Just a friggin' Great Blue Note Session from the early Sixties. Perfect in so many ways. Wayne and Coltranes Quartet (featuring Reggie Workman, who I prefer to Jimmie Garrison, Yeah I said It!)
Gastr Del Sol "Camoufleur"
This record was so important to me on so many levels. It managed to alienate me from many of my "Rockist" pals considerably (It made me want to figure out serene and strange, vs. loud and angular). Grubbs and O'Rouke were a great combo... I always defined it as "Gallery Pop".
Best Bowie Record Ezra.
Another Wig Flipper. I can remember thinking to myself after the umpteenth time listening to this record, 'this is what I would show an alien, if he landed in my room here and wanted to know what music was". This because there are moments on this that I still feel reflect the pure interactivity of musicians and passion... thanks in no small part to Flora Purim's vocals. This was another alienating record, drawing a line between my friends and me, when I gave a vote of "no confidence" to their fav "Romantic Warrior".
In my humble ole opinion, the most effective Miles Electric record. Before things got too funky (which I also adore, but the restraint and subtlety shown here is a virtue lacking in the world today).
The Band "Music From Big Pink"
Flipping shit as recently as the last few years... After years of Post-rock-post-punk-post-yer-mom bands I was in and around, it was this record that made me yearn, more than ever, for some band to be in that I could actually sink my teeth into and not just appease the shitty fucking hipster jackasses in the audience. Maybe it was just an illusion that these guys were as rugged and mysterious as this record makes it seem, but we will all be humming tunes from this 50 years from now, and thats more than could ever hoped to be achieved by any record, ever.
