Sly And The Family Stone -- Life

  Wow Life is a total underrated classic.  This albums is a brilliant mix of psychedelic soul'd cosmic doo wop that can only be done by Sly And The Family Stone.

Monomyth -- Happy Pop Family

  Man I really love Monomyth's Happy Pop Family, it's got Meat Puppets style guitar noodling, with a Mac DeMarco slacker vibe, and power pop precision of the Teenage Fanclub, all the while keeping in their 90's indie punk Canadiana sound ... seems super fitting that I got it on cassette too!

Odetta -- My Eyes Have Seen

  Folk belter Odetta teaches you everything you need to know about life from prison songs, Irish tales, traditionals, and nursery rhymes, all perfectly executed in her uniquely dissident style.

Drugdealer -- The End Of Comedy

  The End Of Comedy is the best fuckan record I have heard in a long time.  It's a 70's style pastiche of John Lennon, Syd Barrett, Carol King and Todd Rundgren, featuring a slew of indie rock luminary players and let's face it we all need a little Drugdealer from time to time!

Foxygen -- We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic

  A symbiance of Loaded era Velvets with indie pop cuteness of Stereolab, don't be fooled by the terrible band name, which I have to admit threw me off until I recently rediscovered this awesome album! 

New York Dolls -- Too Much Too Soon

  This sophomore release in parts has some of my favourite New York Dolls moments but in the same breath I can't get past the Rocky Horror sounding cheeseball numbers that make the record almost unberable ... looks like it really was Too Much Too Soon!

Miles Davis -- Greatest Hits

  Summing up Miles Davis' career in eight tracks is a hard pill to swallow, the record is so all over the place, it's like a train wreck, an airplane crash plus an alien attack and a car wreck all in the same place, confusing but estounding!

The Soft Machine -- Third

  I almost half expected to hate this album, I had never heard it before, just read about it, but oh man this symbiotic love child of Miles Davis and Frank Zappa is a tour de force, definitely not a record for squirlly beginners.

Vashti Bunyan -- Just Another Diamond Day

   I am so in love with Vashti Bunyan, she's like the ultimate hipster, travelling the Irish countryside on a horse and buggy with her dog singing sweet lullaby-esque folk tunes, sounding like a undrepressing Nico.

Thee Oh Sees -- A Weird Exits

  Hands down their finest release, a killer mixture of their traditional garage sound and Dwyer's Eno-esque side project Damadged Bug, making this a super nova of the modern psych rock scene!  My only mega beef is the total fucking rip off 45 rpm double album format that has only three sides ... a complete discredit to the record buying public!!

Sam Cooke -- Night Beat

  This soulfully melancholic gospelesquely bluesy record is considered a concept album, not in words, but in sound.  So damn perfect for after a shit day at work or getting your heart ripped out, cause at least Sam is always there to help you relax and ease into the Night Beat.

John Cale -- Paris 1919

  Paris 1919 is an interesting mix of glammy Eno and baroque Elton John, not at all what you would expect from Cale although he rarely does what's expected.  This soft 70's AM style record is an underrated classic of the time ...

The Jesus And Mary Chain -- Honey's Dead

  Man you just have to love The Jesus And Mary Chain's juxtaposing mix of dark goth undertones with sweet lush vocals and pop sensibilities, hardly any groups could pull  such a thing off and Honey's Dead is that in spades!

The PrettyThings -- S.F. Sorrow

  The Pretty Things really came together once they finally dropped their poor man's Stones shtick, which was great, but S.F. Sorrow showed a range of creativity that sits between Something Else by The Kinks and The Who's Tommy, which Townsend refuses to admit that Sorrow was a direct inspiration, despite the many similarities.  Although like Oddesy And Oracle this album was a year too late and missed the boat for mass appeal, but never too late to become a timeless classic.

Hayden -- Everything I Long For

  Why in the fuck do people revere this terrible singer?  I'd hear, what I used to think were, cool people talk about this guy like he was  kind of trailblazing lo fi indie legend, and I always wondered why I had never listened to this, now I totally see why, it's crappy jock rock that's up there with the likes of Pearl Jam and Blind Melon.  I was so ashamed to have this in my collection I had to hide it in case a friend were to come over and judge me for having spent good money on such a monumental whiny piece of shit.  

