Artists

The history of indie/alt-rock is essentially one of serial reassessments and revivals—whether its of unsung trailblazers or previously dismissed pop stars. Through the late 80s and early 90s, the influence of the Velvet Underground was all pervasive; by decades end, everyone was into Can and Neu. At the turn of the new millennium, the ghost of Ian Curtis haunted the landscape. A few years later, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon underwent the transition from dad-rock deities to indie godheads. Now, it seems everythings coming up McDonald.Tom Petty never really had such a moment—but then, he didnt really have to. More than a specific sound, Petty represented an elusive ideal: He was the model that generations of raucous rockers —be it Dave Grohl or Death From Above 1979—have turned to whenever they wanted to chill out without losing their cool. And maybe the reason why his widespread influence never fortified into a dominant trend is that his acolytes have had so many Pettys from so many eras to choose from.Theres the power-poptimist of "American Girl," which yielded the hopscotch backbeat and needlepoint jangle of The Strokes "Last Nite" and the anthemic, open-sunroof ardor of Japandroids "Evils Sway." Theres the streetwise soul-man of "The Waiting," whose warm glow is exquisitely recreated by Chicago garage combo Twin Peaks on "Cold Lips." Theres the asphalt-rippin rocker of "Runnin Down the Dream," which New York outfit The Men roughed up into the caustic roots-punk barn-burner "Without a Face." Theres the synth-smoothed surrealist of "Dont Come Around Here No More," which provides the pulsating, slow-dissolve backdrop for Phosphorescents "Song For Zula." Theres the luminous acoustic balladeer of Full Moon Fever, which opened up a rural route for urbane indie rockers like Pavement and Liz Phair to travel down. There was his busmans holiday with Traveling Wilburys, whose easy-going honky-pop echoes through the shimmering strums of Dan Auerbachs "Shine on Me." And theres the weed-dazed folkie of "You Dont Know How It Feels," which finds a spiritual sequel of sorts in Wilcos "Passenger Side" (a song that Petty couldve very well have written after rolling that other joint).Tom Petty was like oxygen—always there, all around us, if imperceptibly so. And its nigh impossible to comprehend a world without him. But while his songs will be heard on classic-rock radio and covered by new-country acts for eternity, the artists on this playlist have, over the past two decades, burrowed the seeds of his influence at a more subterranean level, where they continue to flourish. There may be more popular tunes that have overtly—or subconsciously—copped Pettys melodies, but these songs more eagerly carry his spirit into the great wide open.

Phish’s Baker’s Dozen residency at Madison Square Garden—which ran July 21-August 6, 2017—was a doozy of epic proportions: 13 nights, 26 sets, and tons of free donuts, and all of it was webcasted to the world at large (save the donuts, of course). They were, as Rolling Stone writer Jesse Jarnow pointed out, some of the group’s most “ambitious sets in years, with an attention to detail that recalls their nineties heyday.” On top of debuting many new tunes, as well as novel transformations of old classics that surprised even longtime heads, Phish dropped a slew of first-time covers, including Shuggie Otis’ Beatlesque funk gem “Strawberry Letter 23,” Neil Young’s static-drenched riff workout “Powderfinger,” and The Velvet Underground’s dreamy ballad “Sunday Morning.”For those only now diving into the Phish zone, such tastefully hip covers may seem odd for a band that, truth be told, was outright dissed by cool indie types for most of their career. (Amazing how this has changed in recent years thanks to tastemakers like Vampire Weekend and MGMT singing their praises in interviews.) However, for those who have followed the band since, like, forever (my first Phish experience came when the original H.O.R.D.E. tour passed through the neo-hippie stronghold of Syracuse, New York, in 1992), the killer covers are par for the course. Even if you’re confident in the immutability of your anti-Phish bias, one thing’s unfuckwithable: their record collections.Since their early days up in Burlington, Vermont, Phish have put all manner of choice covers through their jammy filter: the Talking Heads’ proto-New Wave classic “Psycho Killer” is refitted with a spiky funk groove shaped by Innervisions-era Stevie Wonder and rippling improv showcasing Page McConnell’s keys; “Purple Rain” is mutated into a Flaming Lips-like alt-freak anthem featuring Jon Fishman’s crying vacuum cleaner; and Ween’s weird pop ditty “Roses Are Free” is reborn as a punchy, twangy sing-along. Even Phish’s taste in classic rock reflects their crate-digging astuteness. In addition to numerous deep cuts from the Stones’ muddy landmark Exile on Main St., they actually tackle a (very liberal) rendition of The Beatles’ musique concrète composition “Revolution 9”—and, yes, it’s deeply noisy and bizarre, like a cross between Spike Jones, heroic doses of psilocybin, and nude performance art.Part of Phish’s aim is to challenge and surprise their fans. For them, embracing the unexpected is an expression of freedom, and this extends to their unpredictable choice in cover songs. But it also has to be pointed out that covering the likes of Talking Heads, Ween, and The Velvet Underground actually isn’t all that weird, in a sense. After all, Phish—back at the dawn of their career—were considered something of an alternative band. I know this sounds strange after decades of them being hailed as the modern-day Grateful Dead (which has never been a terribly accurate comparison). But as this fogey explicitly recalls, when Phish started to make a buzz around the Northeast they had a quirky, cerebral, and mischievous reputation that owed more to Frank Zappa and David Byrne than Papa Jerry. It’s an aspect of their legacy that’s slowly re-emerging as more and more indie kids embrace their unique music. And that’s a cool thing.

