Mastodon :: Leviathan
Could you see this one coming? Anyway, I just can't stop listening to this. It's remarkable how well the very diverse elements involved here come together. It's the foreboding anticipation of Moby Dick translated into an extremely dynamic thrash metal album with occasional melody and some full-on Molly Hatchet style southern rock flourishes. Classic. •

The Bronx :: s/t
This is some of the best 'vicious, kick-ass rock with a hardcore edge' going. These guys are the Dead Boys for the oughts. Only harder, angrier, even louder and snottier. Excellent for high volume summer listening. •

Braid :: Frame & Canvas
Speaking of summer listening... This feel-good, complex/melodic, mathy-emo rock goes down smooth on these warm, extended days and balmy, fleeting evenings. •

Fugazi :: Repeater
This is a staple, a constant, a cornerstone, a paradigm. If it isn't the greatest recording in the history of music, then it's damn close to the top of the list. •

Van Halen :: Fair Warning
One good thing about being in your 30's is that you don't have to feel accountable in any way for listening to stuff like this. As a younger hipster, one might have tried to maintain 'cred' by playing the irony card when busting out some 'Halen. I'm way past that stuff now. There's nothing ironic here, and I'm not makin' any apologies. DLR forever baby. Don't even try to tell me you don't love "Unchained". •

Verbal Assault :: Trial
The other day I was sitting in a long, slow traffic line, but I didn't mind. Sun was pouring through the windshield, fresh air through the slightly cracked window. The iPod fliped to the intro to “Our Illusions” which definitely makes the all-time favorites list and I was all, “Man... I'm so ready for more of this”. •

Samiam :: Soar
These guys were emo before there was a word for it. This record reminds me of something I read in Cometbus (I think) a million years ago about how sad songs can make one happy and happy songs can make one sad. •

Throwing Muses :: The Real Ramona
This was their best effort and some of Kristen Hirsch's best songwriting. As sugary sweet as it is dark and brooding. It will haunt you and make you want to smile. •

Idlewild :: The Remote Part
This is perfect for clearing away the cobwebs. High energy Scottish pop-rock with noisy, driving guitars. Set to play, increase volume, press pedal to floor, repeat as necessary. It is good. •

Quicksand :: Manic Compression
I loved Quicksand. They were friggin' great. Absolutely one of my all-time favorites. This one is a little more contrived than Slip because of a probable effort to make their sound more "marketable". Thankfully that effort failed just enough that it still rocks. •

Thee Hydrogen Terrors :: Terror, Diplomacy and Public Relations
The best band to ever come out of this town by far. High caliber, eccentric, sometimes brooding, always energetic garage punk with a singer who was legitimately a little crazy. That's what Providence is all about. •

Lightning Bolt :: Ride The Skies
Watching the Bolt play is a physical spectacle that just can't captured on a recording. It's like trying to lasso an 800lb. gorilla with a piece of yarn... Or something. I went to RISD with these guys so I had the opportunity to see them early and often. They've been completely unrelenting from day one. Brian C. is one of the sickest drummers imaginable. •

Fall River Overdrive :: demo
F.R.O.D. were an enigma. They made a lasting if brief indentation on the scene here. It was a total onslaught of vicious grinding hardcore with surf and almost country-western undertones. Nothing before or after them comes close to the sheer, raw power they put forth. (Note: No link at the moment. I'm going to make the four songs available for download here as soon as I can get them into mp3 format.) •

The Laurels :: self titled
These guys were the Prov's premiere noisy rock power trio. I have a soft spot for this band since my brother-in-law played drums for them for a while and my first date with the wife was a Laurels show at the Met Cafe (RIP *sniffle*). •

Six Finger Satellite :: The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird
Before the emergence of Lightning Bolt, these Devo-gone-evil guys were this town's number one sons. Their blend of powerful rock with total weirdness and willingness to go in a completely different direction, only to come back again, embodied the attitude of the Providence crowd of the nineties. •

Mastodon :: Remission
I can't get enough of this record lately. It reminds me a lot of early Prong except that it packs ten times the power and aggression. •

