Today I bring you the final Five and Alive. It's been a great couple of years with the column, and I want to thank everyone who has ever participated in this column's discussion. It was always meant to be fun from day one. Today, I bring you the first five albums that changed the way I looked at music since I was small child. Head here for my choices, and then head to the replies to share your own lists.

Happy 2012 to every staffer, user, industry folk, band and reader alike. We just came off quite a year for music. I'm still going over some "end of the year" lists from friends and networks and am discovering what I missed. In particular, five things really stuck out to me this past year. You can check out what I have to say here, and don't forget to scan over our EOTY lists one last time before we start rocking out into what I expect to be another exceptional year. Besides a particular album or band or song, what were your favorite musical moments of 2011? Let's have one last toast before the world ends.

This week's Five and Alive is quite special. 2011 has been a great year for music, and has really reminded me why I fell in love with music and live and breathe through my headphones. Unfortunately, I lost three great bands this year: RX Bandits, Thursday and Thrice. Those bands are greatly part of my musical roots. Head here to see what I learned about music over the last decade of having them be a part of my life.

I haven't done a Five and Alive in a while, so I wanted this one to be good. Considering the reunion and reaction to the American Nightmare (Give Up the Ghost) shows, I asked one of the men behind it, booking agent Matt Pike, to give me his five favorite American Nightmare songs. The reunion got me thinking about idols and elders and I wrote a piece here. When I received Pike's piece, it was after seeing a lot of hardcore vets and newcomers this weekend at Fun Fun Fun Fest, so I decided to write some more thoughts on the longevity of the hardcore scene itself. What I want you to discuss in the replies is this: It may not be American Nightmare, but what band would you travel across the...

This week's Five and Alive is dedicated to compilations. Run For Cover Records recently dropped Mixed Signals, the label's 50th release. I asked founder/owner Jeff Casazza to give me his five favorite compilation releases. You can see his list here. I want you to head to the replies and let us know what compilations you still dig up and spin from time to time. Is the idea of the compilation dead, or have they just been lacking as of late? What compilations do your remember discovering the most of your favorite music from? Was it a label release or just a free sampler?

This week's Five and Alive is very special. Today I'm bringing you a list of tunes from when I was heavily discovering music before the future of iPods. Remember mix CDs? Well, a few of my friends found all of mine sitting in a box in my apartment, so we decided to spin the ones with the best titles written on them to see what they contained. There was a good bit of air guitar and laughs thereafter. So today I encourage you to dust off some old mixes from a few years back and see what they behold. Were they about someone? Do you remember the event you made them for? Are you still digging the tunes on them? Hit the replies and let's start this Monday right.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by "Theeee Siiimpsoooons...do do do dodo do do..." and includes commentary from Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos. If you love the show and want to read some thoughts about satire on the music industry written in 1996, I highly recommend that you check this one out.

I can't remember when the last Five and Alive happened, but for some reason I have a ton of half-written ideas on my desktop. After the release of this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest line-up and our Absolute Classics column, I decided to go with this one. It's been a great year for music, but there's always time to discover or even rediscover what you missed out on in the past. Here are five albums I've been rocking hardcore this past year in lieu of that mindset. What have you dug up this year? What albums finally hit you the right way years later? Share your love in the replies.

This week I'm bringing you an early edition of Five and Alive. The staff will be revealing our Mid-Year Top Ten lists later this week, but we still have six more months of music. While it's been positively overwhelming this year, I'm still waiting for quite a few spins from quite a few bands, and I'm sure you all are too. Head here to see my five choices and hit the replies to let us know what you're still waiting for to close out an amazing year of music.

There's a forum running here on "Top Five Album Closers" started by Coop Dawg. Great topic and a lot of great choices. I'm going to give his forum the honors this week. Head to it and keep the list growing.

For this week's Five and Alive, Gregory Dunn of Moving Mountains talks about five albums that had a lot of influence on the band's new album Waves. Head here to check out his choices, and you can stream the album here while reading up on its influences.

This week's Five and Alive is in honor of Thursday's incredible new album No Devolución. This week I'm bringing you five songs from the band's back catalog that have sort of foreshadowed the sound on their new album. You can also read Drew's review of the record here.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by the users of AP.net. I'm not much of a forum guy - you guys can be pretty cutthroat sometimes - but I found this topic in our feed and thought it was pretty rad. So rad in fact, it took me an entire month to think of my choice. Head here to check out five albums that a few users and I think are a bit front-loaded, meaning the front half of the album soars above the second second half. Hit the replies with your choices.

