(First published between 10-13-23/ 11-16-24 on middleageoutrage, http://instagram.com/middleageoutrage )
The Sounds of Science by Beastie Boys. (1999)
I’ve loved Beastie Boys since a kid showed my brother and I Licensed To Ill when I was in 5th grade and wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music. Sounds Of Science came out when I was in 8th grade and the song ‘Alive’ had a music video that I loved. I really wanted to get this cd but had to wait until my parents gave me more freedom (and money) to buy music. I bought this before we went on a spring break vacation and listened to the double disc album many times on my discman. For the last 20 years this album has never failed to impress me. It introduced me to the genius of Paul’s Boutique, which I would later love on its own. It showed me a band who didn’t experiment with jazz & punk, they really were a jazz band, they really were a punk band. Every track and left field cut included was carefully curated to expose me to one of the most brilliant group of artists of the 20th century. I am forever grateful for this album and Beastie Boys.
@beastieboys
A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. (1964)
I took a jazz history class at my local community college that had a big impact on me. I knew about Miles Davis and Glenn Miller, but had such minimal knowledge about the great American art form.
I read about this album and it sounded super interesting, so I went to the library and found a CD of it. Within 20 seconds my mind was opened not just to free jazz but greater experimentation in all music and art. It’s not the craziest piece of music, but it opened the floodgates for me to embrace and enjoy a robust variety of things: Ornette Coleman, Dillinger Escape Plan, Tim & Eric, and myself as a free form human.
Of course my love for jazz really took off after this album and I found dozens of other great albums that made it into my collection, this ones impact on me is the greatest in the genre for me.
@johncoltrane
Tim by The Replacements. (1984)
I had read about this in music magazines like Spin & Rolling Stone (which are total trash nowadays). I found a copy at a library in Green Bay, Wisconsin as I looked for music to deliver sandwiches to. It was a slow burn for me, my first impressions were not love. Then the songs ‘I’ll Buy’ and ‘Kiss Me On The Bus’ stuck out to me. Every year or so another song from here would become a favorite of mine. In 2021 I became obsessed with ‘Swingin Party’. Every song on Tim is incredible, and I listen to it in its entirety fairly frequently.
This year I discovered a new mix by Ed Stasium @eddiestasium where the songs sound clear and not distorted. It is possibly better than the one I’ve grown to love, but now I am in a conundrum of where my loyalty is supposed to lie.
@thereplacements
Source Tags & Codes by …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. (2002)
MTV 2 used to be awesome. When I was in high school they would talk about bands who were doing something interesting in these 5 minute news stories. They did one on ‘…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead’ that captured me. They showed the band destroying the stage and their instruments, and the guys in the band said that was every show they did.
I worked at this terrible outlet mall in Loveland Colorado for years, and on my breaks I would go into this media store and spend my paychecks on cds. I was so pumped when I found this album, because I thought I’d have to go somewhere really cool to find it. I tried showing Trail of Dead to my friends, but they rejected them because they didn’t sound like Blink 182.
I loved it because Source Tags was like one seamless song from beginning to end, not that the songs sound alike at all. It’s chaotic and melodic at the same time. If you haven’t listened to it yet, play it from front to back with headphones on a solitary walk.
@realtrailofdead
Miss Machine by Dillinger Escape Plan. (2004)
I had heard about these guys putting on the craziest live shows and jumped at the chance to see them when they played Ft. Collins in 2005. I had heard a couple of songs from compilation cd’s but didn’t care that much, I just wanted to see the chaos. When the singer destroyed a box fan, a mic stand and the expectations of the expectant audience I was sold on Dillinger. At the end of their set he got in the crowd and breathed fire- this band was a league ahead of other metal bands.
I went and got Miss Machine later that week and fell in love. I got all the other albums when they came out and have loved every one of them, but Miss Machine stands out to me as my favorite. They play so fast, except for when they slow down and it sounds like a horror movie from the 1930s. As I re-listened before I wrote this it brought me back to the months before I started dating my wife. Man, I remember feeling like this music was how I felt internally as I tried to figure out who I was going to be. I feel like this album is helping soundtrack this season of my life as well. So thank you Dillinger Escape Plan for helping my internal chaos have a sound.
@dillingerescapeplan
thebearplane 
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