20 Fave Albums as of now....No... now! Wait.....

[El Vez]

- Howlin' Wind, Graham Parker

My introduction to The Parkerilla. I was bowled over within fifteen seconds of White Honey and I think that GP is one of the best and most consistently underrated singers of his generation to say nothing of his whip smart songwriting. Listening to Back To Schooldays makes me want to dance and Don't Ask Me Questions makes me want to tell the whole wide world to fuck right off.

- Life'll Kill Ya, Warren Zevon

For me, this is the great man's testament. Porcelain Monkey, For My Next Trick I'll Need A Volunteer, Don't Let Us Get Sick and Fistful of Rain have more wit and insight than the average singer/songwriter could ever dream of conveying in a lifetime of song. I Was In The House When The House Burned Down is on my shortlist of best songs written during my lifetime. In a fair and just world, this would have sold about eighteen million copies by now.

- Crossing Muddy Waters, John Hiatt

"The drummer blew up" went the ad for CMW but, thankfully, Davey Faragher came through unscathed. An aching set of painful, beautifully observed slices of autobiography such as the title track and Mr. Stanley that sit comfortably alongside toe tappin' hootenannies like Gone and Lift Up Every Stone.

"Tobacco standin' in the fields
Be rotten come November
And a bitter heart will not reveal
A spring that love remembers"

It don't get any better than that.

- Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips

It's hard for me to listen to this now because it reminds me of one of the loneliest and unhappiest periods of my life but it's also a big part of what got me through it. Whenever I hear Do You Realize, I remember walking through the snow in Korea, ignoring the hectoring street vendors selling teriyaki chicken kabobs, watching bizarre reality shows on the subway train and counting how many arcades they could cram onto a single city block.

- That Nigger's Crazy, Richard Pryor

His best comedy album which is saying quite a lot. "Have Your Ass Home By Eleven" was one of the first bits from any comedian that I could relate to in my own life. Particularly the part where his curfew happens to be the exact time that his friends are going to do anything interesting. The way he takes a routine about Martians landing in the ghetto and transforms it into a bitter, insightful and piss-your-pants funny scene out of a fried John Sayles movie is proof positive that the man was a fucking genius.

- Born In The U.S.A. , Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

I go through phases where I love Bruce and then there are times where he strikes me as painfully mannered and just a watered down version of all these different artists that I love. But this one is perfect. Always has been and always will be. It's amazing how so many people could misinterpret a song just because the guys belts out "I was born in the U.S.A" a bunch or the double-edged sword that is its album cover. Downbound Train hit me like a shot when I first heard it and it still gives me goose bumps to this day. I'm On Fire and My Hometown break the heart and with Glory Days I love how he snuck some pretty dark sentiments into what, on the surface, plays like one of those cloying "Workin' people in small towns are inherently more honest and decent than city folk" pitches that Toby Keith likes to throw out rather frequently these days. For better and for worse, this is the quintessential eighties' record.

- Time (The Revelator), Gillian Welch

To the suprise of no one, this makes my gotta, gotta, gotta have list. No other album has ever cast a spell over me quite like this one and I don't think I'll find one that ever will. It has a slow, almost narcotic pace but there's this gripping tension in every line and chord that hooks you into its sprawling mythology. It's a lullaby but one with a switchblade to it and, as of this exact moment, its my favorite record of all time.

- The Chronic, Dr. Dre

I cannot overstate how this record was like dropping a nuclear bomb on the consciousness of every middle class white boy in America. Just a little too young for Run DMC and N.W.A., Dr. Dre's solo megablockbuster was my diving off point for getting into music made by black artists who were NOT cashing Berry Gordy's checks. I spent a whole summer over at my best friend's house watching Yo MTV Raps! which, in 1992, could just has easily have been called "Yo, We're Playing 'Nuthin' But A G Thang' all day every motherfuckin' day." Some might balk at this, but I think that The Chronic and Snoop's Doggystyle were, in their own way, one generation's version of all those Beach Boys songs about cars and surfing. No disreputable party was complete without this album blaring at two thirty in the morning.

- Harvest Moon, Neil Young

I'm an eternal sucker for Neil's Gentle Ben acoustic side and I think this is his best showcase as a mellow folkie. The title track may be overplayed at this point but it's still a gorgeous song as are Unknown Legend, War of Man and, quite possibly my fave Neil Young song ever, One of These Days.

