Blast From The Past Vol.2: 1980-1984

In the second installment of our "Blast From The Past" series we focus on the first half of the 80s and present our 50 favorite albums from that period. I remind you that the rule of including just one album per band still stands, otherwise there would be like 5 Fall albums in here, turning this list into the Best of Mark E Smith (perhaps the subject of a future post).

Top 50 Albums of 1980-1984

1. Perverted by language - THE FALL
2. Remain in light - TALKING HEADS
3. Closer - JOY DIVISION
4. The Smiths - THE SMITHS
5. Sound affects - THE JAM
6. Zen arcade - HUSKER DU
7. Fire dances - KILLING JOKE
8. Juju - SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES
9. Crocodiles - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
10. Murmur - R.E.M.
11. The days of wine and roses - THE DREAM SYNDICATE
12. From her to eternity - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
13. Over the edge - WIPERS
14. The fire of love - THE GUN CLUB
15. Violent Femmes - VIOLENT FEMMES
16. Before Hollywood - THE GO-BETWEENS
17. Playing with a different sex - THE AU PAIRS
18. Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables - DEAD KENNEDYS
19. Meat Puppets II - MEAT PUPPETS
20. Los Angeles - X
21. Pornography - THE CURE
22. Power, corruption and lies - NEW ORDER
23. Burning from the inside - BAUHAUS
24. Garlands - COCTEAU TWINS
25. The flowers of romance - PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED
26. Crazy rhythms - THE FEELIES
27. Damaged - BLACK FLAG
28. Double nickels on the dime - MINUTEMEN
29. Mommy’s little monster - SOCIAL DISTORTION
30. Let it be - THE REPLACEMENTS
31. Living in darkness - AGENT ORANGE
32. Atom drum bop - THE THREE JOHNS
33. Kilimanjaro - THE TEARDROP EXPLODES
34. The Pretenders - THE PRETENDERS
35. Psychedelic jungle - THE CRAMPS
36. Vs - MISSION OF BURMA
37. Hex breaker - THE FLESHTONES
38. Native sons - THE LONG RYDERS
39. Treeless plain - THE TRIFFIDS
40. Desire - TUXEDO MOON
41. Dare - HUMAN LEAGUE
42. After the snow - MODERN ENGLISH
43. The Psychedelic Furs - THE PSYCHEDELIC FUR
44. Get happy - ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS
45. World shut your mouth - JULIAN COPE
46. Underwater moonlight - THE SOFT BOYS
47. Solid gold - GANG OF 4
48. Junkyard - THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
49. Tocsin - X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND
50. The crackdown - CABARET VOLTAIRE

And here's ten more album that could have been on this list, if I was compiling it on a different day: My life in the bush of ghosts - DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO, Sonic Youth - SONIC YOUTH, Sandinista - THE CLASH, Black sea - XTC, Computer world - KRAFTWERK, Sons and fascination - SIMPLE MINDS, War - U2, High land hard rain - AZTEC CAMERA, Gravity talks - GREEN ON RED, Curse of Zounds - ZOUNDS.

Killer Tracks: Mississippi Kite

Kristin Hersh is responsible for some of the most powerful and truly unique rock music of the last two decades, starting with the amazing Throwing Muses in the mid-80s and continuing to the present date with her adventurous solo career and 50 Foot Wave, her new band. Her songwriting is always unpredictable, covering the whole range from folk lullabies to punk screamers, sometimes even during a single song. After last year's excellent album "Learn to sing like a star", Kristin started to post a new song each month on CASH Music website which can be downloaded for free or for a small donation. These songs make up the "Speedbath" album and the latest instalment, "Mississippi Kite" (the tenth song so far), is one of the best of the bunch and our pick for inclusion in Killer Tracks, our ongoing series of posts showcasing the most special new tunes. Go here to read what Kristin has to say about it and here to download it.

And as there isn't a video for this track available yet, let's take this opportunity to watch a clip from her recent performance in Athens, playing one of her All-Time Killer Tracks, "Your Ghost":

Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost (live@Kyttaro Club, March 27, 2008)

Blast From The Past Vol.1: 1975-1979

It's September, the new school season is beginning and Cool Music Central is proud to present Rock History 101, the Post Punk Years. For the "Blast From The Past" series of posts, we're going to dig deep in the dustier parts of our record collection and choose our favorite albums from ... you guessed it ... the past! We'll be looking at a 5-year period each time, starting with the second half of the '70s, the punk and post-punk years. Keep in mind that objectivity is not an option for this list; the only rule is including just one album from each artist or group. Ladies and gentlemen...(drum roll)... after 28 years in the making, we bring you the list of the...

Top 30 Albums of 1975-1979

1. Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols - THE SEX PISTOLS
2. Live At The Witch Trials - THE FALL
3. Unknown Pleasures - JOY DIVISION
4. Entertainment! - GANG OF FOUR
5. London Calling - THE CLASH
6. Ramones - RAMONES
7. All Mod Cons - THE JAM
8. This Year's Model - ELVIS COSTELLO
9. Fear Of Music - TALKING HEADS
10. Pink Flag - WIRE
11. Suicide - SUICIDE
12. The Modern Dance - PERE UBU
13. The Scream - SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES
14. Real Life - MAGAZINE
15. Germ Free Adolescents - X-RAY SPEX
16. Damned Damned Damned - THE DAMNED
17. (I'm) Stranded - THE SAINTS
18. Cut - THE SLITS
19. Second Edition - PUBLIC IMAGE LTD
20. Marquee Moon - TELEVISION
21. Born To Run - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
22. Parallel Lines - BLONDIE
23. The B-52's - THE B-52'S
24. Drums And Wires - XTC
25. The Undertones - THE UNDERTONES
26. Radios Appear - RADIO BIRDMAN
27. Singles Going Steady - BUZZCOCKS
28. The Man Machine - KRAFTWERK
29. Horses - PATTI SMITH
30. Young, Loud And Snotty - DEAD BOYS

I'm sure there are different opinions on the matter and that's what comments are for...

The Best Albums of 2007 - Final Cut

Making a music album seems to be a dying art. Sales are plummeting as downloads are taking over but here, in Cool Music Central, we still have a lot of love for them and we try to do our part to keep them alive. Going to the record shop and searching for that elusive album has been an important part of our upbringing and there's no hard-drive or cool portable device full of mp3s that's going to replace the joy of holding a vinyl album or even a small plastic cd in our hands. Another pleasure of the album format is making the yearly list of your favorites. This is a task that we take so seriously, that the list we have ready every year by December 31st is never the final one, because there's always so many more albums to listen to. The final version of the 2007 list has been 20 months in the making and it's finally done! It includes more than 200 albums released last year and, as always, singles out our top 50 selections. You can see the final list here, and you can watch the video for "Patty Lee", one of the many killer tracks on our Album of the Year, Les Savy Fav's "Let's stay friends", below:

Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee