“I know The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5 and if I had any doubt about purchasing this, it seemed like while in Portland it would be almost impolite not to buy a record by Scott McCaughey. When The Young Fresh Fellows did a tour opening for The Soft Boys when they reunited, I remember them doing a song that I thought was really great and Scott saying it was from a collaborative 45. So I’ve got a hunch it was ‘The New Young Fresh Fellows Theme.’

“As for Lopez Beatles I was going through used 45s, I saw the name and it rang a bell without knowing why. I looked at the back and saw that one of the band members was this guy Robert Lloyd. Prior to the first Yo La Tengo single, we put out a couple of records on our band imprint Egon, one of which was an album by Will Rigby, the drummer of The dB’s.

“I have to say that the Egon marketing department really dropped the ball on that record. Most of the people who gravitated towards it were people who were into The dB’s and it was so different that it just sowed confusion. But Robert Lloyd was writing for the LA Weekly at the time; we didn’t know him but he wrote a review of the record that, if we didn’t know any better, I’d swear we’d dictated. We know him a little now.

“As it turns out, it was one of those stores which has a listening booth, so I listened to the 45 and it turns out that ‘Bitchen Party’ is about the Lopez Beatles’ bitchin’ party. So how about that? I’m buying two 45’s where the groups are singing about themselves.”

“My pal Byron Coley, who I used to work with at New York Rocker magazine, wrote a review which I edited of The Twinkeyz’ Alpha Jerk record - a wonderful album - and they have a song called ‘Twinkeyz Theme’. He started his review that I had a theory that writers do their best work writing about themselves and he recited me praising Lester Bangs writing about his musical career, Richard Meltzer writing about VOM and John Mendelsohn writing about Christopher Milk. And he questioned whether this theory would extend to bands singing about themselves, though he concluded that the Twinkeyz theme wasn’t the best song on the album, but he allowed it to stand."

“I don’t remember this band sparking my interest in rock and roll, because that had already happened - that was The Beatles and the bands I would see on Ed Sullivan. But I do remember a babysitter bringing Paul Revere’s ‘Greatest Hits’ and I can still picture the album, unless I’ve changed it in my brain. I know me and my brother went out and bought the album, so I’m not sure we would have been imaginative enough to get another record.

“It may have just been her enthusiasm. A lot of times, I’ll talk to people who have better record collections than me and had better record collections earlier and a lot of them have older siblings. But I’m the oldest, so if an older person gave me any kind of guidance, only a fool would decline.

“Obviously, I like having records. In this era of just getting rid of everything and listening on the internet, even though I understand the convenience of that, the actual talismanic aspect of ‘The Record’ remains a very big hold on me. So to have this 45, even though I have the album, was something I wanted to do. And then when I discovered I didn’t recognise the B-side, that was just a bonus.

“Oh, and speaking of amazing record collections, it made a big difference to me because of my pals Billy and Miriam from Norton Records. Billy died a little over a year ago and not a day goes by without thinking of them. Almost in the same way that I felt like I was talking to Scott McCaughey without talking to him by buying his record, this definitely gave me the opportunity to think about Billy and Miriam some more.

“Didn’t see it going that way with Paul Revere and the Raiders, did you?”

“I wanted to make sure we got to these three I grouped together. I really love oddball cover songs and hearing how songs have been mutated is just a real pleasure.

"So when I saw the Ronnie Aldrich and His Two Pianos, most of those songs are these muzak-y versions of pop songs which really lend themselves to that, like ‘Honey’ and ‘This Guy’s in Love With You, but ‘Do It Again’ jumped out. What a weird song to turn into an easy listening instrumental - and that record was a dollar. I think it’s very possible I already own this record, but I couldn’t find it. So with any luck it’s my only copy, but if I do have doubles, it’s an occupational hazard.

“So tying those records together, the Chuck Berry record, he was one of those people I listened to when I was very young but I kind of got out of the habit of listening to Chuck Berry. You just sort of take him for granted. And when he died everyone on WFMU was playing his music, especially this DJ, one of my favourites, who goes by the name Dave The Spazz, who did a three-hour show of just Chuck Berry.

“And it was remarkable just to be reminded how great those records are and how great they sound. Parenthetically, a similar thing happened with Fats Domino, but this Chuck Berry 45, I guess it’s from 1964 and it’s a little bit sad. I don’t know if it’s the first record he made after they make it big, but his Beatle bitterness is clear on ‘Go, Bobby Soxer’. It just makes it so poignant - the record sounds great, but it’s got those ridiculous Ringo drum fills. It’s 1964 and he’s feeling like he’s getting left behind! He’s going to be making music for more than forty years. I picked it up not knowing what the song was, but when I listened to it, it seemed pretty great.

“And then this Andre Kostelanetz record - who do you want to hear play the twist more than Andre Kostelanetz? I have to say, I was a little bit on the fence about ‘The Washington Twist’, as much as I like it, it was a little sing-songy and I didn’t know how much value I was going get out of it. But the disconnect between the title of the song on the other side, ‘The Secret Service’ and that song was irresistible. These are very heightened political times, so I thought maybe I should get a political record in there!”

“Taking it back full circle from one Portland institution to another, I’d never been to Mississippi Records before and it’s great! I became aware of the store recently, I think because of the Michael Hurley stuff they’ve been doing. We weren’t out there to play, Georgia and I were there mostly to visit friends and different people were saying ‘We could go up to Mississippi!’

“Even after I sent you the list of songs, I went back to Mississippi Records one more time and walked out with a bonus record. I saw on the counter that they had a copy of Bo Diddley’s ‘Mumblin’ Guitar’ 45 and I thought ‘What home doesn’t need that?’”

“We had heard this record at our friend’s house and it’s so gorgeous. I didn’t even realise the Éthiopiques connection. It was just so hypnotic, I could see myself listening to it all the time. I probably will!”

There's A Riot Going On is out now via Matador