I remember reading that in making OK Computer, Radiohead created aesthetic guidelines for themselves deliberately inspired by Kubrick's films. They wanted to be the Kubrick of rock and roll - and they succeeded. Kubrick's films are endlessly fascinating, mind-bending, and intrusive, and the artists they've inspired make this archive worth owning in full. As a film student I wrote essays comparing Nietzsche and 2001: A Space Odyssey, forcing me to explore ideas that still resonate with me today, despite my still struggling to put them into words. That's how sticky Kubrick's films are: active organisms living in one's subconscious. Maybe with this archive I could understand myself a little better.

On my very first mp3 player given to me by my older brother, amongst songs by The Hives, Black Eyed Peas, and The Imperial March from Star Wars, was John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus." I always loved the creepiness of the song, I remember feeling a little scared at the age of 8 or 9. This album has influenced my own ideas about music so much, and when, in High School, I really got into the Australian psych rock band Tame Impala, I remember thinking how similar the drums on Blue Jay Way were to this modern band. I also love that this album comes with a comic book.

1982 Jem Records-published stereo single LP of Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land, an opened used copy with the record graded Good, featuring stippled contour-map cover art, a cream back panel with track and credit text, an Editions EG mark, and matrix detail EGED-20-A HUB STERLING.

1977 Atlantic Records/RCA Music Service club reissue of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, catalog SD 1930, a sealed gatefold single LP at 33 1/3 rpm with the surreal orange-sky stone landscape cover art intact under shrink and the record cataloged as Mint.

1971 Capitol Records Winchester pressing/reissue of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, a 33 1/3 single LP with matrix SMAL-1-2835-P1 #2, used/opened jacket, Good record condition, vivid psychedelic cover art, and the 24-page full-color picture book present.

Somewhere in a dark closet there's a mini DV cassette of me learning to walk, soundtracked by Radiohead's 1997 masterpiece OK Computer. Is that why I am the way I am? Very likely. Everyone knows "Creep," but if that's the only Radiohead song you know, you're doing yourself a massive disservice. Radiohead combined clashing genres into the most beautiful, chilling, existential music that exists today. This box set holds every album through 2006, before they reinvented themselves with In Rainbows. Most bands peak once and decline. Not Radiohead. I've listened to Pyramid Song during more breakups than I care to admit, and their live shows feel nothing short of religious.

Who doesn't want to walk into their high school hallway wearing a shirt that turns every head? How can you quietly inform any witness that you have great taste in music, but are daring enough to be sent to the principal's office for graphic imagery? I remember when a classmate, a talented guitarist and painter, showed up wearing a reprint of this Roxy Music shirt. He went from someone I liked to someone I respected. It took me a while to fall in love with Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, but now, as a fan of the music and the artwork, I'd love to own this original Country Life T-shirt.

There are two artists I will forever lament not having seen live: Elliott Smith and David Bowie. I was first drawn to Bowie through my father's record collection, which included Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory. As a 15 year old, those two albums forever changed how I approached songwriting, performing, and fashion. Bowie has always been able to capture the imagination of weirdos and good looking freaks, and I can only imagine how inspiring a Bowie concert must have been. These tickets are not only beautiful - they remind me of an era in music culture when brilliant, strange artists were still mainstream, when weirdness itself could headline the arenas.

The first instrument that appealed to me was the drums. It was the main focus of any song I loved, whether Deep Purple, AC/DC, or the White Stripes. My love of drums coincided with my love of The Beatles, and I learned early Beatles tunes on my own kit at age 9 - much to my neighbor's chagrin. These signature Ringo sticks remind me playing matters just as much as listening. There's no therapy quite like playing along to your favorite songs, and understanding the physicality needed for great music reminds me how daring these artists really are. I won't tolerate any Ringo hate - he played his role perfectly.

