Hi I'm Francois.
I'm Sameer.
I'm Eric.
This is Payam.
I am Jacob.
And we're Young the Giant
and this is in our bag.
Amoeba.
This is an record with 20 years of groundbreaking music by Air.
One of my favorite bands.
That's a much better way of saying 'Greatest Hits'
Yeah.
'Surfing on a Rocket' I think, is the most... this is like my jam.
'Alone in Kyoto' is great. 'Run' is one my favorites.
'Venus' is one of my favorites. Yeah, there's a lot on here. 'Cherry Blossom Girl.'
I picked up Radiohead 'King of Limbs.'
I really like 'King of Limbs,' it's very textural
there's a lot of stuff going on, sonically
a lot of use of old drum machines
like the Casio keyboard drum machine stuff is really cool
'Separator' is my go to on this album, I guess it's the last track.
I chose Buena Vista Social Club.
I don't know, this record...
One: it's a great record to cook to and
it just has a lot of personal sentiment to me
I tried to learn Spanish, still trying to learn Spanish I guess, but
this is kind of what I gravitated towards
to look up lyrics and, y'know, put music and language together
I also love the guitar playing
y'know, classical guitar but not so
strict and tight, it's kind of loose and
it feels like a party when you listen to it
Always good vibes when you put this guy on.
I actually only got two LPs
but one of them is the new Kaytranada album
I'm from Montreal originally, which is where he's from
and he's this amazing blend of
really heavy-hitting beats with kind of a musicality that isn't
often there and in this particular style of music
Really great, curated features
and the songwriting is amazing, the sounds are all really good.
And this record just looks so freakin' cool too.
It was calling at me as I walking by
so that was an easy choice.
This is something that I recently stumbled upon, even though
it's from the late '80s.
This band called Talk Talk, which I started getting into a lot.
These guys started opening up for Duran Duran. And these two albums
'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock'
I guess, kind of like 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac'
in terms of the same tones they have throughout the two albums.
Always cool to see that.
I got 'Songs of Leonard Cohen.'
Nick Drake is one of my favorites
and he talks about Leonard Cohen as... this record being kind of the
sound that he wanted to get
and if you listen to Pink Moon and you compare it to this record, it's actually very similar
the quality of recording.
Sufjan Stevens 'Seven Swans'
Listened to a lot of him in high school, actually Sameer introduced me
to Sufjan, and I got a chance to see him
this past year and it was one of the most emotional concerts
Sufjan Stevens. Great artist.
I picked 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' by Wilco
Wilco has been around for such a long time
they're very critically acclaimed, but they're one of those bands that kind of
flies under the radar in a lot of ways
and I think this is just a really pivotal point in their career
They did the real southern country rock thing for awhile
This is where the songwriting's here, but also, sonically, it's so interesting
and it was recorded at their loft, which I believe is in Chicago.
If you ever go to Chicago and walk along the river
you'll see this old hotel/parking structure.
The last two that I was talking about, they're kind of not rhythmic at all
there's nothing you can really dance to
and as a band, y'know, we love the backbeat
and Tribe is always a good choice
and if a drummer out there can play the drumbeat for 'Vibrant Thing'
I know they're a good drummer. You can play that.
I can play it, yeah.
It's a hard drumbeat.
It's really hard.
And I love that tune.
I actually went specifically was looking for this
It's called 'David Bowie Is...'
It's based on an exhibit that was put together with a lot of
his sort of personal collection of costumes
sketchbooks and storyboards, lyrics, all sorts of stuff
I mean it's perfect, y'know, it's exactly what you would expect
just weird photography that's fantastic
and all these little scribblings
and David Bowie wearing a jockstrap, but still pulling it off so well
I grew up listening to Bowie, so I was... I've never been
so impacted by a celebrity dying
and I remember, I saw it on Twitter
and I just started crying
that's never happened to me before
whenever we kind of find ourselves in a rough patch musically as a band
there's kind of always like 'What would Bowie do?'
which is, I think a pretty good beacon for creativity
so, yeah, pretty stoked on it.
I picked Junip.
I was actually looking for José González, who is part of Junip
His solo stuff is more just classical guitar, whereas Junip is more full band.
I really dig his stuff, it's kind of my go-to road trip music
He's got a very nomadic quality to him.
Yeah, it's good vibes, for sure.
I picked the late, great David Bowie's 'Blackstar'
this is still pretty fresh wounds right here
he put this out the day before he died on his birthday
and y'know, wrote his own eulogy, I think
It's honestly, as an artistic staple is...
I don't know who's done that before.
I've only really dug into 'Lazurus' honestly on this record
but, y'know, I'll take it home and really try and dig into the whole thing
I'm gonna go with Air '20 Years,' it's this new...
Eric just did that.
Did he? Nevermind.
I'll do Beck, another artist who
has just managed to always change everything up
and people have amnesia and forget
about an album like this, where he's super-rhythmic
He's just an insane collaborator and a genius.
Yeah, I actually didn't really listen to a huge amount of Beck before we worked with our
producer on the second album, JMJ.
He's the bass player for Beck, and that opened it up a little bit for me.
Especially as a drummer, Joey Waronker, who's their drummer is
doing some next level shit at every bar
and he does it so tastefully
I'm happy I've gotten more familiar with his music
because it's definitely very inspirational.
I picked up a book called 'The Wrecking Crew'
These guys are a bunch of musicians, studio guys
from, I guess, back in kind of like the Motown days, '60s/70s
They're The Beach Boys.
Most of the mid-1960s Beach Boys backing tracks didn't feature any of The Beach Boys.
It was Brian Wilson's decision to push the music to another level
and to do that, he enlisted the best of L.A.
They are The Beach Boys and, y'know, other artists as well
The musicians were really the unsung heroes of all those hit records
When I listen to the records, it is so apparent that
these guys were just really so good
and you can see why everybody used them.
There are another group of musicians in Detroit, Memphis...
kind of all over, so I wanted to learn more about these guys.
Cool.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thanks for having us.