It’s done … finally!
Totally, Dudes! can be yours for the low low price of FREE. An updated, expanded version of Ladies of the Eighties will follow soon. And who knows, maybe I’ll even include a booster pack of ’80s duets, combining the men with the women-folk?
A new mix, just for you and yours.
“I Had Lost My Mind”
00:00 Daniel Johnston — “I Had Lost My Mind”
01:10 Dick Hyman — “Strobo”
02:41 Gary Glitter — “I Didn’t Know I Loved You”
05:58 Kim Wilde — “Cambodia”
09:45 Miike Snow — “Animal”
14:05 Mtume — “Juicy Fruit”
17:44 Lee Fields & The Expressions — “My World Is Empty Without You”
21:41 The Sound Offs — “The Angry Desert”
24:00 The Jelly Bean Bandits — “Generation”
26:54 The Staple Singers — “I Had a Dream”
29:43 The Almighty Defenders — “Cone of Light”
32:58 Warren Zevon — “Excitable Boy”
35:28 Bill Fox — “I’ll Give It Away”
38:47 Chris Knox — “It’s Love”
41:20 Music Go Music — “Light of Love”
46:28 Roky Erickson — “Nothing in Return”
Click here to download/listen.
About 8 months ago I began work on a mix that I’m finally releasing to the public. Titled “Foreign Substance,” it is a compilation of global psychedelia stitched together with found-sound drug references — hence the double entendre — that I’m rather proud of. I hope you enjoy it.
Here’s the track list:
01 Psychoactive Substances
Serge Gainsbourg, “Melody” (France, 1971)
Blues Section, “Cherry Cup-Cake Twist” (Sweden, 1968)
Embryo, “The Music of Today” (Germany, 1975)
02 Very Few People Have Heard Marijuana
Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier, “Psyché Rock” (France, 1967)
Improved Sound, LTD., “Leave This Lesbian World” (Germany, 1969)
Terry Jacks, “The Love Game” (Canada, 1974)
03 A Voice in the Head
Bjorn Olsson, “Visionen Vecklar Ut Sitt Landskap” (Sweden, 1999)
Bran, “Y Gwylwyr” (Wales, 1975)
Yura Yura Teikoku, “Soft Death” (Japan, 2005)
04 Go Out of Your Mind
Hemant Bhosle feat. Asha Bhosle, “Phir Teri Yaad” (India, 1970s)
The Apryl Fool, “The Lost Mother Land (Pt. 2)” (Japan, 1969)
Los Holy’s, “Holys Psicodélicos” (Peru, 1967)
05 If Tim Leary Were Here
Kraftwerk, “Klingklang” (Germany, 1972)
Robert Wyatt, “Heaps of Sheeps” (United Kingdom, 1997)
Brigitte Fontaine & Areski, “L’engourdie” (France, 1974)
06 There Wasn’t Anything Close to It
Pugh Rogefeldt, Har Kommer Natten (Sweden, 1969)
Illes, Nem Erdekel Amit Mondsz (Hungary, 1973)
Los Dug Dug’s, “Smog” (Mexico, 1972)
07 The Effects of Grass
Barıs Manço, “Coban Yildizi” (Turkey, 1979)
Cluster & Eno, “Fur Luise” (Germany, United Kingdom, 1977)
Arthur Brown, “I Put a Spell on You” (United Kingdom, 1968)
08 Discovering Fire for the Second Time
Caetano Veloso, “Asa Branca” (Brazil, 1972)
Filed under: food
… because they may just end in this:
M returned from her parents and made a pit-stop for me (well, for us) in Columbus, Ohio. Jealous?
Flavors include the all-time favorite Salty Caramel, Thai Chili, and Bourbon Butter Pecan — plus three ice-cream sandwiches!
On Saturday Jon and I headed up to Starved Rock State Park along the Illinois River about an hour north of Bloomington. I was amazed by the rock formations and scenic canyons, which were much more attractive to look at than the muddy, littered banks of the river.
All photos by me, except for the last one, which Jon took.
Here’s a mix featuring several newish releases. Enjoy!
Kurt Vile – “Freeway”
Wooden Shjips – “For So Long”
Papercuts – “Future Primitive”
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “Without Word, You Have Nothing”
Animal Collective – “No More Runnin'”
Bill Callahan – “All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast”
Dan Deacon – “Snookered”
Arthur Russell – “Habit Of You”
Woods – “To Clean”
The War On Drugs – “Taking The Farm”
Welcome to the final installment of this incredibly self-infatuated (but fun!) exercise detailing all the records that have WOW’ed me over the years. Parts one, two, three, four, and five predated this entry. Just a reminder: These are randomly ordered, and the media format refers to the original time I purchased the album. In many cases, I now own the album in a different format.
