5 Albums That Influenced Kids and Chemicals’ Patrick Carney
Kids and Chemicals’ Patrick Carney shares five influential albums.
by Walter Price
When an album is an eclectic mini-series of dark matter you’d be daunted in your search for a better example until you come upon ‘After Life’, the latest release from Kids and Chemicals. Missouri siblings Patrick and Liz Carney fronted outfit’s third album. Cliché as it may be, this is an intricate release of seemingly endless layers. The depths of struggle, addiction, death, and demons… the tales unfold in somber electro-rock intrigue. Catholic for the sake of being interesting is often disingenuine and passé, but when blending genres as the backdrop for captivating vignettes as with ‘After Life’… it becomes fascinating.
Kids and Chemicals’ Patrick Carney shares five albums that helped influence him on his path to co-creating the band’s sounds.
KIDS and CHEMICALS
Elizabeth Carney, – Patrick Carney – Jason Nunn – Blake Mixon
Aphex Twin
When I was 16 my buddy bought this album on a whim because he liked the cover art, RDJ’s maniac grin. Electronic music wasn’t really my thing at the time and this was the first album that grabbed me. I don’t think there’s another album I’ve spent more hours listening to. Every song on it is weird in its own way and still incredibly catchy. The tracks “4” and “Milkman” are two of the best electronic tracks ever made. When I first started making electronic music I tried for a while to mimic RDJ’s style and quickly realized I’m not smart enough to do it, but he’s still probably my biggest musical influence.
Chris Clark
This album is crazy. The RDJ rabbit hole led me to other Warp artists, and Chris Clark is the best one besides James. He just goes by “Clark” these days, and the quality of his music has gotten way worse with time for some reason, but this album is top notch. I’m usually a guy who is way into catchy melodies, but this album is a big exception to this rule. There is very little in the way of melody, but he makes up for it with insane beats. It’s pretty hard to describe, so if you’re reading this and you like heavy beats just go listen to it. It sounds like a big hairy lizard stomping on a city. I recommend listening to it in a 1996 Accord with blown speakers.
Weezer
This is the catchiest album ever made and it is the epitome of 90’s rock to me. Sure, I like Nirvana, but Weezer is really where it’s at. Every song on this album is great, and no album has ever had a better guitar tone. There’s no fat on any song; everything that needs to be there is there and nothing more. Pinkerton is good, too, but every other Weezer album is near total garbage. Sad!
Jolie Holland
There aren’t many singers who can make me cry, but she is one of them. She has such a haunting, mournful voice and all the songs on this album have near perfect structure. I’ve spent many hours drunkenly singing “Damn Shame” to myself. It’s not on this album, but go listen to The Be Good Tanyas (Holland was a member) version of “Oh My Darling Clementine”. Holland’s verse always makes me cry a little.
King Dude
Folk isn’t a genre I spend a whole lot of time listening to, but Jolie Holland and King Dude have really influenced the way I write and listen to music. This album is short and sweet; almost every song is under three minutes. I never took the time to look up the lyrics to most of these songs because they’re purposely obscured and I like them that way. The tracks “Love All Around You” and “No One Is Here” are two of my favorite songs ever. It’s super dark, lo-fi and catchy which is a great combo for me.
kids and chemicals
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