Indie rock band Blood provide a direct, from-the-heart overview of some of their most intense musical love affairs, including Bruce, drums, and music to get you in the mood for baseball tarot.
Playlist: ‘Get to Know the Real Blood’
With their debut album Loving You Backwards fast approaching (out August 2nd via Ramp Local), the members of Philadelphia-based indie rock band Blood made a special playlist featuring some of their all-time favorite songs.
Get to know Blood’s Tim O’Brien, Zachary Malett, Ben McCamman-McGinnis, Julian McCamman-McGinnis, Nino Soberon, and Tyler Wolff through their track selections and descriptions below, and be sure to give Loving You Backwards a listen upon its release!
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:: stream/purchase Loving You Backwards here ::
:: connect with Blood here ::
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Get to Know the Real Blood
“Primitive Priest” – Blood
For anyone just getting into our band, I think this song is very important to listen to, because it is the initial thesis statement. I just listened to this song for the first time in forever and it brought me so much joy and love for the people we were on stage and on record at that time. This band started with a feeling of deep discontent, rage, and a feeling of wanting to shove the political status quo fully up my asshole with no plans to take it out. Today, if we are playing a sweet sounding ballad like Holy Family, there is still an underbelly of this fury lying beneath it.
“Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” – Bruce Springsteen
This has been the Summer of rekindling Bruce and a falling in love with the early days. Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, the innocent, and the E Street Shuffle reveal the freewheeling, faithful, and devoted Bruce. For the longest time, I let the monolithic later works conflate my idea of Bruce with the seasoned working man and America as a whole. On the early records, we just get Bruce himself. We get the everything on the line, nothing but the shirt on his back, wartorn love for his hometown Bruce and it is electric from start to finish. 82nd street in particular, has the slice of life, in love with the world spirit which feels cut from the same cloth as “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.” I love songs like this because they represent the gospels of a utopian American citylife, which does not attempt to censor the true chaotic and absurd nature of the people who live there. It is the way I feel about Philadelphia and the reason our band calls it home today.
“First True Love Affair (Larry Levan Remix)” – Jimmy Ross
My friend Pete had his first DJ set this year and it was easily one of the most masterful debut performances I have ever witnessed. The vibe in that room was beyond jubilant and everyone was just laughing with how unreasonably good he was doing. This song was the pinnacle of the set. It has everything I love about disco and soul and will make you want to fall in love and absolutely punish some floorboards. Has one of my favorite vocal first touches of all time. It isn’t words so much as it’s “dabadat deeyum, dabadat deeyum!”
“You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” – Jim Croce
There are some songs that with very minimal instrumentation and attitude alone, induce a menace within me that makes me want to bite the head off a chicken in public. This is one of those songs.
“What I Need” (Alternate Version) – Cindy Lee
This is the version from the Model Express joint. Pat is one of the great gifts to music in the last 20 years. Starting with their contributions in Women and then everything that has come out under Cindy Lee. When Blood started, the only music I listened to we’re the first Cindy Lee records. It encompasses everything I love from European 60s pop and soundtrack music, to noise that doesn’t debase melody. This song is the one that pierces through you the most and turns an otherwise mundane moment into a gushing cinematic memory. The song even falls out of time at points, but it doesn’t fucking matter. Play this song loud going over a bridge into the city at night with your best friend or thinking about an ex lover. I don’t know what happened with the Cindy Lee tour being canceled abruptly, but I hope that they are okay and doing whatever makes them happy. If the attention was getting too hot for them and it just has to be a recording project, then at least we have their records to enjoy. They are such a treasure. Thank you Pat!
“Soft Polluted Blacks” – Wheat
My friend John sent me this album this summer and I am so grateful he made the connection for me. I had never heard anything about this band and it immediately got into my bones. It felt like a favorite record from growing up that I had never heard before. This record is very much a sibling of two of my other favorite records, which feel distinctly weirdo country and interested in the immediacy of the subconcious going right onto wax. Those records are Big star’s “Third” and Sparklehorse’s “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot.” I think Wheat’s album “Medeiros” is of the same caliber and this track is a whisper in the ear that will leave you gutted and inspired.