In June of 2017, Phoenix released Ti Amo, their sixth studio album and one that, once again, yielded comparisons to MOR kings like Hall and Oates, Steely Dan, and 10cc.There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. But buried way back in the history of Phoenix lies a very different band, one that’s more Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez than Kenny Loggins. The Phoenix of old were steeped in the influence of electronic music and the French Touch: They made disco-inflected house music for fashionable Parisian label Source, remixed Air, commissioned club-slaying dance-floor hits from the fashionable remixers of the day, and worked with Cassius’ Philippe Zdar and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter on their debut album.It’s fairly well known that Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz played alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter in their pre-Daft Punk band, Darlin’. But Phoenix’s disco dalliance started in earnest in 1997 when, after the success of their self-released single, “Party Time” b/w “City Lights,” the band signed to Source, then one of the most fashionable labels in France thanks to its brilliant 1995 compilation Source Lab, which featured early recordings from the likes of Air, Motorbass, and DJ Cam. (Source Lab 2, released in 1996, would be similarly epochal, featuring Daft Punk’s “Musique” alongside music from Dimitri From Paris and Alex Gopher.)Phoenix’ first track for Source would be “Heatwave,” initially released on the 1998 Source Rocks compilation (alongside Sébastien Tellier’s “Fantino”) then unleashed as a single in its own right the following year. “Heatwave” was a pristine disco classic: four minutes of nebulous chord changes and chicken-scratch guitar that shone like the sun coming up on the Seine after a long night out. It also fit perfectly with the sound of the French Touch, which was then bringing Gallic grace to global dance floors—so much so, in fact, that “Heatwave” was later appropriated by Italian act DB Boulevard as the basis for their global dance hit of 2002, “Point of View.” On Source, Phoenix’ labelmates included Air, who shared their home town of Versailles. Phoenix ended up backing Air on several of their early television appearances and, in 1998, remixed Air’s classic “Kelly Watch The Stars,” adding a Gallic nu-disco strut to the original song’s orchestral sophistication.The year 2000 was a pivotal moment for Phoenix. It represented the peak of their electronic powers, thanks to two singles—”Too Young” and “If I Ever Feel Better”—whose remixes would set global dance floors aflame. “Too Young” was remixed by Zoot Woman (an early band of super-producer/DJ Stuart Price) and Le Knight Club, a duo formed by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel and producer Éric Chédeville. The former takes the song’s melody and structure on an electro-pop excursion, while the latter breaks down “Too Young” into a series of sky-scraping loops and tensions that were typical of Le Knight Club’s filter-friendly approach.“If I Ever Feel Better” proved even more impactful, thanks to remixes from New Jersey producer (and later Daft Punk collaborator) Todd Edwards and The Buffalo Bunch, a duo made up of Guy-Manuel’s brother, Paul de Homem-Christo and Romain Séo. The Buffalo Bunch would prove to be one of the lesser-known heroes of the French Touch, becoming the only act to record for both Thomas Bangalter’s Scratché label and Guy-Manuel’s Crydamoure. However, their remix of “If I Ever Feel Better”—retitled “If I Ever Feel Better (Ill Go To The Disco) [Said The Buffalo Bunch]”—would cement their legacy; it appeared on numerous house compilations and will be used to fire up flagging dance floors until time immemorial. It is a brilliant piece of remix work, taking a tiny, seemingly innocuous part of the original song’s vocal—“I can try, I can try, I can try”—and looping it into an irresistible earworm, which they combine with a wiggly bassline, disco-ish strings, and a thumping house beat.Phoenix’s debut album, United, would follow soon after and, if it didn’t necessarily continue the disco sound of “Heatwave,” it would display fairly serious French Touch credentials, with Thomas Bangalter contributing Yamaha CS-60 synthesizer to the gorgeously wan “Embuscade” and Pedro “Busy P” Winter––then manager of Daft Punk, later founder of Ed Banger Records—playing Rapman synthesizer on Part Two of the frankly deranged hoedown “Funky Squaredance.” More importantly, United would see Phoenix work for the first time with Philippe Zdar, a pillar of the French Touch who lent his exquisite production sheen to seven of the album’s 10 songs.Phoenix’s history with electronic music didn’t end with United, of course. The band would continue to work with Zdar, including on their 2009 breakthrough album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, while their releases would often come with electronic remixes attached. But the band’s latter success in the global rock market seemed to move them away from their French Touch origins, while the French Touch itself drifted out of fashion.Knowing Phoenix’s roots, however, can help us understand how they landed on their sound and how on earth they made such a fashionable success of their slick AOR revisionism. And if they would consider bringing “Heatwave” back to their setlists, then it would make some ageing house-music heads very grateful indeed.

