Las Vegas pop polymath Shamir has drifted further away from this electro-rap roots with his recently released third album, Revelations. For this playlist he created specially for The Dowsers, Shamir shares the lo-fi indie-rock classics and shitgaze faves that shaped its heremetic, fuzz-covered sound world.
Initially formed as the solo project of guitarist Brett Sova and his Roland drum machine, Chicagos Axis:Sova has expanded over the years into a full-fledged trio, with the addition of guitarist Tim Kaiser and bassist Jeremy Freeze. Whats remained the same, besides the drum machine, is the bands commitment to noisy, wide-ranging psych-rock explorations. Latest album Shampoo You sees them further refining their sound, letting some streaks of sunshine sneak into their fried, kaleidoscopic jams. For this playlist, they mine inspirations of the late 70s and early 80s, from Chrome to Psychic TV to the B-52s.Axis:Sova says, "For the Shampoo You sessions, melody and harmony were emphasized as much as we’d previously attended to noise and saturation, and many of the songs became pleasingly spikier than ever before in the process. The songs on this playlist, compiled by the band and sequenced by Tim Kaiser, capture the spirit of the making of Shampoo You, all coming from 79-83 except for a few cheats which we encourage listeners to catch..."
On November 17, Brooklyn-based indie troubadour—and part-time Neflix star—Sharon Van Etten will release (it was) because i was in love, a deluxe vinyl reissue of her striking, stripped-down 2009 debut album, because i was in love. To mark the occasion, she made a Dowsers playlist of the music that fueled its creation. “The songs on this playlist represent the music I was listening to before, during, and after the writing and recording of because i was in love. These artists were extremely instrumental in the development of my songwriting.”—Sharon Van Etten
Still flying high on their 2016 release, Strange Little Birds, and their summer 2017 tour with Blondie, alt-rock icons Garbage also recently released a coffee-table book chronicling their two-decade history, titled This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake. But on this playlist she created specially for The Dowsers, frontwoman Shirley Manson reveals the songs she turns to when she wants to cry herself to sleep. “The Winner Takes It All,” ABBA: The first slow dance I ever shared with a boy was to this song. I didn’t know at the time that it was a song about divorce, but I do now. Pop brilliance at its finest.“I’m a Fool to Want You,” Billie Holiday: I have nothing but love and gratitude for Billie Holliday and her artistry. True love forever.“Don’t Smoke in Bed,” Peggy Lee: The first time I realized that a song didn’t need to be catchy or feel good. It could tell a story—and a great, heartbreaking one at that.“So in Love,” Ella Fitzgerald: I associate Ella Fitzgerald with my mum because she played her so regularly in our household. This song is killer.“Wild Is the Wind,” Nina Simone: Nina Simone is without doubt the greatest voice I have ever heard in my life. And this song is blissful agony to listen to from start to finish. Utter perfection.“Anyone Who Had a Heart,” Dusty Springfield: After listening to this song, I always feel like I just got gutted like a fish.“Troy,” Sinéad O’Connor: One of my most favorite singers of all time. Sinead has the voice of a creature sent from the heavens. We must strive harder to cherish her whilst she still walks amongst us.“Revenge,” Patti Smith: Patti is everything to me. She is a god. She is a light. She is my go-to when everything gets dark.“You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” The Supremes: One of the first songs I can remember singing along to into the handle of my hairbrush at the top of my lungs. Diana Ross remains, to this day. one of my most beloved stars.“Why Dya Do it,” Marianne Faithfull: This song is perfect. I wish I’d written it. A woman destroyed is a woman not to be trifled with.“Winter Kills,” Yazoo: Fucking love how twisted and dark this still sounds.“Save Me,” Joan Armatrading: I love how unique and rich Joan Armatrading’s voice is. A criminally underrated, and unsung talent.“Oh Daddy,” Fleetwood Mac: I participated in a recording of this song during music class at school. It was the first time I’d ever been inside a recording studio. My music class was very inspired by Fleetwood Mac at the time, and I remain so.“You’re Not the Only One I Know,” The Sundays: I love how deliciously cavalier this song sounds. So easy and breezy and bitchy.“I Go to Sleep,” Pretenders: I have cried myself to sleep over and over to this song. Chrissie Hynde slays me every time.“Here You Come Again,” Dolly Parton: The most brilliant and sunny angel on earth.“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” Ike & Tina Turner: The vocal is completely sick.“Talking in Your Sleep,” Crystal Gayle: This song is so fucking sad! I first heard it listening to a tiny radio my grannie gave to me for my ninth birthday. I didn’t really understand what it meant at the time, but I could tell it didn’t mean anything good.“Cry Me a River,” Julie London: Such a nasty little song disguised in such silky and satin sounds.“I Will Survive,” Gloria Gaynor: Favorite rebound song of all time. Game over. Mic drop.NOTE: Shortly after this list was published, Shirley Tweeted us the following request, which we have honored, of course:
🖤Can you add in Amy Winehouse Back to Black? I don’t understand why I forgot to add this song. The voice of a generation.🖤
— Garbage (@garbage) November 10, 2017
Photo Credit: Joseph CulticeSaveSave
Prior to the release of his third album, Float, on October 6, avant-electronic mystery man Slow Magic gets us into the autumnal spirit with this mix he created for The Dowsers. "These are songs Ive been listening to lately that capture the feeling of the season changing from summer to fall," he says. "Im always intrigued how the same song can sound and feel completely different as the weather starts to adjust and catch you off guard."
