Listening Party for Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

SXSW, the annual clusterfuck of musical hedonism in Texas is in a couple weeks and I'm not going this year.  Although I'm about a thousand times less butthurt about it than I should be, I still can't help but feeling a little like the 5th grader who can't go to the birthday party at Scandia.

In some ways, as a pseudo-journalist, the buildup to SXSW was my favorite part.  Researching artists, creating calendars, writing previews, RSVP'ing to parties; the preparation only further stoked the fires of excitement.

So this year, although I'm still getting a lot of the same emails, seeing the once exciting/now annoying Twitter updates and seeing all the tour schedules that all lead to Austin, I don't get to participate in much of the buildup that crescendo's at the end of the month.

In lieu of all that stuff I have decided to try and listen to all 500 of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." (Article Here)

Not all at once, of course.  I don't want this to be a chore.  So I will be biting off a chunk of five, starting at #500, every couple days.  Lastly, I will provide a growing Spotify playlist with one of my favorite tracks from each album and leave a quick thought on each album in a posting kinda like this one.


500-496
500 - Outkast: "Aquemini" (1998) - Andre 3000 seems way harder in 1998 than he does now.  The skits are too long.  More Goodie Mob please.

499 - B.B. King: "Live in Cook County Jail" (1971) - Phenomenal recording quality, songs about boning, awesome.

498 - The Stone Roses: "The Stone Roses" (1989) - This must have been some cutting-edge shit in 1989.  Not gonna pretend I've been up on The Stone Roses or anything, but this album has an interesting jam-out element, very much a "festival band."  They will be great at Coachella.

497 - The White Stripes: "White Blood Cells" (2001) - The first half of the album rules; I kinda got bored by the end.

496 - Boz Scaggs: "Boz Scaggs" (1969) - Totally underrated.  I can see why every aging hippie burnout talks about Boz Scaggs.  Definitely belongs in your "classic rock" database.