ok! I have rested after New Year’s and Christmas family time and I am ready to resume photo and blog posts as well as pacificUV activities. We are going to announce a few events quite soon. In the meantime, here are opinions on some of the best music releases of last year.

Jesse:

1. TV on the Radio - “Dear Science”.  Jean-Luc Godard said of Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour that it was the “first film without any cinematic references.”  To apply that concept to music, creating a record without any recognizable musical references is as rare a feat.  This band does it with nearly every song they write.  They are a band comprised of unexpected and unlikely elements, but all without a shred of irony.  Hidden treasures of melody are buried deep within each song, making it one of those rare records to which I want to listen on repeat.  Subtle and infecting, this band is still the best kept secret in modern music.

touring is not healthy : meat and cream —-cream and meat…..we have been eating a lot of fucking ice cream and hamburgers the past few days….what was my weight before i left for tour….? what will it be when i return? how much red bull can one consume before it permanently leaks into your blood stream and across the blood-brain barrier? is fast food composed of actual ingredients or just  different chemicals made to approximate certain tastes and smells?  what does a vegetable look like - ive forgotten………….

we arrived in long beach around 830 and headed to the club called que sera. we went on first to a small crowd that was quite attentive. the shows are getting tighter and better sounding. again, someone asked us to sign a cd - it seems silly to be signing autographs when we don’t even make enough money to cover gas from show to show. i drink one too many and end up sleeping in the van………

currently listening to in the van:

lindstrom

radiohead (Ep’s from bends era)

sub pop sampler

primal scream- exterminator

and so……our fortunes continue to ebb and flow….We entered Sacramento- the capital of California- fearful: the last show we played in a state capital, Salem Oregon, was our most shambolic ever….perhaps this would be the pattern for all our shows in capital cities??! If so we had a long road ahead as we also have shows in SLC and Denver in our future……….

Our first stop in Sacramento was a shoe store. Our drummer Jesse had his shoes stolen the night before so we went to the mall and bought a pair of stylish brown pumas that were on sale.

We got to the club- Old Ironsides- early and passed the time by drinking beers with the locals and watching Monday Night Football. The building we learned was a 150 year old national historic landmark that was the first Sacramento bar to apply for a liquor license after the end of prohibition.

Monday nights they bring in a local “chef” to prepare half time grub; this night the specialty dish being - ready for this (?)- all PORK chili with cheese grits…….After consuming my first bowl, I asked when the cheese grits were to be served, only to be told that they were mixd in with the chili! We have found the ultimate stoner food I believe.

As for the show, the less said the better…………………….

LA:

soooooooooo, after the unmitigated disaster of our first tour stop in Salem (see last entry) things got better. We drove from 1 in the morning until 6AM to reach Medford Oregon, where we slept comfortably on the floor of our drummer’s grandparent’s house.

Why do grandparents always have the most cozy dwellings? The couches were supple, the rooms were clean, and the coffee in the morning was first class. We chatted for a while with the folks. It turns out that the grandfather was a high school college football ref in the 1960’s; he entertained us with stories about angry local football crowds disputing his calls  while we watched college football on the tube……..all in all, it made me looking forward to growing old………

We then packed up and traveled for 8 hours to our next destination: The Hotel Utah in San Francisco. We were greeted by one of the friendliest staffs imaginable: the bartender/soundman was patient with all our sound requests, the door lady was super cool (and beautiful- I flirted with her the entire night!) and the meals were free. Attendance was slightly better as well. Because the venue was so small, we turned down a bit and played without ear plugs- which turned out to be a nice change.

Our drummer Jessie was accosted by a cute girl after the show. So eager was she to praise his “rad” drumming skills, she jumped on the stage as soon as the show was done to chat with him! Alas, Jessie had to pack up, and she had dispappeared by then.

Rock bands that “party” hard is a tired rock cliche, but we comformed to it that night. We went back to the headlining bands house- The Junior Panthers- and proceded to get quite wasted on copious amounts of…

Sunday:

we were not able to book a show on sunday but we did have an interview at KLAX in Berkley and an in-store at Rasputin in Berkley. The interview was interesting and fun. It is kind of a power trip to realize every word you utter is being listened to by hundreds or thousands of listeners. It makes you want to grab the microphone and shout out some profound announement about  the impending apocalypse. I understand now why Orson Welles engaged in his War of the Worlds stunt…………..

