Defining Five is a series at Haymarket Whiskey Bar, where, each month, four people/groups from the Louisville music community pick five songs that have moved, inspired or impacted them and then play them during a DJ set. The day after each event, LEO Weekly will publish an interview with all four people/groups to get some context as to why each song was selected. (The next Defining Five event will be held on Dec. 15 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Stay tuned to Haymarket’s Facebook page for updates.)
Shadwick Wilde (Quiet Hollers)
“Night Boat to Cairo”
by Madness
from the album “One Step Beyond…”
“They were a second-wave ska band in England. [This is] before they made the song “Our House” that everyone is familiar with. I was big into ska and reggae and rocksteady when I was a teenager. I just think that was a really good instrumental track.”
“Backstreets”
by Bruce Springsteen
from the album “Born To Run”
“‘Born To Run’ was one of the first records that I was ever conscious of as a child. My mom’s a big Springsteen fan, so I would hear that album and Fleetwood Mac and The Carpenters and stuff like that around the house … and unfortunately also ABBA. Trisha Yearwood. Garth Brooks. But there was also a lot of good stuff, too.”
“Lungs”
by Townes Van Zandt
from the album “Townes Van Zandt”
“I started listening to Townes Van Zandt around the time that I recorded my first solo record, which was a hugely pivotal kind of genre change. He’s the first songwriter that I discovered that I was like, ‘Oh, so this is what songwriting should be.’ Or, this is a song crafter opposed to someone that was like, ‘I need to write these kind of lyrics for my cool punk band.’”
“The World Don’t Need Me Around Much Anymore”
by State Champion
from the album “Stale Champagne”
“That record came out right around the time that I had gotten Quiet Hollers together and we were trying to figure out where our niche was and what kind of band we wanted to be, and State Champion and The National and Built To Spill were all bands that I was getting heavy into at the time. And it took a little while for the aesthetic to run off on the rest of the band, I think … but, they, in terms of local bands, were definitely influential.”
“Anyone’s Ghost”
by The National
from the album “High Violet”
“It might be my favorite [from The National]. They are a more recent acquisition of my music library — over the past couple of years, basically. But, I’m a huge, huge fan of Matt Berninger lyrics and the Dessner twin’s production and arrangement on that album and on ‘Boxer’ and on ‘Trouble [Will Find Me].’ Basically, I’m a huge nerd for The National.”
Sam Filiatreau (Lazy Sunday)
“Rocking Chair”
by The Districts
from the album “The Districts”
“It’s this band from right outside Philly, they’re like 20 years old. The lead singer has this … whatever he says, you believe him. I don’t know what it is about, but I don’t really give a shit what he is saying because he puts so much energy into it that he makes you believe.”
“Us and Them”
by Pink Floyd
from the album “Dark Side of the Moon”
“Pretty self-explanatory, just a classic record. I just remember listening to it with my guitar player Anthony. We’ve just always been really attached to it, because his dad had it on vinyl.”
“Trouble Man”
by Marvin Gaye
from the album “Trouble Man”
“I actually came about it through Jim James on Sir Microcosm [radio show on WFPK]. He was playing side two of it — or side one — but it caught my ear and I was like, ‘I’m going to have to go home and find out what the hell he is playing and listen to it over and over.’ And that’s what I did.”
“Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”
by Jeff Buckley
from the album “Grace”
“…which is another song I heard on WFPK awhile ago and was drawn to it and, since then, I must have listened to this song a thousand times. There’s just something about that guy. I don’t even necessarily love all of his music, but that song in particular I can just listen to over and over.”
“Helpless”
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (written by Neil Young)
from the album “Deja Vu”
“It’s kind of the song of my childhood, really. My dad was huge on Neil Young and he said that it was the saddest song ever written. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s probably the best one to me.”
Travis Searle and Lisa Foster (Guestroom Records)
Travis: “We did this from the perspective of Guestroom Records.”
Lisa: “There was no way to split five songs between Travis and I, so we choose songs that we thought were foundational to the history of Guestrroom and being here.”
“Eric’s Trip”
by Sonic Youth
from the album Daydream Nation
Travis: “I played Sonic Youth’s ‘Daydream Nation’ as literally the first album when I opened the first Guestroom and when I opened the second Guestroom. Sadly, we didn’t play it when we opened in Louisville. We played Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’ instead. And [Eric’s Trip] isn’t an eight-minute crazy jam.”
“Clap Your Hands!”
by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
from the album “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah”
Lisa: “It was one of the first songs that Travis can remember ordering through the mail by check from a very small distribution company and then having it [be reissued] ten years later, after we were open in Louisville and being so excited with having it on vinyl and introducing it to new fans and old fans and having that sort of reminiscence with it as well.”
“Feel It All Around”
by Washed Out
from the album “Life of Leisure”
Travis: “It is one of the first records I can remember coming out on colored vinyl. And that was a special edition thing. That was something that turned it into a chase and would kind of go on to define what record selling has been like in the last handful of years. It’s not just about the record and collecting the record, it’s also like, ‘What color of vinyl can I get that on?’ It’s where underground culture and record culture started to coalesce with mass culture.”
Lisa: “2009 was a really interesting point for stores and seeing this record come out on purple vinyl — *turns to Travis* — I remember you telling me, ‘Well, I just ordered a lot of this. It’s either going to sell and things are going to go really well or it’s not and we’re going to go down a different path.’ We sold a lot of it. And it went really well and we can see the foundation of what we are doing now in this record.”
“Riding”
by Second Story Man
from the album “There Is No One: Louisville Is For Lovers Tribute To The Palace Brothers”
Lisa: “This record is really important to both of us. This was put out by Louisville Is For Lovers and John King. John brought these into the store about two months after we opened in Louisville. They are on a beautiful color of marble vinyl, they were pressed locally in Sheperdsville. And we sold more of this record, both locally and to global audiences, than we ever had before, anywhere. And it is all local artists covering an iconic Louisville band.”
“River Low”
by Joan Shelley
from the album “Electric Ursa”
Travis: “Joan Shelley has been amazing to us. Joan Shelley and the Louisville music scene at large. We love every record she has been a part of. Joan has played in the store multiple times.”
Jecorey Arthur (1200)
“Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor”
by Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky
“Tchaikovsky makes my favorite genre of music which is Russian romantic. You just fall in love with anything that you hear, sound wise and compositionally he’s the greatest that ever did it.”
“N.Y. State of Mind”
by Nas
from the album “Ilmatic”
“When I first ever performed as an emcee, I was with this band Citizen’s United and we covered ’N.Y. State of Mind,’ so that’s why it is so special to me. And some people say ‘Ilmatic’ is the best hip-hop album of all time.”
“Acknowledgement”
John Coltrane
from the album “A Love Supreme”
“Coltrane is special to me because he was almost just one of those spiritual musicians that you listen to. He once said that he didn’t own his horn or his instrument, but a higher being did and they were responsible for the sounds that came out and he was just the vessel and I strongly believe that.”
“Dark Fantasy”
by Kayne West
from the album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”
“Kayne is a musical genius, as he would say — and I would say. I think he really taught me to never put yourself in a box and never be afraid to try new things. When I first heard that song, the piano part came in and then the sample came in — ‘can we get much higher?’ We cannot. Wonderful album.”
“Symphony No. 4”
by Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky
“It really just defines who I am as a musician — someone who wants to take you through the lightness and the darkness of life. And the last movement, Movement 4, is my favorite. But, I don’t feel like going through the record to find it, so I’m going to play the first Movement, which is 30 minutes long, but I’m going to play a little bit of it.”