Utterly awesome lyrics, great backgrounds. Saw them live in a garage years ago and been a rabid fan ever since. You'll either love them or hate them. They are classified as punk but it's more like trip-punk.

From the 70's and 80's comes this raunchy and wonderful woman. She crosses a lot of genre lines: blues, R&B and soul. She even tosses in a little old school here and there.

My all time top punk band. You shouldn't have a top punk list without them.

This and Waylon's Greatest Hits are the best. As much as I love him, his albums can get windy and are meant only for die hard fans like myself. For a dabbler these 2 will nicely do.

For Golden Oldies you can't do better than the entire Otis collection. From "Stand By Me", "Dock Of The Bay" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long" he is addictive.

Almost the best of The Dead Milkmen. 80's punk at some of it's best and still classic. If I didn't own all their albums, I'd get "Death Rides A Pale Cow". When my house burned and all my 1000's of CD's, this is one of the first I replaced.

So hard to pick one of they're albums. I choose this because it's my favorite and has "The Dirty Glass". The newest album, "The Warrior's Code" is quite simply, brillant.

Truly the best of Esthero. For great trip-hop this is the place to start. Follow with Portishead "Glory Box" and maybe toss in Bjork "Homogenic" for a sublime trippy evening.

Ah, great 80's metal. This and little something by Suicidal Tendcies and I could virtually relive high school. Is that a good thing? If you like your metal black, this is a good place to start. But I hate hair bands so if you like Rat or Warrant, maybe you shouldn't be reading this list.