100 influential albums 20-1

We've made it to the end. It's been a fun week, sharing my most influential albums  with you all and hearing your thoughts/reactions to them. My boss, on the other hand, probably doesn't like the 30 minutes I take out daily this week to post all of these. Luckily for him, I wrote this up last night and just have to push submit, so I gave him back 28 extra minutes of the work day, which i'll inevitably tack on to my lunch hour for good measure. And yes, I know you all are thinking it... st. tropez does have a 8-5 day job at a desk with a big fancy window. I wear ties to work sometimes too. Anyway, without further adieu, here are the top 20 influential CDs on my life up to this point. Maybe in 10 years, when we're all getting old(er) and still listening to hip new music, i'll revisit this list and give it the 'ol update.

20. Dishwalla "Opaline"

I was always a casual dishwalla fan ever since the days of the one-hit wonder, "counting blue cars". Well, from 1996-2002, I did very little to advance my liking of the band, until they released the wonderful 'Opaline'. I always remembered their early stuff being pretty raw, borderline rock borderline alternative. I was in high school, and was caught in-between a fascination of new rock bands like Trapt and TRUSTcompany, and Dishwalla singlehandedly brought my back to my 90's alternative style with this release. It was fresh, it was different, and it was chilled out. "Somewhere in the Middle" had very mild radio success, but it was the emotional songs like "Every Little Thing", "Home", and "Candleburn" that captured me. And years later, after digging it out of the archive, I rediscovered gems I use to skip over, like "Nashville Skyline" and "Mad Life". 10 years later, it is still I CD I spin and can find a lasting freshness with. 

19. Augustana "All the Stars and Boulevards"

Surprisingly, it was not due to "Boston" that I discovered this song. It was actually the title track. I loved it. I was a freshman in college, and I remember listening to this song on a road trip with my roommate and two other girls. While there wasn't any romance between any of us, I saw right away that this CD was special. As we drove the long and winding country roads of Missouri one night to reach our destination, this CD was our listen of choice. The girls instantly fell in love, had me burn them CDs, and this band kind of became "our" band for our friendship over the years. A year later, once my girlfriend graduated high school in Oklahoma and joined us in Missouri for college, her and I, along with the two girls, took a road trip to Arkansas one weekend to see Augustana and Goo Goo Dolls, and I just remember how fun that experience was. And I remember watching the connection everyone, including me, had made with this band. Everything released since, I always contact those people, my now-ex, and the two girls, and we discuss our thoughts. Nostalgia often times lends itself to impact your mood, your likes and wants. And the nostalgia attached to this album does just that.

18. The New Frontiers "Mending"

It really took me awhile to fully understand this disc. It was strange. Alternative country was the genre they chose to go with back in 06 when they launched, and in 08, after two EPs, they finally released 'Mending'. Shortly after the release and a small tour in support of This Will Destroy You, the band called it quits. They went their own ways, some members joining another Texas band called The Rocketboys, and others kind of did their own thing. I credit this CD with really getting me into folk. You say, "well, Alt Country isn't really folk..." and I agree, but in 2008 and my adult alternative induced state of mind, this CD ushered me into liking what would come in 2010 with the folk explosion in the music scene with the likes of Mumford & Sons, Bon Iver, and others. That bit of twang, the sound of the acoustics, and the laid back approach mixed with a Copeland/Alive In Wild Paint feel ushered me into what I listen to now. That and "Walking On Stones" is still one of my all time favorite songs.

17. Armor for Sleep "Dream to Make Believe"

Oh, high school me. I was a big of a AFS as you could find in Oklahoma back in the day. I remember going to my local record store in 2003, looking for the next big thing, stumbling upon one of the labels I often trusted back then, Equal Vision (the others being Militia Group, Deep Elm, Tooth and Nail, and Vagrant), and buying this CD on a whim. And it kind of became the milestone album for my high school years. This CD got spun so much. I turned my friends onto it, and we all knew the words by heart after a few weeks. I'd take it with me on long soccer road trips, listening to nothing but this CD over and over. I remember Armor coming to OKC and playing a show with openers Bayside and The Academy Is..., and headliner Fall Out Boy, who had yet to release "Sugar, We're Going Down". I remember meeting the band, getting a poster signed, and driving back that night with this CD cranked on high, screaming our lungs out. I then saw them years later, right around the time their last CD was released, opening up for The Academy Is... and The Rocket Summer this time, and going to the merch table after, holding my tattered and torn 'Dream to Make Believe' jewel case with scratched CD in case. I handed it to Ben, and which time he laughed and said, "man... I haven't seen one of these in years. Thank you." I had, at this time, found success in starting up and running my own independent radio station, and I, in return, thanked him for writing this record. We got to talking, he signed it, and said it was always great to see old fans come by, because they don't do that much anymore. A week later, I had Ben on my radio show to discuss the new CD, and I felt like the high school me had come full circle. It was a great moment in my music history, and I still get pumped up when I hear the title track, "My Town", and "Slip Like Space".

