Record #773: Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)

In the late 1980s, a young group of musicians in Palm Desert, California cut their teeth playing “generator parties.” Small crowds would gather in the desert with gasoline generators and copious amounts of beer and cannabis. And into these sparse, potsmoke filled wastelands, stonerrock pioneers Kyuss would play directly to the crowds, free of the politics of club owners and venue promoters.

Welcome to Sky Valley was recorded a long way from those desert fetes. It was released on a major label, for crying out loud. But three free-flowing, organic spirit of those early performances is imprinted directly into this album’s DNA.

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Record #703: Nazareth – Expect No Mercy (1977)

If you thought that I would have learned my lesson from the bait and switch of Hair of the Dog, you might be wrong.

Expect No Mercy features an even more badass cover than its predecessor: a shining knight and a scimitar-wielding demon are engaged in an epic battle of good and evil. What are they fighting for? What are the stakes?

Apparently, the real battle is between heavy metal and blues rock: and blues rock is winning.

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Record #702: Nazareth – Hair of the Dog (1975)

Never judge a book by its cover.

Because if you were to look at the epic, Tolkien-esque painting of wolves and bat wings that adorn this record sleeve and imagine that you were in for some epic, fantasy-inspired heavy metal, you’d be disappointed.

…just like I was, when I first got this record because of the cover, and expected some epic, fantasy-inspired heavy metal.

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Record #672: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (1969)

Sometimes, life feels like a random intersection of others lives. In 1969, there was just over three and a half billion people on the planet. And somehow, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones found one another and formed one of the most important bands in the whole scope of pop music history.

And they released this record, which would become one of the most influential albums of all time.

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Record #676: Journey – Infinity (1978)

If you were to conduct a survey to find the most important rock bands of the 1980s, the name “Journey” would be somewhere in the top five most common answers. Their huge hooks and virtuosic guitar solos have given them a permanent spot in “Yesterday and Today” radio stations across the country.

That legacy of hard-hitting singalongs started on Infinity, their fourth studio album, and their first with vocalist Steve Perry. That addition was the perfect ingredient to take them from an obscure progressive outfit to hit-making, bonafide arena rockers.

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Record #606: Mott the Hoople – Mott (1973)

In 1964, when tasked with defining hardcore pornography, Justice Potter Stewart stated, “I know it when I see it.”

In many ways, glam rock faces the same taxonomic difficulty. I’m not sure I could ever dissect and identify the specific elements that make something glam rock. I have tried and failed many times to explain to someone what makes Electric Warrior by T. Rex such a perfect record. I just know that when glam hits, few things are sweeter.

And Mott by Mott the Hoople is sweet.

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