Byrne released the playlist on his website as part of his monthly playlist series “David Byrne Radio”, a 41-part musical mix tracing the song-stories of his life. The playlist was accompanied by a blog post, explaining where he had heard a selection of the artists featured.
Some of the explanations given by Bynre are:
Gurrumul ‘Ngarrpiya (Octupus)’: “I heard an orchestral interpretation of this song by Gurrumul when I was waiting to do an interview at the radio station in Melbourne, Australia. I asked, “Whose music is that?”
Hobo Johnson ‘Sex in the City’, ‘Rome & Juliet’: “Bobby Wooten who toured with me recommended Hobo Johnson.”
Rachid Taha ‘Ya Rayah’, ‘Barra Barra’: “Rachid Taha sadly just passed away. He was ubiquitous for a while there—flavors and songs from the Maghreb and the immigrant experience with a rock and roll attitude. Many of his best records were produced by Steve Hillage, from the psychedelic band Gong…a surprising combo, to me anyway.”
Rosalía ‘Pienso En Tu Mirá (Cap.3: Celos)’, ‘Malamente (Cap.1: Augurio)’: “Rosalía has been mentioned in the NY times…taking flamenco to a new level…great videos too.”
The eclecticism offers a nice alternative to the typical Buble, Mariah Carey and David Hasselhoff Christmas albums. Byrne was recently in the country for his American Utopia tour, earning comparisons to the ambition of Stop Making Sense with a heavily coreographed and theatrical 12-piece show.
David Byrne’s playlist is available on Spotify or on his website.
