So here I am. Minding my own business. Drunk on a Tuesday. Or maybe Wednesday? I don’t know. We had just recorded some new songs. And my Instagram starts yellin’ at me. Joey Molloy. “Hey man! I can’t believe you don’t have a feature on the Remove Blog yet. You wanna do a ‘5 Records From’?” Which is super surreal in that headspace. Who wants to hear what I gotta say? But then again… Who doesn’t love to talk about themselves? Anyways. Here’s five records that I think are most pivotal to what I do.
1. Hi, How Are You? by Daniel Johnston:
I was fifteen. It was about ten o’clock. And the first thing I did when I got home was turn on the computer and look up this dude Daniel Johnston.
I was taking guitar lessons from Troy Gregory. And during my lesson that night he starts talkin’ about this guy Daniel Johnston and how he thinks it’d be something I dig.
So I looked it up. And after the first track, “Poor You,” I couldn’t pause until it ended. Now this isn’t my favorite Daniel Johnston album.
But it was the first video that popped up back in the day, when YouTube was still relevant. And while I’m listening I’m researching him.
Find out about how he recorded himself and made his own tapes. And I had this thought. ‘What’s stopping me from writing and recording?’
I had notebooks full of poems and always wanted to make my own music.
So why not just fucking do it. The next day I setup in my mom’s garage. Acoustic guitar. A minicassette recorder my grandpa had given me. And all my notebooks. And just start doing it.
Pressed like twenty CDs. And hand drew all the album artwork. And that’s what started it all for me. Hearing that album made me realize I didn’t need to wait for an offer or somebody to want to even listen to me. If I wanted to do it I could.
On our Bandcamp you can still find all those albums I made in high school that have since evolved into some of our songs. But that was the trigger right there.
What I dug most was the rawness though. Daniel wasn’t trying to be a master musician. Or even the most technical songwriter. He just was putting out how he felt.
And that’s what I try to do with our music. Just completely expose myself and thoughts onto a tape.
Don’t overthink it. Just release pure feelings.
I was taking guitar lessons from Troy Gregory. And during my lesson that night he starts talkin’ about this guy Daniel Johnston and how he thinks it’d be something I dig.
So I looked it up. And after the first track, “Poor You,” I couldn’t pause until it ended. Now this isn’t my favorite Daniel Johnston album.
But it was the first video that popped up back in the day, when YouTube was still relevant. And while I’m listening I’m researching him.
Find out about how he recorded himself and made his own tapes. And I had this thought. ‘What’s stopping me from writing and recording?’
I had notebooks full of poems and always wanted to make my own music.
So why not just fucking do it. The next day I setup in my mom’s garage. Acoustic guitar. A minicassette recorder my grandpa had given me. And all my notebooks. And just start doing it.
Pressed like twenty CDs. And hand drew all the album artwork. And that’s what started it all for me. Hearing that album made me realize I didn’t need to wait for an offer or somebody to want to even listen to me. If I wanted to do it I could.
On our Bandcamp you can still find all those albums I made in high school that have since evolved into some of our songs. But that was the trigger right there.
What I dug most was the rawness though. Daniel wasn’t trying to be a master musician. Or even the most technical songwriter. He just was putting out how he felt.
And that’s what I try to do with our music. Just completely expose myself and thoughts onto a tape.
Don’t overthink it. Just release pure feelings.
2. Greatest Hits by Half Japanese:
So Daniel Johnston was my introduction to outsider music.
From there I discovered Half Japanese. And I loved that shit. I had been playing solo sets for about a year or so.
And one of friends, Jordan Teets, was talking to me after the show and suggested I get some drums or something.
He was telling me about how he used to play djembe during some friends’ of his sets in high school and he could do it for me too.
After a couple shows he gets his tax return and drops it all on a kit on Craigslist in Roseville and teaches himself how to play.
And during those first few months we spent a ton of time listening to Half Japanese’s greatest hits.
I didn’t necessarily want the aggression that came from punk.
But the pure drive to just create music. No matter how we defined that.
From there I discovered Half Japanese. And I loved that shit. I had been playing solo sets for about a year or so.
And one of friends, Jordan Teets, was talking to me after the show and suggested I get some drums or something.
He was telling me about how he used to play djembe during some friends’ of his sets in high school and he could do it for me too.
After a couple shows he gets his tax return and drops it all on a kit on Craigslist in Roseville and teaches himself how to play.
And during those first few months we spent a ton of time listening to Half Japanese’s greatest hits.
I didn’t necessarily want the aggression that came from punk.
But the pure drive to just create music. No matter how we defined that.
3. Songs of Love and Hate by Leonard Cohen:
Leonard Cohen was somebody I refused to listen to for a long period of time. I liked Bob Dylan and Tim Buckley and some singer-songwriters. But I was pretentious in early high school. Had just discovered Nuggets. And I had this idea that music needed an edge in order to be good. Which is why I refused to check out the Strokes for the longest time. But my guitar teacher told me to listen to Songs of Love and Hate. So I checked it out, hoping to despise it. But I couldn’t stop listening to it.
This album is a constant reminder to me that it is ok to feel. It’s ok to be vulnerable.
And that even though things might not always be ok, that’s ok.
It’s the album I listen to whenever I need motivation to keep on moving.
It’s what I put on for reassurance that we can’t control every aspect of life.
But we can always keep trying.
And that even though things might not always be ok, that’s ok.
It’s the album I listen to whenever I need motivation to keep on moving.
It’s what I put on for reassurance that we can’t control every aspect of life.
But we can always keep trying.
4. Zombie Birdhouse by Iggy Pop:
I always dug the Stooges. Name a kid in Detroit that doesn’t think the Stooges FUK. And I had listened to a handful of solo Iggy. Some I’m at the library. Checking out CDs to download onto my iPod. Cause fuck a dollar per song. And I come across Zombie Birdhouse by Iggy Pop. Never heard of it, so I check it out. And I’m left in shock. After every single track. I didn’t find out till years later that Iggy had written it so the label would drop him from contract (and it fucking worked!) But that album gave me a new look on music. You didn’t need lyric structure. You didn’t need verse/chorus or even segmented parts like I had heard in prog rock. This was the album that broke every rule. The album that made me realize there really aren’t rules to music. Or whatever you’re doing for that matter. Just do what you gotta do. Even if that means there are no synthesizers on the record.
5. Hello Cruel World by Tall Dwarfs:
I can’t pinpoint when I first listened to this album. Or how I even found out about it. But I remember clicking the YouTube video and being blown away. It’s as if the Modern Lovers got really into crack and blew all the funds for their record getting high. Super minimal and lo-fi. Frantic. Near schizophrenic. Everytime you think you’ve figured out the sound they force you to swallow a bottle of Robitusin. I don’t know anything else that has come close to the sound of this comp. It’s messy. It’s confusing. It’s all over the place. And most importantly, it proves as long as you’re creating from feeling, the right person will discover it. No matter how many futures or dimensions we pass. You just gotta put yourself out there. Cause somewhere, somebody will find it. And it’ll be exactly what they needed to hear.