Volume Two

1. Mclusky - Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues {2002}

Mclusky (often stylized as mclusky) was a three-piece alternative rock group from Cardiff, Wales. The group consisted of Andy "Falco" Falkous (vocals, guitar), Jonathan Chapple (bass, vocals) and Jack Egglestone (drums), who replaced previous drummer Matthew Harding in late 2003. They worked frequently with recording engineer Steve Albini, whose influence through his now-legendary work with bands like Nirvana, the Pixies and The Jesus Lizard, along with his own bands Big Black and Shellac, can be easily recognised in mclusky's dense, raw sound. Mclusky Do Dallas is the second album by three-piece Welsh band Mclusky, released in 2002 by Beggars offshoot Too Pure Records. The album's title is a spin on Debbie Does Dallas, a famous 1978 pornographic movie.



2. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Cool Ice Cream {2006}

The band formed in 2003 when several band members started jamming at the Christmas party at a vinyl pressing plant where they worked. They encouraged now-lead singer Brendan Suppression (real name Brendan Huntley) to ad-lib into a tape recorder. The subsequent tape prompted the band’s first recording, which produced a 7-inch single with A-side Get Up Morning.[2] The band's name derived from members recalling another employee at the pressing plant stating he had to fix the eddy current suppression ring - a copper ring around a transformer which subdues eddy currents.[2]
The band's sound is said to have been influenced by bands such as The Troggs, The Standells, X and The Pagans.[3] Reference has also been made to the band’s Australian delivery, both vocally and musically.[4]
In 2006, Eddy Current Suppression Ring released their first full-length recording, a self-titled album released to critical acclaim[5][6]


3. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive {2008}

The Hold Steady is a Brooklyn-based rock band. Four of its five members have lived in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, and their Twin Cities roots are frequently reflected in the band's lyrics. The band's style has been described as a "riff-heavy mixture of classic rock", notable for its "lyrically dense storytelling."[1] Stay Positive is the fourth studio album by The Hold Steady, released on July 15, 2008. Vocalist/guitarist Craig Finn notes that the album is about "the idea of ageing gracefully [...] keeping going, perseverance [and] how to stay true to the ideals and ideas you had when you were younger."[1]

4. The Mess Hall - Keep Walking {2007}

The Mess Hall are a two-piece drums and guitar combo based in Sydney, Australia specialising in "raw, edgy bluesy rock." The band consists of Jed Kurzel (vocals/guitar) and Cec Condon (drums/vocals). The band often find themselves being compared to The White Stripes but Kurzel expresses otherwise. "When we started to do our thing there was no White Stripes around. A lot of people I'm influenced by are a lot of old poor guys from the Mississippi who just play really honest and a dirty sort of blues. That's where The Mess Hall come from. We really never set out to be a two piece. It was just something that worked out that way".[2] During September 2007 The Mess Hall signed to Ivy League Records and released their new album "Devils Elbow". Soon after its release, the album won the Australian Music Prize, gifting the band $25,000 in prizemoney.

5. The Notwist - Pick Up The Phone {2002}


The Notwist (pronounced /ˈnoʊˌtwɪst/[1]) are a German indie rock band[2]. Formed in 1989, the band moved through several musical incarnations despite maintaining a relatively stable lineup. While their early records moved through heavy metal into dark indie rock, their recent efforts for which they've received the most attention have been very strongly influenced by the electronica scene, along with the other groups on the record label Morr Music. Neon Golden is the fifth studio album by German indie rock band The Notwist. It was released in 2002 in Europe and 2003 in the United States to favourable reviews.

