5 Songs We Can't Stop Listening to is a collection of our newest favorite songs. And Every week we ask an artist that we love to tell us about the music they love.
Listen to the whole thing in the player below.
1. St. Vincent picks “I Believe In You” by Talk Talk
We always start the week by asking one artist that we love to tell us about a song that they love.
St. Vincent is from Dallas Texas. She might be the greatest guitar player in existence right now and is a true artist. She is playing them in Milwaukee this Friday, November 17th at the Riverside Theater. We are playing her song, “Los Ageless,” right now. Our guest this week is Annie Clark, AKA St. Vincent.
Justin Barney: What is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Annie Clark: Oh boy, you know what I was listening to just the other day? Oh this is not really a jam in the traditional sense, but I was listening to “Spirit of Eden” by Talk Talk.
Justin: Ahh, is there a time and a place that Talk Talk reminds you of?
Annie: To me it’s divorced from any people or places.
To me it’s headphone music in random cities all over the world.
It’s a beautiful record. It’s a whole piece of work and it’s a real unfolding meditation.
Light a candle, turn off your phone, and listen to that record.
- “I Believe In You” was released in 1988 on Talk Talk’s album, “Spirit of Eden.”
- Listen if you like: Lo Moon, kind of ambient jams, meditations
- FULL INTERVIEW WITH ST. VINCENT
2. Distractor – “Human”
This song is just kinda dumb fun. It’s told from the perspective of a robot who wants to be human.
The science fiction narrative of artificial intelligence is one that is bad. Robots become humans so that they can take over and kill us.
But in this story, the robot wants to become a human for love to feel our feelings.
Careful, what you wish for, robots.
- Listen if you like: The Aquabats, Devo, quirky fun songs
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3. Mike Mangione picks “False Hearted Lover Blues” by Levon Helm
Mike Mangione, is a nationally touring artist from Cedarburg, Wisconsin. His new album is “But I’ve Seen the Stars.” We’re playing his song “Riding Down” and he’s playing414 Live this Tursday in our studio at 5:30pm, so come on down. I’m here with Mike Mangione.
Alright, Mike. What is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Mike Mangione: My answer would be Levon Helm, from the album “Dirt Farmer,” “False Hearted Lover Blues.”
Justin Barney: Levon Helm, not the band, just Levon Helm solo.
Mike Mangione: That’s right. Levon, in the beginning of the 2000’s after his amazing career with the band, started having an amazing album, after album, after album with “Dirt Farmer,” “Electric Dirt,” and then he did a live show at the Ryman, all produced by his guitarist, Larry Campbell, and all three of them won Grammys. There’s a great video of him where he gets the invitation for a lifetime achievement for the Grammys, and he’s like “where were they for the past forty years?”
The song “False Hearted Lover Blues” for me is just on all the time. Fortunately my kids like it because they hear it a lot.
Justin Barney: So is it the rhythm section that does it for you?
Mike Mangione: It’s everything man. Levon is just such an authentic dude so when you hear him, his voice is just so pure and honest. This song is right after he battled throat cancer so he was just starting to get his voice back. It was different, but it’s just authentic. I believe what he sings.
- “False Hearted Lover Blues” was released in 2007 on Helm’s album, “Dirt Farmer.”
- Listen if you like” The Band, the delta blues, Mike Mangione
4. Huiro y Su Conjunto –“Cumbia en los Andes”
Justin Barney: From the music desk at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, I’m Justin Barney.
Marcus Doucette: And I’m Marcus Doucette.
Justin Barney: This is “Five Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To.” I’m here with Marcus Doucette. Marcus, what is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Marcus Doucette: Well the song I can’t stop listening to is global in nature. Go figure I also put together a show called “Sound Travels” and I get to feature a lot of this stuff. This is a song that I actually haven’t shared before, but I am loving.
It’s from a compilation called, “Andina” put together by a Michelin starred chef by the name of Martin Morales who’s not only is a lover of food but of music and has roots in Peru, and that whole region known as the Andes.
The Andes is obviously South America’s iconic mountain range, but also this kind of cultural force if that makes sense like people in the Andes kind of share a certain bandwidth of culture that goes through all of the countries from Columbia all the way through Chile.
This cat put together this really excellent album with another artist by the name of DJ Mulla. They embarked on a journey to learn more about Andean sounds and I don’t know, know it kind of hit me I went to Equator last year and really developed a love for the region. I certainly love the music, and I really dig this compilation which once again is called “Andina.”
It shines this really fresh perspective on Peru’s multifaceted music heritage. This is music from ’68 through about ’78. A lot of these songs were simply on vinyl and have only been reissued recently on compilations like this one as well as maybe a couple others on the same record label which is “Tiger Milk Records.” The song in particular that I can’t get enough of is “Cumbia en los Andes” by Huiro y Su Conjunto. The thing about this song is the wonderful guitar work that is interwoven. This is the song that I can’t stop listening to.
- “Cumbia en los Andes” is available now on the album, “Andina” via Tiger’s Milk Records.
- Listen if you like: Cumbia, great musical stories, Sound Travels
5. Big K.R.I.T. – “Big Bank” feat. T.I.
As I’m writing this it’s Friday and I just got paid. I am ready for this weekend. And I just want to listen to some banging hip-hop.
Let us look no farther than the new Big KRIT album. On this song his flow is somewhere between Bio Boi and Killer Mike. It’s intimidating. It’s in your face. It’s loud. And it’s bumping. Get ready for the weekend with Big Bank by Big KRIT.
- “Big Bank” was just released on Big K.R.I.T.’s new album, “4eva Is a Mighty Long Time.”
- Listen if you like: Run the Jewels, Big Boi, big hip-hop