I first discovered Ai Weiwei's work at a Venice Biennale exhibition in 2013. I was 15, traveling through Italy alone, when I wandered into a stone church and found S.A.C.R.E.D. - six iron cells recreating his 81 days in secret detention. Later I learned about the documentary about him, Never Sorry, which follows his years as a political prisoner making art that exposes the Chinese government's abuses. This mug represents what Brooks Alley is about: how do we speak truth to power through art? How do we manifest individuality within collective experience? Ai Weiwei puts it plainly: "Everything is art, and everything is politics" - a sentiment I'd remember daily.

One of the many classic Fitzgerald box sets, this one has classic jazz standards that I love. “Isn’t It A Pity?”, “How Long Has This Been Going On?”, and “But Not For Me” are all beautiful takes by Fitzgerald. While not my favorite of the songbooks (that prize goes to Ellington), this box set has a ton of wonderful treats for any lover of vocal jazz.

My only non-record item in my collection. I love Dickens. I’ve read *David Copperfield* and *A Tale of Two Cities*, with *The Pickwick Papers* looming over me on one of my ‘bought at a book sale and need to read’ piles. As you can see, I’m implying that I’ve in fact never read *A Christmas Carol*, yet have it on my list. And it’s because:

1. I love Charles Dickens (as I said earlier). His writing can be funny, it can be rich with detail, and it can be veiled in an overwhelming sadness. And so…
2. I trust that his writing in *A Christmas Carol*—the most classic (if not *the* most) classic Christmas story—holds up to the test of time. For petes sake, they did a Muppets version of this novel. It’s been retold more times than I can count on my hands (and toes, probably.)

What can a mortal man say about The Rolling Stones? Mick Jagger is like Zeus, and I am but a foot soldier of the Greek army. Mick Jagger is like Napoleon, and I am but a cannonball being blasted towards an army of Englishmen. Mick Jagger is like the hammer and I am but the nail. I see blue, yellow, green and pink in my dreams, sometimes hard, sometimes pale, patterns alternating, veiled under shrink wrap, sometimes with the title in blue lettering, sometimes in red, sometimes with the sticker over Marilyn Monroe’s face, sometimes without the sticker. “Shattered” comes on at my other job sometimes. Mick Jagger…wherever you are…

Before I listened to Electric Light Orchestra, I’d say that Queen was my favorite ‘rock’ group. They were my introduction into the genre, matter of fact, they were the first band I ever fell in love with. “Bicycle Race” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” are the two big hits on this LP, along with “Fat Bottomed Girls.” I took a long sabbatical from Queen, but visited their entire discography (after only being a ‘big hits’ fan) and fell in love with the song “Dreamer’s Ball.” It’s slow, has a waltz-esque feel to it, with Mercury singing his heart out (as he usually does). Check it out if you’re not familiar with some of Queen’s non-hit tunes, some songs might surprise you!

I’ve been listening to the Electric Light Orchestra since middle school; it’s undeniable that the popularity of *Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II* introduced me to Mr. Blue Sky, and—coincidentally—it just so happened that my mother owned a CD of the band's greatest hits. I instantly fell in love. After a thorough dive through their discography, *A New World Record* stood out as my overall favorite.

Probably one of their most densely packed albums with hits, you’ve got “Telephone Line,” “Livin’ Thing,” and “Do Ya” and the minor hits “So Fine,” (which always plays on SiriusXM’s Classic Rewind) and “Rockaria!”.  Funnily enough, my top two songs didn’t even chart as singles; “Mission (A World Record)” and “Above The Clouds” are mellow songs, meant to be enjoyed in solitude on a rainy day. It’s the perfect ELO record in terms of balancing fun rock, strings, and that one 50’s style rock ‘n roll song that Lynne loved to throw in with these earlier LPs. This band is a hidden gem in the 70s Rock vault (there’s a reason they make my list twice!)

