When you load up Spotify, a great big chunk of the time you can’t think what to play, right? You default back to your old favourites, those albums and songs you played on repeat when you first discovered you could make them yours.
This isn’t about guilty pleasures; it’s about those songs you’ll still be listening to when you’re old and in your rocking chair. So, enter Teenage Kicks – a playlist series that sees bands running through the music they listened to in their formative years.
Next up, Alien Chicks.
Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Martha: My friends and I were obsessed with this and all the early Arctic Monkeys songs, and we went to see them headline Glastonbury in 2013, which was one of the best gigs of my life. We were right at the front of the Pyramid Stage, and the whole weekend, we were completely giddy with excitement about being at such a massive festival as a big group of teenagers.
Tinie Tempah – Pass Out
Martha: I really remember listening to this every day on the bus to school when it was a hit, and it got me hyped up and ready for the school day.
Lily Allen – Smile
Martha: I was obsessed with Lily Allen from the age of about 9 (still am) and loved her first album, especially. I love the way she writes lyrics and tells a story, and I just thought she was so cool when I was little. When her recent album came out a few months ago, I got such a wave of nostalgia for how I felt when her first album came out.
“I just thought she was so cool when I was little”
(Side note, but I read a book recently called The Sound of Being Human, and the writer Jude Rogers talks about how our memories of songs from when we were teenagers are much more visceral and moving than memories of songs from other times in our lives because of how much and how fast your brain changes as a teenager. That’s how I feel about these songs – they are so nostalgic and hearing them back is like a full body memory experience!)
The Doors – The End
Joe: I was obsessed with this song – and the whole album, to be honest. It’s so visceral and fucked up. The oedipal lyrics really extended my view of what boundaries there are to conventional pop music. I’m not sure I could or would ever write something so graphic, but inspiring all the same. The last song in our debut album shares the same name, which is a ridiculously arrogant homage, really, but it shares themes of killing parents, and I hope it stirs some similar feelings.
Exuma – Dambala
Joe: I’d never heard anything like this before, which is why this is a really standout memory for me. You always hear about “pounding drums” in reviews of music, but this is actually a pounding drum, and it doesn’t sit perfectly in time, which strangely really adds to the song in my opinion.
Busta Rhymes – Touch It
Joe: This is just a banger. Jesus Christ, what a song.
Justin Timberlake – Señorita
Joe: I feel like you’re after like old guilty pleasures, so here you go. Are you happy now? ‘Justified’ was one of my first CDs.
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
Stefan: I (Stefan) always remember the time I heard this in my auntie’s car when I was about 6. It was the first time I really became aware of the power of drums and bass in a band. Also, the pre-chorus build-up really showed me how tension can be created in a song before being released in a sing-along chorus.
Nirvana – Sliver
Stefan: Nirvana are the band that really got me into heavier music, although I wasn’t fully sold on them at first. Unlike most, it wasn’t Smells Like Teen Spirit that got me into them – it was actually a somewhat random song called Sliver. The bassline that starts the song is iconic, and Krist Novoselic’s playing style has had a huge influence on the way I write basslines. I also loved the almost lazy, lack-of-effort-sounding lyrics and vocals, which I thought were really cool!
The Beatles – Hey Bulldog
Stefan: As a bass player, Paul McCartney was possibly my biggest influence growing up and learning bass. The bassline in this song is incredible – it’s almost a song within a song! John Lennon’s rock vocals in this song are also unmatched, so great!
Alien Chicks play Dork’s Here Comes Your Jan at London’s 100 Club on 29th January.
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