16. Benton Falls "Fighting Starlight"

There is nothing special at all about this CD. At all. I got a free CD from Hot Topic called Emo is Awesome / Emo is Evil vol. 2 sometime early on in high school. I had no idea what Deep Elm was, who bands on Deep Elm were, or who Sunny Day Real Estate, the godfathers of emo, were. Emo to me was Dashboard Confessional. I remember spinning this CD and hearing Benton's song "Trial and Terror". I was sort of intrigued by this gritty, heartbreaking lo-fi rock song. I went to limewire, did a quick benton falls search, and couldn't find anything. Man, that about tells you how unknown this band went. Shortly after, I ordered the CD from the Deep Elm website. And, for the first time really, I was introduced to real "emo". It was a CD that had a ton of emotion and dealt with issues like suicide, death, and drugs. It was dark, it was deep, and it was unlike anything I had experienced musically at that point. 

15. Collapsis "Dirty Wake"

Did anyone ever see the 1998 movie Clay Pigeons staring a young Vince Vaughn and a non-crazy Joaquin Phoenix? The soundtrack & movie featured 90's rock aficionados Tonic, Sister Hazel, The Verve Pipe, and even Ryan Adams, Elvis, and The Mavericks. If you saw you it, you might remember the song entitled "Clay Pigeons (The Ballad of Lester Long)".  Well, it was collapsis first (and really only) taste of success. They had minor success with their song "October" on alternative stations across the US, but outside of that, got little push from the label. The CD went overlooked, and 'Dirty Wake' made its way to many on-sale and overstocked bins, before becoming obsolete. But 'Dirty Wake' to me had everything I wanted in a 90's CD, and was really the closing of an era for me. Released in the first months of 2000, 'Dirty Wake' played on a bit of grunge/bar-band rock, a good amount of alt rock, and a few ballad love songs with a southern twang mixed in for good measure. It was everything that 90's had been about wrapped in one CD. And I remember spinning a mixtape a friend made me with 'October' on it to its death, before finally buying the CD used for $3.99. Best $3.99 I spent.

14. John Mayer "Continuum"

John Mayer. Where do I begin? I like to consider myself a die hard Mayer fan, someone who is proud and, dare I say, excited, for every release he does. But, it wasn't always that way. I had a bad run in with him in 2003-2004, but that's another story for another day. But until 'Continuum', I really didn't appreciate or see the brilliance in Mayer that everyone else saw. Then I listened to 'Continuum' my sophomore year of college when it came out and said to myself, "I get it". From that moment of being moved by "Gravity", "The Heart of Life", "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" (still to this day, one of my favorite Mayer songs), and his still-sexiest sounding song "I Don't Trust Myself", I was hooked. But, for me, this album made me realize that as much as I might not (at the time) have wanted Mayer to be our generations Clapton, it was made fairly clear with this album that he was going to become legendary to my generation.

13. The Dangerous Summer "Reach for the Sun"

I wanted to hate this CD. I really did. I hate not being that one person in my group of friends who discovers all the new bands. It's usually between me and one other person, but I usually have the upper hand on most bands. A lot of that is due to my radio background and getting advances, but a lot of it is because most every second I have that isn't spent at work, cooking, or doing the typical things a 25-year-old guy does is spent around music to some degree. But TDS, I didn't find. In fact, someone told me about them, and I listened to the EP and was not impressed. Then I got ahold of this CD 2 weeks prior to its worldwide release with a radio copy, spun it one night in my apartment, and almost started to cry. Not because it was groundbreaking or anything like that, but because I listened to the lyrics and heard my story in his words. I listened to songs like 'Weathered', about him growing his hair out and putting words on his skin, and I related, because that was me. I listened to 'Never Feel Alone' and relate it so much back to my ex-girlfriend. It's almost scary how much this CD is like my life growing up. And that year, I spun the hell out of this CD. 

