A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 20 Feb 2022 to 26 Feb 2022.

WILT_2022-08

1. Emotion Sickness – Silverchair
2. Duel – Swervedriver
3. Last Train To Satansville (Satansville Revisited?) – Swervedriver
4. Pretend to Be Here – Pia Fraus
5. Kill Rhythm – Catherine Wheel
6. Crank – Catherine Wheel
7. Isle of the Cheetah – Hum
8. Son Of Mustang Ford – Swervedriver
9. Savory – Jawbox
10. Surrender – Leave the Planet
11. Non Photo-Blue – Pinback
12. Sender – Pinback
13. Chaos Engine – Pinback
14. My Only Swerving – El Ten Eleven
15. Tangerine Dreams – Curb

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2022-08

Notes

I remember how this one started.

I pined softly for the music I used to listen to. To some extent, I looked back on my youth and tried to remember if there was anything that I particularly wanted to explore. Silverchair surfaced into my consciousness, but specifically the turnabout album, Neon Ballroom.

I used to listen to this album on end, now I appreciate the intensity and creative defiance a lot more as an adult than when I was just shy of seventeen when the album came out. I specifcially sought out Emotion Sickness because i remembered it had an orchestral element to it, but listening to it now with more experienced ears, I am astounded than Daniel Johns wrote and arranged this at the age of nineteen, after two successful grunge albums. The scope of the arrangement is sprawling and unlimited, and truly is a defining signpost in the band’s career.

From there, i suppose I sought out more grunge-based alternative rock music. For a moment I wanted to only feature songs from 1999 and before, but that turned out to be limiting, or ill-disciplined, depending on your perspective, because I also chose to include songs from outside that scope.

I was however trying to capture a mood. A sort of grungy, defiant, and experimental era of guitar-based rock music. I think the music Swervedriver captured my interest when I decided to explore their catalogue, but the music Catherine Wheel were the ones that solidified my approach to this week’s playlist. It still sounds exciting, and the quite unlike anything that has come before or after.

Pinback was also another great find for me this week. I am immediately drawn to their musical arrangements, seemingly bass-forward, but holding a melody and groove with a delicateness that really should not work when the instrument is so far up in the mix. Still, I was surprised and we are all the better for it.