Hey guys I'm Mark Duplass and these are the records I found at Amoeba.
Or should I say What's In My Bag?
Ok, my first choice, R.E.M. 'Document.'
I was about 10 or 11 when this record came out.
I heard my older brother playing 'Life's Rich Pageant' which was the release that came out before it.
And it was exciting to me but maybe a little too...
dangerous or old or something.
And 'Document' kind of hit me at the perfect time.
I think it was the first thing that I purchased and understood that
you wouldn't just skip through to get to the songs you heard on the radio
that all the songs were worth something.
I'd had The Cars' Greatest Hits and I was like, well yeah, all the songs are great.
And then I think I had had Madonna 'True Blue' and I was like, well I'll just skip to the hits.
And 'Document' broke it open for me. An album on its own, a full artist statement
could be great from front to end. And I thought, in particular, you end side A with 'End of The World...'
you begin side B with 'The One I Love.'
It was pretty mind-blowing for a prepubescent boy.
It holds, the record holds up. It's great.
Alright, number two. I don't know this record.
It's like a weird thing that I just kind of missed.
You know how you kind of have gaps as a fan.
Like I didn't catch on to The Kinks for some reason. Just recently I understood them.
So I read her book that she wrote about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe
and just got really into her as an artist and her process and her sweetness and her soulfulness.
He wore the skulls. I wore a tie. We felt ready for the 70s.
It's our decade, he said.
And I was thinking, why have I not listened to her music? And so I've never heard this record before.
I think people like this one, right? Yeah.
Like this is a problem that I don't know this record. So we're gonna fix this now.
This is kind of a double. These are two Joni Mitchell 80s records.
We have 'Wild Things Run Fast' and then we have 'Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm.'
A little more classic Joni-looking. This, don't judge a book by it's cover.
Or maybe judge a book by its cover. I've actually heard this record.
My really close friend and collaborator, Julian Wass, who does all my scores for me
he knows me really well. He knows my tastes and he sort of challenged me
to challenge myself to appreciate 1980s Joni Mitchell
which is an oft-maligned period in the Joni Mitchell canon.
I mean, I think for people who love her it's like 'Blue,' 'Court & Spark'
maybe people get into 'Hejira.'
And then they perceive this sort of wasteland from the late 70s.
And then there is a really nice record in '94 called 'Turbulent Indigo'
that unfortunately is not available in vinyl.
But most of the people are like, it's all garbage in there.
But my thing is like, well if you kind of lean into the bad synths and allow that to be
what it is, the 80s expression of it
I think there might be some gold in there. So this one I can confirm is good.
Don't have this one yet, but I've heard it's also good.
This is where Larry Klein, she was married to the producer Larry Klein
and this is where they were making stuff.
Larry went on to really dig into like Shawn Colvin and a lot of those 90s songwriters.
So I think the beginnings of it, this is '88, you can kind of start to see
what springs out of that, so we'll see.
Ryley Walker. Chicago, lesser-known.
When I first heard this, I thought Jim O'Rourke.
Maybe the less experimental side of Jim O'Rourke, when Jim O'Rourke's got his acoustic guitar.
So it's kind of like a jazzy acoustic thing.
It's got a little bit of that Sam Prekop/Sea and Cake vibe.
He's just such a wonderful hybrid of
cheap light beer, slightly bloated Midwestern dude, with extreme high intelligence
amazing guitar acumen, and precision jazz.
Those worlds don't often collide.
It's kind of like 'Dumb and Dumber' and John Coltrane. It's all here in Ryley Walker's records.
I was listening to this last year. I made a movie called 'Paddleton' with my friend Ray Romano.
Fastest land animal. 40 miles an hour.
The cheetah goes 60 or 65.
While we were shooting it, I was listening to these the whole time.
So this is gonna be one of those records that are sort of seminal for a time and place.
This is the 'Paddleton' record, so I'm excited about this.
My final record, Tangerine Dream. This is my favorite part about why records are important.
I made a new friend today. It's this guy, who's shooting from behind the camera.
We were walking around, we were talking about records. I was talking about how much I love 'The Pearl.'
The sort of collaboration with Harold Budd and Eno.
And he threw off into that Tangerine Dream
as if someone who appreciated those things of course knows Tangerine Dream.
And we both realized this is a huge gap.
I don't know these things. And sure enough, this was one of the two records that he loved.
Now I get to have this really great surprise.
And this is what happens when you come to Amoeba and walk around and shop for records
and you don't stay at home and listen on Spotify.
So it may be a fucking disaster but it might be great.
Let's hope it's great.
Yeah, Tangerine Dream.
And that is what is in my bag.
Cool, thank you so much.
Yeah.
That was really great.
Sure. I actually have heard of this particular record.
So it's not all on you if I don't like it.