Violent Femmes "s/t"

There was a time in my life where I believed this album was standard issue to all women. Upon inspection it may have been more of a period piece (I swear I didn't intend that pun) since any female under the age of thirty looks back at me puzzled if I ask them about #theviolentfemmes  . For a solid decade of my life you could bet that any girl I found interesting had a beat up cassette of this album on the floor of their car. I imagine that for a lot of girls who hung out with arty skater boys that most of the testosterone fueled bands really didn't address their own personal angst. I'm not saying that they couldn't appreciate the anger as an energy, but let's face it: it gets pretty neanderthal at times. Then I imagine some college radio station played this record and the combination of super intelligent wordplay over frantic acoustic guitars struck a chord with them (another unintentional pun). But this is all conjecture. Every woman I found interesting loved this disc. So I bought a copy to try and infiltrate their headspace. It's a damn good album. I was at a place in my life where I was very open minded to music (especially if it was recommended by a collegiate siren) so the lack of electric guitars didn't faze me, neither the the nasal vocals but it's the lyrics that get one. Sophisticated and innocent sounding, clever and vulgar. This has turned out to be a lifelong favorite. It leads me to wonder though: what are the art school ladies listening to these days?

Rainer Maria "look now look again"

I was in an indie rock band for a few years in the late '90s- early '00s and our spirit animal was #rainermaria  . We were never nearly as good but we consciously and unconsciously emulated them. Listening to this CD even now gives me chills and fills me with nostalgic angst. They were a female fronted trio that played hyper emotional intelligent rock music that was lovingly elitist with rich, poetic lyrics and earnest delivery. Yeah, I love them. It is difficult for me to listen to this and not think of shows on the road with my old band because their discography was always in permanent rotation during the hours spent in that van. I have three favorite shows we got to play: 1) opening a sold-out show for Frank Black in Syracuse 2) playing with Helicopter Helicopter and Tugboat Annie at a sold-out show in Boston at the Middle East and 3) opening for Rainer Maria at our beloved Mohawk Place back home. The show was packed, we shared equipment and Caithlin wrote their contact info in one of my sketchbooks. They killed it that night. It was back when it was just the small stage and the place was packed from the cigarette vending machine to the vinyl jukebox. They say you always love the music from the best time of your life. I've led a charmed life and had quite a few of those eras and each one has a distinct soundtrack but this band owns the year 2000 for me. Salad days. (If you want a glimpse of the period at the start of this band google "palomar sky survey interview" it is cringeworthy in it's awkwardness and I have hardly any tattoos, or beard)

Carnivore "carnivore/retaliation"

In high school I loved anything that I thought would shock and freak my mom out. I was pretty naive. It never occurred to me that she had heard George Carlin or Richard Pryor. I had no idea she had smoked weed and had seen more gross shit as a nurse's aid than my beloved heavy metal bands could write about. Someone taped this #carnivore  s/t album for me and upon hearing Peter Steele howl "I love to eat pussy!" I was sold on them (though in all fairness I didn't know exactly what that meant, I still had yet you find my stepfather's porno VHS stash). Later in the album he chants "god is dead!" And i nearly passed out from the glory of this album's perfection. At fourteen I was of the disposition that if you told dirty jokes AND were a blasphemer you were the highest art obtainable. Relistening to this stuff (much like s.o.d.) I'm a little ashamed of how much it's ignorance and chauvinism probably influenced my behavior back then and it's not a record i will be blasting for my kids (they need to discover this kind of stuff organically on their own so I can pretend to be concerned and they get their rebellious kicks) I will say if this record was released today I would absolutely HATE it. It's full of blind American centralism and bigotry that mirrors alot of what I hate about our society so it confuses me why I give this record a pass. Nostalgia may be one of the strongest forces of the human condition. And it kind of shows me that there can be maturing and reasoning to lead you away from the sentiments exposed on this disc. I did it. And not to get too broad but this thought gives me a glimmer of hope for our present political climate.

Lemonheads "hate your friends"

#thelemonheads  released a trio of great punky pop (not pop-punk) albums to close out the '80s before releasing the suck-fest that is "it's a shame about ray". I could write a thesis about how much I hate that fucking album. Somehow the lemonheads later releases haven't ruined their once-great discography like other bands shit platters through the '90s and beyond (ahem... it should have been Lars.) I originally found this album my senior year of high school after my parents had relocated our family to rural hell. I had it on cassette and would listen to it on the long bumpy country school bus rides. I can vividly remember on those bus rides relishing the dichotomy of my personal soundtrack of bratty, punky vocals over short sharply catchy songs to the garth brooks/randy travis country twang soundtrack of dairy farms and corn fields. I clung to my music (and my mohawk) in defiance of the redneck culture I was thrust into. At the school I was actually relatively popular with the locals being a novel urban caricature, and I didn't hate that. I played the part well. I amplified all the "punk"ness I could muster. I dared people to call me out. At the time i believed i was presenting an alternative to their hick culture, but if I'm totally honest now there was a large chunk of attention seeking in my defiance. This album was a big part of that, the locals thought it was just loud screechy noise and I liked them marveling at how someone could enjoy this "music". Then the '90s alternative nation shit happened and made punk cool and made the lemonheads suck. My thunder stolen.