One year ago, Kellen McGugan and I decided to start doing hour-long mixes for our respective birthday episodes on our radio program “You’re Welcome” on KOSU. Making playlists is something we’ve both been doing since college, so it was a logical way to highlight a bunch of songs that we hold near and dear to our hearts. Since I’m turning 30 this week, I decided to get a little ambitious and reflect on some of the songs that had the biggest impact on my 20s. The following songs will be played in sequence and without explanation on tonight’s episode. Thankfully, Oxford Karma has given me a great place to wax poetic about the following songs featured on tonight’s episode. I’ve listed the month in which I first heard the songs to help create a musical timeline while giving detailed descriptions of why the songs are so important to me.
You can hear all of these songs tonight on “You’re Welcome” from 7-9 p.m. on thespyfm.com or KOSU on 91.7 FM in Oklahoma City, 107.5 FM in Tulsa or 88.3 FM in Stillwater.
Interpol – “Public Pervert (Carlos D Remix)”
September, 2005: The first vinyl I ever bought was the special edition Remix by my then-favorite band in the world, Interpol. When the remixes were released digitally in September, a listening party was hastily assembled at my off-campus house in Stillwater. We listened to each band member’s reinterpretation of choice Antics songs culminating in Carlos D’s jaw-dropping improvement of “Public Pervert.” His remix became an instant classic at our house, often requested to be played on repeat. Later that month we loaded too many people into an SUV (I was in the trunk) to see Interpol play their first show at Cain’s Ballroom. There we collectively lost our minds when they threw the original version of “Public Pervert” into their setlist. Our communal connection to that song left me no choice but to buy a physical copy to play on my friend’s turntables, one of which would eventually become my own four years later.
Wolf Parade – “I’ll Believe In Anything”
November, 2005: A year after signing into Facebook for the first time, I created the group “Listen to Wolf Parade or Die Alone.” That’s still the best way to describe my fanaticism for Wolf Parade’s debut album Apologies to the Queen Mary. Even though Wolf Parade would never release another song as monumental as “I’ll Believe in Anything,” it succeeded in making me believe that some of the greatest music I’d ever hear could be released at any moment. It was all the affirmation I needed to know that discovering new music and letting people know about it was quite possibly my life’s calling.
Animal Collective – “The Purple Bottle”
January, 2006: Feels was the first Animal Collective album I heard. I vividly remember walking through the Oklahoma State University Student Union when the second song “Grass” fired up. Without thinking, a giant, joyful smile stretched across my face. Two songs later, when the climax of “The Purple Bottle” was firing on all cylinders, I felt I had just discovered the fountain of youth. Here was a band that had tapped into childlike innocence and were celebrating it with shrieks, screams and gut-punching drumming. To my ears, it sounded like a band the world needed to hear. It would take a few more years before “My Girls” got everyone’s attention, but in hindsight, “The Purple Bottle” proved it was just a matter of time before everyone else took notice.
TV on the Radio – “Wolf Like Me”
April, 2006: To think there was once a time when trying to find a TV on the Radio album in Oklahoma was impossible. That was the case with their debut album, but their sophomore effort was much easier to get a hold of thanks to this new thing called “torrents” on the internet. A leaked version of Return to Cookie Mountain was circulating months before its actual release. The version I found had “Wolf Like Me” as the first track on the album, but it was incorrectly titled “Playhouses.” I fell in love with it all the same and got to see them play in Dallas a week before seeing them again at Coachella. It became immediately apparent that finding future albums from this band was going to become a lot easier.
Deerhunter – “Strange Lights”
January, 2007: My introduction to Deerhunter was swift and overwhelming. In 2007, I hopped on my bike to ride to class with Cryptograms playing for the first time. I wasn’t even at the end of my street before I knew I was hearing something special. Even though Bradford Cox would end up being the focal point for Deerhunter, “Strange Lights” stands out as being the first of many unforgettable contributions by Lockett Pundt. Perhaps because of their collaborative nature, Deerhunter would continue to release some of my favorite albums. But in late winter of 2007, Cryptograms was all I needed to hear to know I had a new favorite band in the world.
The Dodos – “Paint the Rust”
March, 2008: Coming back from my first South by Southwest had me feeling extremely close to the modern musical pulse. Yet returning home to hear The Dodos’ sophomore triumph, Visiter, had me kicking myself for missing them while I was in Austin. Even worse was when I heard a friend say they had played a few months earlier in Oklahoma City, and the band had spent the night at their place. Despite those missteps, I developed an incredibly personal relationship to that record. It’s one of the few albums where every song is better than the one before it. “Paint the Rust” is the turning point in the middle of the album, foreshadowing its inevitable and unforgettable climax. I’ve played the closing songs on Visiter multiple times on “You’re Welcome,” but I somehow never got around to playing “Paint the Rust.” It’s a mistake I’m more than happy to correct.
The xx – “Intro”
August, 2009: As the years went on, hearing an album that caused a reaction like the ones described above became fewer and fewer. I had literally just started DJing at the Electro Lounge with my friend Brett Clark when we came home after a set and listened to The xx’s self-titled debut for the first time. There’s a very good reason why an instrumental album opener is one of the band’s better known songs. For so many people, it took exactly two minutes to realize they were hearing something timeless. It inspired me to write a rap over it well before Rihanna took a stab at it. A recording of me rhyming over “Intro” was featured three years later on “You’re Welcome”‘s 12th episode. I figured it has been another three years since then, so I’ve recorded an encore performance for tonight’s episode.
HEALTH – “In Violet (SALEM RMX)”
July, 2010: I don’t think there is a better example of a band rooted in hardcore noise embracing modern time’s obsession with electronic music better than HEALTH. Their original compositions were loud and abrasive, but their first two albums were followed by approachable remix albums that I consider better than the original compositions. DISCO2 was the remix album following 2009’s Get Color, and I was instantly attracted to the remix of album closer “In Violet.” I hadn’t heard much about SALEM at this point, but this song would turn me into a super fan. As the musical landscape was becoming more obsessed with electronic music, I had found a new band that incorporated the moody darkness Interpol first taught me about in a whole new light. Eventually SALEM would even knock off Deerhunter as my favorite band in the world, a title that would inevitably change again due to SALEM’s fleeting musical output. However, there is no denying that 2010 was the year SALEM dominated my musical tastes. I could have chosen a song from their debut (and perhaps only) album, but it felt right to give credit to the song that introduced me to them. For that, I have HEALTH to thank.
Women – “Narrow with the Hall”
February, 2011: During one of Oklahoma’s larger blizzards, I was comforted by a Canadian band so influenced by winter that the album cover for their last record is an actual blizzard. With electronic music becoming more widespread, hearing a band experiment with electric guitars was a much-needed relief. My time DJing at Electro Lounge came to an end during this time, so I no longer had a means to share Women’s music with my peers. “Narrow with the Hall” is the shortest song in this playlist, which is its greatest strength. They pull off in less than three minutes what most of these other songs need six minutes to do. It’s an explosive song. I’d like to think it was the catalyst for the creation of “You’re Welcome.”
The Horrors – “Monica Gems”
August, 2011: Kellen introduced me to The Horrors in 2009 with their reinvention album Primary Colours. We were highly anticipating their follow-up Skying and fell in love instantly. At this point, we had amassed a sizable vinyl collection from my days spinning them at Electro Lounge. When we reached out to The Spy FM owner Ferris O’Brien about starting an all-vinyl radio show, “Monica Gems” was the first song on my list that I wanted to play. It wasn’t the first song we played on the show, but it’s still the one song I associate with the beginning of “You’re Welcome.” The way the song’s beginning starts and stops before unleashing its full power seemed like the perfect propulsion to start something major. It’s a song adored by Kellen and me both and perhaps the best example of the type of music we like to play on “You’re Welcome.”
Chromatics – “Kill For Love”
March, 2012: Even though Chromatics’ first album came out in 2007, I didn’t discover them until I saw Drive in 2011. Kellen and I went straight home from the theater and quickly remedied this oversight. As it turned out, Chromatics were readying their long-overdue follow-up for early 2012. I hadn’t anticipated an album’s release that much since SALEM’s King Night, yet Kill for Love rewarded me in a way I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager. Even though Kill for Love was an album, it was presented like a movie. My longtime love for movies is what initially influenced my attraction to music; it reignited my love of albums that feel like they’re telling a story. I became obsessed with Chromatics and their DIY approach to selling their music themselves. I must have spent over $100 at their online store and bought multiple copies of Kill for Love that I passed out to close friends. Chromatics were also the first band we featured on You’re Welcome after moving to KOSU and reaching a larger audience. It was my favorite album of 2012 and caused me to change my favorite band in the world yet again.
My Bloody Valentine – “who sees you”
February, 2013: If you scroll back up through all these songs I’ve listed thus far, you could argue that everyone has been influenced by My Bloody Valentine in some way. I had visited the shoegaze masterpiece Loveless many times, but it didn’t resonate fully until I experienced it in the winter. So what better timing for them to finally release their follow-up 23 years later than in winter. mbv was an instant classic for me in large part because I had grown accustomed to newer bands perfecting what My Bloody Valentine pioneered. Hearing the masters themselves come out of hiding to show everyone how it’s done was a music nerd’s dream. Seeing as how the odds of another My Bloody Valentine record are even less likely now, it’s a musical moment that I’ll remember forever.
Ariel Pink – “Exile on Frog Street”
October, 2014: During my initial love of Animal Collective years prior, I recall seeing the name Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti on the record label’s site shared by the two bands. I regret not being more curious then, because that name would literally haunt me for years to come. I realized the error in my ways when Ariel released “Round and Round” in 2010. I never fell in complete love with Before Today or Mature Themes, but the release of pom pom found me enamored by Pink’s approach to songwriting. pom pom is a massive album brimming with psychedelic ideas, something I previously experienced listening to Animal Collective. But Pink has a knack for the catchier aspects of pop music, making even the wackiest song ideas infectious. Hearing the tale of how he became a frog prince seems silly at first, until he launches into the album’s climax begging listeners to sing for Froggy, the song’s apparent protagonist. I’ve always relished in music’s power to take our brain to unknown places, so it’s with great relief that 10 years into my musical journey, there is still new music that makes me grin with unbridled glee.
