I think y’all should talk about Jet more.
Well, I was really surprised at how well WordMan picked that one, to be honest. The OP thought it rocked, while I personally dismissed it as “heard it before”, mostly because the intro to the hit off the record sounded very like a song I loved. It’s really a pretty good lesson at introducing music to people who don’t have a great deal of knowledge about the subject, really. And maybe it’s a little bit of an example of how being jaded about a band can blind you to them.
On the other hand, I’ve always thought Get Born had guitar sounds that are so good, I’d believe that early-90’s Rick Rubin could have produced it (checks wiki page) nope, it was the guy from Barkmarket. Time travel still hasn’t begun.
Surprisingly as well, they don’t cite AC/DC as their primary influence, but another Australian band, You Am I. I’d never heard of them. From a quick listen, it’s easy to see the influence. It’s catchy hard pop/rock. Creative riffs that don’t ever actually become metal due to their emphasis on fuller chord voicing, with enough of a twist to make you think of the Kinks. Jet describes the influence of their Hi Fi Way album similarly to others’ accounts of The Ramones and The Sex Pistols. That band made them realize they didn’t have to be American or copying Americans, Australians had their own sound, and anyone of them could do it. Berlin Chair is particularly rockin’. It’s more to my taste than Jet. Dangit, Australia, quit keeping the good stuff for yourselves! I blame the entire population for not shouting about this band loudly enough.
Plus, what is it with Australian bands and brothers? AC/DC has brothers, Jet has brothers, umm, The Atlantics and Men At Work didn’t have brothers. Ok, so the Australian brothers-in-bands thing leads to a dead end.
Wait, were you being facetious?
Mahaloth, my favorite Pink Floyd album is Wish You Were Here, but I agree that if you were only ever to hear one PF album, it should be their most famous, Dark Side of the Moon, just to know what people are talking about when they reference it. I also 2nd Close to the Edge by Yes. I’d recommend Foxtrot or Selling England by the Pound or my favorite, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis but I don’t think you’d like them.
gladtobeblazed, I doubt that Mahaloth would like any of these and they don’t fit what he asked for anyway (as albums everybody has already heard) but I just wanted to let you know that someone out there really appreciated these choices. I haven’t heard the MBV but I adore all of the others. I was going to suggest Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes or my personal favorite Under The Pink, or Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (though my favorite by her is Solace) but I don’t think they’d be his thing either.
Well, based on what you’ve said so far you might like The Toadies’ Rubberneck. It was hard to escape hearing Possum Kingdom when the album came out, but there are also some other really good songs on the album, like Tyler, I Burn and Mexican Hairless.
Add my vote for Dark Side Of The Moon as the ideal introduction to Pink Floyd.
Hey - at least he didn’t recommend Rio by Duran Duran 
(for the record, that is an old SDMB reference - it’s the go-to suggestion for any music question…)
Thanks, scabpicker - I appreciate it. I like to think I have posted enough to be seen as a musc nerd/guitar geek, but since most folks (including me, unfortunately) don’t remember who posted what, I may be expecting a bit too much I take music recommendations seriously - it’s music, man! - so I try to give them some a bit of thought based on what the OP is asking for. Jet sounded like a solid fit; Gang of Four’s Love is Like Anthrax is a lot more left-field, but fits from a cool-aggression standpoint.
I hadn’t heard of You Am I - I will be checking them out when I can play music without waking up my kids ;). And as for Aussie bro-bands - Airbourne (a decent pure AC/DC wannabee) has brothers. And Kiwi’s’ll kill me, since they have NOTHING to do with Australia (dammit! ;)), but Split Enz / Crowded House had Finn brothers involved…
Oh - holy shit - I gotta recommendation: Just One Fix by Ministry - here’s a mobile link:
Not like Gn’R - more industrial metal. But right timing (1992) and just pure, relentless aggression (and a great video). Lordy, I love this song…
I heard that someone (Mick Jagger?) said of this album, “It only sold like 3000 copies, but everyone who bought it started a band.”
OP - This is not crisp clean music. This is jangly fuzzy music that ranges from sweet and melodic (I’ll be Your Mirror) to somewhat fraught (Heroin). Great album, but not what I would call immediately accessible.
So it’s not buddy’s cup o’ tea. Maybe he needs to be exposed to more stuff before he can appreciate it. Or maybe he never will.
I can’t believe that only one person mentioned this.
I’d go with: Give The People What They Want, Around The Dial and Misfits
Be ashamed 
I think this just comes down to where your musical head is at and what your personal sensibilities are. This is an album I recommend lots but I do so with the expectation that about 1 in 10 will latch on to it and the other 9 will be different degrees of, “WTF was that?!?!”
The Game was the first Queen album I ever heard and as soon as Queen came up it was the one that came to mind first.
This is the album I came here to shill for. I can remember exactly where I was and who with when I first heard this album.
I’m kind of surprised that every other hard rock band out there didn’t hear it and immediately take up accounting with the firm understanding that nothing they ever did would come even close to equaling this beautiful monstrosity.
That being said, here are some ideas for you:
Even In The Quietest Moments - Supertramp: The other ST mentioned in this thread are incredible albums but Quietest Moments is my favourite. Mid paced, lyrically tight, lovely music.
State of Euphoria - Anthrax: Fun loving metal band that is largely to blame for Nu Metal (Limp Biscuit and their ilk) This album gets bonus points for songs based on the movie Blue Velvet and the book Misery. There is another homage in there but I can’t recall at the moment what it is.
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle: Great album, must have. In the tradition of outlaw country but harder and more updated.
