CLEAN Version........

AH, the sophmore curse...how does anyone cope with it? Do you go the route of say, a TORTOISE or a FUGAZI where after the impact of yr first album is so intense so adored that everything after is just gravy? OR, do you end up like so many where your first album is adored and so revered that no matter what you do, it won't be seen in the public eye as surpassing that of your "seminal masterpiece?" There are thousands of examples of this, so we'll save the embarassment. With that, we'll discuss the PRIVATE PRESS by Mr. Josh Davis (AKA DJ SHADOW). THE PRIVATE PRESS is indeed that...it is a personal account of SHADOW's trials and tribulations since he was pushed into the limelight of the music media as the savior of "trip-hop," or "downtempo"--two terms that have been left for dead years ago. The man creates albums like movies for your ears, while holding up his own cat-scan for you. Emotions wash over you: some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, some will confuse, astound, and bring you closer to trying to understand the method to SHADOW's madness. Maybe some will only get halfway there, and want to turn back; maybe we'll never actually understand. At least we'll have a great soundtrack while we try to figure him out. R E C O M M E N D E D! H I G H L Y!

Another side of Bob Dylan: romantic, absurd, & whimsical- pretty much anything that wasn't fea- tured on the staunchly folky, protest-heavy TIMES, really. As such, this is a more varied record & it's more successful, too, since it captures him expanding his music, turning in imaginative, poe- tic performances on love songs & protest songs alike. The lyrics & music are getting deeper & Dylan's trying more things here that are hardly strictly folk & the result is one of his best records. ESSENTIAL, Y'KNOW?

This is quite possibly the greatest album of all-time. BLONDE ON BLONDE blends blues, country, rock, & folk into a wild, careening & dense sound. It also marks the first of many great collaborations with ROBBIE ROBERTSON & Dylan's relationship with THE BAND. It's an album of enormous depth, providing endless lyrical & musical revelations on each play; it really never gets old. It's a culmination of Dylan's electric rock & roll period- he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

This is the best break-up album in recorded history, weeks before its release DYLAN pulled a gentler, more acoustic version of the record in favor of the present form full of scorn and bittersweet rememberance. As a aside search out and discover the bootleg series acoustic version of "IDIOT WIND" which is entirely haunting...This record is soooo good it almost makes love seem worthwhile.

It's hard to overestimate the importance of Bob Dylan's second record, one that established Dylan as an unparallel songwriter of considerable skill, imagination & vision. At the time folk had been quite popular on college campuses & what-not, making headway into the pop charts in diluted form, and while there were certainly a number of gifted songwriters, nobody transcended the scene like Dylan did with this record. THIS RECORD BELONGS IN ABSOLUTELY EVERY POP MUSIC FANS LIBRARY. It's that crucial!

VERY EARLY AND/ OR FIRST U.S. PRESSING DIGITAL AUDIO DISC CORP PRINTED ON INNER RING

The album that solidifies Dylan's controversial move of "going electric" as one of the most important musical developments of all time. After pioneering the genre of folk rock with BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, Dylan returned to the studio that same year to amp up what his diehard protest-song-era fans were literally calling him Judas for. If you have never heard this straight through start to finish, buy this shit right now. As always with Dylan, you'll have plenty of b-sides, bootlegs, and mythos to dive into when you've worn this one down. ESSENTIAL

Dylan's third record & first collection of originals. The sense of humour from FREEWHEELIN' is tempered & his focus has shifted instead to songs of social protest. Even though it's not as good as his previous effort, it's still miles ahead of anyone else & a complete classic.

"In the Long Run we are all dead." - John Maynard Keynes

MONKEY WRENCH MY HERO EVERLONG

the brown album by Fugazi. some folks think this is the worst Fugazi album. others (like me) think this is THE BEST Fugazi rekkid. To each his own, y'dig? LONG LIVE THE "BROWN" ALBUM !!!!!!!!