Answer me this, music geniuses...

[zion zig zag]

Everclear-Sparkle and Fade
PJ-ten,vs,vitalogy
Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dream
Fugazi-13 songs (maybe barely makes it, 1989?)
Green Day-Dookie

[warthog]

Originally posted by The AD
Says who? I like the Pixies, but they invented alternative music? How about Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground, and David Bowie to name a few who came way before and were definitely alternative.

Well, Since you asked, Kurt Cobain, and Dave Grohl, to name a few. I do agree with you though. Maybe I should have worded that a little differently. They helped create Alternative music, is that better? Either way, they rocked. Did you know they are supposed to start touring again this spring?

"And yet the Pixies were remarkably influential: Sonic Youth may have coined the phrase "verse-chaos-verse" to describe their own formula, but it was Pixies frontman Black Francis who perfected the trick of sailing airy, folklike melodies into seas of screams and white noise. "I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies," Kurt Cobain said in 1994, when Rolling Stone asked him about the runaway success of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Seven years later, Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood told British television that "the reason we don't use as much guitar now is there are only a handful of Pixies albums. You can't keep copying them." (Compare the famous scrape of Radiohead's 1993 breakthrough single, "Creep," to Pixie guitarist Joey Santiago's work on Doolittle's "I Bleed.") Of course, a great many bands have done just that—as Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters put it recently in New York Times, "The quiet/loud dynamic that's dominated alternative radio for the last 14 years can be attributed to one and only one band, the Pixies."

[tibaher]

And also subject to subjectivity yet still greats
http://www.phish.com/_content/releas...LawnBoy_sm.jpg
http://www.phish.com/_content/releas.../nectar_sm.jpg

live:
http://www.phish.com/_content/releas...tchPass_sm.jpg

http://www.phish.com/_content/releas...ive_one_sm.jpg

[The AD]

Originally posted by warthog
Did you know they are supposed to start touring again this spring?

Yes, and definitely worth seeing. I did see them live back in the late '80s or early '90s, but I wasn't really into them much at the time, so it was sort of a wasted experience. They must have been supporting someone else or vice versa and I went to see the other band. Can't remember who it was, though.

[Spats]

Iceman:

Some of these don't make the 15 year cutoff, but none are from before 1982.

Nomeansno - Wrong

This is the best punk record ever made. If you do not own it you are a pooter.

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Husker Du - Zen Arcade

Factoid: The two best double punk albums ever were released on the same day. If you don't own at least one of them you are a pooter.

Edit to add:
Kyuss - Sky Valley

Perhaps the best and most brutal hard rock album of all time -- flows perfectly, no weak spots. Most famous because Tool covered "Demon Cleaner.

Fugazi - Repeater

There are a lot of great Fugazi records, but I have to give the consistency nod to Repeater. If EPs are allowed, though, their first self-titled release definitely takes it.

Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle

This is a masterpiece of retro psychedelia, and the only record in the genre I will listen to. Anyone who was disappointed that there weren't more Beatles albums needs to check this out.

Helmet - Aftertaste

Helmet invented nu-metal back in 1989. By 1997 they had perfected it, just about the time everyone started listening to Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and all the people who "borrowed" the chugga-chugga power chords from them.

Meshuggah - Chaosphere

This will make most people bleed from the ears. Clearly this band is from a planet on which intricate, complex yet austere, shifting layers of perfectly synchronized tectonic violence are normal. After listening to it, I look like that guy in the chair from the old Maxell poster.

I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few, but this should last you a while.

[PaSucks]

Originally posted by flykdog
Everclear-Sparkle and Fade

I didn't even think about everclear. They are an amazingly underappreciated band. I saw them last year on campus, a pretty good show, it would have been amazing had more people showed up, godamn people I go to school with

[SponsoredByDuctTape]

This is getting kind of ridiculous - I'm going to have to agree with Ubersheist about this thread being a little too general.

[basom]

Originally posted by Alex P. Keaton
If I had hooked up with her, I definitely wouldn't remember her name. She was pretty cute in high school fer sher. She was a couple years ahead of me.

I did hook up with Lauren Ambrose, of Six Feet Under, when I was in high school (classmate, real name Lauren D'Ambrosio).

funny given her slight resemblance to mrs. apk.

[dewey]

Raekwon the Chef - Only Built by Cuban Linx
Nas - Illmatic

the only two perfect hip-hop albums that I know of.

What about u2?
I guess Joshua tree is a longer 'n fifteen ago.

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

[Mcwop]

Originally posted by flykdog
Everclear-Sparkle and Fade
PJ-ten,vs,vitalogy
Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dream
Fugazi-13 songs (maybe barely makes it, 1989?)
Green Day-Dookie

Heck yes - Fugazi (almost all their albums are great). Fugazi is right in Iceman's backyard. Furthermore, Fugazi has never sold out.

