by Grady Mitchell | Definitive Records asks interesting folks to pick the three albums that anchor their musical tastes. Today we hear from Grant Lawrence, long-time CBC radio host and Canadian music aficionado…

The Rezillos – Can’t Stand The Rezillos | LISTEN | “This is a crazy Scottish punk rock band who put out this one amazing classic album in 1978, filled with razor sharp pop punk perfection. Snotty boy/girl vocals, machine gun drums, wild punk guitar, and near the greatest bass playing you’ll ever hear, up there with Rancid and the Who. And they’re coming to Vancouver in May!”

The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving | LISTEN | “An astoundingly brilliant album from my favourite Canadian band. This record weaves from punk to rock to emo balladeering of the highest quality, capturing the frustration of a generation who grew up in cities that couldn’t support them so they had to move away. Leader John K Samson (who didn’t move away) is this country’s finest musical poet since Leonard Cohen.”

The Sonics – Here Are The Sonics!!! | LISTEN | This is the greatest garage punk rock n roll album ever made, before “punk” was really used to describe music. This album is THEE blue print for thousands of bands that followed. Released in 1965, the songs contained within have been covered repeatedly by those thousands of bands (including my own) but never matched. The Sonics are the prototype of grunge, from Tacoma, WA.

ALL DEFINITIVE RECORDS