Darkest Hour :: Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation
Completely relentless from start to finish. This leaves your ears ringing and maybe even bleeding. •

Iron Maiden :: Killers
"Wrathchild", "Murders In The Rue Morgue", Paul Di'Anno's raspy vocals, man you can't get anymore classic than this. Some of the stuff they did with Bruce Dickinson was great too, but this my favorite Maiden album by far. •

Motorhead :: The Very Best Of...Motorhead
Not sure what even needs to be said about Motorhead, other than they are to metal as the Ramones are to punk. Essential. •

Prong :: Force Fed
Speaking of early Prong... Good, good thrashy, raw stuff here. Much better than any of the polished prog-metal junk that they became 'known' for. •

Only Living Witness :: Innocents
Strait outta Lowell, these guys were one of the best bands from the Boston area metal-core scene of the early nineties. This record has an almost 'grunge' edge to it, but is still damn heavy. •

DRI :: Dealing With It
This little classic isn't really metal proper, but it goes hand in hand. I was really into this record back in high school. I'm a little embarrassed to say I still have an old portfolio down in the basement with that logo on the side. •

Cro-Mags :: Best Wishes
After putting out one of the defining hardcore albums of all time, these guys got even heavier. This is what that Di'Anno era Maiden would've sounded like if they came from the Lower East Side. Vicious. •

Atreyu :: The Curse
These guys are like a more musically accomplished Pantera. They pack that aggressive stance, but with more dimension. •

Slayer :: Reign In Blood
No metal binge is complete without the grandaddy of death metal. Scary lyrics, blistering solos, and unrelenting thrash unequalled anywhere, it's possibly the greatest metal album of all time. •

At The Drive-In :: In-Casino-Out
This band was so strong. By that I mean they just did anything and it worked. From screaming hardcore intensity to borderline pop melody, hitting everything in between, often in the same song, with some awesome guitar work to boot. "For Now. . We Toast" is the perfect example of what I'm trying to explain. Frickin' Rock. •

Pretty Girls Make Graves :: Good Health
I love the totally bombastic energy of this record. It's cool because on the surface it seems so out of control, but when you sit down with it, it's really super tight and carefully crafted. •

Burning Airlines :: Mission: Control!
I'm a huge fan of just about everything that J. Robbins has been involved with. This record swings easily, in that signature way, between pop harmony and offbeat dissonance with some really original guitar sounds and sticky hooks. Great stuff. •

Sunny Day Real Estate :: Diary
I have a hard time with this record. Don't get me wrong, it's really good, probably their best and certainly sets a standard for the 'emo' genre, but it's just so damn depressing. Depressing to the point that listening causes my very soul to spiral downward in actual physical pain into a darkness blacker than night. But, you know, other than that it rocks. •

Hey Mercedes :: Loses Control
I said this same thing last time I mentioned these guys, but they play the kind of music that is just so goddamn good you have to crank it and set the player on repeat. "Quality Revenge At Last" is a fantastic title and one of my favorite songs of the moment. •

Burn :: Cleanse
So one the most blazing and original bands to crawl out of the early nineties NYHC scene reunited in 2001 and put out another killer EP? And where was I? This one doesn't pack quite as much punch as the first, but still has that cutting-edge sound. "The Bait" is infectiously catchy. •

The Get Up Kids :: Red Letter Day
Honestly I ignored this band for a long time. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to deal with another happy sounding emo pop rock type thing. I don't really know why that was, but I'm glad I got over it because this is some damn good happy sounding emo pop rock type thing. •

Bad Religion :: Against The Grain
It's really hard to pick a favorite from BR's early catalogue, but this one might be it for me. Tunes like "Modern Man", "Blenderhead", and "21st Century Digital Boy" really capture what this band is all about. My favorite part, though, is that monstrous breakdown at the end of "Anesthesia". •

Into Another :: self-titled
This one has really grown on me over the years. When it came out people expected it to be something like Underdog part two. Nobody expected cheese metal on the order of Dio or Maiden. But that's what it was. Once the initial shock wore off though, you realized it was actually done really well and it really ripped and Ritchie sounded like Sabbath-era Ozzy, but with a huge vocal range. And it was good. •

