"Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be; that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are til the bitter end. Inevitably irrevocably; happy birthday? No such thing." - Jerry Seinfeld
So, another birthday. 33. Thought it would be fun (for me) to commemorate such a day by going through some of my favourite records, year by year. Well, it'll be broken up into three parts. Most of the albums aren't necessarily what I was listening at the time, particularly before 1990 because if I was three and listening to Social Distortion well.. actually that'd be awesome. Anyways, here are some records that I really like, other people may like, and other people may hate. Or something.. whatever.
1979: THE CLASH - LONDON CALLING. Released nine days after my birthday in the UK (January 1980 stateside) The Clash's third album "London Calling" saw the band incorporate funk, soul, rockabilly and reggae to their sound, making it a much more eclectic record than their self titled debut and sophomore release "Give 'Em Enough Rope." From the classic title track, to the reggae influenced "Rudie Can't Fail" to my favourite Clash song, "Death Or Glory," this record has a little something for everyone who likes honest rock music. The band followed up "London Calling" with the sprawling three-LP set "Sandinista!" then released their best selling album, "Combat Rock," in 1982. The band released a sixth and final album, "Cut the Crap" after the firings songwriter Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon in 1985. Strummer got into some acting gigs, scored a couple films and released three albums as Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros before passing away in 2002.
Honourable Mention: B52'S - B52'S. If the Misfits sounds like a soundtrack to 50's horror movies then the B52's debut sounds like the soundtrack to campy 50's sci-fi films.
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1980: IRON MAIDEN - IRON MAIDEN. Is it punk rock? Is it metal? That the beauty of Maiden's debut. Sometimes it is hard to tell. "Iron Maiden" is the first of two albums with frontman Paul Di'Anno, who also appeared on the group's second released "Killers" before being kicked out for cocaine and alcohol addiction which caused him to miss gigs and promo appearances. Bruce Dickenson was brought on board in time for the band's third, and most reviled album "The Number Of the Beast." It is a great record, but lacks something the debut had. The bands first single, "Running Free" ranks up there with my favourite Maiden songs, and an all time classic party song. The songs are short (for the most part, and by Maiden standards) with only the masterful "Phantom Of the Opera" cracking the six minute mark, most songs hovering around four minutes. The albums closer is the track "Iron Maiden" which frequently closes out their shows to this day. Bruce Dickenson is good, there's no doubt, but no one can sing this song like Paul.
Honourable Mention: Joy Division - Closer. Their second and last album is pretty damn dark and brooding. Ya, brooding. I said it.
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1981: BLACK FLAG - DAMAGED. When I was 15-18 there wasn't too many records that I listened to more than "Damaged." Definitely Henry Rollins best moments with the band can be found on here, many of the songs re-recorded versions of tracks that had found their way onto singles and EP's with previous Flag vocalists (Dez Cadena, Ron Reyes and Keith Morris), but Henry took the songs by the throat and made them sound more menacing and dangerous that anything put on tape at that time. The opening track, "Rise Above" is pretty much a perfect song, in my humble opinion. Youtube the ridiculous video for the single "TV Party," as jokey as the band gets on the album. "Six Pack," already a Flag classic at this point, is a highlight as well as "Thirsty and Miserable," "Depression," and "Gimme Gimme Gimme." The track "Damaged I" while not my favourite on the record, is interesting because it is a telltale sign of the territory their music would tread with their slew of released in 1984 (the band was in legal battles for a couple years and were forbidden from using their name) so they released five albums in quick succession from March 1984-October 1985. Their work before and after "Damaged" is brilliant, but nothing they ever did was as great as "Damaged."
Honourable Mention: King Crimson - Discipline. Robert Fripp reformed his classic band with Adrian Belew taking over as frontman and they tread some new ground: 1980's production and prog rock. Sounds dated, but there's some great songs.
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1982: THE CURE - PORNOGRAPHY. "Friday, I'm In Love" it isn't. I suppose the lyrics of that song weren't the most uplifting, but the music was sure poppy as hell. That doesn't really exist on this record. Robert Smith croons "it doesn't matter if we all die" to kick off the opening track, "One Hundred Years," just so the listener knows they will not be hearing anything overly sentimental, then completes the 1-2 punch with the excellent second track "A Short Term Effect," leading into my favourite song on the album "The Hanging Garden." Great pulsating bass line that gets stuck in my head for hours whenever I hear the song. The closing title track is the perfect ending to an album that was described as inventing "goth." While I offer no thanks for that, the album is great, front to back.
