Albums of the Thousands

I thought I'd take a moment out of my eventfulless day to list the albums which I believe are the top 17 (that I've listened to) since the clocks never stopped post-1999...

17 - Sufjan Stevens, Come Feel the Illinoise
There is no last place, but rather this brilliant collection of songs made it final on my list of first places. This artist celebrates a true magic in his music, making melodies and songs that haunt and provide plenty of listening tunes while driving, waking up to grey winter mornings or walking down a blustery fall afternoon.
When to listen to it: while driving up and down the I-5 corridor in November

16 - Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Modest Mouse has a large place in my heart and soul. Too many incredible songs to date. Sometimes I crave a little more consistency in the albums (but never fear, see #15) but I am left in awe and timeless fury when listening to the beastly rompings of these complicated hearts.
When to listen to it: when backing up (not unto police cars) from the parking lot of Macaroni Grill in Folsom, Ca.

15 - Old Crow Medicine Show, O.C.M.S.
Cocaine! A drug I shant try, but an introduction into the hilarious and unlimited world of bluegrass. I now can twiddle my toes on a summer's eve with my pants rolled up and my face brown and wind-beaten, thank you OCMS. You've made me a nasaly, mournful harmonica-loving grassman.
When to listen to it: while driving across the Salt Flats outside SLC, Utahr. wear a flannel shirt.

14 - Ugly Cassanova
No music so properly opened my mind than the clanky acoustic rhythms of this one-time wonder. From the start to finish, you will be lulled and dragged by the true raw chords and bonks that make up the gritty sound project that is Ugly Cassanova.
When to listen to it: Pulling down the dirt roads that connect an abandoned copper mine to the unkempt highways adorning Smith Valley, Nevada.

13 - The Arcade Fire, Funeral
Wake up! woke me up from the moment I heard him sing of lightning bolts. It took listen upon listen to fully grasp the incredulity of his language - nothing made more sense, and no one had said it so eloquently. The music will build up your soul. The album is sporadic and fascinating, and deserves every second you spend trying to sort out which is your favorite song.
When to listen to it: while walking to class between the redwoods and yellow fields of UC Santa Cruz, Ca.

12 - Glassjaw, Worship and Tribute
Nothing sounds so messy, and so damn good. Daryl's voice becomes enchanting, you marvel with googly eyes at the notes and quotes he sweetly violently distributes into your ears through songs ladled with ripping guitars, heavy-hitting bass drumming and heavenly desperation.
When to listen to it: while driving out to Somerset, Ca to go night swimming following by sitting atop a wall while talking, overlook the yellow autumn moon.

11 - Alkaline Trio, Crimson
Admit it, you know every lyric. Why? Because three listens in you've got it memorized. Why? Because that's what catchy music can do to you. And Alkaline Trio has managed to snag your heart and voice while clinging to originality and style. It associates with you. It rocks you out.
When to listen to it: when driving down Cold Springs road in the afternoon to look at White-Water Rafting photographs (Ca).

10 - A, Exit Stage Right (Live)
If you didn't get a chance to hear them, you may never will. A is the music of a generation..and they have sadly dispersed. Unfortunately, that generation remains in England. There are four people in the United States who have ever heard of A, and those four will never be the same again, Thanks to A. A is also the first letter of the alphabet, and therefore you can never successfully find this band on the internet, FOREVER. This album is a Live compilation of the songs that turned out to be my favorites.
When to listen to it: while cleaning the popper in the kitchen of the Movie Theater, daydreaming about snowboarding.

9 - The Living End, Roll On
I hadn't really listened to music that I liked until I heard this album for the first time. Before The Living End, there was only mimicry and force. After The Living End, I knew that I had found my niche and therefore found the future of my musical tastes for the rest of my life. The Living End is more than music, it's a voice and I listened to every frikkin word and riff. This album has been branded into my cranium for eternity.. ride a snowboard lift with me, and I'll brand Uncle Harry into your head too.
When to listen to it: at Kirkwood. Period.

8 - Finch, What it is to Burn
Finch had its heyday, and it was this: before there was Emo there was Screamo, and before there was Screamo there was the unclassifiability of a genre of music that could only be defined by the bands name - Finch was one of those bands. They created something brand new and extremely passionate, and few appreciated what came before the Emo crap that swept our pre-hipster society.
When to listen to it: driving through the fog into the forests surrounding Placerville to take Adam Partain home.

7 - Rx Bandits, ...and the Battle Begun
When I first listened to this disc, I felt a little uncertain. As my first listen came to a close, my bag was mixed with all sorts of feelings...mostly by prematurity. I knew that even 1 full listen in, I hadn't even scratched the surface of what this new and wildly more complicated album has to offer. I wasn't sure what was with any of the songs..in fact I didn't remember one of them after turning it off. After the second listen, I started to understand my plight: the music was planting a seed deep inside of me, and it was going to take my nurturing it to grow. Like an archaeological site full of artifacts, and I had to start digging. And dig I did. I listened to the thing on repeat, again and again and again. and like an oak it grew into an aged, magnificent creature, and I uncovered the secrets of ...and the Battle Begun. When I turn on this album on now I sing every lyric to every song, beginning to end. I pound my hands in off-beat unison. and nothing can stop me!
When to listen to it: driving home from your acting internship, wearing that same flannel

6 - Less Than Jake, Borders and Boundaries
Road trips. Snowboarding and road trips. Santa Cruz and road trips. Nothing sets direction to a wandering soul than the sounds of keys jangling and a car starting, followed by the swift guitars leading to melody and words promising the fulfillment of all your escapist desires! Borders and Boundaries, from open to close is an ode and testament to the great American ditch-society, teaching us that you are not alone, that there's a band out there who's counted the broken white stripes on the highway leading to an endless nowhere! Thank you LTJ, without thee I'd have never left Pville.
Where to listen to it: driving to your third year of Folsom Lake Community College while staring at Mt Diablo and the horizons beyond.

