WHAT'S ON THE OLD CD-PLAYER NOWADAYS...

Something eclectic? My week beats your year:


1. Can--Tago Mago (1972. Krautrock, nuff'-said.)

2. Killing Joke--what's THIS for...! (1981. Some of the best post punk here)

3. Erik Satie--3 Gymnopedies & Other Piano works (1890s-1900s. SUPERB, Satie was an interesting fellow...Gymnopedie No. 2 is better than the famous No.1)

4. Raymond Scott--Manhattan Research (1950s-60s. He's the jazz-guy whose music is quoted all-the-time by Carl Stalling in the Looney Tunes cartoons. He was a genius of electronic-music, too. Many of these recordings are music for ads, but they're cool. The most cutting-edge electronic-music as we know it began as advertising-music, not simply with the avant-garde.)

5. Brian Eno--Here Come the Warm Jets (1973. Yes, the title is about being pissed-on. Classic LP, the songs are just so rockin' in that glam-sense. Lots of lyrics about gay-cruising--not my yen--so it's just some great campy rock. Lots of influence of the V.U. here. Legendary.)

6. Silver Apples--Silver Apples/Contact (1968-69. The beginning of funky-techno! These guys were very visionary, using funk-beats with their oscillators and tone-generators. Amazing, very-cool. Chemical Bros. sampled them once, but I won't hold that against the Silver Apples.)

7. Hanayo & Panacea--Hanayo in Panacea (1999. Japanese performance and visual-artist Hanayo doing excellent little-girl and banshee vocals over Kraut Panacea's hard drum-n'-bass. Pretty decadent, and very experimental. I've corresponded with Hanayo, she's an incredibly-talented woman, magical! Good shit.)

8. Gas--Zauberberg (1999. From the now-defunct Mille Plateaux records of Frankfurt. Incredible techno that can be called the real trance music. Imagine Wagner being looped-endlessly into ambient-waves of chordal-washes. Impressive.)

9. The Mothers of Invention--Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention during their best-period of 67'-69'. It doesn't get much better than this for 1960s rock. Check Sugarcane Harris's violin-solo! Legendary.)

10. Hank Williams III--Straight to Hell (2006. Possibly the best album of the year! He's made the country 'Ummagumma' here, doing one disc as the songs, and the other as a huge sound-collage that is very psychedelic. This is what real country is, and it's pretty-cool. He looks so hauntingly like his grandfather, and his singing isn't far-off, either.)

11. Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Gatz--2 Hype 2 Wype (2001. The Butthole Surfers--80s' era--doing gangsta rap. This is 2-hilarious 2 B signed 2 the major-labels, it would make mainstream rap out for the gaggle of clowns it surely is. Hilarious chipmunk MC-ing. Classic. It kills.)

12. ESG--A South Bronx Story (Late-1970s, early-1980s: No, not the dumb rapper, but the girl-funk, minimalist outfit of Black ladies who would later be ripped-off by Luscious Jackson. ESG was much better, and not as annoying. Sampled more-times than one could imagine. Joy Division's producer, Martin Hannett, produced some of their best tracks. 1981's 'Moody' is considered the beginnings of House music." Yep, it's all been done before, and done better. They even influenced hip-hop and--ugh--punk and post punk.)

13. Noel Coward--The Songs of Noel Coward (1920s-40s: He was hilarious, and this is some funny camp here. How many of these recordings survived is miraculous, because the 1920s ones were generally heard on the English stage. Gay men are pretty observant about women, and have a funny-way of expressing it! He was a good actor. The best-sides are when Coward sings his own songs, it's funnier.)

14. John Carpenter--Assault on Precinct 13 Soundtrack (1976: I've always loved his scoring for his own movies, they're just so cool. The DVD has an isolated-score function, and I listen to it occasionally. It still sounds really cutting-edge alongside all the dross of today. Afrika Bambataa sampled the theme, and so have many-many hip-hop DJs. Classic.)