AC/DC "for those about to rock we salute you"

With the passing of Malcolm Young i am reminded of this record and seeing #acdc live in 1986 on the "who made who" tour. My buddy and i got dropped off near the Aud and skulked around the parking lots surrounding the arena. We weaved through the dark cars and snaked through clouds of weed and the sound of breaking beer bottles. We were open to whatever forbidden adventures awaiting us. We hoped by making our long hair and leather jackets visible we would be adopted by a throng of hesher partiers and immerse ourselves in hedonistic decadence. We circled and circled the venue, each pass feeling more and more left out. We started feeling too young and desperate (and stupid for not smuggling some sort of small bottle of peach schnapps with us) Downtrodden we gave up and hoped to meet up with some generous bearers of booze or whatever inside. We made our way to our seats, watched a girl's hair burst into flames lighting a smoke and sat in the putrid cloud of burnt hair bummed to be sober. AC/DC took the stage and played hit after hit and we actually got roused and forgot our underage blues. I've always had a soft spot for this blue collar hard rock. This album has always been my fav (to fly in the face on Bon Scott purists). We trudged out of the concert and began the impossible search for our ride. When we miraculously tracked down my friend's mom she told us she had asked a police officer if he had seen her son and friend. The overwhelmed officer sighed and asked what we looked like. She responded "long hair and leather jackets" he laughed at her and walked away from her car.

Coffinworm "when all became none"

My brother and i rode motorcycles from Buffalo to Indianapolis for a doom metal festival. The trip there was a great ride. We meandered our way west through NY, PA, OH and finally arriving in Indiana. We rode through lush state forests, followed winding rivers and even found a White Castle and finally tried their burgers (meh). Early in the trip we found Route 666. I took it as a good omen for our trip and proved to be just that. It took us like 16 hours to get to our destination and every minute of it was awesome. We stopped when we wanted, we passed every car we overtook and we felt like lords of the highway. I remember when we finally hit IN the road ironed our before us and stretched into a black dagger towards the sunset. I kept thinking about how fitting finding route 666 was on this trip (and promising myself id go back and steal one of those road signs). The festival had a ton of great bands, some i knew some were new. When #coffinworm took the stage they filled the small venue with an evil sludge i found delicious. I remember commenting to my brother that this was the band the road led us to. - 5 minutes ago

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Van Halen "1984"

Joel Menter ( @bflojoel )

I was twelve years old when this record came out. I loved the videos in MTV and got my uncle to buy me this on cassette. Two distinct memories accompany this cd. First: i was in 6th grade and we had a project in music class to create a "slideshow" music video. We had to do a series of drawings and swap them on an overhead projector during the playback. My friends and i chose "panama". I remember when we sat down to transcribe the lyrics we realised we had no fucking idea what Diamond Dave was saying or what the song meant. To this day i still don't. We drew a bunch of dudes playing guitars and didnt get a very good grade. Second: during a game of touch football on our street i scored a touchdown and did a wobbly kneed end zone dance. A junior high kid who was playing became frustrated and shoved me. When he turned his back i knocked him down and booked for my house. I remember thinking that when i got through my chain link gate i was safe but the kid hopped the fence and tackled me in my front yard. We wrestled for a few panicky seconds and somehow i ended up on top of his back with him face down on the lawn. A few inches from his head was a fresh pile of steamy beagle shit. I immediately shoved his face into it a few times. As i was doing this my mom started yelling out the kitchen window at us to stop. I rolled off of him and he was howling about the shit that was caked in his eye sockets and nostrils. I'll never forget that sight of a feces racooned dude. A few days later poop goggles prowled up the street on his bmx. I was standing with a few friends so he just glared a stare down as he rode past. Somehow while he was fixated on me his shoe got caught in his wheel and he flipped his bike and landed on his face. There is no way that kid has forgotten any of this. If i ever turn up murdered look for this guy

Buzzcocks "singles going steady"

I discovered punk rock in a reverse timeline. My transition into it was crossover thrash metal which ment the punk i was listening to in the late '80s was pretty aggressive and already evolving into hardcore punk. As i discovered more music and my tastes widened i began to dig deeper into all the records that played a part in the stiff that was coming out around me. I started college in 1990 and my musical palette was about as diverse as you could get. I loved the electonic/industrial stuff coming out of chicago, i loved the clever indie pop that canada was pumping out, i loved the blossoming death metal surge from florida and i really REALLY loved the punk coming out of San Francisco's east bay! Anything Lookout! Records released i tracked down. Splits and comps turned me onto other poppy punky stuff and i ate it all up. I dont remember who played the #buzzcocks for me for the first time. I do remember being blown away that they were from the late '70s and i was really puzzled as to why all the bands i was listening to didn't expound props to their songs (too close to home i suspect) when i went up to Home of the Hits and asked which one i should start with the slacker costumed counter guy handed me a used copy of this and almost beamed being able to put me on this musical path. I don't usually like singles compilations but the awesome title of this one kind of snuffs out any of my snobbery and it is a sharp, no-filler look at a great band. While I'm not one of those people that will tell you all the older influential acts are better than the people riding their sonic coat tails today, this cd will make that argument for me. Without this there is no Descendents, no Green Day and by extension no Brand New. Be that know-it-all and give this a spin so you can greet disdain by people with less time and interest on their hands.

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