Don’t Make Lists: Group Doueh, No Kids, St Vincent & Shackleton

Don't Make Lists is a music blog counting down the “best” 365 songs of the one a day, over the course of the year. One song per artist. Nestor is back again and running down #348 to #340. Here are our favourites.

This Week: #347 -Group Doueh - Cheyla Ya Haiuune, #346 - No Kids - For Halloween, #343 - St Vincent - Paris Is Burning, #342 - Shackleton - Mountains Of Ashes

#347 -Group Doueh - Cheyla Ya Haiuune

It’s a shame that most of the stuff released on Sublime Frequencies isn’t eligible for this list as most of it was recorded long before the turn of the decade. Or most of the stuff I’ve heard isn’t contemporary, anyway. Don’t Make Lists is pedantic and accurate, dontchaknow.

This I’m fairly sure is eligible. It sounds like something that Jeff Mangum would’ve played on his legendary WFMU radio shows but way better. Like Michael Jackson circa 1969 singing in Arabic (i think?) as part of Haunted Graffiti. Think that’s enough innacurate/ignorant namedrops. Cannot believe I missed the sublime frequencies tour a while back and miss the chance to get it on vinyl. You can/should buy this on CD though.


#346 - No Kids - For Halloween

This and Hello from Eau Claire by Xiu Xiu are probably the two most regular fixtures of a Tiger Trap DJ set, opening as many of our sets as possible. Works as a pretty good combo. Hailing from Vancouver, texturally they’re akin to other pacific northwest artists like Thanksgiving, The Microphones, Karl Blau et al. The vocal melodies recall the singing from mount eerie and Mirah, especially. Reminds me of a more contemporary indie-pop sounding Eric’s Trip with less fuzz and more motown & rnb influences.

This is the highlight from a pretty strong debut, Come Into My House, released on Tomlab. Get it directly from the label store.


#343 - St Vincent - Paris Is Burning

I first became aware of Saint Vincent as the support slot to quite possibly the best performer I’ve ever seen, Sufjan Stevens. She was very charming and captivating and her songs had an impression on me that were rarely recaptured in her studio recordings. Not until Actor, anyway where I think she really excelled as a songwriter. As great as that record is though, I don’t think it reaches the heights of Paris is Burning from her debut

The most impressive about her debut was that it was named after an Arrested Development line. The second most impressive thing is this song. So intense and atmospheric. It reminds me of the forgotten playstation one classic MediEvil for possibly absolutely no reason. If anyone could tell me what the vocal melody in the chorus sounds exactly like please let me know because it’s killing me.


#342 - Shackleton - Mountains Of Ashes

Sounds like the drums from crash bandicoot 1 played down a cave. always a good thing.

Listen to all of Nestor's top songs of the decade over at http://dontmakelists.tumblr.com.

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