The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Something Searing: Yannis Philippakis Of Foals' Favourite Albums
Lisa Lavery , August 26th, 2015 09:56

Before the release of new album What Went Down, the Foals frontman gives Lisa Lavery his top 13 LPs, all records united by "people's voices that connect directly", moving through Arthur Russell, Pixies and Howlin' Wolf

Charlottefield_1440521957_resize_460x400

Charlottefield - What Are Friends For
I was obsessed with them when I was in The Edmund Fitzgerald, so much so that I'd try to get on every bill with them. They were the most incredible live band I'd ever seen and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they didn't change the generation in Britain. They definitely changed a lot of things for me. When that record came out, not only did I love the sound of it but also that it kind of made it feel possible to make a record and put it out.

What's becoming clear to me as I go through this list is that there's something to do with people's voices that connect directly. All of Charlottefield were incredible musicians but there was something so animalistic about Thomas [House]'s scream - both live and the way they captured it on the first record. It's just so raw, there's something about his scream in particular - I could never quite grasp what he was singing about or what he was singing, but there was something searing about that scream that made me wanna play guitar obsessively and play shows and get on bills with them and made me wanna lose myself in music even further than I had done at that point.