For a pair of musicians who have been around the block (Rob Montejo was a founding member of Smashing Orange, and Monika Bullette is a former member of NERO and Licorice Roots), Delaware natives the Sky Drops prefer to maintain a DIY ethic. The duo is self-managed and self-booked and recorded its newest EP, Making Mountains, between a living room and a garden shed. But you’d never know that once you’re hypnotized by the dreamy boy/girl harmonies and fuzzed-out riffs. Plus, the band has played alongside the Black Angels, Cold War Kids, the Dirty Projectors, A Place To Bury Strangers and more. Who needs major labels, anyway? Check out the mix tape Montejo and Bullette made for MAGNET below.
“Explain It To Me” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/ExplainItToMe.mp3
Sonic Youth “Expressway To Your Skull”
Evol is such an amazing, magical record. Its foreboding guitar alchemy is hallucinogenic and addictive. “Madonna, Sean And Me” (a.k.a. “Expressway To Your Skull”) wholly embodies the dissonant otherworldliness Sonic Youth has forever burned on my psyche. Video
Mudhoney “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More”
So visceral and disorienting all at once, it almost feels like this song could fall apart at any moment. I love how menacing it sounds. Sometimes listening to this, I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience. Diving off a cliff in slow motion with the world crashing around me, with a smile. Video
Salem 66 “Postcard”
Sadly, this is the only track I could find on YouTube from the woefully underrated/overlooked Frequency And Urgency LP. I love this record. Great songs. Video
My Bloody Valentine “Slow”
That’s right. This song is not on Loveless, and it rocks. The fuzz bass on this track is a beast. Juxtapose that beast with a beautifully warped, gliding guitar, and you have perfection. So laid back and powerful, the contrasts within this song are stunning and moving. Video
Loop “Brittle Head Girl”
This song puts my mind in the right place every time: peacefully on fire. I know Spacemen 3 is most everyone’s go-to demons of drone, but check out Heaven’s End by Loop. You won’t be disappointed. Video
The Damned “Love Song”
This song reminds me of sweaty-walled basement shows where you’re having enough fun that you didn’t mind the rabble spilling their beer on your shoes. David Vanian is the Gothfather. Video
16 Horsepower “Haw”
I was lucky enough to discover this band on its first album and have devoured every record since all the way into their new form as Wovenhand. David Eugene Edwards has the brimstone and ferocity to make you cower in your boots. Don’t you want to meet him out by the shed? Video
David Bowie “Stay
”
Once I bought a poster from one of those metal grids and got all the way home to opened it to find that “David B.” written on the outside didn’t correspond to David Bowie but David Byrne. I was very disappointed not to have some cello-playing action from The Hunger on my wall. David Byrne obviously hijacked Bowie’s dance moves. Carlos Alomar is no Mick Ronson, but who is? Video
Cream “I Feel Free
”
Hand claps make things good. Ginger Baker makes them better. You might think Cream was all about Clapton, but this is Jack Bruce’s juice. Video
The Louvin Brothers “I Like The Christian Life
”
We lost Charlie this year but he gets to meet up with Ira and make these harmonies that make my spine happy. They wrote it; the Byrds made it famous. Video
