Numbers 69 to 60 of my Favorite Albums of All-Time

Favorite Albums of 

All-Time 69 - 60

* means I bought the album right when it was released or at the latest a few months

# means I discovered it later (some of these of course are pretty obvious)

69) Goo Goo Dolls - Hold Me Up ( 1990, Metal Blade) -

When the Goo Goo Dolls formed they were a fun thrash band. Hence the record label. Over a while they became more melodic until their track on the 'City Of Angels' soundtrack to them into the lighter sounding band they are today. On their third album Hold Me Up the melody was coming through songs like "Laughing", "There You Are", "Just the Way You Are", where fast and melodic, while others like "Out of the Red" and "Know My Name" still retained some of the thrash elements. They also kept up the tradition of having local Buffalo lounge singer Lance Diamond join them on a cover with this time being Prince's "Never Take the Place of Your Man". There is also a very good cover of The Plimsouls' "Million Miles Away". (*)
 

68- The Wipers - Is This Real? (1980, Park Avenue) - My first exposure to the Portland's Wipers was randomly picking up the Best of compilation on Restless. I liked it but it was a little too dark for me. Then somewhere along the line I heard Nirvana's covers of "D7" and "Return of the Rat" and once again became interested. Then T/K records released the Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers tribute box set, later expanding 14 songs featuring Hole, Nation of Ulysses, Hazel, Poison Idea and more. There were a bunch of songs I never heard of before. In 1993 when Sub Pop reissued The Wipers debut Is This Real where I found the original versions of so many of those songs. Some were still on the darker side but songs like "Mystery", "Let's Get Away", and "Tragedy" very poppy. Is This Real? also contains the two songs Nirvana covered. Its been reissued again but if you can find the Sub Pop issue it includes the Alien Boy Ep as a bonus. (#)

67) Rancid - S/T (1993, Epitaph) - When Rancid

released their debut album the hype was huge. Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman's previous band Operation Ivy was a favorite among all kinds of punks. I was not a huge fan of them.When the album came out it was instantly in my rotation. Sixteen songs of British Wave influenced punk rock songs about their hometown of Berkely, with singalong choruses in each one. Almost every one of their albums released over the next 25 years would be great but the S/T will always be my favorite, (*)

66) Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie (1989, Virgin) - A favorite song list would include "Take The Skinheads Bowling" or "Good Guys and Bad Guys" off of CVB's previous albums but those also contain some filler or instrumental interludes. Key Lime Pie was the first one where every song was great. While Dennis Herring's production is cleaner than his work with the band of the songs, the songs have a darker feel to them. All still Dave Lowry's interesting lyrics, There is also, in my opinion, a better than original version of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men". This was also CVB's last album before going on hiatus with Dave Lowry forming the more mainstream band Cracker. (*)

65) The Police - Outlandos D' Amour (1979, I.R.S.) - The first three Police albums and Synchronicity could

easily make this list but my favorite is also their debut. Every song is perfect. Plus "Next to You", "Born in the 50's", and "Truth Hits Everybody" are almost punk rock. They probably were when they were still in demo form. For fun put on Track 3 "Roxanne" and do a push up every time the song's title is said. (#)

64) Flat Duo Jets - S/T (1990, Dog Gone) - As I mentioned in a previous post about here my first college choice was the University of Georgia in Athens. In the summer of 1990 my family took a trip down there. Of course we had to hit up a record store while there. One of the CDs I picked up was the debut by the locally based Flat Duo Jets, which I had seen a video of on 120 Minutes. When I got home and put it on, like so many great albums before and since I was simply blown away. The band often gets unfairly labeled "Psychobilly". There really is so much more to this (at the time) trio. From guitar driven versions of classics like "Sing Sing Sing", raw originals like "Wild Wild Lover", and few instrumentals. It even has a few slow numbers in "Baby" and "Dreams Don't Cost a Thing". (*)

63) Minor Threat - Out of Step (1983, Dischord) - If the was their Complete Discography CD it

would probably appear much further down than the '60s. But along with a few 7" eps and compilation cuts Minor Threat did release one album.in Out of Step. It contains eight new short and fast hardcore ragers, a more angry recording of the title track, and sarcastic take on artists who are out to make money which almost reaches the four-minute mark. The more adult sounding Salad Days 7" would follow before singer Ian Mackaye would go on to front a few short-lived bands before forming another band that appears later on this list. (#)

