Artists

Los Angelians Massage (ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart) are apparently creatures of habit. Formed from a group of friends just trying to sharpen new or existing instrument skills the way they did when they were young, the band started rehearsing and going out as a group regularly -- the way they did when they were young. First they were playing the songs of their heroes like The Breeders or The Feelies, and then in a sound all their own. Once they realized they were onto something, their debut record Oh Boy was born, (as was their tab at their favorite bar) and their habit was fully formed. Or, as their bio so eloquently states: "Massage is a five-piece from Los Angeles performing jangly pop and enjoying poutine at Jays on Mondays." So heres their playlist for those Monday nights out.Says the band: "Every Monday after band practice all of Massage goes to the same bar — shout out to Jay’s on Sunset — to have a drink, eat poutine, and talk about music and life. It’s a simple enough tradition, but it in addition to being a convenient place for us to sip beers together, it’s a great setting for listening to music in one of its most strangely powerful, and, frankly, cool settings: a half-full dive bar. This playlist is our ideal slow night at the bar music — tuneful but a bit warbling; sweet but a bit sad; kind of obscure but strangely familiar."

Its possible you havent heard of Matt Holubowski just yet, but this French-Canadian folk artist is making some pretty big waves alongside some artists you might recognize: like The Cures Robert Smith asking him to play Meltdown Fest and Ben Folds bringing him out on his last tour. This self-proclaimed "young man making old music" utilizes the classic guitar-and-voice combo that lends itself to singer-songwriter gold reached by his heroes Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith and Andrew Bird, and will be releasing his debut LP Solitudes in the US at the end of August.As he prepares to make a splash in the US, though, Holubowski is first being celebrated in his hometown of Montreal at Osheaga, so we asked him to in turn celebrate his hometown with us by putting together a Montreal/ Quebec-centric playlists.Says Matt: "Montréal has got something unique about its musicality. It was partly born out of a deep divide that over time has become its greatest strength, language, one which has permeated the musical scene over the years, but also through its cultural cross between good ol’ Americana and European flavour.Some of these songs and artists have had a great impact on my own writing, and I’ve since had the pleasure and privilege to rub shoulders and collaborate with a couple of them.There’s a certain mysterious vibe and energy to all of these, and I don’t know if the commonality lies in their being Montrealers/Quebecers, or if they just happen to fall within my own palette, but in any case, these are all great for a dreamy voyage into our new old city."Listen above or go right here.

Matt Sharp recently resurfaced with the first piece of new music in three years from his art-pop outfit The Rentals. "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad" is the lead single from The Rentals upcoming fourth album, which Sharp is working on with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, and a backing choir hes christened The Gentle Assassins. But for his Dowsers playlist, Sharp steps out of The Rentals usual synth-smeared sound world to indulge a more private obsession:"Each song on this playlist is taken from a much larger playlist of my favorite old soul songs. The music has often served as the backdrop and soundtrack to many a hot night at my place in L.A., while having a few friends over to throw one-pound bags of corn, 30 feet in the air, into a six-inch diameter circle."—Matt Sharp

Matthew Stubbs and the Antiguas music blends classic psych rock with elements of blues and afrobeats. Check out their self-titled debut and hear the music that inspired them here. From the band:This is some of the music I was listening to during the writing and recording process of my debut album. Ive always been into Blues & Soul music, but Im also very interested in other styles. Im drawn to Afrobeat, Garage, Dub, Psych Rock, and I love music production. When I listen, Im always listening to the performance and melody of course, but my ear tends to pay a lot of attention to the way the music is mixed and produced. I love distorted, blown out vintage tones, but also crave lush hi-fi sonics and low end. Thats what has inspired me and I hope that comes across in my own music. This playlist touches on all of those things. Enjoy!

Maya Beiser’s new album, the day, features two works by David Lang written for Maya. The day was composed as prequel to world to come from 2003. Where world to come chronicles the journey of the soul after life, the day chronicles our time on earth preceding that journey. Lang’s world to come was written for Maya in response to the events of September 11 at the World Trade Center (which shares the initials of the title piece, WTC). The two works are meditations on two journeys: the day on the mortal journey, and world to come on the eternal, post-mortal journey of the soul that follows.Maya says, “My new album, the day, is a meditation about life, death, and the afterlife. It’s not a lighthearted theme, but ours is not a lighthearted period. So I chose songs about the end and named my playlist ‘the day after.’ It sounded really gloomy, if appropriate. But then I thought that any time when people get together to make music is a good time. And music is innocent. To quote the great Neil Young: Don’t let it bring you down. There are still things we can do to make it better.”Follow Maya on Twitter and Instagram.

(From DJ JonnyGo Figure, of NYC’s Deadly Dragon Sound and Megative):“These songs embody what Megative represents, to me.We’re a hodgepodge of different cultures, of different nations…but we’re a symbol of unity.Megative is just a beautiful confusion…that’s how i like to think of it, and this playlist is like that. It’s kind of all over the place, but it’s basically a mixture of what we do: it’s got the dub influence, the Two-Tone influence, it’s got the punk influence, the hip hop influence…. a hodge lodge of the sounds we love and that make up our musical DNA.”

