Drift

GQ's Eric Ducker interviews Greg Gonzalez:

The initial concept for Cigarettes After Sex was to create songs with honest lyrics, like Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" or "Chelsea Hotel #2." but with music inspired by new wave and synth pop acts like Erasure, New Order, and early Madonna. Gonzalez's words had more of a bitter edge back then, so he phased out the confessional part and tried to be more poetic. The music got darker and more reverb-y, like the Jesus and Mary Chain. Then in 2012, he had a particularly rough year—a close friend died, he was going through a breakup—and he fell under the spell of the Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Session album, the one with their cover of "Sweet Jane" on it.

Has anyone not been haunted by the voice of Margo Timmins? Said Sam Usher in Electric:

Dawn was coming up. The light was the colour of cornflour. The traffic sounded like gentle rain. Somewhere between sleeping and waking she had slipped out of the bed and left me alone. Beyond the Chrysler Building the Eiffel Tower was fading in the sun. I was dreaming a lullaby: a girl singing 'Sweet Jane', her faint voice stretching to reach the notes. Na na na na na, sweet Jane. And then it really was a voice.

Also playing this week: M83's mind-blowing performance on KEXB.