6. Burial - Archangel {2007}


Burial is an English dubstep producer. His eponymous debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim. The Wire magazine named it their album of the year,[2] along with achieving fifth place in the Mixmag 2006 Album of the Year list[3], and eighteenth in the best of the year list of The Observer music monthly supplement.[4] Untrue is the second album by the dubstep producer known as Burial. It was released on 5 November 2007 as a 13-track Digipack CD and a nine-track 2xLP from which some of the beatless pieces were edited.[1]The album has received many plaudits: Named the best album of 2007 by Sputnikmusic; Named second best album of 2007 by The Wire; Placed eighth in Tiny Mix Tapes' albums of 2007[2]; Appeared in Pitchfork Media's fifty albums of 2007[3]; Second highest rated album of 2007 according to the review averaging website, Metacritic[4]; Received a Mercury Prize nomination in 2008, charting at #58 on the UK album chart the week of the nomination.

7. Snowman - We Are The Plague {2008}

Snowman are an indie rock band from Perth, Western Australia. Snowman began playing regularly around Perth's local music scene in 2003 and have gained a solid live reputation in the following years.
Their sound has been described as post punk experimentalism with elements of rockabilly, surf rock and punk blues[citation needed]. Their recordings add odd atmospherics usually described with references to western soundtracks. The Horse, The Rat and The Swan is the second studio album for Perth band, Snowman. It was released on 24 May, 2008 on Dot Dash Recordings. Snowman produced the album with Dave Parkin (The Panda Band, Red Jezebel) at Blackbird Studios in Perth, Western Australia. In an interview lead singer, Joe McKee, explains the reasoning behind the name of the album.
The Horse, the Rat and the Swan are three different characters and themes that reoccur in the album. The Horse represents the apocalypse, the Rat represents betrayal and corruption, and the Swan is the letting go of all of this and realising that one cannot be consumed by these dark thoughts constantly because there needs to be beauty and letting go of that.
—Joe McKee [1]
McKee goes on to explain how the band went around creating the album.
I think we wanted to strip things to their rawest form, and to make raw form interesting we had to rely on the rhythms being interesting. There is a big focus on the rhythms and I suppose that makes it sound somewhat 'tribal'. We were all just making a whole lot of noise. It took a while to be happy with it. I mean, it’s not something that we sit around listening to. It was more of a relief to get it finished because it consumed us for such a long time. It broke us. But I think I can speak for the whole band and say that we are very proud of it. The subject matter was directly related to the solitary environment that we wrote in. I think we focused on isolating ourselves even more than we had in the past. We decided that we needed the album to be far more focused and cohesive than the first. The solitude in turn took its toll on our mental state, which may be the reason for the apocalyptic and bleak nature of the album as all of our fears and paranoias were seeping out slowly.
—Joe McKee[1]

8. The Devastations - The Pest {2007}

Devastations are an indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia. The band was founded in 2002 by the three friends Tom Carlyon, Hugo Cran and Conrad Standish after the end of their former band Luxedo.[1]
The band was signed to Beggars Banquet Records, has released three albums and has toured extensively in Europe, where two of the band members live.[2] Their debut album was named by Rolling Stone Germany as the best debut of 2004.[3]
The band was nominated for an Australian Music Prize for Coal in 2005 [4] and again in 2007 for Yes, U. The album, Yes, U, was also nominated for an Age Newspaper EG Award for Best Album of 2007.[2]

9. Sigur Ros - Untitled 5 {2002}

( ) is the third full-length album from Icelandic band Sigur Rós, first released in October 2002. It comprises eight untitled tracks, divided into two parts: the first four tracks are more light and optimistic, while the latter four are bleaker and more melancholic.[1] The two halves are divided by a 36-second silence,[2] and the album opens and closes with a click of distortion.

10. Eels - I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart {2005}

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005) is a double album by the band Eels. It was described by E on the official website as an album about "God and all the questions related to the subject of God. It's also about hanging on to my remaining shreds of sanity and the blue sky that comes the day after a terrible storm, and it's a love letter to life itself, in all its beautiful, horrible glory." Blinking Lights is a compilation of songs recorded with a variety of Eels lineups in E's home over a span of seven years. These include some intensely personal songs, instrumental pastiches, and straightforward pop, which results in a broad, if sometimes uneven album. The sleeve and liner notes are composed of typewritten lyrics and family photos, implying the personal nature of the album.