- In Spite of Ourselves, John Prine & The Lilting Ladies of Gingham & Bonded Bourbon

Maybe Mood will back me up on this and maybe she'll smack me around and call me Suzy but this is Prime Prine for me. I love the way his voice fits all those old country songs like Back Street Affair and Milwaukee Here I Come and it says a lot about how well respected the man is among his peers that he could get the likes of Emmylou, Iris DeMent, Lucinda and Patty Loveless to join him on this unbeatable record of meetin', cheatin' and retreatin' songs.


- Roll With The News, Chris Rock

Rock's Bring The Pain standup special was his Sgt. Pepper moment and this comedy album showcases the best known material from that gig as well as some genuinely funny sketches that hold up after the first fifty listens which is something of a minor miracle in and of itself. The "Tossed Salad Man" still makes me laugh uncontrollably.

- John Wesley Harding, Bob Dylan

An unbelievable batch of songs. I've been listening to this record for thirteen years and it has not any of its mystery or brilliance in all that time and I don't think it ever will.

- Mule Variations, Tom Waits

Alongside Mermaid Avenue, Time Out of Mind, Odelay and OK Computer, I think that Mule Variations will go down as one my generation's defining records. A lot of Waits fans who have been around longer carp on this one as being sort of a "Tom Waits Presents His Greatest Hits" grab bag but since I had the luxury of being four years old when Rain Dogs was unleashed, it was a fresh discovery for me. There have never been two prettier or sadder songs than Picture In A Frame or House Where Nobody Lives and What's He Building? has long been a mix tape essential for me when I want to get someone into Tom Waits.

- Labour of Lust, Nick Lowe

All that is good and right about pop music. Pretty much all I have to say about that.

- More A Legend Than A Band, The Flatlanders

Great, ethereal country album from three wonderful mavericks. There has never been anything quite it like before or since that combined the primal energy and weirdness of old country music with the psychological depth of the singer/songwriter generation.

- Couples In Trouble, Robbie Fulks

After Gillian Welch, Fulks gets my vote as the coolest musician to hit the stage in my lifetime. A startling, all over the place record that showcases an amazing songwriter at the top of his game whether it's the Phil Spector-ish (in his prime, not so much the current version) flourishes during Anything For Love, the gritty noir of Real Money or Brenda's New Stepfather, the best Randy Newman song not written by Randy Newman.

- The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen

Music to do copious amounts of drugs and be completely alone to! Maybe having this as a desert island disc is a bad call because it's so depressing that there should be a prescription for happy pills that comes free with purchase. The Master Song is still the scariest thing I have ever heard in my entire life.

American Recordings II: Unchained, Johnny Cash

I love all of the Cash/Rubin AR records but this one gets the big brass ring. I can see why Petty thinks it's the best thing that he and The Hearbreakers have ever done even if it is in a supporting role. Cash's vocal on Spiritual is spine tingling and I love how he gooses both June Carter's Kneeling Drunkard's Plea and Soundgarden's Rusty Cage to such life that you can't help but see how it all flows from the same river.

- If I Could Only Fly, Merle Haggard

The record that got me into Hag in the first place. The front cover sticker featured glowing blurbs from Waits and Costello which aroused my interest enough to put aside how much I truly hated Okie From Muskogee and saw the man as a washed up old wingnut. From the opening verse of Wishing All These Old Things Were New where Haggard sings "Watching while some old friends do a line/Holdin' back the want to end my own addicted mind" I realized that I had been ignoring his genius at my own peril.

- Wrecking Ball, Emmylou Harris

When I grow up, I want to be Emmylou Harris. Which would explain why I was carried out of TransAmerica in a cold sweat.

[guidedbyvoices]

I know people who love the Flaming Lips and people who hate them, and people who only love their weird early shit, and those like me who could care less about the weird shit and love Soft Bulletin & Yoshimi.

I had an experiece with Do You Realize too. It's amazing how an album about robots can have something move you that deeply. Simple song, but hits home.

[mood swung]

I was gonna smack you and call you Suzy because the first time I read this there was NO Prine.

[El Vez]

Did you not see the "To be continued" disclaimer or were you too busy making out with Todd Snider?

[mood swung]

I don't believe those are mutually exclusive.

But, no comment.

[El Vez]

Did you show him your East Nashville Skyline?

[mood swung]

Maybe he showed me his. Again, no comment.

I was surprised however, that JP was NOT in your first volley of bests.

[El Vez]

I just wanted to throw a curveball because I know I have a rep as the "I will like no album that is not a country album" guy.