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QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – FIRST IT GIVETH

“First It Giveth” is from the first Queens of the Stone Age album I ever bought, Songs For the Deaf. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. I immediately became a super fan. I didn’t really know much about the band. I had only heard one song, “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”, from their Rated R  album. I saw the music video on Much Music (yeah im old), and was mesmerized by the video and song. So fast forward about 6 months, and now I’m standing at Best Buy with both albums in my hand. I didn’t know which album to get. The one with the song I know, or the brand new album. I went with Songs for the Deaf, and the rest is history. They became a top 3 band of all time for me. If you’re into stoner-rock, or are interested in it, then please please please check out Queens of the Stone Age. 

BEASTIE BOYS – GET IT TOGETHER

I remember my friend and I being obsessed with this track in high school. We loved Beastie Boys and were always looking for rare beastie boys tracks, and merchandise. I remember buying the single for “Get It Together” on eBay. There were like 8 versions of the song, and we all thought that was so fucking cool. This song is so dope, still to this day. 

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA – UR LIFE ONE NIGHT

I featured UMO on Week 1 of The Drop Guy Weekly Playlist with another track from the Multi-Love album. “Ur Life One Night” sounds like it could have been written for Prince. It’s so funky, and poppy, but has the unique sound that Unknown Mortal Orchestra is known for. Ruban Nielson absolutely killed it on this entire album. He writes, records, and produces all of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s music. Multi-Love  is one of my favorite albums of all time, but honestly, I love every UMO track. There isn’t one bad song in my opinion. 

CAKE – FRANK SINATRA

I love the intro to this song! I could listen to the first 20 seconds of this song on repeat for hours. “Frank Sinatra” opens up my favorite Cake album Fashion Nugget. This is another album that my friends and I were obsessed with in high school. We knew every note and word. 

311 – USE OF TIME

311 is my favorite band of all time. There’s no question about it. How can you argue with positive vibes, reggae beats, surf rock, and world class musicians? “Use of Time” comes from their Transistor album. Transistor was kind of a break from their usual sound. Previous albums were very poppy and fast paced, and on Transistor the band really seemed to take their song writing, and production to another level. They started to incorporate acoustic guitars, spacey sound effects, instrumental tracks, and a theme of outer space throughout the album. I recently watched them perform this album live on 3/11 day, and it made me feel like a kid again. I just love 311 so much. 

BECK – HELL YES

“Hell Yes” comes off his 2005 album Guero. The album before this was Sea Changes, which was an acoustic/folk album. It was cool, but I really love the weird, funky, hip hop sounds that Beck is most known for. So when Guero came out I was pumped. The album is amazing from beginning to end, and every time you listen to it you hear something new. 

TAME IMPALA – NEW PERSON, SAME OLD MISTAKE

Tame Impala is Kevin Parker, and he is a one man band and recording studio. Out of all the multi-instrumentalists and self producers, I would have to put Kevin Parker at the top. When you listen to the album Currents it’s hard to believe that one guy basically locked himself in a house and wrote, recorded, produced, and mixed the whole album by himself. It’s a masterpiece, and “New Person, Same Old Mistake” ends the album. 

LED ZEPPELIN – THE BATTLE OF EVERMORE

Led Zeppelin is one of my greatest musical influences. When I discovered them in my teenage years I remember taking these 4 giant speakers that my dad had in the basement, and wiring them up across my room to make a surround sound theater in my bedroom. I would spend hours sitting in my room listening to Zeppelin. The greatest classic rock band of all time?

BUSTA RHYMES – WOO HAH

“Yaw yaw yaw, yawwww yaw”. For someone who loves music, if you asked them what their favorite song of all time was, they probably couldn’t answer you. It’s almost an unfair question, but… this is arguably my favorite song of all time. The beat is so fire! On the album, they play the sample that this song came from right before “Woo Hah” comes on, and I couldn’t even believe what I had heard. It was one of my earliest introductions to sampling. Like it was probably the first time I put two and two together and realized that hip hop beats used samples. Busta Rhymes and The Beastie Boys are responsible for my love of hip hop. 

J DILLA – LIGHTWORKS

The greatest hip-hop producer of all time. And I think a lot of people would agree with that. I was never a huge fan of lyrics on hip-hop albums. I was always fascinated with the beats. So when I started making beats of my own, I was introduced to J-Dilla’s music. And the more I listened to his music, the more I realized how many songs he had produced that I had heard in the past. Dilla’s life was cut way too short. “Lightworks” is off the album Donuts, which was recorded while Dilla was in the hospital being treated for a rare blood disease. The album was release days after his death. His catalog is enormous. I once had a whole iPod just filled with Dilla beats. Here’s a link to 5.5 hours of Dilla beats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q3FG9wva1k