As part of an ongoing weekly Friday series, OOTB is acknowledging and recognizing Music Industry Leaders in various fields with their Top 5 Albums.
This week we feature Music Industry Marketing Leaders: Megan Ditton, Todd Flenner, Lane Kolkmeyer Lampl, Sean Lynn, Rosemarie Moehring, Jeff Railsback
Megan Ditton
Regional Director Of Marketing
St. Louis, Missouri, Live Nation
Top 5 Albums (in no particular order):
Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction
Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar
Barenaked Ladies – Rock Spectacle
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Motley Crue – From The Beginning
Todd Flenner
Marketing Director
Great Lakes, Live Nation
Top 5 Albums
1. Metallica - Master of Puppets
2. Clutch - Blast Tyrant
3. Jack White - Lazaretto
4. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
5. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Lane Kolkmeyer Lampl
Director Of Marketing
Music & Event Management, Inc (MEMI)
I am an alt-kid through and through. Give me something genre-bending and I’m probably going to love it. My Top 5 is a pretty good representation of that. These are albums I can listen to from beginning to end—they tell a story, evoke emotion, or completely pull me into their own world.
1. Turnpike Troubadours - Diamonds & Gasoline
Turnpike Troubadours are one of my all-time favorite bands; so, honestly, I could easily make an entire Top 5 out of their discography. I can listen to any of their albums from start to finish without skipping a song. Diamonds & Gasoline was my introduction to the band, so it only feels right to place it at No. 1. There’s a sense of place and storytelling in Turnpike’s music that makes every song feel lived-in. Evan Felker is one of the best songwriters of our time with the rare ability to transform life’s hardest truths and most fleeting moments into deeply resonant songs. Diamonds & Gasoline is nostalgic, honest, rowdy, melancholy, and fun all at once.
2. Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
Another band that could have easily taken multiple spots on this list. The only thing better than Alabama Shakes on vinyl is Alabama Shakes live. On Sound & Color, every song feels completely different but somehow belongs together. Not to mention Brittany Howard; her voice alone can change the temperature of a room. There is so much power, soul and emotion in these songs that you don’t just hear them, you feel them. One song can leave you energized, the next can break your heart, and the next can make you get up and dance. There’s nothing else quite like Alabama Shakes. Truly inimitable.
3. Dave Matthews Band - Crash
I used to steal this CD from my older brother. I was probably too young to be listening to it, couldn’t understand some of the words, and certainly wasn’t picking up on the underlying messages at the time. I remember listening to it and thinking, “this doesn't sound like anything else I've heard before”. There was something unpredictable about it; the way a song could start somewhere familiar and then suddenly take off in a different direction constantly moving, bouncing between rhythms, instruments, melodies, and ideas. I didn’t know it then, but I became a jam fan at a very young age. Some albums become favorites because they’re objectively great, others because they’re intertwined with memories. Crash is both for me.
4. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Elder Emo for life! I was a teenager when The Black Parade came out, which was probably the perfect age to experience this album. I remember listening to it all the way through for the first time and being fascinated that the album told a story. I was also an emotional teenager, so an emotionally packed concept album from My Chemical Romance was basically engineered to become a formative experience. At the time it felt like the pinnacle of emo music. Looking back, it was dramatic, unapologetic, theatrical, and completely committed to its own universe and teenage me was absolutely there for it.
5. Khruangbin - Con Todo El MundoCon Todo El Mundo is all about the music. With sparse vocals, the album puts all of your focus on the instrumentation. The guitar, bass, and drums manage to communicate an enormous amount without needing many words. When I listen to this album, I feel like each song picks me up and carries me along with it until the end of the track. It’s immersive without being overwhelming, atmospheric but present, and incredibly rhythmic without feeling predictable. You can hear influences from funk, soul, psychedelic rock, surf, global music, and more but the result is simply Khruangbin. It’s a record that doesn’t ask you to categorize it, it just asks you to listen. Sometimes that’s all you need from an album: great musicians, a killer groove, and music that takes you somewhere.
Sean Lynn
Director Of Marketing & Public Relations
Nederlander Entertainment
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
While not a studio album, so perhaps this is cheating, it’s hard to argue with where this album fits in my all time favorites. Talking Heads transcends genres and their live artistry comes through every recording. My first exposure to this album was the original LP version that kept me enamored from the opening beat of “Psycho Killer,” till the final notes of “Take Me To The River.” The Special Deluxe version, released later with more songs, just elevates it. For me, it doesnt get much better than this.
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
Like a fine wine, this album continues to age well for me. From radio hits to lesser know gems, it’s an album that front to back delivers. How can you not love Tom Petty?
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
It’s amazing how an album can take you back to a time of your life. I remember getting excused with a Doctors note (thanks Mom!), so that I could be at the Record Store when they opened to pick this up. This was the soundtrack of the summer between my junior and senior year, and it still holds up today.
Grateful Dead - America Beauty
My first foray into the Dead—I was introduced to them by my cousin at a family gathering as we slipped away into his parent’s truck. Studio albums turned into pouting through decades of live shows that are often the soundtrack of my work day.
