Toad the Wet Sprocket Dulcinea (Columbia ; 1994) N.B. - All of the Return Trip articles this month feature albums I got into via that venerable audio format known as the cassette tape. My first cassette*, my first concert and even the first song I learned to play on guitar ("Crowing") were all Toad ...

Travis The Man Who (Independiente ; 1999) There was a time when I would have made an argument for The Man Who as one of the best albums of the 90s. The first time this album was unleashed upon me, its opening track, "Writing to Reach You," went on repeat for about five or six trips through my stereo...

"There were three great beats in the ’70s: Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, James Brown’s funk and Klaus Dinger’s Neu! beat." - Brian Eno The very word, "Krautrock," seems like a joke. And truly it has been used for both praise and derision. But its main architects have had an unceasing influence on ro...

Public Enemy Yo! Bum Rush the Show (Def Jam ; 1987) There's something irresistible about those first, few, imperfect steps. There's something about hearing the first attempts at greatness, especially with the knowledge of what is to come. Yo! Bum Rush the Show is one of those albums. It is a creatio...

Pere Ubu Dub Housing (Chrysalis ; 1978) There really is nothing that can prepare you for that first time with a record like Dub Housing. Even now, nearly 30 years on, when popular music has had every opportunity to absorb and disseminate its influences, there really is nothing like it. With jazz, no...

Sleater-Kinney The Hot Rock (Kill Rock Stars ; 1999) Every band has 'em - the red-headed stepchild of an album. It may work real hard in school, make good grades, help old ladies across the street, but the fact remains that there's somethin' peculiar that sticks out about that boy. And things just n...

Beck One Foot in the Grave (K ; 1994) I have a weird admission to make and I feel ready to do so, especially now that the big re-issue of this album is out and it's been enshrined into the rock-and-roll album pantheon of greatness: I really didn't care for Odelay when it was released in 1996. Whethe...

The The Dusk (Epic ; 1993) 1993 has been a popular year for my throwback reviews of late and for good reason. It was a tremendous year for indie-rock of all stripes - from below radar (the previously reviewed Frosting on the Beater ) to all over the map (Siamese Dream). Even idiosyncratic British ba...

Swirlies Blonder Tongue Audio Baton (Taang! ; 1993) "Here. I don't want any of them, so I thought I'd bring 'em in and whoever could have them." And so I sorted through the pile of t-shirts, mostly music related, that were now piled on the table where the manager had left them. There were only two g...

The Posies Frosting on the Beater (DGC ; 1993) I love an album with a good "how I first heard it" story. Mine is not exceptional, per se, but it's nice. Fellow WQFS DJ Mad Dog (he of the Friday Night Rock Party) was one of the first community DJ friends I made when I first started out as a freshman ...