Defining Five: Dylan Herre Feese, Edward Lutz, Joann Jene and Sam Wilkerson discuss songs that have had an impact on them

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.)

Dylan Herre Feese (White Crosses)

“What We Worked For” by Against Me! from the EP Crime “It’s my favorite song from my favorite band, which puts it in the running for my favorite song of all time. The instrumentation, the engineering, the production, the song craft — everything about it is perfect, brilliant and magical. And the meaning: muscles burning alcohol and nicotine every morning … “There’s a height beyond skyscrapers / there’s a distance beyond the freeway.” Those two lines speak endless volumes like no other songs that I’ve heard can.”
“Queen Of Hearts” by Fucked Up  from the album David Comes To Life “Fucked Up is a magical, modern hardcore band. Sometimes I feel pretentious when I call them artcore, because their hardcore is too goddamn beautiful. You hear this overbearing bearded man just bellowing words and sentiment and emotion that seems aggressive, but when you listen to how all of the music flows and bounces, it’s just the most beautiful, uplifting and saddening thing that I’ve ever heard come out of hardcore.”
“Stay The Night” by Green Day  from the album ¡UNO! “Now, Green Day is a really polarizing band. They’re quite obviously one of the greatest bands of all time, simply because no one sounds like them. They’re the greatest pop-punk band. This song, specifically, because it came so late  in their career. It was good to see Billie Joe settle in to something very classic. It wasn’t punk Billie Joe living on the streets. It wasn’t punk Billie Joe rallying against America. It was punk Billie Joe writing the classic American rock ’n’ roll tune that sounds amazing, set to one of the most brilliant rhythm sections that ever was.”
“The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire from the album The Suburbs  “To open with that song, it’s like to picture the band 15 feet tall, just swinging and swaying through this tale of childhood and hope and faith under street lights and summer breezes. And then trying to make that make sense as a grown-up.”
“Days” by The Drums  from the album Portamento  “The Drums just don’t get enough love. Their first two albums are just pure heart and danceability. It’s odd shit, but it makes so much sense. “Days” is that perfect sentiment of love. I think that might have been the whole theme tonight — love. What the fuck are we doing? Where are we going? Where do you find it? What is it? How do you keep it?”

Edward Lutz (Arcade Odyssey Pinball & Arcade Repair)

“And The Cradle Will Rock” by Van Halen  from the album “Women and Children First” “Van Halen was the first band that I saw live, in 1982. Van Halen only exists with David Lee Roth, and no one else matters — it’s not a band.”
“Cherub” g by Butthole Surfers  from the album Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac “One of the most amazing bands ever. I probably got that record when I was 16, and its the most screwed-up, bizarre record that I’ve ever heard in my life. Probably the band that I’ve seen the most in my life — five or six times.”
“Passing Complexion” by Big Black  from the album Atomizer  “One again, I grew up listening to punk rock and American hardcore, and this was one of the first bands that I heard that was different from just loud, fast, loud, fast. It sort of changed the way I listen to music.”
“Blue Mamba”  Sun City Girls  from the album Torch of the Mystics “I was probably around 25, and my roommate and a friend of ours was listening to that when it first came out in the early ’90s. It definitely made you think differently about music. That’s a beautiful record.”
“Here Comes Sickness” by Mudhoney  from the album Mudhoney “As far as I’m concerned, when the scholars write the next chapter of rock ’n’ roll, and the little, tiny blurb that is grunge, it will all be about Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, but the most important one is Mudhoney — highly overlooked.”

Joann Jene (Joann + The Dakota)

“You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” by Jim Croce  from the album You Don’t Mess Around With Jim “The first time I ever really discovered Jim Croce when there was a concert that aired on VH1. I had heard songs before, but I really didn’t know who it was. I heard the song “Operator” — which wasn’t the song I chose tonight, but that was the first one that I fell in love with. I choose “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” tonight because even though I love some of the other songs, for this, I wanted to choose a little more upbeat songs. So, after the first time I heard Jim Croce, I became obsessed, and had my mom take me out and buy a bunch of CDs. I was probably 13.”
“Homeward Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel  “This is one of the songs my dad played on guitar and sang ,while I was growing up. Before I even knew their version, I knew my dad singing it. My dad was a musician and an artist and a poet, and when I listened to Simon & Garfunkel, I always knew it was poetry set to music. It was hard for me to choose one song from Simon & Garfunkel, because that was the first song I was introduced to.”
“The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac from the album Rumours  “Rumours is one of the most perfect albums ever made. I love audiobooks, and I listened to one about the making of Rumours. I love everything about that band, everything about their story [and] everything about this song. For me, this song is a truce/battle cry of the band, and it’s about unconditional love and sticking together as a team even though things don’t turn out quite the way you had hoped.”
“Somebody To Love” by Queen from the album A Day At The Races “When “Wayne’s World” came out, I, like a million other kids, became obsessed with Queen. I wanted to hear everything. To me, “Somebody To Love” is one of the most gut-wretchedly beautiful songs because, from everything I read, he wrote it from the perspective of Aretha Franklin. It is the perspective of someone who wants love so bad, but isn’t desperate for it. They just feel that they deserve it. It’s a powerful song.”
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” The Beatles  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band  “Picking a Beatles songs was the hardest thing for me. The reason I picked “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is because I listened to all of my favorite Beatles songs yesterday, and there are so many, and that was the one, that … when I was a teenager I spent a lot of time by myself, and that was a world that I wanted to live in. I wanted to be a rocking-horse person, and eat marshmallow pies. That whole world that is created within that song is something that I absolutely love and it reminds me of my teenage years.”

Sam Wilkerson (White Reaper)

“Requiem” by Killing Joke from the album Killing Joke “It’s an epic and simple punk song, and it’s just a testament to the power of simplicity in punk.”
“Oscars Eye” by Gray Matter from the album Food for Thought / Take It Back  “The reason I picked it is because the lyrics resonate with me better than most punk stuff that I’ve heard in my life. There’s a lyric that goes, “There’s no use saying that my city’s burning / In the place that I live only leaves are burning.” And I think that’s a perfect lyric
“The Voice” The Boys Next Door  from the album Door, Door “It’s Nick Cave’s first recorded band, and it’s really catchy, and underrated, and fully composed and written, and it sounds great.
“The Red Telephone” by Love from the album Forever Changes “I think that Arthur Lee didn’t give a shit about trying to rhyme or anything. He just wanted to say what he wanted to say. And it focuses a lot on death. This song is the most grim of all of their discography, and that’s why I like the song.
“The Passenger” [Live, 1977] by Iggy Pop from the album Lust For Live 1977 “I like it a lot because it demonstrates more of the live presence that he had in the year that that album came out, especially in Europe, when he toured with David Bowie.”

This article appears in June 22, 2016.