Honourable Mention: Misfits - Walk Among Us. Umm… "20 Eyes," "I Turned Into a Martian," "Vampira," "Hatebreeders," "Mommy Can I Got Out & Kill Tonight"…. need I say more?
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1983: SOCIAL DISTORTION - MOMMY'S LITTLE MONSTER. Social D's debut album was recorded in one session on Christmas Eve 1982, and doesn't have the greatest production. That doesn't really matter when the songs are this damn good. The album was recorded before Mike Ness was crippled by a heroin addiction. The album had been an underground hit, and since the album was self released then cheques came to Ness who used the cash to fund his drug habit instead of more pressings of the record which became out of print not long after its release until it was re-released by Triple X Records in 1989. "The Creeps" leads off the record and is a concert staple to this day, as are classic tracks "Another State Of Mind" and "Mommy's Little Monster," the album title track which received heavy airplay on L.A.'s KROQ radio.
Honourable Mention: Pink Floyd - The Final Cut. Floyd last record with the classic line-up, considered by some as a Waters solo record, is very quiet, but listened to as a whole with lyrics in tow is outstanding.
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1984: THE REPLACEMENTS - LET IT BE. While the Beatles "Let It Be" is inconsistent with barely enough quality material to even be considered an album, The Replacements hit all the right notes with their third record. Growing disillusioned with the punkers, frontman Paul Westerberg sought out to make a record that was more honest and sincere. Don't kid yourself… there's some barn burners on here! Just listen to "We're Comin' Out" for evidence of that, but I don't think that's the point. "I Will Dare" kicks off the record with a great little shuffle and features a solo by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. The band's cover of Kiss' "Black Diamond" is actually better than the original, and among the best tracks on the the record. "Androgynous" is a song that is just Westerberg and a piano but is also a high point. And "Unsatisfied," excellent song, and the track on the record that made me just kind of get what Westerbeg was going for.
Honourable Mention: Husker Du - Zen Arcade. I guess the Replacements won the Minneapolis-St Paul indie album of the year. Husker Du gets the silver with this sprawling double album set chronicling a young man who runs away from home and whatever.. the concept gets lost but the tunes are great!
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1985: HUSKER DU - NEW DAY RISING. After putting out their best record the previous year, they follow it up with one almost as good, and fortunately, the Replacement didn't release a record this year. "New Day Rising" is more of a straight up punk album following the experimental "Zen Arcade." The intro to the album is the title track, which doesn't have too many lyrics other than "New Day Rising" has some killer guitar work and leads into my favourite Grant Hart penned Husker Du track, "The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill." "I Apologize and "Folk Lore" are two excellent Bob Mould songs but "59 Times the Pain" and "Celebrated Summer," the most "Zen Arcade" track on the album. The band released another album towards the end of 1985, "Flip Your Wig" which proved to be their last album for longtime label after signing a major label deal. They felt they owed the label another album so quickly put it out. It wasn't their strongest material but a fitting bookend to their career on SST records before the tensions escalated (always a rocky relationship) between Mould and Hart causing the band to dissolve after two major label releases "Candy Apple Grey" and "Warehouse: Songs & Stories."
Honourable Mention: Slayer - Hell Awaits. Really, really, really GD heavy.
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1986: SONIC YOUTH - EVOL. They turned down the noise, and turned up the atmosphere on their first SST Record "EVOL." It shied away from their noise rock beginnings. The sole single from the album, "Star Power" is a great piece of atmospheric rock with Kim's vocals almost delivered in monotone, and is a song that Courtney Love has made her whole career out of ripping off. "Tom Violence" is one of my favourite Youth songs and Thurston's vocals on this track are amazing. Perfect way to lead off the record. Mike Watt, of the Minutemen, contributed bass on two songs "In the Kingdom #19" and "Expressway To Yr Skull," noting that working on this record made him want to continue him music career after Minutemen bandmate D Boon's death made Watt want to give up music. "EVOL" is not as recognized as say "Goo" or the classic "Daydream Nation" but is still my favourite Sonic Youth record.
Honourable Mention: Slayer - Reign In Blood. Really, really, really heavier.
