Luscious Jackson

Touché Amoré, “Just Exist”

I sometimes find screamo to be a little bit tiring. Musically, it’s my jam, but the vocals wear me out sometimes. This seems like a stupid thing for someone who listens to as much metal with vocals that sounds like someone caught something important in a home appliance. But I am very stupid, so here we are.

Luscious Jackson, “LP Retreat”

You know, if Luscious Jackson had made this record another fifteen years later, I’ll bet they would have found a much bigger audience. It sounds pretty ahead of its time, and I’m not sure people in 1994 really knew what to make of it.

Superchunk, “Precision Auto”

Superchunk’s No Pocky For Kitty is one of the records that really busted up my listening habits and helped broaden my tastes. That sounds stupid for someone that listened to a fair bit of punk prior to this, but it was pretty much all California punk. At any rate, I adored that record, and had high hopes for the followup. This is how it started, and my head was blown clean off.

The Rolling Stones, “Happy”

It’s time for True Stupid Facts About Josh’s Musical History (yes, I know nobody cares). Despite Exile on Main St. being part of the rock ’n’ roll canon, regarded by many as the Stones’ best album, I actually heard the Pussy Galore full-album cover of this record first. The Pussy Galore interpretation is chaotic and deliberately ramshackle, a total mess released only on cassette in small numbers out of fear of getting sued into dust. WRCT had a copy of this record, legendary among the underground, and I checked it out after reading about it on Usenet. It was ridiculous, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and didn’t get around to listening to the actual Stones record for probably another ten years. The list of people who listened to the record in this order might be limited to just your very stupid correspondant.