after announcing reunion tours…

9. Get Better
When I first heard Lemuria, I thought to myself “Can they read my thoughts? Oh Shit! They can probably hear me thinking right now about them. NANANANANANANA BATMAN!” But once my schizophrenic paranoia wore down, I started really enjoying them. Their music was something that made so much sense to me and I could really indentify to what both Sheena and Jason both had to say. An example in “Hawaiian T-Shirt” they both sing “but every funny guy has a serious side”. As a self-proclaimed walking joke, I really felt a good connection to Lemuira. However, nothing beats Sheena’s performance of the song “Dog” and “Dogs”, two songs that fit together with no break in between makes hitting shuffle on this album impossible because it would be a travesty to not hear these two songs back to back. The songs are about, and this is my total guess, a breakup in which you don’t know where to go from there or what to because you were so in tune to the relationship and became dependant on it. You feel lost like a dog that’s lost his way. You couldn’t even pay me to stop listening to those songs when I first heard it.
I admire bands that use metaphors and symbolism, especially if they’re good at, which Lemuira is the shit at. But the music is also unique and brilliant. It has a real 90’s feel mixed with indy sounds of today. It’s still weird to think that when I first saw them I had no idea who they were and only 12 people were at Mac’s Bar to see them, then six months later at Fest, I was standing outside for three hours just to see them. It only takes listening to them once to get hooked, so I can why so many more people turned up at fest (also, Lansing is shit!). Get Better is one of those albums that when you have a bad day or just feel really tired you can put it on and feel relaxed because everything at the current moment feels so perfect.

8. [album artist=The Measure ]Songs About People, Fruit, and Shit
So, this is an ep and only has eight songs, but holy titties it is great! The first song “Drunk by Noon” starts off with this guitar drum buildup and then unfolds into this brilliant punk album that can only be described by using James Earl Jones’ voice so I won’t even write anything down because I’m sure he’s not next to you. And even if he was, I bet he would be too tired or something like that to even read what I had to say. Anyways, everything on this album is laid out perfectly. It can go from playing super fast to an acoustic song, to a low-fi song, then back to playing fast. I got this album over the summer and played it just about every day. In fact, I can’t even listen to it when it’s not summer because it makes me miss not learning so much! I assume Lauren Measure is the primary song writer and her words really are perfect to the style they are playing. The band as a whole understands what the song is about and makes their music accordingly and that really shows in the album. “Drunk by Noon” is one of the fast punk songs and it is about having fun, drinking all the time, being with friends, and getting into mischief; whereas the song “How to Steal a Million” is about love and how it really sucks.
Best song on the album, however, has to go to “Revisionist”. It has a light pop punk indy feel to the music and then the lyrics are about dropping everything and starting your life over. Every song on this album has a great message and after hearing this album, I remember desperately trying to find a band that sounded like this but was unable to do so because they have such a unique blend of music that can’t be replicated without basically stealing what they already did. And come on, that’s just not very nice. Despite having only eight songs, this ep has inspired me a lot to wish I had chick friend that was good at singing so I could force her to be in my band and play over and over again.
Last November, The Measure released their new LP called “Notes” which was phenomenal, but what I had when I discovered Songs About Fruit and Shit, can never be redone, at least by them. A few weeks ago Lauren Measure quit the band which prompted the rest of the band to just go separate ways. Fortunately, they all plan on still making music and start new bands which I look forward to hearing.

