So after attending the 20th anniversary tour of the brand new record for 1990, They Might Be Giants’ brand new album, Flood, I shoulda known that it was getting to be that time in my life. The time that I am once again reminded that I’m getting old.
There were a few seminal albums for the beginning of my college life, and depending on who was around, that determined what was in the CD player (or tape deck, or whatever). Here are a few, with some associations –
Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes: There were so many resonances on this album it’s just silly. My whole passel of friends owned this record and I think most of us played the grooves off the CD at least once.
They Might Be Giants – Flood – Knew. Every. Word. Churchill and Indy were even worse, and so was Steve. When we all piled into the Impala and went to see them at the 1313 club I think we had 8 people in that stupid car.
Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting – I was never really that goth, but I played one on TV. Nah, I didn’t even play too goth, but this album was in the rotation. Saw them in 1993 with my friend Liz. Saw the tour announcement today – they’re doing the 20th anniversary tour, and playing Bloodletting track by track. Closest stop is Atlanta. Good for me I work in Atlanta some weeks. June 16th is one of those weeks :). See you there?
Indigo Girls – self-titled – I blame this on Shana, who turned me onto the Indigo Girls.
Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine – smoked weed and ate leftover spaghetti right out of the fridge in Jason Mann’s house in Alabama on a ridiculous road trip over Fall Break my freshman year. Not sure how we didn’t end up in jail.
The KLF – The White Room – although later theatrical experience with a certain self-styled “Goddess” (really long story involving a lot of baby oil and a rolling suitcase that’s more innocent and still more annoying than it sounds) ruined this album for me, we played it over and over again during marathon D&D/booze sessions in Jason and Fuller’s room.
What were your seminal college albums?
“Not sure how we didn’t end up in jail.”
Soooo…. this is a recurring theme then?
😉
NIN had some amazing stuff.
Metallica’s Master of Puppets. First 3 seconds of Battery had me hooked and changed my entire music listening patterns.
Man now I wish I could remember more! Several people I hung out with were on a Lorenna McKennit kick so i often think of that with college. I also first started buying CD’s in college so I had “A boy Named Goo” and a few others that I started buying. I really liked movie soundtracks…
HHHHmmmm, well, I didn’t go to college like normal people do, I waited till I was 30… but in the span of 1983-87 when I should have been.
1. The Cult “Love” Amazing crossover Goth/hardrock album, saw them for the 4th time this winter as they played the Love album from start to finish for its 25th anniversary.
2. Guns and Roses “Appetite for Destruction” DUH, quite probably the best hair metal album of all time, less lip gloss and a lot more hair you know where.
3. The Smithereens “Especially for You” One of the first albums I heard when I moved back to the US. After 2.5 years of awful europtrash and brit pop, I needed crunchy guitar and intelligent lyrics. Plus, they’re from a couple miles up the road from my old NJ stomping grounds.
Oh and Johnny, I saw them at the Stone Pony on a bill with They Might Be Giants somewhere around 1987 or 88.
Probably more than that, but I wore out the vinyl on those.
2.