I’m Leah. I’m 22, now currently residing in Portland, Oregon. I’m vegan, straight edge, and very active in the punk community. I currently work at a record store that is actually like a 5,000 square foot Pure Pop. In my free time I volunteer at a collectively run bookstore. I am an aspiring bike mechanic and I would love to learn how to play the cello. I love kitties.
I worked at Pure Pop for over a year until I moved to Portland in February 2008. I really loved everyone I worked with. I especially loved my catty friendship with Herb and drawing weird things with Julia. I miss working there very dearly and if I ever end up moving back east, I will be begging Mike to rehire me. My favorite memories involve Herb asking me strange questions on our downtime like “Leah,
why do you hate me?” and “Who would you rather make out with…”
My list: (Sorry there’s three! I couldn’t decide!)
Top 5 Anarcho Punk Records Nobody Knows About:
1. Alternative – If They Treat You Like Shit, Act Like Manure
–Anarcho peace punk. Known as the Scottish version of Crass.
2. Liberty – The People Who Care Are Angry
–Anarcho peace punk, on Conflict’s record label Mortarhate.
3. Flowers In The Dustbin – Freaks Run Wild In The Disco
–Weird colorful 80′s anarcho-goth.
4. The Mob – Let The Tribe Increase
–Very dark, depressing anarcho punk. One 7″ on Crass Records.
5. Omega Tribe – No Love Lost
–A Crass Records classic. Anarcho punk along the lines of Alternative
and Flux of Pink Indians.
Top 5 Folk Punk Albums You Should Hear
1. Rosa – I, Mississippi, you
–Plan-It-X records cute sing-a-long folk punk.
2. Blackbird Raum – Swidden
–Awesome Santa Cruz anarcho-gyps-folk punk
3. Andrew Jackson Jihad – Issue Problems
–Yet another catchy Plan-It X folk punk band.
4. Nana Grizol – Love It Love It
–Folky indie punk with members of Neutral Milk Hotel. Also listen to their new album “Ruth”
5. Pat The Bunny (Vermont Local!)- Burn The Earth, Leave It Behind
–Gritty acoustic folk punk from Vermont. Member of Wingnut
Dishwasher’s Union and Johnny Hobo and The Freight Trains.
Top 5 Crust Bands You Should Hear
1. Fall of Efrafa (UK)
–Slow heavy crust all based around the book Watership Down.
2. Garmonbozia (Seattle)
–Female fronted crust, members went on to start Oroku
3. Agrimonia
–Swedish Crust Punk
4. Raw Nerves (Portland, OR)
–Awesome hardcore crust. Members of Squalora, Duke Nukem Forever.
5.Initial State
–When Antischism broke up, Initial State was born.
Some of you may have caught the interview we ran with Nesey Gallons in July. While that interview focused mainly on Nesey’s influences for his new solo album Eyes & Eyes & Eyes ago, it briefly mentioned the comeback of the Elephant Six Collective. This comeback is marked with tours from the Music Tapes and last year’s Holiday Surprise Tour, but mostly by the September 8th release of the new Circulatory System album, Signal Morning. E6 is known for the way its members shuffle themselves into different line-ups within the collective, each with a unique sound, but all adhering to the characteristic E6 psych rock aesthetic. Signal Morning is a collaborative project featuring members of The Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel.
In Nesey’s interview, he mentioned “the idea of songs and sound world coming together.” From the start of the album, the Circulatory System starts to neatly stitch together the chaos and unpredictability of their subconscious soundscapes with the psych pop song structure. Signal Morning is split into two sides. The first side is a dreamlike flow between catchy riffs and pleasantly disorienting, distorted experimentation. Where side one leans toward classic psych-rock influence with a bit of an aversion to clean production, side two floats farther away from reality on a cloud of bells, tape manipulation, rhodes piano, and a chorus of spaced out voices. The lyrical themes of the album are appropriately of escapism and contemplation of universal oneness. The Breathing Universe asks “why not try breathing along with the universe?” and follows up the question with the supposition that “if enough want to move on/ this world will lift us up/ untangled from the trees.”
