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Duane Dennison's work with The Jesus Lizard especially Goat which had the best snare sound ive ever heard in my life, my copy sounds like its been mastered low.

Keith Levene- From the first Steel Leg vs the Electric Dread ep with wobble to the first 3 PiL records, this guy started everything.

Mick Harvey & Rowland Howard/birhtday party- great spazz with swagger

Andy Gill/gang of four- just listen to "he'd send in the army"

Steve Albini- Ive heard he hates the first Big Black record but its such a great guitar sound, especially on Crack. Then it began to sound like 2 peices of metals griding together until the end.
Rapeman was great because he began to play diffrently and use more parts. Shellac took this a step further to the point where Steve has total control over his instrument and sound.

Bernard Sumner/joy division/new order- i think a lot of the reason his sound was as great as it was, was hannet's production at least until movement. when he started to play curtis's vox on tour, that had a great sound as well, very thin and tinny.

Sean Anatanaitis- jaks/love life/birdland- he plays a guitorgan and it is one of the most atmospheric sounds ive ever heard.

Glenn Branca- now thats a wall of noise

Rockey Crane- Year Future- This is one of my new favorites. at times it sounds like a synth plugged into distortion.

-paul

A lot of people have already namechecked Slint and "Spiderland", which has to be up there.

One of my personal favourites is "Alladin Sane" by Bowie. That album sounds so cool, and the guitar sounds on "Cracked Actor" could take your face off!

Rye Coalition "On Top"
Bluetip "Polymer"
AC/DC "Back in Black"
Nirvana "In Utero"
the Jesus Lizard "Liar"

All great guitar tones.

I will say Drive Like Jehu "Yank Crime", Breach "It's me God" and My Bloody Valentine "Loveless".

Some blasts from the past:

Adrian Belew on "Remain in Light" (Talking Heads)
Quadrophenia
Guitar solo on "You're So Vain."
Axis: Bold As Love
Marquee Moon, especially "Friction."

Link Wray : Rumble
Dick Dale: Hava Nagila,Surf Beat, and of course Misirlou, natch.
Davie Allan: Wild Angels
(the) Ventures In Space,there's alot of great Ventures tone....live, studio..
the Phantom Surfers: all sounds great!
Man or Astroman: I love all there stuff too...........but for tone, with Star Crunch, I go with Experiment Zero, and with the Trace Reading and Blazar I, again love everything, but A SpectrumOf Infinite Scale, hope it is not the last from this group! I love where ever these guy go with music!
No vocal songs seem to stick out in my mind, not for guitar tone..

Link Wray : Rumble

The Magna Charta of guitar records.

There's some confusion about whether this thread is for guitar sound or playing, I think (to the extent the two can seperated by audiofiles). My faves (and all the classics) have probably all been mentioned, but I'll add:

Vee Vee - Archers of Loaf

I love the breathing space and that tinny sound resulting from Bachmann's use of a hi E string in the low E position. Also Johnson's lead playing is marvelous and there's great dynamics in general between the high scrappy sounds and bottom end, tho some tracks on the album are throw-aways.

Marc Ribot - Saints

His last solo guitar album. Probably my favourite solo guitarist (tho I've long loved kottke, fahey, joseph spence, and Lenny Breau). Its sounds so lame to talk about 'pushing the limits' of an instrument, but fuck, I'd take this disc onto a desert island to die happily. (Just read that he loves Lightning Bolt too!) The guy's a big union activist and generally politically active as well.

Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn

Way better than the boring over-rated Godspeed records. The playing is both textural and atmospheric w/o being flakey or psychadelic (and almost never jazzy). No mean feat. I think the dynamics of this band are way more subtle and interesting than a lot of more established "postrock" instrumental bands. They also make the best use of horns in the history of instrumental rock (And I always thought I hated the trumpet). Way better than Mogwai in my opinion too.




This'll get me flamed, but:

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

The bent harmonics, post-Edge rhythm sounds, and undistorted riffs - this double album was a revelation 10 years ago and I've never stopped listening to it. Brock's playing really walks the line between precision and scrappy abandon, and his tone is often pretty thin sounding but somehow it's perfect. Their new album blows tho.

Also: A Minor Forest - Inindependence

I just think this album is very overlooked as a classic.


Also: Am I only person that likes 1000 Hurts more than Action Park?

Best all.