The Beatles

  I have to admit that my not so white album is probably my least favorite Beatles release, mostly due to the uncohesive nature of the song variety, it sounds more like a sporadic singles collection, rather than their usual album oriented efforts despite whatever internal strife ... definitely the mark of the beginning of the end.

The Meat Puppets -- II

  What happens when a punk band take themselves seriously and embrace their lazy 70's classic rock side, this seminal album that birthed alternative, indie and grunge music ... let alone a countless slew of other sub-genres.  

Charles Mingus -- The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

    Written like a tumultuously interpretive dance soundtrack which unfolds as you listen to this jazz masterwork.  It's sound is set in a city scape, like desolate untold stories that have deep merit, struggle and feeling.

Todd Rundgren -- Something/ Anything

  70's AM pop masterpiece, Rundgren hits every facet of the genre on his double LP, you've got from Carol King to Genesis to Zeppelin within a few moves.  This album perfectly emulates a time capsule for that era!

Doris Duke -- I'm A Loser

  Doris Duke's heartfelt, innovative and tortured deep soul album.  Each track describes the pangs of femininities love and loss ... joke is all the tracks were written by men, but without Duke's strong and fragile voice the songs would not have taken any life.

Mac DeMarco -- 2

  Man when I first got into Mac DeMarco I had this curmudgeon indie snob opinion about his music but now that I get more and more into it, I love it!!  He's like the voice of the millennial generation, a 90's slacker hybrid for the new era!!

Johnny De Courcy -- The Master Manipulator EP

  A groove laden indie modern day glam-y new wave-ish EP mixed with 60's French pop vibes, filled with saxophones, psychedelia, organ, strings, piano and tears.  I saw this guy play live with his band and he was a virtual tour de force!

https://johnnydecourcy.bandcamp.com

BEST FIEND

  An awesome surfy throwback to 80's punk with a modern twist, a sorta Jon Spencer meets The Gun Club, meaning it's loud, wild and drenched in Rock'n'Roll, I can't help but remember trading a smoke for a swig from the singer's flask of rum as he mowed out his manifesto about rockness and booze!!

https://bestfiends.bandcamp.com

Walrus -- Goodbye Something

   Walrus the band that I've seen more times than I could count on two hands and a couple toes.  There's a kind of Ty Segall 60's indie psych pop feel with an east coast punkish Eric's Trip style that has Slint-y math rock time changes but with a rhythmic pulse, it's a tall fuckin' order, but these guys pull it off in spades.  As a true believer in Walrus just you wait 'til you see their live set to get into the powerful essence of their sound, this EP is good medicine when you're in withdrawals!

 https://walrustheband.bandcamp.com

Red Red Meat -- Jimmywine Majestic

   Pretty much sounds like an album of Jason Lowenstein songs while he was in Sebadoh.

Royal Trux -- Cats And Dogs

  This album was done a decade before the grungy blues duo was ever a thing, but with a less dateable sound and more junkie weirdness.

Broadcast -- Haha Sound

  A mix of Stereolab meets Ladytron, there's really no other way to put it.

The Deviants -- PTOOFF!

  Just imagine if Syd Barrett, while he was in Pink Floyd, was more of a beatnik'd, hard edged 60's punker, 'cause that's what you have here ... funny enough the band, save for the singer, went on to form the Pink Fairies. 

Flower Travellin' Band -- Satori

  What if the first two Sabbath albums had a freeform rhythmic pulse, rather than a sludge through molasses, you'd have the Flower Travellin' Band's Satori!

The Red Crayola -- The Parable Of Arable Land

  The Red Crayola are the Sonic Youth of the 60's, these guys preempted noise, punk and indie rock with one fatal swoop ... kinda fuckin' amazing, if you ask me!

Pink Floyd -- Obscured By Clouds

  Maybe not the type of music that a typical Floyd fan will be looking for, but for everyone else, Obscured By Clouds is like a long lost Hawkwind album!

Eric's Trip -- Purple Blue

  Purple Blue is the perfect stoner indie punk, but somehow it looks and sounds like an Elevator album, Rick's next project, so it has foreshadowing too!