5 - Goldfinger, Goldfinger
Spread too thin, Mabel's the Bomb, and my childhood (or girlfriend's) shower most definitely sucks. How many times do you drive into Los Angeles and not find yourself humming the ever-atonal "F*CK LA"? Honestly, this album rules. RULES. I could play King For A Day 100 times and not get sick of it. I played the Mabel song until it skipped, and even convinced myself that I was going to marry a girl named Mabel someday. I love every second of every song, I worshipped this music.
When to listen to it: while you pull onto Mission from Hwy 1 in Santa Cruz, Ca.

4 - The Offspring, Ixnay on the Hombre
I didn't know that much about the Offspring before I purchased this used album in downtown Sacramento after the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Two months later, I had an album of anthems that kept me awake after 8 hours of snowboarding, and a slough of new albums to check out and rock out to. Ixnay is chock full of tracks that will stick like putty, with tribal drumming and beautifully-crafted high-octave vocals. Ixnay will leave you throbbing and waiting for skeletons to drag you onto a dirt bike backflipping. It will shake the snow from the grey clouds and shove you off the cliff towards mountains of powder. It will reinvigorate. It will thirst your tongue for wetness. And it will make you sing, "yeah yeah yeah yeah, Yeah!" in your head for the rest of your Gosh Darned life.
Where to listen to it: pulling away from Starbucks at 7 am before driving two hours into the crisp morning air to hit the slopes

3 - Rx Bandits, Progess
It's almost a disservice, what these guys have done to my psyche. I can't really say I've ever been the same since I first listened to Halfway Between Here and There and stood amazed as their secret track rang out through my car speakers with the perfectly-played tune that will serenade my funeral (you know what song I'm talking about). Then they came out with Progress, and I started listening to the lyrics of songs for the first time. I didn't really think a little black mushroom cloud would ever form over Sacramento, but I did see that our society is changing too quickly, and then I heard the magical words that I quote to this day, "Go! Create!" Screams never meant so much to me. And so I obsessed. I watched their concerts because of this album. I promised loyalty because of this album. And I declared love for everything in my life, thanks to the lessons I learned from Progress.
When to listen to it: You must play Infection when pulling into your first snow-blown day of Kirkwood, Ca

2 - Moby, Play
Moby is a significant figure. A sig fig. I give him and this album 2nd place because no other song in history can I fathom that so accurately complements the generation from which I was raised. The backpacking, gypsy, world-traveling, peaceful loving culture that I call my own is defined and represented by Porcelain. And the year that pulled it all together, when so much went down that altered my own personal history, well Moby Play basically has helped me carry my torch since the first listen.
Where to listen to it: while sitting on an exotic beach looking at the stars, hoping you'll get the foreign girl and find some way to be free and see the world before you die

Addendum: I came back, read this a month later and realized I had forgotten something - the tie for first place next to No Use, a little album by a little band called:

1 - Iron and Wine, Shepherd's Dog
This ties with the following (No Use For a Name)...not because its nostalgic but because it's amazing.

1 - No Use For a Name, Hard Rock Bottom
Music passes through generations. Music is a memorial of the time from which it comes. A classic is a song or band that is music you can put back in your stereo every year, turn it up and know that you will be able to listen to that exact-same produced record in the same way for the rest of your life and still like it - even when you're 30, 40, 50, 60, hopefully 90. Hard Rock Bottom is me at 12. It's me at 19. Me at 22. Me at 25, and now in my 27th year it's still me. Not because the lyrics, not because of the melodies, not because of the nostalgia, or the guitars, or that I can sing every word. It's no better than any of these other albums (i can sing every word of Progress or hum every beat of Play). Hard Rock Bottom is the same...except, it's innocent. It rings the most true to me, because it is the most humble. It is the most heartfelt. It wasn't created just to be sold, or for a girl, or for an artist to narcissize over. I don't know why No Use For A Name created the album, or why they create any of their albums, but Hard Rock Bottom does one thing that I never see in most of the industries that America has to offer: It is honest. It is sweet, humble and honest. In addition, it hits your heart with such positivity, such love and sincerity, such freedom and adventure, it is a disc full of anthems for any guy or gal who's lost and needs some kind of direction - because even if you're all alone and totally abandoned, life can still be fun and Hard Rock Bottom sees the awesomeness in that. It still does that for me, every year between the months of October and January. I chose it as my favorite album and that's that.

When to listen to it: whenever you want to remember that everything will be OK in the end and if it's not OK it's not The End.