The in-store did not look good: we had just scheduled it three days earlier, so there was no promotion, and furthermore, we were not playing in the music section, but in the DVD area! Things got off to a rocky start because at first our only audience member was a crazy homeless guy who was shouting “I love you guys” over our quiet intro. He eventually left and people started trickling in………………….by the end we had a decent crowd and sold a few cds…………….

sacramento is next…stay tuned

c

For me, the words “music festival” call to mind large crowds filled with devoted fans, a diverse lineup of cutting edge artists, and a jovial atmosphere that encourages excessive partying and abandonment of any and all rational behaviour. PacificUV commenced its West Coast Tour last night in Salem, Oregon at the Mix and Mash Festival with great expectations; this would be our first musical festival. Would there be a V.I.P room? Just how big would the crowds be? Maybe Calvin Johnson would ask us to come onstage and perform “Indian Summer” with him!

All these hopes were quickly quelled upon arrival: there were roughly 30 people there -most being from other bands- and the general atmosphere felt more like a high school prom than a rock show. More bad news quickly followed. Due to the cancellation of another band, our prime 10:30 spot has been pushed to 12:30 - a good thing if you are performing in a big city, but a curse if you are playing in a small town.

So, with 5 hours to kill before playing, we roamed downtown looking for food and beer. Downtown Salem was quite charming and we found a charmingly sleazy dive bar at which to drink. On returning to the venue, the audience had dwindled further and by 1230 it seemed as if even the security guards had departed! The non-existent audience coupled with our alcohol consumption, resulted in the most shambolic set ever………cues were missed, notes were flubbed, and the overall effect would be similar to if you asked 5 disoriented senior citizens to jam together on a bunch of Middle Eastern instruments they had never seen before, much less played….perhaps the most miraculous fact is that we sold two cds!

soooooooo, we can only go up from here…..stay tuned for a report on our san francisco show tonight….bye for now.

It has been a busy month in celebrity deaths: paul newman, richard wright, and david foster wallace. Wallace might be the least known of the 3, but perhaps the most talented. Wallace hung himself on September 12th, 2008 at his house in California. 

For the uninitiated, Wallace burst onto the literary scene in the late 1980’s with a novel titled “The Broom of the System”. It owed an obvious debt to Thomas Pynchon, but had moments of originality. It did not prepare anyone though for what came next.

In 1996 Wallace published the massive, dense, masterpiece “Infinite Jest”. Topping in at over 1000 pages, Infinite Jest was a robust work of dystopian fiction in which each year is sponsored by a brand name product (year of the adult depends undergarment, ect) It tackles everything from tennis, to addiction, to the vapidness of the contemporary American culture with ease and a command of langauge so assured and insightful, that on almost every page one is amazed at just how widespread and diverse Wallace’s knowledge is. 

Wallace’s trademark - besides the impossibly long sentences- was copious footnoting of his text. For instance, when a film maker is introduced into the story, Wallace supplies an appendix which details and discusses the film maker’s entire oeuvre! This served to make even more real and vivid Wallace’s already believable fictional world. 

Listening to most intellectuals talk can be a boring, wrist slicing affair, but regardless of the topic, Wallace managed to do it in a accessible, interesting way. What turned out to be more amazing, is that his non fiction- best represented by “A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again”- was even better than his fiction. Whether dissecting David Lynch or detailing his nightmare cruise ship experience for Esquire, Wallace does it with a wicked humor that is supremely entertaining. DFW had a gift for dissecting a topic and analyzing it in a thorough way that always yielded new insights. 

To read Wallace, is to be get inside his head. It is a blessing to be so smart (he received the Macarthur “genius” grant) but it might have been painful as well. To constantly be analyzing and tackling every side of a given issue, must be tiring and overwhelming. Wallace suffered from severe depression and one wonders if the intense scrutiny and questioning did not lead to his demise.

If you buy one book in the next few months try out Infinite Jest or A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again, and meet the most talented writer of our generation.

hey. if you live in one of the following cities and would be able to put up tour posters for us, we will reward you with a free pacificUV t shirt and two free tickets to our show in your town. Email pacificuv@gmail.com if interested! thanks cities:

san fran

sacramento

long beach

los angeles

san diego

tucson

phoenix

alberquerque

denver

salt lake city

missoula

I recently received the ride box set for a birthday present. It is hard to remember/believe now, but in the 1990 RIDE were THE British band to know. The cure were in love with them, they had screaming Japanese girls over flowing at the Tokyo airport to greet them, and for a while- the British press predicted world domination within the next year. They also were the first band on Creation Records to break the top 10 with an album.

In retrospect, this all seems a bit over the top. Ride did have some great songs, “Vapour Trail” being a classic, but the music was too atmospheric and hazy to ever make a serious dent in the American or international market. It is exciting to think though, that at one time, this music was the hippest on the planet. I would gladly take this British press flavour of the month over current ones like the Kaiser Chiefs or The Music.

The box set is divided into 3 discs: best of, live at reading 1992, and unreleased. The best of includes a disproportional amount of material from their earlier EP’s when Ride was at its most atmospheric and upbeat. The songs are twisted, dense Byrds type pop songs cut thru with buzz saw guitars- equal parts Jesus and Mary Chain and 60’s pop. It truly is exciting.

Towards the end of their career Ride imitators abounded (moose, chapterhouse, blind mr. jones,etc) and Ride matured into a more conventional songwriting band, but toning down the sonic textures left their often vapid lyrics exposed. The latter half of the “best of” is a bit of a let down after the pop rush of the first half. None the less, this is a great introduction to good, and occasionally brilliant, band that seems to have been largely forgotten.

I dream in music. I seldom remember the visual content of my dreams, but every day I wake up singing a random song that can only have come from my unconscious mind. the funny thing is how unexpected most of these songs are: tunes I haven’t heard in years, choruses I’ve heard once or twice, songs I absolutely hate, songs I absolutely love. everything is fair game.
I thought it would be interesting to keep a diary of the song I wake up singing each day. I’m not sure what I expect to come from it but it should be, at the very least, an interesting virtual mix tape.

here are some previous sounds.

tuesday, july 1st: nick cave – stagger lee
wednesday, july 2nd: george michael – heal the pain
thursday, july 3rd: muse – supermassive black hole
friday, july 4th: the cure - close to you
saturday, july 5th: parliament - give up the funk (tear the roof off the sucker)
sunday, july 6th: david bowie - ziggy stardust
monday, july 7th: damien rice – cannonball

and, after a lapse in recording, this morning (friday, july 18th) started out with aeroplane by the red hot chili peppers.

maybe there are others of you out there who dream in music as well?

Toby

george thorogood and the destroyers - live

toby: growing up with a father who is a die-hard harley man exposes you to an interesting side of life. this kind of music comes along with it. I can’t say I loved it, or that it’s my favorite now, but it reminds me of some pretty good times. and really, you have to smile when you listen to “one bourbon, one scotch, one beer.”

pick up an album by george and the destroyers (I went with “live” but I doubt you could stray too far with his other albums), crank it up, and wish my dad a happy fathers day. he’s a cool guy. and he’s undeniably bad to the bone.

Hall & Oates - Rock n’ Soul Part 1.

jesse:I was about 7 years old when I first memorized every lyric to this record. I don’t think I had any concept of what “Maneater” was actually about (I seem to remember it calling to mind some kind of Godzilla-esque sci-fi creature), but the album has so many hooks that it was hard to ignore, even at such a young age. You have to admit, hearing a 7-year old sing “It’s a bitch girl, but it’s gone too far, ’cause you know it won’t matter anyway” would be quite amusing.

marty robbins - gunfighter ballads and trail songs

clay: My dad did not listen to much music while I was growing up, but I remember this album vividly. The songs of billy the kid and other outlaws are poignant and remarkably sad. This may sound weird, but some of the songs (specifically Utah Carol about a cowboy who lays down his life for a little girl) remind me of the smiths in that they are melancholy ruminations on outsiders.

On most cds you are lucky if one third of the songs are good, on this record  almost every track is a winner. One day, maybe all the hipsters will add this - along with Johnny Cash- to their list of mandatory country records one should own.

the beastie boys - license to ill

toby: yeah, we all heard it a million times. I swiped this vinyl from my brother and played it nonstop. like everyone else in the world I could recite “paul revere” verbatim. I was not as cool as I thought I was. hell, nobody will ever be as cool as I thought I was. especially when I was listening to this album.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.