25 Elvis Costello — This Year’s Model (1978) CD
This is certainly one of my Top 10 albums of all time. Take one of the best songwriters of modern times, add a sensational backing band that is still getting to know each other, put Nick Lowe behind the board, and you get This Year’s Model. There are no bad songs on this album; matter of fact, there are no mediocre songs on this album. When a song like “Lip Service” just blends in, that speaks to the quality of the whole. This record was really an eye- or ear-opener for me when I heard it during my senior year of high school. It caused me, probably more than any other record, to start seriously digging into punk rock and new wave. It also broke down this weird barrier I had built up between myself and pop singer-songwriters. For some reason, I thought that singer-songwriters were somehow weaker than their peers who recorded under full band names — like they weren’t good enough to get a backing band. Silly me.
“Lip Service”
24 Archers of Loaf — Vee Vee (1995) LP
This is the first new full-length vinyl I ever purchased, and I got it at East Peoria Co-Op, which was an essential fixture in my burgeoning musical exploration. Archers guitarist Eric Johnson was also one of the first musicians I interviewed. Josh and I spoke to him outside the old Blind Pig before watching the Archers blow us away on stage. Vee Vee is the quintessential indie rock record of the ’90s. It captures the energy, the noise, the anthemic passion. It’s a sorely underrated record that deserves its place alongside indie rock’s elite.
“Underdogs of Nipomo”
23 Mudhoney — Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (1991) cassette
Mudhoney were my favorite of the so-called grunge bands. They were sonically dirtier than their peers, bluesier, “garage”-ier (although I wouldn’t have made that association in high school), and just plan FUN in a fuck shit up sorta way. Their commercial ceiling was lower because Mudhoney’s songs were more blue collar than the other Seattle bands. But that’s what makes them the best in my book. I’ll never forget seeing them open for Nirvana in 1993. That night solidified my image of Mark Arm as a rock god. Seeing them play well over a decade later just reinforced that impression.
“Let It Slide”
22 Paul Simon — Graceland (1986) cassette
I had just turned 10 when this came out in August 1986, and it was the strangest pop record I had ever heard. I remember being drawn to the rhythms and the bubbly bass and the background vocals and finding it all wildly bizarre. Graceland burrowed into my young subconscious. It would be many years before I would formally — and thankfully — reapproach African music (probably my discovery of Thomas Mapfumo in 1995 (thanks to Bob at Record Swap) was my next true encounter) — but that path had been paved, for better or worse, by Paul Simon.
“You Can Call Me Al”
21 Bruce Springsteen — Nebraska (1982) CD
Jon had long loved Springsteen, and had often tried to get me more into The Boss. I was stubborn, and saw Bruce as an antiquated remnant of my youth. I recognized him as one of our great songwriters, but never felt the urge to indulge in his music. What Jon could not do, Jenell did. Sorry Jon, but she had an important one-up on you. Thanks, Jenell, for choosing this record as the place for me to start. I’m glad I’m no longer a fool.
“My Father’s House”
20 Richard & Linda Thompson — I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974) LP
This record skyrocketed up my charts upon my introduction to it several years ago. I don’t toss the phrase masterpiece around lightly, but this record is it. A largely pensive album, Bright Lights impressed me with its musical simplicity, its lyrical truth, Richard’s fabulous guitar playing, the exceptional songwriting, and the vocal foil Linda plays to Richard. This record should be on the jukebox of every bar in the nation, and it should most definitely be in your record collection. While the title track is not entirely representative of the whole, it’s a simply fantastic song and probably the best introduction to entice you to check out the rest of the album.
“I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”
19 Uncle Tupelo — Anodyne (1993) CD
I so wasn’t ready for this record the first time I heard it shortly after its release. It sounded decidedly old-person-ish. Of course, to a teenager, that meant 30-something. Now that I am 30-something, I have to agree that this record does sound especially good. When I was finally ready to listen to “Americana” music in my mid-20s, this record floored me, as it has for so many others.
“Acuff-Rose”
18 The Velvet Underground — The Velvet Underground (1969) CD
When I was a junior in high school, I went on a band trip to Toronto. Performing on stage in some concert hall, I noticed the words “Velvet Underground” scrawled into my music stand. I knew of VU at that point in my life, but had never heard their music. Something about seeing the band blessed in such a manner, in a huge city that I thought was infinitely hip, triggered a light switch to go off in my head. When I returned to ho-hum central Illinois, I searched and searched for VU, but they were nowhere to be found. Finally, more than a year later, I stumbled across a used copy of this record and I gobbled it up. “What Goes On” forced a tingle up my spine, as if my entire spirit was being tugged upward by the rumbling guitars and droning organ. It sounds stupid, I know, but that’s the feeling I got when I first heard the song. Every day of my life since, I’ve sought out such a feeling. Really, more than any other artist, the Velvet Underground sold me on music.