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Like most college kids in a dorm, the pull to pickup a guitar is a natural progression in life. Someone I played with introduced me to Nick Drake and I was obsessed. I instantly dove deep into his discography, with his final album being my favorite.
Rosemarie Moehring
VP Of Marketing
Music & Event Management, Inc (MEMI)
1. U2 - Joshua Tree
2. Prince - Purple Rain
3. Eagles - Hotel California
4. The Essential Van Morrison
5. Journey - Frontiers
Jeff Railsback
Integrated Marketing Manager
PromoWest Productions
I’ve been with PromoWest for 15 years in assorted roles in all three markets (Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Newport, Kentucky) starting as an intern and continuing on up to where I am now.
Before that, I also worked for a nationally touring band for a couple of years out of high school, as well as at a record store after that during college. I guess that makes me a music industry lifer? Weird to think about, I still just feel like a punk kid. Anyways…
When Neil asked if I’d like to contribute to this series, I was excited because I love sharing my favorite music with people, whether they want to hear about it or not; but, I also told him “picking my Top 5 is kind of like selecting my favorite particle of oxygen,” so this isn’t necessarily THE definitive list.
These are some of my 10/10 favorite albums for sure, but I have a couple hundred 10/10 favorite, flawless albums that change with the wind. I also am aware that not everyone probably knows, or many would not even like, some of my perfect, no skip albums (any Aus Rotten fans here…? No?) so, I was a little choosey with this list.
RVIVR - The Beauty Between
Earnest, melodic, and hard-hitting with some rawness and energy that a lot of polished pop-punk loses along the way. Every song sounds like it means it. This is one of those punk bands that I accept only a small number of people has probably ever heard of, much less heard. I wish this band had a much longer run and a much bigger following, because this is adefinitive no skip, perfect album to me. If you like current bands like Joyce Manor, Jeff Rosenstock, PUP, The Menzingers or AJJ, and haven’t checked out RVIVR before, do yourself a favor and look them up now please.
Recommended Tracks: “Spider Song” “Big Lie” and all three “Hunger Suite” songs
The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past
The music writer Dan Ozzi once referred to The Menzingers genre as “dirtbag romanticism,” and I can’t imagine a more fitting description. I’ve been seeing this band since they were playing in basements in Pittsburgh in the late aughts (with the now Grammy Award Winning band Code Orange opening, then known as Code Orange Kids who were playing ska covers) and I feel oddly proud of a band I’ve never personally hung out with to have grown as much they have in their artistic career. Can’t wait to see them and sing my lungs out at Newport Music Hall this November! With Hot Water Musicopening even! Yes, you will find me in the pit.
Recommended Tracks: “Burn After Reading” “The Obituaries” and “Nice Things”
Bad Religion - Against The Grain
I had a really tough time narrowing down just one Bad Religion album. To crib a line from the movie Office Space: I celebrate their entire catalog. I have three Bad Religion tattoos and one of them is a variation on the cover art for this album, so this one wins the day. I bought this on CD way back in the last century during my 6th grade Christmas’ break from school, when I returned a Reel Big Fish CD that would not play. Against The Grain marked the first time as a kid that a band’s lyrics made me bust out a dictionary and encyclopedia to figure out what a song meant. But now, I know who Diogenes is. Also, I have just dated myself by referring to an “encyclopedia.”
Recommended Tracks “Modern Man” “Anesthesia” and “21st Century (Digital Boy)”
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
This album is a certified punk classic, antique. If you have even an inkling towards “spooky” music, you owe it to yourself to check out The Damned, if you haven’t. Machine Gun Etiquette is the sound of a band realizing that three chords wasn’t a cage, but a starting point. Dave Vanian’s crooning over all that chaos is basically the blueprint for countless horror-punk, goth and deathrock bands that followed. I can’t believe I get to see The Damned the night before Halloween at Newport this year.
Recommended Tracks: “Noise Noise Noise” “Plan 9, Channel 7” and “Smash It Up" (Parts 1 & 2)”
AFI - Sing The Sorrow
This was kind of the logical extension from The Damned in the evolution of punk from the ‘70s through late 90’s hardcore into early 00’s emo screamo—though I have never personally preferred those last two genre labels for AFI, others may disagree with me and that’s fine. Actually, getting into AFI as a kid led me to getting into the last band I mentioned, The Damned. This album was huge in 2003 and I can still hear the punks complaining that they wished AFI still wrote skatepunk songs. 10/10, no skips. One of the first times I saw AFI in a venue (and not a Warped Tour) was at Newport Music Hall in 2003 with Strike Anywhere opening, and the next time I see them will be two days before my birthday this October 14th at Newport Music Hall. Again, find me in the pit. Also, AFI’s most recent album—Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…—is a huge departure from their usual style and it is also a flawless, no skips album for me.
Recommended Tracks: “The Leaving Song” (parts 1 and 2), “Girls Not Grey” and “…But Home is Nowhere”
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