Nonogirl Radio

Top 5 Records

Well, I guess I'll be injecting a few personal posts here if they relate to music, media, or the arts.

A music list I'm on challenged members to name the five most influential albums on our lives. Here's mine:

1. B-52s--Wild Planet
   My childhood friend, Erica, was always a step ahead musically. She introduced me to this record when I was just 7 and I think it opened my taste to music that is fringe and alternative, but still poppy. It's party music. It's passionate. And it taught me where a woman's "pineapple" is.
2. The Go-Gos--Beauty and the Beat
   My cool cousin bought this for me when I was 8, but she said, "You have to listen to the whole record, not just two songs (meaning the hits). I'm glad I had female rock role models from early on.
3. The Smiths--The Queen is Dead
   "There is a Light" is probably what got me to buy this record and it sucked me in to everything Smiths. I went to a ski trip in Mammoth after I bought the record and although I knew the cabin wouldn't have a record player, I still brought it so that I could study the lyrics and liner notes!
4. Operation Ivy--Energy
   A co-worker at Disneyland let me borrow this tape while we were in the bathroom cleaning closet. I loved the high energy, the politics, and the commitment to building a punk community
5. Jawbreaker--24 Hour Revenge Therapy
   I heard parts of this record at a house party while I was at UCSC and they quickly became my favorite band.

So what's on YOUR  list?

Jawbreaker Documentary

Because I missed out on catching the Dinosaur Jr. show on Sunday, I popped on my prized Jawbreaker video--live at Gilman in 1987. I'll be parting with it for a bit so that Jawbreaker's drummer, Adam Pfahler, can make a digital copy of it for the upcoming Jawbreaker documentary.

Since I caught the Jawbreaker fever late (1995), the video allows me to catch songs they'd stopped playing by the time I saw them play live like Busy and With or Without U2.

They announce that it's their last show for a year or so because band members need to "return to college," and they still called themselves a band from Los Angeles!

One of the best moments happens at the end of their set when Gilman staff defend the no stage diving rule because a parent was suing the club for her son's injury while punk rock boys complain that it's cutting in to their fun. Clearly this was before the days where the debates were over who "sold out."