“What Goes On”
17 Cyndi Lauper — She’s So Unusual (1984) cassette
I recall riding in the back of my parent’s station wagon across Kansas on the way to visit my grandmother in Colorado Springs, and “Time After Time” was the big hit on the radio. I heard it over and over again as we drove along the aimless interstate through boring Kansas. I fell in love with Cyndi that summer, and I fell hard.
“All Through the Night”
16 Guided By Voices — Bee Thousand (1994) LP
I had already heard Pavement and Archers of Loaf by the time I first heard Robert Pollard and Co. So Guided By Voices’ noisy, quirky, lo-fi rock didn’t phase me one bit. I loved my clear blue vinyl and I spun it often. GBV were justification to the up-and-coming record collector in me to keep digging deeper because good stuff awaited me. (Remember, this was before the band signed to Matador, so to me they were an obscure indie group.) While a lot of my friends were getting into Green Day and Foo Fighters and Oasis, I went in the opposite direction.
“Gold Star for Robot Boy”
15 Weezer — Weezer (1994) CD
That said, I was certainly not immune to the mainstream. Weezer’s blue album is still a record that I pull out on occasion and unashamedly rock out to. It’s a great power-pop record. Thinking about this list of 150 records on a macro level, it’s funny how many of the records on this list were released from 1993 to 1995 (and how many others I discovered during this time). But that’s the period of my life when I started to really consume a TON of music, and everything sounded new to me at that stage. So the impact was more profound. Weezer included.
“No One Else”
14 Brian Eno — Another Green World (1975) CD
Another Green World sounded like such a delightfully strange record upon first listen. I admit that I purchased it because Portastatic covered “St. Elmo’s Fire” on a 1995 EP and I really wanted to hear the original because I liked their version so much. (For those wondering if Superchunk is going to make an appearance on my list, that’s as close as it gets.) Of course, Eno’s original was about 20 times better, thanks in no small part to Robert Fripp’s dizzying guitar solos. I’m a sucker for Eno’s gentler, emotive compositions too, like “The Big Ship” and “Becalmed,” and the remnants of his pop-song self, “I’ll Come Running” and “Golden Hours,” are top notch. Even the duotone photo of Eno (reading while sitting in bed) that adorns the back cover just seems to fucking right.
“St. Elmo’s Fire”
13 DJ Shadow — Endtroducing (1996) CD
I was a serious maker of mix tapes by this point in my life. (I made my first post-high school girlfriend about 75 mixes in five years.) But I had yet to consider DJing, a serious compiling of disparate music in unusual ways, as something that I might aspire to do. Long before Andy Votel, DJ Shadow introduced me to that concept and sent me on my way.
“Building Steam with a Grain of Salt”
12 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band — Safe As Milk (1967) CD
Jack Black, John Cusack, and High Fidelity transformed this record into a wink and a nod for those in the know. Safe As Milk is such a spectacular record, a silly, sexy, filthy, groovy, psychedelic ode to blues and roots music. Don Van Vliet, aka The Captain, deserves all the accolades he’s received for his later efforts at deconstructing rock and blues music. But this record, his stab at a straightforward pop album, is easily one of the most enjoyable albums of the latter half of the 1960s. I probably could have swapped this selection out with the 13th Floor Elevators’ Easter Everywhere, also released in 1967, as I see a helluva lot of overlap between what Beefheart and the Elevators were doing, and I got into both bands at about the same time. But Beefheart’s vision is more complex and, in the end, his music is more rewarding.
“ABBA Zaba”
11 The Outsiders — C.Q. (1968) CD
Dutch garage rockers The Outsiders are my favorite of the global garage’edelia groups I discovered after digging deeper and deeper into the scene. They are the ultimate pay out. This record is a weird one, psychedelic both lyrically and musically. It’s best correlation to the mainstream is probably Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. In many ways, it’s even weirder and more aggressive than Syd’s Floyd. But singer-songwriter Wally Tax also had a romantic side, and so some of his songs are arranged in a downright approachable fashion. But C.Q. is mostly a rambunctious relic from psych-rock’s early era.
“Misfit”
10 The Beach Boys — Pet Sounds (1966) CD
So typical, I know. The Endless Summer compilation, which largely chronicles the group’s pre-Pet Sounds output, was my introduction to The Beach Boys. And if I had never heard another Beach Boys song than those from Endless Summer, I would still have a high opinion of the group. But several years (and tens of press clippings calling Pet Sounds the second coming of god) later, I purchased Pet Sounds, and lordy did I do cartwheels in my head for a long while.