While the Circulatory System aren’t exactly doing anything new on Signal Morning, E6 fans will be pleased to hear a continuation of the collective’s experimentation in developing and expressing the sound land they know and love. Although the disc dropped on the 8th, fans will have to wait until October for the vinyl. It may be well worth it though, the first 300 shipped will be accompained by a bonus LP full of demo versions and alternative mixes.
So here’s the final list. We tried to go with titles that we’re both amongst the best releases of the year and reflective of the discriminating Pure Pop clientele. Remember, next year the voting will be open to the public, and all Picks are currently on sale in the store!
1980. The Clash - London Calling While it came out in the UK in December of ’79, London Calling was released here the following year. A milestone album whose reputation only grows as the years go by, it’s a perfect album to kick off this list.
1981. Black Flag - Damaged Many albums from SST Records incomparable catalog were considered for this list (Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, Dinosaur Jr’s You’re Living All Over Me), but we ultimately had to go with this release from Black Flag. It’s a searing album whose principled tone would inspire legions of bands and individuals.
1982. Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights Released at a time when the critically-adored Thompson’s were struggling to sell albums and find record deals, Shoot Out the lights would serve as both a commercial peak and a swan song for the pair. The couple’s tumultuous relationship finally caved, leaving a wake of brilliant albums.
1983. U2 – War It’s hard to remember the band U2 were 25 years ago given their current output, but they were great. War embodies all the qualities the Irish quartet used to earn their legendary status and emerge as one of the biggest bands of the world.
1984. Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense This is the only live album on this list. 1984 was a rich year for fantastic albums. We had to pick this one over the stiff competition because of its enduring popularity amongst our staff and customers and the fact that it’s uniquely amazing.
1985. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy & the Lash This album is as great as Shane MacGowan’s teeth are revolting. Blending the immediacy and intensity of punk with traditional Celtic music, the Pogues made a number of great albums, creating a niche that would evolve into a genre.
1986. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead What do you get when you combine a musical visionary, a charismatic vocalist with a razor-sharp wit and insatiable addiction to morbid introspection and one of the greatest rhythm sections of all time?
1987. Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction Axel Rose is a big dick with delusions of grandeur, but it’s okay. Appetite for Destruction is the rock album of the 80′s. It’s a decadent, nihilistic and excessive tour de force. Lightning in a bottle.
1988. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation In stark contrast to this list’s previous entry, 1988 gives us Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. A stunning collection of songs with incredibly inventive guitar arrangements. Anyone with any ambition to experiment with melody and distortion would do well to study this album carefully.
1989. Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique After establishing themselves as a tongue-in-cheek party band with Licence to Ill, the Beastie Boys reinvented themselves on their follow-up. Paul’s Boutique brought hip-hop production forward and established the Beastie Boys as one of the great groups of their generation.
1990. Depeche Mode – Violator A band so emotionally overwrought they make The Smiths sound like AC/DC shouldn’t be anywhere on this list, but Depeche Mode’s greatness can’t be denied. (Well, it can, but we won’t listen.) Nine tracks of warm analog synth greatness.
1991. Nirvana – Nevermind All of the albums featured here have had an impact, but there is something unique about popular culture’s love affair with Nirvana in the early 90′s. The trio became the centerpiece of the “grunge” movement but their musical legacy transcends genre associations.
1992. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted Whereas Nirvana had an immediate, broad impact on popular culture, Pavement’s influence would be gradual, helping to shape the aesthetic of the emerging “indie rock” genre. Today as then, listening to this album is an absolute revelation.
1993. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream The Pumpkins were a quartet, but this album was essentially performed by Billy Corgan save for drum support from virtuoso Jimmy Chamberlain. Produced by Butch Vig and engineered by the legendary Alan Moulder, this album is the sonic equivalent of honey & melted butter on toast.
