Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

3. PiLAlbum

Jesus Christ, that album is just stupidly good! I didn’t know this, but a lot – Ginger Baker, Tony Williams, who played drums for Miles Davis, Steve Vai – it was a supergroup! It’s a perfect record, it’s like the perfect, cool record.

The guitars on it, it just sounds like it’s flying! It’s like, "Wooo, there goes Steve!" There’d be divebombs – he had a Floyd Rose whammy bar – it just tanks – it goes down and then it goes up, up into the stratosphere, and then he’d go really down on it. Jesus Christ – talking about sonics! And it’s surprising how many of the drum riffs that I like are by Tony Williams: the first song [‘F.F.F.’] on it is just awesome; I would’ve thought that was Ginger Baker. I guess the producer employed two jazzy drummers!

I was listening to this pre-Pixies. I listened to it a lot with my brother, my little brother who’s excellent with the guitar. I still lived at home at the time and we would just flip out in my bedroom. He would actually show me [how to play something], because I would be so frustrated: "Goddamn it! What is this?!"

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