Formed in Glasgow in 1987, The Vaselines released two singles and one album — Dum Dum — on the 53rd & 3rd label. Splitting up in 1989 (in the same week their album was released), they might have faded into obscurity but for the intervention of a certain band from Seattle. Read on for frontman Eugene Kelly’s write-up on his eight favourite songs, in his own words.

Jeffrey Lewis / The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song
I love songs that tell a story and the story here is so sad in a very innocent way. It is also so hilariously funny. It just makes me smile every time I hear it. Jeffrey is a genius.
[audio:http://pathfinderpat.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/03-the-chelsea-hotel-oral-sex-song-jeffrey-lewis.mp3]

Arab Strap / Blood
The incongruence between the lyrics and the music enables the listener to listen again and again and always find something new. There is something despairing here but the black humour is finding its way through. Again, the lyrics tell the story.  I have never tired of this song, even though it came out quite a long time ago.

Jad Fair and Kramer / California
I actually had not listened to this song for a long time until I recently found my old record collection. This was the first thing I played. It is so sad. I really like sad songs.

The 1990s / 59
I also like upbeat songs and this is a favourite one in our family. Again, the narrative comes through clearly. The voyeurism is not creepy but complimentary. It is a perfect pop song.

The Moldy Peaches / Steak for Chicken
My kids sing along to this, which I thought was fine until one of them asked: ‘what does stick my dick in mean?’ Hmmm, so it will be a good song for sex education in a few years time.

Bridget Storm / Losing It
I met Julie McLarnon when we toured together with our bands (Bridget Storm and Suckle). I liked the music immediately and this is my particular favourite. I love the simplicity of it. We have gone on to work together on various projects and it is thanks to her and her partner Rob that The Vaselines got back together again!

The White Stripes / A Martyr For My Love For You
I love the sound of this song. I was a late convert to the White Stripes — better late than never! I love the sacrifice in this song, which makes the narrator all the more attractive.

Mountain Man / Animal Tracks
It is the purity of the voices that is so compelling with this. When I heard it for the first time, I just loved it. It made me feel really calm. I think this is, for me, the strongest song on the album.
[audio:http://www.rollogrady.org/media/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/01-animal-tracks.mp3]

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Russell Brand has defended Katie Perry’s honour with admirable humour following her somewhat out-sized appearance (or non-appearance, as the case may be) on Sesame Street the other week. He Tweeted to his nearly 1.5 million followers: ‘Today’s Sesame Street will not be brought to you by the number 34 or the letter D’ and ‘Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sex-with-me Street?’ Ah, yes Russell, we sure can.

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Australian electro four-piece Miami Horror’s have just released their debut album, Illumination, a perfect union of horns, acoustic and electric guitars, synths and looping bass lines — all of which creates a seventies French sound. Aussie disco? Ah-mazing!
[audio:http://www.rednicko.com/100905/miami-holidays.mp3]

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Gardening From The Ground Up Part 1 is Houston native Sarah Elizabeth Foster‘s first collection of deeply charged tunes. Filled with raw emotion and wistful reflection, her songs are the product of a vision almost stalled when she was challenged to persevere through the intensive vocal therapy necessary to arrive at what her doctors called a “miraculous recovery” when she was diagnosed with a benign, vocal chord polyp. The record is an unusual acoustic blend of 60s inspired pop, fresh folk and classical motifs wrapped around Sarah’s deep vocals and emotionally rich lyrics. Her Secret Playlist started with the Joni Mitchell song, Both Sides Now [listen below]: ‘The orchestral arrangement of Both Sides Now is so moving, paired with Joni Mitchell’s voice. The intro starts so perfectly and quietly then you immediately grasp her life experience the second you hear her voice. At the 2:40, mark when the horns come in, I always feel my heart swell’. Read the rest of Sarah Elizabeth Foster’s Secret Playlist.
[audio:http://music.d3net.net/English/joni_mitchell-both_side_now.mp3]

