73: Heavy Metal Soundtrack

Heavy Metal Soundtrack at Amazon

Some people have Eraserhead. Others have The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And I think a couple of people in Denmark like Gigli. However, my favorite cult movie is Heavy Metal. I'm taken back to a time when my grandmother would take me to the grocery store with her and I would stay in the magazine [...]

74: Rusted Root – When I Woke

Cover of When I Woke Let's get a few things straight. I bathe daily. I am a super carnivore. I don't smoke pot. I can't normally keep a hacky sack in the air for more than one kick. Most of my clothes fit. Did I mention I bathe? With soap and shampoo? But…. I love, [...]

75: Queen – The Game

Cover of The Game (+ Bonus Track) Queen's The Game (1980) is one of those albums I wore out until you could see through the vinyl. The Game is Queen at the beginning of a change to less experimental but still incredibly strong songs. From the opening track "Play the Game" the controlled power of [...]

76: Pushmonkey – Pushmonkey

Cover of Pushmonkey The only reason you probably don't have Pushmonkey's self-titled album (1998) is because you weren't listening to WONC in Naperville, IL in 1998. They started playing "Caught My Mind" and I was hooked. I special ordered the CD from a music store in Austin, TX, the band's home base. This album is [...]

77: The Smiths – Louder Than Bombs

Cover of Louder Than Bombs Ah the 1980s. AOR ruled the airwaves and mullets were acceptable. People actually drank beer from cans and cruised in muscle cars up and down streets in order to demonstrate who coud play Dokken louder from their Fieros, 280 ZXs, and barely bolted together American muscle cars. Before our culture [...]

78: Simple Minds – Once Upon a Time

Cover of Once Upon a Time This pick has nothing to do with Molly Ringwald or Emilio Estevez or any '80s teen coming of age movie. This pick is based purely on the incredible song writing included in Simple Mind's Once Upon a Time (1985). Simple Minds really came together to form a tight band [...]

79: Van Halen – Van Halen

Cover of Van Halen If you've ever been to a local music store guitar solo contest, you know when it comes. You hear the first chord and know you're about to hear yet another sixteen-year-old grind out "Eruption" in hopes of winning the free guitar. No guitar solo contest would be complete without "Eruption" rehashed [...]

80: Gojira – The Way of All Flesh

Cover of The Way of All Flesh Gojira is a more recent discovery for me, but their sound wiped its feet in part of my brain I didn't know I had. I've never heard anything like them until a friend sent me a link to a video of theirs. Gojira's The Way of All Flesh [...]

81: Static-X – Wisconsin Death Trip

Cover of Wisconsin Death Trip When I need to clean out some cobwebs and get some work done, I have some go-to albums. Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) does the trick. This is best-in-class industrial metal that makes White/Rob Zombie sound like kids banging on trash cans (which I think is how those recording sessions [...]

82: Kerry Livgren – Seeds of Change

Seeds of Change by Kerry Livgren

Kerry Livgren of Kansas is probably one of the greatest rock song writers of the twentieth century. If you look at the library of Kansas' music alone, his signature progressive rock sounds make up the best of their music. Around 1978 Livgren began to have issues with personal faith and there was a conflict within [...]