5 albums that changed the way you hear music, 5 books that changed the way you read

[mellowbonsai]

Not neccesarily the "best", not "essential", nor do they have to be your favorite, just albums that opened your ears; books that changed the way you think about reading or telling a story, fiction or nonfiction.

1. Animal Collective - Here Comes the Indian

2. Northern Cree - Nikamo - "Sing!"

3. Midnite Express - Straight Up

4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#(infinity)

5. Tha Tribe - Mad Hops and Crazy Stops

1. Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2. William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying

3. Toni Morrison - Beloved

4. Ray A. Young Bear - Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives

5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves

[keagan]

Throbbing Gristle- First Annual Report

Ballard- Atrocity Exhibition

what the fuck is this mad hops crazy stops shit? I thought I've heard everything by ATCQ.(?)

edit; tha tribe ≠ a tribe called quest.

[Dachink]

1. Opeth - Still Life

2. Malice Mizer - Merveilles

3. Acidman - Equal

4. Maaya Sakamoto - Shounen Alice

5. Doom - Human Noise

[enojy]

1. Opeth - Still Life

2. Malice Mizer - Merveilles

3. Acidman - Equal

4. Maaya Sakamoto - Shounen Alice

5. Doom - Human Noise

malice mizer! merveilles definitely belongs on my list as well.

these are by no means my favorite 5 albums of all time, just the first 5 that come to mind when it comes to altering my perception of music and/or a specific genre.

in no particular order:

1. Malice Mizer - Merveilles

2. Grade - Headfirst Straight to Hell

3. Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

4. Kool Keith - Sex Style

5. m1dy - Speedcore Dandy XXX

[Mr Fingers]

I can front and say it was Faust or Whitehouse or something ultracool but hearing Public Enemy's "Fear Of A Black Planet" around 1990-91 really fucking changed shit for me. I mean I was 11.. I don't think there's anything since then that's sounded even a fraction as revolutionary to me.

books? I know it's a cliche but reading Breakfast Of Champions and Catcher In The Rye when I was 15 changed the way I think and had a huge impact on me.

[LordOak]

1. HHIG - Monuments to thieves. -mind blowing

2. The VSS - 21.51. -still cant get over these guys

3. Neurosis - Through silver in blood. - I really cant say enough about this album.

4. Physics - 2 -this whole album makes me sway.

5. Camera Obscura (US) - To paint the kettle black. -the best album they put out. at one point there is this rythm that makes me think of giant beach balls crushing a city.

edit- HA I just noticed that I got a neg rep for this list from itsmeJT. what a tool.

[todesengel]

Albums:

-Tribe - Midnight Mauraders (started my interest into hip-hop)

-Amon Tobin - Permutations (blew my high-school mind)

-Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (noticed that beats can be pretty complex)

-Deep Dish - Global Underground Moscow (started to notice how awesome well done transitions are)

-The Pillows - Happy Bivouac (god damn The Pillows are good)

[Mr Fingers]

1. HHIG - Monuments to thieves. -mind blowing

2. The VSS - 21.51. -still cant get over these guys

I saw both of them in 96 and they were unbelievable.. still among the best I've seen.

[LordOak]

I saw both of them in 96 and they were unbelievable.. still among the best I've seen.

this guy know what he's talking about!

[dunkin deeznuts]

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Public Enemy - It takes a nation.....

Weird Al- Eat it

Brand Nubian - One for All

Nirvana - NeverMind

[Corbin Law]

led zeppelin 2

kind of blue

live phish (todos)

godspeed you black emporer F# A# infinity

BSS - you forgot it in people

books

the little prince

stranger in a strange land

a tale of two cities

runaway horses

to serve man

[digitaltreatment]

For music, the one album that really did it for me was Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica. Feist - Let It Die. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People. Air - Moon Safari. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.

And for books... Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

[Indifferent]

Music

Pat Martino - Consciousness

Velvet Cacoon - Genevieve

Misfits - Static Age

DHC - Lockjaw

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten

Books

Kafka - Metamorphosis

Graves - I, Claudius

Tolkein - The Hobbit

[ddohnggo]

i'm going to assume you live are from san diego. regardless, excellent list.

1. HHIG - Monuments to thieves. -mind blowing

2. The VSS - 21.51. -still cant get over these guys

3. Neurosis - Through silver in blood. - I really cant say enough about this album.

4. Physics - 2 -this whole album makes me sway.

5. Camera Obscura (US) - To paint the kettle black. -the best album they put out. at one point there is this rythm that makes me think of giant beach balls crushing a city.

edit- HA I just noticed that I got a neg rep for this list from itsmeJT. what a tool.

