Should

Should is Marc Ostermeier, Tanya Maus and Eric Ostermeier. Their debut six song CD-EP, 1995's A Folding Sieve, was a true gem of the 1990's American shoegaze scene. Since then, they have released 3 more full length LPs, merging shoegaze, psych-rock, ethereal pop and slowcore in a uniquely manner. Their latest album, The Great Pretend, has been released in 2014 by Words on Music.

www.words-on-music.com/should

www.facebook.com/ShouldMusic

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1. Colin Newman – We Means We Starts (from CN1, 1982) 

Taught me the beauty in repetition and addition.

2. New Order – Leave Me Alone (from Power, Corruption and Lies, 1983)

A perfect ending to a perfect album.

3. Cocteau Twins – Spangle Maker (from Spangle Maker EP, 1984) 

Taught me the beauty of creating a new world to get lost in.

4. Yo La Tengo - Barnaby, Hardly Working (from President Yo La Tengo, 1989) 

Taught me the beauty of the single-groove song.

5. Disco Inferno – Waking Up (from Science EP, 1991) 

Haunting and minimal with wonderful subtleties.

6. Bedhead - Bedside Table (from What Fun Life Was, 1993) 

Simple and understated: just special.

7. My Bloody Valentine – To Here Knows When (from Loveless, 1991) 

Taught me the beauty in decay and deconstruction.

Chvad SB

Chvad SB has been performing and recording music since 1991 and has played with a wide range of innovative and envelope-pushing bands. His experiments focus on finding new sounds and textures, but always with a human edge. Using a wide variety of instruments including modular synthesizers, found objects, hand-built instruments, guitars, and voice, Chvad SB builds soundscapes that are as unsettling as they are familiar. Chvad SB has just completed his first collection of dark-ambient solo recordings titled Crickets were the Compass.

www.chvad.com

www.facebook.com/chvadsb

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1. Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod (Redline/Whiteline Version) (single, 1991)

This song changed everything for me. I was DJing at my college radio station and the single for Jesus Built My Hotrod was sitting on a stack of discs that needed to be played that night. The next morning I sold everything I had of value to a pawn shop and bought a my first keyboard, distortion pedal, microphone and tape deck. This song re-ignited my creative ambitions that, at the time, had been squelched by a flaccid public school system lacking anything in the way of creative nourishment.

2. DEVO - Race of Doom (from New Traditionalists, 1981)

My Oma introduced me to DEVO with this album. This record saved me from religion.

3. New Order - Your Silent Face (from Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983)

Every set I played at my college radio station ended with this song. This song exists in some other space. I'm still not sure what to make of it. So dry and barren and sad and still lush and pretty. After buying Power, Corruption & Lies I didn't buy another New Order record for at least a decade. I couldn't stop listening to it. I didn't want anything else from them.

4. Howard Shore - Crash (from Crash, 1996)

The opening chord from the first track sucked me in forever. This soundtrack opened up a place in my mind I've been trying to keep filled ever since hearing it. Perfect moods. Perfect tones.

5. Einsturzende Neubauten - Haus Der Lüge (from Strategies Against Architecture II Disc 2, 1991)

The raw pounding of this song live is unstoppable. Like Jesus Built My Hotrod, this song manages to tap into the nastiest visceral place in my heart.

6. Faith No More - Epic (from The Real Thing, 1989)

I was working in a Pizza Hut when I first heard this playing in the background on the radio and loved it immediately. I had no idea when that door was opening what kind of eclectic impact Faith No More would have on my creative endeavors later in life.

7. The Kinks - Destroyer (from Give the People What They Want, 1981)

When I was eight years old I would sit on the floor in the dining room by myself listening to my dad's radio when the rest of the family was watching TV in the next room. When I first heard this song it terrified me. It was so raw and hard. Decades later it still scares me. For years I wanted to do a version of this but I just don't think I could do anything cooler with it. I just want to steal its crazy energy and run away with it but that wouldn't be fair to the song.

Remora

Remora is the project of Brian John Mitchell (the owner of beloved Silber Records) started in the '90 to release guitar-made ambient walls of sound, which has lately shifted into apocalyptic punk-pop, slowcore rhythms and shoegazing tunes.

www.silbermedia.com/remora/

www.facebook.com/PostApocalypticPop

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1. Godflesh – Slavestate (from Slavestate, 1991)

This came out when I was 15. At the time I was mainly listening to thrash bands & this song totally blew my mind. I still walk around whistling it on a regular basis 20+ years later.

2. Lycia – Dome (from Estrella, 1998)

Lycia shaped everything I think I know about music & the music industry. This one is a lot noisier than what they’re generally known for & fairly awesome.

3. Swans – Red Sheet (from Body to Body, Job to Job, 1991)

The early Swans are so brutal. This song always grabbed me by the throat.

4. Joy Division – Twenty Four Hours (from Closer, 1980)

Joy Division is probably the band most influential to all the other bands I listen to. They always sound new & fresh & exciting to me.

5. Gyorgy Ligeti – Lux Aeterna (from Lux Aeterna, 1991)

Lux Aeterna blew my mind. It’s not just music from 2001 or The Shining, it’s a serious piece of music that totally influenced everything I’ve done that vaguely falls under the heading ambient.

6. Low – Sunflower (from Things We Lost In The Fire, 2001)

I love Low. This is the one of their tracks I most find myself walking around singing.

7. New Order – The Him (from Movement, 1981)

This might be the single song I’ve listened to the most times in 2014. People always want to talk crap about New Order compared to Joy Division & even I used to do that. But now I think that the first two albums are where Joy Division was headed anyway & this song is under heard & incredible.