Record Collection of Matt Melnicki.

Artist

Album

Year Acquired

Notes

5ive Style

Miniature Portraits

2000

indie-rock for Phish-heads… like tortoise.  Very jazzy, dancey, wonderfully arranged.

…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead

Source Tags & Codes

2003

has some nice anthemic moments of indie rock, but also has some wannabe over-the-top rock-out angst bursts that serve more to level the ears than to induce the mind.

A Silver Mount Zion

???

2001

first album, sparse and sad, from the Godspeed you Black Emperor! Camp.

A Silver Mt. Zion

???

2002

have not listened to this one yet, but it's got more musicians than the first album.  From the Godspeed camp.

A Tribe Called Quest

beats, rhymes, and life

2003

Abunai!

Round Wound

2003

this was compared to krautrock stuff, but I think it is way too simplistic and not visionary enough. It has some muscled funk/spacerock grooves, and some intense moments hinting that the world is a changing sphere, but overall it possesses no moments to make me weep.  It is all instrumental, and apparently a culled arrangement of snippets from some long long jam sessions that they had.  The recurrent themes are nice, but for that I'd take Philip Glass over this any day.

Adrian Belew

Op Zop Too Wah

this album is more experimental for a solo album, and I love Belew, but he still has not churned out an album of perfection, as some of the songs on here are mediocre.  He has the potential to be great though.

Adrian Belew

Here

nice pop, voice like a beatle.  Current lead singer for king crimson.

Air

Premiers Symptomes

2001

early singles; sweet, slick.

Air

Virgin Suicides soundtrack

2001

a bit creepy after you see the movie

Air Miami

Me, Me, Me

ex-unrest

Alex Chilton

1970

2000

really really good.  Get it if you love classic rock and are wondering what you missed.

All Time Present

Distant Microphones Pick Up Both Direct and Reflected Sound

2003

Angus Maclaurin

glass music

2001

an entire album played on wineglasses.  Not so great.

Aphex Twin

Richard D James Album

2001

nice "techno"… the song about wanting "some milk from the milkman's wife's tits" is a little strange for me though.

Archers of Loaf

all the nation's airports

2003

Archers of Loaf

White Trash Heroes

2003

Ash Ra Tempel

random mix CD

2002

spacy new-agey krautrock from the 60-70s.  Way way before techno, but you can see where the genre came from

Aspects of Physics

Systems of Social Recalibration

2002

very very nice new album from what used to be Physics.  Call it the electronic incarnation.  This fits into a category with Boards of Canada, but there are more acoustic instruments and less diverse sampling here.  The key is the tone.  I listened to it while reading kim stanley robinson's "the wild shore", a post-apocalyptic novel

Autechre

Confield

2002

wow, crazy ambient electronica.  So much going on, it's difficult to catch it all.  It's hard to listen to, but once you grasp it all it is impressive. Some odd sounds in there.  Very atonal.  I listened to it while reading "the monkey wrench gang" so now i associate it with being out in the desert

Autechre

tri repetae++

2cd.  This pales in comparison to "confield".  It is ordinary aphex-techno.  Mildly interesting but far from groundbreaking.  Much more listenable than "confield", but that’s a bad thing in my opinion.

Autoclave

s/t

2000

Mary Timony from Helium and Christina from Slant 6, before they were famous!

B-52's

good stuff

1992

one of my first cd's… I loved them and still do.  I do a wonderful love shack impression.  This is their last album I believe. Has some down moments, but still good party music, in a cheezy new wave way!

Babes in Toyland

nemesisters

1995

weird how all these grunge bands became big and then got left behind when the corporate folks decided to take over alternative music.

Bardo Pond

set and setting

2001

psych rock; nothing is as good as their 20 minute song on the "harmony of the spheres" compilation, but they are still great

Bardo Pond

dilate

2002

one of kim gordon (sonic youth)'s favorite albums of 2002

Bardo Pond

lapsed

2002

haven't listened to it yet

Bardo Pond

Purposeful availment ep series

2002

two long jam-outs.  No lyrics.

Beatles

Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band

2000

I like the beatles, but I wish I didn't know all the songs.

Beck

mutations

2002

Beekeeper

anywhere will do

1996

their first EP, karla went on to Ida, this was at the Ida/Tsunami record release party

Belle & Sebastian

Tigermilk

2001

if you haven't heard this band yet, where have you been?

Belle & Sebastian

If you're feeling sinister

2001

if you haven't heard this band yet, where have you been?

Belly

King

1995

Belly

Moon ep

1994

contains remixes of Full moon empty heart, and it's not unusual, plus the cover of "it's not unusual" hendrix!!

Belly

super-connected ep

1996

the b-sides are never as good as the a-sides

Bessie Smith

Lady Luck Blues

2cd archival recording of an old blues legend. My heart melts for her voice.

Big Boy Crudup

Crudup's After Hours

2cd archival recording of an old blues legend. Sing it, man.

Big Star

Third / Sister Lovers

2002

awesome alex chilton stuff, but his solo album 1970 is so much better. These songs are very sad in a stoic sort of way.

bill frisell

the bill frisell quartet

with eyvind kang

Billie Holiday

The Gold Collection

2003

Biosphere

substrata

2002

nice ambient electronic music;  nothing really happens though.  I bet it's easy to make this kind of music.

Bjork

Vespertine

2001

I can't believe how good this is. Reminds me of moving into my DC apartment with Rita (oh goodness)

Blind Man's Sun

Harmony of the Spheres

1999

2CD; Jamband progressive rock, rock opera stuff.  Has some really wonderful moments. They never really got noticed, but they were talented in the jamband scene.  Too bad the 70s have ended a while ago.

Blind Melon

soup

1995

why did he die?  I'm more sad about shannon hoon's death than kurt cobains

Blonde Redhead

In an Expression of the Inexpressible

2003

Wonderful, but I wouldn't call it essential.  Futuristic stylish post-nowave. I don't think the hype is necessary, but I wish this was more popular than Modest Mouse, for instance…  The rhythm here is perhaps what makes it great, but the vocals are far out and unique.

Boards of Canada

Geogaddi

2002

we need a name for this genre of electronic music. Thank you for pointing out that the environment is falling apart.  The drone interludes are great.  Your days will be full of images of red skies and jubilant/somber smog after you hear this.

Boards of Canada

Music has the Right to Children

2002

I love these guys; this album is much more rhythmic but still as futuristic in a post-apocaplyptic way. Highly transcendental electro-postrock.

Boredoms

Super Are

2000

the boredoms in transition from noise rock to trance rock

Boredoms

Vision Creation Newsun

2001

a must-hear; alterna-trance-rock of epic proportions.  The culmination of rock and ROLL.

Brainiac

Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

1996

right before Timmy Taylor died in a car accident.  What a shame.  I really liked this noisy weirdocore band.

Brainiac

Bonsai Superstar

1995

nice noisy weirdness rock from Dayton OH, the engines of machines.

Breeders

Pod

2001

Breeders

Last Splash

1993

I had forgotten how great this album is.  Some of the songs that are not as radio-friendly are just incredible (hag, mad lucas)

Breeders

Safari

1995

four song ep, last recording with tanya donelly before she left for Belly.  Different version of "do you love me now"?

Brick Layer Cake

Tragedy Tragedy

1997

crazy weird slow slow slowcore with annoying deathlike whispered vocals, from the drummer from Shellac

Broadcast

extended play two

2000

short but really fucking good.

