Silversun Pickups: We’re Basically BFFs

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We love Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger of Silversun Pickups so much that we invite them to the LiveXLive studios whenever they’re in the neighborhood. They recently popped in for the third time to share some of their favorite music, including tracks from their brand new album “Widow’s Weeds.” They busted out all kinds of great songs for us, from the Beatles to Daft Punk to Hall & Oates to Donna Summer, plus they let us in on some fun facts about their band and their current obsessions.

 

Here are the top 5 things we learned:

  1. Brian is fascinated by David Bowie’s “Labyrinth”-era teeth and codpiece (Same, Brian. Same.)
  2. When listening to music, Nikki hears the bassline first. She collected songs with basslines she loves to inspire her before recording “Widow’s Weeds.”
  3. Brian and Nikki have heard their music being played in bars all over the world…but they don’t always recognize their own songs.
  4. In L.A., Brian and his friend have a DJ gig where they exclusively play songs from old movie soundtracks.
  5. Nikki likes to look at maps of Westeros from her favorite series, “Game of Thrones.”

 

Hear all of Brian and Nikki’s music picks, plus the stories behind them, on Silversun Pickups: I Am The DJ.

Pop Goes Country

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Right now, everyone is talking about Lil’ Nas X and whether “Old Town Road” is or is not a country song. For the record, according to Live X Live listeners, at least the version where he collaborates with Billy Ray Cyrus is – it started on Nashville Now and so many people hit the heart button, we put it on Country Hits too, and from there it became so popular with our country listeners, it’s now in the top 40 country songs on our Weekly Country Countdown.

But Lil’ Nas X isn’t the first artist from outside the genre to make a “country” song that got people arguing about what is and is not country, nor is he the first to add an unexpected country collaborator to the song. So we took a look at some of the most unexpected collaborations between country artists and those from other genres, dug up all the back stories, and put them together in a new station:

The Twenty: Pop Goes Country

Remember the song that failed for Sting in pop, but when he added a country artist it became a hit? How about the boy band and the man band that worked together to make a pop hit one in country, too? Or the pot-and-KFC-fueled friendship that resulted in THREE unlikely collaborations? There’s a Columbian with a hillbilly, a singing competition winner and a rap star, and a rock legend who did a whole album with a bluegrass legend. Those stories are all in there, along with others that have fascinating stories.

You gotta hear it! And let me know what you think! Tweet us at @livexlive and @jesswrightradio.