11. Beck - Lonesome Tears {2002}

Sea Change is an alternative rock album by Beck and was released in September 2002. Inspired by the dissolution of a relationship, Sea Change received glowing reviews upon its release [1]. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. In interviews, Beck cited the breakup with his longtime girlfriend as the major influence on the album.

12. Spiritualized - I Didn't Mean To Hurt You {2001}

Let It Come Down is the fourth album by the space rock group Spiritualized, released in 2001. It was recorded and produced at Abbey Road and AIR Studios. It took Jason Pierce, Spiritualized's lead singer, guitarist and sole constant member four years to write, perform, produce and release. The album utilizes 115 session musicians, including orchestra and London Community Gospel Choir. The wall of sound technique (most notably used by 60's record producer Phil Spector) is evident on this album, especially on such tracks as Do It All Over Again, Stop Your Crying and The Straight And The Narrow.

Volume One

1. Miles Davis - Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus) {1958}

Porgy and Bess is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1958 on Columbia Records. The album features arrangements by Davis and collaborator Gil Evans from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4 and August 18 in 1958 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. It is the second collaboration between Davis and Evans and has garnered much critical acclaim since its release, being acknowledged by music critics as the best of their collaborations.[1] For many jazz critics, Porgy and Bess is regarded as historic.


2. The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs {1967}


The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and vocal collaborator Nico. It was originally released in March 1967 by Verve Records, a subsidiary of MGM Records.
Recorded in 1966 during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, The Velvet Underground & Nico would gain notoriety for its experimentalist performance sensibilities, as well as its focus on controversial subject matter expressed in many of their songs.
Though largely ignored upon its release, it has since become one of the most influential and critically lauded rock albums in history, appearing as #13 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time[1] as well as being added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Librarian of Congress.[2]

3. Sparkehorse - Cow {1995}

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is a 1995 album by Sparklehorse. The album was largely recorded with musicians who played with the band Cracker, for whom Mark Linkous worked with at the time as a guitar tech / roadie and a sometimes collaborator. In fact, most of the album was produced and recorded by David Lowery (of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven) under the pseudonym "David Charles."

4. Bob Dylan - Queen Jane Approximately {1965}


Highway 61 Revisited is Bob Dylan's sixth studio album, released in 1965 by Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album to be recorded entirely with a full rock band, after he experimented with the approach on half of Bringing It All Back Home. It is commonly tagged as documenting the "angry young man" period in Dylan's career, in-between the playfulness of its surrounding albums; many of the songs on Highway 61 are of an accusatory nature and feature rough, loud takes.
Featuring hits and concert staples such as "Like a Rolling Stone", "Desolation Row", and "Ballad of a Thin Man", it is also generally considered to be among the artist's best and most influential efforts. Dylan himself commented, "I'm not gonna be able to make a record better than that one... Highway 61 is just too good. There's a lot of stuff on there that I would listen to."[1]
The album peaked at #3 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart and #4 in the UK, while "Like a Rolling Stone" reached #2 on the US Pop Singles chart and #4 in the UK, also receiving the accolade of being placed #1 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The album itself was ranked #4 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

5. Radiohead - Faust Arp {2007}

In Rainbows is the seventh album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on 1 January 2008. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career.
In Rainbows was recorded in London, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire with producers Mark Stent and Nigel Godrich. Radiohead worked on In Rainbows for more than two years, beginning in early 2005. In between recording, the band toured Europe and North America for three months in mid-2006. The songwriting on In Rainbows was more personal than that on Radiohead's other albums, with singer Thom Yorke describing most tracks as his versions of "seduction songs".[1] Radiohead incorporated a wide variety of musical styles and instruments on the album, using not only electronic music and string arrangements, but also pianos, celestes, and the ondes Martenot.
Days after announcing the album's completion, Radiohead released In Rainbows as a digital download that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit. Upon its retail release, In Rainbows entered the UK Album Chart and the U.S. Billboard 200 at number one; it went on to sell three million copies worldwide in both digital and physical formats. The album earned widespread critical acclaim, and was ranked as one of the best albums of 2007 by several publications.

