Concrete Jungle Discs

First of all, thanks to everyone who has submitted songs for the Monitor Mix video blog theme-song contest. The deadline is tonight at 11:59 PT, so you still have time to enter! I can't wait to listen to all of the entries and share my favorites with you.

But now, down to serious business: Monitor Mix HQ is moving to New York City! It's a temporary move, but a very real one, and I'm faced with a lot of decisions. I won't bore you with tales of the amazing garage sale I had this past weekend, or the fact that I get sad every time I step out into my garden, but I will ask for your help on a subject about which you know a lot: music.

I've sold off or packed all of my CDs for storage; I've loaded the content of the ones I can't live without onto my computer. That's right: Not a single CD is coming along to NYC. Yet I can't seem to part with the glorious and tactile experience of vinyl. Here is a picture of the albums that I currently own:

There is no way that I want to move (or could move) these albums across the country. Most of them will be stored and well cared for in my absence, but I want to bring at least one box of LPs along with me. But which ones?

I've always hated the notion of Desert Island Discs (DID), the hypothetical game wherein you're stuck on an island and can only bring 10 records. Little did I know that one day I actually would be heading to an island, faced with the very task of choosing the music that is most sacred to me. Luckily, in this modern age, the majority of what I want to hear will be on my computer. But nevertheless, there are some LPs that bring me comfort, or that I just like keeping around. (It's a little late to hire an intern to convert all of my vinyl to MP3s, and why would I want that anyway?)

So here's what I've come up with so far. I'll keep the reasoning personal because it's often merely arbitrary, nostalgia-based, or just how I feel at this very moment:

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
The Wipers, Is This Real?
George Harrison, All Things Must Pass
The Clash, London Calling
The Clash, Sandinista!
The Grateful Dead, American Beauty
Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser
Led Zeppelin, III
Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis

Any suggestions? What would you hold on to if you were in my position?

1:12 PM ET | 08- 3-2009 | permalink

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