In 1993, in the small southern Norwegian town of Flekkefjord, young Joakim Haugland launched the Smalltown Supersound label to release the lo-fi, home-recorded sounds being made by him and his small town friends. Inspired by the DIY ethos and aesthetic of legendary US punk/hardcore label SST, Haugland went on to release a diverse slew of sounds over the next quarter century, carving out a niche and a reputation for smart, genre-hopping blends of disco, funk, lo-fi, electronic, indie rock, and more. To celebrate 25 years, friend of the label and adept disco/house producer Prins Thomas has crafted a sprawling retrospective DJ mix of the Smalltown Supersound catalogue, titled The Movement of the Free Spirit. In addition, Haugland has created this playlist giving a peek behind the catalogue into the inspirations behind Smalltown Supersound, from Arthur Russel to Robert Wyatt, King Tubby to Chris & Cosey, and Sonic Youth to Serge Gainsbourg. Dig into the sounds behind his Smalltown Supersound here.Founder Joakim Haugland says, "As all music nerds, we like playlists. This playlist was made the dogme way, in a couple of hours in a brainstorm. But the tracks on this playlist are taken from albums that I feel are made by auteurs, albums that I feel have a soul and something unique; in short, albums I wish we had released on Smalltown Supersound."
San Franciscos experimental rockers Wooden Shjips set out to make a summer record on their latest album (the just-in-time-for-it May 25th-released "V") so its no surprise summer was the theme when we asked them to make us a playlist. Listening through their sun-soaked psychedelia on "V" tracks like the aptly titled "Staring at the Sun" and the fuzzy, jammy "Eclipse," this hand-picked playlist might just be the best accompaniment to Wooden Shjips latest effort.Says guitarist Ripley Johnson: "For this playlist I wanted to make something that could be dubbed onto an old cassette, perfect for taking in a boombox to the swimming hole, or on a sunny summer road trip. I mixed some of my old summer favs, like Meat Puppets, Van the man, Jerry, with some newer jams (Gun Outfit, Psychic Ills), paying attention more to the vibe than the source or genre." Check it out now!
Spanning the broad range of post-punk from The Smiths to Krautrock, Portland, Oregons Soft Kill capture haunting guitars alongside goth-tinged vocals, reminiscing dark wave and broadening the boundaries of post-punks legacy in 2018. Soft Kills latest full length Savior is out on Profound Lore Records now. We asked the band to put together a playlist for us, and they came together for a list of artists that influenced their latest endeavor. Listen above or go right here.Says the band: "RIP Tom Petty!"