6. Lou Reed - Perfect Day {1972}

Transformer is Lou Reed's breakthrough second solo album, released in December 1972.[1] Unlike its predecessor Lou Reed, eight songs of which were leftovers from his Velvet Underground days, this album contains mainly new material. However, there are still a few songs that date from his VU days--Velvet Underground-recorded versions of "Andy's Chest" and "Satellite of Love" surfaced in 1985 and 1995, respectively; and "New York Telephone Conversation" and "I'm So Free" are known to have been played during the Velvets' run at Max's Kansas City in the summer of 1970.
Transformer was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who had been strongly influenced by Reed's work with the Velvet Underground. The album features some of Reed's best-known songs such as "Walk on the Wild Side", "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love", and made him an international star in his own right.
"Andy's Chest" had been recorded in 1969 for The Velvet Underground's "lost fourth album" (see VU and Another View) and "Satellite of Love" had been demoed for the band's 1970 album Loaded, but neither had been used. For Transformer, the poppy up-tempo feel of these songs was slowed down to turn them into ballads. Although all songs on the album were credited to Reed, it has long been rumoured that "Wagon Wheel" is actually a David Bowie composition.[2] Although there are no known performances of "Vicious" by the Velvet Underground, the song apparently dates from Reed's time in the band and its association with Andy Warhol. According to Reed, Warhol told Reed he should write a song about someone vicious. Reed inquired what he meant by that, and Warhol replied, "Oh, you know, vicious like I hit you with a flower."[3]
The first single from the album, "Walk on the Wild Side", became an international success, despite its adult subject matter (it was edited in some countries and banned in others) and it is now generally regarded as Reed's signature tune. "Satellite of Love" was issued as the second single in February 1973. In 2002, a 30th anniversary edition of the album was released; in addition to demos of "Hangin' Round" and "Perfect Day", it includes a hidden track featuring an advert for the album.
The cover art was from a Mick Rock photograph.
In 1997, Transformer was named the 44th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Transformer is also ranked number 55 on NME 's list of "Greatest Albums of All Time." In 2003, the album was ranked number 194 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[4] It is also on Q Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Albums Ever".

7. Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen {2008}

Holy Fuck is an electronica band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They were a part of Dependent Music, a music label and artist collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1994.[1]
The band uses live instrumentation and miscellaneous instruments and non-instruments (including a 35 mm film synchronizer, toy keyboards and toy phaser guns) to achieve electronic-sounding effects without the use of laptops or programmed backing tracks.[2] According to Pitchfork Media, "The band was formed with the intent of creating the equivalent of modern electronic music without actually using the techniques—looping, splicing, programming and the like—of that music."[3]
LP is the second album from lo-fi improvisational electronica band Holy Fuck. The album was nominated for Alternative Album of the Year at the 2008 Juno Awards and was nominated for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize.[1]

8. RJD2 - 1976 {2004}

Since We Last Spoke is the second Studio album by American Hip hop producer & singer RJD2. It was released on May 18, 2004 by the Definitive Jux label. This album's tracks moved away from the DJ Shadow-inspired Instrumental hip hop music of RJD2's previous offering, Deadringer, and toward much more Rock music-influenced sounds.

