From Glasgow, Scotland, Twin Atlantic have been the main support for bands such as Circa Survive, Biffy Clyro, Lostprophets, Finch, Thrice, Funeral for a Friend, and The Smashing Pumpkins.
Nirvana / In Bloom I love this track for it’s childlike melody. In fact, talking about Nirvana this way kind of ruins the band for me, so I’ll just say I love the lyrics and the bridge section in the middle that builds suspense but also has rubber duck squeaks and an awesome guitar melody that they pay off with at the end.
Golem is Annette Ezekiel-Kogan — singer, accordionist, and 5-foot powerhouse, with vocalist/tambourinist Aaron Diskin, violin virtuoso Alicia Jo Rabins, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring, upright bassist Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, and drummer Tim Monaghan. This 6 piece, Yiddish-speaking, Eastern European punk band is renowned for electrifying dance floors with their globetrotting goulash of Jewish, Slavic, and Gypsy folk songs. Their style “commands your attention and demand a response” (Giant Magazine). Borne out of the dimly-lit, strangely elegant streets of old-world Eastern Europe, Golem’s music also sounds of the grit and tragedy of new-world dreams.
At the Drive-In / One-Armed Scissor I saw these guys live at the New Haven Coliseum, which no longer stands, in the fall of my sophomore year of high school. They were opening up for Gang Starr, who was opening up for Rage Against the Machine. These guys were flailing around in such an incredible tornado-like frenzy, tall, super skinny dudes with huge afros in extremely tight black clothes, flinging their guitars in every which direction while still somehow managing to play the intricately orchestrated shredding punk guitar parts which were assaulting the coliseum from their wall of amps, turned all the way up. The entire crowd hated them, and booed in between songs. At the Drive-In completely blew my mind, and on my way out of the place where as a child I used to watch Monster Trucks crush 50 cars over and over again for three hours, then I grabbed the free disc with two tracks on it, this here track and another one, “Chanbarra,” the two of which I had the worst time deciding about which one was better.
In Case of Fire are a progressive rock band that formed in Northern Ireland in 2005. Since then they have toured and played with bands such as Fightstar, Biffy Clyro, Enter Shikari, 30 Seconds to Mars and Queens of the Stone Age.
Jeff Buckley / Grace From the haunting guitar intro to the incredible high notes, this song is everything that was great about Jeff Buckley. One of the most talented artists of all time.
Portsmouth’s Munroe Effect crunch heavy duty guitars and booming bass into a sound that Rock Metal Music have described as ‘progressive post-hardcore … with subtle and intricate calm moments unfolding into wide-screen heaviness that belies their single-guitarist line-up’. Ah ha. We agree.
Rival Schools / Used For Glue Scientific research has shown that if you don’t like this song, your ears are broken. This fine example of songwriting perfection sounds bigger than communist Russia and has one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded – and they’re making a new album. Yes!
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.