Jesse: I know this record is a convenient one for hipsters to name drop, but I can really say I’ve been into Pink Floyd since I was very young. My dad had a kick-ass 8-track collection (which I still possess today), and though it wasn’t large, it boasted some very quality selections. I actually listed to this album so many times on 8-track (or Stereo 8, as it is formally known) when I was growing up that I still habitually anticipate the exact three points at which the tape-head would switch tracks during album.

joan jett & the black hearts- i love rock & roll

the pink cover. a woman singing sultry, sexually charged rock songs. the riffs. crimson and clover. a 10 year old boy’s mind is changed for the better. forever…

if not for this album, I would probably be married with wife and kids and working as an accountant in a respectable firm.

the best of disney 

toby: I don’t know if this record even exists anymore. it was a collection of 2-3 songs from all of disney’s big hit movies through the late 70s, I think. the sole reason I played this album nonstop was the song “I wanna be like you” from the jungle book. I vaguely remember dancing around and singing along with it. to this day I love louis prima, and I think it all started with his turn as king louie.

Jackson Browne - Lives in the Balance.

jesse: This was the album on the flip-side of the Dire Straights cassette. Of all the early stuff I got into, this record probably the most surprising in how well it holds up (musically, at least). Browne started to get very heavy-handed with his political leanings around the time of this record, and while some of it can be a bit cloying, there are some profound moments to be had. In the same manner that Phil Ochs’ music never found a large fan base after the generation in which it was written, Browne’s 80’s work has been largely cast aside due to much of his lyrical output being uber-specific in terms of the time period to which they pertain. However, I do credit this album with being my primer into the politically-slanted music I would later come to adore (namely U2 and late 70’s punk). It is worlds-apart stylistically, but the message finds a familiar bedfellow in those acts.

the band- self-titled

clay: To an eight year old, this was a scary cover: five mountain men who appeared as if they were just coming back into town after spending years in the wilderness. But the music was warm and inviting- something I imagine would sound good around a campfire. The album has a ragged Neil Young feeling to it and - to my ears- has the most tasteful and best recorded drums I have ever heard. 

The fours:

Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms.

Jesse: My dad had this entire album dubbed onto one side of a cassette (which I proceeded to wear out due to a massive amount of overplaying). The first day I ever heard this was on our way to a fishing trip in southern Oregon when I was around 9 or 10 years old. I didn’t grow up in a house with MTV, so I didn’t even see the video for “Money for Nothin” until I was in college, so it really was the music that made an impression on me (maybe because of my excitement for the trip, or maybe because I’ve always had a penchant for American music as interpreted by British musicians).

the royal guardsmen - snoopy vs. the red baron

Toby: I have no idea what album this song was actually on. here’s why: we had it on 8-track cassette (in the family car) and every time the song ended I would start it over. I didn’t care what else was there and I had no mercy for anyone with the misfortune of being in the car with me. I may have been punished for playing this song too much. if so, I deserved it.

“yellow submarine”-the beatles

clay: For what many consider to be the best pop band of all time, the Beatles sure did have a lot of whimsical, children songs: they wrote  lullabies (goodnight), fantasy/fairy tale songs (octopus garden) and birthday songs

(”Birthday” which is THE song at Showbiz Pizza). Perhaps keeping in close touch with their inner “kid”, was one of the reasons why they were so innovative and prolific. 

The best of these is “yellow submarine” - a song I listened to everyday in my mom’s car when she drove me to school during my fourth grade year. Hearing Ringo sing of this rag tag group of seafaring friends, one can’t help want to dress in some paisley and take a sailing trip. 

You can choose what records you listen to, but you can’t choose your parents- and for all of us our formative years are spent listening to whatever music our parent’s happened to enjoy. For some of us this turned out great, resulting in hours of taking in the White Album or AL Green, while others remained permanently scarred from being force fed Rush or Yes. 

With that in mind, we thought it would be interesting to have members of pacificUV list their top 5 favorite records from their childhood. #5 will be listed today and we will then count down to #1 by Saturday. Enjoy.

The Fives: 

#5 The Police - Reggatta de Blanc.

Jesse: I remember my mom buying this on cassette at my local small-town pharmacy in the late 80’s (probably around the time we got our first stoplight). I’m guessing she bought it solely for “Message in a Bottle”, but soon grew tired of the rest of the album, so it ended up in my collection.

I used to replay “On Any Other Day” ad nauseam, finding it quirky and fun to sing (the song mentions a wombat and isn’t sung by Raffi. Pretty cool.)

#5 edvard grieg - peer gynt suites 1 and 2

Toby: I actually listened to a lot of classical music as a child. I dreamed of becoming a world-class pianist and I would lose myself in beethoven, tchaikovsky, debussy, or any number of other composers. grieg was my favorite for years. his sense of melody is virtually unrivaled, and he paints amazing pictures with his compositions.

