The 77s - Sticks and Stones

I may like this more so for the fact that I associate it with a higher point in my life, even though I didn't realize it at the time. On the other hand, I think it's one of the best pop rock recordings that's ever passed through both of my lobes. And it was supposed to be a collection of toss outs. You can hear influences ranging from early U2, The Police, The Rolling Stones, The Cure, Greatful Dead, etc. Just an all around great classic rock record that slipped through the cracks. But most that have heard it are eternally grateful.

The Choir - Circle Slide; Chase the Kangaroo

Yes I know, more CCM based records. Unfortunately, I went through a phase in my late teens where that was mainly what I listened to. These 2 Choir CDs have aged well though. And they sit comfortably between my Cocteau Twins, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Smiths records. Nothing particularly dogmatic about the lyrics. Very dreamy, lots of delayed guitars, Derri's sorrowful vocal delivery, and Steve Hindalong is an incredible drummer.

Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
I lived with this cassette for a long time. I would ride my bike to school as fast as I could to beat the time of Telegraph Road's 14:18mins. and ease back home in the afternoon for the rest of the album, day in and day out. I knew it note for note and it never dulled on me. Why? This album for the first time made me want to buy just about everything this band/Kknopfler did or would put out. I have rarley been let down, if so for only Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia.

REM - Murmur
Oddly enough an older classmate had a similar bike ride, Mike McGonigal(sp?)He was a total subversive type, nice but scary to a younger kid like me. He was an REM nut for a time and I blindly bought Chronic Town to my enjoyment. I think he's some hot shit writer/music critic in Seattle now. Once, the bastard rode right by me after a nasty wipe out. Murmur would forever set me on a course to accept or seek music beyond that which was thrown at me by radio, MTV...

Wilco - AM
I like Uncle Tupelo, but I discovered Wilco before hearing UT. I was in a Sound Wherehouse on VanNess in SF. I always browsed when I passed by on my walk home. Nothing stood out except what was playing over the sound system. There was some awful music being pushed through record stores in those days. I was refreshed and connected to so many references in the sounds of the songs. I purchased it immediately as if it were the last copy on earth. It hurled me into a series of neverletdowns from this band.

Danile Lanois - Acadie
This album made me realize why I loved so many other artists' output. It tied up the loose ends of why certain albums clicked for me. It was an epiphany of understanding production that was so obvious I did not see it until it finally smacked me in the face.

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
I am always rediscovering this album. Fucking Buckingham must have really tipped the cart over with all his tweaking late night in the studio. Just a group of really talented musicians over their first peak and pulled out an inspired experiment of all sorts.

Waylon Jennings - Never Could Toe the Mark
I won't say this is Waylon's best, but for me the production has and will always stick with me so much that I want to replicate it. It's not outlaw, a bit liberal for Nasheville, but it just gets me everytime in a warm way.

Jimmy Cliff - Give Thanx
I love reggae, traditional, BMW, Tosh, Steel Pulse, Toots and the Maytals. This is not that. This is Reggae Soul so beautiful I think it was only critically panned because it was not traditional reggae Cliff. This whole album satisfies in so many ways for its time in 1969. It kills me it has not met the praise it truly deserves. If you find it, buy it, treasure it. It will burn forever in your mind.

I have missed on some female bands so I may have to revisit to rectify.

The Flaming Lips - TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE SATELLITE HEART
Heard "...Jelly" on the local "new" rock (alternative) station. Being only fourteen still, I thought it was jilarious, even a little scintillating and sexy. Got the disc as a Christmas gift ('94) and grew enamoured of the crackling on the more sombre track and the bombast of the swirling guitar/exploding bass drum tracks (the majority of the record).

Sponge - WAX ECSTATIC
Had not gotten into them following the success of debut and "Plowed" (which calls out 'Sconsin's paper-making center ("Neenah... Menasha"), but couldn't get enough of "To Sell Angelina" and "Have you seen Mary?" when they appeared mid '96. They were loud - not as loud, but close - like the Lips, but instead of Coyne's whimsy, there was a grime and scuzz to it. Reminds me of what the Strokes have been doing.

Plastilina Mosh - AQUAMOSH

Eminem - THE SLIM SHADY LP
Launched at a fortuitous time for me. I had just gotten 'round to hearing N.W.A. and Wu-tang, so rap was not a novelty for me... Plus, my interest was piqued when I saw Dr. Dre in the director's credit for "My Name Is..." video.

Molotov - APOCALYPSHIT
Gigolo Aunts - MAJOR THEMES AND MINOR CHORDS
Wilco - BEING THERE
Leonard Cohen - SONGS OF... (only just heard it late '02)

I have been avoiding this thread but

Men At Work- Business As Usual I was the oldest and went to Christian School and was told it was devil music. Somehow ended up with all heavy metal friends and couldn’t stand the stuff. Thanks to MTV I found a band that I liked and was maybe the first band that I could say was mine.

Duran Duran – Rio first band that I loved and they were called the next Beatles and I had no idea what that meant. This was to be my first concert around the tiger album but was busted by my parent’s hard core for the very first time. Stayed the night at my first girlfriend’s house even when told not to. They made me sell these tickets and I hated them for it.

The Cure – Head on the Door, Kiss Me, and Disintegration Have no idea why I connected with this band as much as I did. I was the only one of my really good friends that had a girlfriend and was pretty happy go lucky. This band just happen to be the band that will mean more to me than any other band and any other time. Was my second concert that I ever attended and have never been the same. My most important band!

Stone Roses-Happy Mondays – Stone Roses, Thrills, Pills and Bellyaches I broke up with that girl because I didn’t want to marry her and discovered happy music. Became a hard-core raver for the next two years, no regreats.

Primal Scream – Screamadelica If you don’t know there is no point in trying to explain. Went to the Mojave desert and took acid and two albums blew my mind. When the breathing part of this album happened I thought the earth was going to swallow me.

Boo Radleys – Giant Steps – And the second album was this one. Some of what Martin wrote about the sound of this album: "I just listened to the album now in headphones for the first time in an age and I can hear Surf's Up/Smile/Pet Sounds, Spiritualized, Suede (well, Bernard Butler), The Flaming Lips, London Calling by The Clash (I think all the dub on the album sounds like the people who made it hadn't heard an awful lot of dub music) Moose, Dinosaur Jr, Sugar, MBV, Forever Changes by Love (of course), Goffin/King, New Order, The Beatles, Spacemen 3, Gershwin. It all sounds very old fashioned to me but that's from a distance of ten years, I could never make an album like that now. I heard Os Mutantes about seven years later and realised that we hadn't done anything that hadn't been done before. I wanted everything to sound like a bootleg, like the Smile CD that we listened to so much in those days, with mistakes and talking and all that stuff but I don't hear as much of that as I thought I would."

Boo Radleys – Wake Up – I moved to San Francisco in 1995 and had a hard time of it but Martin did the same thing and wrote an album for me to get past it. “I never wanted anything but you alone But I miss the place that I love, It’s not good enough by phone This does not feel like home my friends are far away…”

Boo Radleys – Kingsize There has never been an album that has hit me as deep as this album has hit me. I feel like I wrote this album as every song, every emotion, every thing that I was going through in 1999 was in a song. The Boo Raldleys are some kind of special and glad that I’m not the only one who sees that this is one of the most brilliant band that have ever been. Gives me chills just thinking about it, thanks you Martin and I think you know how special your band actually was.