Five Songs with Downtown/Union

By Downtown/Union

Greetings, We are so very honored to have Radio Free Silver Lake present the second night of our Casey’s Irish Pub Residency (every Friday nights in April)! The first night was amazing and we aim to keep things that way with the next installment. We are big fans of Radars to the Sky and Lonely Trees, so we couldn’t be more thrilled to have them on the bill. It’s a Friday the 13^th show too, so things are bound to get a little weird... Speaking of weird, RFSL asked me to pick 5 songs that have influenced me in some way. But I thought it would be more fun to answer as a band since we all come from very different musical backgrounds. So here is a glimpse behind the curtain to see what makes D/U tick. Like I said, things might get a little weird… Happy Friday the 13^th and see you at Casey's!

B. Bory/Vocals, Guitar:
1. Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles:  When I became obsessed with The Beatles as a kid, I begin buying their albums in chronological order. I was young and naive, so naturally, the early mop-top era fab four, with their shiny, catchy pop-songs about love and holding hands were my favorites. There was a simplicity and innocence to the music that I really connected with. But as I got into junior high and then closer to high school, I remember things started to change…

 

That’s when I discovered Revolver. The songs on that album were different... a little darker and slightly edgier than even their previous album, Rubber Soul. All of Lennon’s songs on Revolver had taken a more esoteric, metaphysical turn, with imagery and symbolisms of death and transcendence. But no song changed my musical reference point more than hearing the closing track, Tomorrow Never Knows.  From Lennon’s warbled, spaced out vocals and Ringo’s hypnotic drum beat, to the mind-bending backwards guitar leads, and crazy sampled tape loops that screeched and squawked like deranged seagulls, Tomorrow Never Knows was a song like nothing I had ever heard before. Beatles fans and historians will tell you that this was when the band started experimenting with psychedelics and hallucinogens… I knew none of that. At the time, I just knew it was different... and I liked it.  I remember listening to this song over and over again in the dark with my headphones on and getting lost in all the different sounds and wild textures. Even the opening line was something I had never heard before: Turn off your mind relax and float down stream, it is not dying, it is not dying.  The band would soon go on to record Sgt. Peppers a few short months later, but it was Tomorrow Never Knows that had announced the arrival of the experimental phase, not only in The Beatles’ work, but in my own life as well. The song was truly ahead of its time and a perfect example of the transformational powers of music.

2. Hand in Glove- The Smiths:  This is one of those songs that changed my whole perception of a pop love song. There have always been songs of love and declarations of love for as far back as there have been songs... but I had never heard one quite like this. Morrissey was able to tap into that lonely, urgent, and ultimately tragic infatuation of teenage angst and love… that us against the world feeling of a relationship doomed from the start. It was a comforting battle cry to my mopey, hormone-raging adolescent ears. But lyrically, it was his optimistic fatalism and hopeless romanticism that I found so endearing. Just take the last verse of the song for example:

So hand in glove I stake my claim, I'll fight to the last breath/ If they dare touch a hair on your head, I'll fight to the last breath

Oh the good life is out there somewhere/ so stay on my arm, you little charmer
But I know my luck too well... yes, I know my luck too well..

And I'll probably never see you again.. I'll probably never see you again... I’ll probably never see you again.

It’s his raw, vulnerable, yet witty and completely unapologetic proclamations that turned my idea of a confessional love song on its head, and really gave me license to be more bold and revealing in my own musical expressions.

Jeff Electric/Drums:
3. What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding- Nick Lowe: I found this to be, maybe for myself only, the hardest question that I've ever tried to answer. I love music in so many different ways. I love so much music and so much music has influenced me as a musician. So much music has inspired me as well. I have over a thousand records and 380 gigs of music that is vast and varied. I do play in a rock band though so I will take it down to one person instead of one song and that person is Nick Lowe. An amazing songwriter in both his bands "Rockpile" and "Brinsley Swarz" as well as a soloist. He has really inspired me to make music. Here is a link to Nick performing one of his hits that many folks probably just think is an Elvis Costello song. So If I could only choose one influence, this would be it.

 

David Yates/Guitar:
4. Stand Strong, Stand Proud- Vice Squad: The song that made the biggest impact on me as a musician was definitely "Stand Strong, Stand Proud" by Vice Squad.  When I first heard that opening riff I went crazy!!!  Then the chorus!!! When I was younger, those words meant so much to me!!!  I felt like Beki Bondage was the only person in the world who really knew how I felt as kid growing up in such a fucked up society.  Vice Squad was such a great band; I mean how many times does a real punk band get signed to a major label?  I know that these days real punk bands get signed all the time, but back then it was unheard of for a real punk band like Vice Squad to actually get a deal with a major label that dealt with mostly larger commercial bands.  I would buy magazines that had pictures of Beki Bondage in them and yes, I found them very exciting as she was a very attractive woman, and her name, Beki Bondage, was so cool.  All that bondage gear she would wear would always get my dick hard.  Image means nothing in real punk music but anytime you have blue hair or a mohawk or some cool punk/bondage gear it's always such a cool image!!!

After hearing the monstrous guitar riff in "Stand Strong, Stand Proud" I begged my parents to buy me a guitar.  I dreamed day and night of having as much power in my hands as the guy in Vice Squad had!  Once I got my first guitar I had no amp so it took me awhile to get the riff down because I really couldn't hear my own guitar through the massive, massive tone produced by Vice Squad.

Anyway, as the years went by my crush on Beki Bondage got stronger and I ended up getting suspended in high school several times because I would bring in rope, and cuffs in my backpack and ask girls if they would dye their hair blue like Beki so I could tie them up to have my way with them.  Oddly enough the school suspensions gave me more time to practice playing my guitar so I really credit Beki Bondage and Vice Squad in more ways than one for my ability to play guitar like I do today!

 

Grandpa/Bass
5. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious- Mary Poppins:  Impossible question.  I had to think about this long and hard, listen to multiple tracks, get wasted, and be sober, and sad, and awesome. To pick one song, I think, is irresponsible.  At what age did this “most influential” song hit my ears?  Where was I, who was there, was I driving or drinking?  Was it the first time I heard the Beatles as a child, or air guitar’n to “Master of Puppets” in front of the mirror in my teens, or was it just the other day hearing new Die Antwoord. Maybe that opening song from the movie Cars or that stupid U2 song my ex played so much I began to like it. What about the time I completely ripped off NOFX while in that punk band or that when I karaoke, it’s the Commodores almost every time.  Oh god, how about Waylon and Willie, and Every Time I die, and Mozart and Steel Pulse and on and on and on.  The simple truth is, there are so many tunes that have tickled my balls, and it is irresponsible for me to say that there is one song that shaped my entire musical outlook. How I play, what I play, who I play with is totally contextual, and to narrow the endless possibilities by saying this one song is shaping my expression all the time... I can’t do it. This is the first song I can remember singing and dancing along to though, so cheers!