9. Double Dee and Steinski - Lesson 2 (James Brown mix) {1984}

Doug DiFranco ("Double Dee") and Steve Stein ("Steinski") were hip-hop producers who achieved notoriety in the early 1980s for a series of underground hip-hop sample-based collages known as the Lessons. Although they never had a hit record, they proved highly influential for subsequent artists such as Coldcut, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, the Avalanches, and Girl Talk.[citation needed] Their music has never been widely available on CD due to their use of copyrighted material, but there have been occasional illegal re-issues, and several internet sites have mp3s of their music available for download.
DiFranco and Stein followed up this success with Lesson 2 — The James Brown Mix in 1984, which began with a sample from The War of the Worlds before quickly running through a montage of memorable breaks from classic James Brown records, with sampled appearances by Dirty Harry and Bugs Bunny. Also that year, DiFranco teamed up with David Witz, a CBS Records producer who recorded as Arthur Ether, to create "Taste So Good", which they released under the name File 13. "Taste So Good" was built from snippets of recorded sex-phone calls over an original instrumental bed, and while too racy for radio in 1984, the 12" single found success in nightclubs and reached #38 on Billboard's Dance/Disco Top 80 on 10/6/1984.[citation needed] File 13's "Taste So Good" is included on Volume 3 of the "Street Jams; Electric Funk" series on Rhino Records, as well as other compilations.

10. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules Theme {2008}

Hercules and Love Affair is the debut album by American house group Hercules and Love Affair. The album, which was released by DFA Records in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2008 and a day later in North America, was produced by Andy Butler and Tim Goldsworthy. The album was recorded at the Plantain Studios in Manhattan.[1] Andrew Raposo (of fellow DFA band Automato) and Tyler Pope (of !!!) contributed bass to the album,[2] while Antony Hegarty contributed vocals on some songs.

11. Primal Scream - Come Together {1991}

Screamadelica is a 1991 album by Primal Scream and was their first to be a commercial success. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted it the 27th greatest album of all time. The album was a massive departure from the band's early indie rock sound, drawing inspiration from the house music scene (and associated drugs) that was becoming popular at the time of its production. The band enlisted house DJs Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley on producing duties, although the album also contained a wide range of other influences including gospel and dub.
The album's title track did not appear on the album itself; the ten minute dance track was also produced by Andrew Weatherall and sung by Denise Johnson. It appears on the Dixie Narco EP released in 1992, and featured in the opening credits of the now rare Screamadelica VHS video tape.
The album includes "Loaded", which was a top twenty hit single in the UK. Dance DJ Andrew Weatherall began remixing "I'm Losing More than I'll Ever Have", from their previous album, and the resulting track disassembled the song, adding a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels.

12. The Chemical Brothers - Out of Control {1999}

Surrender is the third album from The Chemical Brothers and was released on June 22, 1999. It features Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Hope Sandoval (ex Mazzy Star) and Bernard Sumner (New Order) as guest vocalists. Leeds band The Sunshine Underground took their name from the sixth track on the album. It was certified 2x Platinum by the BPI on September 30, 2005. [1] The song 'Asleep from Day' was used in a commercial for the French airline Air France.[1]

13. The Knife - Silent Shout {2006}

Silent Shout is the third full length album (not including the Hannah med H Soundtrack) by Swedish electropop duo The Knife, released initially in Sweden on February 15, 2006, then for the rest of Europe the following month on Rabid Records. The album was released in the U.S. on July 25 via Mute Records. Silent Shout is a darker album than its predecessor Deep Cuts[1]. The album has produced five singles: "Silent Shout", "Marble House", "We Share Our Mothers' Health", "Like a Pen" and "Na Na Na".
After being awarded "Best New Music" status by the influential online magazine Pitchfork Media in February of 2006, Silent Shout was later named Pitchfork Media's top album of 2006 [2], with the title song being ranked the #2 song of the year[3].

14. DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World {1996}

Endtroducing..... is the debut studio album by hip hop artist DJ Shadow. It was first released on November 19, 1996 by Mo' Wax Records, but was later reissued on June 7, 2005 by Island Records. It is noted for being the first album created entirely from samples of other records. The album received near-unanimous worldwide critical acclaim upon release.

UPDATE: Originally, I had Underworld - Underneath the Radar between Primal Scream and Chemical Brothers but it is now omitted due to the surprising (or unsurprising) difficulty in finding an mp3 legally, or otherwise of the track as I don't own any Underworld. Tracks still flow OK so it is now gone. This has nothing to do with either Bill or Mark.