11. Jane's' Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
I feel I will/have prefacing alot of these songs with, "back when Mtv was relevant" but at one point it was true. Ages ago, they played music, and all kinds of music, and this was another one I discovered through them. This was an Mtv favorite at the time of it unearthing, the video was funny, and the song was very catchy. Perry Farrell's now famous howl was very endearing to me. I got this CD from my very first of many Columbia House scams, where I would sign up under a false name, and never pay them. Can't imagine why they went out of business....
12. Rage Against the Machine - Freedom
This band was apart of a blitz of music Mtv was promoting with The Cranberries, White Zombie, and Rage Against the Machine. I was so very confused with this band, thinking that they were all angry native americans. The hideous hybrid of rap/metal was yet to be born, so this all was relatively new to me.
I remember asking Andrea Shockling, "Are we allowed to like this?" to clearly draw the line in the sand as a metal head, but loving the band. The end of this song where he builds up to "Freedooooooooom!! Yeah Right!" still gets my blood pumping. Say what you want about Mr. DelLaZocha's message he believes in it, and it translates into his music, and I think for me that's what matters.
I also remember peeling off the "newly instated" Parental Adivsory sticker as not to draw attention to myself from my parents. As privacy invading as they were, they took no notice to any music I was listening to at the time, which themselves being huge music fans confused me. I suppose it was just another way to remind me how uninterested they were in what I was doing.
13. Beastie Boys - Sabotage
I have to admit that Ian was the one to made me fall in love with the Beasties. In grade school I hear them for the first time (as the rest of the world did) with "fight for your right" and I immediately dismissed them as rap - therefore terrible. Every kid on the school bus had a Beasties tape, and impose it onto my protesting ears. For years, I resisted them and wrote them off as citche hip hop until Ian found them in his own way. I fell in love with the song immediately, and I'm pretty sure I tried to steal his copy for my own collection several times.
14. Prodigy - Poison
I remember rushing to the Monroeville Mall to buy this CD for the purpose of me being shamed into it. My best friend for that year, Dave Halloran was really into British rock, as hard as any high school kid could be. He was reading some imported magazine that he got from Border's and mentioned that the contest on the inside of the magazine could get you a Keith Prodigy inflatable punching bag toy. He said it with alot more excitement that I understood.
"You don't know the Prodigy?! With all that techno shit you listen to?! This is actually a good one!" he berated me with a smirk.
I lied and said of course I knew about them, but I didn't like them. That night I drove frantically and picked up "Songs for the Jilted Generation" from Record Den, and my love affair with the Prodigy continued to this day.
15. White Zombie - Welcome To The Planet MotherFucker
This was the last cassette I ever owned, and I played it until the writing melted off both sides. I know of all the White Zombie hits, why this one right? I loved the build in this song, and when I was learning to drive, I so wanted to play this for my inaugural solo ride. So when I got my license and I drove down to Network Video to rent Earthworm Jim for Super Nintendo, this was the song I played. It was one of my "perfect moments" of freedom, and one step closer to escaping the tyranny of my home.
16. Moby -All That I Need Is To Be Loved
Moby made it into the news for his new album being heralded by Mtv as "the king of underground dance music" I used my birthday money to pick up his CD, and was very confused by the signature Moby piano infused ambient synths, and mellow overtones. THIS was the "king of underground dance music?!" The album became very endearing to me over time including "When It's Cold I'd Like To Die" when one of my favorite dogs died. This song was the one uptempo club inspired song with punk influences, and it became a nice go to song for years to come.
17. Stone Temple Pilots - Sex Type Thing
There wasn't a human alive who was not aware of STP in the 90's. They were apart of the new wave of artists that changed the generational music landscape. It influenced me just like thousands of angsty teens, and this song was on the front line.
18. Nirvana - Man Who Sold The World
I remember when Kurt died. I called all my friends to break the news. I was in my parents bedroom watching TV and talking on the phone (before AIM/Texts/Skype) and talking to Andrea Shockling about the death of Kurt. We both couldn't imagine modern music without him. The Unplugged special was on TV a few months before his death, and even at a younger age, I knew it was something truly special. The world was still in love with the special, which i swore was played a few times a day everyday, when Kurt died. The CD being released was such a huge deal, and wiki states is the biggest post-humerus release ever. I still list that album as one of my favorites of all time. Again, its an artist of believed in his music, and with the grungy filter of his artistry it was hard to perceive what he was trying to do.
19. Blur - Boys and Girls
This was a band my friend Dave Halloran got me into. He introduced it to me because of how dancy it was. The video was controversial with girls kissing girls, and dudes kissing dudes. It was a big deal on Mtv and you could only catch the video after midnight if you were lucky. I maintained a luck-warm relationship with Blur from there on out, but I loved how catchy the song was an used that love to impress my cool friends that I liked a new British band.
20. Beck - Where it's At
I remember hearing Loser, at a Chris Ritter sleep over and the song was another Mtv mega-hit. No one had a clue that this strange musician would make an absolute classic of an album. I immediately loved every song on the album from first go on. How I got the album is a funny story as well.
It was a little after tax refund time, and my dad apparently switched the deposits on mine and his bank account. I was at the Monroeville Mall, and I was getting money out of my account to eat Sbarros and use the change to pick up some music. My account balance stated 900.00! This was an insane amount of money for me at the time. Without second guessing it I tried to take out all 900 so I could hoard it since I know that my newly acquired fortune was not only a mistake, but temporary. The ATM would only let me take out 250.00, and I spent it all on music, including Odelay.
It took a few days for them to properly diagnose the problem with their finances, and I was on house trial. I denied everything of course, and was given 24 hours to solve the problem. I called the bank and yelled at the customer service lady about a fictitious problem. I felt bad for her as I hit her with an impossible circle of logic that went no where. I played along with my lie for weeks, and it was eventually exhausted and/or filed in the "i hate paul" mental file cabinet.
1 Construxive Remarx