That Yo La Tengo record, 'Painful,' has got some real awesome, noisy, mellow heartbreakers.
Formerly known as The Muslims, The Soft Pack brings a lot of swagger to its garage-rock sound. There's a load of gimmick-free confidence in the band's hooks, as its distorted guitars and driving drums demonstrate that less can be more.
That's one of my favorite Matador records: Cat Power, 'You Are Free.'
I don't know what the vintage Sonic Youth sound is.
I listen to a lot of indie or rock music.
Tightly embracing guitar effects and tape loops, Mission of Burma made sound an important commodity in rock 'n' roll, and its members carried that tradition into their first album after a 19-year hiatus, 2004's 'ONoffON.'
I remember when I first saw 'Guided by Voices'; those earlier recordings are so deconstructed, kind of like four-track music, and so artful in their collage and in their weird fragility.
Simplicity is at the core of Sebadoh.
The Replacements don't sound like The Replacements half the time!
Eric's Trip is still a huge influence on me. The style of those recordings and the rawness of them is very inspiring. And the density of the distorted parts, amazing.
I'm the Folk Implosion's biggest fan.
My studio was lo-fi by necessity; I was fourteen with no reliable income.
That's the thing I like about my sound. It's real raw and very unsafe compared to a solid state kind of sound.
The best records are not perfect. They don't sound digital or like someone applied rules.
My sound is, at its core, a mix of things. Definitely an imperfect mix, but one that incorporates elements of the music I love - a bit of indie rock, super rhythmic rapping, and lots of synths.
Radio is immediate and experimental. It's really lo-fi - you can have an idea, go out and record something, come back in and just put it on air.
I just like music that sounds like music. Not like machines and computers and things that you design to make things sound slick and perfect.
I am going through a Neil Young phase. I also listen to a lot of alternative country, a band called Smog and Bonnie Prince Billy, which is very dark and twisted.
I think my sound is post-Internet.
