Classic Platters may be one of the most challenging features we do for Rice and Bread. It just isn’t fair for us to force people to choose one all-time favourite album, but we do it anyways. When we asked Todd Graham, a Vancouver fermenter, secret supper host and former brewer at R & B Brewing Co., his all-time favourite album, he went for two albums that bring him back to the first time he heard them, and represent the happy and sad albums of his life.
What’s your all-time favourite album?
Graham: Oh, that’s tough. Um, there are a few. [Laughs]
There always is. There’s never just one. [Laughs]
It would probably be between…. and even though I know it’s not their best record, but probably The Ramones’ Anthology, only because it’s almost impossible for me to pick one Ramones record, because they all, up to a certain point, have incredible songs on them. So probably that, but I’d go between that and Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children by Born Against. Those would be the two, but it depends on whether I’m happy or grumpy. One’s my happy record and one’s my grumpy record. But those are two from growing up and they changed how I saw things.
What is it about those albums that stand out after all of this time?
A lot of it was like most things in life, everything from movies, to food, to records, it was a really specific time when I first heard those records. I like newer music, and there are bands that I love, but I can tell you about the day I first heard those records. When I heard The Ramones for the first time it was 1983 and they just blew my mind. And I remember the first time I heard Born Against and I was like, “Oh, punk’s super dangerous still.” I felt like there were still dangerous punk bands, and I didn’t feel like there was for a long time. Those records stick with me because they remind me very specifically of a certain feeling. Kind of like the best meals you’ve ever had, or the best food you ever ate; it was just this moment that was very specific. And they’re also just great bands. It’s as simple as that.
Todd Graham’s Hand Taste Ferments does a monthly supper based on fermented foods.
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