Today’s Life is Like a Box of Records is with Willem Smit, of Dutch four-piece Canshaker Pi.
They recently unveiled their excellent single What You’re Trying To Say, out now via Excelsior Recordings.
Skik – Op Fietse
When I was about three or four years old, I remember being a little confused about what my favourite song of all time was, because I thought this song was the same song as the number two on this list. Anyway, one of these two was my favourite song for chilling in the backseat of a car. Skik is a Dutch band. They sing with a pretty hardcore Drents dialect, so I have no clue what they’re singing about. Very good song though…
Scram C Baby – The Company
Another Dutch band! They made Love Is Not Enough, one of the coolest records of all time in my opinion. This is kind of a bombastic, radio friendly Scram C track. Not my favourite kind, but hey, this song rocked my world when I was five and I still get a little emotional whenever it’s on.
Arctic Monkeys – Still Take You Home
When I was eight, my father gave me their first CD. I was instantly hooked and started dancing with my mom and running around the house during the entire album. And when it was finished we did the whole thing over again. I got pretty obsessed with this music. Ordinary young guys with awesome songs and a lot of energy, what else do you need? (buy our album). I don’t really like their later records, but I still love this one.
Nirvana – Drain You
Around that time some kids around me started playing electric guitar, which was obviously very cool. The guitarist cool kids listened to Nirvana and my dad liked Nirvana to so I kind of got into it through them. Also a lot of energy and great songs. From age 8 to 10 Nevermind and that first Arctic Monkeys record were pretty much all I listened to.
Pixies – Bone Machine
I got an iPod for my birthday and my dad, his girlfriend at the time and I filled it up with a lot of music, including the pixies. Bone machine was the first pixies song I heard and when I told my father I loved it, he told me that when I was three years old, I wouldn’t listen to anything but The Lion King soundtrack (honourable mention). The only way for him to play something else was to put on If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian and tell me it was the new Simba record, or to put on Surfer Rosa and say it was the latest work of Timon and Pumba.
Wilco – Radio Cure
Marit, my lil’ brothers mom is very cool and she told me about one of her favourite bands Wilco. This record was my favourite record ever for two years during high school. I saw them at Lowlands, one of the largest, most well-known festivals in The Netherlands, in a half full tent due to the fact that The XX and Foo Fighters were playing at the same time. Nevertheless, I was blown away by their three-hour show (you have to be Wilco to keep me interested for three hours). I went to see them again in Keulen with Marit and my dad, but it wasn’t as good because they played all the early Americana/Country stuff I really dislike.
The Jesus And Mary Chain – Never Understand
Psychocandy is awesome. This is my favourite song of the album and in my opinion the best representation of the record. The idea of an amazingly catchy pop song with a wall of squeaky feedback is my kind of thing. I guess we kind of did something comparable to that on our record, mixing something poppy with something not poppy at all.
Girl Band – Lawman
A friend of a friend music nerd kind of dude told me about Girl Band when we were talking about Joy Division in a bar. When I got home I played this song on my computer, then played it again on the stereo-oh, then invited our bassist Ruben over, then played it again for him and then two more times with my dad when he was home. It has the same repetitive, psychotic and most of all extremely noisy vibes as Declare Independence by Bjork and Three Bedrooms by Death Grips. I really like those vibes!
Petersburg Orderer – Carla
Petersburg Orderer is a new band from Amsterdam. It’s a two-piece starring Camiel Muiser as singer-songwriter and guitarist (also a great drummer and painter) and Boris de Klerk (who you may know from bands such as Canshaker Pi and The Hot Bananas) as guitarist. So far they’ve done three (very good) good shows, playing along to a drum computer. I heard some of their amazing demo’s and last two months I get stuck writing songs, because I can’t help but feel they’re nowhere near as good as the Petersburg Orderer songs.
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