“in the hall of the mountain king,” you know it. “morning,” you know it. “anitra’s dance,” most likely. you just didn’t know it was grieg. you do now.

#5 carole king- tapestry

Clay: I recently read a column by magnetic field’s wizard stephen merrit in which he thought that “tapestry” was under produced. To my eight year old ears, it was a beautiful, minimal record, and still is. The songs have a timelessness that most great albums do, and the title track - involving a prince getting turned into a toad- was like getting read a Grimm’s fairly tale.

For those of you who don’t know Harmony Korine, he is the genius/idiot (depending on which side your own) who wrote the move KIDS when he was 18 and went on to write and direct two astounding films in the late 1990’s - Gummo (1997) and Juline Donkey Boy (1999).

Among other things Korine introduced Chole Sevigny to the world, appeared on the David Letterman show on some type of drugs , and then promptly vanished into the ether for seven years.

Well he has returned with a new film called Mr. Lonely and I went to see it last night with some frineds. The plot is simple: a Michael Jackson impersonator meets a Marilyn Monroe who invites him to come live with her in a house with other celebrity look alikes (Buckwheat, the queen of england, charlie chaplin, james dean, etc)

As with his other films, the plot is thin to the point of being non-existent. What makes Korine’s films spell binding are the seemingly random, odd images that stay with you once you leave the theatre: the three stooges look alikes executing a bunch of sheep, buckwheat rambling on about wanting to be a chicken, and nuns jumping out of an airplane and drifting in the air. 

Korine has lost some of his edge and Mr. Lonely is not as shocking or as vital as his previous releases, but it still a unique film that is worth viewing. 

soooo, today marks the first day we will be posting all our blog entries on pacificuv.com and - with this handy dandy new plugin we have obtained- it will automatically post to myspace as well. This is all in theory mind you and something is certain to go wrong, so I am keeping this post short.

Also, you now you have a valid reason to go to our official website because today is the first day of our photograph a day blog. From Monday-Friday from now on there will be a new photo posted taken lovingly by one of us. Here is the first one:

Ok, that is all for now. bye

c

hendrix

I am a guitarist, but have always felt slightly embarassed that I am not a big Jimi Hendrix fan- since he is the supposed God of guitar. I love certain songs (Are you experienced, All along the watchtower), but I am not a big fan of his voice and always wished there were more songs with just his guitar.

Every few years I try to get into him, and just recently bought a greatest hits collection. I was again left non-plussed but found his version of “The Star Bangled Banner” to be mind blowing.

It begins fairly straight forward, but then goes overboard during the “and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air” section. Without sounding too cheesy, Hendrix gives an aural equivalent of what rockets and bombs would sound like. It is a beautiful mess made all the more remarkable by the fact that he creates the sound without the use of pedals.

Check it out here.

The reviews have been good so far and another one has just come in from Alternative Press. Can’t really remember what it says, but it mentions “dreampop” and “reverb” and “space.” This is probably true of %75 of the reviews we have gotten……..I can promise none of these words will be able to describe what is coming next……….

like art, but can never afford the obscene prices that most galleries charge? me too………Until now, it seems like you would just have to cut out pages from a magazine or photocopy images from books,,,,but there is a new website call 20×200 that post new art every tuesday and wednesday at reasonable prices. there are 200 8X11.5 pieces of the work for $20.00 each and larger pieces that are a bit more expensive. The cooler ones usually sell out quickly……..

Sometimes the stuff is a bit cheesy, but overall i like what they offer. sooooo, start your collection today and buy a piece of art. go here to see what they are currently offering.

MIKE: RADIOHEAD - OK COMPUTER ////. I was wearing headphones the first time I listened to this album and sat there slackjawed for 53 minutes. Radiohead is the best band of our generation and possibly of any generation. It’s been amazing to watch their career unfold and I’m going to enjoy growing old with them. They single-handedly saved rock-n-roll with this record in the dismal, grungy late 90’s and generations of music lovers and music players will be influenced by this work — and indeed, their entire catalog — for as long as we can keep from killing each other on this planet.

