The Orb, "Into The Fourth Dimension: Essenes Beyond Control"
Little Fluffy Clouds was one of the first things that ambient electronic artists The Orb released, and I picked it up as part of a foray into whether I liked electronic music at that time. I knew some folks that were into going to raves and things, and thought, eh, I like industrial enough, maybe I'll like this too. I never really got into it, though, at least not at that time. Wasn't too wild about raves either. It wasn't until I encountered more frantic genres of electronic music that I really got it.
Skeleton Key, "The World's Most Famous Undertaker"
Awwwww yeah, listen to that shit. It's a shame Skeleton Key didn't put out more stuff, but I'll certainly enjoy what they did.
Honcho Overload, "Wish"
Due to being from Champaign-Urbana at the same time as Hum, this band was inescapably paired with them in the early/mid-90s. I even saw them on the same bill once. But their sound is different, with more punk and honestly more grunge going on than Hum's indie rock. Hum found a path towards a major label and a much longer career, while Honcho Overload put out a couple solid albums and called it a career. Good tune, though.
Pixies, "Debaser"
I think sometimes about what album I've listened to the most in my life. I'm pretty confident that #1 is Flood from They Might Be Giants. I bought it the week it came out, more than thirty years ago, and haven't stopped listening to it. I wore out a tape of it completely back in the day I listened to it so much. Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is another one I've been listening to for ages. TMBG's Lincoln, same boat.
But I have to figure that Doolittle is probably pretty far up the list. Once I encountered the Pixies in 1991, they became an instant faorite, and the first two albums especially have been constant companions. I know every note in this song, every quirk in the recording, every affectation that Black Francis puts on. It's like a warm hug...which happens to be about something disgusting.
Bim Skala Bim, "Step Up To Me"
Geez, it's sounding like my dorm room around here all of a sudden!