Ever since she Kissed a Girl, American singer-songwriter Katy Perry has been on everyone’s lips. Literally. She has a new single out, Hot N Cold, and a killer album, One of the Boys, in the can. But still, a church in Ohio thinks she’s taken it all too far. Risque? A little. But fun all the same, as her Playlist proves.
Robyn / Handle Me This new record is amazing and the story of Robyn’s career rising from the ashes is inspiring. This song rings true with me. I have had boys in mah life that couldn’t handle me. Listen to those lyrics!
With members scattered across the globe, though with roots firmly planted in Sydney, electro mavericks Pivot create lush, onimous, and beautifully porous music that seeps through your soul, steals your heart, and renders you immobile. For a good ten minutes at least, as their latest album, O Soundtrack My Heart, proves.
Jean Michel Jarre / Oxygene IV [Richard Pike] This was a record a particularly cultured school teacher of mine played to a class when I was ten years old. I never owned it but the image of the cover and the sound of the record stayed with me for years. I only finally bought it a few years ago and loved it. I knew he was considered cheesy and associated with new age, but I didn’t care, it’s awesome. Still.
Brooklyn-based collective, Team Genius, are just that: a team of genius’. Musical, of course. They create text-book pop, all hooks and precision, with just the faintest whisper of soulfulness underlining the triumphant pop melodies. True to form they compiled their Secret Playlist as a collective. Ain’t cohesion a grand thang.
Queen / Don’t Stop Me Now [Drew] It’s just a great pop tune, fearlessly corny with pure honesty. It captures that amazing vibe that Queen had that no other group ever figured out: really intelligent sense of humor, great songwriting chops and a grandiose energy. It’s impossible not to enjoy this song on some level.
Australian singer-songwriter Lenka Kripac, formerly of Aussie group Decoder Ring, is now flying solo, and she has just released her debut single — The Show. It’s catchy, bouncy and irrepressible, just like Lenka herself.
She and Him / Sweet Darlin’ I’m obsessed with the She and Him album right now and this is my favourite track on it. I love both Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, and the ultra retro country and doo wop feel this has.
Jesse, Tommy and Ben from Washington indie rock starlets, Jukebox The Ghost, ponder the inponderable in their somewhat scattered, but never dull Secret Playlist.
Paul Simon / The Obvious Child [Jesse] It’s upbeat. I love the marching band drums on his album, Rhythm of the Saints. I can’t understand the lyrics at all, but they sound pretty profound. So I’m sure they are, right?
Our favourite retro-hipsters — and the only band to make Hawaiian shirts look at least kinda fashionable — The B52s have been doing it for more than thirty years, and they’re still writing great pop music. Their latest album, Funplex, is just that: fun plex twenty. Sorry, plus twenty. We like it. And we’re not surprised given the rather old-school Secret Playlist that Kate Pierson [first six songs] and Keith Strickland have assembled.
Jane Siberry / Bound By the Beauty Jane Siberry changed her name to Issa, sold her home and most of her possessions (although she owns a pair of fabulous boots), and sells her music — digitally only, to cut down on plastic waste — by a self-determined pricing policy. She’s an incredible, profound songwriter and singer, and is doing it her way, for sure.
So, we have a wickedly talented and creative producer and DJ laying down what’s good and what’s, well, not so good. Yes it’s, wait for it, just a little longer, nearly there. Ok, it’s Moby, from some otherworldly universe.
John Lee Hooker / I Hated The Day I Was Born ‘If I could sing, I’d love to sing like John Lee Hooker. Him or David Bowie. I don’t have a beautiful singing voice, so I really appreciate the deep and gravelly voice that Hooker possesses. I really like everything about John Lee Hooker’s music. I’m a big fan of old blues anyway, especially music from the pre-war era. It was so much simpler back in the day. You plugged in and you played. Studios are like instruments now. This song is one of my all-time favorites. “I love depressing music”: that was a quote in my high school yearbook’.
Nouvelle Vague are as sultry as a warm summer’s day. Their exotic blend of acoustic jazz and pop has reinvented a handful of the 80s most hummable tunes, whilst simultaneously putting the Fresh back into Frensch – whoops, that should be French — music. Yes, a bad joke is a wicked thing. But frontman Marc Collin’s Playlist isn’t.
Wire / Marooned Wire were probably the best of the post punk movement. I’m really impressed by the production on their music, which still sounds very fresh and modern. But as for the lyrics? Hmmm. Well, I’m still not sure I understood everything!
Titled V, Van She’s recently released full length debut is a confident modern rock album, recorded in London with acclaimed English producer Jim Abbiss, who has worked with Arctic Monkeys and Placebo, among others. In this Playlist, bassist and vocalist Matt Van Schie, trawls his crates to give us a rundown on his current musical obsessions.
Kazino / Binary One note riff my heart out! The bass, the guitars, and that synth line … oooooh. They’re all doing their jobs so well in this New Wave Italo Disco blast. And what a great start it has. It’s pure underground sex! I feel like I’m hanging out in an early 80s Paris nightclub with my drink resting on the stomach of painted naked lady, doing mesculine with less violent clockwork orangers.
New York group Les Savy Fav take straight out indie, art rock sensibilities and skew them with their unique protagonist bent. Having formed some thirteen years ago, the five-piece have seen and heard it all. Well, nearly all, as the Playlist of bassist Syd Butler suggests.
Red and Purple / The Dodos This band gets better with every listen and with every time I get the chance to see them play. Les Savy Fav has played with them quite a bit and they never disappoint. This track is one of the highlights from their album, Visiter.
My Secret Playlist is a music discovery website and weekly email publication. We invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. These are their words on the music that inspires them.
