amy ray- didn’t it feel kinder. if it weren’t for the indigo girls, i’d be still be in boston playing bass in a hair metal cover band and headlining places called “beer goggles” for tips. when they released their self titled record, it changed me. i dived completely into the acoustic guitar. and writing songs i loved emily’s songs, but i really SAW myself in amy ray. she had my kind of fire and i wanted to BE her. in the ‘closer to fine’ video, with her bangs over her eyes and her black martin slung all low… she just looked so COOL! amy has had a few solo records, but this is the first one that really connected with me. not sure what it is about it… there’s just this great sparse, indie, punk/folk simplicity to it. and her lyrics are SO straight up. they’re rooted in protest. her honesty actually makes ME self conscious, but i think that’s how it’s supposed to be. some music is meant to soothe you. and some is meant to rattle your cage. amy is a rattler. she demands to be heard. it’s in her words. in her voice. god, what a VOICE!. worn and powerful and threaded through with a sadness that just cuts you in half.

Listen to the album on Spotify

def leppard- high ‘n’ dry.

to me, the first 4 def leppard records are untouchable. a perfect arc of a band finding themselves… growing, stretching and then just ruling the earth. high and dry is so good. listening to it now, it has SO MUCH energy. it never lets up. and there’s a perfect balance of snotty, punky fuck off attitude and music fan optimism.

listening to this takes me back to being a kid in lexington and having this record CONSTANTLY going. air guitar-ing to it in my room. i used to cut pictures of them out of circus and hit parader and tape them to my walls. my buddy nick and i even made our own union jack t-shirts to wear. when i get down on pop music, i realize how hugely important it was to me as a kid. how records like this shaped my DNA. i feel it now listening to this. it’s in my bones.

american music club- mercury.

when i first moved to san francisco, artists like red house painters, richard buckner and american music club RULED the scene. their music was moody and told these slow, beautiful, stories about totally whacked out characters.

this record paints a SERIOUS picture. whenever i put it on, i think of this city. the hills, the fog, the neighborhood bars, taquerias. it’s cold weather music. telling stories music. old, literate, bohemian, tough as nails music. the singer, mark eitzel, lives in my neighborhood, which is kinda rad. to me, his songs are like raymond carver stories sung against this slow moving, glorious, sad, VERY san francisco musical landscape… epic.

dr. dog- shame, shame.

i know very little about this band, and i kinda dig that. i know they’re from philly. i know they have two singers. and i know that this record is BAD ASS! it kinda sounds like if the flaming lips & the band had a baby. and it makes me feel like music has potential again… like it’s not all spectacle over substance. that people playing in a room, colliding off great songs & each other, is enough… and that’s all i’ve ever wanted.

“the neon lights on baltimore. every shadow’s getting famous. in some backyard, in some plastic chair. hoping these cigarettes will save us.” -DD

bob dylan- oh mercy.

this has got some of my favorite dylan songs on it.. and it’s from 1989!
lanois’ production just oozes groovy, new orleans darkness & soul. this record is myth, craft, groove, lyrics… ALL the stuff that matters.

“Most of the time
My head is on straight
Most of the time
I’m strong enough not to hate
I don’t build up illusion ’til it makes me sick
I ain’t afraid of confusion no matter how thick
I can smile in the face of mankind
Don’t even remember what her lips felt like on mine
Most of the time”- BD.

ugh. PERFECTION!!

neil young w/crazy horse- everybody knows this is nowhere. (VINYL)

i mean.. i’m speechless. this record is KILLING me right now. cold, dark, foggy san francisco morning. at my desk in my music room looking out on my backyard being killed. NEIL! ugh! amazing.

the hooters- one way home.

i love this record. LOVE it. i think it just hit me at a crucial time as a kid. it didn’t really have any hits on it, not like ‘nervous night,’ but i remember hearing ‘johnny b’ on the radio in new hampshire the summer it came out and thinking it sounded alien. such a weird choice for a first single.

the hooters are a great band. rob & eric, when firing on all cylinders, are a force to be reckoned with. rob went on to write ‘time after time’ with cyndi lauper and eric wrote ‘one of us’ for joan osborne, as well as co-writing ‘suspended’ with yours truly. he also produced my version of ‘laid.’

grateful dead- american beauty. (VINYL)

i went to boarding school in new england from 5th-12th grade and if that doesn’t make you hate the grateful dead, i don’t know what will. but on this last tour, shiben and konrad sung the praises of a few key dead albums and i, being endlessly nerdy about anything i might be missing musically, bought this. giving it a spin now… so far so good.

it’s funny how much i KNOW about the grateful dead without ever having owned one of their records. some of these are incredibly written songs. ‘friend of the devil,’ ‘sugar magnolia,’ ‘truckin”….

the kinks- state of confusion. (VINYL)

i got this at used kids records (INCREDIBLE store!) in columbus, ohio in the fall.
i’m amazed how much of it i remember from listening as a kid…
i think my brother had it back then.
‘come dancing’ is such a perfect song. it kills me.
that video was on MTV every 10 minutes. it felt exotic because it was shot in england,
and there were row houses (we didn’t have row houses in lexington, MA, for sure).

the kinks are one of those bands i kind of missed. i mean, i know their hits,
but they have SO many amazing albums. i’m slowly amassing them all.

the beatles- abbey road.