My second ELO album for my collection (apologies for the duplicate artist, but I need to get on my soapbox) is Eldorado. Released in 1974, this concept album follows a man’s daydreams in a fantasy world. It’s a simple concept, and is executed wonderfully. The strings on this album can be triumphant on one track, and then foreboding on another. The Orchestra is truly the full focus, and I’m here for it. “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” was the only single of this LP, which is understandable. A lot of the songs aren’t meant for radio play. Like any concept album, this one is best enjoyed in one sitting, isolated, with the main focus being on listening to the music itself. The grand finale of the album, “Eldorado” is one of my favorite rock ballads ever, and is the perfect conclusion to the concept album. If you enjoy classical music, and like rock and roll, maybe check this one out. Perhaps the stepping stone—commercially speaking—from On The Third Day to Face The Music, but money doesn’t mean everything…especially in this case…trust me.

A re-release on 12-inch vinyl of 1952’s Billie Holiday Sings, Solitude was released in 1956 on a different label (Clef as opposed to Sings’ Mercury) and contains one of Holiday’s most popular songs: “Solitude.” Holiday’s voice has always had a haunting beauty to it, and this record puts that beauty on full display. I’m more in love with her songs “Strange Fruit” and “I’ll Be Seeing You” but “Solitude” earns its place as one of her hits. For a relatively untrained singer, it boggles the mind that Holiday’s voice can move with such force. It’s no wonder that this album stands the test of time 70 years after its re-release.

Hard to pick a Wonder album to throw in the list. Innervisions has “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.” If you’d pick another one of his albums for your collection, I wouldn’t yell at you. Just don’t yell at me for picking this one.

It was May 10th, 2025 the first time I listened to *Paul’s Boutique*. At the time I was a big fan of A Tribe Called Quest, finding myself slowly submerging into the late 80s/early 90s hip-hop scene. While looking through old CDs with my mom, we found *Paul’s Boutique*. “You might like this.” A few hours later I was blasting down the i-95 in my ‘06 Camry with “The Sounds of Science” blowing my speakers to another planet.

On release—to my surprise—the album only went certified gold; a far cry to the explosive release of *Licensed to Ill*. It makes sense when you consider *Boutique* has a new producing crew—The Dust Brothers—delivering an album with a chaotic soundscape compared to *Ill.* The *heavy* sampling gives each song a unique feel; each track has replayability in terms of diving into the layered soundscape. Sure, the lyrics can be juvenile (and, aged a bit poorly, but most hip-hop albums from this era have a few tracks like that) but make no mistake, the beats…are bumpin’.

Confess I’d never heard of Moonfire!  Coming from 1969, it tells the story of what many described as the single most historic event of the 20th century; the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

Life Magazine hired the great American author Norman Mailer to craft the story of the men, the machinery and the science that took the entire world to the surface of the moon for the first time.  At a time when the world seemed to be coming apart at the seams with conflict and war, this was a unifying triumph that seemed to unite humanity.

Created as a limited edition of 1969 copies, with Brooks Alley holding numbers 294 and 458, Taschen worked with Mailer to produce an extraordinary artifact.  Housed in a white resin box with a convex plexiglass window symbolizing the outside of the command module one can see the book’s cover image of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon.

Along with it comes a photograph, numbered, framed and signed by Aldrin, of his legendary walk on the moon.  Just as the moment captivated rock stars, generals and politicians, commie pinkos and republican reactionaries, the young and the old, here's a chance for you to be mesmerized by a truly beautiful and historic object.

We must have dozens, or maybe hundreds, of Bowie albums in the collection and I love em all. And yet the Genesis books, especially those about Bowie are truly magical. As they’re quite rare, most of us, myself included, have never had the chance to sit with them. The wow factor here is off the charts.

Moonage Daydream gives you Bowie and Ziggy in a package that’s a sight to behold and touch. From the gorgeous tray case in the design of Ziggy’s outfit on the album cover to the partial leather binding in blue and orange you’ll know it’s a masterpiece. But it’s when you open the cover that you become instantly captivated. This thing will blow your mind with the story that it reveals.

