I love music, I love lists, and I’m always prepared.
‘Desert Island’ lists have long been my go-to icebreaker. That said, I’ve always had a hard time getting over the required suspension of disbelief–why do you have electricity on a desert island? Really, you packed a record player?
Being the massive fan of all-things-zombie that I am, I prefer the ‘zombie apocalypse’ spin on the old desert-island scenario. After all, I’m reasonably sure that it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but simply a matter of ‘when’ the world’s gonna go to hell and a hand-basket. And the odds of hitting the road in the wake of the zombie apocalypse (just go with it) with a car full of all your prized possessions feels a little more plausible than being stranded on an island.
You know the scenario: you wake up one morning only to find that most of the world’s population has been wiped out by some sort of horrible virus. You’re surrounded by the walking dead. The world will never, ever be the same. It’s time to hit the road. So you gather up you and your loved ones and find yourself screaming, “take only what you need to survive!” at the top of your lungs.
If you’re anything like me, that list starts with your record collection (sorry, zoomers, cell towers don’t stand a chance in my doomsday daydream). But you can’t just take everything. There has to be a judicious culling. And time will, of course, be of the essence. So with all of that in mind, I’ve decided to do future-me a huge solid and get a jump on my zombie apocalypse playlist.
Few bands can lay claim to having actually been there ‘from the beginning.’ In the case of alt-rock, however, R.E.M. not only spearheaded the genre, they managed to outlast nearly all of their first-wave contemporaries. … More R.E.M.: Automatic for the People
Released: March 30, 1970 Miles Davis famously said, “do not fear mistakes—there are none.” He’s also the man who reinvented jazz “four or five times.” He played his trumpet for decades, weathering one cultural revolution after another. He was an innovator, originator, and visionary. His audience spans a handful of generations at this point, and … More Run the Voodoo Down: Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Released: March 12, 1991 It’s nearly impossible to discuss R.E.M.’s ascent from enigmatic indie-rockers to stadium-filling pop stars without mentioning the band’s seventh album, Out Of Time, and the brooding, minor-key anthem “Losing My Religion.” The band had long conquered the college-rock landscape, but everything changed in 1991. Thanks to the universal embracing of the unconventional … More That’s Me In The Spotlight: R.E.M. – Out Of Time
Released: September 24, 1991 For better or worse, Blood Sugar Sex Magik changed everything. Not only did the record provide the Red Hot Chili Peppers their immutable mark of permanence on the pop-culture landscape (satellite radio is still eating up “Under The Bridge”), but the Rick Rubin-produced album also found Anthony Kiedis and the boys complete the transition … More The Sound of Stars Aligning: The Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Released: July 27, 1993 One of alt-rock’s most polarizing bands, Chicago’s Smashing Pumpkins successfully managed to ride the early-90s grunge wave to unparalleled success, all the while maintaining a unique sense of identity. Eschewing many of the genre’s aesthetic trappings, the band’s sound and image were more in line with the pomp and circumstance-excess of … More At The Peak of Their Powers: Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
Released: March 8, 1994 While hard to imagine now, there was a brief point in time when Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor’s musical brainchild/alias/moniker) was one of alt-rock’s most prominent bands. And in terms of cultural relevance, the outfit’s apex occurred with their second full-length album, the appropriately titled The Downward Spiral. The Downward Spiral … More Step Right Up: Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
Released: April 1, 1998 Documenting Portishead’s July 24, 1997 concert at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom (which sadly closed in 2014), Roseland, Live NYC was released (on both CD and DVD) back in late 1998. Not only is Portishead’s one and only official live release one of the best sounding concert records of all time, … More A Defining Statement: PORTISHEAD – ROSELAND NYC LIVE
Generation Mixtape 