Broadcast

random mix CD

2002

for fans of stereolab. Retro spacy forward thinking pop

Brokeback

Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table

A tired, sad, downtempo tortoise.  Forgot which guy was in tortoise from this group, but hear the guitars. There's even a cover of the quiet song at the end of "millions now living…" with whistling doing the slide-guitar melody.

Butterglory

Downed

1996

B-sides, indie pop.

Calexico

The Black Light

2002

Califone

roomsound

2002

reminds me of waking up on the train, watching the sun rise over california, my new home.  Interesting indie folk.

Can

tago mago

2000

some say that this is the penultimate krautrock album, but I think it's in a field of it's own.  Very schizophrenic… jammed out, spacy, scary sometimes.  Acid music.

Captain Beefheart

Grow Fins

1999

5CD; this box set was my introduction to the captain.  Wow I am in love with this stuff.  But the first disk, the classic blues rock one, takes the cake.  Obeah Man is the best b-side!!! I feel so cool when I listen to the captain.  I'm sure most people hate him.  I angered everyone in my car down on our roadtrip to see phish on new year's 2000 when i played this (ween also angered them too!)  some music just isn't for everyone!

Captain Beeheart

random mix CD

2002

I love the captain.  This mix I made is great, spans a whole bunch of different stuff, showcases why his style transcends classic rock, but isn't as in-your-face as Frank Zappa, who in my opinion, tried to hard to be different.  Beefheart just tells it like it is;  raw human energy.

Cat Power

Moon Pix and Dear Sir

2003

female bluesy singer-songwriter stuff.  The sweet girls that want to be indie eat this up but never go far enough into it to get into REAL indie music.  I'm much more impressed with this older stuff than the new stuff that has put her in the limelight.  It reeks of being on Steve Shelley's label "Smells Like".

Cerberus Shoal

Mr. Boy Dog

2002

2CD; reminds me of Baltimore and the tragedy of skyscrapers.  I like to listen to it in strange cities and get lost in the maze of life.  This hypnotic album is both spacy and upbeat and dancy.  The band later on gets more into compositional individualist poetic yarnspinning.  the music is still urgent

Cerberus Shoal

The Vim and Vigour of Alvarius B and Cerberus Shoal

2002

Caleb from Cerberus Shoal gave me this CD which is a collaboration between them and Sun City Girls.  It is wonderful, and I wish more artists collaborated like this.  There are essentially three songs twice.  They're reinterpretations of extrapolations or fragmented ideas they shared.  the words are terrific and it's like seeing a Westernized urban landscape in two different regions of the world;  fundamentally the same but painted with a different palette.  ingenious.  let us expect the rest of the installments with anticipation!

Cerberus Shoal

Garden Fly, Drip Eye

2002

Another disk given to me by Caleb, two song ep of the newer stuff.  Poetic intense yarn-spinning, with the females in the group now, sounds like a lot of teamwork goes into their newer stuff.  Much more music jammed into the space, rather than the spread out psych of the earlier stuff.

Cerberus Shoal

homb

2002

sprawling eastern-ish psych rock. Listened to it first while reading "man plus" by frederik pohl.  Cut a man's eyes and organs out and replace them with computers and then put him on Mars.  This is the music that warns/scares you of what's to come.  It's frightening but it's still ritualistic love.

Cerberus Shoal

And Farewell to Hightide

2002

Charalambides

Houston

2003

Much better space blues, with a bit more diversity. All their stuff gets tedious and I lose my attention, but there is a definite color to this music that makes it enjoyable once you recognize their unique twangy fucked-up style of using irritating slides and psychedelic meanderings to achieve a nice subtle higher plane.  Perhaps the sparse, blues version of what ambient drone noise like Sunroof does.  Not quite Pelt, though.

Charalambides

Our Bed is Green

2003

Charalambides

Internal External

2003

bluesy sprawling loose mazzacane-connors-inspired space folk.  Perhaps it is space blues?  I'd like to hear more of their collaborations.  Hooray for Austin, TX!

Charles K Noyes

Full Stop

2001

from Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! Label

Chicago

V

1999

perhaps their last good album

Clinic!

Walking With Thee

2002

like Faust playing tunes by the Fall, with Thom Yorke singing

Clinic!

Internal Wrangler

2002

like Faust playing tunes by the Fall, with Thom Yorke singing

Cold Cold Hearts

???

2000

This is the only real riot grrrl stuff I have on CD, but my penpal Eve used to make me mixes of all this awesome bikini kill, bratmobile, and heavens to betsy stuff.  I miss it all.  Grrrls rock

Cracker

Kerosene Hat

1993

I wasn't too fond of this album when I first got it, but since I worked in the Park Service, all those folks there got me hooked on this alt.country stuff.

Cul De Sac

China Gate

2002

have not listened to it yet

Cul De Sac

Crashes to Light Minutes to It

2002

have not listened to it yet

Damon & Naomi

With Ghost

2002

so good… former members of Galaxie 500 with Ghost, a japanese psychedelic folk outfit.  Really warm melodies.  Great tunes… like Ida I guess.

David Byrne

The Catherine Wheel

2000

very very nice, like instrumental Eno-era talking heads

david byrne

rei mono

2001

wonderful latin album from talking heads member.

David Grisman and Jerry Garcia

Shady Grove

2002

great great bluegrass album

Davis Redford Triad

Ewige Blumenkraft

2001

fucking scary psychedelic music from Stephen Wray Lobdell.

Davis Redford Triad

Code Orange

2003

this is live recordings I believe.

Deep Banana Blackout

Rowdy Duty

1999

live 2CD,  I was at the show for "Put the Boot Down"… on my tape I can hear my voice, but of course the CD is soundboard.

Deep Banana Blackout

Live! In the Thousand Islands

1998

This album did not come out of my car stereo for a whole year (except for my chicago mix tape).  It is so fabulous.  It made me fall in love with funk music.  Their live show is even better (this is a studio album)… too bad jen is not in the band anymore.  they simply were incredible back in the day.  I'm so glad I was a bananahead.  I wasn't ever officially in the Funk Mob, but I think I participated a lot!  Hell yeah!!!!

delarosa and asora

???

Delta '72

R&B of Membership

1996

I first saw them open for sonic youth and helium;  call it my first concert ever, since they played first!

Delta '72

000

2001

bring back the girls!

Digable Planets

Reachin (a new refutation of time and space)

2003

Digable Planets

Blowout Comb

2003

Disco Biscuits

???

1999

jamband.  Much better live, but then again, they got into that whole ecstasy electronic trance crap that doesn't go anywhere.

DJ Spooky

???

2001

short album; more hiphop than spacy

DJ Spooky

Songs of A Dead Dreamer

2000

really fucking good. Spacy, well-mixed. Not all hiphop.

DJ Spooky

Viral Sonata

2001

a sample of all his sounds. Used for elevator music in a modern art museum.

Do Make Say Think

Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead

2002

wow. I love it.  I'm listening to it as I read "The Biotech Century"

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet

2002

they are incredible live.  Like a post-rock kind of tortoise, very dreamy.  Their music is very hopeful, but it can be immediate at times too.  Check these musicians out!

Doldrums

Feng Shui

2000

reminds me of moving out of my studio apartment in DC

Doors

The best of the Doors

2000

Doves

The Last Broadcast

2002

2CD; britpop takes a step forward

Dufus

This Revolution

1998

complete tweaker, but so awesome.  Calls for a creative revolution.  Call it hippy music, but this music sings the truth (I'm now an acquaintance of the lead guy, seth hebert)

Eggs

Exploder!

Eggs

How Do you like your Lobster?

bside compilation

Elfpower

Red King?