“TV for a Reason” – Blood
This is one of my favorite songs to play live and it is one of the reasons Dennis was down to join the band. I am a strong believer in some songs being a received transmission that comes to a person if they are lucky, willing, and open. Some songs you really have to slog away at and woodshed for, but I don’t really care about that. There are enough stories about hard work and I don’t feel compelled to add to that canon. I am mostly interested in the immaterial and our ability to transmit unconscious material and information. That is what turns me on. This song was one of those experiences. Julian showed me the chords and had the line “you’re on tv for a reason,” and then I went in the other room and all the words came to me in one sitting. We showed it to the band and it all came together almost immediately. I don’t share this story to be like “aren’t we amazing?” I am sharing it because it is so rare when it happens, but when it does, it is an awe-inspiring thing to witness and be a part of. It is the main reason I want to make music and it is a philosophy that many of my favorite artists share: it isn’t the artist themselves, they are the transmitter of the art.
“True Fright” – Zero Percent APR
This is the side project of our besties Being Dead. Being Dead is on the verge of taking over the world and you need to let it happen. If you resist, you might get hurt and most importantly miss out on the best time of your life. This song is a part of their album Halbum. It is a halloween record and needs to be listened to as a complete work. All the songs are equally good. The record feels like that moment of halloween, just before nightfall when you are sitting on the couch alone and thinking about your childhood and all the parties of your early 20s and that loneliness you can feel when the nostalgia becomes too beautiful. It’s the Greek word for only experiencing joy for something as it’s starting because once it’s peaking it’s already ending. But, I am about to get this book “The Multiorgasmic Man” so I think my pleasure reward system is about to get fully based and I won’t feel this longing anymore.
“Talkin Baseball” – Terry Cashman
Naz and I started doing Baseball Tarot outside of Phillies games. We are the only groundball mystics we know of on the eastern seaboard right now. It is a fascinating sociological study and again further proof that girls and gays rule. Girls and gays are the only ones that know how to have fun and stop for a fucking second to get their baseball tarot cards read on the way into the game. All the while, their terrible boyfriends and straight homophobic dads scream to “not even touch us,” as we read their futures and connect in the present. There are a lot of 4 of Bats, MVPs and Spitballs in Philly, which totally checks out if you’ve ever visited. Naz and I play this song on the way to the stadium and it is essential that everyone say “Mickey and the Duke,” when it comes up. Look for us outside of the games and please ignore your boyfriend who’s in a self inflicted rush and come over and have a glass of wine on the house with us. Tips accepted!
“Amor mio” – Mina
One of my favorite songs ever is Se Telefunando, but I am going to give some love to this one. Mina has a voice that sweeps up everything in it’s path and the rhythm section on the majority of her records is punishing and up front in the mix. The drums on this song are especially great. I think Mina and her collaborators are brilliant at creating evocative pop numbers with a wall of sound production style that lets the drums fucking rip through the whole thing. Give this one a listen and also go listen to Se Telefunando somewhere you won’t be bothered.
“Broadcast” – Hawk
This song is the closer on one of my favorite albums, Haha Sound. The whole thing deserves a deep listen and repeated plays. This is one of those musical influences that I don’t care to dissect because the relationship has always been one of pure magic and it makes me want to cry I love it so much. Hopefully, you find yourself with Hawk guiding you through a season of your life. It has the power to.
“Piti piti pas” – Francois de Roubaix
de Roubaix is one of my favorite composers. Shout out Colin White for this dude. A lot of de Roubaix’s musical energy was harnessed for french horror and crime movie soundtracks in the 60s and 70s, so all of his work has a jubilant campiness and a strong reoccuring melodic theme. I have yet to find a composer that feels like he is having as much fun. This song “Piti Piti Pas” adds an especial bounce to your perspective and is great for walking around a new city. Also, the drums are zooty dooty.
“Secrets” – Strawberry Switchblade
This is peak slumber party and getting ready to go out in early autumn kind of music. This self titled album is incredible front to back and is brimming over with color and texture. This song is one of the more upbeat ones fit for the dancefloor. If you don’t immediately feel like a 14 year old girl singing into a hairbrush when you hear this song, then stay the fuck away from our baseball tarot stand.
“On Line Malaysia” – Susumu Hirasawa
This is a party at the end of the world banger. Kind of feels like 90s hackers going to a hot yoga class for the first time.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot
We’re still not over it. Are You?
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:: stream/purchase Loving You Backwards here ::
:: connect with Blood here ::
Playlist: ‘Get to Know the Real Blood’
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© Morgan Kelley 🖼 © Emily Lee
© Morgan Kelley
🖼 © Emily Lee:: Stream Blood ::
