Records That Changed Your Life: Minutemen's "Double Nickels On The Dime"

Quite simply, this is one of the best albums I've ever bought, and I wish I knew the html to underline BOUGHT, because I rarely buy albums. But in the case of Double Nickels On The Dime, I felt it my patriotic duty to shell out 18 bucks for this CD, and it was worth every penny and thensome, considering there are 40 + tracks on this thing. Every song is a gem of folk-punk and country punk and every other thing you can think of, and the latin style acoustic instrumental "Cohesion" is fucking gorgeous.

If you truly consider yourself a punk fan and you don't own this album, go buy it immediately, you god damned philistine. You'll be glad you did.

Me: off the top of my head, Fugazi- 13 Songs, their first cd.

The first "punk" record I ever bought. Immediately hooked. There was so much on the record, so many different styles, so many songs...it remains my all time favorite album.

London Calling is the only CD I listen to literally every day of my life. It is by far the best punk record of all time, and quite possibly one of, if not the best, album of all time. Others will scream "REVOLVER!" or "PET SOUNDS!" or "LET IT BLEED!" but none of those stand up to London Calling in my eyes.

I cried at the Grammys when Bruce, Elvis, Dave, and Steve Van Zandt did the cover of London Calling. Fucking magnificent.

On a damn commercial. It should be illegal to use great songs in commercials.

I was kind of a "late punk" - I was 16 then. During their London Calling Tour here in Hamburg, Germany, there was a riot starting during the concert, because they had signed to CBS and many thought that with London Calling they would have entered the mainstream and the american market(!) then. "CBS promote the Clash, but it's not for revolution it's just for cash", people were shouting then. One guy was spiting at Strummer and he had a liver-desease from something like this happening before. So he was beating the guy with his guitar. It was a kind of scandal then and the newspapers reported, the guy would be half-dead. My friends saw him in Hamburgs favourite place for artsy punkers one day later...
Dirk

Awesome version. One of the best albums ever.

:toast:

by Joy Division.
I didn't talk for 3 weeks in 1981.
Hello from Germany,
talking again,
Dirk

I didn't think I'd like Joy Division when I first picked that one up, but it is phenomenal.

it sounded so strange back then. One day I was listening to it on my own, esp. to New Dawn Fades, and it really felt as if the weight of the world would sit on my stomach. Till today I never heard music that could compete with them. They were so much "punk" then, and they still are, but at the same time, they sounded so perfect.
Dirk

"Quadrophenia."
John
Or maybe Zappa and the Mothers' "Just Another Band from LA." But that's just sick.

So you're in good company.

I gotta give props to London Calling though. Way beyond punk...

By the time first side ended, I knew, this is my music, and these are my people. I have never looked back. Followed very closely (I found them almost at the same time) by Mott by Mott the Hoople. Anger, Humor and regret, knowing you're doomed but with a clear eyed lack of self pity that still stings. Then London Calling, Christ I thought that album was going to change the world when it came out. The Who's Next - some filler but the good parts take your breath away.

:toast:

that thing is in my car's tape player more often than not; I'm sure the fine citizens around me truly love getting a blast of socialist punk/Beefheartian funk on their daily commute.

It's amazing how that album holds up, especially given how many styles they broach. Hell, the album segues from a Van Halen cover to a Steely Dan cover with the kind of cohesion one usually only expects from peanut butter and marshmallow Fluf. I wouldn't just recommend it for punk fans though; anyone interested in good, and especially politically-tinged, music should check it out.

RIP D. Boon; he was like the SST generation's Buddy Holly. Luckily, Mike Watt is carrying on admirably. He's in about half a dozen bands here in the LA area.

80's:

The Dream Syndicate - Days of Wine and Roses

90's:

Pavement - Watery, Domestic

los angeles

wild gift

the first wave of southern california punk bands like the minutemen were mind-blowing

Simon & Garfunkle - Bridge over ... (first time I ever used hifi headphones - WOW!)
Led Zepellin - "Black Dog" (goodbyyyyyyyyyye Donnie Osmond!)
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (someone sounded even more messed up than I was)
B-52s - B-52s (this new-wave thing had possibilities)
Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk (yes, distinct possibilities)
Pretenders - Pretenders (what my older brothers thought of my musical tastes stopped mattering thanks to this lp)
Kate Bush - Never Forever (wierd, beautiful and utterly unlike anything anyone else was doing)
Replacements - Tim (Paul Westerberg becomes the voice of a generation)
The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues (joyful music had its uses; opened me up to the idea country might not be all bad)

The first time I heard it, I thought, what the fuck? All these years later, I still think, what the fuck? But in a good way, you know.

Operation Ivy--self titled. They're just so damn good.

Aretha Franklin--double-disc GH. Every time I listen to it, I think I'll never be able to listen to any other music ever again, because it's just better.

Prince--Purple Rain. My first album that told a story. Got this little white girl into funk in a very big way. Went backwards from there--James Brown, Tower of Power, Maceo.

Cat

The Beatles Sgt Pepper
Black Sabbath's self titled debut ablum
Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick
Tool's AEnima