The last time I talked about my oh so interesting but pretty standard music taste, I mentioned a couple of classic bands that I've always come crawling back to so far, no matter what emotional or pubescent phase I was stuck in. However, I didn't manage to fit in my whole list of artists (kudos to everyone who actually made it through the whole blog post), so I figured I could split it into two parts. Here's to the blog post where I pretend to be an expert on music numero dos.
1. Arctic Monkeys
I hesitated for a second when I was about to write down this band on my list. Primarily because I haven't actually listened to them for more than a couple of years. Obviously, I got to know them through AM, which was released in 2013, immediately falling in love with the classics 'Are You Mine?', 'Do I Wanna Know?', and 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?' (asking all the right questions here btw). What I'm about to say now is probably going to make hardcore Arctic Monkeys fans want to lynch me, but I didn't really listen to the real, the Favourite Worst Nightmare and Mardy Bum old school Arctic Monkeys, until I moved to England. I know, I know, someone should travel back in time and slap me when I limited myself to the transformed and renewed version of Arctic Monkeys when they released AM, but let me explain first. The indie rock scene in Germany or Norway was pretty much non existent, whereas British teens were already listening to indie music decades ago, making a comeback in 2008 when new generations were introduced to it through soundtracks of iconic shows like the Inbetweeners. At that point, I was still screaming my lungs out to Katy Perry's 'HotnCold'. Now that I've finally done my homework, I could pour my heart out to Alex Turner and unashamedly admit that I'd marry his voice if I could. Arctic Monkeys was also the band that made me appreciate drum and bass solos more, which you can hear so perfectly in the songs I'm about to suggest.
Some favourites: Pretty much everything from 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), but ESPECIALLY 'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor' + 'Fake Tales Of San Francisco' + 'Mardy Bum' + 'Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...' + 'When The Sun Goes Down' and last but not least 'From The Ritz To The Rubble', 'Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?' (album of the same name, 2006), 'Teddy Picker' + 'D is for Dangerous' + 'This House is a Circus' (Favourite Worst Nightmare, 2007)
2. Catfish and the Bottlemen
Surprisingly enough, I actually listened to Catfish and the Bottlemen way before I became properly familiar with the Arctic Monkeys. I think that they are one of those bands that you know are great, but somehow don't end up listening to all the time. They're always there, sneaking into your Spotify's suggestions, waiting for you to finally do yourself a favour and listen to them. I think it was their debut album called 'The Balcony' (2014) that introduced me to the Welsh rock band, 'Pacifier' being their first song I listened to. Weirdly enough, this is another indie band that a couple of Norwegian friends of mine had heard of, but never intensely listened to, so it wasn't until I became friends with Grace, when I moved to the U.K., that I started listening to them passionately and binge watched every live performance on YouTube. If you'd like to skip this blog post to go straight to one of my all time favourite covers, you can click here to listen to Catfish and the Bottlemen perform a mash up of the Black Keys' Howlin' For You', Kasabian's 'Shoot The Runner, and Kanye West's 'Black Skinhead'. It's going to be 2:44 minutes of your life that you won't regret wasting, I promise.
