brooklyn

One of my dearest friends of my adult life is moving back to Chile on Monday. Tonight was probably the last that I will get to see of him all by myself until I fly down to see him in June...which, thankfully, isn't that long away. We met up on Houston and he said, "I want you to take me to Kim's and pickout $100 worth of music that I *must* have. That way, when I listen to it I will always think about you." How sweet is that?! And how hard!!! I mean, $100 and what are the You Must Have This Album (of "new" stuff...not like the Beatles or the Cure...) $100...that's like 8 CDs if you're careful. He really doesn't know much of anything about music...although I've broken him in a good deal and he's developing pretty great taste. So here's my question...if you were in the same situation and you could pick out 8 new CDs for someone who is just starting to get into more indie rock/"hipster" music, which CDs would you pick out for them? (Assume that they have a familiarity with the Establishment bands like The Cure, The Beatles, etc...)

I picked out:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Richard Hawley
The Pixies Greatest Hits
Depeche Mode's double CD of hits 86-92(date?)
The Gossip
The Black Keys
The Flaming Lips
The Von Bondies

I actually think that we ended up with a few others, too...but that was the short list. So hard...so from this list of albums I'm supposed to "grow" him into more music.

Anyway, wasn't that the coolest thing to suggest? So what CDs would you pick?

AND...If you aren't aware of StoryCorps then you should be. For $10 you and a friend go into a soundproof recording booth and you get 40 minutes to interview and record your life story (or anything else you find interesting enough to talk about for 40 minutes.) You get a CD of your "interview" at the end of the session. If you choose to do so you can sign a release and a copy of the CD will be put on file in the Library of Congress. There are about a dozen people that I want to take and interview! This is too much fun!