Defining Five is a series at Haymarket Whiskey Bar, where, each month, four people from the Louisville music community pick five songs that have moved, inspired or impacted them, and then they play them during a DJ set. After each event, LEO Weekly will publish an interview with all five to get some context as to why each song was selected. (Stay tuned to Haymarket’s Facebook page for updates.)
Jenn Yates (airstudio502)
Original Sin
by INXS
from the album The Swing
“It was the first album that I bought on compact disc. I was a freshman in high school. They were my favorite band, transitioning from grade school and middle school to high school and all throughout high school.”
“Burning Down The House”
by The Talking Heads
from the album Speaking in Tongues
“If there was a song that represented my pre-adult life, it would be this song. It was on MTV all of the time, and that was on 24/7 at my house.”
“Precious Things”
Tori Amos
from the album Little Earthquakes
“I’ve been following her career since her very first, kind-of piano album, Little Earthquakes, and that is where this song is from. I think it’s a classic and timeless — I can keep going back and listening to it. It stands up.”
“Strangers”
by Portishead
from the album Dummy
“This was getting more into my college years. That was off of Dummy, which was there first album. It’s just one of my all-time favorite songs from one of my all-time favorite bands on one of my all-time favorite albums.”
“The National Anthem”
by Radiohead
from the album Kid A
“Same kind of deal — that ‘90s college era. Really those bands have really stuck with me — all the early-to-mid ‘90s bands. I can put any of those albums on, go see any of those bands and still have an amazing time. That’s the one thing about all of the bands I played live — I mean, I never saw Talking Heads, but we’ve all seen “Stop Making Sense” — they’re all just amazing performers.”
Aubrey Holle and Brittany Garret (Live Music Lou)
“Rocky Raccoon”
The Beatles
The Beatles [White Album]
“I think that was the first song that I memorized all of the lyrics to, as a young kid. And, The White Album in general, I just remember really, really liking and listening to that record in cars to various sporting events with my dad. — Aubrey
“Blue Days, Black Nights”
by Buddy Holly
“I took a music appreciation class in high school, and that was the first time I actually started thinking about the music that I was listening to. That song in particular wasn’t that special at first, but I remember watching “The Buddy Holly Story,” and learning how important he was to music.” — Brittany
“Renegade”
by Styx
from the album Pieces of Eight
“Growing up, we listened to Styx on road trips all of the time.” — Brittany
“Breakable”
by Ingrid Michaelson
from the album Girls and Boys
“I’ll shamelessly say that my music tastes switched away from Top 100 in high school, because of paying attention to music that was played on TV shows. And she was an artist that I caught onto, and then, seven or eight years later, finally got to see live. I love her empowerment and spunk and fun.” — Aubrey
“Gone”
Kayne West
from the album Late Registration
“That was also during that time where I think I would learn about artists, and, instead of listening to who everyone else was listening to, I would — this is terrible — Limewire into the deep depths of random stuff. And, so, Kayne was one of those artists that I have a large playlist full of. — Aubrey
“Mardy Bum”
Arctic Monkeys
from the album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
“My best friend from growing up and I, in our emo phase, loved them, and we saw them a couple of times, and, at the time, being 14,15 years old that was exactly what I needed to be listening to. — Brittany
“And the the tieback is that we saw Arctic Monkeys together as Live Music Lou. We saw Ingrid Michaelson together as Live Music Lou. And it was really fun to pull back on our first encounters and our experiences on those. — Aubrey
“Mariella”
by Kate Nash
from the album Made of Bricks
“I started listening to Kate Nash in high school and college, and I had a really good friend who I met in college. We spent our first two years together and figured out what we were doing with our lives at that point, so Kate Nash makes me think of her. And Kate Nash is a badass. She helps empower young girls. And that was the first concert I went to alone, so that was pretty big deal for me too — I flew from France to England to go see her in concert. And I’ve thought about getting tattoos about this song. It has a lot of meaning. —Brittany
“Crueler Kind”
by San Fermin
from the album San Fermin
“This is an artist that has definitely been on the rise and we discovered, from the ground up, as a pair. We saw them at Shaky Knees in 2014, and they played a three-in-the-afternoon set.” — Brittany
“I remember walking in and hearing them playing, and just running, thinking, ‘What is this, it’s so cool.’”—Aubrey
“They have seven people on stage at a time. Ellis Ludwig Leone plays keyboards and is kind of the composer. He picked the musicians. I think that he helped us discover other kinds of music.” — Brittany
“Bourbon”
by Gallant
from the album Ology
“I like it because of our Louisville ties, bourbon, but seeing him open up for Sufjan [Stevens] was really cool. And, it’s another thing, that, if we weren’t doing our Live Music Lou gig, I don’t think that I would have necessarily come into contact with this artist.” — Aubrey
“Penitentiary”
by Houndmouth
from the album From the Hills Below The City
“We love Houndmouth. It fun to go other places and talk about Louisville artists, and talk up this city for the cool music stuff that’s happening.” — Aubrey
Richard E. Darshwood (magician)
Tour De France
by Kraftwerk
from the album Tour De France
“Each one of these are from a movie. Each of these movies are ones that I’ve watched over and over again. Tour De France being from the move ‘Breakin,’ which, when I was a kid, I totally loved the idea of being a break dancer. What was really impactful for me, because I do magic, was that “Tour De France” was playing in a part of that movie where a magic trick was taking place.”
Fire in the Twilight
Wang Chung
from the album The Breakfast Club [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
“This is the scene were the kids are running in the hallways from the principal. And I think that ‘Breakfast Club’ has has a lot of impact on people who grew up in that era, but I was thinking about it, and I think that that movie, early on, taught me that it’s good to go against your expectations from authority.”
The Breakfast Machine
by Danny Elfman
from the album The Film Music of Danny Elfman
“This is from the opening scene of the Pee-wee Herman movie, where he wakes up in the morning and he has all of these crazy contraptions in his house, just to create breakfast. I’ve a had an interest in magic, and just in the childhood inspiration that it gave me … it still gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling when that song comes on.”
Sh-Boom
by The Crew Cuts
“It’s in the movie ‘Clue.’ It introduced me to that old-timey music.”
“The Last Dragon”
by Dwight David
from the album The Last Dragon [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
“That movie introduced me to kung fu movies, which every kid is into when they’re younger. That particular song — the message is about learning to beat your own master. In the movie, the guy spent the entire duration trying to find his master, only to learn that he is the master. And I think that’s a cool concept: We are in control of our own destiny.”