Lou Reed -- New York

  The album New York is Lou Reed doing what he does best, low down street inspired city rock 'n' roll, but it's got a Velvet Undergroud influenced dad rock feel to it.

Leonard Cohen -- Death Of A Ladies' Man

  Death Of A Ladies' Man has that 50's inspired giant 70's rock band style that Phil Spector experimented with John Lennon, but instead it's Leonard Cohen singing ... so weird and hilariously enough they mention, in the liner notes, where they got their liquor and pizza from!

Wire -- Chairs Missing

  Art punk before such a term ever existed, these guys were like the British Pere Ubu, so far ahead of the curve, it took years for people to know what to make of it.

Dinosaur Jr. -- Bug

  Known to be as the last record of the original Dinosaur Jr. line up, but J had totally taken over the band by then, there wasn't much room for any other input except Barlow's idiotic screaming on Don't,  it's obviously still an awesome record -- deh!!!

Randy Newman -- Little Criminals

  Little Criminals is a pastiche of the Newman sound (rock, cabaret, country, orchestra ... You get it) in his classic bitterly naive ditties that makes his music so unique.

Stevie Wonder --Where I'm Coming From

  A weird mix of classic Motown, new Stevie and baroque pop, it's like Wonder wasn't sure which direction to go in, you can almost hear the growing pain of sonic confusion, but nevertheless a great record.

The Youngbloods -- Elephant Mountain

  This underrated jazzy folk rock album is drenched in that hopeful hippiedom that may have been dated at the time of its release, but it's a good record, my question is, what is with the whack cover?  And what looks like a steaming pile of poo in the foreground?

Syd Barrett -- Barrett

  Barrett's final record is way more accessibility interesting than his The Madcap Laughs uneven schizophrenic ramblings or the overtly British Floydian space jams ... what you've got here is 70's proto-indie rock.  And it's cute that Gilmour was so involved in Syd's solo career, like he was responsible for his friend because he had replaced him in his band.

Hawkwind -- Hall Of The Mountain Grill

  Hall Of The Mointain Grill is the rock 'n' roll equivalent of a Ralph Bashski cartoon!  And I mean that in the most complimentary way, just think of a mix of Barrett's Pink Floyd meets Black Sabbath.

Elliott Smith --Figure 8

  Figure 8 is Smith at the height of his Beatles-esque gloom pop phase, like there was a glimmer of hope in his depression, unfortunately it wasn't true ...

Gabor Szabo -- His Great Hits

  What you have here is a strange plethora ranging from completely brilliant jazz guitar, to groovy kitch Muzak and terrible ridiculousness.  This double lp definitely spans Szabo's diversity and sometimes not in the best ways, but nevertheless he's a great talent and worth knowing.

The Flaming Lips -- The Terror

  Dark, atmopheric psychedelic indie synth ... man, it's really unbelievable that a band that has been around so long can pump out an album that is relevant and good!

Johnny Cash -- American Recordings

  Man, why can't every aging rock star do like Cash, making back to basics relevant music?  His voice is so poignantly real, that this album is up there with the best he's ever done, mostly thanks to Rick Rubin who encouraged him to do this project with only his guitar. 

The War On Drugs -- Lost In The Dream

  This Springsteen'd tempo'd mixed with the flowing jamminess of The Cure's Disintergration is just where I like indie music to be going ... nice and mellow classic!

Leo Kottke -- 6- And 12- String Guitar

  Holy fuck ... this super weird neo-traditionalist instrumental album made by guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke, claiming to be a hundred year old cowboy, is so damn interesting it's a must hear for any music lover!

Sonic Youth -- Murray Street

  This is what I'd consider an adult period Sonic Youth album, it's an exploration of the softer, post-rock, side of their sound, which may not have the song quality of their boisterous classics, but is way more accessible on a Sunday morning while making breakfast.

The Tallest Man On Earth -- Dark Bird Is Home

  Don't get me wrong, this guy is very talented, but I find this 2000's style folk music mega dated, and is probably loved by jockhemian jokers with beards and manbuns!

Grateful Dead -- Live Dead

  Live is a great example of the Dead's jam power, but Dark Star shows their playful jazzy brilliance!