2002

elephant-6 collective; like olivia tremor control. A rock opera about a secret medieval world you enter through a portal.  Great neo-psychedelic pop.  For fans of the beatles

Elliott Smith

s/t

first album, on kill rock stars, I had it before he was famous!

Elliott Smith

XO

2003

Elliott Smith

Either/or

2003

Ennio Morricone

The Mission

Ernesto Diaz-Infante & Chris Forsyth

March

2003

Esquivel

Infinity in Sound vol 1 and 2

2000

perfect for cleaning the house while stoned

Estradasphere

Buck Fever

2002

mix klezmer, jazz, beach boys pop, death metal, nintendo music, surf rock, disco, funk, circus music… did I leave anything out?

Eumir Deodato

random mix CD

2002

he's the jazz/fusion guitarist that originally arranged Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (aka 2001), which Phish covers live, and all of their fans think Phish are the geniuses… haha wrong wrong wrong!!!

Explosions in the Sky

Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth shall Live Forever

2002

if you were moved by September 11 in a way more than just tragedy and sadness, then listen to this disk.  Released shortly before september 11, it is remarkable in its applicability.  Hear the drums of war beating beating beating

Explosions in the Sky

How strange, innocence

2002

from Austin TX.  This band sounds like Godspeed you black emperor! A lot.    Really good stuff, A MUST LISTEN

Eyvind Kang

History of Iceland

2003

Played with Secret Chiefs 3, globalized tragedy in orchestral post-rock form.  Multi-ethnic-instrumentalist, wonderful suite.  Includes an odd experimental avant-rock piece too. Recommended by Caleb from Cerberus Shoal.

Fairuz

The legendary Fairuz

Lebanese world music; crappy singer though she's "acclaimed".  I'm in it more for the gypsy/mideast style of music in the background.  Plus this part of the world has an incredibly beautiful culture.

Faust

The Last LP (Munich and elsewhere)

2000

the bible for krautrock

Firehose

Mr. Machinery Operator

2003

Flaming Lips

Soft bulletin

2002

bonus tracks by beck

Flaming Lips

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

2002

bonus tracks by beck

Flaming Lips

Clouds Taste Metallic

1997

I didn't like this album when it first came out, but now that I've heard their more recent stuff (which is superior in a big way), this album really isn't so terrible.  His whiny voice just takes some getting used to.

Fly Pan Am

???

2002

From the Godspeed camp.  dancy jammy guitar noisy hard rock beats; activist oriented I think, this should be the new party music.  I'll play it if I ever throw a party.

Flying Saucer Attack

Further

2002

incredible spacy jammed out ambient music with occasional songs

Flying Saucer Attack

New Lands

2003

I love it so much.  New favorite band.  Blasts of krautrock-inspired feedback noise mixed with damaged folk songs; like a dream for your afterlife. It floats and provides a wonderful example of how noise can be used beautifully.

Flying Saucer Attack

Chorus

2003

Flying Saucer Attack

Distance

2003

Flying Saucer Attack

Rural Psychedelia

2003

Flying Saucer Attack

Mirror

2003

Flying Saucer Attack / Telefunken

Distant Station

2003

Folk Implosion

mix cd

2002

Fontanelle

Fontanelle/F

2002

bonus tracks by Jessamine -- post-rock.  Fusion-like jazzy space rock; almost could be a jamband but they're too indie rock!

Foo Fighters

???

1995

I was so psyched that he paid homage Sunny Day Real Estate, but I was so mad that he broke up the band by stealing two of their musicians.

Four Tet

Pause

2002

indie jam post-rock, from kieran from Fridge

Fred Frith

Pacifica

2000

from henry cow, on John Zorn's tzadik label, a modern classical score that grows and then descends… very wonderful, I highly recommend it.  It reminds me of reading Philip K Dick's "the three stigmata of palmer eldritch"

Free Kitten

Nice Ass

1997

I love Kim Gordon.  I also love Yoshimi (boredoms) and Mark Ibold (pavement).  I don't really know anything about Julie Cafritz other than she was in Pussy Galore with Jon Spencer.  This album is not phenomenal but it's nice.

Freescha

Kids Fill the Floor

2002

for fans of Mum and Air; I'm so happy I found this. I love to spread it around.  Lots of warm reverb. Electro-postrock

Fridge

Eph Reissue

2002

2CD; postrock like tortoise, but stays in place, second disk is remixes

Fugazi

Steady Diet of Nothing

1996

I never liked this album.  I love Fugazi, especially their punk activist slant (and the number of young folks they've left impressions on to go out and make a difference), but Ian's voice just is irritating, and this album is not as forceful, catchy, nor activist as the others.

Gabor Szabo

random mix CD

2002

holy moly!  Gabor was the best hippie jazz guitarist to ever live! (sorry Jerry, you shoulda done more solo work to win my vote)

Gabor Szabo

The Sorcerer

1999

not a bad album, but not his best, but it's the most accessible to those of you that shop in major record stores.  Find it in the jazz section.  He is INCREDIBLE and everyone has to hear this hungarian jazz/gypsy guitarists tones and dreams.

Gabor Szabo

1969

1999

not a very good album by him; almost all are covers of 60s pop tunes.  Weak

Gastr Del Sol

Camafleur

2001

Jim O'rourke -- experimental and loping

George Harrison

All Things Must Pass

2002

millenium 2CD edition; reminds me of graduating from college

Ghost

Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet

2003

This album is what I like best by them so far.  "Lhasa Lhasa" is an intensely emotional tune, and there are plenty of psychedelic explosions of weirdness, beautiful folk performances of personality, and DRONE!!!!

Ghost

s/t

2003

More accessible to the hippy crowd.  Either it's folky and serene and really showcases Masaki Batoh's incredible fragile high-pitched vocals (once you get over the peculiar japanese accent), or it's funky and hippy and makes you want a free-love revival RIGHT NOW.

Ghost

Second Time Around

2003

God Street Wine

s/t

1999

studio album with one of the members missing. It stinks, it's overproduced, and here's another jamband that tried to see what it's like to be an alt-country band.  Perhaps it

God Street Wine

bag

1999

first album; later stuff is better, but the underproduced lo-fi funky jazzy folk rock is great.

God Street Wine

red

1998

trying to be like phish, I guess.

Godspeed you Black Emperor!

Raise Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

2000

2CD: their fucking best. Oh my god.

Godspeed you black emperor!

Yanqui U.X.O.

2002

hooray for a new godspeed album!!!  So incredible! I'm so happy they're still going on.  The album has a map on the back of it, linking all the major record labels to warfaring corporations… you must see this at least, if you aren't going to hear the music!

Godspeed you black emperor!

live burned concerts

2002

go to www.mp3it.com -- this is the website of Jason Soares from Physics and Aspects of Physics.  An incredible anarcholiberalist website devoted to the democratic control of information.  Why buy music?  Share it for free!! Also check out their freenews.com and experimentnetwork.com  cool stuff

Godspeed you black emperor!

live at beachland ballroom

live 2cd bootleg from 3/25/2003

Gordon Stone

???

2002

bluegrass jam music

grateful dead

dicks picks volume twelve

1999

the dead remind me of falling in love with plants

Grateful Dead

Skeletons from the closet

1992

I hated this album when I got it, and now with the exception of "uncle john's band" and "rosemary" I still hate it, but I love the Dead!

Grenadine

nopalitos (or is it Goya)

unrest, eggs, and tsunami

Guided By Voices

Mag Earwhig

2002

neo-garage-rock movement is bunk when you recall this band.

Guided By Voices

Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

2002

neo-garage-rock movement is bunk when you recall this band.

