Author: Christian Adams
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1987–1988)
If 1985-1986 was a dead zone for Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, then 1987–1988 is a black hole. Mainstream popular music was more about hairspray and pastel colors than artistic achievement. It was Michael Jackson’s Bad. But was it all bad? Didn’t certain alternative and indie bands make several must-hear albums? Weren’t a…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1985–1986)
1985–86 is a disappointing period of must-hear albums. As I perused the unofficial list of selections from this period, half the time I was thinking, “Christ, nobody should have to listen to that.” 1001 Albums Rating Key: Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1985) Note: Suggested alternatives are from the same year as…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1983–1984)
The 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list gets weird and stingy in 1983–1984. The panel ignored more than a handful of must-hear albums, and it’s hard to say why. I have one theory, but it doesn’t answer every contingency. At any rate, it feels like there are more Suggested Alternatives than usual,…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1981–1982)
Every so often, it’s important to stop, take a look around, stare out the window for a while, change the channel, and get up and stretch your legs. The last four years in popular music (1977–1980) have witnessed multiple sea changes. And the must-hear album train keeps chugging. In 1981, the disco backlash reached critical…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1979–1980)
1979-1980 is the first period of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not, in which I had heard every record before writing the associated essay. In some cases, I was listening to the album for only the second time, but there were no surprises, only disappointments and hasty generalizations. On the other hand,…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1977–1978)
Rock music is about to get interesting. I’m excited. Good stuff is about to happen. Plenty of albums you must hear coming down the pipe. The 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list was very generous in 1977–1978. They give us roughly 64 albums from the period. In contrast, we only get 37…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1975–1976)
Comparatively speaking, 1975–1976 is a dead zone for Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. There are almost as many Suggested Alternatives as legitimate selections. Overall, ’75 has more good stuff happening—not by a wide margin—but it’s a shady part of town, and we’re going to roll through most of the stop signs in the…
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Artist Spotlight: Moondog, The Viking of Sixth Avenue
This is the story of Louis Thomas Hardin, better known as Moondog: part mystic, part prankster, part genius, and one of the most unusual figures in 20th-century music. If you’ve seen The Big Lebowski (1998), you’ve already heard Moondog, even if you didn’t realize it. The Coen Brothers famously used his compositions, including “Theme” and “Stamping…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1967–1968)
The news of the day in 1967 was emerging from a haze of marijuana smoke as a battalion of up-and-coming artists with a series of must-hear albums. The marriage of drugs and music was consummated in culture. Thus, we enter the true dawn, the aurora of psychedelic rock. The super-cool kids have been using recreational…
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Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…Or Not (1955–1966)
Welcome to the first installment of the Albums You Must Hear…Or Not series. To learn about the history and execution of the project, please refer to the introduction. Music appreciation is highly personal and exclusively subjective, like 90% of all things in the material world. The official 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die…
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100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time, More or Less
From an informational perspective, opinion-based “Best Of” lists, especially related to music, are generally worthless. For instance, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs [Of All Time], contains neither surprise nor revelation, yet abounds in cringe and grimace. Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums is another story altogether, and I’ll get to that some time in the future.…
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Thank You, Internet: The Honeycombs, One the Juggler, and the Chris Holmes Pool Interview
I’m interested in music stories that rarely get told, artists that nobody’s listening to, and details that fall through the cracks. It’s fairly safe to say the only place on the planet left unmolested by the internet is North Sentinel Island. Thirty-some-odd years into our worldwide web experience, we’re all familiar with falling down the…
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Rock Over London, Rock On Wesley Willis
I originally wrote this article in May 2013 to honor what would have been Wesley Willis’ 50th birthday, May 31. Sadly, Wes only lived to 40. I’m still talking about him in 2026 because I don’t want to let his memory fade into obscurity. He was one of the most remarkable and captivating people I’ve…
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Bill Dolan Interview Part 1
In the summer of 1994, the hottest thing cooking on the Chicago music scene was a young guitarist named Bill Dolan and his band, Five Style (stylized 5ive Style), which had just been signed to Sub Pop Records—at the time, the pinnacle of indie rock record labels. Hearing Bill’s name and seeing it in The…
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Mike Watt Interview
Few people will ever have a chance to interview their heroes, and even fewer will do a good job. When I started Black Sunshine Media, I wanted to interview some of my heroes, a few of the lesser-known greats who inspired my musical career, including Carol Kaye, Billy Dolan, et al. When the opportunity to…
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Artist Spotlight: Carol Kaye
If you’ve listened to popular music from the 1960s and 70s, you know bassist Carol Kaye; perhaps you just don’t know you know Carol Kaye. This statement could also hold for the following names: Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel, Barney Kessel, Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, and hundreds of other musicians who worked the West Coast studio…
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Artist Spotlight: Mike Watt/Minutemen/fIREHOSE
Mike Watt is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE. He was also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan. He maintains a healthy web presence, posting regularly on Facebook, writing Mike Watt’s Hoot Page and hosting The Watt from Pedro Show on Apple Music.…
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Artist Spotlight: Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is a universal superstar, but he’s got one album that nobody talks about, Music of My Mind (1972), and it might be his best album. Let’s talk about it. Struggles with Motown As a child prodigy, Wonder signed with Motown’s Tamla label at age 11 and was given the professional name Little Stevie…
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Artist Spotlight: The Glove + Adam and the Ants
Black Sunshine Media was founded on the pursuit and exposure of lesser-known artists and bands and their work. Sharing new sounds is our passion. We love turning people onto stuff they might have missed. In this post, we’ll look at two albums from bands that deserve another shot: Blue Sunshine by The Glove (1983) and…
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Artist Spotlight: King Crimson
The term “progressive rock” was originally applied to bands that fused hard rock with classical music to expand the styles and concept of what a rock band could do. Procol Harum, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, and The Nice all operated in the zone of what is now called progressive rock, but none represented a…
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Artist Spotlight: Bad Brains
As a rock hobbyist and quasi-historian, I’ve built a small roster of underrated, unsung, and forgotten artists and albums. These are “back pocket selections” when talking or writing about music. “If you like so-n-so, you should check out…” Bad Brains is the most frequently cited artist, specifically their first three records. The band is one…