7. Goodbye Cool World
How can anyone hate an album that starts out with an Arrested Development quote? And to top that, A David Cross Arrested Development quote! Now that is classy. So, Goodbye Cool World is the third album to come from Bomb the Music Industry. Now I could have picked just about any Btmi album and it would have been satisfactory. However, Cool World was a transition album that, after listening to Get Warmer and Scrambles, you can tell they worked hard to get a new sound from the band. The first two albums that they put out, especially the first one, were punk to its core. While they both did have songs that had great lyrics and emotion, Goodbye Cool World had a new feel of maturity with it. It was something different than just having a bunch of ska influence; you could tell they were broadening their influences to include more indy music. Cool World starts off with a fifty second song called “Old and Unprofessional” and then goes right into the first part of a four-part song about his trip to Minneapolis. (They’re so fancy now, their songs are in parts.)
The feel was different from the first two albums almost like they put more of an effort into the songs to sound better and diversify their style to find what sounds good to them. The song “Side Projects are Never Successful” is a four minute rant about getting a speeding ticket and how it’s impossible to be truly independent from corporations and buying things, that is composed of only an electronic beat boxer and a guitar. Take that song, add a bunch of acoustic songs about being lonely, a few punk songs about how nice everyone is to you once you’re famous and then you have one of the greatest records of one of the most influential bands in modern punk.
My favorite song on the album, and the whole discography for that matter, is “Sorry, Brooklyn. Dancing won’t solve anything.” The sax intro and computer drum beat really puts on a mellow tone that I wouldn’t normally be into. However, the song is about just wasting your life not paying attention to anything other than dancing and partying and drinking. To what I think is aimed at hipsters, it spoke to me about actually doing something in your life rather than just sitting there and doing pointless things (making a list of my favorite albums is probably one of those pointless things). But the song inspired me to start doing bigger things, and for the record, I still plan on doing something big eventually. Goodbye Cool World is just one of the great albums that Bomb the Music Industry has put out and in my opinion they have yet to disappoint with any release or song they put out.

6. From a Basement on a Hill
Elliott Smith is someone I would sacrifice my life to bring his back. He understood pain and was able to express it like no one else could. A genuine old soul, Smith was probably the greatest poet since that Homer guy wrote about a wife waiting for her lost lover for twenty years. From a Basement on a Hill is an album that people literally run to when they are feeling down. Although the songs are all about him, I’m sure every individual that listens to it is thinking of an incident that each song represents in their life. The album is very universal towards pain and problems and listening to the album brings back memories and helps you reflect on your life in not a bad way, but rather a more cleansing way.
I used to start the album with “Pretty (Ugly Before)” because it made me think about all the good times I’ve had in relationships and the confidence I had with just being myself. This song, as well as the album as a whole, inspired me to start writing my own material, which turned out to be quite frustrating because I kept comparing it to this Smith and never being satisfied with what I wrote. Discouraging? YES! But I could never hold it against him for being one of the most brilliant lyricists since the history of written word.
Because there wasn’t really much Elliot Smith couldn’t do, the composure was just as brilliant as what he was trying to say. “A Fond Farewell” has a phenomenal guitar intro that leads into a genius song about death. “A little less than a human being/a little less than a happy high/a little less than a suicide/ the only things that you really tried” really resonated with me about dealing with your own problems and really just being outside of yourself sometimes and you don’t know where anything is going.
All the songs on this album go beyond brilliance (with the exception of “Ostriches and Chirping”. That scares the shit out of me at night.), and everything he says just helps the soul. Basement on a Hill did help me appreciate life however. As depressing as the music is, we also know how Elliot Smith ended his life, and I feel like he left his music behind to help people with their problems because he couldn’t help himself with it. He was a great artist that cared about his work a lot and though I never met him, I sincerely miss him.