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Like their hyperactive creator, Deastro’s songs can’t sit still, hopping from swooning dream-pop to gonzo TV theme songs to whisper-soft folk to crunching robot-rock, and always ringing with Chabot’s earnest tenor. [Read a Secret Playlist by Deastro, where he writes about his eight favourite songs]
[audio:http://static.ghostly.com/media/mp3/full/deastro-mowgli_the_lynx_3377.mp3]

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The story of this electro-pop duo begins with a pair of high school sweethearts and arrives now at their debut release, Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover, which reached number two on the Canadian campus radio charts. We got the inside word from them on the music that inspires them. They started with the Delorean song, Grow [listen below]: ‘We first heard of Delorean while on tour in Spain. They were all over the Spanish music press. Then we finally heard them on the indie radio station playing in the van. Mucho bueno’. [Read the rest of Hexes and Ohs' Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/zzdnzmzifi4/04%20Grow.mp3]

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The Kissaway Trail have a new album entitled Sleep Mountain due for release on April 20, via Bella Union. Sleep Mountain adds in dabs of electronica to the breadth of guitars for a contemporary and vulnerable rock classic. We asked them about the music that inspired the recording. They started with the Joanna Newsom song, Peach, Plum, Pear [listen below]: ‘A really good song from a great debut album, made by one of the best female artists ever’.

[audio:http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.myall/word/joanna_newsom-peach_plum_pear.mp3]

Blonde Redhead / Swingpool
Mmissery Is A Butterfly” is one of The Best records in twenty years. But Swingpool, from their self-titled debut album, is a mix of Sonic Youth and their dreamy sound they are now famous for.

Psyched Up Janis / Strange Pier
The lead-singer from The Raveonettes’ old band. A soundtrack from my teenage period.

Daniel Johnston / Mountain Top
I saw Daniel Johnston in Austin once and it felt like seeing Elvis in action.
[audio:http://parkavecds.com/FREE/MP3s/djohnston_mountain_top.mp3]

Smashing Pumpkins / Tonight, Tonight
Another song from my teenage years. I remember walking around in my hometown Nyborg, with my Walkman, turning the tape every 30 minutes.
[audio:http://www.drummerworld.com/Sound/jimmychamberlinton.mp3]

Mark Knopfler / Cal The Soundtrack
This is a record my father listened to a lot while I grew up, and maybe that’s why I’m walking around with a dark cloud over my head. It’s a really sad, but beautiful soundtrack.
[audio:http://chatlibre.blog.lemonde.fr/2009/files/2009/07/mark-knopfler-irish-boy.1248192334.mp3]

The Streets / Weak Becomes Heroes
This is the best beat/hip-hop track ever made. Sorry, Beastie Boys.
[audio:http://butterteam.com/Weak_Become_Heroes.mp3]

Mogwai / Take Me Somewhere Nice
David Friedmann recorded and produced this song. Soren from our band was inspired a lot by this while making Sleep Mountain.
[audio:http://www.vaguespace.net/blog/files/take_me_somewhere_nice.mp3]

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Lyon-based Babylon Circus is music laced with ska, gypsy, rock, vaudevillian antics, dancehall and reggae. Their first Australian East Coast tour in 2008 saw the nine piece band sell every show out. They feature on the So Frenchy So Chic compilation. We asked them to tell us about their favourite music right now, and they started with Django Reinhardt’s Minor Swing [listen below]: ‘Backstage, home, in the bus, cooking or having breakfast, is there a time you wouldn’t love to hear this one? We love it anytime, any style, too, as it’s been remixed and rearranged so many different ways. Still, we love the original best’.
[audio:http://sendmedeadflowers.com/music/04%20Minor%20Swing.mp3]

Django Reinhardt / Minor Swing
Backstage, home, in the bus, cooking or having breakfast, is there a time you wouldn’t love to hear this one? We love it anytime, any style, too, as it’s been remixed and rearranged so many different ways. Still, we love the original best.
[audio:http://sendmedeadflowers.com/music/04%20Minor%20Swing.mp3]

Negresses Vertes / Zobi La Mouche
The one band we feel the closest to, touring the world, as we did in the late 80s, doing their own mix that sounds so French. The lyrics brings together the best that French can offer.

