My Dad's Records

It's probably pretty cliche by now to credit your dad's record collection as being the one thing that developed your musical tastes. But it is so often true. People that take a liking to music usually get into it as a way of splitting from the "normal" and the everyday. I think that 20 or 30 years ago, kids did this by looking to 'zines and the small press -- immersing themselves in a community of people that had "split" from the "normal" and were proud of that. But now, in a world cluttered with too many blogs, magazines, charts, and lists to even begin to comprehend, looking to the small press for guidance is so often ... unfulfilling. While part of me would really like to go out and start buying up 'zines and home-made newsletters, another part of me feels like that's not enough with the information overload that we can so readily tap into.
When I was younger, I looked to my dad's record collection as a sort of basis for my musical future ... he, it seemed, had once read all those 'zines and indexes and kept up on the things that were impossible for me to experience first hand. So, as cliche as it does sound, it was because of his collection that I have developed the basis for my current likes and dislikes. I will, for example, never get into Pink Floyd because my dad preferred Blondie, I will never become a Dead Head because my dad preferred Joy Division, and I will never get into acid house because my dad always liked New Order more. If I were say, born in China, I would probably always prefer Chinese food over Mexican food, no matter how good it tastes. Something like that.
So -- I decided to guide you all through the highlights of my early listening ... here it be:

(1) Joy Division - Isolation
(2) Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
(3) Echo and the Bunnymen - The Cutter
(4) DEVO - Uncontrollable Urge (Live)
(5) Blondie - Call Me
(6) New Order - Blue Monday
(7) the Clash - Lost In the Supermarket
(8) the Monochrome Set - Alphaville
(9) Siouxsie & the Banshees - Arabian Knights
(10) the Fall - Blindness (alternative mix)
(11) Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless

I missed stuff there, and I posted some things that my dad doesn't actually own ... but he has a record of 7" or something by all of these guys, and I guess exposure was more of the point here. Enjoy what I gave ... I like all of these bands ... this is just a peek!