I take my music way too seriously

So I'm going to fill it out here and hopefully people aren't horrendously annoyed by it. It's that whole 15 albums in 15 minutes thing so feel free to skip it, but it's something that is important to me and I may take more than 15 minutes to fill it out because well, I'm me.

1) Hello Nasty - Beastie Boys - the first album I ever bought, loved Intergalactic, still do -- I mean they namedrop Spock. Word.

2) Synkronized - Jamiroquai - one of the first albums I ever listened to all the way through, and he's an avid car collector, amazing dancer, and it just makes me wanna shake my ass, as it were.

3) Siamese Dream - The Smashing Pumpkins - I love Billy Corgan, he is such a dictator in his bands, I identify with his control freak tendencies. But that's not why I love this album, there are some really beautiful songs on there and some horribly sad ones, it got me through the first few years of high school and appealed to my inner goth (we all have one so shut up).

4) Lateralus - Tool - my initiation into probably the most influential and important band in my life, as y'all know from one of my previous posts. I don't think I need to say anything else.

5) De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta - their first album. Niall played this for me the first time he ever came over to my house. The name had been bouncing around in my head for a long time before I listened to it. I loved it almost instantly. The first song that got stuck in my head was Eriatarka, and it still harkens back to that time. I can smell the snow in the air when I listen to it. But Cedric had me at the opening line of the first song "Clip side of the pink-eye flight/I'm not the percent you think survives/ I need sanctuary in the pages of this book"

6) Relationship of Command - At The Drive In - I didn't get into this album until fairly recently - my relationship with ATDI was almost contingent on my breakup, I started seriously considering their work near the end, and it sort of snowballed from there. Originally I was listening to This Station is Non Operational which is a compilation of their stuff. But Relationship of Command is where I really started appreciating Omar's musicianship. He says he hates the way the album is mixed but I just don't care. It's a seminal work. Anton Corbijn directed the video for Invalid Litter Dept. which is the inspiration for the name of my non existent second blog (registered, never used). One Armed Scissor - the third song and most commercially successful ATDI single is what this blog is named after - "self destruct sequence/ this station is non operational/ species growing/ bubbles in an iv loitering".

7) 808's and Heartbreak - Kanye West - I started listening to this almost as soon as it came out - and it's not necessarily the album itself that's important, but the surrounding occurrences. September 2008 was a schism in my life, and the first single was out and for some reason I started listening to Kanye. Also I had seen him on some sort of awards show and noticed him for the first time in my life. I always thought he had a weird name, one that I liked saying but now I realized that he was good looking, but more importantly, damn he dressed well. In a way I suppose I actively sought him out. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I liked listening to the album the whole way through. Then for some reason I went to his blog which I found hilarious, but it led me to something even better. 'Ye links to a lot of interesting things, one of which is highsnobiety, which led me to selectism, which in turn led me to Tony. So there are all sorts of amazing associations surrounding this album.

8) Amnesiac - Radiohead - it took me forever to get into Radiohead, or I should say it took me forever to finally listen to Radiohead, and the first song I ever really heard was I Might Be Wrong. Tracy (mom's friend's girlfriend's kid) downloaded it onto my laptop and then dragged me to their concert in Montreal. Radiohead is like that old comfortable sweater that you love and will never ever get rid of. And I mean that in the best way. I feel like there's nothing I can say about them because they're that good. Almost everyone accepts it. For good reason.

9) Raindogs - Tom Waits. Just watch Down by Law.

10) Return to Cookie Mountain - Tv on the Radio - Tunde Adebimpe, seriously, I love his voice. They're just ridiculous fun and have meaningful lyrics. I can dance to this album which is new-ish for me and I've found myself listening to them a lot in the past year or so.

11) Latin - Holy Fuck - I discovered this band thanks to Karis, we were in NYC because I bought tickets to go see Omar and the next day Karis dragged me to this show. I say dragged because I was being a sulky child. But I am so very happy that she did because the headliner was Holy Fuck (she wanted to see Indian Jewelry). There was some sort of instant chemical connect-- like love at first sight. I downloaded their albums as soon as I got home and dragged a friend to come see them in concert (again) immediately thereafter. They're from Toronto, lucky me! This album is currently in heavy rotation.

12) Xenophanes - Omar Rodriguez Lopez - everyone who knows me knows the name Omar, I don't even have to say the full name anymore, they just know. You've already seen his name in this post. He is half of the Mars Volta. He is a musical prodigy. A genius. This album is sung entirely in Spanish and the vocals are by Omar and his girlfriend Ximena Sarinana. It feels like a product of their love. That's the only way I can describe it. When looking in my iTunes top 25 played songs, the first five songs are all off this album. I will never get over it.

13) Medulla - Bjork - it is a vocal soundscape. The use of instruments is kept to a minimum. Guest stars include Rahzel and Mike Patton. It is at once incredibly simple and very complex. I think everybody should listen to this album at least once.

14) Station - Russian Circles - in the past few years I've been getting more and more into exclusively instrumental music. Russian Circles is a band I ran across on the SargentHouse website. I like to call my foray into this band a type of musical nepotism. Because in truth Omar belongs to that label. That's besides the point - these guys own. Seriously. I saw them at Sneaky Dee's when I was still living in Little Italy - I went alone, I stood beside the drummer during the entire opening act and didn't know it. It was hands down the best $12 I've ever spent on a semi random show. They shook my world and continue to do so on a daily basis, Harper Lewis is one of my favourite songs on this album and it is a sonic assault on my ears. But don't just take my word for it. GO!

15) Amputechture - The Mars Volta - the one Mars Volta album that I didn't listen to immediately when it came out. In fact I didn't listen to it until after The Bedlam in Goliath. I don't know why - I was afraid maybe. I have one word for all of you: Tetragrammaton.

So yes, that's it - it took forever. Hope it makes sense.