Gainsbourg / Aux Armes et Cætera
One of the greatest French singer-song writers ever recorded. This anti-war reggae version of the French national anthem brought both reggae and this provocative artist to light.

Teddybears Sthlm / Cobrastyle
This is the kind of party sound we like to hear. I never got the chance to see them live and couldn’t find much info about them, which is a pity.
[audio:http://www.szukammp3.pl/mp3/download/kr6QrpgOo5/teddybears_sthlm_-_cobrastyle.mp3]

Dub Pistols / Cyclone
Another great mix styles, definitely not as organic as the kind of traditional things we bring together. But they’re one of the bands that have influenced us lately as far as mixing influences goes.

The Streets / I Love You More
I’m not even sure that this is my favorite one on the album, but this special “kitsch” cheesy chorus, combined with his Birmingham accent, is worth listening to it. And I love it — more and more.

Rachid Taha / Rock el Casbah
A version of the legendary Clash song by French-Algerian, Rachid Taha. It has a very special taste of what North African youth are like these days. We like Rachid Taha and love the Clash for what we inherited from them. That’s enough to have it in the list.
[audio:http://accordionguy.blogware.com/_attachments/1441023/Rachid%20Taha%20-%20Rock%20el%20Casbah.mp3]

Seeed / Top of the City
One of the best dancehall sounds comes from … Germany. They manage to make their language sound so good and their sound is so strong that they ended producing lot of tracks for Jamaican artists. Can you believe it!

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Called ‘the most ear-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you’ll ever hear’ by the Washington Post, A Place To Bury Strangers were named by NME as one of the Ten Best Bands of SXSW 2008. Their debut release earned them a Best New Music distinction and they have toured with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, MGMT, and Holy F**k. They launched their Secret Playlist with the All The Saints track, Farmacia [listen below]: ‘All The Saints is one of those bands that just writes some of the most bad-ass parts on the planet and this is one of those songs where the drums are beating like a machine gun as waves of noise build up, only to drag you down. You end up feeling uncomfortable and wanting to kick someone’s ass’.

[audio:http://ohmpark.com/promo/mix7/03%20Farmacia.mp3]

Au Revoir Simone / Anywhere You Looked

I know it is a guilty pleasure because a bunch of my friends think it is wussy, but I love it and can’t stop listening to their new album. Aces ladies!

Ceremony / Our Last Goodbye

This band is comprised of two of my best friends in the whole world and they are the most amazing songwriters I have ever met. Perfect pop, perfect melodies, songs from the heart, and then all recorded on a boom box powered by lightning.

Coin Under Tongue / High Until We Die

Even if you don’t like the song, the name will force you to still love this track. Oh, and there is a breakdown of the breakdown. I mean, who does this! You have to know that the song is cool as fuck if you got them kind of balls.

The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa / Thorn In Y’r Grip

This song is definitely a feat of something absolutely amazing and beautiful. The drummer and the band is barely holding it together, yet it has one of the most intense song structures I have ever heard. The whole band bends, and I know that might not make sense so buy it and listen to it.

Fad Gadget / Ricky’s Hand

Just run that drill into my head, you can’t wait for it every time. You can dance, you can drive, you can suck, and you can kill all to this kind of motivation so go for it.

[audio:http://user.chollian.net/~inpanic/skinny/snd/RickysHand.mp3]

Rollerskate Skinny / Speed To My Side

This song has some of the most mesmerizing sounds throughout. It even sounds like elements you might not like, but it is perfectly put together to build one of the most beautiful roller-coaster rides ever.

Slowdive / Joy

This is one of the best songs of all time, in my opinion. They just seem to not care and yet they are taking your life from you. The harmonics at the end just drift off into the sky.

