Musical comfort food
Since John asked. Stuff that didn’t change my life but that I can turn on and instantly get immersed in a certain place or time.
- 69 Love Songs — The Magnetic Fields. (speaking of trying way, way too hard, but occasionally pulling it off in spite of yourself)
- Greatest Hits — Biz Markie
- anything — The Carter Family (ok, this is in my “change my life” list too, but it’s OK. If you ever need a vacation from the modern world, nothing can snap you into a world of pre-media-saturation faster than a trip to the Appalachians with AP, Sara, and Maybelle.)
- Turn on the Bright Lights — Interpol (yes, sometimes I listen to this even when Terri isn’t around)
- Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy — Brian Eno
- Another Green World — Brian Eno
- The Sunset Tree — The Mountain Goats
- A Radical Recital — Rasputina
- Thanks for the Ether — Rasputina
- Eye — Robyn Hitchcock
- Moss Elixer — Robyn Hitchcock
- Luxor — Robyn Hitchcock
- Funeral — Arcade Fire
- Satanic Panic in the Attic — Of Montreal
- The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society — The Kinks
- The Sunlandic Twins — Of Montreal
- Muswell Hilbillies — The Kinks
- The Singles (1960-1975) — Ike & Tina Turner
- Speaking in Tongues — The Talking Heads
- Red Roses for Me — The Pogues
- If I Should Fall From Grace With God — The Pogues
- Rum Sodomy and the Lash — The Pogues
- Hell’s Ditch — The Pogues
- Trans Europe Express — Kraftwerk
- Highway 61 Revisited — Bob Dylan
- Bone Machine — Tom Waits
- Rain Dogs — Tom Waits
- Discography — The Pet Shop Boys
- Germ Free Adolescents — X Ray Spex
- Nixon — Lambchop
- The Modern Lovers — The Modern Lovers
- various, ranging from the sublime to the painful — Jonathan Richman
- The Pleasure Principle — Gary Numan
- IV — Faust
- Switched On, vols 1-2 — Sterolab
- I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One — Yo La Tengo
- Snap! — The Jam
- Blacknuss — Rashaan Roland Kirk
- The Inflated Tear — Rashaan Roland Kirk
- Weather Systems — Andrew Bird
- Thrills — Andrew Bird
- Tender Buttons — Broadcast
- Let’s Get Out Of This Country — Camera Obscura
- The Dresden Dolls — The Dresden Dolls
- In The Reins — Iron and Wine / Calexico
- Hot Rail — Calexico
- Vauxhall and I — Morrissey
- Louder than Bombs — The Smiths
- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea — Neutral Milk Hotel
- We Shall All Be Healed — The Mountain Goats
- Upstairs at Eric’s — Yaz