The Melvins and the Butthole Surfers were two of the most influential rock acts to emerge from the shadows of the genre’s underground in the ‘80s. While they were separated by a half a continent -- the Melvins were from the Pacific Northwest, while the Butthole Surfers hailed from Texas -- they both trafficked in absurdist, pedal-to-the-floor psych. And in 2018, the Melvins added Butthole Surfers’ bassist Jeff Pinkus in addition to their ongoing bass player Steven McDonald (see: TWO bassists) to write a record. To celebrate this (unholy?) union, we recently asked Buzz Osborne for his favorite Butthole Surfers tracks. Check out his picks and commentary below, subscribe to the playlist here, and listen to the new Melvins release, Pinkus Abortion Technician, here.“Bar-B-Q Pope,” Brown Reason to Live. First recorded song I ever heard of theirs and I never tire of it.“Something,” Brown Reason to Live. Paul’s vocals and guitar make this song feel like you’re having a heart attack.“Moving to Florida,” The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt. The live version of this was always better. This happens. Songs get better as time passes and you’ve played them live 1,000 times. Sometimes though, you just wish songs were dead.“Graveyard,” The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt. This is one of their best. REALLY great guitar part. Jeff told me Paul wrote it while trying to figure out what Gibby was playing in the other room. THAT’S Paul’s genius.“Cherub,” Psychic... Powerless... Another Mans Sac. Possibly the best song ever recorded. Why hasn’t this been used on the soundtrack of a movie? If only Hollywood wasn’t so fucking stupid.“Negro Observer,” Psychic... Powerless... Another Mans Sac. Beautiful song with really hypnotic vocals. I think this should be used as the theme for a sitcom. If only Hollywood wasn’t so fucking stupid.“Mexican Caravan,” Psychic... Powerless... Another Mans Sac. I love the guitar solo in this song and I’ve used it for years as a model for a lot of my own guitar solos. This fucker is nice and uptempo too.“Sweat Loaf,” Locust Abortion Technician. In concert, Paul and Jeff would have high-kicking contests during this song. What a great idea! I should try to get Jeff to do those kicks in one of our songs...“Shame of Life,” Weird Revolution. There were girls in the front, there were girls in the back, there were girls petting squirrels, there were squirrels smoking crack.

He’s best known as the singer and fleet-fingered acoustic strummer for Bay Area indie-folk favorites The Dodos, but with his new project FAN, Meric Long ventures into the realm of experimental synth-pop. FAN recently released its first single (“Fire” b/w “Disappear”), with a full-length on the way via Polyvinyl; to whet your appetite, he’s compiled this Dowsers playlist of the post-punk icons, jazz legends, and videogame themes that inspired it.

In the 10 years that have passed since Annie Clark first emerged from the Texas woodworks as St. Vincent, her very essence has seemed to undergo a radical transformation. Though such evolution is natural for any artist over the course of a lifetime, it feels especially befitting for a performer such as Clark, whose work has always tugged at the tensions between constructed, elegant beauty and the well of animalistic chaos simmering underneath. She’s gone from a charming, low-key indie starlet to a full-blown art-pop maven, and looking back upon her marvelous catalog now, we can start to see how the hints at what St. Vincent would become were secretly hidden in plain sight all along.From her very first album, Marry Me, Annie Clark seemed to decorate her songs with a Disney-like sense of fantasy and wonder, constructing the kind of delicate, baroque pop that seemed as if it could’ve come out of a doll house. But her guitar work suggested something more contorted, tearing forth from her songs like the chestburster from Alien, and making it clear that despite how fragile her musical creations seemed to be, Clark was concealing something that absolutely needed to be freed.As she continued to release albums like the gossamer Actor and the surreal Strange Mercy, her penchant for discordant riffs, extraterrestrial synth effects, and danceable grooves only grew stronger, but it was her meeting with David Byrne that truly signalled a major shift in her approach. After collaborating together on the funky, horn-laden Love This Giant album, Clark took a little piece of Byrne with her, and her follow-up self-titled release saw her constructing an entirely new persona whose artifice and coldness came with some of the most hard-hitting rhythms she had constructed yet. Having completed the journey from a twee curiosity into a living, Bowie-esque art-celebrity installation, her latest material sees her embracing pop music more than ever before, without losing her taste for folding the provocative into the seemingly innocent.It seems that as time has gone on, Clark has become more and more comfortable with the violent undertones that even her earliest work had motioned towards, urging movement and release over quiet appreciation. With her latest album, MASSEDUCTION, coming down the pipeline, we took the opportunity to take stock of how far Annie Clark has come, and to ready ourselves for whichever version of St. Vincent will emerge from the chrysalis next.

Young Thug says “Metro Boomin want some more,” Kodak Black says “Lil Metro on that beat,” and most famously, Future says, “If Young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gon’ shoot you.” Regardless of which rapper is identifying Leland “Metro Boomin” Wayne at the moment, odds are you’ve heard his name and his beats on the radio a lot in the last few years. The St. Louis native began driving to Atlanta to collaborate with musicians as a high school student. Since his flashy piano work on 2013’s “Karate Chop,” he’s been one of Future’s closest collaborators, and he’s slowly expanded his clientele across the music industry, from Kanye West to Nicki Minaj.Although Metro Boomin is a master of the heavy bass and busy hi-hat programming of Atlanta’s ubiquitous trap sound, his work isn’t as singular or distinctive as previous kings of the scene like Lex Luger and Mike WiLL Made-It. Instead, Metro has distinguished himself with the sheer variety of sounds that he’s integrated into the trap blueprint, from the haunting chords of “Bad and Boujee” by Migos to the ethereal flute sample of “Mask Off” by Future.Metro Boomin is also a big collaborator, crafting the woozy groove of ILoveMakonnen’s quirky hit “Tuesday” with Sonny Digital and working alongside three other producers on Big Sean’s “Bounce Back.” His ear for bringing together the contributions of others served him well as he executive produced Drake and Future’s hit collaborative album What A Time To Be Alive and 21 Savage’s breakthrough mixtape Savage Mode. Sample 2017’s hottest producer with this playlist of his greatest hits.Click here to follow this playlist on Spotify.