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Julia Nunes has been a singer-songwriter since age 13. She plays guitar, ukulele, melodica, and piano, but she also uses household items, such as pillows, water bottles, tissue boxes or an old slinky, for extra percussion. Her charm is best displayed on stage or in the videos she posts on YouTube. Using video/audio layering and a unique approach to song arrangement, Julia has created over 60 music videos of originals and covers, most of which have been viewed an average of 650,000 times. She began her Secret Playlist with The Early November song, Hair: ‘When I listen to this song, I allow myself to be as cynical and damning of the world as I can possibly get, and still have a spring in my step. I envision a Barbie version of myself making her way through the world, becoming self aware and crestfallen with a smile frozen on her face’. Read the rest of Julia Nunes’ Secret Playlist.
[audio:http://ia351442.us.archive.org/3/items/HairTheEarlyNovember/TheEarlyNovember-Hair.mp3]

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Over at our sister site, My Secret Playlist, Angus Andrew and his Liars bandmates have written about their eight favourite songs right now, including The Legendary Pink Dots song, Black Highway [listen below]: ‘I’m completely fascinated by The Legendary Pink Dots. Usually when I listen to music, there’s a large part of my brain focusing on the techniques and ideas, and how they relate to my approach to music. With the Legendary Pink Dots, they somehow suspend this preoccupation. They inspire me to be more free and spontaneous, all I hear is creativity in their music. I hear a release from self imposed structure, and a pure and simple connection with the flow of creativity’. Read the rest of Liars Secret Playlist
[audio:http://www.blrrecords.com/samples/legendary_pink_dots_-_black_highway-445bdc95928a2.mp3]

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Remember Fade To Grey, that seminal new romantic dance hit from 1980s. Well, neither do we. But regardless, we checked in with Rusty Egan from the group Visage and asked him about the music that is inspiring him some 30 years after Visage’s sublime moment on glory. He started with the Deadmau5 track, Faxing Berlin [listen below]: ‘This track introduced me to Deadmau5 and I have been an avid fan ever since. He is the only DJ I have gone to see perform. To people who came for his music, his gigs at 02 club, Matter, and at The Roundhouse in London, the sound and lights were the stuff of my dreams from my early ecstasy trips at acid house parties’. [Read the rest of Visage's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://music.djandrewgarcia.com/Felix%20Wonderland/Deadmau5%20Miximag%20Tech%20Electro%20Madness/(08)%20%5bDeadmau5%5d%20Faxing%20Berlin.mp3]

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After a three year hiatus from playing together in San Francisco’s Parchman Farm, bassist Carson Binks and guitarist Allyson Baker regrouped and formed Dirty Ghosts with the addition Aesop Rock on drum programming in 2009. We checked in with Allyson Baker from the group and asked her what was spinning at her place. She started with the Gang Gang Dance song, First Communion [listen below]: ‘I heard this song playing in a store while I was on vacation and I went out and bought it the next day. I’ve probably listened to this song about 80,000 times since. The little guitar bit in the middle, that Afro beat style soloing, that’s what got me!’ [Read the rest of Gang Gang Dance's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://la.gg/upl/02-gang_gang_dance-first_communion.mp3]

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Ylajali is the debut full-length from Syntaks, the Danish duo of Jakob Skott and Anna Cecilia. In Ylajali’s beautifully scorched sonic landscape, acres of drones run beneath Cecilia’s wordless sighs; Skott’s beats crunch like autumn leaves while synthesizers swell, flourish, and disappear. We asked them about the music that was spinning at their place, and they started with The Cure song, Plainsong: ‘This is probably the best album opener of all time. From the distant tinkle of bells to the huge synth-pad explosion, it’s a prime example of how to open the show. Everything sounds muddled together in just about a perfect way’. [Read the rest of Syntaks' Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.minneapolisfuckingrocks.com/mp3/01%20Plainsong.mp3]

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We Fell To Earth’s debut album contains grains of that desert night ambiance. Richard and Wendy’s harmonise beautifully on the likes of Lights Out, but tasty electronics are never far away, notably on the pulsing, bleeping Sovereign. We checked in with Wendy Rae Fowler and asked her about the songs that we’re on high rotation on her iPod. She started with David Bowie’s Heroes [listen below]: ‘Dreamy. This song puts me in a good mood. I love to blast it and chase the animals around the house. They like it too. I love the desperation in his voice in the last verse. It makes me wish I was him’. [Read the rest of We Fell To Earth's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://stopokaygo.typepad.com/web/files/03_heroes.mp3]