12. The Appleseed Cast "Two Conversations"

Consider this apart of the Deep Elm run I went through in high school. Maybe it was because of my luck with Benton Falls, but for some reason I decided to keep checking out that roster. And through that roster I found three bands that ended up impacting my top 100 (28. Last Days of April (sidenote: who Charlie Simpson quotes openly as one of his biggest influences growing up, so much so that a b-side was released of Fightstar covering "The Day I Recall Being Wonderful") and then 16. Benton Falls). I first bought the Low Level Owl's CDs, loving LLOII, and later 'Two Conversations'. Why 'Two Conversations' wasn't released on Deep Elm, I credit them with my discovery of the band. 'Two Conversations' was a beautifully put together emo and indie rock album, and really to this date, the only album by Appleseed that is lyrically dominant. And maybe that is what I was drawn too, was hearing 'Fight Song' and 'Hello Dearest Love' played out to its full potential. This CD made me, for a good 5 years, obsessed with this band, so much that for much of college, it was a battle between them and lifelong favorites third eye blind for favorite band.

11. Pearl Jam "Live at the Gorge 05/06"

A live CD. Almost as bad as weakly submitting a greatest hits album on a top 100 list (see: next CD, CD(s) 37, 45, 99) but there is explanation to this logic. I grew up a Pearl Jam fan. I remember listening to 'Ten' on cassette with my older brother when it first came out. They are the one band left still making music (see: CD 7) that is on my bucket list to see before I die/they break up. But this CD has everything a big fan could want. Covers (they do a great cover of The Who and Hendrix), live versions of classics, songs that they rarely play, and arguably one of the coolest venues ever, The Gorge in Washington, a spot I want to see a show at before I die. But it's genuinely a top notch live CD, that combines all that is good and glorious about PJ. So, while I was already hooked on the band and a lot of their past work, this live box set took it over the top, and when I listen to PJ today, it's usually this CD i'll go to first.

10. America "History: America's Greatest Hits"

Ok, so I just got done dogging greatest hits albums, but for a child of the 80's, I wasn't lucky enough to experience music from the 70's during it's heyday. So, for me, greatest hits were often what was available around the house. And that includes this one. America is a band I grew up with from a young age. I relate 'Ventura Highway', one of my favorite classics, to summers at the lake with my family and friends. I remember before I owned any CDs of my own, I would rock the America album until my mom had to turn it off because she was tired of it. Years later when I was in radio, I had the honor of taking my parents to see America and Chicago in concert together, and we got to spend some time backstage with America, which for me was unreal, and for my mom a time to finally tell them that I ruined a lot of their great music by playing it too much as a kid. When I lived in London, I then found this disc on the original vinyl, dating back to 1975, and bought it, spinning 'Sister Golden Hair' and 'Woman Tonight' for a good week straight on the vinyl player.

9. Garth Brooks "Double Live"

Damn, another live CD. Sorry. But Garth Brooks was like the biggest superstar in my life when I was like 7. Before living in Oklahoma, my family lived in Houston, Texas, where country is king. Oddly enough, my musical upbringing was started with oldies and country. Amazing how far i've come and how I got to where I am now. Anyway, Garth Brooks was like a religion to my family in the early-to-mid 90s. I can remember watching his live concert on HBO in central park, which had 750,000 concertgoers. The dude was on top of the world. However, this live CD is special because it showcases how spot on Garth is. The man sounds better live than he does on recording, and having thousands of screaming fans behind him only makes it better. Not to mention, the rarely sung third verse of "The Thunder Rolls" was sung and recorded for this recording, in which Garth sings about the wife shooting her husband.

8. Sleeping at Last "Keep No Score"

I have a soft spot in my heart for Sleeping at Last. Ryan, the key contributor and now sole member of the band, is a very close friend of mine. We still speak on a regular basis, and this last year I even did some work for promotional work for him, the Yearbook project, and his song on the Twilight album, and he's already agreed that he would be apart of my wedding, whenever that day comes. However, 'Keep No Score' was released right around the time we met. So, while you might think there would be bias, there actually wasn't at all. In fact, I stumbled across them on purevolume and their discovered their CD 'Ghost'. When 'Keep No Score' came out, I realized that I had not ever heard such a beautiful album before. Everything about this disc is magical, from the moving lyrics, to the beautiful piano and arrangements, to the layout of the tracklist. There is rarely a CD that comes along that we can't find at least one flaw with, but for me, this might be that disc. Even my no.1 CD I can think of a song I am not fully in love with, but I can't find one on this CD.