Taang! Records :: Boston Hardcore 89-91
Back in high school these were the bands I saw on a weekly basis at The Rat, Bunratty's, The Channel. From the lowbrow rage-core of STP and Intent To Injure to the metal thrash of Only Living Witness and Sam Black Church to the originality of Eye For An Eye and Said and Done, I was there. The thing about all of these bands is that recordings don't do them a bit of justice. None of them ever put out a well produced record, but all of them sounded great and were incredibly fun live. Damn I'm old. •

Ignition :: Machination
When Apple invents iTimeTravel one of the places in punk rock history I'll visit will be DC in the late eighties when great bands like Ignition, Fugazi and Soul Side were starting up. This record in particular has always been a big influence on my guitar playing. •

Big Drill Car :: No Worse For The Wear
It always just plain feels good to listen to Big Drill Car. I'm a sucker for this early nineties, rock infused surf-style-pop-punk stuff. Friend Of Mine finds it's way on to a lot of mix tapes/CD's I make. •

Iceburn :: Firon
This stuff makes Metallica sound like Boston or Journey or some crap. Crushing metal with an almost jazz-like influence, which sounds impossible to pull off, but they did it here. There is just insane musicianship on this record, especially the bass. •

The Mars Volta :: DeLoused In The Comatorium
This one made everyone's top ten list for 2003, and with good reason. Often when bands go all experimental the rock ends up lost in artsy transitions. That's not the case here. This one explores the depths but still manages to bring it when necessary. •

Black Sabbath :: We Sold Our Soul For Rock & Roll
This is the oldest cassette I own. It's one of the first I ever bought. Still sounds great. I've always thought that if you take Changes - Which is the worst song ever recorded in the history of music. Worse than Creed even. I'm so sad that it was recorded by Sabbath, and I wish Ozzy Sharon would just let it die. - Radio, and Laguna Sunrise off there and add Supernaut, Symptom of the Universe, and Into the Void, it would be the best collection of Sabbath songs ever. •

Vision :: In The Blink of an Eye
These guys serve as an allegory for what happened to the HC scene in the early nineties. Journey back with me to a beautiful summer afternoon in 1991. Vision with Sick of It All (and some other bands I can't recall at the moment, but I do remember the whole bill was really good) at Bunratty's in Allston. The place was jam packed and the kids went crazy for tunes like "Once" and "Falling Apart". It was a great show with a big, fun crowd. Jump forward less than two years to January of 1993. Vision, this time with Killing Time (that other late eighties NYHC staple) at The Middle East in Cambridge. I'm one of maybe fifteen people at the show and no one other than me knew any of their songs or even who they were. Cartoon crickets chirped over the silence between songs. They still sounded great though. I so wanted my high school band to sound like this record. •

Social Distortion :: self-titled
Hard tunes about hard living and hard drinkin'. How can you beat that? One thing I'll never understand is the frightening overabundance of 'guys with mustaches who want to fight' at Social Distortion shows. Livin' the dream I guess. •

Jawbox :: Novelty
Jawbox was one of those bands you could always count on to put out quality music. This is my favorite of their releases. I always used to listen to it while riding the train home from college. For some reason it was the perfect soundtrack for staring out at the world speeding past. •

Sweetbelly Freakdown :: self-titled
A dream come true. The members of Swiz, the greatest, most underrated hardcore band ever, reunite to produce this little monster of a record. For the life of me though, I can't understand why they didn't just call it Swiz. Sure the music goes in a bit of a different direction, but it's not a total departure so why the ridiculous new moniker? Regardless, this record will rock your ass and I really wish they had done more. •

Buffalo Tom :: Birdbrain
Unlike their more polished 'tragic art school girl make out music' commercial releases this one packs a punchy guitar sound with a darker, less sugary underbelly (most likely because of J. Mascis' involvement with the production). The title track is one of my favorite power-pop anthems. •

Hey Mercedes :: Everynight Fire Works
These guys play music that is just so goddamn good you have to crank it and set the player on repeat. Great autumn driving music. •