A Place to Bury Strangers is the notoriously loud and noisy band of NYCs Oliver Ackerman (also of the Brooklyn-based effects pedals company and defunct DIY venue Death By Audio). The band cranks a mix of shoegaze, post-punk, noise rock, and more into a pummeling, industrial-strength wall of sound that envelops the listener every bit as much as it abrades the paint off the walls.With this playlist, the band unearth fellow travelers of experimental electronics, noise, and rock, from L.A.s Sextile and Brooklyn neighbors Parquet Courts to Warp Records novelty Silicon Teens and Japans shapeshifting composer Haruomi Hosono.A Place to Bury Strangers says: "This is the music to dye your hair & burn strangers into your arm to. Its your life so do it to it. An Interwoven pattern of melody with hypnotic intensity. I listen & feel my musicanship perk up, emotionally heightened, senses renewed. "Embrace the Illusion" -Jodorovsky. "Goop, soup, mute, flute."

The Pogues have proved themselves a crucial part of punk history. By throwing seemingly innocuous instruments—like the tin whistle, accordion, and banjo—into a fiery mix of boisterous Irish ballads and anarchic attitude, they challenged every assumption about the power and potency of punk. Now, original members Spider Stacy and Cait O’Riordan have united with the GRAMMY®-winning Cajun group Lost Bayou Ramblers under the name Poguetry to pump new life into some of The Pogues’ classic songs. They’ll be taking their spirited party on the road for a short tour in early 2020, starting on February 28 in singer Stacy’s adopted home of New Orleans. To celebrate, he shared with us an eclectic playlist of songs—the kind of stuff he likes to kick back with at home.

Says Stacy of his Lid of Me Grannies Bin playlist: “[It] should be played loud and on shuffle! As for the songs... I think they speak for themselves.” He further adds: “A playlist is not a playlist without The Fall, and ‘There’s A Break In the Road’ should be the national anthem.”

Poppy Ackroyd is a celebrated, classically trained pianist, violinist, producer, and composer. She has collaborated with everyone from Hauschka to Nils Frahm. Her latest album, Resolve, blends these influences for one of the better contemporary classical piano works of recent memory. The Dowsers recently asked her to make a playlist of her favorite classical piano tracks. This is what she gave us, in her own words:Here is a little collection of some piano based tracks that I really like. I have tried not to include any more typical solo piano tracks here, but have instead focused on ones where the artists are either experimenting with unusual piano sounds, or combining the piano with electronics in some way.

