15 Albums That Changed Your Life

I got this from my husband on Facebook and spent too much time filling it out not to post it elsewhere. So, in order to justify the last two hours I spent making this list, I'm going to use it for my blog post today.

FYI - It's listed chronologically, not by any type of preference.

The idea is to fill it out and then tag 15 people. Fill it out if you want and then let me know you did! I love reading everyone else's list.

15. Cake - Fashion Nugget
If I remember correctly, my sister talked me into paying for 1/2 of this album with her. I might have been 12 or 13 at the time. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. I just listened to it last week on my iPod and the bass lines thump so loud when you listen to it on headphones. It's awesome...

14. Annie DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle
I worked at Sam Goody in high school and the store manager was a huge Ani fan. She put this album in the playlist and I thought it was crap. After listening to it probably 40 times I started liking it. This album launched my great love of all things DiFranco and probably is to fault for me eventually letting my boyfriend buzz my head. No joke.

13. The Strokes - Is This It
I saw these dudes on Conan O'Brien and ran out and bought the album the next day. I was a freshman in college and had a 5 hour art class on Monday nights, so I brought it to play during class. The teacher, who I had a major crush on, really liked it and talked to me about it. I swooned. I completely wore this album out over the next couple of years. It's too catchy to shelve permanently though.

12. Scout - It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time
Again, another band I saw on Conan O'Brien. I bought this album before a road trip to Chicago and listened to it on repeat the entire time. Loud, grungy, full of attitude. It transcends girl rock into just plain rock. And it's awesome.

11. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
What is there to say about this album? It's iconic.

10. Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me
I took this album out of my grandpa's old record collection when I got my first record player. I love to play it when I'm cooking. I pour a glass of wine, throw on an apron, and pretend it's the 1950s. I love a classic crooner and no one does it better than Blue Eyes. I listen to it and I think of my grandpa sitting around with a glass of scotch on his astroturf covered patio.

09. Spoon - Girls Can Tell
I discovered this one in an ex's record collection and staked my claim on it. It's freaking awesome. It's indie rock before indie rock was mainstream rock. Indie rock before there was a haircut associated with it. You can keep your Death Cab, I've got Girls Can Tell. This is one of the best summer albums ever, perfect for driving with the windows rolled down.

08. The Long Winters - When I Pretend to Fall
I started listening to this band at the same time as The Shins, and these guys ended up being my favorite of the two. There's something about this album that's so fluffy and goofy, yet serious and sort of depressing at the same time. I know every word to every song. It just makes me feel good to listen to it.

07. The Concretes - The Concretes
Another one of those girl rock albums that is just plain good whether you're a boy or a girl. The singer's voice is so bizarrely imperfect that it's beautiful. It's the kind of catchy, poppy goodness that only the Swedish can give to the world.

06. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
I could probably fill this list with just albums from Jack White and Brendan Benson. This is their first album together and they bring it like the rock stars they are. This is what modern rock should sound like. It's a shame that it only got minimal radio play. Everyone should have this album in their lexicon. It reawakened my love of great rock music.

05. Nina Simone - Nina Simone Sings the Blues
She is the High Priestess of Soul. Hers is a voice that will hit you right in the gut. The woman's got it going on. This album is pure 60s soul. It sounds like it was recorded in a hot NYC bar in the middle of summer 1967. She's angry and heartbroken and fighting for her civil rights on this album. It's beautiful in more ways than I can understand.

04. Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Raw, dirty, rock n. roll. I love it. I love this band. I'm seeing them for the 4th time when we go to Florida. This album feels like so much more than just another band making music. Bonus points for "Soft" containing some of the filthiest sentiments ever set to music. You're missing out if you never listen to this band.

03. The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers
Oh god... what is there to say about Sgt. Peppers that millions of people worldwide don't already know. This album (and band of course) is probably responsible for everything that's happened in music over the last 40 years. Listening to this one in headphones is the only way to go. It's so rich and deep. There's so much hidden back in there. What makes it even more amazing is the way they recorded it. No Pro Tools, no computers. Just a room full of geniuses and 4 tracks. It's mind blowing. I can't pick one Beatles album that I think is the best, but this is one that made me realize how amazing the band became on their later works.

02. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Forget the fun-in-the-sun, surfer bullshit. This is Beach Boys right here. The harmonies are insane. No auto-tune in 1966, remember? I've listened to some of his album with the instrumentals taken off and the vocals alone still make up an incredible piece of work.

01. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
I broke out of the Beatles/Beach Boys zone with this album and started listening to heavier classic rock. Robert Plant sort of sounds like a lady-boy at times, but you know what? He rocks it. Definitely needs to be listened to with the volume cranked up.

Yesterday and Today Photos

I've become the unofficial photographer for all things family related. This, happens to be what my family does... I have the pleasure of getting to photograph it. The brothers performed their show, Yesterday and Today, last week in Des Moines. (My husband is in the middle.)

My Husband is Famous!

Okay, so maybe being featured in the Des Moines Register doesn't actually make him famous, but it makes me proud!



He performs in this show called, Yesterday and Today with two of his brothers. (Matt is the brother in the middle.) It's an audience-driven tribute to the Beatles. The audience picks what songs they want to hear and they make a set list out of the top picks. It's pretty incredible. Some of the songs they play are dead on. I Am the Walrus, for example, blew my mind the first time I heard them play it. My jaw literally dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like I was listening to the recording it was so accurate.

Check out the article here. I'm going to go see them this weekend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get there in time to go to the Des Moines Art Center. It's one of my favorite museums to visit. I took my very first solo road trip there in college. (Does a 2.5 hour drive count as a road trip?)

Hail! Hail! Rock -n- Slow

This evening started out with me being incredibly excited to go see Chuck Berry.

It ended with me being massively disappointed in him.

I knew that having high expectations in an 81 year old man's ability to rock would just be a recipe for a let down, but I didn't anticipate it being as bad as it was. Yes, he's 81 years old, but he's also a rock legend who charges $30 a ticket so I'm allowed to upset when the show is a complete and utter disaster. Problem #1: Mr. Berry cannot hear, evidently, and thus cannot play in key. Let me be clear and say that I do not have an ear for pitch. At all. But even I could tell that he was playing in a different key from the rest of his band. Problem #2: Everything slows down when you're in your 80s. Chuck talked slow, "sang" slow, "played" guitar slow. So, in turn his band had to slow everything down. Classic rock and roll tunes turned into unrecognizable ballads. Problem #3: The guitar "playing". It sounded like me up there when I play Guitar Hero. It was a mess of missed notes and string taps.

I really, really like Chuck Berry. I'm so disappointed in the way everything unfolded. I have a huge amount of respect for him and what he did for rock and roll. (Even if he did recycle the same four songs over and over again.) The only good thing that resulted from tonight, is that Matt and I were relived that we didn't take a road trip down to St. Louis to see him play at Blueberry Hill (his hometown regular joint). I'd rather pay $60 to be disappointed at home than travel six hours and pay $60 to be disappointed in another state.

Everything is New Again!

Labor Day has come and gone which means that all the quality movies, TV shows and music are coming out for the fall. I already love and/or cannot wait any longer for:

01. Burn After Reading - I am a manic Coen fan. Blame it on my high school BF. He dragged me to O Brother senior year and I was smitten with Joel and Ethan. I even forgave them for Clooney's awful lip synching scene. My love of O Brother also parlayed into a love for Gillian Welch but that's another blog. I am antsy with anticipation for Burn After Reading. Frances McDormand? John Malkovich? Tilda Swinton? Yes, please!!!

(On a side note, if anyone wants to discuss the ending to No Country For Old Men let me know. I almost completely understood the ending and I think it's genius. Kind of a "we're smarter than you'll ever be" middle finger from the bros to all of us viewers.)

02. Entourage - I joined this series at the end of what I think is the third season and I didn't really get it at first. Ya, ok. Boobs, LA, hugging it out. Nice. But then after a few episodes I got hooked on it. The writing is great, the characters are awesome. It's Sex and the City but with boys. And that leads us to...

03. True Blood - I watched this after Entourage and took it with a huge grain of salt... but still enjoyed it greatly. When did vampires become unscary? They're really just sort of gay. But still, this show was pretty cool. I really love horror movies of the monster genre so this was a treat. I only read about the show last week so I didn't have any expectations about it. But, it's from the badasses who created Six Feet Under so it didn't disappoint.

04. Kings Of Leon - Oh. My. God. I really don't know what else to say. Their new album, Only By The Night, doesn't actually come out for another couple of weeks but I got a copy of it from a secret source. Don't give me that look. I'm buying it on vinyl when it comes out. I just listened to it this morning and I was completely blown away by it. It's epic. Like, Queen epic. And it rocks so hard. It feels legendary listening to it. I hope this is the album that does it for them. It's so incredible. Definitely my favorite release of 2008.

Buy it. Listen to it. Love it.

Moses Prey Show!