Brooklyn-based Clare and the Reasons, fronted by collaborators Clare and Olivier Manchon, has been very busy making music, touring through Europe many times, Japan and the US. The band has a steady list of contributors (the ‘Reasons), with a lot of instruments — cellos, violas, things to hit, kazoos, baby kotos, saws, recorders. In 2007, the band released their debut LP, The Movie, which got significant praise. The band have just released their sophomore album Arrow on Frog Stand Records.
The Everly Brothers / So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) The Everly Brothers are my favorite harmonizers, something about DNA that just kicks everything else to the curb. I love this sad, sad song, how they wallow in all the ‘used to have love’ pity and wear it all on their sleeves. This is just an example of a perfect song recorded perfectly, not overdone. A simple beauty.
With regard to album titles, Rewild is as apt a mission statement as Brooklyn band Amazing Baby could get. Formed out of the remnants of many a Brooklyn band, Rewild is the product of love and sustaining the loss of it, a car crash, a fourteen-piece orchestra, and the desire to make sense of – or escape — their surroundings. “We are fascinated with escapism and creating small worlds that can stand alone or be connected as stories within the context of our album,” says lead singer Will Roan. They are songs of catharsis, anthems of evolution, the marriage of feral emotionality with a deep intellectualism.
Cocteau Twins / Blue Bell Knoll This song is like Enya covering My Bloody Valentine. Actually, it sounds like that weird singing alien chick known as the Diva in the Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman. Sorry, I have a nosebleed and my Boba Fett helmet is upsetting my allergies.
Founded by French musicians Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, Nouvelle Vague have used a variety of female singers including Alexandra Pavlou, Mélanie Pain, Marina Celeste and Phoebe Killdeer for their unique acoustic covers of classic New Wave 80s tunes.
The Beach Boys / God Only Knows One of the most beautiful pop songs a human being can hear. The chord sequence was, is, and will always be, stunning.
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.
These rowdy Glaswegian’s are known for their dynamically-charged live shows, where their hyper energy, combined with two drumkits and shouty vocals consistently twists the crowd into a frenzy. The ferocious excitement of Dananananaykroyd’s live show was captured for their album debut by an odd match-up between the band and famed metal producer Machine. The album is called Hey Everyone and it’s damn good.
Sebadoh / Soul and Fire I hate to kick things off like a right teenage whoopsie, but this song kills me every single time. Utterly crushing. I first heard it when I was thirteen and I actually blame Lou Barlow for ruining my life. Next!
Radio Wars, the new album from ex-pat Australian band, Howling Bells, is the follow-up to their self-titled debut released back in May 2006. It’s been a long time coming. ‘We’re an industrious lot. We never stop thinking and being inspired’, says singer Juanita Stein. ‘If it were up to us, we’d put out this record tomorrow and then start recording another straight away’.
The Flamingos / I Only Have Eyes for You This has to be one of my favorite tracks of all time. It’s a perfect, perfect love song. The melodies and harmonies are to die for. And if you get the chance watch the clip on YouTube, it’s a beautiful performance by the band.
Glasgow’s Attic Lights this week released a new single, Late Night Sunshine, a joyful rush of pop harmonies, through Island Records. Lifted from their debut album, Friday Night Lights, which was released in September. By their own admission, the band are five likely lads ‘brought up on a diet of Beach Boys, Flaming Lips and deep fried Mars Bars’.
Massive Attack / Unfinished Sympathy Perhaps my favorite song of all time and a constant on my iPod, it makes my heart swell up every time I hear it. I can’t get sick of it. It might also have the most perfect tempo any song has ever had!
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.
