9. PixiesSurfer Rosa

Surfer Rosa and Doolittle programmed me as to how I was going to write songs – if I go through those two records, I could very easily point to three TV On The Radio records that I ripped them off for. Those records were graffiti on my brain, and it came out in the music I’ve made – they were very, very informative to me, especially for the structures of the songs, the energy of the songs and, like, throwing Spanish in like that, at will, and for their voices together, Kim and Black Francis. You can hear them in it, they’re having fun, or just like, bashing stuff out, and just everyone sounds so good. Those records are in that same realm as Nevermind, where if I hear one song, I can go down the list and hear, in order, every single song without really thinking too hard about it. I loved Surfer Rosa in particular – south-of-the-border caveman punk by these people who somehow were from Boston.