Day 0574 - Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi "Slippery When Wet" (1986)

 
I'm not the biggest Bon Jovi fan, but it's hard to deny the sheer commercial whomp of this album.  You've got "You give love a bad name", "Livin' on a prayer" and "Wanted: dead or alive", three huge pop-rock anthems.
The band had been shooting for a pop sound on the album, but wanted to retain a hard rock feel.  To try and find this balance they would go and play their recordings to local teens to get feedback on the best running order or whether the songs were working.

The band had originally planned a different album cover featuring a woman in a wet t-shirt.  It had been posited that this cover was pulled as it would be deemed sexist and might not be run by some of the record stores, but the band themselves claimed that the record company tried to put a bright pink border around the planned cover so they rejected it.  Apparently not the most enlightened guys.

Day 0430 - GI

The Germs "(GI)" (1979) - got it

 
The band kicked off their first show in 1977; lead singer Darby Crash was dead of a drug overdose 3 years later.  In that time they built up a fierce live reputation and recorded this stonkingly good punk album.

Darby Crash is like Johnny Rotten, Henry Rollins and the Ramones thrown into a blender and spat on, then spat out.  Venomous, yet cartoonish. Pat Smear's riffs are killer, and it's a pity that this side of his sound doesn't really come out with Foo Fighters, but then I guess that's "Dave's band".

A great punk album, full of attitude, noise and... interestingly enough turns out it was produced by Joan Jett!

Favourite track "Richie's Dagger's Crime"