7. Number One Fan "Compromises"

In the Pearl Jam write-up above, I mentioned CD 7 during my discussion of bands on my bucket list to see. I mentioned this CD because, sadly, this band does not exist anymore. What is even more sad about this is that I had a chance to see them play a small venue in college and passed on the oppurtunity. The single biggest concert regret I have in my life. 'Compromises' was a CD I got for christmas one year during my smartpunk phase. I would go on smartpunk, look at the top 100 selling CDs at the time, and then research the bands to find something I liked. I remember this CD being on the top 100 list for quite some time, and I remember getting two of the songs free from purevolume. Never in a million years would I have thought the CD would have impacted me so much from track to track. I remember sitting in my apartment one night, about 4 years after the release, with a member of a band talking about CDs we really loved, and I brought this up. He said to me, "it is one of the most simplistic, yet well-written CDs of the past 10 years." That quote still lives me with to this day, and it's amazing to hear someone from another band speak so highly of it. Sadly, the band recorded this one CD, got some opening slots on a Green Day tour, and then promptly called it quits during the recording of album two, to pursue a new "garage rock" style, which sucks and is awful. I'm not bitter or anything, though. Wait, yes I am.

6. Matthew Good Band "Beautiful Midnight"

Thank you middle school friends. If it wasn't for a mixtape CD that featured "Rico" and "Apparitions" from their previously released album 'Underdogs' (once voted the 18th greatest Canadian album of all time, mind you), there is a good chance I wouldn't have ever found out about MGB. I had a hell of a time finding 'Beautiful Midnight'  in the US, as everything was wanting to charge me an import fee (c'mon, its Canada). I broke down, spent $24 + shipping for the "import" and was glad I did. Written as a concept album based on the time period of one night (song 1 being 5:00 pm running to track 14, being sunup) and its a whirlwind. The intro to "Giant" is one of the greatest intros ever (cheerleaders spelling and chanting out the words kickass), to the beautiful "Strange Days" and the semi-successful radio and MTV hit "Hello Time Bomb", to my personal favorites of "Suburbia" and, if you go off the US re-release, the addition of "Deep Six". Sadly, things ended sour for MGB, but thankfully Matthew Good went on to have a nice solo career which produced some solid material, but nothing close to the caliber of 'Beautiful Midnight'.

5. The Who "Quadrophenia"

Without question, the best concept/rock opera CD ever released. While the entire journey of 'Quadrophenia' works around Jimmy, the opera head's identity disorder, and his four distinct personalities (hence why the album is 4 sided), it showcases The Who at their best. While my personal favorite song and easily all-time favorite song, "Love, Reign O'er Me", to me is the highlight track, it's not to say some of The Who's other best works don't appear on this album. "5.15", "Sea and Sand", and "The Real Me" are all staples that should appear in every best of list when talking about The Who in my opinion. I first got turned onto this CD in the mid 90's, but never really appreciated it as a whole until the mid 2000's. In 08, I traveled to Brighton, England, a place that is synonymous with 'Quadrophenia' and even referenced in "I've Had Enough" for a even further appreciation for the album. It is a classic album, and an album that should be praised, in my opinion, as much as 'Who's Next'.

4. Transmatic "Self-Titled"

What a random CD to be an influence. Another one a done CD, this band never really made headlines with this release, but did make headlines other than being one of the first bands to get noticed by way of the internet. In fact, they got such good pub from it that they signed a six-album deal with Virgin Records. Sure, they appeared on soundtracks and in movies like Van Wilder, American Pie 2, and even had songs on MTV and saw their lead single "Come", hit n.29 on the Adult Top 40 charts, but little else ever came of good 'ol Transmatic. Loud, gritty rock and roll sound was just what I needed in 2002 apparently, because I remember keeping this CD in my car CD players for months at a time. The CD was nothing special, really, but for me, it was something I needed at that point in my life, and for the life of me still to this day I don't know what that is. One of life's great wonders, I guess. But dammit if I didn't love "Gravitate", "Go My Way", and "Impossible", which i'm pretty sure made every mixtape for a girl I made in high school.

