Here is where I talk a little about various artists whose music I own. (S/T means self-titled.)
Since MTV was a big part of my early music experience, I tried to find videos of one song for each band just for fun. Apologies in advance for some of the more lurid examples, I mostly picked them based on the song, not on the video content!
Other segments: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Complete(ish) Collections
Letters to Cleo (1994 Aurora Gory Alice, 1995 Wholesale Meats and Fish, 1997 Go!) — Apart from having a great play on words for their debut album, Letters to Cleo was pretty much just a solid, straight ahead female-fronted rock band. Their big hit was “Here & Now” but I really appreciated pretty much everything they put out.
Linkin Park (2000 Hybrid Theory, 2002 Reanimation, 2003 Live in Texas, 2003 Meteora, 2004 Collision Course, 2007 Minutes to Midnight, 2010 A Thousand Suns, 2012 Living Things, 2014 The Hunting Party) — It’s become kind of cool to hate on Linkin Park these days, but I still enjoy them. When they first came on the scene, the hard rock mixed with rap & electronica was actually pretty novel. Now that it’s been often imitated and given its own genre tag (“nu metal”) I guess you’re not allowed to like them anymore or something. Whatever….
John Linnell (1999 State Songs) — So the less flamboyant half of They Might Be Giants put out a solo album of ostensibly state-themed songs, though if you listen to the lyrics, most of them have pretty much nothing to do with the state in question. Regardless, the album is full of quirky fun songs like TMBG so here it lives in my collection.
Little Computer People (2001 Electro Pop) — I found this CD while visiting Paris and picked it up on a whim because it was a pretty unique sound at the time, a bit of a mix of Kraftwerk with more modern influences. Seems to have been a one-off project as far as I can tell.
Lunatic Calm (1997 Metropol, 2002 Breaking Point) — This was an electronica band I first heard of through various soundtracks, most notably The Matrix soundtrack. Too bad they only put out 2 albums as they are both pretty great.
Partial Collections
Laibach (2003 WAT) — Ah, Laibach. Always a bit of an enigma, with a unique operatic classical/industrial sound that you could never be quite sure whether to take seriously or not. I mostly felt they were hamming it up, myself. This is one of their more mainstream albums.
Lard (1990 The Last Temptation of Reid) — The first and best Lard album, an unholy collaboration between Al Jourgensen & Paul Barker of Ministry and Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys. The overall vibe of the album is punk/comedy (check out “Can God Fill Teeth?” for the full-on comedy aspect) and mostly a fun listen, apart from the interminable final track, which I often skip.
Limp Bizkit (1999 Significant Other) — I can’t really justify owning this. Not sure what I was thinking. We all make mistakes. “Rearranged” isn’t too bad, I suppose.
Lords of Acid (1994 Voodoo-U) — Raunchy, intense techno-industrial fun is how I would describe Lords of Acid. They were popular enough with “The Crab Louse” to get lots of airtime on the Bay Area alternative radio stations, which is where we picked them up. Definitely one of the more, ah, clinical songs you might encounter about STDs, haha.
Love and Rockets (1987 Earth – Sun – Moon, 2003 Sorted! The Best of Love and Rockets) — While Arcadia’s “So Red the Rose” is often described as the most pretentious album ever, I’ll put up “Earth – Sun – Moon” as a competitor. Apparently a bit of an anomaly in their catalog, this all-acoustic album became my senior year go-to album in high school. As with most albums that made a big impression on me, the overall mood of it is haunting and reflective and filled with tons of great songs. I picked up the Greatest Hits to see if I should explore their catalog more, but honestly ESM is just so perfect I don’t want to ruin it with other stuff.
Greatest Hits
Loverboy (1997 Super Hits) — Always felt that Loverboy got short shrift in the annals of 80s pop history. They were honestly Journey-level popular there for a while but for whatever reason never managed to achieve the same retro-popularity as many of their contemporaries. Too bad because they had a monster string of great songs, in spite of their predilection for red leather pants.