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 BRANDON HOLLEY
Editor-In-Chief, Jane
Born in 1966, Brandon Holleys musical obsession began at age six with Elton Johns Yellow Brick Road. After many musical missteps (Sean Cassidy, Leif Garrett), she finally found her way to the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C. (escorted by Michael Stipe and Peter Buck after a show they played at an old movie theater). She started playing drums in high school and got a used Ludwig five piece. In college, she played in a few bands of no notoriety (Love Five, Gangster of Love, Bikini Machine). She played music at her parties near Barnard at the Lunar Lounge, which she started so her band had a place to play. After college she worked at a bar and started to write for Paper magazine. She was asked to play drums for Luscious Jackson, but turned it down because she had a big job fact-checking at Rolling Stone. The musical career suffered as she went on to work at Rolling Stone, Time Out, GQ, ELLEgirl and now Jane. Shes getting a new drum set for Christmas.
Brandon Holley's Playlist for The AMC Afterparty
( denotes: check out the song!)
Spanish Bombs
The Clash
The bulk of my intellectual activity freshman year of high school was spent trying to decipher all the lyrics of London Calling. The background vocals (sung by Mick Jones) are in Spanish and even though I was a French student, I bought a Spanish/English dictionary and worked it out. I was/still am so in love with Joe Strummer, God rest his soul. Political, danceable, anthemic.
Surrender
Cheap Trick
My one and only karaoke song. In college, my band Gangster of Love did a cover of My Sharona by The Knack, but my roommate, Mac McCaughan, who is now in Superchunk and who runs Merge Records, was a Cheap Trick fan, so he insisted that I stop it with The Knack and get to know the real thing. He schooled me in all things Cheap Trick, and since then I have been a total devotee, my nightgown even says Cheap Trick. Sadly, my band broke up before we could learn any of their songs.
Bust a Move
Young MC
Full disclosure: I was a dancer on Club MTV. Before you judge me, I want to say that I tried out as a joke. Me, Alex Kuczynski and Mickey Boardman from Paper were so infinitely bored by the show Club MTV that we decided that the only fun way to watch the show (which was on around the clock) would be if we were on it. So we got drunk midday in 1989 and went down to the Palladium to try out. Alex did the dance of the seven veils as her tryout. She didnt make the cut. I was on for about six months when Bust a Move was huge. I learned to do that weird running-while-standing-still dance to this song, which was de rigueur among my fellow dancers. If you ever catch a rerun, Im the girl with the short white hair and bizarre hats. Downtown Julie Brown was not so nice, by the way.
Start Me Up
The Rolling Stones
My first concert was Rod Stewart with my mom (she kept telling me to sit down). My first real concertall alonewas the 1981 Rolling Stones tour. I was 15 and saved the $60 to buy the scalped ticket. I went with my friend Wendy Pepper. I had never even seen pot before. It was quite an education.
I Will Dare
The Replacements
One of the best concerts I ever saw was The Replacements opening up for Husker Du in 1983. They were a mess, I think they even annoyed Bob Mould and Grant Hart from Husker Du. They forgot their songs, would stop halfway through and yell at the audience, Paul Westerberg fell off the stage. I was in love.
Check out the AMC Afterparty playlists of:
Ian Birch | Dana Fields | Raymond Roker | Rob Gregory | Steve Murphy
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