The Top 25 Most Influential Albums of My Life - #'25-#21

DISCLAIMER: Its taken me quite a while to compose this list and it is lengthy. For how much I love music it was really hard to narrow this down. So I created this list which contains some of the albums I grew up with and listened to over and over again and some albums I’ve heard recently that forever changed my taste in music. This is NOT a list of the Greatest Albums of my life (although many of them would fit in that list as well). Thanks to Larry for giving me the idea for this.

#25

"Purple" by Stone Temple Pilots – Most people would probably pick "Core" as the most influential STP album, but with songs like "Interstate Love Song", "Vasoline" and "Big Empty", Scott Weiland’s vocals never sounded more grungy and raw...probably because of the mass amounts of drugs he was doing at this time (he was actually arrested for heroin and cocaine possession during the recording sessions!). A lot of people don't know that, Robert DeLeo was the mastermind behind a lot of the songs on this album (alongside Weiland). Also, Dean DeLeo created some really awesome guitar riffs for this album (especially on "Silvergun Superman" and "Meatplow"). Always reminds me of one of my best friends who has seen STP in concert dozens of times. I grew up listening to this album with him.

#24

"Dither" by moe. - Probably my first true "jam band" CD. One of my ex’s got me into this band knowing my love for great guitarists, and then I found out this band has two, Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey. This band opened my eyes to the world of improvised jam music. When I saw them play in Vegas it was 95 degrees outside and these guys were jamming for 10-15 minutes on every song...that's some endurance. Of course you can’t hear the improvisation as well on the album as you do when you see a live moe. concert, but still, singles like "Captain America", "Understand", and their remake of "In a Big Country" will always remind me of Vegoose 2005. Can't wait to see them again this summer.

#23

"The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most" by Dashboard Confessional – Still when the band was primarily made up of just Chris Carrabba, this album always takes me back to college and what I call my "wuss-rock" days. Anybody who knew me in college knew my love for some Dashboard. I used to cover the songs "Screaming Infidelities" and "The Brilliant Dance" on open mic nights at Gemmel. And of course…the CND crew has heard AND sung along to every DC song I could ever play. I don't listen to a whole lot of D/C anymore, but when I do this is usually the album I pop in, because it's genuine...nothing but a man and his guitar.

#22

"Ten" by Pearl Jam – Everybody should have this album in their collection if they haven't for the last 18 years. This is still Pearl Jam’s masterpiece. It was released in 1991, which means I was only 8 years old when I first saw the always graphic video for "Jeremy" (which if you have never seen, then you have been living under a rock your entire life). This album contains some of the best riffs and solos Mike McCready has ever done (especially "Alive" and "Even Flow"), but Eddie Vedder’s hardcore vocals on songs like "Black" and "Porch" are what makes this album one of the best ("What the fuck is this song?"). I karaoke Pearl Jam, I used to sing and play "Elderly Woman..." (still my favorite) at Open Mic Nights in college, and I’ve seen them headline a historic concert at Bonnaroo ’08…and this album started it all.

#21

"Under the Table and Dreaming" by Dave Matthews Band- This album is still the bands best album. Released when DMB was still playing small bars and clubs (and not selling out arenas and outdoor pavilions for 2-day drunk festivals), their breakthrough album still holds true Dave fans’ all-time favorites like "Jimi Thing" and "Warehouse". DMB just doesn’t make their albums like they used to. I miss Dave’s old acoustic stylings and Boyd Tinsley's spine-tingling violin solos. Dave concerts will never be the same since the death of LeRoi Moore (their long time saxophone/woodwind player) last summer. I love this album because it was my first taste of jam band music which I love so much these days.

TO BE CONTINUED...