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1987: DESCENDENTS - ALL. The final record before frontman Milo Aukerman left his band to continue his academic pursuits, and the remaining members, drummer Bill Stevenson, bassist Karl Alvarez and guitarist Stephan Egerton hooked up with vocalists Dave Smalley, Scott Reynolds then finally Chad Price and performed as ALL for the next several years. The band took it's name from the Descendents presumably final release, and title track (1 second long) ALL. The band started as a surf rock trio in the late 70s, but soon joined up with Milo and releasing an EP then two classic records: "Milo Goes To College," and "I Don't Want To Grow Up" The first two are classics, with "College" and "Grow Up" among the best punk albums to ever come out of California. The band took a slight misstep with their next album "Enjoy." The album was almost entirely based around the idea of farting (seriously) even going as far as to use euphemisms for faeces instead of the song names on the back of the album jacket. Tough to take too seriously. The following year I don't think anyone would have thought that they would put out an album so introspective, so progressive and (thinking of another -ive word here.. can't). Every track is great, with the first proper song being "Coolige" which is as good as a pop punk song as they have ever written. "Van" is a little strange but fortunately the incredible guitar work keeps you coming back for more. "Ice Man," "Jealous Of the World," "Uranus," and "Schizophrenia" all show off their prog rock leanings, and show of their mellower side on "Impressions" and "Cameage." You would never know that it was Egerton and Alvarez's first outing with the group since this was their strongest and most impressive material they ever released.
Honourable Mention: Def Leppard - Hysteria. First album I ever got, listened to it a million times. Guilty pleasure or totally awesome? Both! Listen to "Gods Of War." Love that song.
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1988: BAD RELIGION - SUFFER. Fat Mike dubbed it the album that 'changed everything.' Hi-fi punk rock. Sounded like an oxymoron at the time. Bad Religion had released an incredible debut full length called "How Could Hell Be Any Worse" but followed it up with an embarrassing keyboard heavy 1970s classic rock album, "Into the Unknown", dumbfounding their fans. Guitarist and Epitaph Records owner Brett Gurewitz joked that they "sent 10,000 copies of the records, and getting 11,000 back." Reception wasn't good, and little has done to change mass opinion about the album. It actually isn't that bad, but I could see why the folks at the time might be a little upset. Fast forward a few years. In 1985, they released "Back To the Known" which was a punk band with a rock influence to them. Songs were still aggressive but they did have slower tempos, and to be honest doesn't sound that much different from the late 90s Atlantic albums. Anyways, the band reconvened in 1987 and started recording "Suffer" in April 1988 at Brett Gurewitz's Westbeach Studios. The band rips through fifteen songs in under half and hour, with just one track, "Part II (The Numbers Game)" eclipsing the two and a half minute mark. The band plays "(You Are) the Government)," "Give You Nothing," "Best For You," "Suffer," "Do What You Want" at most shows to this day. I've seen Bad Religion play numerous times but I have never seen "1000 More Fools" or "Delirium Of Disorder" live which are standout track in my mind that don't get enough love. Is this their best record? Probably. Most influential? Definitely.
Honourable Mention: Dag Nasty - Field Day. What used to be my least favourite Dag Nasty is now my favourite. Funny what age can do!
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1989: OPERATION IVY - ENERGY. Never has an album mixed reggae, punk, hardcore and ska so perfectly. Including The Clash. While what they were doing was markedly different kind of ska-punk fusion than The Clash, the message wasn't too dissimilar. Operation Ivy existed for only two years but their only record is a landmark in the genre. Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman were playing guitar and bass respectively for a ska punk band called Basic Radio and hooked up with vocalist/artist Jesse Michaels and Dave Mello to perform the first Operation Ivy show in Mello's garage on May 27, 1987 before playing at Berkeley, California's legendary 924 Gilman Street club the following day. The album, now reissued a couple times over, include their debut EP "Hectic" contains classics like "Knowledge," "Sound System," "Take Warning," "Unity," "Bad Town," "Caution," "Freeze Up"… nearly every track is a classic burst of energy and life. Jesse Michaels went on to sing for Common Rider while Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong formed Rancid following the disbandment. Rancid are OK and all… I like "And Out Come the Wolves" and "Let's Go" very much, but nothing they did ever came close to this record.
Liner notes in 1991 for reissue of "Energy" by Jesse Michaels:
"Music is an indirect force for change, because it provides and anchor against human tragedy. In this sense, it works towards a reconciled world. It can also be the direct experience of change. At certain point during some shows, the reconciled world is already here, at least in that second, at that place. Operation Ivy was very lucky to have experienced this. Those second reveal that the momentum that drives a subculture is more important than any particular band. The momentum is made of all the people who stay interested, and keep their sense of urgency and hope."
Honourable Mention: Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine. Only classic album they ever did. Not saying Trent isn't talented, but this just seems so much less douchy.
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End of Part One.
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