When you load up Spotify, a great big chunk of the time you can’t think what to play, right? You default back to your old favourites, those albums and songs you played on repeat when you first discovered you could make them yours.
This isn’t about guilty pleasures; it’s about those songs you’ll still be listening to when you’re old and in your rocking chair. So, enter Teenage Kicks – a playlist series that sees bands running through the music they listened to in their formative years.
Next up, Plague Vendor’s Michael Perez.
I first heard this song when I was about 16; I think Jay had a Blonde Redhead T-shirt in high school. I love the tension thrown around on this track. We all listened to Blonde Redhead heavily during that period of our lives.
I remember we were all out at a house party somewhere in the hills of Whittier and one of our friends, who was always very secretive about music, brought Animal Collective’s “Sung Tongs” to the party. I remember him walking around hiding it in his jacket like it was drugs or some secret thing. I just saw this red cd case and later found out who it was. This album is a classic. It sounds like friends living in a house together, making music with a tape recorder and having fun.
Radiohead is god. They’re on a whole different level to us. I love the drums and bass synth sound on this track, it sounds like it’s ripping something in a digital world.
We would blast this song at full volume driving around Whittier. Seven of us crammed in our friend Izzy’s little beat up car. Good times.
I’ve loved The Locust since high school. It’s incredibly complicated music and full of aggression. I saw them when I was about 17 at Chain Reaction, and they blew my mind. Their energy and stage presence was unmatched by anything I’d ever seen.
Directors Label came out in 2003. It’s a collection of our favourite music video directors working with some of our favourite artists. I can’t count the times we watched all these videos; we devoured them. This song and video, in particular, was always a particular favourite. Check it out, and you’ll see why.
The first time I heard this album, I was about 15 and driving home from a show with my older sister and her boyfriend at the time. He put this on, and I probably asked about ten times what the name of this band was. It gave me the chills; I never heard anyone singing like that or use words like Cedric does. On top of that, Omar’s guitar, and John Theodore’s drumming is just the best out there.
I remember listening to this song with headphones in history class in high school and getting too pumped up. I had to look around to make sure people weren’t noticing my face and the air drumming.
Love the guitar and big sound on this track. We got to see them at FYF a few years back and they fuckin killed it.
Jay actually showed me this band in high school. This track sounds like a train on fire barreling thru town, but it’s a party. We actually got to see these guys play at Alex’s bar in Long Beach years ago and it was a lot of fun.
Taken from the August issue of Upset. Plague Vendor’s album ‘By Night’ is out now.