Hall of Fame

s/t

2001

from the Tower Recordings family.  Space-folk songs mixed with ambient noise jams

Hall of Fame

First came love, then came the tree

2003

Hall of Fame

s/t - Amish records

2003

much better than the later siltbreeze s/t album in that the krautrock noise parts are more dynamic, denser, clattering and klanging. The pretties are prettier and there is less sparse avant-noise than the siltbreeze release.  There are still pseudo-hippy spacefolk songs that glow like warm relics from a closet.

Hash Jar Tempo

Well Oiled

2003

Roy Montgomery and Bardo Pond.  Incredible psychedelic dreamy subdued cloud-nine (yet peppery) guitar music, touch of Bardo's blues and a touch of Montgomery's wistfulness.  Very much like Phish's "The Siket Disk"

Hawkwind

Doremi Fasol Latido

2003

british prog rock that is also "krautrock".

Helium

The Magic City

Mary suddenly enters classic rock territory.  My high school band once wanted to cover this entire album.  It is simply magnificent and there is so much diversity within the album.

Helium

The Dirt of Luck

Dark, but sweeping if you go through adolescence to this!  Fuzz and sweet vocals and dark imagery and the beginnings of a good songstress.  Highly personal too.

Helium

No Guitars

A surprisingly great EP -- preceding the wonder that is The Magic City.  Perhaps this is the one album that marks Mary Timony's progression into fine musicianship, and away from her loser-riot-grrrl alterna darkness.  "Silver Strings" is like a disco parody, and "dragon" is a perfect indie poppy tune.  The last track displays Mary's fabulous transformation into a sorceress.  This is also where her Medieval folk style begins.  Enter indie space hippy.  Mary makes my space folk list by just a hair.

Helium

Superball plus

EP

HiM

new features

2001

awesome jazzy indie jamband music.  Must be great live.  The whole album is one whole slick continuous festival.

Hochenkeit

Omu4alohab (???) / 400 boys

2002

ex-Irving Klaw Trio; stephen wray lobdell produced

Hovercraft

???

2002

Eddie Vedder's wife's band

Ida

Tales of Brave Ida

Their first album. I remember hearing that "shotgun" was incredible and I finally heard it and was unimpressed.  But after many listens in high school (where I was depressed about not having the friends I secretly wanted) it warmed me up and now I can always be sentimental.  There is such passion exuding from these drum-less songs.  I think it is their most powerful, despite "i know about you" being their best album.

Ida

I know about You

Simply their best.  The addition of Miggy on drums made the songwriting and interplay between dan and liz incredible.  I could not believe the sounds coming out of my speakers when I heard it.  This was going on while everyone was into the lilith fair craze and i just couldnt understand how everyone had missed this record.  not a bad moment. listen to it late at night on a couch with your best friends.  some songs actually make me cry.

Ida

Ten Small Paces

This album is still enjoyable, and the experimentalism rivals that of Rachel's (won't Ida make an instrumental album?).  I was very wary of the addition of Karla as the bassist, but her playing on a portion of these songs does not depress anything on this album... on the next one, however...

Ida

Will You Find Me

2001

Perhaps there was just too much expectation on them, or maybe they were weighed down by being a quartet, but there just is none of the passion between dan and liz that is evident in their duo form.  I really enjoy their experimental edge, especially on the jagged harmonies of the opener, but I want more heart-tuggers! Their attempt at sweet songs just flops.

Ida

The Braille Night

2003

Idyll Swords

II

2001

one of my top albums. Absolutely complex in its weaving of middle eastern folk (incredibly well played by indie rockers), appalachian folk, and short pieces of drone rock even.  GET THIS ALBUM!!!! I can listen to it hours on end and still not hear it all. It makes me want to play acoustic guitar so badly.

Idyll Swords

s/t

2002

not as good as their second album!

Idyll Swords

Purposeful availment ep series

2002

Short, but so satisfying.  I await everything they do with incredible patience.  Go out and find something by this band.  So colorful!  Noise and acoustics and eastern and folk and diverse instruments and subtle vocals and complexity and emotion… oh yes.

Irving Klaw Trio

Utek Pahtoo Mogoi

2002

went on to form Hochenkeit

Isotope 217

The Unstable Molecule

1999

jazzy tortoise-like post-rock;  rob mazurek (cornet)'s band, who collaborates with many indie rockers.  If there's a cornet on the album, it's probably him

Jackie O Motherfucker

Liberation

2002

really nice sprawling noise jams from a collective

Jaga Jazzist

Livingroom Hush

2002

have not listened to it yet

Jale

So Wound

1997

canadian indie girl jangle on sub pop

Jale

Dream Cake

1996

canadian indie girl jangle on sub pop

James Brown

Hot Pants

2000

I always bust this out at parties.  You can't help but shake your groove thing.  My friends will remember this from New Years 01-02;  ryan murphy shaking his butt like he was an antelope outta control.

Jawbox

for your own special sweetheart

1994

they were always sweeter than Fugazi, so I enjoyed them more.  But edgy, angular, punchy postpunk was all the rage before I discovered pot and real indie music.

Jawbox

Jawbox

1996

this last album by them is odd. It's overproduced, and very after-the-fact.  It seems like they were a part of building a movement, but then escaped from it.  Nevertheless this is a very good postpunk album, but I prefer their earlier stuff. The energy is more sincere.  the tori amos cover of "cornflake girl" is amusing.

Jawbox

Novelty

1996

before they recorded a major label album.  Very good postpunk

Jenny Toomey

??

2002

solo album, bonus tracks liquorice

Jeremy Enigck

The Return of the Frog Queen

1997

so good!  Lead singer from Sunny Day Real Estate, while two members took a sabbatical to be Foo Fighters.  STRINGS!!! He needs to make a thousand albums like this.  Immensely moving

Jessamine

s/t

2003

Jessamine

Another Fictionalized History

2003

It's like an expanding plane of waves and vibrations and the tones of the male/female voices soothe yet warn of tragedy that is to come, or perhaps is already happening.  This music feels technology and science enveloping our lives (though it is not electronica... it is drone rock).  The vocalized songs are tight and hummable, and the blazes of reverb and static are made of gold.

Jessamine

The Long Arm of Coincidence

2001

went on to form Fontanelle

Jessamine

Don't Stay Too Long

2003

this album is short but is a wonderful mix between the spacy drony ambience of noise, and groovy slick industrial dark pop.  This is the album that gets them the Stereolab comparison, but please, please stop it!  They are in their own boat, and if anything they must be compared to MBV and Bardo Pond.  There is something warm about the darkness in this drone and schizophrenia.

Jessamine & Spectrum

A Pox on You (plus Fontanelle s/t)

2003

Jessamine / EAR

Living Sound

2003

Jethro Tull

Thick as a Brick

1997

damn you if you've never heard this.  Their opus.

Jim Orourke

Terminal Pharmacy

2000

I don't understand what he did here.  The volume is super low, so you have to turn the volume up super high to hear it.  But then interspersed throughout the tracks are these LOUD short bursts of noise at above-normal volume. So with your speakers turned up all the way, there is a chance they'll blow, if not give you a heart attack.  so i haven't ventured really to listen to it.  it seems to be experimental compositions though.  i bet it's good, but jim orourke!! stop trying to be avant garde and just make the damn pop songs we love you for!!

Jim O'Rourke

Eureka

2001

first album of well produced pop, still with some experimental stuff.. Real feel-good!

Jim O'Rourke

Insignificance

2002

more rock and roll, but still well produced.

Jim O'Rourke

Halfway to a Threeway

2002

4 songs, STELLAR feel-good music

John Scofield

A Go Go

1999

with Medeski Martin & Wood

John Scofield

Bump

2000

with Deep Banana Blackout!