Dr. Hook’s Greatest Hits - Dr Hook and The Medicine Show: Lyrics by Shel Silverstein and vocals by Satan’s tone-deaf brother-in-law.
Toy Matinee - Toy Matinee: Somewhat obscure but c’est la vie. Poetic, dark, funny as hell and musically brilliant. The singer and lyricist is largely responsible for the writing on Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club
Tuesday Night Music Club - Sheryl Crow: Just a fun pop album with some great lyrics and somewhat left-field orchestration.
Don’t forget INXS. They were originally named The Farriss Brothers.
::forehead slap::
D’oh! How’d we miss them!
Gave this a listen - really good. The video, however, was distractingly annoying; there may be a message in having an overweight fella do an awkward ballet dance in silver lame’, but I wasn’t seein’ it. The pretty girl was a bit less distracting and the band looked rockin’, but I don’t like being taken out of the song. Without the video, they sound like AC/DC meets Kings of Leon. To me.
Sorry to continue the mini-hijack, Mahaloth - but these guys are really good. Melodic power-pop with tightly-written lyrics. I listened to Purple Sneakers and Good Morning - it feels like these guys are an Australian Fountains of Wayne.
…and I love that guitar the guy’s playing in the Good Morning video - what is that, a Gretsch, with the cat-eye f-hole? Sweet
Hey! You’re right! No-one has suggested that. Well, fine, I don’t even like the album, but the OP should have heard it. Give it a listen, I don’t like dance-able, sugary synth-pop, but it’s quintessential dance-able sugary synth-pop. The bass player is pretty amazing, too.
Don’t expect G’nR, though.
Not to get all lovey-dovey or anything, but I always take your recommendations seriously. Even if my first reaction to a music related post is “wow, this jerkstore is completely wrong!”, if it’s showing up under your user name, I’ve learned to give it a second listen, at least.
But usually if I disagree with ya, it’s something like this:
You misspelled “Theives”. If there’s a Ministry album everyone should have heard, it’s The Mind is a Terrible thing to Taste.
Thieves is it’s opener. That guitar part that sounds like a robotic Dick Dale on meth at the beginning of “Thieves”? I don’t think it’s a guitar, I believe it’s a sample of a stun gun. This is the slow, groovy part of the song, and the guitar is a stun gun. The song just beats on you from there. It’s totally hardcore compared to Guns 'n Roses, but you should hear the album. I’d suspect it’s another one of those records that would be impractical to make today. Due to the insane number of samples used, it would simply cost too much. “So What” is another masterpiece off of that record.
I’m listening to them now. They still bring goosebumps 25 years later. Yep, ministry qualifies as classic rock, now. :eek:
If I’m not mistaken, that’s a Rickenbacker headstock with the name gone from the truss rod cover. But that’s not any Rickenbacker I’m familiar with. Maybe it’s a custom?
Yeah - DD were good at what they do.
Cool; thanks. Same with you.
No argument, but Just One Fix just works for me. You have to wonder what it’s like inside Alain Jourgensen’s mind - but not so badly as to actually…know. Just out there.
Oh yeah - Ricky headstock; missed that.
Hmm, this may be going off the OP’s intended territory a little bit, but maybe not. No one’s suggested it, and I think it should probably be heard by someone who’s backtracking starting at the mid nineties.
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
It’s umm, funk metal? Groove metal? Alternative Metal? Either way, it, and the live album that precede it are great records.
25 years old this summer. An absolute classic. Not a weak song on it.
100% correct. Both are absolutely great albums.
Update
Queen - Night at the Opera
Not a big fan of this album. It must be that this particular set of songs doesn’t work for me because I have liked many Queen songs and even entire other albums.
Queen - A Kind of Magic
OK, so I had heard this one before and have seen Highlander. Still, this is an amazing album and my favorite from Queen so far. I love the songs, “Who Wants to Live Forever?” and “One Year of Love”. I really like “Kind of Magic” and even the less-good “Gimme the Prize”. Yeah, if every queen album was this good, I’d be a huge fan.
Note: I prefer the film version of “kind of magic” over the album version, but still.
Queen - The Game
I liked this album quite a bit, but am not raving. I don’t like “Crazy little thing called love” at all, though. Most of the songs are pretty good, with highlights for me being “Dragon Attack”, “Another One Bites the Dust”, and “Sail Away Sweet Sister”.
Good album.
It occurred to me that there are some albums that, at one point (e.g. the seventies) everyone had heard, but that nowadays nobody even mentions. Case in point: Frampton Comes Alive. I’ve never heard it, being a bit too young, but I somehow got the impression that back in the 1970s everyone owned a copy. Anyone care to comment on whether it’s worth a listen nowadays? I could make a similar comment about the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, though it’s arguable whether it counts as rock.
Frampton Comes Alive is very fun; if you are looking for fun, well-done jammy rock, check it out.
Saturday Night Fever fucking rocks. The songs are there, and the arrangements are so stereotypically disco that it’s easy to giggle, but this is good stuff. No apologies; same with good ABBA and good Donna Summer - if you don’t get I Feel Love, I’m sorry…
Frampton Comes Alive is a wonderful album, in my opinion. When I was a teenager (late 70s) everyone indeed had this album. You couldn’t go to a party anywhere without this album being played. It’s a perfect mix of rock, blues, and mellowness. (Not to mention the voice box.)
Hey, another album that everyone had was Steve Miller’s greatest hits.
OK, these two albums, a couple of Supertramp albums, and the debut albums of Boston, Van Halen, and The Cars pretty much defined my latter high school years.