Here are some others off the top of my head:

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
NOFX - Pump up the Valuum
Slayer - REIGN IN BLOOD
Clutch - Self Titled

[pointedem]

cant dispute this one:
Pearl jam- Ten

[jdabasin]

Tool - Lateralus

Radiohead - The Bends

Dre - The Chronic

Jane's - Ritual De Lo Habitual

Soungarden - Superunknown

[JMO]

Gotta throw my hat in the ring for System of Down, "Toxicity." I know it's new but it rocks from start to finish. Haven't heard an album do that in the past 15 years. Except, of course, for my own:

[Warning: shameless marketing plug for my own album coming]

Three Day Threshold, "Behind the Barn"

[hev]

recent favorites

herbaliser - very mercanary

radiohead - ok computer, the bends
dj shadow - endtroducing
nas - illmatic
UNKLE - psyence phiction
flaming lips - soft bulletin

[mildbill.]

Originally posted by mildbill.
no bad songs on :

Palace - Viva Lost Blues
De La - Bhaloone mind state
tortoise - TNT

edit: i'm not mild bill, wtf is going on?

[towelie] i have no idea what is goin on. [/t]

who tried to post that? i've never even heard of the first and third ones...

[Canuk]

Originally posted by iceman
Sorry, U2 suggestions are immediately disqualified.

If you are immediately disqualifying U2 suggestions you are eliminating one of the best albums ever - Achtung Baby. It was a drastic departure from what they were doing previous, does not sound dated even after 13 years, is thematic, ahead of it's time, and has great continuity and flow.

Radiohead's OK Computer is another album that is way up there on the all time great album list.

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

Here is just a few that come to mind;

Operation Ivy - "Energy"

Misfits - "Walk Among Us"

Stiff Little Fingers - "Inflammable Material"

I'll think of more later..............

[The AD]

Originally posted by dewey
What about u2?
I guess Joshua tree is a longer 'n fifteen ago.

Only qualifies if you can deal with the U2 at their most self-indulgent (a.k.a. "Bullet the Blue Sky"). Every other song is pretty good, though.

[This End Up]

Back in Black.
The album by which all other are measured. Couldn't beleive it wasn't on somebody else's list, perhaps it is too old.

Audioslave.
A solid, newschool album.

John Lee Hooker and Friends.
Perhaps not the right gerne, but awsome none the less.

[Bzzzt]

Pan American: Pan American (1998)
Lee "Scratch"Perry & Mad Professor: Super Ape Inna Jungle (1995)
Spacemen 3: The Perfect Prescription (1995)

[The Reverend Floater]

Pearl Jam: Ten, Vs.
Stone Temple Pilots
Guns n' Roses: Appetite for Destruction, GnR lies
Metalica: Black Album
Spearhead: Stay Human
Moe: No Doy
Black Crowes: Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, Amorica
Weezer: Blue Album
Widespread Panic: Light Fuse and Get Away
Thievery Corporation: Mirror Conspiracy
Prodigy
Ben Harper: Live
Alison Krause: New Favorite
Grateful Dead: Take your pick of Dick's Picks, live shows, etc.
Jay Z: Unplugged with Roots
Ice Cube: Predator
Tool: Enima, Opiate

[The AD]

It falls just outside the 15 year window, but Wire's "A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck" (1988) deserves a mention. Also Julian Cope's "Peggy Suicide."

[Cornholio]

My super-dooty flame suit is strapped tight, and I don't know if this is <15 years for sure, but it's close:

Paul Simon, Graceland

And, I really gotta back Gonz up with Appetite. First tape I ever bought, wore it out, bought another one, wore that out too. I listened to the whole thing start to finish last week, and it still seems fantastic.

Edit: How about Alison Krause, Now that I've found you?

[basom]

Originally posted by dewey
Raekwon the Chef - Only Built by Cuban Linx
Nas - Illmatic

the only two perfect hip-hop albums that I know of.

Raekwon is one of the best produced albums in any genre. everything else the rza has created pales in comparison to this effort. even he wrekognizes that. illmatic is one of the best lyrical achievments of any genre (although i feel the album loses steam for the last third of it). too bad both nas and the rza fell off after these gems

mildbill- that was me who likes palace and tortoise. are you surprised that i like stuff you were never exposed to at your silly ive leauge phish infused hippy 'nola hannover? are you surprised that i now have the ability to steal your identity?

[lemon boy]

Little Sparrow - Dolly Parton
40oz - Sublime
No.2 Live Dinner - Robert Earl Keen
I heard they suck live - NOFX
Body Count - Body Count