Juliana Hatfield Three

Become What You Are

1993

one of my first albums away from the mainstream

June of '44

In the Fishtank ep

2003

Despite the talented musicians that are involved in this band, the hard punk and loud rock drums just don't cut it.  Tone it down, please!

Kammerflimmer Kollectief

maander

2002

noisy electroacoustic jammed looping skronk, at times loungy and jazzy even.

King Crimson

Starless and Bible Black

2001

thank you ryan murphy for reviving my faith in them!

King Crimson

In the Wake of Poseidon

2000

my favorite incarnation of them -- the first lineup with greg lake singing.  Ultra-hippy, not scary yet.

Kinski

Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle

2003

My, my, my.  The only complaint I have is that they are too dynamic with the sound balance. The pretty serene moments erupt in post-grunge drone/fuzz rock, quite nicely balanced sounds though (nicer than Bardo Pond I think, though lacking the consciousness of the songwriting).  The fans of mogwai will appreciate this, as it produces a similar effect, but it is surprising how well produced it is for such simple songwriting.  When I saw them live, there was much more complexity in their music.  I am a big new fan of this band now! I think in good time they will find the right balance.  To boot, they're really friendly for indie rock!

Kraftwerk

mix

Kritin Hersh

hips and makers

1994

back when I was obsessed with Belly, I tried to meet every band connected in that web (breeders, throwing muses, etc  all incredible!), but this solo album by Tanya's half-sister Kristin is on a leg of its own;  it is remarkable in that she gains this clarity about her schizophrenia, and the lyrics show this story of hers more than any of her other music.  incredibly intimate, this is all acoustic stuff.

Kritin Hersh

strings

1996

string versions of songs from hips and makers, along with a stellar version of zeppelin's "When the levee breaks"

Labradford

Mi Media Naranja

2001

Oh my I love this so much.  At first, I thought it was too subdued, but the quality is magnificent. It reminds me of being alone at night in the park service.  There is something contemplative and subtly exuberant about these mystifying songs.  Don't play it during the day, this is nighttime music!

Labradford

A stable reference

2002

Labradford

s/t

2002

Labradford

Fixed::Content

2002

wonderful wonderful wonderful. Mellow slide guitary blissed out slow instrumental goodness.

Lake Trout

Volume for the Rest of It

1999

My friends were obsessed with this band.  Meanwhile the rest of my friends and I can't understand why.  Jamband jungle music.  Anyone can play those beats on a drumkit and call it interesting.

L'Altra

In the Afternoon

2003

sounds like Ida. Beautiful male/female music to move the soul and wake you weep with joy.

Lanterna

elm street

2002

reminds me of reading the book "complexity" -- very very nice meditative clean guitar experimentation, spacy sometimes.

Le Tigre

???

Um, this is way too trendy for me.  I'm glad kathleen hanna is reaching out to others, but please… don't turn feminism into a trendy scene that people will abandon once the seas change.  Then again, I'm glad to hear her go beyond just screaming.  I just feel like the music is less real than Bikini Kill once was.

Lee Hazelwood

Requiem for an Almost-Lady

2000

haha, retro cowboy-badass loungy stuff.  Awesome deep voice, so cynical. Love it.

Lee Ranaldo

From Here to Infinity

2001

great great early guitar noise sounding like industrial madness

Lemonheads

Come on Feel

1994

Liminal

Liminal Lounge

1999

"illbient" music.  Jazz playing electronic moods and tones.

Liquid Liquid

???

2000

no wave dancy stuff from the early 80s, reissued by the beastie boys, contains the song that got sampled by some rapper (can't remember who -- "something like a phenomenon… something like a phenomenon"

Liz Phair

Whip-Smart

1994

best musically, but wish she'd complain about men some more.

Liz Phair

Exile in Guyville

2002

She is so bluesy and raw on this album.  Rock and roll!  Fuck and run!  I love her feminist slant, but it is so slick you want to say "she's just one of the guys"… she'd make you feel like shit if you said that to her, though

Lois

Butterfly Kiss

HS

Low

I could live in Hope

2001

sad sad sad, their first album, music to be depressed to.

Low

Things we Lost in the Fire

2002

much prettier, like Ida, bonus tracks

Low

Trust

Some incredible moments, nicely produced, but I don't think it's as powerful as "things we lost in the fire".

Lumen

The Man Felt An Iron Hand

2002

Lush

Split

HS - sophomore

Major Stars

The Rock Revival

2003

Mamoru Fujieda

Patterns of Plants

2000

on john zorn's Tzadik label;  a composer took plant leaves and measured the electrical potential across the surface of their leaves and then put this data into a computer program to transcribe it to music, and then played the music on traditional japanese gamelan instruments using radical intonation systems... it sounds beautiful and the concept is -- though avant garde / artsy -- unique...

Mark Robinson

Canada's Green Highways

2002

Stripped down pop songs that are just clean clean slow minimal guitar licks and mark's voice and occasionally a drum maching and occasionally more vocals and occasionally demo-souding proto unrest-type rockers.  I wonder what his philosophy behind this is, after having produced something like the lush Air Miami or the instantly catchy Unrest.  I like it only because Mark's voice has burnt into my teenage years and to hear him makes me sigh... but otherwise this is poopy. The only value I can think for this is for other musicians to take these proto-songs and orchestrate them into full arrangements.  After all, Mark has a strength for writing pop songs that are hard to shake from your head.

Mark Robinson

Tiger Banana

2002

Mary Timony

Mountains

2000

smoked a lot of pot to this album

Mary Timony

the golden dove

2002

Ex-Helium frontswoman's second solo album. Wonderful medieval indie rock

Matthew Valentine

???

2002

solo album from Tower Rercordings guitarist.  Mostly just guitar noodling.

Meat Puppets

Too High To Die

1994

Meat Puppets

Up on the Sun

2002

Meat Puppets

II

2002

Medeski Martin and Wood

Combustication

1999

with DJ Logic.  Great stuff

Mice Parade

collaborations

2002

remixes; reminds me of writing my thesis

Mick Turner

Purposeful availment ep series

2002

from the Dirty Three

Miles Davis

Big Fun

1999

2CD; lesser known fusion album from Bitch's Brew era

mira calix

???

Modest Mouse

Building Nothing Out of Something

2003

Modest Mouse

The Moon and Antarctica

2003

Moe.

No Doy

1998

I used to be fascinated by jamband music.  This album still holds its own, but in my opinion, the band went downhill after this.  The genre can be rather limiting when all you're doing is laying jazzy riffs on top of a funk groove.

Moe.

tin cans and car tires

1999

this album is stinky compared to their earlier work.  I gave up on them after this.  It's well produced though, and has some songs that can easily make them an alt.country band.

Mogwai

Rock Action

2001

why, oh why, did they change their sound?!!! Stop singing and play the post-industrialist after-the-apocalypse indie-jam-rock you were meant to play!

Mogwai

Young Team

2002

have not listened to yet

Mogwai

Ten Rapid

2002

listened to this while reading "ecotopia"  -- really great music.  Music for after the apocalypse.  It seems to say to me that the life we are living is terribly destructive, but one day we will find ourselves a nicer way to live.

Mogwai

Come on, Die young

2002

have not listened to yet

Moody Blues

To our Children's Children's Children

2000

I wish I were a real hippy. Makes me cry.  Reminds me of when I finally quit drugs and struggled with the fragility of life.