TOBY: EELS - ELECTROSHOCK BLUES //// Here’s a rough year: your sister commits suicide, your mother is fighting cancer, and a number of people you know die unexpectedly. How do you cope with that much tragedy? If you are a musician you may write some songs about it. If you are a particular musician who goes by the name of E, you write a staggeringly brilliant album about it. Eels have always written music that contains contradictions. My favorite example is the beautiful ballad named “It’s a Motherfucker” from later album Daisies of the Galaxy. A song like this can pull so many emotions. You smile, laugh, and weep, all at once. Electroshock Blues has the same impact. The entire album. These are songs about going to funerals, accented by music boxes. Death, confusion, and tragedy wrapped in accessible pop songs. And, here’s the real trick: optimism wrapped in pain. You come out of this heavy album with the sun shining on you. As noted on the Eels’ website, by taking on death you discover life. Case in point: the last song, “P.S. You Rock My World.” After 15 other songs of loss and determining what is important, this song opens with the line “I was at a funeral the day I realized I wanted to spend my life with you…” I have a hard time imagining a more valid statement of love.

MATT: PINK FLOYD - THE WALL //// I would like to think I’m strong. I would like to think I’m worthy. At the end of the day, it’s what you really think about yourself. I’m still not certain about that. What I do know is this: Pink Floyd’s The Wall is the epicenter, the heart, the hurt, the end and the beginning. This record kills me…it really does. To tell you the truth it almost did. It has a chain around my neck. It has the salt in my wound; it has the blanket and the whip. It has everything I’ve always feared… and secretly wanted. It has beaten me over and over, sometimes savagely, sometimes just without blood. This is my album…the funny thing is…is that it seems to be a lot of other folks’ album too. I’ve been ok with that for a long time…xoxo.

JESSE: U2 - POP //// U2 is a blender-scramble of paradoxes.  For years, their gargantuan doses of ego and talent have set them on a knife’s edge in terms of becoming the victims of their own hubris.  What critics failed to see was that this record wasn’t really the artistic coup de gras it was rumored to be (as if by naming an album “Pop” you are required to worship at the altar of Madonna).  And that’s really the joke, isn’t it?  Where exactly is the “pop” on this record?  Few people really understood that the idea behind Pop was of the tongue-in-cheek variety.  It is about pop, but it doesn’t really contain much of the stuff (so it must be a failure, right??).  Wrong.  Pop was U2’s attempt to deconstruct their audience’s expectations (and their hard-to-break musical habits), much as Kid-A was for Radiohead.  The great thing about Radiohead is that they don’t really seem to give a shit about what people think about them.  U2 does.  They believed their own negative press and chose to follow the safer trail, leading to two very(!) mediocre albums.  Interestingly, many critics have changed their stance on Pop as of late.  Too late, I say.  Critical negativity has changed the course of history, much like Eckels stepping on the butterfly in Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.”  Such is our loss.

CLAY: ANY BEATLES RECORD LISTENED THROUGH HEADPHONES ////  My #1 is a bit of a cop out in that it isn’t one specific album.  Rather, it is the entire Beatles output when listened to thru headphones. My #2 from yesterday- Pure Phase- taught me to listen closely to a record’s production. For me, the texture and sound of a record is as important as the songwriting. After becoming aware of production value, I re-listened to the Beatles’ records and my mind was blown………Somehow, the Beatles, with limited equipment and technology and only a 4 track to work with (!!??) created some of the most mind bending, experimental sounds ever recorded. The amazing thing is just how minimally everything is done. DO this: listen to mid/late period Beatles and pan the mix so you are only getting one side of the mix. Even if you only get the vocal side or the instrumental side, the sounds in themselves are so captivating that you don’t even mind the fact that you are only listening to half of the song! Everything from Ringo’s drum sound to the guitars to the tambourine sounds so good, that even if every Beatles song was an instrumental, it would still be a feast for the ears and a landmark in recording history.

CLAY: SPIRITUALIZED - PURE PHASE //// This is not even the best Spirtualized record in my opinion (that honor would go to Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space), but more than any other record I own, this taught me how to listen to music and the power of production. Jason Pierce is a pretty good songwriter, but what keeps me coming back to pure phase again and again is the way it sounds. It swirls and pans and echoes and bounces back and fourth between the speakers in a magical way that reveals something different every time you listen to it. Its sound is meticulous; one can imagine Pierce shaving off frequencies and altering the mix until it sounded exactly the way he heard it in his head. He even went so far as to mix the record in mono twice and then combine it into a stereo mix to achieve the final product! Pure Phase also contains the song “Let it Flow” - which is the best drug tune since “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground. Listen closely to “pure phase” in a good pair of headphones, and you will never listen to music the same way again.

