Summer 2004
Gettin' Inside Their Heads
Question of the Month: If you lost all of your CD's, tapes
and records, which TEN would you replace first. (This is different
than a pure and simple Top-Ten list because your most precious music
may not be the best ever. The liking of music is purely subjective,
and is often affected by timing and location.)
I asked Justy and Godzilla, Evil Robots' premiere music snobs to
hook me up with their answers. Beware, you are about to look inside
their heads to catch a glimpse of their feelings and emotions. Don't
be ashamed to be embarrassed.
Putting Godzilla first is not a knock on my dear brother, Justy.
His list is good, but Godzilla is the CEO, and punches super hard,
so he get's top billing.
--Grandpa
Godzilla
This is a bit difficult in my case because many of my favorite
albums I don't listen to with great frequency. Some of my favorites
I only get out on special occasions. But still, some of these I
could not live a happy life knowing I couldn't get them out and
listen to them at the drop of a hat, in case of emergency. At any
rate, here are the first 10 I would be compelled to replace, I think,
in no particular order other than the order I thought of them.
Getz/Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto
This was the first thing that popped into my mind. It may be my
favorite piece of recorded music of all time. I don't listen to
it is much as I used to, but it is still vital to me. I love to
listen to it when I cook, and it MUST be played if I am relaxing
at the beach for more than 3 days (when I start to forget I even
have a job), along with Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come"
soundtrack. It's also perfect for listening to sitting on a large
porch on a pleasant summer evening, perhaps just as the sun is almost
set and the sky is still a deep blue with faint traces of orange.
Alas, I no longer have a porch, but a rooftop patio in the city
would be just as pleasant, if not more so.
Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On?
Life with out this album is pointless.
Radiohead - OK Computer
I spent at least an entire summer listening to this album on very
high rotation. Like at least once or twice a day. While I am no
longer wallowing in depression, this is still an album I love to
listen to. It's not commonly referred to as masterpiece for no reason.
While it can still be a dangerous (or comforting, depending on your
point of view) thing to listen to when you're feeling sorry for
yourself, it's nowhere near the black hole of beautify melancholy
that Jeff Buckley's "Grace" is.
Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
A stunning album. While this may be the most pretentious and precious
band on earth, these Icelanders do make beautiful music. It's very
operatic and cinematic rock. Rock where the silences are as beautiful
as the overwhelming sonic texture. Very placid, while still utterly
exciting, and often exhilarating. Awesome to listen to in the winter.
Fela Kuti - Black Man's Cry
Afrobeat is some of the best music ever created, and Fela is the
guy that invented the sound. Everything is rhythm, even the melodies.
A combination of west African music with American funk and jazz.
This is the most danceable music every made. If it doesn't move
your feet even a little, you're clearly dead. Shit, this can even
make dead people get up and stomp around- no doubt a favorite among
zombies living in more tropical climes. Afrobeat is the kind of
music, actually, that makes unpleasant heat and humidity almost
bearable, as if the music is wrung out of the air itself. Given
the conditions under which this music's creators lived, it's no
surprise that both the sound and content is revolutionary in the
literal sense of the word. This album is probably the best sampling
of Fela's very extensive catalogue.
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antartica
All out rocking.
Thunderball - Scorpio Rising
A local DC band, Thuderball makes the best drum & bass I've
ever heard. Of course, it's not straight forward d&b, but richly
textualized and smooth in the Eighteenth Street Lounge style. There's
a lot to this music, which evokes slick, cosmopolitan complexity
and soul straight from Curtis Mayfield. You can't go wrong with
this at a party, really.
Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz vol 4
You REALLY can't go wrong with this at a party. This is party music,
though mostly downtempo. Mark Farina shows off his skill as a DJ,
with brilliant track selection and a tightly woven tapestry of sounds.
A great fusion of downtempo sounds, from acid jazz to hip-hop.
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
This has become my favorite thing to listen to every spring. An
instant classic. If you don't at least know of this album, don't
even pretend that you're worth talking to. Cuz you're not.
Eightenth St. Lounge Soundtrack - Jet Society
Another great cocktail party disc. It's very jazzy sounding music
from the end of the era of "acid jazz". A collection of
songs that are effortlessly enjoyable and deeply funky in a sitting
around sipping highballs kind of way, with a definite timeless quality
evocative of mid-60's jet set culture.
About half of these came immediately to my mind. For the rest I
decided it would be prudent to visit my rather vast music collection
and see what it told me. I eyeballed until I came across a CD or
record that said, "you know you need me". What surprised
me most was that Stereolab and Thievery Corporation (two of my favorite
groups) didn't make this list, though the last CD listed is a product
of the latter. If this was a list of 15, there is no doubt that
"Dots and Loops" and "Sounds From the Thievery High
Fi" would have made it. The 11th man surely would have been
Kruder and Dorfmeister's 'K&D Session", which is an absolute
masterpiece that I've had on fairly high rotation for five years.
Justy
This is a little bit tricky, of course, because some of the CDs
I treasure the most are bootlegged live sets. But you know what?
It doesn't matter. I've got my ten right here, in no particular
order:
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
I could probably live with just this one CD in my possession for
the rest of my life. It's my brain food. No one in the world would
call this Pavement's best effort, but I still believe that it is.
I need it like air.
Guided By Voices - Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Again, a less than perfect effort by a band, but an album that gives
me so much diversity and chutzpah that I could listen to it for
days on end. And I totally have, while playing the Playstation,
so there.
Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith
I pick a lot of "number two" type efforts, and maybe that's
just the way I am, so fuck you. I feel like this is the rawest album
Smith put out, with more heroin and drug stories than anyone ever
needs to hear. Ever. It's just fucking great.
Radiohead - OK Computer
Hey, I listened to this album for about a month straight after I
bought it. You think I'm gonna let it go that easy?
Radiohead - The Bends
That's right, Radiohead gets two in a row. So what? You can't do
shit about it. It's my list. I want this album because the song
"Just" was the first Radiohead song I truly loved. I didn't
even know it was them for a while, because the first time I heard
it was on a MuchMusic compilation CD. When I did find out, I was
hooked. Forever.
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
The first jazz record I ever loved, because Grandpa played it all
the time back in high school. Seriously, I had "Trinkle Tinkle"
stuck in my head for over a year. I could not imagine not having
this disc on the shelf if my CDs all spontaneously combusted tomorrow.
Weezer - Pinkerton
I like it because it reminds me of so many nights pining over a
lesbian chick in Wisconsin. Not just because of "Pink Triangle",
but the whole damn album. Well, except for "Across the Sea",
because this lesbian girl was not a Japanese chick in Japan. Anyway,
it's the last good thing Weezer ever did, and I love it.
Rocket From The Crypt - All Systems Go!
It's got the "Chantilly Lace" cover that just tops any
other song ever written. And yeah, it rocks over all. Shut up.
Fugazi - Repeater
I listened to nothing but Fugazi and the Dead Kennedys for an entire
summer working in data entry at McGuinness and Associates. This
was my favorite of the whole Fugazi discography, mostly because
of the kick-ass pause on the last "like Styrofoam". Sue
me, I love the rock and roll. Also, that was the summer where mom
got to talk to Ian MacKaye on the phone. Ian MacKaye called my house
and I wasn't home to take the call. I may well have cried myself
to sleep after mom said "Some kid named Ian called, from a
band?" Oh man...
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
I think that was the first proper album I ever owned, given to me
in my x-mas stocking. Can't really go without it.
That's it. If you like it, great. If you don't, well, you're a
moron. And I still can't believe that mom got to talk to Ian MacKaye.
She had no idea how cool that was! AAAARGHHHH!