5. Dorkrockcorkrod
“I’m in love/I’m in trouble”. Is there any better way to start an album? The answer is no, by the way. The Ergs’ first album is sixteen songs in thirty minutes and fifteen are about being in love and how crappy it is to feel that way. Something I would call the most agreeable subject. Dorkrockcorkrod is the premiere album that changed pop punk from this weird thing that blink-182 made it, back into its original formula of swears and regret. This album has the perfect flow into the next song and is essentially a combination of the Beatles before they started smoking pot to The Ramones before they started getting old.
A great song “Saturday Night Crap-O-Rama” has an excellent rhythm to it and talks about how it sucks when your ex-girlfriend moves on. I could go on and on about each song and how they basically talk about virtually the same subject despite the title. (“It would only leave a mess/but I love you I confess” is line taken from the song “Most Violent Rap Group.) But that’s what I like about it the album. You’re supposed to write about what you know and experience makes the best art. So if all you know is a broken heart, then why not make that your subject. If you’re a punk guy, you know how much it sucks to be alone, because for some reason we all feel the need to get married by the time we’re 19. I can’t explain why, but Mikey Erg can certainly explain why it sucks.
The lyrics of the songs might be repetitive at times, but the blunt approach to the feelings and emotion they put into the songs more than makes up for it. It’s a fun album that I draw a lot of influence from. If I ask myself why can’t I write as well as Elliot Smith, The Ergs would respond with “So What?” For everything Elliot Smith influenced me to write well (good?), the Ergs influenced me to write what was real feels natural. Just listening to the lyrics of “Everything falls apart (and more)” makes more sense to me than any metaphor about a tree falling in the woods or whatever. Sometimes you just need to hear the reality and it’s exactly what The Ergs deliver.
Dorkrockcorkrod was an album that came into my hands at a perfect time, and it helped me when I was going through a lot. Even though the songs are not very uplifting about relationships and love, it helps to know that Mikey Ergs is right there feeling the same pain you do. And that is something special that The Ergs give off that it nearly impossible for a band to deliver. Especially a punk band!

4. Maps
Despite this album coming out only six months ago, it’s already at the top of my list. And it’s not because it’s the most recent album in my memory. These guys are genuine song writers and musicians. In fact, it’s practically all they do. In just eight months they’ve released one LP, two EPs, and two seven inches. The best thing about this band is the diversity. They can play an acoustic song singing “I bet I can write a book on how you can lose all your friends/I swear I’ll go to end of this planet just to find an escape/ I’m afraid”, then move into a 44 second punk song saying “I’d rather be at home, then go down to a show…I’m just happy to be”, without missing a beat.
Every song essentially drives a point across that is instantly identifiable by most people that have a soul. In the song “Nothing Can Kill the Grimace” (a brilliant reference to cartoon version “Clerks”), it talks about my group The Dirty almost as if they were there every day for the past two years.
“I’m so tired of everyone I know and cigarette smoking, attempts at parties. And they’re all drunk and stoned, while I just sit at home and write words to songs, so I don’t feel alone. And I’m not saying that I’m any better, but at least I do all the dumb shit at home.”
Like, how crazy is that. That is exactly how I most groups operate, I guess. In continuation with writing the way The Ergs do, they write about what they know. It happens to be crippling depression, but it still can raise a quite a few heads of people that know exactly what they are talking about. Maps is that album that you can listen to over and over again and never get tired of hearing. The songs never get old and the more you hear it, the more you start to get a positive outlook on life. Their message, while not apparent at first, comes off that even though you’re down at times, you know you have great times with great friends and you better start realizing that before you ostracize yourself and alienate you from everyone permanently. The best part about this band is that even though they play a lot of mellow songs that come off more indy than punk, their complete discography is 25 songs and only 45 minutes long. Now that’s impressive from a band that can also make you rethink the entire structure of your life.

