After a three year hiatus from playing together in San Francisco’s Parchman Farm, bassist Carson Binks and guitarist Allyson Baker regrouped and formed Dirty Ghosts with the addition Aesop Rock on drum programming in 2009.
Gang Gang Dance / First Communion I heard this song playing in a store while I was on vacation and I went out and bought it the next day. I’ve probably listened to this song about 80,000 times since. The little guitar bit in the middle, that Afro beat style soloing, that’s what got me!
Polvo are a critically acclaimed and widely influential rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that were active during the 1990 before reforming recently for a benefit for WKNC at the Pour Haus. The band was fronted by vocalists-guitarists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski. Bowie later played in the band Helium with Mary Timony and also started a solo project under the name Libraness. Brylawski also played in the band Idyll Swords and currently is a member of The Black Taj. Eddie Watkins currently plays drums in Dr. Powerful. Polvo are considered one of the forebears of the genre known as math rock. Their sound was defined by complex and dissonant guitar harmonies and driving rhythm.
Jimi Hendrix / If 6 was 9 It’s probably not in my Top Ten Hendrix songs, but I have to say something about Mitch Mitchell, and this is an indicative song of why he was probably the best. About three minutes into the song, Mitch takes over the ‘lead’ in the sparse part, just doing his jazzy-heavy-free thing in the spaces: loose, yet totally propelling it. No one else was doing that in rock, as far as I know, at least, in that way. I got to see him on stage two weeks before he died at the Hendrix tribute show in New York and can’t believe, just like that, he’s gone. Only Billy Cox remains from the whole Experience-Band of Gypsies ‘axis’.
Dr. Dog is a psychedelic rock group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which formed in 1999 with the release of The Psychedelic Swamp, a concept album realized in the damp ruin of a flooded basement with waterlogged guitars and a digital delay pedal. Although the band has had as many as 20 honorary ‘members’, who have assisted in various capacities through the years, the core of the band consists of five musicians with influences including The Beach Boys, Tom Waits, David Bowie and Neil Young. Their new album, Fate, is a timeless yet contemporary distillation of the band’s open-armed, bighearted sound taken to new heights of creativity.
A. A. Bondy / Vice Rag Good enough to be a classic old timey melody, except with more contemporary lyrical vices added. Great guitar playing.
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.