Some favourites: 'Pacifier' + 'Hourglass' + 'Homesick' (The Balcony, 2014), 'Soundcheck' + 'Postpone' + 'Oxygen' (The Ride, 2016)
3. Cage the Elephant
I'm feeling particularly close to this band, since I was lucky enough to see them live last year. It was my very first Cage the Elephant concert and my God, I had completely underestimated how crazy an indie rock band could go on stage. Somehow I had imagined some soft performance with little effects and carefree band members that really just wanted to play some music without the intention to impress anyone and certainly not cause a mosh pit. My friend Grace and I were brave enough to get all the way to the front, proudly taking Grace's mosh pit virginity. Multiple times. I might have nearly lost my shoes a couple of times and escaped a painful, although hella fun, death around three times, but oh my, was it worth it. The beautiful thing about concerts like this is that you get to a point where you're so fully and completely soaked in a mixture of sweat and beer (yeah right, as if there was any chance you would've made it to the front without spilling your drink all over the mosh pitters), that you simply couldn't care less about how you look or feel, as long as you could still feel something, of course. Now that I've experienced the live performance, it'll never be the same to listen to the recorded ones on Spotify, but here's a list of favourites anyway:
Some favourites: 'In One Ear' + 'Ain't No Rest For The Wicked' + 'Back Against The Wall' (Cage The Elephant, 2006), 'Aberdeen' (Thank You Happy Birthday, 2006), 'Spiderhead' + 'Teeth' (Melophobia, 2013), 'Too Late To Say Goodbye' + 'Cold Cold Cold' + 'Trouble' + 'Punchin' Bag' (Tell Me I'm Pretty, 2015)
4. Led Zeppelin
Just to spice this indie dominating list up a little, I figured I could mention another classic rock favourite of mine (I'm actually wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt while sipping on some JacknCoke as I'm writing this). If I remember correctly, it was actually my dad who introduced me to Led Zeppelin, amongst other hard rock bands such as the iconic AC/DC and Def Leppard. To this day, whenever we're in the car together, we put on some of our favourite CDs (we're that old school) and pretend to be one of those people who present their ego to the world by playing it as loud as tolerable. Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that makes me want to live on the road and shoot demons or whatever (huge fan of 'Supernatural' here). It's almost as if their guitar solos and the vocals of Robert Plant speak to the rebellious part of me, immediately making me feel just slightly more badass when I'm walking down the street with headphones on. What I find quite interesting is that even though they are notorious for their Sons of Anarchy-heavy music, they actually created one of the most seductive and sexy pieces of all times. Just the intro of their cover of 'I Can't Quit You Baby', originally written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Otis Rush, blows me away every time. For less sexual song suggestions, here's a couple of my all time favourites.
Some favourites: 'I Can't Quit You Baby' + 'Communication Breakdown' + 'Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin, 1969), 'Whole Lotta Love' + 'Ramble On' (Led Zeppelin II, 1969), 'Rock And Roll' + 'Black Dog' (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971), 'Immigrant Song' (Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
5. Royal Blood
Last but not least, I simply had to mention another band that isn't as old as my dad. I fell in love with the British rock duo Royal Blood when I listened to 'Better Strangers' from their debut album in 2014. It's yet again the strong bass and drums that stick out so perfectly in every single one of their songs, and apparently drummer Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys seemed to dig it even before I had heard of them. When they performed at Glastonbury in 2013, Helders was wearing a t-shirt supporting Royal Blood although they weren't going to release their debut before the following year. Three years later, after I had already developed some sort of withdrawal symptoms because, although I loved their first album, I was already craving for more. June 2017, they finally filled the gap in my heart with their amazing second album called 'How Did We Get So Dark?'. It's nice to see how they stayed true to the style they presented in their debut album, instead of starting their first experimental phase, with the only difference that this one is even heavier and more powerful than the first one.
Some favourites: 'Come On Over' + 'Figure It Out' + 'Ten Tonne Skeleton' + 'Better Strangers' (Royal Blood, 2014), 'I Only Lie When I Love You' + 'She's Creeping' + Where Are You Now?' (How Did We Get So Dark?, 2017)
What I have realised during the making of this list is that I tend to listen to bands with male vocalists with deep or strong and powerful voices. I'm not sure if this is because female rock bands have only just started to be more visible and dare to compete against their male counterparts in a music industry that has been more competitive and diverse than ever before. Of course, there has already been bands like The Pretty Reckless, Dorothy, Paramore and Evanescence, as well as icons as Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks, but somehow they never really made it into my playlists. That's why I have written a blog post that focuses on female bands and artists I listen to, including some that I think deserve more recognition, because believe it or not, women can be just as hard rock as men. Until then, I hope this playlist of all time favourites will somehow satisfy your hunger for some classics that will never grow old. I might have also chosen a couple of Beatles songs anyway, even though I said that was an impossible task. Yes, I'm desperately click-baiting you to take a look at my playlist. No, you might not hate me for it.
Hopefully these songs will cheer you up on a Hard Day's Night, like it has for me so many times before. Enjoy!