This week's Five and Alive is dedicated to all the wax I cannot afford to buy. Head here to check out five more albums that need to get pressed ASAP, and hit the replies for your choices as well.

I hope you guys are having some great discussions each week with AbsolutePunk's Five and Alive column. This week, I'm giving the power over to you - the users of this fine site. Head to this discussion and post about one album and why you think it's "front-loaded." Since evilandgood was the original poster on this one, he gets one spot...there's four more left - so get writing.

This week's Five and Alive is in honor of all the "album" tours as of late and over the past few years. Head here to read up on five albums I'd love to see performed live, and hit the replies with your choices. There's only one rule this week: they couldn't have been done before. Also, head here for a review of Underoath's current tour where Thursday is performing Full Collapse in its entirety, and get a sneak peak at the band's upcoming album.

This week's Five and Alive is about revisiting some of last year's albums that some of us staff members might have slept on. Head here to see our choices, and hit the replies to discuss more.

Merry Christmas ladies and gentlemen. We have a special Five and Alive for you on this special day. Patrick Stump has given us his top five favorite holiday songs. Head here to check them out, and let us know what you've been jamming for the past few weeks to prepare you for this day.

This week's Five and Alive contains my top five favorite shows of 2010. Hit the replies and let us know who blew you away this year. Was it the farewell gigs, the nostalgia from the past or just an intimate hometown show? Discuss, and more importantly, keep supporting your favorite local and touring bands.

This week's Five and Alive is a double dose from The Saddest Landscape. Head here to read up on five tips about getting your tunes waxed. Keep scrolling down for the band's top five favorite vinyl releases this year as well. Hit the replies and let us know which releases you were stoked on getting this year. If you've just started collecting, what awesome used vinyls did you snag this year? Thanks for keeping the tangible medium alive. Want more thoughts from TSL? They've got their own vinyl blog too.

This week's Five and Alive goes out to the sharing of two sides of wax by great bands. The first vinyl I ever owned was the Thursday/Thrice split, and I've been a fan of the 7" artists' friendships ever since. This week, No Sleep Records' Chris Hansen gives us his top five favorite splits. Head here to check them out, and hit the replies with your choices.

For this week's Five and Alive, Adam asked me to post my five most anticipated albums for 2011. You can check my five out at my blog, or in the replies. Feel free to post your most anticipated albums for the upcoming new year.

This week's Five and Alive is about getting up and having a blast this Halloween weekend. Here are five albums that always get my juices flowing. What gets albums get you pumped before the party? Have fun, be safe and remember, if the sign says take one piece of candy, don't ruin it for the others - especially Quasimodo.

This week's Five and Alive is quite delicious, as Soupy of The Wonder Years gives us his five favorite places to eat while out on tour. Where should bands eat when they hit your town? Let them know in the replies.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by my coverage of Austin City Limits this weekend. Don't worry, you'll all be able to participate. Head here and post your choices in the replies. Have a great weekend and be sure to follow my adventures here.

This week's Five and Alive is dedicated to those leaves changing color. Check it out here and let's make an awesome autumn playlist in the replies.

Greg Karlowitsch of The Great Explainer wants you to bang your head at his Five and Alive today. Check it out here. Discuss in the replies. Let those metal horns rock this weekend.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by music video director Robby Starbuck. He's laying out five things you shouldn't do in music videos. He'd like to know your thoughts on the video world as well. Check out his list here and hit the replies to discuss it.

This week's Five and Alive goes out to those incoming, continuing and finally escaping the upcoming college year. I encourage you guys to share the best stories/memories of your college days - and the music that made them - in the replies. Have an awesome weekend.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by Max Richter. Richter broke the rules and wrote about ten of his most influential post/punk albums. Since he took the time, I went ahead and made this week's column an EP of sorts. Hit the replies to check out his picks and you can still check out his new album over at his profile here.