Superchunk :: No Pocky For Kitty
I wish I had thought of this band name. Superchunk's music has always had a real 'soundtrack' quality. It's the kind of stuff you expect to hear in the background of some cool independent film or while you're shopping for records or cooking dinner or going for a long walk with no particular destination. •

Bad Religion :: Suffer
This is from when these guys seemed so vital and raw. They were like a faster, more powerful Dead Kennedy's for the next generation. They've fizzled out in recent years, but this one is essential. •

Garden Variety :: Knocking The Skill Level
This is one of those really great but totally underrated bands. Searing guitars and raw emo fury, you can't beat it. I wish they had gotten their due. Also great autumn driving music. •

Fugazi :: 13 Songs
To give you an idea of what this one means to me I point you to the very first Motor Skills entry. Waiting Room was the very first song that came to mind the first time I held my daughter. This has been with me from the high school art room, through the frustrations of college, to the birth of my first child to right now and beyond. The staying power of this music is defies definition. The other day my daughter, now almost two, just started singing "Everybody's moving, everybody's moving..." out of the blue. •

The Promise Ring :: Nothing Feels Good
These guys were the headliner when this happened. They definitely saved what could've been a really lame show. Listening to this happy-sappy-go-lucky stuff is like boiling down and mainlining the corny, sugary-bittersweet emotional essence of like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink and Say Anything. It puts me in such a good mood it's depressing. •

Milemarker :: Frigid Forms Sell
Where do I start with this one? The searing riffs, the sometimes Jehu-like dissonance, Al Burian's hella-urgent vocals, those odd but somehow fitting "look out here comes Mister Freakin' Roboto" electronic breaks, powerful good stuff. The end of the title track will tear into you. •

Rollins Band :: Do It
One of the worst things Hank ever did was split with this original Rollins Band lineup. Chris Hasket is a guitar monster. Whatever it is he's got going on now is just horrible and can't hold a candle to the ferocity of this early stuff. Their version of "Move Right In" absolutely rips. •

Husker Du :: Flip Your Wig
Honestly, whenever I listen to this I just play the title track over and over. The rest of the album is pretty good too, but kind of mushes together until we get back to the beginning. Such a great tune. •

The Thermals :: More Parts Per Million
I'm not rockin' an ironic trucker-cap or a too-small sweater, but I do have a few pairs of old-school vans - 'cause I guess I'm a grandpa. Anyway, this is some totally infectious straight up three chord rock played by 'cute' little hipsters. And who doesn't need that? •

Metallica :: Master of Puppets
This was their pinnacle. Some of the new stuff sounds like an attempt to reclaim the fury of Master, but it's too late. A decade of candy-assed cock rocking and technophobia has completely trashed their cred with the old fans. Plus, St. Anger might as well be a Spinal Tap album since it sounds like a parody of the band that once was. Seriously, whose idea was it to make Lars' snare sound like a tin can inside a wooden box? Where the hell is Flemming Rasmussen? He knew what these guys were supposed to sound like. But I digress. This album was the paradigm for late eighties metal, unequalled in it's or any other time. Even the band that created it hasn't been able to follow it up with anything comparable. •

Prong :: Primitive Origins
For some reason I tend to listen to more metal during the summer months. Hmmph. Long before they went all prog-rock Prong put out some seriously raw, blistering stuff that makes you want to thrash. Thrash! •

Drive Like Jehu :: Yank Crime
This is the most pissed off math rock ever laid down. I used put this on as soon as I woke up to get my head into the proper mode for the day. Stronger than coffee. "Luau" sticks with you forever. To better understand what I'm talking about go over to Transmission3000 and download some live mp3's. Pure fury. •

Beastie Boys :: Paul's Boutique
As if I need something to scream "I'm totally from the suburbs" any louder, but I think this is a brilliant masterpiece. Remember when this came out and all the critics and trendoids panned it because it wasn't Licensed to Ill rehashed? That right there says it all. Suckas wish they could drop heavies like "Looking Down The Barrel of a Gun" and "B-Boy Bouillabaisse". •