Neil Young -- On The Beach

  Holy frig!!  Christmas miracles are real ... there I was at my local record store picking up Neil Young's Zuma and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, the owner and I start talking, I mention how On The Beach is my most sought out album, and going on about how it's probably going to cost me fifty bux on ebay, lo and behold he pulls it out and gives it to me for free, tells me it's got a couple pops but plays ok ... needless to say I got drunk in front of the turntable like a sacrificial lamb, listening to my sacred totem!!

Eno -- Another Green World

  You get the sense that this ambient rock music is actually from "Another Green World" much like our own from a far off galaxy.  At first I was hesitant to like this classic, but it sucked me into its outwordly envelope and I ended up loving it.

The Mighty Upsetter -- Kung Fu Meets The Dragon

  A classic in the Lee 'Scratch' Perry, OCD riddled, cult film obsessed, dub reggae style.  Perry's Jamaican space-psych pre-trip hop music is pure mad scientist genius in technique, form and sound, recorded in his studio/ dub-experiment lab, Black Ark studios, which he cheaply built in his back yard to gain more control and isolation, and eventually burned down in a fit of paranoia due to 'unclean spirits' ... I suspect that the super ape had escaped and was totally pissed!

The Dave Brubeck Quartet -- Time Out

  I may not, yet, be a jazz aficionado, and don't get me wrong Time Out is a great album, but I somehow find it has a white naïveté sound to it.

J Mascis -- Tied To A Star

  The album I always wanted to hear from J Mascis, striped down and flailing away from the Dinosaur Jr. Marshall stacked power rock, instead it's a neo-folk-psych-gazer record reminiscent of Led Zepplin III.  I'm so glad my local dude was playing this in-store when I had some money to burn!

Ty Segall -- Goodbye Bread

  I wrote off Segall way too soon, Goodbye Bread is a brilliant Indie-psych masterpeice.  Funny thing is when I picked this up, the owner's buddy was manning the store with his all too friendly sticky dog, while I'm getting an album that is rittled with pooch pictures, coincidence, I don't believe in them, just another mini-epic moment of the fateadlyesque hobby of collecting.

The Stooges

  Super stoned, raw and primitive, The Stooges, John Cale produced, opening album was and is an instant classic.  I had no idea how tough these guys actually were until I read Please Kill Me ... squatting in a house at war with bikers over heroin, they meant and were every sound they made, the real deal all the way ... f*ck you!