3. Copeland "Beneath Medicine Tree"

Let's just get this out in the open: Aaron Marsh is the most underrated musician of the last 20 years. Now, i'm sure that's not true, but he is right up there. He is a genius. And for a unknown band from Lakeland, Florida to burst onto the scene with such a heavy debut CD is incredible. I spoke with him once about this record and his influence for it, and he simply told me it's a record of emotion and sadness, that he was spending a lot of time at the hospital as his grandma was dying, his girlfriend at the time was having surgery and going through some problems, and just that it was a very personal album to him. We then went further to discuss how he'd sit at the hospital, not knowing what to do, so he'd just simply write ideas and feelings down. When I first heard it, I wasn't going through anything extraordinarily crazy, but this was a disc that I needed in my life about a year later when I did start going through some crazy life changes with family and friends. And then over the years, as I grew older and begin going through some of these same experiences with death and girlfriends getting in car wrecks and stuff, I begun to dig this CD up from time to time to reconnect and slowly begin to medicate myself with the words and emotion in it. It's a beautiful thing when music can do that for you.

2. Goo Goo Dolls "Dizzy Up the Girl"

This is the first CD I ever bought with my own money, and in the 90s it was a CD I listened to like crazy. Even well into the 00's, I spun it regularly. I still, somewhere tucked away in a box somewhere, still have that original CD as a keepsake. "Slide" and "Iris" were massive hits and two songs that, much like a lot of youth my age, made us grow up loving Goo, but 'Dizzy Up the Girl' had so much more to offer than just those gems. If you can get past the train wreck that is Robby, the leprechaun looking bassist, singing, then you can find some beautiful songs that rarely go noticed on this album like "Black Balloon" (which, admiringly, was a pretty big hit), "Bullet Proof", and maybe my second favorite song ever behind The Who's "Love...", "Acoustic #3". That song, for me, got me through a lot as a youngster, including my parents divorce. The line "And your mother loves your father because she's got no place to go" was written on my heart, and is still a line that, every time I hear the song, I get chills. About a year and half ago, I finally saw them play "Acoustic #3" live for the first time in concert, and got chills listening. It is the CD of my youth, and a lot of our youths. I can remember in high school, age 16, learning "Slide" on my first guitar and going over to a girls house to sing and play it, only to have start making out with me midway through it, in fact, right at the 2:33 mark when Johnny goes high with the word "married". It was what our dreams were made of and for me the ultimate nostalgia record. From time to time, i'll see that girl and it's always a topic of conversation about how my cover of that song made her tear up and then jump on me. It's not like it was such an amazing cover, it was just that was, for us 90's kids, the epitome of it all. "Iris" has lasting value and still might be one of the most well-written songs of our generation, and it's a CD that will stand the test of time I believe.

1. Third Eye Blind "Out of the Vein"

Ever since I heard Third Eye Blinds 'Self-Titled' effort in 1997, I realized there was something special about this band. "Semi-Charmed Life" is probably the catchiest song of the 90's alt-rock era, and "Jumper" has one of the best mid-song breakdowns. (Seriously, who doesn't love screaming "I WILL UNDERSTAND!" with Jenkins and Co.?) Then 'Blue' has one of my favorite 3eb songs, and notedly Stephen Jenkins, lead singer, favorite song he's written, "Wounded", and the song that has my senior year high school quote in it. "Deep Inside of You" (I would change myself if I could, i'd walk with my people if I could find them, and i'd say that i'm sorry to you and you and you). But it was the third effort, 'Out of the Vein', that cemented the idea that this band was possibly my favorite band ever. The CD itself is stunning. It could have spawned 3-4 more top 10 hits for them, but the label neglected the album and neglected the band. "Faster" is uniquely amazing, and such a classic 3eb that got little praise. "Forget Myself" and "My Hit and Run" were songs that I relate back to my senior year of high school and a cruise that I went on after graduation with six of my best friends, and those songs - songs which I had kind of overlooked up to that point, because staples on my new ipod. "Crystal Baller" and "Palm Reader" were radio-ready hits, that with a little push could have been top 20 chart toppers. And recently, like 7 years later, I realized how good "Danger" was. 7 years later! Stephen and I talked in the summer of 2008 prior to their show with Counting Crows and Collective Soul, and I asked him about this CD. He told me that, as a whole, it is probably his favorite CD and he wishes that the label wouldn't have, and I quote, "fucked it up". And I agree. It is some of their best work, but easily their most overlooked album. I walked away from the first listen of this CD in 03 saying Third Eye Blind is, without question, my favorite band. In 2012, six live shows and 1 new album later,  countless other discs from other acts that have come and gone, I can still sit here and say Third Eye Blind, while aging and not really up to par with the ways of old, are still my favorite band.


Lastly, i'd like to thank Memphis for allowing me to post this on his blog site. I am thankful to be apart of this community, all the albums and reviews and readings we've been through. It's a great community, and I thank you all for reading, giving me the floor this past week, and letting me share a part of who I am. Thank you all!