5 Songs We Can't Stop Listening To is a collection of our newest favorite songs. Every week we ask an artist that we love to tell us about the music they love.
Listen to the whole segment and all the songs below.
1. Frankie Cosmos picks “Holding On Too Tight” by Anna McClellan
This is 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To, and my guest today is Frankie Cosmos.
Frankie Cosmos is the name of the band, and lead singer is Greta Kline. She has been making fantastic, personal, bedroom rock for years. She just released this fantastic album called “Vessel” that just came out this past Friday. We’ve been playing the song “Jesse” on 88Nine. My guest today is Greta Kline, aka Frankie Cosmos.
Justin Barney: What’s one song right now you can’t stop listening to, that you’ve been jamming on?
Greta Klein: Oh my god, wow. The thing I’d recommend so hard is the new Anna McClellan album. It’s just really special to me. I think that Anna’s song writing and her as a person has had a really good effect on me and my writing, and my singing.
We were just hanging out yesterday, and we were talking about the idea of having feelings that are too big to fit into a nutshell. I think that’s something that I’m really learning how to accept. Like, this is an in-between feeling that I’m never going to resolve. There’s never going to be an easy way to explain how I feel about this thing, and that’s okay, that’s allowed. Instead of it being like, this is good and this is bad. I think that’s a really good attitude.
Justin Barney: I feel that, I feel that a lot.
Greta Klein: Yeah, there’s this song on it called “Holding on Too Tight”, it’s been in my head for the last two days. It’s really intense, it’s really good.
- “Holding On Too Tight” is on Anna McClellan’s new album, “Yes and No” which is out now.
- Listen if you like: Frankie Cosmos, Sandy (Alex G), really personal and beautiful songs.
2. Animal Flag – “Why”
I’ve always loved singers that sound like they are just on the verge of breaking down. It’s why I love Bright Eyes, who is a huge influence on this artist, Animal Flag. I think it captures this emotion, and music is about emotion. This song really captures the passion and the feelings. It starts kind of quiet and shaky, but then it gets into this gigantic hook that is just a release of emotion, and then it comes back into being quiet again. I love the way that this song feels, and the emotion behind it.
- “Why” appears on Animal Flag’s new album, “Void Ripper” out April 13th via Flower Girl Records.
- Listen if you like: Bright Eyes, early oughts rock, songs with quiet verses and huge emotional hooks
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3. Bahamas picks “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” by Prince
Our guest is Bahamas. The new album from Bahamas is “Earth Tones”, and we’ve been playing the song “Way With Words” on 88Nine. My guest today is Afie Jurvanen, who is Bahamas.
Justin Barney: What’s one song you can’t stop listening to?
Afie Jurvanen: One song I can’t stop listening to is “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” by Prince. It’s off his first album, and I think this album he played all the instruments. It’s basically like a demo, but a demo for him is probably the best album anyone could hope to make.
That whole record is really good, but it’s just so tight, every song is very tight, very close. It sort of feels claustrophobic, but in a good way, like something you actually want to be stuck in an elevator with.
Justin Barney: Love it. What’s the name of the song?
Afie Jurvanen: It’s called “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad”.
Justin Barney: By Prince, let’s do it.
- “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” was released in 1979 on Prince’s debut album.
- Listen if you like: Keyboard slides, D’Angelo, sexiness
Cody Gaisser - “Wish There Was A Way”
Every year, we have this event called Sound Bites at the Iron Horse Hotel. Restaurants all around town are paired up with DJs from here at 88.9. They pair a dish with a song. There is also an auction, which Bridget Flynn won and is our guest today for our 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To segment.
Justin Barney: Bridget, what is one song that you can’t stop listening to?
Bridget Flynn: I had to find something that, 1, I didn’t think you would know, 2 would…
Justin Barney: Not a prerequisite, but okay.
Bridget Flynn: I wanted it to be sort of a sad song, so my pick is Cody Gaisser, “Wish There Was A Way.”
Justin Barney: Okay, so I don’t know it. Good. We’re on the right track. Tell me more about it.
Bridget Flynn: So I met Cody probably 15 years ago, and he’s a singer/songwriter out of Florence, Alabama. It’s fun, but it’s a little sad.
Justin Barney: Do you remember hearing it for the first time?
Bridget Flynn: I do. He used to come in and do open-mic nights at the place I worked. The first time I met him, he was just this little 16 year-old guy. He pulled out a guitar and no one really thought anything of it, and he opened his mouth and I was like “Oh my God! My life is changed.” He’s got this crazy voice that I just love.
- “Wish There Was A Way” was released in 2002 on Gaisser’s “Good As Velvet” EP.
- Listen if you like: Kyle Craft, Van Morrison, gritty vocals and guitar
- Get tickets to Sound Bites here.
4. John Newman – “Fire In Me”
Justin Barney: This is 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To, and I’m here with your evening host, Nate Imig. How’s it going Nate?
Nate Imig: Hey Justin, it’s going good. I love being on 5 Songs because I get to bring in just straight up pop songs and play them on your highbrow segment.
Justin Barney: I love that! It’s part of the flavor that makes up 88Nine. So what pop song are we listening to today?
Nate Imig: Well okay, so this is an English artist, his name is John Newman. We’ve played him a lot on 88Nine over the years, but he kind of went away for a while because he was dealing with some health issues. He had a brain tumor that was found years and years ago, it started to make him lose his vision actually. He was losing vision back in 2012, and they removed parts of the tumor.
It came back cancerous, he had to get radiation therapy, but now he’s okay. He’s healthy and he’s made this return to music with this big triumphant jam. It’s a straight up pop song banger, I love it. It’s called “Fire in Me” from John Newman.
Justin Barney: Let’s do it!
- “Fire In Me” has been released as a single. No word on an album yet.
- Listen if you like: big ole pop anthems, acoustic guitar with huge production, dancing
5. Sex Park – “Dignity”
Despite the bands unfortunate band name, Sex Park makes some pretty good music. The genre, surely up for debate, I’m gonna say is post-punk. Punctuated by dark synthesizers, a pedal heavy guitar that never really stops, and a vocal that sounds like it was recorded from the other side of the room that fits just under everything in the mix. Post-punk, kind of started by bands like Wire and perfected by Joy Division, continues here in 2018 with multitudes of subgenres that each give the genre something different.
“Dignity’s” synths are thick, and the drums are propulsive. Like the best in it’s genre, it gets your head to turn off everything that’s around you and live in the song.
- Sex Park’s new album, “Atrium” is available now on bandcamp.
- Listen if you like: Joy Division, shoegaze, post-punk
5. Amen Dunes – “Blue Rose”
This album was named Best New Music on Pitchfork last week. And, say what you want about Pitchfork, I think that they are excellent writers and curators, and no one really covers music like them. So, I trust them. That’s my mini defense of Pitchfork.
But this song, “Blue Rose” by Amen Dunes, I really like it because it has this easiness to it. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard. It definitely sounds like a band like Spritualized, and weirdly bits of mid-80’s Paul Simon in there. But it’s not derivative of these things. It sounds completely new. It does that without hitting on any of the trends of today. So it has these influences, which any artist is going to have, and still completely it’s own.
It’s very relaxed, easy going, and pleasant to listen to.
- “Blue Rose” is on Amen Dunes new album, “Freedom.”
- Listen if you like: Spiritualized, Mid-80’s Paul Simon, easy going songs.