You’ll be taken into the inner sanctum of Ziggy’s essence and Bowie’s reflections on the whole trip. Whether you read David’s words in the forward or notes he wrote while on the road of his thoughts on becoming Ziggy all the magic’s here. Open any page and find explosive photos that will leave you transfixed along with writing by those who were at the center of this crazy adventure…. Rock, Bowie and many others, that illuminate the Ziggy adventure in ways that only they could! You want this book, you need this book and it might very well be worth mortgaging your soul to get your hands on it.

I still remember when a friend in high school introduced me to Cry of Love, passionately telling me it was the absolute greatest of all Hendrix albums.  By then I’d spent countless hours with headphones on blowin my ears out listening to all the groups and guitar gods, with Jimi very much among them.  We’d argue at great length, often picking up the needle and replaying our favorite songs over and over to validate our reverence and hero worship.

I’d long before declared Electric Ladyland of Da Vinci like status.  But I was instantly swept up into total euphoria when my friend screamed you gotta hear this and cranked up Night Bird Flying.  Despite my loyalty to what came before, that song was it…….from the first notes and two or three bars it was just perfect.  Smooth and melodic, with frenetic but sensual soloing almost all the through and lyrics that hypnotized you.  Followed by My Friend, equally spectacular, a ballad of introspection, that tells the story of the loneliness that can affect us all, but with words that could only come from Jimi, or Hemingway.

I loved it then and feel the same now.

It’s Only Rock “N” Roll (But I Like It)! I love the Stones and I LOVE this book. I’ve spent a lot of time with it and want and need to spend much more given it’s 475 pages and I’d like to revel in every one. There’s so much about it that makes me smile. As 1975, when I was just 15, was the year I first saw the Stones at Madison Square Garden, cracking the cover of this book took me down memory lane in a way that accessed my subconscious. Many might say that they were never the same after this show. No doubt it left a lifelong impact on me and Tour of the Americas 1975 provides the explanation.
In one way or another each page transmits the splendor, magnificence and the spectacle of the Stones at the time. From Christopher Sikes' diary-like narration, whose prior claim to fame had been for photographing James Hunt (the Mick Jagger of F1) for Hesketh Racing, to pics of The Starship, the Boeing 720 outfitted with all the comforts and accessories required for the kings of rock 'n' roll and their besties, to the initially closed lotus petal shaped stage from which Mick sat at its highest point and descended from the stars to open the show, to the supporting cast of steel drummers and Billy Preston looking as cool as anyone could, to Mick riding a giant billowing multi colored cock while he sang Star Fucker. Here’s the joy, the lunacy, the outrageousness, the sexuality, the unbridled fun……the evidence that explains why I and so many love these guys so much and are still following them around the world, often with our children, wherever they may roam.

The boldest cover record of its decade. One listen to her rendition of "22nd Century" and you'll understand why. It’s also a gateway to the criminally overlooked Exuma - consider this your introduction.

My favorite Thompson book because it isn’t about Thompson’s politics. He’s always been the king of vivid scenery, and here, off the Nixon soapbox, that gift gets room to breathe. This is not so much a book one reads as a ride one takes. Essential preparation for any trip to Hawaii, and a persuasive argument for booking one regardless. Steadman's illustrations remain unmatched.

Inspired a personal, unsolicited email to Lana Del Rey suggesting a cover of "Lucy Jordan." No reply has been received. The offer stands.

The record that made rap possible. Contains some of the most consequential protest songs ever committed to vinyl. As relevant today as it was in 1971.

Found during a low period thanks to the documentary Dig!. Anton Newcombe's answer to a Stones record, made mostly alone, unraveling and brilliant in equal measure.

A concept album about a fictional dead-end town narrated by a voice that’s objectively badass. Hazlewood reminds me of the Stranger from The Big Lebowski. This record feels like getting talked to by that guy. Wildly underrated album and feeling, long overdue for a comeback.

The blueprint for every punk band I respect, plus the Sex Pistols. Fell in love with it at fourteen, not a moment too soon. I requested "Shake Appeal" at my Southern all-girls' boarding school's annual mixer and debuted my rawest Iggy Pop impression on the dance floor. I like to think James Newell Osterberg did the same once, at fourteen, in a stiff collar of his own.