TOBY: CIBO MATTO - VIVA! LA WOMAN? //// I may be going out on a limb here but I think this album, released in 1996, still has some of the best hip-hop beats…ever. Throw in some random samples, layered instrumental parts, Japanese-tinged vocals, and a culinary theme (Cibo Matto loosely translates to “crazy food” in Italian) and you’ve got an impressive, unique album. Cibo Matto only officially released two albums (this is the first). The band at this point was comprised of two members: Miho Hatori and Yuki Honda. by their second release the band had expanded to include, among others, Sean Lennon. Their sound changed noticeably. In my opinion, this change was for the worse. Viva! La Woman’s stripped down beats are perfect for creating a fun album with some real substance when you dig into it a little. You will dance. You will sing along, even though you don’t understand half the lyrics. You will explain to people, in no uncertain terms, the gravity of not knowing their chicken. The song “Beef Jerky” will forever remind me of Las Vegas, Nevada college radio station KUNV. I first heard this song one evening while dialing through the radio channels. It was my introduction to Cibo Matto and to KUNV. Both became an integral part of my life. Sadly, KUNV switched to an all jazz format years ago. I am by no means knocking jazz music, but I cannot explain the impact losing that station had on me and on many listeners in Vegas. RIP. I feel I need to mention the video for the song “Sugar Water”. This video is innovative in its use of a split screen that follows the two members of the band through a day, one forward and one in reverse. in the middle of the video both screens converge at a point in time and the action swaps panes. I can’t quite explain it. just watch it…and while you’re at it, find the video for “Know Your Chicken”. It’s worth it just for the wackiness. Aren’t Miho and Yuki just cute as hell?
MIKE: UNDERWORLD - SECOND TOUGHEST IN THE INFANTS //// This is the best album from the best electronic band in the world. I love the transition these guys made from early 80’s dance rock-meisters to minimal techno pioneers to avant-garde elder statesmen, and they’ve had something interesting to say in every phase. The guys in the band have largely disowned their early dance rock recordings, but we listeners shouldn’t make the same mistake, as it’s Underworld’s keen pop/rock sensibilities that allows their music to transcend the boundaries of “electronic music” to simply “great music”. This record never ceases to make my body move, so visceral and primal are the complex, intertwining, ever-shifting beats and synth lines, yet it’s not just dance floor fodder. This is post-rock for the electronica set — a true headphones record. This is thinking man’s techno. This album (along with its follow-up, Beaucoup Fish) is an under-appreciated gem.

MATT: GUIDED BY VOICES - BEE THOUSAND //// Robert Pollard once said “I can write five songs sitting on the toilet, and three of them are good”. I believe him. In 1994 I was in a small college town in the middle of Oregon (I’ve never been to college), and I heard a weird little song called “tractor rape chain” on the local college station. I called them up and was all, “WTF“? They said it was on the album Bee Thousand from a group called “Guided by Voices’. Okay, I’ve got to get that. When I finally located a copy (used no less) I took it home to my van (yes, I lived in a van) and put it on. I thought to myself “no wonder it was used, there’s something wrong with it”. It sounded like it was recorded with a string and a can with dirt all over them. It was too late to take it back so I sat and listened, and listened, and listened again. Something strange was happening, it felt like they were actually playing inside my head. The next morning when I woke up with the phrase “are you amplified to rock? Are you hoping for a contact? I’ll be with you, without you, again” I knew that yes, indeed, they were inside my head, and they have never left.

JESSE: RADIOHEAD - KID A //// I admit that OK Computer is a better album (in a pop-music sense), but Kid A would be my desert-island disc of choice. For me, there was before Kid-A and after Kid-A, and the way I would look at music would be forever changed. It is a record full of songs that aren’t really songs, an aural footprint of the human heartbeat existing in a world of silicon and plastic and steel, an industrialized reconfiguration of musicality, an embryonic ocean of implied possibilities, and the duality of Picasso’s Guernica transmitted in binary. All this while being markedly soothing in spite of the terrors lurking just beneath its surface.

MIKE: TEARS FOR FEARS - SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR //// Say what you will about 80’s production values, but I ate that shit up when it came on the radio, and nobody sounded better than Tears For Fears. Fortunately for everyone (although missed by most), they were a real band, with real songs and real musical talent behind the Emulators, gated reverb and hair mousse. The way keyboardist Ian Stanley and producer Chris Hughes used the technology of the day to create intricate electronic soundscapes that served the songs so beautifully is inspirational even today. The follow-up album, The Seeds Of Love is every bit as good, if not quite as accessible, and the preceding album, The Hurting, is filled with killer tunes as well.