Moody Blues

greatest hits

1997

well it isn't the same as any of their actual albums, but it'll do until I acquire all of their albums on CD (I have all the LP's at my parents' house)

Mouse on Mars

Instrumentals

2001

reminds me of looking for research online for my thesis

Mouse on Mars

niun niggung

1999

my first electronic cd.  It's not techno, it's not ambient, it's not trance… what is it? Hehe.. Electro-post-rock.

Mouse on Mars

Idiology

Mouse on Mars

Iaora Tahiti

Mum

Finally we are No One

2002

no other way to describe than forward-thinking electro-post-rock.

Mum

Yesterday was dramatic, Today is OK

2003

Muslimgauze

jaal ab dullah

2003

a middle eastern transcendent unTechno electronic sort of music, producing a weaker effect than Boards of Canada but perhaps lying in the same camp in its own unique way.  Instead of channelling the mind through meditation, as the roots of this music was intended for, it perhaps scrambles the consciousness and is a bit schizophrenic. I like it a lot and would like to acquire much more, as I have read the musician was prolific before he died.

MV Holoscanner Exhibition

Ego Synchronicity Music

2003

AKA Matt Valentine AKA Tower Recordings.

My Bloody Valentine

Loveless

2003

Wow.  Thank you. I didn't know it could be this good.  While highly that form of shoegazer music, I'm surprised that the spacerock factor is so powerful. Meanwhile, I wish everyone would just shut up about calling them influential and just listen to the noise of everyday discord that they are channelling through this music.  It's like calling grunge music "genius".  Fuck that, it's just a style.

My Bloody Valentine

Isn't Anything

2003

My Bloody Valentine

Glider, s/t, Tremolo

2003

neu!

neu!

bonus tracks by CAN (future days)

neu!

2

This consists of only four real studio songs and the rest are early forms of the style of remixing -- the tapes played at different speeds, often played with new tracks on top of them.  Altogether it is stunning to think when this put out because there is such a gap in the music that is influenced by this (namely the late 70s and the entire 80s).  Almost all good indie bands are influenced by this.  Someone needs to make a neu! compilation of all the krautrock minimalistic tracks of theirs, because some of the other tracks are highly interesting but not jaw-dropping.  This is driving music.  Go out and get this!!!

Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

2003

part of the Elephant 6 collective of neo-psychedelic folk pop.  Love jeff mangum's voice!

Nine Inch Nails

closer to god

1995

lots of remixes of "closer" -- some incredible scary moments.  The first time I took mushrooms I fell into a hole with this music.

Nirvana

In Utero

1993

ah, the golden days of alternative music.

Nobukazu Takemura

???

One Speed Bike

droopy but begone

2002

incredible spacy hiphop by Aidan from Godspeed you black emperor!  Bonus tracks by fly pan am

OOIOO

feather float

2001

yoshimi from the boredoms.  Fucking weirdness from japanese trance-rocker. Fucking psychedelic. It totally works!

Ozomatli

s/t

2003

P.G. Six

2003

Palace Brothers

There is no one what will take care of you

2003

Pan American

The river made no sound

2002

clicks and beats and sparse sampling and guitar;  like being on a train at night.  Click click, click click, click click.  By the guy from labradford

Pan American

???

2002

clicks and beats and sparse sampling and guitar;  like being on a train at night.  Click click, click click, click click.  By the guy from labradford

Papa M

Live from A Shark Cage

2002

dave pajo from tortoise

Parlour

Octopus Off-Broadway

2002

members of Aerial M I believe; nice postrock

Paul Simon

the rhythm of the saints

1992

lest we forget..

Pavement

Brighten the Corners

2001

really good pavement album, very concise, not very slacker-rock.  The words are the best part.  It's well produced, but they go back to the indie-rock sound and don't experiment with style like they had done with "wowee zowee"

Pavement

mix of later B-Sides

2002

only available through me!  This is so dang good! They're going to have to compile these songs one day!

Pavement

Wowee Zowee

1995

they emerge from the ranks of slacker rock to critical ability.

Pavement

Slanted & Enchanted

2002

2CD reissue, with watery,domestic, bsides, and live tracks as bonus

Pavement

Terror Twilight

2003

way too poppy for my tastes. I see why they broke up; they could no longer produce a wowee zowee with their current musical interests.  I feel like they farted through this album and there is barely a bold moment.  Sad, sad.

Pearl Jam

Vitalogoy

Pearl Jam

Ten

Pearl Jam

Vs.

Pearl Jam

Yield

Pelt

For Michael Hannahs

2001

acoustic and noise creating neo-ambient trance music. Some appalachian folk thrown in the mix

Penguin Café Orchestra

???

2002

music that deserves the word "nice" -- it's more adult music, something to definitely play at a café.  My mom always say she wanted music with nice piano and instruments in it, nothing in your face.  I think this is it.

Percy Hill

Color in Bloom

1999

I used to really love jambands!

Peter Jefferies / Jono Lonie

At Swim 2 Birds

2003

Peter Tosh

Legalize It

1999

come on.  Bob marley wouldn't be cool if his words sucked.  His reggae is inferior to some of the other dudes out there

Philip Glass

Symphony # 3

2002

I love it.  This is so much easier to revisit, than Glassworks.  His repetition is sublime and there is much more density here, which makes it great.  I still feel as if he has yet to write his magnum opus, though.  I hope he continues to write stuff more like this, instead of film scores (which are still nice) and conceptual things like symphony #5.

Philip Glass

Itaipu/The Canyon

2002

More orchestral Glass that is less repetitive than his symphonies, but therefore more able to be colorful (as he often gets lost in the avant garde minimal style of his that is often powerful but too limiting from piece to piece.)

Philip Glass

Kundun

2002

soundtrack from the movie about the Dalai Lama (see it!)

Philip Glass

Koyaanisqatsi

2001

reminds me of living in Portland with Ryan Murphy et al.

Phish

Farmhouse

2000

well, yeah, it was well produced, but come on!  A terrible turn after "story of the ghost"

Phish

The Story of the Ghost

1998

reminds me of autumn and of first finding myself in a group of friends, just beginning college.  My favorite album by them (shut up all you long-time phish heads!)

Phish

Siket Disc

1999

this is what the boys were meant to do!  From the "story of the ghost" sessions, curated by page, engineered by john siket (SY's "washing machine") -- has one of my favorite songs ever on it "what's the use"… my musical description for life… tied with SY's "anagrama" for best song ever

Phish

The White Album

1999

early demo tape. Complete crap.  How did they ever get gigs with this shit?  And then miraculously they make their first album, Junta, a classic rock masterpiece.

Phish

Junta

1997

2CD; oh… yeah!!!! This album is superb!  Just like classic rock was.  Highly composed. Love the tones… some of their best stuff ever.

Physics

three disks worth of random tracks

2002

don't ask me for this stuff. GET IT FOR FREE! Jason has all his stuff online (along with live godspeed! And other goodies) on his website  www.mp3it.com -- CHECK THIS BAND OUT!! Droning spacy rock outfit that convinces me that the industrial days of society are at a close.

Pilote

Do it Now, Man

2002

beats beats beats!  Electronic, but not techno.  More like indie techno.

Pinback

Blue Screen Life

2003

Pinetop Seven

Rigging the Toplights

2000

nice cinematic moody stuff, but his voice is very irritating as he's always belting it.

Pink Floyd

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2001

well, this is interesting as psychedelic hippy music, but I don't find it too enjoyable, considering what else is out there.  I was hoping for a transcendent visionary psychedelia that only got watered down in their later years (I'm a huge critic of pink floyd by the way), on a par with the german krautrock psychedelia, but alas this is just singer-songwriting turned inside out.  Perhaps I need to listen to more Syd Barrett (I like how it's not poppy at all, however), but I don't think it's visionary.  It's unique though, so that is enough to put it on my "worth listening to" list.

Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon

2000

ehh…

Plaid

double figure

2002

electronic music. Haven't really listened to it yet, but I bet it's good

Polar Goldie Cats

???

2000

on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! Label, neo-no-wave

Polara

s/t

1996

saw them open for Garbage.  I thought they sucked but then bought the album anyway.  I now think they're great!

Polara

C'est La Vie

1997

not as good as the s/t album.

Pole

??

Popol Vuh

random mix of songs

2002

wow.  I love this band.  Hippy krautrock without the rock and roll.  The beginning of forest-loving new age music.  Do yoga to this.

Portastatic

the Nature of Sap

superchunk folksy experimental project

Portishead

s/t

2003

Prefuse 73

???

For all the acclaim this glitch techno musician is getting, I think it is horribly unimaginative.  The hiphop beats ruin it immediately (whereas I enjoy his nonhiphop stuff like Delarosa & Asora much better).

Projekct Two

Space Groove & Vector Patrol

1998

2CD King Crimson trio of spacy fusion

Rachel's

The Sea and the Bells

wow.  This album is an adventure.  Sure, it's chamber rock.  But the pretty moments are gorgeous, and the intense moments beat out all rock and roll and psychedelia.  Gotta get the actual album, the artwork and packaging and poetry is incredible.  It's a whole story about a ship that left for sea and then something went wrong. it's about two lovers being separated.

Rachel's

Handwriting

this album makes me think about the industrial revolution and the turn of the twentieth century, with railroads, the advent of flying, birth of widespread western medical practices, and the europeanization of everywhere.

Rachel's

Selenography

2000

this album reminds me of james joyce's "portrait of the artist as a young man".  It's cold nights in a stone building in Ireland.  It's sadness that you don't fit in with the rest of the boys.  This will take care of all those emotions that you were not able to express.  The only problem is that when the record is over, you will have to play it again to recreate the warmth.

Rachel's/Matmos

Full on Night

2000

remake of a song from the "handwriting" album, and matmos dissects it. (the matmos part is not very good, in my opinion)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

By the Way

2002

eh, not as good as I'd hoped it to be

Rollerball

Trail of the Butter Yeti

2001

still haven't listened to this yet.  Saving it for a good science fiction novel.

Roy Montgomery

Temple IV

2000

guitar looping work, often pretty, like stephen wray lobdell.  Supposed to be meditative.

Roy Montgomery

Allegory of Hearing

2002

more more more! Guitar loop instrumentals, nice sounds… bonus tracks from "the silver wheel of prayer"

Sanjay Mishra

Blue Incantation

2002

my best friend ryan's guitar teacher, sanjay plays this album with Jerry Garcia -- the last album Jerry recorded before he died.  Bonus tracks - zakir hussein

Savath & Savalas

Folk Songs for Trains

nice quiet glitch pretty downtempo techno.

Sebadoh

III

smoke pot to this; slacker rock at its finest

Sebadoh

Bakesale

four stars on indie rock

Sebadoh

Harmacy

not so good

Secret Chiefs 3

First Grand Constitution and Bylaws

2002

before they got into crazy production, friends of mr. Bungle, still weird middle-eastern jammy scary shit.  Fucking unique!

Secret Chiefs 3

Book M

2001

whoah, holy shit. Get this

Seefeel

Quique

2002

have not listened to yet;  they call this shoegazer music.

Sentridoh

winning losers

1999

eh… I'll stick with losing losers, although there a couple decent sentridoh songs on here.

Sentridoh

losing losers

so many songs!!! Super lo-fi, some definite awesome songs thrown in among the muck of some weird basement tape recordings.

set fire to flames

2002

godspeed you black emperor sideproject

Shrimp Boat

Cavale

went on to form sea and cake

Shuggie Otis

Inspiration Information

2002

why doesn't everybody know this guy?  Fucking soul man!

Sigur Ros

()

2003

Reminds me of Mogwai, many people would call it sad, but I think it possesses hope.  I would file it under Post-apocalyptic (with Godspeed, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Jessamine, Flying Saucer Attack)

Six Organs of Admittance

Dark Noontide

2002

second album. More of the same incredible one-man acoustic mantra folk by a white guy in the redwoods

Six Organs of Admittance

Dust & Chimes

2001

a must for all hippies.

Six Organs of Admittance

Purposeful availment ep series

2002

listen to this on the first day of spring in the bold sunshine and be happy that you are alive and the world around you lives and breathes too.

Slant 6

Inzombia

female blues punk/riot grrl, but more stripped down than the first album.  A little frivolous at times, but there are some keepers here.  Christina billote's voice is very retro

Sleater Kinney

Dig Me Out

2003

Perhaps I'll always be sentimental for the original riot grrl stuff I learned of through penpals;  one girl used to be in Heavens to Betsy, which I loved.  I don't like this stuff as much.  But it's more accessible to a wider audience.  So much for the middle-finger of punk rock.

Smashing Pumpkins

Pisces Iscariot

my only interest in these CD's is to make a compilation of their mellow songs

Smashing Pumpkins

Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness

my only interest in these CD's is to make a compilation of their mellow songs

Smashing Pumpkins

Siamese Dream

my only interest in these CD's is to make a compilation of their mellow songs

Solex

Low Kick and Hard Bop

2001

this girl mixes together sound samples to make a bopping cowgirl rock music and then sings actual songs on top of it.  I heard that very little of the accompaniment was actually played on instruments, although it sounds like it is.  I want to play this very loud out of a car while driving, but then again, i hate cars, so i guess i'll just have to listen to it in the shower instead.

Sonic Youth

Made in the USA soundtrack

2001

lots of versions of similar instrumental themes, very "rock and roll" sounding, which is odd for mid80s sonic youth.  It's quite an interesting album to hear sonic youth be very subdued and controlled, contrasted with the EVOL album.

Sonic Youth

New York City Ghosts & Flowers

2001

I followed them on tour for this album!

Sonic Youth

Daydream Nation

1996

um… doesn't this sound like smashing pumpkins?  Oh, strike that, reverse it. Sweet references to William Gibson's "neuromancer".  This album is a gem.  Sure wish they'd play "cross the breeze" and "the sprawl" live these days… or "hypernation"

Sonic Youth

Dirty

1995

gritty grungy music that shows up all that nirvana stuff.  Kim howls and moans and the guitars grind, but it's not haphazard.  It is amazing how much this album sounds like they just breezed through it, as if they can just always turn everything to gold.  but the guitar work, when scrutinized, is so nonconventional.  it's like they're tricking you into liking rock and roll when you don't even realize that it's art-punk they're playing.

Sonic Youth

A Thousand Leaves

1998

more stonerisms and hippied out smokefest from washing machine era.  The song "snare, girl" is so beautiful, I think it will be a lullaby for my kids if I ever have children.

Sonic Youth

Washing Machine

1995

one of my top five albums!  "unwind" is gorgeous, "the diamond sea" is stellar, "washing machine" makes me think of partying in new york city.  This album is incredible.  A pox on you if you don't own it.

Sonic Youth

SYR3

1998

first one with jim orourke… spacy and drawn out.  Nothing "really" happens, so I guess it's ambient!

Sonic Youth

SYR5

2000

kim gordon & ikue mori & dj olive.  The song "stuck on gum" is incredible.  A lot of this is very hard to handle, though.