With his third album, The House, coming out January 19 on Domino Records, electronic-indie-pop alchemist Aaron Maine—a.k.a. Porches—has compiled a playlist for The Dowsers that indulges his love of unpleasant sounds. "I’m drawn to this collection of songs for a certain darkness that they emanate. Sometimes, it’s the dissonance in the harmonies that I’m really drawn to, sometimes it’s the dissonance in the content that I find attractive. A lot of strange and beautiful decisions.“In [Aphex Twin’s] ‘180_db[130],’ the ugliness of the sounds are dug into a way that’s almost playful—like I can imagine making something like that with a little shit grin on my face. [DJ Richard’s] ‘Stygian Freeze’ is so effortlessly menacing that it’s unsettling, while the quality of the sounds and reverb are really soft and welcoming. One thing I don’t like in a song is when it feels like an artist makes a challenging decision only for the sake of having it sound challenging—it can come off as masturbatory. In all of these songs, the dissonance feels like a complete necessity to the song’s existence. I don’t know why exactly I’m drawn to this, maybe that it feels like a more honest reflection of the human experience, and there’s something exciting about finding beauty in the seemingly ugly.”—Aaron Maine, Porches

Over the past 20 years, we’ve lived under four different U.S. presidents, seen the mapping of the human genome, witnessed the confirmation of the Higgs boson particle, and experienced the beginnings of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Throughout all the turmoil, Canadian rockers The New Pornographers have kept on truckin’, churning out electric power pop that consistently refuses to capitulate to larger trends in music or politics. They are a staple of indie rock, one of the most dependable and unwavering bands working today. It’s amazing that they’ve managed this, since their lineup is a massive registry of accomplished pop musicians, all with unique styles and musical approaches of their own.A.C. Newman has been one of the backbones of the band since their inception in 1997, when they were birthed out of his other projects: power pop outfit Zumpano and prog monsters Superconductor, in which traces of the trademark Pornographers vibe could already be sensed. Country-tinged troubadour Neko Case has been another integral part of the ensemble since their beginning, importing her compelling vocal style from her successful solo career. The third is, of course, Dan Bejar, whose solo project Destroyer has amassed an eclectic, enigmatic discography, from the sensuous, Dylan-esque jams of This Night to the disco-infused rock of Kaputt, and everything in between. The Pornographers’ later music showcases the contributions of newer member Kathryn Calder, whose aggressively cool pop group Immaculate Machine produced numerous great tracks before their final record in 2009.This playlist explores the music of these members and more, including bassist John Collins’ The Evaporators (with the legendary Nardwuar), first drummer Kurt Dahle’s The Age of Electric and Limblifter, lead guitarist Todd Fancey’s eponymous solo project, current drummer Joe Seiders’ Beat Club, and touring member Simi Stone’s Suffrajett. The New Pornographers’ recent album Whiteout Conditions—which, sadly, is their first without Bejar—continues their awesome melting pot of all of their individual styles and voices.

When you spend all your time dealing with important foreign policy issues and trying to stabilize the economy, it’s imperative to stay cool and collected. These hip rock, soul, and R&B hits seem specifically curated for that purpose, containing everything from Charles Mingus to Courtney Barnett, which should unite listeners of all political persuasions to agree on the fact that President Obama is a cool guy who likes to jam. One can imagine the President getting hyped up to take a phone call from a foreign leader while listening to Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” or Aloe Blacc’s “The Man” (“I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man”), although perhaps we will leave his inclusion of Manu Chao’s “Me gustas tu,” which is an ode to all the joys of life—both legal and illegal—up to the imagination. The inclusion of “Good Vibrations” is the weird cherry on top of this relaxed, confident daytime mix. -- Adam Rothbarth

It is easy to imagine Malia Obama going to Lollapalooza and Michelle Obama rapping with Missy Elliott, and yet even though it’s well known that President Obama enjoys good music, it’s nevertheless more difficult to visualize him kicking back and taking in some tunes. In my own tableau of this, he is sitting in a robe and slippers next to a fire, drinking a White House Honey Ale, reflecting on the day and bobbing his head to some night jams. He’s also wearing sunglasses in this fantasy. It’s tempting to try to decode this playlist as if it were a chapter of Ulysses, but for the purpose of brevity we will take it for what it is: an extremely chill, R&B-heavy mix of sensual grooves and hard-hitting, emotional lyrics. There’s also a rather sentimental, melancholy dimension to many of these songs, from Billie Holiday’s “Loverman” (“I don’t know why, but I’m feeling so sad/ I long to try something I never had”) to Janet Jackson’s “I Get Lonely” (“I get so lonely/ Can’t let just anybody hold me”). This mix in particular lets us see him as a complex and passionate dude, one who’s as entitled to a groovy dark night of the soul as anyone.