“I’m Waiting for the Day”
09 Def Leppard — Hysteria (1987) cassette
The summer of my sixth grade year I spent a couple weeks at a “gifted camp” at a college in Jacksonville, Ill. I was full of hormones and more interested in the cute girls at the camp than any education, and I remember listening to this cassette non-stop on my Walkman. I settled with a clique of oddball kids, and Hysteria was our soundtrack that summer. (But I never did get to kiss the girl of my dreams, confirming that …)
“Love Bites”
08 Pixies — Doolittle (1989) cassette
Sometime during my sophomore year of high school I picked up Doolittle on cassette and received my formal introduction to Black Francis, Kim Deal, David Lovering, and Joey Santiago. It will come as no great surprise to you that at this moment I promptly lost my shit.
“I Bleed”
07 The Shins — Oh, Inverted World (2001) CD
I wore this album out upon its release. Then I interviewed the band and saw them play at The Highdive. So I associate this record with my time as music editor at the alt-weekly — and that, my friends, is a fond memory for me. I could care less about The Shins now, but I still find this an engaging debut, and I’d place it just a notch above The New Pornographers’ debut, which also came out about this time and whom I also interviewed and then saw play at The Highdive in 2002. Man, The Highdive used to book some great shows.
“Know Your Onion!”
06 Various Artists — What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (2006) CD
Rhino’s box sets are generally the bomb, and this one is no exception. Covering a decade’s worth of funky soul and R&B from 1967–77, this collection combines a few popular favorites (Clarence Carter’s “Snatching It Back” and Curtis Mayfield’s “If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go,” for example) with a slew of lesser-known and downright rare cuts from a hodgepodge of artists (say, Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel, JB’s trombonist Fred Wesley, or Sly Stone side project 6ix). What It Is! really got me excited to sincerely explore the genre of ’70s funk and confirmed my inner desire to make it funky.
6ix – “I’m Just Like You”
05 The Strokes — Is This It (2001) CD
In short: I had the biggest crush on a girl I met at a Clientele concert in the summer of 2001. She played for me The Strokes’ three-song EP that preceded their debut long player and I was hooked. She was a club DJ and I was mesmerized by her passion for music. We drove around with the sun roof open and listened to The Strokes. We had FUN! By the time this album came out, a couple weeks after 9/11, our relationship was basically over. That was a pretty depressing time in my life, the world events being what they were and things at the alt-weekly looking grim. The Strokes played a bit role in keeping my spirits up, even if they reminded me of that girl. Do you remember the original cover for this record and the song “New York City Cops” that got yanked rather quickly in light of 9/11? Do you remember how much fun it was to dance to “Barely Legal” and “Hard to Explain”? Do you remember how fucking silly the press was about these guys?
“Hard to Explain”
04 Teenage Fanclub — Bandwagonesque (1991) cassette
Today, this may be my favorite record of the 1990s. Aaron had this on cassette, and I remember he sheepishly brought up the fact that he liked it around his friends, who were into metal and made fun of him. (He was into metal too, but Aaron also liked The Beatles, you see.) “I wanted to assassinate December” is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. “Metal Baby” makes me swoon. “Alcoholiday” is a fabulous break-up song. “The Concept” is the best Big Star cover ever recorded. “What You Do to Me” is pure pop heaven. This record only gets better with age, in large part because the void between its release and the present only grows more prominent. I’m not certain if we’ll ever have another Bandwagonesque enter our lives, and that’s sad.
“Metal Baby”
03 Young Marble Giants — Colossal Youth (1980) CD
Something about the sparseness of Stuart Moxham’s songs greatly excite me. The percussion and organ and pokey bass sound so delightfully dated. And the songs are peculiar little character studies. I suppose I should say I’m thrilled that Kurt Cobain had such good taste in music. If not for him, I wouldn’t have discovered The Vaselines or Young Marble Giants as early as I did.
“N.I.T.A.”
02 Gang of Four — Entertainment! (1979) CD
It doesn’t get much better than Entertainment! for those hoping for an easy in to punk music. You can dance to it! I love The Undertones and Buzzcocks and The Jam, but the arty edge of groups like Joy Division and Wire and Gang of Four really floors me. I first heard Gang of Four after I had discovered all of the other aforementioned bands, and they, along with Crass, tied a nice bow on my British punk rock education.
“Damaged Goods”
01 Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) cassette
I can still sing you every lyric from this album, and I haven’t listened to it more than a few times over the past five years. Enough said.
“Blood Sugar Sex Magik”
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Thanks for playing along! This ends our trip down memory lane.
The Noiseboy Online 