With a heavy new hip-hop-chaps-sampling-indie-rock project under their belts, we grabbed MC Zilla Rocca and producer Douglas Martin (aka the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers) to run through their favourite guitar-laden sets…

MC ZILLA ROCCA
The Kills ‘Midnight Boom’
“This album feels like a pro-nicotine album. You can listen to this album in three different situations: running from the police, making out with a widowed barmaid in a phone booth, or coming down from a three day whiskey bender in LA. It’s so beautiful and so dirty at the same time and the hooks are outstanding.”

Bloc Party ‘Silent Alarm’
“Since I don’t have time or the patience to catch up on the all the bands Bloc Party rips off for this album, I just throw on ‘Silent Alarm’ and call it a day. It’s like the ‘Doggystyle’ of indie rock albums for me – anytime I throw it on, I feel good. Their drummer is lights out and their ballads are just as memorable as the rock jawns.”

Why? ‘Alopecia’
“As an emcee, I love listening to Yoni Wolf’s apathetic inflections, his emotionless deliveries, and his treacherous wordplay that carries you into uncomfortable situations. I’ve been a fan of Why? for a while, and this album really moulded the left-field hip-hop of old Anticon with the indie rock vibes he displayed on ‘Elephant Eyelash’. Plus ‘Good Friday’ was the best sex rap of 2008!”

TV On The Radio ‘Desperate Youth, Bloody-Thirsty Babes’
“I remember listening to this album after Christmas at an FYE inside the Harrisburg East Mall. Thirty seconds in to ‘Staring At The Sun’, I bought this album immediately. Lyrically, it’s jarring and gripping but the harmonies make you feel invincible. ‘Ambulance’ is the most beautiful love song and could’ve been the theme to David Cronenberg’s Crash.”

The Black Keys ‘Rubber Factory’
“Every time I listen to this album, I want to sample every single track and make it a hip-hop album. They’re like the White Stripes but with better drumming and vocals that always sound like a grown man is on the mic. ‘Rubber Factory’ is like the rock version of Redman’s ‘Muddy Waters’ – every song is dripping with dirty grooves. It’s addictive and never lets you down.”

cLOUDDEAD ‘Ten’/Subtle ‘A New White’
“Both albums are genreless really, but I’d peg them more indie rock than anything else. Both albums showed me that you can rhyme about anything and it can sound dope. Dose One is the most fearless emcee of all time and one of the most interesting live performers I’ve ever seen. He and Yoni Wolf were big influences on my half of ‘The Slow Twilight’.”

DOUGLAS MARTIN
Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over The Sea’
“When you hear about someone writing and recording an album based on The Diary Of Anne Frank, you can’t help but raise a speculative brow. However, after one listen, with all its accordions and singing saws and wurlitzers among the acoustic guitars and funereal trumpets, I was stupefied by how perfectly it was constructed. This is, without question, the most stirring, heartbreaking, emotionally-taxing record I’ve ever heard, and my favorite record of any genre.”

Silver Jews ‘American Water’
“‘In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection,’ is the first lyric sung on this record, and a line like that sort of knocks you on your ass, like when Nas spit that he went to hell for snuffing Jesus. This is a record that has a ton of similarly affecting lines, and solidified David Berman – a man who would later become a published poet – as one of the finest lyricists in indie-rock.”

The Microphones ‘The Glow, Pt 2′
“A sprawling monolith of a Northwest record, this was one of the very first albums that made me realise that you don’t have to own a state-of-the-art studio with Pro-Tools and 500 monitors in order to create a masterpiece; all you need is a little creativity and a lot of heart.”

My Bloody Valentine ‘Loveless’
“On a purely sonic level, this is one of my biggest inspirations as a producer, and could very well be the most innovative record of the last 25 years. A lot of the dronier moments (not to mention the guitars that sound like swarms of bees) on ‘The Slow Twilight’ come from MBV bandleader Kevin Shields’s fondness for effects pedals and pre-recorded samples. The only difference is that I didn’t have to allegedly bankrupt an entire record label to get the sounds I was searching for…”

Elliott Smith ‘Either/Or’
Another album recorded in the Northwest (where I’ve been residing for over ten years) that proves that you don’t need a million-dollar budget in order to make a classic album. All you need in this case is to write deeply affecting pop songs better than all your peers combined.”

TV On The Radio ‘Young Liars EP’
“My first thought on this EP upon its release in 2003 was, ‘This sounds like the singer of a forgotten ’80s R&B group backed by an industrial-rock band. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like this before!’ The four original tracks featured are just as mind-boggling and awe-inspiring as they were back then, and, coupled with the spooky barbershop-quartet cover of the Pixies’ ‘Mr Grieves,’ you have yourself possibly the most forward-thinking band to come out of this decade.”

Death Cab For Cutie ‘We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes:
“Everyone has that one album that resonates with them the most when they’re absolutely heartbroken. Whenever I need to listen to something that correctly articulates the post-breakup blues, I play this record from start to finish and sing along to every single word.”

Grouper ‘Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
“Being as though I’m a longtime sufferer of insomnia, there are quite a few things I need in order to get eight hours of comfortable sleep; soothing music is one of those things. This record, which essentially sounds like the microphone was placed at the end of an empty hall during recording, has been my go-to sleep soundtrack for at least 150 nights of the past year, with its warm guitar tones and heavily reverbed vocals.”

(Check out the 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers review and free MP3 in HHC Digital 003 – available here!)