JESSE: NINE INCH NAILS - THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL //// The things happening on this record will absolutely bend your brain if you are listening correctly (I suggest premium headphones). I literally listened to this record twice a day for two years during high-school (which, in hindsight, may have had an unduly negative effect on my ability to attract female attention, but that is a different story). Nevertheless, The Downward Spiral is wonderfully singable, satisfyingly angry, and wholly sublime in the most Emersonian sense of the word (three adjectives which make the most unlikely of bedfellows). Give much of the credit to Flood (who also did some dizzyingly amazing work on U2‘s Zooropa album). He was arguably the first producer able to extract the nightmares from Trent Reznor’s brain and commit them to tape. Gone were the euro-tinged dance anthems of Pretty Hate Machine. Reznor and Flood handed the world something a lot more thoughtful, if not more dangerous. Geeks for musical production should take heed of this record.

MATT: RADIOHEAD - THE BENDS //// Ok, Ok, I know… I have to admit this album does it all. From the drums that come in on “Planet Telex” to the wash of harmonies at the end of “Street Spirit” this record made me want to save the world. In 1995, they broke lose from their moorings and released this gem of a rock album. They found their voice. They sharpened their teeth. They made it possible to rock and be smart at the same time.

TOBY: LAMB - FEAR OF FOURS //// My vocabulary of electronic music is limited. I’m relatively sure I like jungle and some drum and bass, but I couldn’t give you any examples. I know hard house can be fun at the club, but not when your neighbor is playing it into all hours of the night. I have heard countless different named genres but I just can’t manage to sort them out. This feels like a shortcoming in some ways. I’ll get over it. I am, ultimately, a rock musician. I plead ignorance (or apathy). From what I gather, Lamb falls into the trip-hop category. This seems to be my most likely splashdown point in the sea of electronica, as it covers Portishead, early Hooverphonic, and Massive Attack as well. I realize my apathy may be showing again. If so, please bear with me. I love this album for a number of reasons. The programmed beats are inventive. The songs often take on non-standard time signatures (the album actually opens with a 10/8 track). Bass lines are performed on an upright. The mood shifts from restrained to frenzied to groovy to latin to tribal, all done in a way that keeps you compelled. The only legitimate complaint I have seen concerning this album is the way the vocals are processed. Louise Rhodes has a gorgeous voice but it is not clearly allowed to shine through on this album. Not that it sounds terrible. it just comes across as tinny and overproduced. I promise it will grow on you regardless. The video for “B Line” was my introduction to this album, and to Lamb. I was up late one night (I’m an incurable insomniac) and happened to switch over to mtv’s 120 minutes. This video shocked and delighted me. I won’t even try to describe it. Just look it up. It is worth your time.

CLAY: THE SMITHS - THE QUEEN IS DEAD //// I know, I know. This is probably on every other music lover’s list over the age of 25 in the world, but for good reason. The Smiths never get old because they are just so fucking innovative and odd. Marr’s guitar lines are intricate, multi-layered symphonies- listen closely and you will hear 5 or 6 different melodies interacting in unusual ways. You can get a guitar chord book and learn Smiths songs, but I have never heard anyone play them exactly like Johnny Marr, he is a true original that has influenced everyone from Radiohead (”Knives Out”) to Oasis. And then of course, there is Morrissey whose lyrics are heartfelt and hilarious at the same time. Laugh or cry at the queen is dead, both would be appropriate responses. Lyrically, Morrissey is at his peak. Whether singing about plagiarism (“Cemetery Gates“), Christ’s yearning to be loved (”the boy with the thorn in his side”), or taking a jibe at a greedy record label executive (“Frankly Mr. Shankly“), Morrissey manages to be self-consciously clever and egotistical, but genuine at the same time. “I know it’s over” -probably my favorite song of all time- is the third track on the record. Lamenting a love affair (that really only happened in the singer’s head to begin with!), Morrissey asks a series of questions that lonely people the world over probably consider daily:

“If you’re so funny
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
And if you’re so clever
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you’re so very entertaining
Then why are you on your own tonight ?
If you’re so very good-looking
Why do you sleep alone tonight ?”