 | Vincebus Eruptum by Blue Cheer
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $4.93 The loudest band in 1968. Surprisingly, this album actually contains a top 40 hit: their cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues". It's hard to name a standout track, it's all gold. Very influential on both punk and heavy metal; very much a heavy fuzz/sludge sound.
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 | Kick Out the Jams by MC5
Buy new: $14.98 / Used from: $7.82 Wow! As timeless as this record is, it definately still embodies the spirit of a very specific time. Classic.
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 | White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $3.31 Heavy, loud, earpiercing psychadelic fuzz all the way through. There's a lot of dispute over which of the first 2 VU albums is better, and I vote for this one- although I can understand the argument on the other side. Side 2 is the 17 minute orgy, "Sister Ray", arguably the greatest rock n' roll song ever recorded. A must have!
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 | The Stooges by The Stooges
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $3.78 Legendary, but not a huge success at the time. Although, Iggy and the crew did have a TV appearance in 1970.
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 | Are You Experienced? by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Buy new: $29.99 / Used from: $11.38 Well, duh.
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 | Led Zeppelin 1 by Led Zeppelin
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $1.39 Creatively produced and engineered by founder Jimmy Paige. These kids are gonna be big. Mark my words!
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 | Black Monk Time by The Monks
Buy new: $19.99 / Used from: $11.98 5 former American G.I.s with matching monk haircuts and an electric banjo that gives the album a very distictive sound, seperating it from other garage rock efforts of the time. They actually had a good deal of success in Germany.
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 | Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $5.99 Discombobulated, uncoordinated, unanticipated and nearly falling apart at the seams, Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz" rewritten and rethought for a psychadelic rock band. Beefheart's vision of what pop music could be is still fresh today. If I had to choose just 2 words to describe this masterpiece, I think I'd go with Fast and Bulbous!
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 | Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $4.97 Excellent followup to a stunning debut. What more needs to be said? We all know this album.
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 | Disraeli Gears by Cream
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $3.24 A lot of the songs on this album do not fall on the hard/heavy side. But the ones that do- mwah! Perfecto! Essential proto-metal tune "Sunshine Of Your Love" says it all. And besides, those slower psych tunes are vey cool, too.
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 | Mad River/Paradise Bar & Grill by Mad River
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $8.48 "Amphetamine Gazelle" is probably my favorite tune on this trip through the darker side of 60s psychadelia from 1968. Not very well remembered 40 years later, and I wonder why.
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 | Loaded for Bear: The Best of Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes by Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes
Buy used from: $2.40 The Nuge's politics aside, this compilation of early material runs on the platform of awesome! The 8 minute Zeppelin-esque "Prodigal Man" is arguably the best, although we all know their hit "Journey To The Centre Of The Mind", the sentiments of which Ted claims he was unaware. Yes, Ted, your bandmates were singing about L.S.D., and it rocked!
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 | My Generation (Deluxe Edition) by Who
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $13.90 They smashed their guitars. Okay?! Anyone can do that now (well, maybe not in this economy) but they did it first. If this album's influence could be overstated, it would already have been.
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 | Microminiature Love by Michael Yonkers Band
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $3.74 No Wave nearly a decade before "No New York". Released years later, this dark, loud, noisy collection was recorded in Yonkers' parents' basement in 1969. Some of the avant-garde guitar sounds came about by accident (though kept in on purpose). Realizing that this music was made in the 60s almost makes Sonic Youth's 80s work seem quaint (almost).
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 | Overdose of Heavy Psych by Various Artists
Buy new: $15.99 / Used from: $11.99 Possibly the only easily attainable source of The Firebirds' lone heavy hitting 1969 effort; 6 of theirs appear on this decidedly hard slice of acid rock, along with some great hard to find stuff by Orange Wedge, The Boston Tea Party, Loose Endz, Fumin Humans, etc. It's like taking the hardest stuff from Nuggets and whittling it down to 1 disc.
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 | Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 by Various Artists
Buy new: $21.99 / Used from: $24.96 Compiled by Patti Smith guitarist/garage rock aficionado Lenny Kaye 3 years prior to the release of Smith's debut. Imitations would follow, but none quite as comprehensive and essential. Ranging indiscriminatingly from obscure ("Hey Mr Pharmacist" by The Other Half) to massive hits (Red Sox theme song "Dirty Water" by Cali natives The Standells).
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 | Introducing the Sonics by The Sonics
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $9.00 Released shortly after The Kinks' breakthrough, and slightly before The Who's debut, this is the quintessential mid-60s garage rock album. "Strychnine" is an unparalleled work of pure raw energy that has not lost it's youthful, pounding edge in the 40+ years since The Sonics recorded it.
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 | Truth Gotta Stand by The Luv'd Ones
Buy used from: $98.17 Criminally overlooked. The Shangri-Las meet the Velvet Underground. These songs could have been recorded yesterday. Unfortunately, I just bought the only copy Amazon has; sorry. Hopefully, another seller will put one up....
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 | The Doors by The Doors
Buy used from: $36.23 Come on! What can be said about The Doors that hasn't been said a million times?
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 | Axis: Bold as Love by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $6.32 Definately more variety on this one than on the trio's debut. "Spanish Castle Magic" is one of the heaviest songs Jimi ever recorded. In addition to that, there are a lot of overlooked album cuts, including the wicked catchy Noel Redding-led "She's So Fine".
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 | Monster Movie by The Can
Buy used from: $6.78 Definitely the hardest of all the CAN albums. The Krautrockers' Velvets influence is very apparent on the opener "Father Cannot Yell". Possibly as important as the critically acclaimed 1971 "Tago Mago".
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 | Roger the Engineer by Yardbirds
Buy new: $21.98 / Used from: $8.38 Jimmy Paige on some tracks:"Psycho Daisies" & "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"(he joined them full time around the time of this release), this 1966 album contains glimpses of the brilliance and timeless originality that Paige would display throughout the next decade. Seminal to Jeff Beck's pre-metal work 2 years later, as well.
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 | Electric Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $7.00 All the way through, this is not as heavy as either of the first two. The closing track, one of his most famous, however, is "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Great album: "All Along the Watchtower", "Burining of the Midnight Lamp", "Crosstown Traffic"....
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 | Truth by Jeff Beck
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $3.99 Obvious precursor to Led Zeppelin.
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