The heroine in Face Value, Kate Miller, can name any track in two seconds…  But if you’re not as hot off the mark, find out more about the music in Face Value from Nigel House and Sean Forbes at Rough Trade, London’s most famous independent record shop:

Skin Deep by The Stranglers
“It’s a bad track by the Stranglers and it’s a bad track generally.  It could only be worse if you put on Golden Brown.   Right at the beginning of punk in the 70s The Stranglers beat up the writer Jon Savage so we never stocked them in this shop.  They didn’t like his review.”

Ghosts of Saturday Night by Tom Waits
“This is one of my all time favourites from his 2nd album, which came out in 1974.  It makes me think of Edward Hopper, diners, a more gentle age far removed from the go-getting upfront America of today.  It’s Waits at his chain-smoking, whisky-swilling, Beat poetry finest.  It’s the best of the early years and isn’t as dark as the Swordfish Trombone period with all its weird instruments.”
 

Sufjan Stevens
(actually he was cut from the final draft of the book in favour of Devendra Banhart, but I’m still including him here as he’s brilliant – KBM)

“Sufjan Stevens is bringing out an album for each state of the USA.  He definitely has god-bothering tendencies but at least he’s not singing about drugs like all the others.  Although singing about serial killer John Wayne Gacy Junior, track four on the Illinoise album, is quite dark, even if it’s the most beautiful, fantastic song.   His songs are a bit like local newspapers  - they give you a glimpse, an insight into a place.”

Devendra Banhart
“Oh god yeah.  He came in the shop once after his first album came out, and it was like a cross between Jesus Christ and Charles Manson coming in.  He had a big beard, he’s very west coast America.   I think he’s a bit like Sufjan Stevens, he could do with a bit of editing, do you really need 22 songs on an album (Crippled Crow)?  They’re all good, but he could do with cutting them back a bit.   Mind you, he was very nice when he came in, he has an aura about him.”
 

Celia Cruz and Tito Puente
“They were on the Fania label in the ‘70s in New York, which was a really interesting time as it’s when Latin Music first came to New York.   Mambo, salsa, latin jazz  - before it became too supper-club.  Mongo Santa Maria is a chap who played in one of Tito Puente’s bands when he started – Tito Puente always surrounded himself with the crème de la crème of vocalists  and musicians, hence his collaboration with Celia Cruz.”
 

The Flaming Lips
“They bring psychedelia to the masses, they’re very out there.   Carrying on in the San Francisco style of Nugget Psychedelia.  Live, they’re amazing.   They did a four cd set that you can buy – but you have to play all four cds simultaneously.   You’d think that might put people off, but it sold out!
 

Ca Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand

“He was Belgian.  Typical of the Belgians to get completely the wrong end of the stick of punk rock.  It was all the worst elements of it.   They completely screwed it up.  But listening to it now, it’s pure pop.  It’s bubblegum, the Barbie Girl for the Punk Generation.”
 

Je Suis un Rock star by Bill Wyman
Nigel: “What was he thinking of?  Can I be rude about it?”

KBM: Yes.  What’s the worst he can do? Not supply your store with records?”

Nigel: “That would be a good thing. Well… It’s on the Very Best of School Reunion album, which just about sums it up.”

 Madagascar
“I like to move it move it”  (don’t know who that’s by but it’s in the Madagascar movie)

“I don’t know it.”  (It’s a dance anthem.  Rough Trade doesn’t do dance anthems)

 
John Paul Young
“Love is in the Air”  by  John Paul Young (although it wasn’t written by him).

“It’s a 1977 disco song.  It’s cheese on toast.”

You can visit Rough Trade in person at Talbot Road, London W11, or order titles from their website: www.roughtrade.com