Like many, my love of music started with my parents' collection and the first time I heard my mother's copy of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour. This week's Five and Alive attempts to see if our parents feel any love for our iPod mixes. La Dispute's Adam Vass sat down with his mom to attempt to close the generational gap. See his results in the replies and discuss what albums/songs are "okay" to put on in the car or at the house for the 'rents.

For this week's Five and Alive, Colin Frangicetto of Circa Survive lays down five things you upstart bands should know. Hit the replies for some great advice this week. I invite any of our users in bands out there (both newbies and veterans alike) to share their advice as well.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by Therefore I Am's Brian Marquis. It's a morbid and fearful one, but a creative and beautiful topic nonetheless. Hit the replies to check out his choice of topic and picks. Big thanks to Brian for participating this week.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by the letter S: Summer, sun and soaking up the rays. Check it out and let's put together the ultimate playlist in the replies. Congrats to all of this year's graduates as well.

This afternoon's Five and Alive is dedicated to the Sports Forum. Go in and discuss the NBA playoffs, the upcoming World Cup or just talk about your favorite teams. Just don't ask anyone if their mother is a prostitute. That's a new standard now.

This week's Five and Alive is brought to you by the majors. With some of our favorite bands moving on up, I dedicate this one to the ones who used their time in the big leagues wisely and produced some stellar albums. Discuss your thoughts on them and other major label debuts in the replies. Is it really such a bad thing?

This week's Five and Alive is dedicated to those bands we lost last year. Head to the replies and pay your respects to anyone you will miss making an audible footprint.

Minus the Bear's new album OMNI is beautiful. While many of us on the site say it may be their best album to date, the band didn't get to this point without an already solid catalog. This week I'm spotlighting five songs that are the absolute jam when it comes to the already hefty discography. I brought along Gregory Robson on this one too. Hit the replies and show the band some love, and know when OMNI hits on May 4, it'll only add to an already great catalog of music thus far.

After coming off a year of smoking hot releases, 2010 hasn't left us feeling empty. With releases out by Motion City Soundtrack, Joanna Newsom, Dessa, Crime in Stereo and upcoming releases from Dillinger Escape Plan, The Bled and Circa Survive, there is a lot to get lost in our headphones in only the first few months of the year. With help from Blake and Greg, we're going to break down five releases that have made us quite happy so far this year. Discuss what has been your addiction thus far this year.

This week, Adam passed along the Five & Alive torch to me, and fresh passed V-Day, I figured now would be a great time get a bit tender in here. Here it is: five songs in which I am the most emotionally bonded. What songs are the most touching and sentimental in your collection?

It's a constant battle between artists and their fans. A war rages between progressive initiative and listener expectations. For some of us who've discovered albums later in a band's career, or even worse, after their demise, we can take a more complete look at a band's catalog and realize the impact an album had before its critical downfall. Today I present five albums that are favorites to a future generation, and a few who "got it" the first time. For some of these artists, it is just a lot of praise a bit too late. Discuss more albums we all looked over in the replies. Props to Mike Kraft for helping out with this week.

No matter how good a band sounds on record, some just pull off their sound with an intensity that can only be felt in the live setting. It's not that a particular band's studio recording lacks sharpness, but their in-person experience only cuts deeper. Below are five bands that are more than worth seeing unfold on the stage. Discuss your picks in the replies.

We can all have a really bad day, or if it decides to drag itself through the dirt, an insanely horrible week. There are two routes to take: a) throw on the heaviest album to barrel through it or b) throw on something to ease the nerves - an album or a song that lets us count backwards from 10 and realize everything is going to be okay. This week kidchino08 gives us five songs that severs the ties of the worst times of our lives, and puts us on cloud nine. Head to the replies, and let's create a playlist that does just that.

I'll make this simple. Music has the ability to heighten the senses, while at the same time, it can also freeze us in our tracks. It may not be a whole song or album, but one particular riff, vocal line or mood at a point within the song that sends a paralyzing feel down the back of our spine. Unique Dragon has given us five of his picks this week. Discuss yours in the replies.

Talking with artists and industry people is what I love to do. It's interesting to see the side of creation, when we constantly look at it from its execution. Sometimes, what you think is true, isn't always the mindset you have perceive as a listener. Deborah Remus and I have given thought to some of the things said to us last year. What quotes from artists or industry personal really influenced the way you thought about music in general? Come in the replies and let us discuss.