Tuesday Tunes: Future Generations

For this months theme of LOUCHE, we have been asking several musicians what they associate with the word louche musically. At Cent, we feel that the word louche is defined as something or someone who is laid back, relaxed and a little bit sultry, we asked the band Future Generations what top ten tracks they would associate with the word louche. Future Generations will be releasing a self-titled album on the 29th of July, you can find their website here, but in the meantime here are there top ten louche tracks and why they chose them:

Washed Out – New Theory

Ernest Green, the musician/producer behind Washed Out, has serotonin flowing through his veins. You know that anesthetic concoction doctors give you before surgery? Ernest Green mixes it with his coffee in the morning. Washed Out’s name and corresponding song titles (“Amor Fati” translates to “love of one’s fate”) invoke a consistent sense of optimistic determinism, as if to say “It’s all out of our control, but it’s cool.

Anderson Paak. – The Bird

I was listening to a best music of 2015 podcast last year, and one of the featured songs was “Suede” by NxWorries, which is a collaboration between Anderson Paak. and Knxwledge. We all really fuck with Knxwledge, who does production for Kendrick Lamar, so, I showed their 2015 mixtape to Mike and he, being the world’s foremost hip-hop historian, already knew it and turned me onto other Anderson Paak. stuff. “The Bird” is from Paak.’s “Malibu,” a mellow-jazzy banger.

Widowspeak – Stoned
This one always seems to find its way onto our playlist whenever we go out on the road. Ethereal vibe. Mike saw them on a boat once – chill.

Slum Village – Untitled
J Dilla has had monumental influence on Mike and Dylan and this song represents his ability to establish neck breaking grooves with effervescent harmonic structure. The way the keys float in and out of the progression while the strings glide over top of the heavy hitting drums and bass is the very thing about Slum Village and J Dilla that has established them as legends. Roll down the windows on a hot summer day, jam this song, and watch yourself get taken from reality for 3 short minutes.

Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth

From the sleepy and reverbed whole-note guitar line to the whispering gang harmonies, “For What It’s Worth,” I’m pretty sure, started chilled, laidback music as we know it today. It’s a protest song masquerading as a friendly stoner’s lament. Disguising the message or theme of a song with a melody of opposing is something we like to do as well, and Stephen Still and co’s work is some of the earliest and effective examples of that technique in pop music.

Vampire Weekend – Hannah Hunt
This song rules. The greatest track on one of the best albums of the 21st century. The Wayne Gretzky of VW tracks.

Baio – Sister of Pearl
Speaking of Vampire Weekend, their bass player, Chris Baio, has done some seriously groovy solo work. For Sister of Pearl, Baio reached into the Vampire Weekend pantry of ingredients, pulled out plunking harpsichords and heady wordplay, threw in some breathy tenor vocals and a heavily compressed melodic bassline for personal spice and ended up with a 5 Star dish, best enjoyed poolside. There’s your extended food metaphor for you.

Active Bird Community – Pick Me Apart
Buddies from the music scene back at Fordham University. Played some basement shows with them, and now they’re killing it after college. These guys rock. Shout out, Rams and Pugsley’s Pizza.

Tame Impala – ‘Cause I’m a Man
“I think this is the chillest fucking song ever,” said Dylan, a statement immediately confirmed by the other four.

Bahamas – All the Time
It was really tough to choose the last song for this list. But, it basically came down to the task at hand: picking ten laidback summer tunes. And Bahamas’ “All the Time” is a melting popsicle of a song. It’s literally called “All the Time.” And the name of the band is Bahamas! And there are only, like ten lines in the whole song. And one of those lines is “I put work in front of my girl/there’s something wrong with that.” God. S’chill.

Honorable mentions:
Bruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl; Sports – You Are the Right One; Steve Miller Band – Fly Like an Eagle; Phoenix – Love Like a Sunset Pt. 1 & 2; America – Ventura Highway; Guru – Coast Modern; Mac Demarco – No Other Heart