Since 2010, Oaklands Luis Vasquez has been delving into the darkest depths of post-industrial synth-pop as The Soft Moon. But with his fourth album, Criminal (Sacred Bones), on the horizon, Vasquez opted to make us a playlist that reveals a different side of his musical personality. "Every time I get asked to put together a mix or playlist, my first instinct is to want to show people my collection of weird and obscure oddities. For this playlist, I wanted to do something different, something out of my comfort zone, and something unexpected when it comes to representing The Soft Moon. The majority of my favorite music stems from the 1980s pop genre and, in fact, it’s what I feel molded me into the musician I am today. Most of us wouldn’t consider these songs guilty pleasures because, in the end, they’re actually all great songs that we all know. But when I was younger playing in punk bands, these songs were secret."——Luis Vasquez, a.k.a. The Soft Moon
Bones is the LA-via-London, all-female duo of Rosie (singer) and Carmen (guitar). Their most recent single, "Limbs," combines electro-pop with industrial flourishes for a sound that is infectious and aggressive. The Dowsers recently asked them to make us a playlist. Heres what they gave us, in their own words:Music to dance to. Music to drive to. Tunes to kiss to. Songs to love to, to miss people to. Music to sing, to SCREAM along with. Tunes to make you turn your TV off and get down on your mothers new carpets. Music that has moved us and we hope will move you too. Songs picked by BONES to for you to BONE to. Xxx
The ’90s have never sounded better than they do right now—especially for modern-day indie rockers. There’s no shortage of bands banging around these days whose sound suggests formative phases spent soaking up vintage ’90s indie rock. Not that the neo-’90s sound is itself a new thing. As soon as the era was far enough away in the rearview mirror to allow for nostalgia to set in (i.e., the second half of the 2000s), there were already some young artists out there onboarding ’90s alt-rock influences. But more recently, there’s been a bumper crop of bands that betray a soft spot for a time when MTV still played music videos and streaming was just something that happened in a restroom. In this context, the literate, lo-fi approach of Pavement has emerged as a particularly strong strand of the ’90s indie tapestry, and it isn’t hard to hear echoes of their sound in the work of more recent arrivals like Kiwi jr. or Teenage Cool Kids. Cherry Glazerr frontwoman Clementine Creevy seems to have a feeling for the kind of big, dirty guitar riffs that made Pacific Northwestern bands the kings of the alt-rock heap once upon a time. The world-weary, wise-guy angularity of Car Seat Headrest can bring to mind the lurching, loose-limbed attack of Railroad Jerk. And laconic, storytelling types like Nap Eyes stand to prove that there’s still a bright future ahead for those who mourn the passing of Silver Jews main man David Berman. But perhaps the best thing about a face-off between the modern indie bands evoking ’90s forebears and the old-school artists themselves is the fact that in this kind of competition, everybody wins.
It may be that 2019 was the best year for ’90s metal since, well, 1999. Bands from the decade of Judgment Night re-emerged with new creative twists and tweaks: Tool stretched out into polyrhythmic madness, Korn bludgeoned with more extreme and raw despair, Slipknot added a new drummer (Max Weinberg’s kid!) who gave them a new groove, and Rammstein wrote an anti-fascism anthem that caused controversy in Germany (and hit No. 1 there too). Elsewhere, icons of the era returned in unique ways: Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor scored a superhero TV series, Primus’ Les Claypool teamed up with Sean Lennon for some quirky psych rock, and Faith No More’s Mike Patton made an avant-decadent LP with ’70s soundtrack king Jean-Claude Vannier. Finally, the soaring voice of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington returned for a moment thanks to Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton, who released a song they recorded together in 2017.
Taking a look at the playlists for my show on Boston’s WZBC might give the more seasoned college-radio listener a bit of déjà vu: They’re filled with bands like Versus, Team Dresch, and Sleater-Kinney, who were at the top of the CMJ charts back in the ’90s. But the records they released in 2019 turned out to be some of the year’s best rock. Versus, whose Ex Nihilo EP and Ex Voto full-length were part of a creative run for leader Richard Baluyut that also included a tour by his pre-Versus outfit Flower and his 2000s band +/-, put out a lot of beautifully thrashy rock; Team Dresch returned with all cylinders blazing and singers Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson wailing their hearts out on “Your Hands My Pockets”; and Sleater-Kinney confronted middle age head-on with their examination of finding one’s footing, The Center Won’t Hold.
Italian guitar heroes Uzeda—who have been putting out proggy, riff-heavy music for three-plus decades—released their first record in 13 years, the blistering Quocumque jerceris stabit; Imperial Teen, led by Faith No More multi-instrumentalist Roddy Bottum, kept the weird hooks coming with Now We Are Timeless; and high-concept Californians That Dog capped off a year of reissues with Old LP, their first album since 1997. Juliana Hatfield continued the creative tear she’s been on this decade with two albums: Weird, a collection of hooky, twisty songs that tackle alienation with searing wit, and Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police, her tribute record to the dubby New Wave chart heroes (in the spirit of the salute to Olivia Newton-John she released in 2018). And our playlist finishes with Mary Timony, formerly of the gnarled rockers Helium and currently part of the power trio Ex Hex, paying tribute to her former Autoclave bandmate Christina Billotte via an Ex Hex take on “What Kind of Monster Are You?,” one of the signature songs by Billotte’s ’90s triple threat Slant 6.