3. A Kid Named Cudi
Well. This even came to a surprise to me. But in all honesty, if I heard this record when I was 12 instead of a misfits’ record, I probably would listen to more rap than punk. I haven’t been the biggest listener to rap or hip-hop, but I’ve been a fan of popular singles Kanye West and Ludacris have put out. When I first heard this album, I didn’t get any vibe of mainstream influence. In fact, I couldn’t even tell where we got his influence from at all. This seems, to me at least, a purely original and experiential style of rap. It was like absolutely nothing I had heard before, and I couldn’t listen to it enough. He doesn’t speak about how rich he is or how often girls want to suck his dick or anything. He raps about the problems he’s had in his life, about growing up, about love, about loneliness. I realized that this was more than rap, it was indy rap. It came off so simple after I realized that, it helped me figure out why I enjoyed listening to this album so much.
The thing that really gets you once you listen to it is that he rarely uses sampled music. You can tell when he uses original tracks because his music style that he raps to only uses about two tracks rather than having six or seven that most rappers use today. The minimum use of back beats allows people to actually listen to the lyrics which he put together beautifully. In his song “Day N Nite” (which was re-mastered into a dance mix by some DJ and overshadows his original intent of the song), he talks about how at night life can get complicated just sitting there and thinking about everything. He’s out of the ordinary for his genre. And I admire that a lot.
The song “Man on the Moon” has the lyric “Guess if I was simple in the mind/ Everything would be fine/ Maybe if I was jerk to girls/ Instead of being nice and speakin kind words/ Then maybe it would be ok to say then/ I wasn't a good guy to begin with”. Too me that sounds like someone who cares more about the music then selling out. You could put that into a Bomb the Music Industry song and no one would notice the difference. Cudi is so in touch with himself he can write these beautiful poems. And they basically are poems seeing as he barely has any backbeat to them. The minimal use of beats is really shown in “The Prayer” where it’s basically just a piano and drums that you don’t even notice when you first hear it. The song is about his legacy and what he hopes to accomplish while he’s making his music. He then challenges the entire rap industry about what they want to be known for; by saying “if I die today the last thing you remember won't be about some apple bottom jeans with the boots with the fur”. Trying to influence other rappers to start rapping about things other than their house, cars, or the chick from last Tuesday is something I didn’t think anyone would ever do. But it’s not about fame for Cudi, and you can tell that he’s not a sellout.

2. The Fame Monster
So why The Fame Monster over The Fame? Well to paraphrase Lady Gaga herself, The Fame is about why life is great; The Fame Monster is about why it’s not. And The Fame Monster is exactly that. It deals with mostly relationship issues but also sometimes goes into general depression problems. Also it’s a pop album so it’s all done to hip beats that you can dance to and do a shot every time you hear a snyth kick in. However, despite it being pop, one thing I want to digress is that Lady Gaga is not a phony. She worked hard fighting record executives to get where she is. A lot of people have called her “Fugly” and marketers said that no one would listen to her music because she wasn’t “cosmetic” enough for the music industry. So she was hired as a song writer for various artists. Meanwhile working behind the back of the studios exec’s she began writing and recording her own songs while performing in small clubs around New York City. Even though only a few people would show up to watch her, she still preformed as if there were a thousand people. Eventually, someone finally recognized her talent and The Fame was finally released, and after 120 weeks it still remains on the billboard 200 charts.
Her follow up album, as mentioned above, was a darker album and though it wasn’t as commercially successful as the one before; it’s the album that defines who she was and who she wanted to inspire. “Bad Romance” is about a number of things including relationships, shitty friends, random nights, drugs, sex, and a ton of alcohol. Like most of the songs on the album, it probably comes from a few true events and impacted her life negatively. And you don’t dress the way she does without having a shit ton of negative experiences in your life. In dealing with relationships it’s hard to truly understand what exactly Lady Gaga is looking for sometimes. In the song “Monster”, she describes how guys will do anything to have sex with women and that she plays the role of the girl falling for it so she can get some sex for herself. Conversely, a song called “speechless” which a ballad about love, describes a relationship where the couple keeps breaking up and getting back together because, although they are bad for each other, there is none other that compares than each other.
Over all, the album is a great listen and even though it is some pop album that I did brush off when it first came out, after listening to it and giving it a chance, I realized that sometimes artists do get famous on their own talent and merit and that Lady Gaga was definitely one of them. The Fame Monster is that album that you understand without actually understanding it, and that mystery gives you this chill that you sort of start to crave after awhile. She is a musical and lyrical genius that you can’t deny once you finally admit that sometimes hard work can get you to the top.

