Ten Albums That Take Me Waaaaay Back

1) Rancid: ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995) - Man, I thought I was the coolest, punkest kid ever because I had this album. It reminds me of my senior year in high school, and moving from south Tampa to Lutz (which was still the sticks back then). It was the year I shaved my head for the first time. This album compelled me to take bass lessons, and I blasted it everywhere I went (after transferring it from CD to tape so I could play it in my car).

2) Toadies: Rubberneck (1994) - This is from the same era of my life. There was a period where I saw the Toadies like five times in two months, and I was super stoked they had a chick bass player. I'll probably catch hell for saying this, but that album was punk fucking rock...aside from the two or three songs that became hits. Happy Face was my anthem for awhile, and to this day, Mister Love makes me drum furiously on whatever is around me. I never really cared for any of their other releases, but Rubberneck was rad.

3) Eels: Beautiful Freak (1996) - This was my first exposure to what has become one of my all-time favorite bands. I got into them because of that one college radio hit they had, Novocaine For the Soul, but I fell in love with the album because of Flower. Simple, sweet, sad but hopeful. Mark Oliver Everett is one of my favorite lyricists. Reading his memoir, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, gave me a lot of insight into his music. Go get that book right now, you can finish reading this later.

4) Built to Spill: The Normal Years (1996) - My friend Manny introduced me to this album when we were taking some classes together at HCC. We thought they sounded like Jane's Addiction.  Shortly after, I discovered There's Nothing Wrong With Love (1994) and fell head over heels for Built to Spill. I'm still very much in love with them. Their sound has changed significantly over the span of eight albums, and it's all amazing. On the early albums, I love the simplicity; on the later ones, the complexity and different layers of sound. Doug Martsch's voice is damn near angelic, and he uses it expertly. His lyrics are relatable even when they're totally abstract.

5) Smoking Popes: Get Fired (1993) - I didn't discover this band or album until 1996, when my college dorm roommate's friend gave her this CD. We listened to it all day, every day for months. We danced around the room. We forced everyone in the dorm to listen to it. We did air band to it, and we may or may not have made a video. Man, this album rules. I have followed Smoking Popes closely since then, and they just get better and better. I finally saw them live at New World Brewery last May, and it was one of the best shows EVER! Super high energy, perfect mix of old/new stuff, really interactive with the crowd...I could go on for days. Seriously.

6) Counting Crows: August and Everything After (1993) - Fact: Counting Crows was ruined for millions of people by the incessant bombardment of Mr. Jones upon their ears. To this day, I cannot listen to that song. However, I listened to this CD quite a bit my sophomore year in high school. Perfect Blue Buildings, dude. Perfect Blue Buildings.

7) They Might Be Giants: Flood (1990) - My first memory of this album was on a road trip with Girl Scouts, my friend Amanda and I singing along at the top of our lungs, and our Girl Scout leaders looking at us like we each had three heads. Flood really is a timeless classic. You can buy a blue canary nightlight from Think Geek. (My birthday is July 26th, by the way.) This album made it cool to be weird, and led to the Dead Milkmen for me.

8) Van Morrison: Moondance (1970) - I found this one in 6th grade. I went into a record shop in Hyde Park (it may have been Tape World, haha. Remember that place?) looking for Brown Eyed Girl, which at the time, I thought was by Jimmy Buffett (we can blame my dad for that, 90% of his records were Buffett). The guy there set me straight, and I walked out with Moondance and a Van Morrison greatest hits album. Over the years, I've often wished I could go back and thank that guy. So if you worked at Tape World in Hyde Park in 1990, thanks dude. You changed my life.

9) Pixies: Come On Pilgrim (1987) - I think I was in 9th grade when I got this album. Looking back, it was probably one of my first exposures to non-mainstream music. It was a big hit within my clique of nerdy drama class/chorus kids. Caribou pops into my head randomly every once in a while, and it always makes me chuckle. Caribooooooooouuuuuuu!

10) NOFx: Punk in Drublic (1994) - One of my early exposures to punk, I was addicted to this album for a long time. At one point, I could have recited the entire thing front to back. I feel like it's one of the fundamentals that everyone should own. Listening to them exposed me to tons of other bands, and was pretty much the start of my lifelong love for punk rock.