Sonic Youth

SYR1

1997

top ten albums.. Best song ever (well tied with phish's "what's the use?") -- "anagrama".  Logan and I saw them play a secret show at the Cooler in NYC in 1997 when they debuted this material

Sonic Youth

EVOL

1996

scary scary; they finally become a band.  Phish should cover "Xpressway to your skull" when they play california.. Haha.

Sonic Youth

Experimenta, Jet Set, Trash, & No Star

1994

It was my biggest mistake to get this as my first album by them.  An inexplicable transition from the birth of alternagrunge (earlier work like DN and goo) to neo-hippy art-noise (washing machine)… I guess this is more garage lo-fi stuff… but it defies a category.  it's very hard to listen for a 13 year old though.

Sonic Youth

Sister

2000

thank you for introducing me to philip k dick!

Sonic Youth

SYR5; Goodbye Twentieth Century

1999

2CD; Interpretations of modern "classical" scores like John Cage and Cornelius Cardew.  This music was a puzzle for me, but shows that SY are continuing to push the boundaries of music.  I think they opened up this genre for a lot of people.  Others may just listen to the album and call it noise, but those folks were never sonic youth fans to begin with.

Sonic Youth

Murray Street

2002

The Classic Rock album they never made!!  Put it alongside the doors and the stones and zeppelin and you might never notice!!

Sonic Youth

random mix of songs

2002

bsides and outtakes and rarities.  I love their cover of the carpenters' "superstar"

Sonic Youth

bad moon rising

1999

second album.  Start to get less hardcore punk, but still have an element of it.  The spookiness begins though.  Inspired a lot by the manson murders.

Sonic Youth / Ciccone Youth

The White Album

1996

awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Very krautrock oriented.  Alternative beatboxing in 1987 (I think).  They did this genre so well that they could have influenced a whole nation.  For fans of the beastie boys' rhythmic sounds.  A few humorous pop derangements too.  This album is what makes Sonic Youth seem to be geniuses.  It really will bring to light their other work.

Sonna

random mix of songs

2002

I listened to this all weekend when I found out my grandmother passed away.  I couldn't be able to fly home for the funeral, and this music was very comforting.  It seems to say "there is something warm that will love you, you just have not found it yet"  it's out there waiting.

spatula

under the veil of health

2001

went on to form idyll swords (so much better!)

Spatula

???

2001

went on to do Idyll Swords, which is an incredible band!

Spinanes

Strand

elliott smith guest vocals

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Stephen Malkmus

2001

ex-Pavement.  Not as good as pavement.

Stephen Wray Lobdell

Automatic Writing By the Moon

2001

fucking incredible. Guitar loops, dreamy beautiful stuff, perfect for full moon hikes.

Stereolab

Mars Audiac Quintet

2001

Their first album to strongly include their French pop influence.  However, the songs have krautrock spacy rhythmic influences too.  I guess some of it is definitely space pop.  The lyrics are wonderful on this album too.

Stereolab

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

2001

I think this is a superb album.  It's almost a cleaner continuation of Mars Audiac Quintet.  There are a couple punkier songs that I wish they'd left out, but all in all it's stupendous.  The lyrics give me shivers sometimes (critiquing modern industrial capitalist society.)

Stereolab

Sound-dust

2001

my favorite album by them -- reminds me of Portland.  Half produced by jim orourke and half by john mcentire.

Stereolab

First of the Microbe Hunters

2000

awesome ep for their joint tour with Sonic Youth

Stereolab

Transient Random Noisebursts with Announcements

2001

back in their neo-krautrock days.  First major label album but you'd never know! Long jammed out psych songs… mesmerizing.

Stereolab

refried ectoplasm

2002

switched on volume 2, transient random noisebursts.. era compliation of bsides

Stereolab

…and the Groop played Space age bachelor pad music

2001

not their best stuff, but it's not terrible.  An ep. Half mellow and half dancy

Stereolab

Dots and Loops

Stereolab

Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night

Everyone gave this album a horrible review, and although it's no Dots & Loops, I think the complexity of the arrangements are fabulous.  Stereolab achieve ear-candy status.

Stereolab

Aluminum Tunes 2CD

Finally acquired a CD version of my first Stereolab album (though I miss the beautiful vinyl version I used to listen to!) A diverse collection of their Emperor Tomato Ketchup era music. (cleaned up spacy poppy krautrock, awesome lyrics!)

String Cheese Incident

A string cheese Incident

1999

well they are great live, but I don't think I'd put them up there with the Grateful Dead, like a lot of people do.

Subarachnoid Space

Almost Invisible

2002

yummy.  Scary loud rumbling hard rocking psychedelia, like the acid heads probably prefer.  They could pass as a jamband if they only weren't so scary.  So instead I welcome them into the drone rock community.  My big complaint is that the album flies by because it is just straight improvisational jamming it seems.  I'd like to see them whip up some wonderful compositions, but perhaps that's for other bands.

Sugar

File Under Easy Listening

1996

bob mould from husker du

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Piff Click's

2003

splendid.  Live, collective twittering psyched unravellings of the world.  Like Vibracathedral Orchestra, one of my new favorites. Recommended by MV of Tower Recordings

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Jaybird

2003

The dancier version of them that makes their live show such a fun neo-hippy experience.  One day they will distill this all into a studio album but until then I'm satisfied with the CDRs that are essentially live experiences.  Watch this collective.

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Mind of a Brother

2003

Most of this is the loose, free jamming version, with an occasional piece that rocks out.  It's like a mind reeling with the tape spinning loose, endlessly searching for something to hold on to.  It's so much more fractured than ambient noise like Sunroof! and Windy & Carl but it certainly makes the grade.  Sleep to it, write to it, eat to it, just don't expect to sit and listen to it.

Sunny Day Real Estate

LP2

more concise, less emotional, more produced, shorter, but altogether a great album.  Gives me shivers.

Sunny Day Real Estate

diary

I can't believe they are one of the forefathers of emo-rock.  I remember getting this when it came out and falling in love (too bad I stopped at this band and never got any other emo music).  Jeremy's solo album, of course is the best, but this epic album is perfect for being angry at your sociologies.

Sunroof!

Delicate Autobahn now under Construction

2001

2CD: guitar noisy jammed ambient trance.  Listen to it while sleeping

Sunshine Fix

???

2002

so fucking good.  For fans of the beatles, only it's contemporary indie-rock! Elephant-6 collective

Super Furry Animals

Rings Around the World

2002

2 CD; Wonderful, wonderful britpop that is obsessed with brian wilson type of production.  It is said that paul mccartney chews a carrot on this album.  It is one of those pop gems that grows and grows on you.

Superchunk

On the Mouth

punkier stuff but still not as good as "no pocky for kitty"

Superchunk

Incidental Music

1995

second bside compilation;  has some great moments, and some weak ones, of course.

Superchunk

Here's Where the Strings Come In

1996

superchunk starts to get poppy.  The songs are less angst driven, and that normally would be a good thing, but mac's whiny voice just doesn't do well with regular singing.

Surface of Eceon

The King Beneath the Mountains

2003

Surface of Eceyon

Tussyan Ruins

2003

Purposeful Availment ep - magnificent scattered refractory shimmers of guitar postrock the culminates in dream cycles but perhaps begins with rock and roll.  Picture a magical mogwai, more enchanting than foreboding.  This band has members of Yume Bitsu and Landing.

Surface of Eceyon

Dragyyn

2003

Swans

World of Skin

2002

like when you cross soulful jazz singing with blues and goth.  I don't know much about Goth music, and this takes some time getting used to.  Personally I prefer M.Gira's newer work which is, while still downright depressing, a little more lighthearted.  I don't like contemplating death so much.