Philistines make music featuring power-pop blends, intricate drum beats and whirling guitar riffs. Debut LP Therewolves! is the culmination of friendly collaboration, genre blending and iPhone memos. Today, Philistines make MAGNET a mix tape of some of their favorite songs. Check it out below.
“Complications” (download):
Drive Like Jehu “Here Come The Rome Plows”
One of the best album openers of all time, and it’s in seven! Video
Surfer Blood “Miranda”
Such a well-produced gem. Lots of layers and textures (are those horns on the second verse?) but done very tastefully and with restraint. (Do these guys like Material Issue?) Video
Concrete Blonde “God Is A Bullet”
The one voice that can break your heart or rip it out, depending. Also, name-checking Harvey Milk back then? Pretty fucking awesome. Video
Blur “The Universal”
Picking your favorite Blur song is like picking your favorite child. Except I don’t have any children, so this is it. Video
Pavement “Gold Soundz”
“And she’s empty, and I’m empty.” Video
Weakerthans “Aside”
This song just makes you wanna smoke cigarettes and drive really fast. The band must get so many speeding tickets. Video
Flesh For Lulu “I Go Crazy”
Keep your OMD and Thompson Twins. This was the best John Hughes soundtrack ever. And that one chord pretty much chimes over the entire song without ever changing. So Def Leppard. Video
Jawbreaker “Ashtray Monument”
This song is quintessential Jawbreaker. The music fits the lyrics, which paint a picture—altogether conveying a very raw emotion. Greatest band ever? Maybe. Video
Granddaddy “AM 180”
The catchiest song ever without a chorus. Grandaddy had a great musical sense of humor, and the piano scale at the end of the song is a prime example of that. Video
Cloud Nothings “Stay Useless”
You know how some kids in your high-school class attended college classes at the same time? That’s what Dylan Baldi is doing, except he’s going to songwriting school and my financial aid was just declined. Video
Unwound “Lucky Acid”
Learned the joys of feedback from this song. Video
Smoking Popes “Rubella”
Josh Caterer is just a straight-up crooner with such a lovely voice. We loves us some power pop, and this song is power pop at its finest. It’s a shame that these guys were never bigger. Video