1994. Portishead – Dummy Members of Portishead may scoff at the concept of trip-hop, but the genre had a lot of fans in the mid 90′s. This is due in no small part to the band’s debut masterwork. Immaculately crafted and produced, it’s hard to believe a mere three musicians put this together.
1995. Bjork - Post Oh Bjork Guðmundsdóttir. your world-class vocals and aggressively avant-garde sensibilities. Any one of your first three albums could have been on this list. Post currently sells at Pure Pop for just under $7. There is no excuse not to own this one.
1996. DJ Shadow – Entroducing The only instrumental album on this list. With Entroducing, DJ Shadow showed us something we’d never heard before. Often imitated, never matched, Entroudcing hits most of the touchstones of the emotional palate over its all too brief 64 minutes.
1997. Radiohead - OK Computer Radiohead is one of the world’s most commercially successful and critically popular bands. OK Computer blew us all away when it came out, and it still does. Bold, broad and buoying, this album was an absolute shoe-in.
1998. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea ITAOTS didn’t make huge waves upon it’s initial release. In the decade since, it’s visibility has grown and its influence has become apparent. Warm, eccentric arrangements, superb deliveries of surreal lyrics. Unconventional, evocative, and highly moving.
1999. Beck - Midnite Vultures Mellow Gold and Odelay were the critical darlings, but Midnite Vultures was the party album of its time. Sounding like a coked-up Prince produced by James Brown, Midnite Vultures offers nonsensical anthem after nonsensical anthem before concluding with the falsetto masterpiece, “Debra”.
2000. Outkast - Stankonia Describing the pairing of Andre 3000 and Big Boi as formidable would be an understatement. After improving leaps and bounds with each of their first three albums, they found more room for growth with this dirty south opus.
2001. Daft Punk - Discovery An album with such longevity it would be nominated for a grammy in 2008, seven years after its release. Assembled from a vast array of samples, ingeniously rearranged and supplemented, Discovery brought the French House movement into the 21st century and further into the global spotlight.
2002. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Amid inner turmoil and trouble with their label, Wilco recorded Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, considered by many to be their finest album as well as one of the best albums. The documentary I am Trying to Break Your Heart offers a fascinating portrait of the circumstances of this album’s creation.
2003. My Morning Jacket It Still Moves The major-label debut from this Kentucky outfit propelled them to well-deserved greater heights. My Morning Jacket blend seemingly disparate influences, country and psychedelic for example, and create a unique and compelling style that still moves (har-har) people to this day.
2004. Arcade Fire Funeral The face of indie rock has changed since the 90′s. It is no longer a fringe genre but a mainstream phenomenon as represented by album’s like this superb release from Canada’s Arcade Fire. Fans of rich arrangements and charged emotion shant be disappointed.
2005. Gorillaz – Demon Days Fronted by Damon Alburn, who was making contenders for this list in the 90′s with his band Blur, Gorrillaz are a uniquely great band. Ostensibly made-up of cartoon characters (created by comic legend Jamie Hewlett), Gorrilaz expose most bands who’d claim to blend hip-hop with modern rock to shame.
2006. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain Hailing from Brooklyn, TV on the Radio all but monopolized critical acclaim in 2006 with Return to Cookie Mountain. It’s a testimony to this album’s appeal that Pure Pop was selling out of import copies in the weeks leading up to its release.
2007. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha Former Squirrel Nut Zipper Andrew Bird has been consistently great in his solo career as exemplified in this wonderful release. Baroque with a gritty edge, Armchair Apocrypha has a broader appeal than one might expect from something so eccentric.
2008. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes took the world by storm in 2008 with this breezy, lush and listful album. The perfect compliment to everything from a cold winter drive to a warm summer afternoon, this is an album that measures up to anything on this list.