1. Worstword, Ho!
Well here is my number one choice. It shouldn’t come to any surprise seeing as this band, and especially this album, is the closest thing I have to a religion. Shinobu is a band that has yet to do anything wrong, other than break up so other bands could be formed (Hard Girls, Classics of Love, Bomb the Music Industry). Even when they released an album called Exhaustive, Exhaustive that included only about 40 percent new material, it still was awesome. And that’s because these guys are the quintessential music band of all time period (thought it needed to be spelled out). Strange Spring Air was listed already because this band just rocks so hard everything they do turns up on lists I make about my favorite albums. Now, Strange Spring Air is a great album that really got me in to the life I enjoy living ever so much, but Worstword, Ho is just that album that changed everything for me. I mean, for absolutely no reason while listening to it I decided to shave my beard. No real reason other than my life was basically entering a new chapter after hearing this album. To quote the late John Updike: “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” After I heard this album, my stomach did fall after I realized just how different my life was going to be. It was almost as if I had this new outlook and I was automatically better than everyone else that hadn’t heard the album (even a few that had).
I remember when I got the album to. I was seeing Bomb the Music Industry’s bring your own band tour and all I had on me was 12 dollars. When I went to the merch table, most things were five dollars and I cut a deal that if I bought three things, he would sell them to me for 12 dollars. I got the Cans/Bomb split, a Shinobu/Pteradon split, and Shinobu’s Worstword Ho. After hearing the record, I made sure that when Bomb the Music Industry came back the next time, that I would pay him back the full amount, because I felt like I cheated him for getting this album at a discount (Also, I felt like an ass for the fact that I shorted him in the first place). But this wasn’t just an album that I really liked. This was my “Catcher in the Rye”. Everything on this album spoke to me like it was my own conscience telling me what to do.
I love the opening tracks urgency to tell you that this is no ordinary band, but the album really starts to take off when you hit “Regular Love Triangle”. Only Shinobu can have a song with that talks about wishing you had someone there for you to tell your problems to and have an in depth self conversation about how you don’t really blame anyone for not liking you because even you consider yourself to sort of being unlikeable at times. Then, to take a song about that and end it with “I am so deep, you should read my live journal”. It’s just genius! Also, how do they stay so current? But to have this level of profundity in a song to end it on a joke goes beyond anything my head could have handled at the time.
They lyrics are genius, no one can argue that, but even the music they play is excellent. A perfected blend of punk with Indy rivaled only by The Weakerthans, and even they come up short to Shinobu. The song “Boourns” (a reference to the Simpsons), has a flawless guitar riff that goes perfectly with the tone of the vocals.
The best song on the album is without a doubt “Not Gonna happen”. This is probably the most surreal song ever recorded because it basically is a list of everything everyone either regrets or pretends they do. The song starts off simple talk about the tedious task of waking up on your own but then moves into these more in depth and the only way I can talk about it is if I print the lyrics:
“One day I'll get up on my own. One day I'm tell off everyone I know - they'll be wrong, and they'll know that I'm right. One day I swear I'll put up a fight. One day I'll ditch the apathy - find a cause and let it take over me. One day I'll admit when I'm wrong. One day I won't be awkward at all. One day I'll mean every word I say. No more bullshitting, I've thrown it all away. One day I'll learn to love my lot in life. No more maudlin cries for attention. No more pandering to dissention. (This time I swear I'll get it right. This time: nothing's going to happen at all.)”
This was the song that made me want to change my life, become a better person, and stop trying to impress, judge, influence, or step on people. The song “Not Gonna Happen”, as well as the album Worstword, Ho, as well as the band Shinobu, as well as all the albums and bands on list, made me who I am today. These artists came into my life at just the pivotal point I needed them to so I could get inspired at the just the right time to create or become something great. It’s sort of like the Slumdog Millionaire version of my life, only about music; except I don’t get any money, or score with a hot chick, or have an awesome dance number at the end with all my friends at a train station. In all seriousness, these bands have worked hard on their albums and I appreciate them for that because without these albums, who knows what I would look like or how I would act, or what type of shoe I would buy. The Line I chose to go out on, is also the last line from the album Worstword Ho: I'm gonna never forget all those times when I was truly happy.