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. 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 March 8 from 6-8 p.m. Stay tuned to Haymarket’s Facebook page for updates.)
Nicholas Layman (Black Birds of Paradise)
“Viking 1” by Moondog from the album “The Viking of Sixth Avenue” “It’s just currently the most beautiful piece of music that I’ve heard. There is this weird, mysterious filter sweep on something that makes no sense. It’s a beautiful, fascinating piece of music.”“I Don’t Want To Be Happy” by James Chance and the Contortions from the album “Buy” “Nothing about the music is meant to relate to the listener. In fact, they hate the listener so much that they wouldn’t even say fuck you to them. It’s angular and obtuse and it’s New York. New York vibes all the way. It’s great.”
“Nefertiti” by Miles Davis from the album “Nefertiti” “I think it’s a master’s class on the rhythm section. The horns just play the same line over and over and over again, and then phase out with one another into this real cool, acoustic psychedelic thing that starts happening. The rhythm section just goes ape shit.”
“Baron Saturday” by The Pretty Things from the album “S.F. Sorrow” “I think they were the greatest original-era psychedelic band. They were heavier than the contemporaries. They had all of the vocals and chops of all the contemporaries. They recorded at Abby Road. A phenomenal band.”
“Panis Et Circenses” by “Os Mutantes” from the album “Os Mutantes” “That was the first tropicalia style song that I ever heard, and I didn’t even know what tropicalia was, but I love psychedelic music and it just completely opened me up to the world of Brazilian music of that era. Rhythmically, I’m really attracted to it. It opened a whole new world and that song trips the hardest balls. It’s fantastic.”
Jeremy Perry (The Deloreans)
“Beachwood Park” by The Zombies from the album “Odessey & Oracle” “I’m not a big listener of complete albums, but there’s a couple of exceptions where I can listen to the whole thing from front to back and this is definitely one of them for sure. I love Colin Blunstone’s voice — he has such a silky, easy-sounding way to do it. The way he pronounces words and spins out vocals is pretty amazing to me — “Beackwood Parl’ particularly.”“Stardust” by Nat King Cole “Nat King Cole is one of my favorite singers. He, as well, has a way to spin out vocals and words, not unlike Colin Blunstone, that I really like. And he’s got such a rich baritone voice. He pronounces words so ‘well,’ but he sounds really, really cool when he does it. There’s not many songs that have this sort of imagery, this sort of arrangement and this sort of performance, all in the same place.”
“When The Music’s Over” by The Doors from the album “Strange Days” “For sure my favorite Doors’ song … and The Doors might be my favorite band. It’s hard to choose. That’s just a group that had such an interesting combination of personalities — a jazz drummer, a classical keyboardist, a classical guitar player and a singer that … Jim Morrison doesn’t really need a description. There’s no way it should have worked, yet they made so many hits. And Jim Morrison’s voice, if you want to look at it a certain way is pretty close to Nat King Cole’s voice. They both had that nice baritone voice and a certain way to pronounce words, but Jim Morrison is definitely of a different era — he was so in touch with how to develop a song dramatically. And you always know that you can count on, in most Doors songs, a really intense vocal moment.”
“Lindisfarne I / Lindisfarne II” by James Blake from the album “James Blake” “For me, he might be the best writer of lyrics working at the moment today. Not only does he have a great gift of communicating something very precise without being overt about it, but he’s also an incredible arranger and he’s amazing at picking the perfect phases and arrangements for his words.”
“Fruhling” by Rickard Strauss from the album “Karajan-Strauss” “It’s a piece for soprano and orchestra written by Ricard Strauss. This recording in particular, and what’s important about it, and part of the reason I chose it, it’s a singer called Gundula Janowitz and it’s conducted by Herbert Von Karajan.This is a piece of music that I’ve listened to so many different versions of and this is my favorite. I could probably write a 20-page paper on this piece alone and still not cover the whole thing. It’s an intensely chromatic piece, which could only be performed by a highly-skilled soprano. Gundula’s soprano is so light and agile that she just takes the piece to a different level.”
Ken Wilson
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Ernest Tubb from the album “Ernest Tubb Sings Hank Williams” “Sort of killing two birds with one stone, because my father was a butcher. Some of the earliest music I heard, he used to sing Ernest Tubb ‘Dear John’ and those songs, and a lot of Hank Williams — ‘Your Cheating Heart,’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ — he’d sing those songs. This sort of set the tone for music, a plaintive wail, that mattered to me.”“India” by John Coltrane from the album “Impressions” “The influence of Indian culture and Indian sound on Coltrane influenced me. Coltrane was my idol, my hero. I got to see him three times in my life. That sound, that Coltrane sound, drifted me through years of my life.”
“Baby’s On Fire” by Brian Eno from the album “Here Come The Warm Jets” “Then I discovered Eno and Fripp — a whole different sort of sonic discovery. I played ‘Baby’s On Fire’ because of the intense solo by Robert Fripp. Eno is another one of my heroes because of what he has been able to do with such of range of music and sounds.”
“Sugar Hiccup” by Cocteau Twins from the album “Head Over Heels” “I saw Cocteau Twins in Buffalo, New York back in the late ‘90s. They are another one of my absolute favorites. I love bands from Scotland, and Cocteau Twins is the essence of just this wash of wonderful sounds. One of the purest voices — Elizabeth Fraser — in music and then this atmosphere that Simon Raymonde and the Cocteau Twins create around it … love those guys.”
“Repelish” Mogwai from the album “Rave Tapes” “I discovered Mogwai in a listening booth in Rochester, New York, and they are a post-rock band that just blows me away with what they’re able to do with various kinds of soft, loud, harsh, sweet — just an amazing range of sounds. The interesting thing about them is, when I discovered them, and when I was reading about them, they kept mentioning a band called Slint. Now, I was living in Rochester at the time, but I’m from Louisville, and I would read up on Slint … and they were from my hometown. I actually discovered things backwards. I discovered Slint from Mogwai, not the other way around.”
El Chubbs
“Lust For Life” by Iggy Pop from the album “Lust For Life” “I heard that when I was 16 years old and it just struck me as something neat and original, but also just a mantra for life.”“Six Pack” by Black Flag from the album “Damaged” “Just kind of a symbol of rebellion. Growing up in the punk community … I could buy a lot of things, but instead I just bought a six pack. It’s kind of cheesy, but it’s just an awesome song about rebellion.”
“Just For You” by White Lung from the album “Deep Fantasy” “It’s an awesome, female-fronted hardcore, super punk band. It’s actually the song that inspired me to lose a lot of weight. I would run to that album all of the time.”
“Elite” Deaftones from the album “White Pony” “‘White Pony’ got me through a ton of stuff when I was in my high school years, because you’re kind of that weird kid and you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You’re just like, ‘I’m going to listen to some heavy music and everybody is going to hate me in school.’ And that’s cool.”
“I’m Sick” Piss Jeans from the album “Shallow + Throbbing Organ” “It’s just mean and dirty and gross. That first Piss Jeans record is super unapologetic and in-your-face, and there’s something that I’ve always loved about that, especially inside of music.”
