This Week's Playlist #137 - Guest: Matthieu M
This Week's Playlist #137 - Guest: Matthieu M
Hello everyone!
This Week's Playlist - Season 3, Episode 33.
A featured guest this week.
I welcome not only a musician to this newsletter but also a singer I have seen on stage so many times in the last twenty years, singing with Psykup, My Own Private Alaska, and many more. Matthieu's voice sits somewhere at the crossroads of metal, post-hardcore, and more folk/rock influences.
Here are five of his favourite songs—as Rock as you could have imagined. :-) For those interested, please check at the end of this email for some of Matthieu's bands.
I hope you enjoy it and see you next week!
There is a YouTube link for each of the songs on the cover, and here are the playlists for each streaming platform:
1. IDLES - Grace
If you still wonder whether rock is dead, you need to listen to IDLES. Everything about it is Rock. The attitude. The sound. The look. Without ever falling into any cliché. A disconcerting musical personality.
IDLES doesn't come to make something pretty or to look cool. These people have always managed to unsettle, while simultaneously generating both fascination and repulsion.
Their latest album could have been the end of this well-deserved hype, but that is not the case. The musicians are clever, the structures are relevant, and what can we say about the immense charisma of Joe Talbot, the singer?
The music video for this "Grace" is finally a must-see, somewhere between absurdity and enchantment.
2. PINK FLOYD – Wish You Were Here
I think PINK FLOYD is definitely my favorite band, and they might never be equaled.
There is such depth and emotion in "Wish You Were Here" that I think I've cried dozens of times listening to this track. When I read about the context and the meaning behind the origin of this song, I was even more moved!
The ghostly presence of Syd Barrett, who had become a shadow of his former self, and his friends facing loss and madness, emptiness, and addiction. Everything about this song is powerful. Even the album's artwork is a masterpiece.
3. LES COWBOYS FRINGANTS – La Tête Haute
When I learned of the death of Karl Tremblay from Les Cowboys Fringants, I cried like a child all morning. Truly. I don’t know why...
Other artists dear to my heart have already passed away. But this time. I don’t know. The lyrics. The context. The humanity. The melodies. The story. Him. I was listening again to the tracks my colleague Ludi used to play for me, and the tears kept flowing. They wouldn’t stop.
I later learned that he kept his cancer a secret from fans for 2 years while writing "La Tête Haute." So, the tears flowed even more. I saw all the tributes. The Montreal hockey players who emblazoned their jerseys with Tremblay's name along with "Étoiles Filantes." Francophone artists who wrote beautiful words about Karl, I’m thinking of Gauvain Sers among others, and so many others. I listened to "Plus Rien" again. It almost overwhelmed me.
Then, a big swipe of the sleeve, and the tears stopped. But I swear, when I hear the violins in the video, it’s close to flowing again. So many things resonate. That’s the role of music. To be the mirror of our buried reflections, painful or enchanted. Apparently, Karl’s words resonated with many people.
Bravo & thank you.
4. PROTOMARTYR – Polacrilex Kid
Algorithms do their job well sometimes.
I was supposed to listen to some post-punk bands, and I found myself thinking that post-punk can be very boring at times. We can play the hipster and force ourselves to get excited about mustachioed guys playing shoegaze at bourgeois festivals, but we have to admit, post-punk has often become boring.
So when PROTOMARTYR's sound starts, you are inevitably drawn in by a strong personality. The spoken word is embodied and musical. The guitars seem inspired by the best post-rock bands from Scotland. The rhythm is fresh, clever, and finally innovative.
A name that slaps. Everything is there!
5. SLIFT – Ilion
A few years ago, I was coaching a rock band from Ariège called SLIFT.
I’m not going to play the expert and say, "I knew before everyone else that they would one day sign with Sub Pop Records," no… I’m not going to ride the buzz either, like half the scavengers in the scene, no.
I just saw a good band in the morning. Which became a very good band in the evening. And which, several years later, became an excellent band.
I just want to talk about the joy we had together, and the joy I sometimes have during those days. That precise and uncontrollable moment when the band, through trust and letting go, generates that rare strong, vivid, palpable emotion, both for the audience and for themselves…
They were annoyed by the formatted advice given by some professionals: "You need to talk more on stage, you need to develop communication…" I preferred to tell them: "You’re the bosses, no one decides for you, if you find it annoying to talk about trivialities to the audience, don’t say anything. It will be obvious that it annoys you, and it will annoy you, and dampen your energy, no one wins."
They wondered if that was respectful. A fair point. I told them that when I see them enjoying their sound like a kid enjoys Nutella, when I see them smiling at each other after a solo that took them far, when I see their bodies drenched and in a trance, I see nothing but respect. Disrespect is when people play music but don’t care in the end. And the audience often feels it. And music is important to Jean, Dawan, and Canek. Everything that happens is therefore well-deserved. The stage never lies.
Some more links
Until the next time, Godspeed!
Thomas
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