Hi I'm James Toth of Wooden Wand at Amoeba and this is What's in My Bag.
I'll just pick them out at random. This is the first 'Chrome' LP.
I've been into Chrome for at least 10 or 15 years
but I always knew the records that everybody kind of likes, and then someone played this for me recently
and was like, oh that's their first record, it's kinda like they haven't figured it out yet
I think only Damon Edge is on it. I don't think Helios Creed had joined yet.
But it has this kind of trash rock, almost like... parts of it sound almost like Royal Trux-y or something
and it's just totally different from their sort of electronic/punk/weird thing that people know them for.
It's way more straight, but only relatively speaking and I really loved it. So I'm glad I found that.
This is my favorite Bert Jansch record. A friend of mine was involved in releasing this actually.
It's all instrumental, and I like Bert Jansch's singing
but the first side is like a sidelong kind of jam, but side two is beautiful little vignettes.
It's shorter tunes, and they have upright bass. So they have this weird
y'know, post modern jazz sensibility, but they're still very much in the English folk tradition.
I just love this record so much it's one of my favorites. So I'm glad I found it.
This is Gaussian Curves 'The Distance.' I like their last record quite a bit.
I guess it's vaguely new-age/Balearic/whatever they're calling it now
G.G. Mason is an Italian sound artist and composer
and he's working with these two younger guys who I'm not as familiar with
but it's really placid, but not boring, not wallpaper at all.
Very good deep listening for headphones and stuff, and just really... I dig their vibe.
This record came out on Kranky and I check out a lot of the stuff on Kranky
because it's a label I've liked since I was in college. I try to keep up with him
but this record in particular, this person, Justin Walter is unknown to me I know he did one other record
and on this record 'Unseen Forces,' he uses this weird electronic trumpet thing.
I'm not quite sure what it's called.
Some of my more musically inclined friends would be like, you know what that is, but I don't remember right now.
But it has almost like a cool sort of ECM vibe to some of it
but it's very much in that Kranky tradition, where there's clearly a lot of Eno
and just really great textures, really well thought-out, and really beautiful music.
I'm really psyched about that one.
These people probably don't need any introduction to anybody watching this.
This was originally a private press record, I guess right before John died.
John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane's 'Cosmic Music.' I believe that was on Coltrane Records.
But a friend of mine just told me that Superior Viaduct reissued this recently.
I've never heard it, but this label is really great. You could just go broke just buying everything they reissue.
Like everything from The Fall to stuff like this. It's just a really solid label so
I'm pretty psyched to jam that.
I really like CDs. I think CDs are like the records of now, y'know?
You get them for pennies on the dollar. Used to be you could outsmart clerks
so if you found a place in the middle of nowhere, and you're like
oh, how much is this Incredible String Band record? They'd go, oh $2.
And now it's like, well let's see what Discogs says.
And I find now that CDs have become that, and they're not hip at all and they're ugly
and they're plastic and everybody's downsizing, but you can find some amazing things
When I was buying CDs growing up, they were like $18.99 sometimes even $21.99
so now when I see those same CDs for 50 cents, I can't pass that up, y'know?
I got this 'The Name of This Band is The Talking Heads' reissue, it's a two-disc thing.
Honestly they've never been a... except for 'Remain in Light,' they've never been a huge band for me but
a friend of mine was saying that this reissue in particular sounded really good
and he's into a lot of great afrobeat stuff, and he knows guitar
and he was saying that the guitar stuff on here... which surprised me
but, yeah I'm psyched to jam that on the road.
This is the first Tangerine Dream record
and I just heard this. My friend Brian Cook was playing this while I was staying at his house.
It's their first record, so it has that Berlin school kind of dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut
y'know modular synth sound, which honestly I'm less into than the more deep ambient drone stuff
and some of the more twinkly, tinkly stuff from later
but it sounded so good at his house, and I found this used so
I still got a lot of driving to do on this trip, so that'll be perfect.
Turn 60 West into the Autobahn, y'know.
This is The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Volumes 1 & 2.
I actually had this on my watch list for awhile.
I heard 'The Chase' on the radio, on college radio
an alternate take of 'The Chase,' a song on here
and I was blown away. And honestly my jazz education begins at Bebop
just before Bebop. This is from '48 I believe
so it's kind of early for me. I don't usually jam stuff this early
mostly 'cause of fidelity issues and mostly just because of blind spots but
Tadd Dameron plays piano on this and
as a trumpet player he's just really incredible, not what you'd call minimal.
y'know, really just beautiful music. Also good stuff for the car.
I'll probably take some guff for this, but I have a lot of arguments with my guitar solee friends
about Windham Hill, and the early Windham Hill in particular. Because I think William Ackerman
and Alex de Grassi and those guys have made some incredible guitar records
just y'know, in some ways every bit the equal, obviously very different
but every bit the equal of Robbie Basho and Fahey's early records or mid period records.
And you can get them for $2-3. I mean this double CD here
'The First Ten Years,' which is kind of my wheelhouse, is five bucks.
This is one of the greatest blues records ever made
and Buddy Guy is on here.
He was originally credited as 'Friendly Chap,' because there's some contractual thing
so Buddy Guy on guitar, Junior Wells, they kind of just put these guys together
I don't think anybody really knew how explosive and how amazing this was gonna be
but there's a bunch of studio chatter and stuff that I've never heard on here
so we'll be jamming some studio chatter on the road.
I'll listen to Junior Wells' studio chatter, it sounds great.
And finally, I was looking and trying to see if there was any Grateful Dead.
This is the only thing that I don't have that you have is from New Year's Eve 1990.
I think 1990 was probably the last truly great year for The Dead.
Some people don't go as late as '90, and I totally understand that.
But I do celebrate the catalog, celebrate the entire discography
and this one in particular has Branford Marsalis on it. Those shows with Branford were just incredible.
So I'm psyched. Thank you Amoeba.
Cool. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you guys.