The Jesus and Mary Chain

On a list of the most influential records recorded in the '80s, someone would be hard pressed not to include somewhere in the top five the Jesus and Mary Chain's staggering debut, Psychocandy. Influential beyond measure, it threw together walls of white feedback with angelic Beach Boys and Byrds-ian harmonies and the independent music world is still aping it. Their growth since that record has been marked by ups and downs and some might say, by a lack of growth at all. They've gone from confrontational noise to sample-heavy alterna-hits, to acoustic bliss and back to noise again. The brothers Reid (Jim and William) have not been known to deny their influence and continue their onstage feuding: drunken assaults amidst a smattering of occasional strung-out brilliance and too-often sameness.