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Don Diablo gets nasty with New York nightclub legend Larry Tee’s forthcoming single Let’s Make Nasty on Ultra Records, adding sub-bass, freaky synthstabs and his trademark guitarlicks, and turning Let’s make Nasty into a thumping clubrocker. We asked Larry Tee about the music he’s listening to right now and he started with Silent League’s There’s A Caretaker In The Woods: ‘I’m loving this choral masterpiece by the mysterious Brooklyn band that releases something every three years and rarely, if ever, performs’. [Read the rest of Larry Tee's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.poptartssucktoasted.com/LP12.7/Monday/05%20There%27s%20a%20Caretaker%20in%20the%20Woods.mp3]

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A Time For Lions is the new album from the Portland based trio Stars of Track and Field. The album was produced by John King of the Dust Brothers (Beastie Boys, Beck, Linkin Park, Carlos Santana), along with Stars of Track and Field who co-produced 5 of the 11 tracks. We checked in with Kevin Calaba from the band and asked him about the music that he was getting down to. He started with the TV on the Radio song, Family Tree [listen below]: ‘Beautiful expansive music. The melody is engaging and the lyrics are visually compelling. Adebimpe’s got such a powerful voice, which this song features out front. Enjoy the falsetto doubles and the deep rhythmic building of the outro’. [Read the rest of Stars of Track and Field's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://earfarm.com/music/06%20Family%20Tree.mp3]

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Gabriel Birnbaum, aka Boy Without God, is a songwriter in the vein of Leonard Cohen, mingling straightforward melodic songs with the long-form composition style he picked up writing fifteen-minute free jazz epics during high school. Your Body is Your Soul, his first studio full length, was released this summer. We asked him about the music that will inspire his next recording, and he started with the Cuddle Magic song, Expectations [listen below]: ‘So well written and eternal sounding that when I first heard it, I thought it was a cover because I was positive I’d heard it before. It also has all the amazing little orchestral touches that make every Cuddle Magic song so great: that weird pizzicato part after the first chorus, the drum beat inverting over the second verse, the way the vocals pull back really hard on the time, the shaker entering for the whistling part’. [Read the rest of Boy Without God's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.gramotunes.com/Cuddle_Magic_Expectations.mp3]

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Boasting perhaps the greatest band name on the planet, Scottish four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks released their debut album, These Four Walls, on Pod Records [Inertia]. Standing alongside the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Glasvegas, and The Twilight Sad as leading figures in Scotland’s indie-rock renaissance, the band’s first full-length was recorded almost entirely live. We checked in with them to get the inside word on the music that inspired it all and they started with The Twilight Sad song, I Became A Prostitute [listen below]: ‘This is the new single by one of the best bands around. It’s pretty perfect. We’ve been lucky enough to see this live three times recently, and each time it’s felt like that footage of the nuclear bomb going off that they love to use on TV. You know when the house gets flattened?’
[audio:http://download.blogotheque.net/Audio/TTS.mp3]

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Sweden-based El Perro Del Mar, otherwise known as Sarah Assbring, recently released her third full-length album, Love Is Not Pop and supported Peter Bjorn and John on their North American tour. We asked her to tell us about her favourite songs by other artists and she started with the Joy Division song, New Dawn Fades [listen below]: ‘I fell into a dark Joy Division crack last Summer. Usually that’s a very good sign that I’m not feeling so good. Still, I think I managed to pick something good out of it for the first time. New Dawn Fades is one of those moments where Ian Curtis’ lyrics hurt so much, you don’t know where to turn. It’s like this slow build-up to heartbreak. The ending of this song, where he’s singing, ‘It was me waiting for me, hoping for something for more. Me seeing me this time, hoping for something else,’ breaks my heart anew every time I hear it’. [Read the rest of El Perro Del Mar's Secret Playlist]
[audio:http://www.unpiano.com/music/wp-content/music/reprise/new_dawn_fades.mp3]

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