Two guys who didn't need to prove anything to anybody deciding to make a record together anyway. Unhurried in the way only true masters can afford to be.

For anyone who takes language unseriously. A masterclass in words, delivered as comedy.

Well I tried getting back into running this Spring. Best laid plans… My left Achilles tendon has given me problems since college and resulted in a lot of false-starts, but some hip pre-hab exercises from this very book has kept me off the couch for a solid two weeks now. And if I don’t run that damn Turkey Trot this year my mother-in-law won’t let me hear the end of it… so I’m betting a lot on Ms. Bookspan. And so far so good (but don’t call it a comeback just yet).

The first posthumous Otis Redding release. This album’s main importance, however, lies in its containing my favorite song to sing at karaoke. Yes, it’s the title song. No, I can’t do the whistle at the end (but I always try).

Listening to Speaking in Tongues on CD is the first memory I have of hearing recorded music. My mom used to claim that she played Beethoven for me early on, but all that washed away with the pulsing bass intro of “Burning Down the House”... My parents’ copy had a scratch and would skip on “Making Flippy Floppy,” so I would jump to “Girlfriend is Better,” which, to this day gets stuck in my head more than perhaps any other song. The Rob Rauschenberg picture disc is the original collectors’ edition, and looks sweet, so I will buy it eventually and recall dancing in Spiderman pajamas to a Zenith boombox on a late-summer evening… “nothing is better than that, is it?”

I use Google Lens as much as the next small-time antique dealer. But flipping through a tome like this is the only way to gain (and extemporaneously flex) actual product knowledge. “Well, label or no label you can tell it’s not the original Wassily armrest by the stitch pattern ...” Pragmatic uses aside, this would make a beautiful addition to any coffee table. Particularly on Danish teak—maybe Johannes Andersen? His have a lip on the edges to keep the book from falling off. (If you need such a coffee table for your new book, you know where to find me…)

Michelangelo Antonioni directed Blow-Up. An on-brand film for Brooks Alley, apart from the mimes and murder... 1966. Your posh photographer protagonist based on David Bailey (who turned down the starring role) roams around bleak, mod London in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Drophead buying cool shit and becoming existentially fraught, then bored, and then very fraught again, etc. Antonioni’s first English movie, Blow-Up features such treats as a cameo from the Yardbirds and an original jazz score by Herbie Hancock.
Author Paul Duncan waxes thoroughly and poetically on Antonioni and his storytelling craft in this edition of his Director series. Taschen released this series of director-focused paperbacks by Duncan in 2013—we have three, each signed by Duncan, and this is one of the coolest and most Italian.

Brace yourself for some early Eames esoterica: though not contained in “Mid-century Modern Complete” (antithetical to “Fix your Own Pain”), this stackable (think Pringle) bentwood leg splint was the creation of design couple Charles & Ray Eames for use by the US Navy in World War II. It is a tried and true ice-breaking fixture in the Brooks Alley warehouse; there are very few people for whom this is recognizable as something other than sculptural art. Indeed it is the most beautiful durable medical good that this former biomedical engineer has seen. An excess of slots and holes make it perfect to hang on a wall to continue causing confusion and conversation. I’d hate to see it go, but we will include mounting hardware in the order.

This 2000 Humphrey Bogart Collection by Warner Home Video presents iconic films such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, encapsulated in a durable slipcase, and is in good condition, perfect for collectors and cinephiles.

Deja Vu was an early ‘90’s Japanese photo quarterly that, like so many things, I would not have known about if not for the Brooks Alley collection. Each issue is a highly stylized sampling of international modern photography, complete with bilingual Japanese/English essays and 90s camera ads. Sometimes you get mini-booklet inserts or fold-outs, even full posters (also perfect to display on that new coffee table of yours…). We take a lot of photos for our book listings, so check ‘em out. If you buy one, keep out of reach of messy eaters/drinkers and children old enough to clearly see what the subjects of the photos are.