rejoice, American Football have made a "Stay Home" playlist

With the coronavirus outbreak causing many people to stay at home as often as possible, we’ve been asking musicians what music they’re listening to in isolation, and of course we had to ask American Football, whose 1999 classic “Stay Home” has sort of become an anthem for the mass quarantine.

All three original members of the band contributed to the list (Mike Kinsella, Steve Lamos, and Steve Holmes), and they chose a nice selection of songs, with classics by Cocteau Twins, Tom Petty, Alex Chilton, The Pretenders, and more, and newer artists like Miya Folick and Majical Cloudz too. They also gave insightful commentary on each pick, often directly related to the state of the world we’re living in. Read on for their list…

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Miya Folick – “Thingamajig”

With headphones on, it sounds like she’s inside of my head. And having someone inside of your head is quite distracting. And I’m currently in need of distractions. [Mike]

Majical Cloudz – “Downtown”

I’m very attracted to how painfully plain-spoken the vocals are delivered. In the same way that every 6 weeks or so I find the need to drink an entire bottle of orange juice, this is my body saying it needs less irony / more earnestness in it (and apparently more vitamin C) [Mike]

Cocteau Twins – “Cherry-coloured Funk”

My brain rewrites the lyrics to it differently every time I hear it. It’s like beautiful dream-induced Mad-Libs. [Mike]

Tom Petty – “The Waiting”

Actually, all the dying is the hardest part. And then maybe the not working / the not leaving the house. Certainly, lack of toilet paper has become a problem. Still, the waiting does suck pretty bad. [Lamos]

The Police – “Darkness”

Life did seem easy when it was (more) boring. [Lamos]

Chet Baker – “Look for the Silver Lining”

I sing this song every night to my kids, and I used to think it was cute. Now, it kinda keeps me going. [Lamos]

Gillian Welch – “That’s the Way the Whole Thing Ends”

Let’s hope not. But if so, then I want this song to be playing while it happens.[Lamos]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNi8aW8Nf6s

The Pointer Sisters – “Automatic”

The Pointer Sisters (especially their early 80’s hits) are great for family dance parties to blow off steam and temporarily escape from the ever escalating and scary news cycle. [Holmes]

Pretenders – “Don’t Get Me Wrong”

Don’t Get Me Wrong keeps the dance party vibe going, but this is also subliminal homework for LP4 writing. I love how the simple but undeniable groove and riff push the song forward. [Holmes]

Alex Chilton – “Like Flies on Sherbert”

Alex Chilton’s Like Flies on Sherbert kind of personifies the times we’re living through. At it’s core it’s a 50’s style two-minute pop song, but everything is slightly off and gets more unsettling as the song progresses. [Holmes]

Paul Simon – “Can’t Run But”

Paul Simon’s Can’t Run But is great background music to work or create/write/think to. I can put this song on repeat and get stuff done. More subliminal LP4 homework. [Holmes]

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And because we could all use some live music right now, watch this awesome video of American Football back in ’98: