This Week's Playlist #95 - Guest feature: oNico
This week, Nicolas is sharing some of his daily go-to songs.
Hello everyone!
This Week's Playlist - Season 2, Episode 43.
An old friend for a guest for this week.
I knew Nicolas from the early days of online music forums (with another Nicolas) and the indie music scene. We stayed in touch over the years and gigs across Paris (I vividly remember a Dimmu Borgir concert Nicolas was promoting - one of my gateway bands to black metal).
I hope you enjoy his fine selection of rock and electronic music with some French gems.
See you next week!
TL;DR: I'm running a musical newsletter with a new guest sharing 5 songs each week.
There is a YouTube link for each of the songs on the cover, and here are the playlists for each streaming platform:
Guest of the week: Nicolas O. aka oNico
My name is Nicolas (also known as oNico for some of you), I’m 41 years old. I’m the happy (but tired) dad of 2 twin girls aged of 7 and the proud partner of Sabrina (also known as Sabouchat) that I’ve met thanks to Thomas that I know for more than 20 years now.
I’m really glad to be invited to share a part of the soundtrack of my daily life. I’m worked in the music industry for just one year at the end of my studies but the misalignment of the guys I worked with with the new ways of making/sharing/paying for music made me change paths.
Although I have been involved in more than 20 sites and applications that you may use on a daily basis, music is still one of the pillars of my life. Hope these tracks will inspire you in these strange times.
1. Foo Fighters - The colour and the shape
This is one of the bonus tracks of the album of the same name. This track is the perfect representation of what I loved about this band at that time and what I wanted them to stay. It's probably the song I think about the most when I'm upset, when I need to vent or boost myself.
The rare times they played it live, Dave would get behind a second drum kit for a crazy duet finale with Taylor.
2. Royal Blood - Hole
Maybe my main inspiration during the last decade as a bass player. This duet from Brighton (a city that I have to visit one day, given the number of bands I listen to that come from here) is a real revolution for guys like me who have yet to make a choice between his bass and his guitar.
These guys have proven that, with a lot of gear geeking and innovation, you can really do magic with crazy tones and riffs.
"Hole" is a b-side from the first era of the band (their best era), probably one of my favourite tracks from them and almost the only one I can play from start to finish.
3. Pogo Car Crash Control - Fréquence violence
I discovered this punk/metal/whaterever-you-want French band in 2021: they were supposed to play at the Hellfest, but, due to the lockdown (and the cancellation of the Hellfest), they played a tiny show from the Leclerc supermarket of Clisson (the little town where the Hellfest takes place), and I found it absolutely brilliant.
Since then, there isn't a week that I don't listen to them. I have seen them live twice this year, and while I tend to stay away from pogos (mosh pits), it is probably the band which reconciled me with the fact of going back and screaming their words of revolt.
And, yes, we need more women on stage, as claimed by Lola, the bass player.
4. French 79 - Heroes
French 79 is the solo electro-pop project of Simon Henner. He was the guitarist of the former electro-rock band Nasser, whom I loved a lot and saw a few times on stage 12 years ago.
French 79 is the kind of project with which I consider that there is no longer any barrier of musical style. It is a kind of music I can have the same sensations as with rock bands while letting myself be carried away by waves going in all directions.
Want more? I highly recommend his live performance filmed at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur.
5. Röyksopp - Monument (The Inevitable End Version)
I really don't know why, but I've always had a unique link with Röyksopp, maybe because that's one of the rare electro bands that I decided to look into despite my largely grunge and indie rock preferences.
Most of this Norwegian duet's work is strange and experimental. However, some of their tracks have a kind of electro-rock vibes that I choose to make a pause between dirty, heavy rock tones that you have appreciated above.
"Monument" is one of my favourite tracks (sung by Robyn, one of their muses), maybe because I recognize myself in some of the lyrics (« I can say I did it all with love »).
I remember a night flight between Paris and New York during which I listened to their entire discography, and it was, quite frankly, a moment as strange as it was magical.
Until the next time, Godspeed!
Thomas
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