62) Pee Tanks - Picnic With Your Mom (1994, Sneezeguard) - Normally I don't put friends bands on my lists but since I did not know any member of the Maryland's Pee Tanks until at least 4 or 5 years after this was released I am making an exception. Picnic With You Mom contains 8 tracks of fast melodic hook-filled punk with touches of ska here and there. The album also(o has a cover of U2's "With Or Without" towards the end. (*)


61) Supersuckers - The Smoke of Hell (1992,

Sub Pop) - The sell proclaimed "Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World" have definitely released a slew of albums filled with good rock 'n roll over the last 26 year. Still none have matched the speed and urgency of their debut. Twelve fast fuzz filled ragers, and a slowed-down version of an earlier song "Hell City, Hell" which oozes fire and brimstone. There is even an instrumental at the very end. I have seen them at least 20 times live, including a three hour half country half rock set in Red Hook, Brooklyn but the time they opened for Mudhoney at Hammerjacks circa 1992 when this album came out will always be one of my favorite concerts ever. (*)

60) D.R.I. - Dirty Rotten (1983, Dirty Rotten) - Dirty Rotten Imbeciles are known for their crossover thrash years. Before they went in that direction they had released a couple albums of short fast blasts of hardcore. On their first album the songs are so fast if you blink the record will already be on track 6. Most of the time you will see Dirty Rotten with the full-color illustration of a skeleton in army fatigues with a gun. If you can, try to find the earlier version with the photo of the drummer's head from the earlier 7". It's so much faster and noisier. (#)

Up Next:

59 - 50

Out of The Vaults #18 - Chernobyl Kids - Demo 99

My wife dives into our CD cabinets (The Vaults) and randomly pull out one of the thousands of CDs. The chosen album will then be given to me and I will talk about the CD for awhile no matter how good, bad, obscure or embarrassing the chosen disc is. Where did I buy it, when did I buy it, what was my first reaction to hearing it, do I still listen to it today etc, etc, etc

Out Of The Vaults # 18 - The Chernobyl Kids - Demo 99


Many times in this blog I have referred to the record store I owned in the late 90's called The Sound Exchange. One of the things that kept my store going for as long as it did was the support of local bands. One of these bands was the fun punk/hardcore band The Chernobyl Kids. The band was made up of members of various other past and present Baltimore area bands. Singer Funny had been the vocalist for the Maryland favorites The Pee Tanks. Bassist Steve was in another well-liked Maryland band (who also played at my store) named Longshot while guitarist John had been in Crew Jones. John and Steve were also in the awesome hardcore band No Justice. Drummer Matt came from a band named S.Q.U.I.D which always surprised me a bit because I was only familiar with them from the Baltimore City: That Breeds compilation from a while back

All together they made up an awesome band that knew when it was time to be poppy and when it was time to be hard, both times with great hooks. The Chernobyl Kids played my store at least twice that I can remember, one of which was the final two-day event blowout before the store's doors closed for good.

The Chernobyl Kids always ranked among my favorite Maryland bands. Here is why:

Top: Funny. Bottom: John and Steve

There is an age-old punk rock debate about who was the first band to bring the "Woahs" into punk rock music. Some say it was Glenn Danzig's Misfits. Some say it was Chicago's Naked Raygun. Whichever one it was I am glad they brought them. The "woahs" are one of the things that make a song fun to sing along to. The Chernobyl Kids had no shortage of them. The Fahrenheit 451-inspired lead track "Clarisse McLellan Lives" and "Pop Song" on track 5 were especially filled with some good old fashion "Woahs".

The demo also had its fair share of fast ones too. "Sinister Icy Cold Blackhand Of Death" (Track 3), "Slumlords of Towson" (Track 4), and "Generalization" (Track 6)  all reach breakneck speeds while still retaining their fun punk rock charm.

A definite stand-out song on the Demo would be "Park Bench" (Track 7). The very powerful and introspective Avail-influenced (sorry guys) song definitely sticks in your head and to this day finds its way on  many of the mix CDs I make for people

Most of these songs did end up on the Chernobyls Kids album To The Spoil Goes The Victors which can be downloaded here .

Flyer courtesy of Speechimpediment@blogspot.com

Since the band called it quits the members have remained active. Funny now plays bass in Widows Watch, a very good Maryland band which you can download their demo here: Widows Watch Demo 2011/2012. Also check out their Facebook page here to find out about upcoming shows.

(According to my friend Mike's blog Speech Impediment ) John went on to play in DC bands The Aftermath and Set To Explode while Steve would go on to another DC band 86 Mentality, both with releases available on my friend (and Words With Friends adversary) Alex's Grave Mistake Records here