Over at Irregular Orbit, Mike has asked for visitors to submit their top 11 desert island discs. Here’s mine (in no particular order):
1. Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits: Sweet and sour. Unique instrumentation. I remember walking into the old Listening Booth record shop in the Richland Mall and hearing “Underground” over the store’s stereo system. I thought it was possibly the Residents? Why on earth is the Listening Booth playing the Residents? The clerk told me it was the new Tom Waits album. I bought it on cassette.
2. English Settlement - XTC: Some consider this to be thee XTC album—I’d be one of them.
3. XO - Elliott Smith: Some beautiful music—it’s sad that we won’t hear more. Turns out that the Elliott’s old band Heatmiser opened for the Milkmen way back when at the Caberet Metro in Chicago.
4. Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins: It’s rare that I like a CD from start to finish—this happens to be one of them.
5. Ballads - Dexter Gordon: I love the cover photo too.
6. Let It Be - The Replacements: A time traveling disc for me. This takes me back to West Philly in the mid-eighties.
7. Double Nickels On The Dime - Minute Men: Not bad for a couple of corn dogs from Pedro.
8. Love Songs - Jean Paul Sartre Experience: A kiwi classic. Great songs for both sunny and rainy days. You’ll have to find Love Songs used now, but this reissue has some of the same material on it.
9. Bach: Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites - Yo-Yo Ma: For lazy Sunday mornings while drinking coffee and reading the NYTimes (dead tree edition).
10. Better Can’t Make Your Life Better - The Lilys: Not a dud song in the bunch here.
11. My Aim Is True - Elvis Costello: Contains one of my top 10 songs of all time—”Watching the Detectives”. This one takes me back to my early punk and new-wave days.