[brightbill]

Books... Grapes of Wrath, Kavalier & Clay, Slaughterhouse Five, Beneath The Wheel

Music... no particular album, but the first Beatles stuff I heard from my mom. "In My Life" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Eleanor Rigby" among others.

[mellowbonsai]

Books... Grapes of Wrath, Kavalier & Clay, Slaughterhouse Five, Beneath The Wheel

Music... no particular album, but the first Beatles stuff I heard from my mom. "In My Life" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Eleanor Rigby" among others.

Kavalier and Clay was epic. i love love love that book. Didn't really change the way i read as much as the other five i listed, but its way up there in my favorite books. i heard Chabon has a new one out; it's supposed to be even better than Kavalier and Clay.

[cyberPUNK]

music:

1. radiohead - hail to the thief

2. daft punk - homework

3. the flaming lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots

4. joy division - unknown pleasures

5. my bloody valentine - loveless

books:

1. haruki murakami - the wind up bird chronicle

2. haruki murakami - hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world

3. j.d. salinger - the catcher in the rye

4. the tale of genji - murasaki shikibu

5. george orwell - 1984

[LordOak]

i'm going to assume you live are from san diego. regardless, excellent list.

Nope, I live in Central, CT... Hence Location Heap in my info.

and thank you for the compliment.

[robideaux]

1. MBV - Loveless (though i've come to prefer isn't anything)

2. NOU - plays pretty for baby

3. Pink Floyd - piper at the gates of dawn

4. Cut Copy - Fabriclive.29 (technically not a proper album but this set changed me)

5. Love - Forever Changes

1. Jean Genet - Our Lady of the Flowers

2. Theodore Adorno - selected essays on the Culture Industry (changed the way i read -- required a dictionary)

3. Hakim Bey - TAZ

4. Vonnegut - BofC

5. Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls

oops didn't realize i was reviving a dead thread.

[pantheist]

albums:

bss - you forgot it in people

refused - shape of punk to come

blonde redhead - misery is a butterfly

books:

franny & zooey

reasons to live

heart is a lonely hunter

[Guest Mayhem]

books:

enders game

the big sleep

grapes of wrath

the stranger

a place to stand

[north.]

Albums:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# Infinity

Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child

Converge - Jane Doe

mewithoutYou - Brother Sister

Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy

[cosmicflop]

Albums:

Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane

Garvey's Ghost - Burning Spear

Agharta - Miles Davis

Horses - Patti Smith

The Ramones - first album

Books:

Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night

James Ellroy - The Black Dahlia

Evelyn Waugh - Black Mischief

Jean Genet - The Thief's Journal

Yann Martel - The Life of Pi

[cheep]

music:

public enemy- it takes a nation of millions to hold us back

ramones-ramones

a tribe called quest- midnight marauders

the libertines- the libertines

sizzla- black woman and child

books-

jack kerouac- on the road

kurt vonnegut- breakfast of champions

allen ginsburg- howl and other poems

tom robbins- skinny legs and all

william gibson- pattern recognition

[jimmyc]

Music:

The Clash - London Calling

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prision

Rolling Stones - Aftermath

Books:

A Tale of two Cities - Dickens

The Great Santini - Pat Conroy

Autobiograhy of Malcom X - Alex Haley

The Sublime Object of Ideology - Slavoj Zizek

A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean

[ExileOnMainSt]

music:

2pac: Me Against The World

Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited

Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street

Jay-z: Reasonable Doubt

Van Morrison: Moondance

(and The Forest Gump Soundtrack for honourable mention)

[astro black]

atdi- vaya ep

mogwai- ep+6

dj krush- jaku

talib kweli- reflection eternal

blonde redhead- la mia vita violentia

murakami- hardboiled wonderland

dostoyevsky- crime and punishment

orwell- 1984

burgess- a clockwork orange

goswami- the self conscious universe

[Guest thing4kicks86]

Music (hands down):

Books: Don't read much.

[FUCK]

Books:

Proust-In search of lost time: more specifically Swann's Way

Céline- Guignol's Band

Danielewski-House of Leaves

Henry Miller-Black Spring

Dostoyevsky-The Idiot

Certainly alot more but those certainly had a large impact, even though miller/Céline have a very similar style.

Music: 5 is an impossible number

[Tron]

Books:

Italo Calvino- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Joseph Heller - Catch 22

Voltaire - Candide

Robertson Davies - Deptford Trilogy

Iceberg Slim - Pimp: The story of my life

Music:

REM: Chronic Town

The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms

New Order: Lowlife

Replacements: Let it Be

Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation