STEPHEN TO ANNE MARIE:

SB: What is your favorite song?

AM: Darin, Can’t Stay Away.

SB: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

AM: Lou Val! KALLITECHNIS! Look at us twinsing.

SB: If the 3 of us siblings were all a song, which would each of us be and why?

AM: Hah, this is such a weird question. I feel like you are a party jam. The kind everybody knows even if they “usually don’t like that genre of music.” Suit & Tie or something. When it plays, everybody goes on the dance floor. Billy is 100% a throwback jam. Roni by Bobby Brown or something like that. He’s stuck in time but also timeless. The kind of jam that isn’t for everybody but also the kind that has a MASSIVE cult following to keep repping it year in and year out. The cult following will keep it hip for years to come. And me, I feel like I’m an anonymous song you heard at a bar once or on a dance floor once. You never got the song title but you remember it in some way because it accompanied a great moment in life. It was a sleeper jam you’ll probably never track down again. But the memory is there.

ANNE MARIE TO STEPHEN:

AM: What is your favorite song?

SB: Porto Cristo by BROTHER

AM: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

SB: Sharkbait and Eternal Sunshine. And as usual, kicking myself for not burning them myself. I guess it’s like dad’s iced tea growing up. Just tasted better when he made it (also didn’t hurt to have 5 Sweet ‘n Low packets in there either haha).

AM: I’m headed back to the great city of New York this weekend. It has me thinking (since you so boldly talked about California songs in your last reply)…what are your favorite New York centric songs? The first one that came to mind while I was writing this is New York, New York by Sinatra. Then Autumn in New York by Billie Holiday. LCD Soundsystem has a sad little tune that got a lot of play amongst my art school friends in college. So many more. What you got?

SB: Ok so there are a few that are straight forward like the ones you mentioned. Those are for sure up there. No Sleep Til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys also rings true. New York State of Mind by Billy Joel is one that also unignorable, although I really started to appreciate it as I’ve heard other people cover it. Then there are a few that have subtle nods but I always picture happening in NYC. American Boy by Estelle and Kanye. “Take me on a trip, I’d love to go someday. Take me to New York I’d love to see LA.” But my real answer is…pretty much anything Jay-Z makes. When I think of music and that town, I think of him. Every song he talks about “my city” or even when he uses “us” I think of NYC. Yes there’s the Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys that’s a love song to the city but even when I hear things like Roc Boys (And The Winner Is) this is NY. That music video still is one of my favorites, just because everyone else has a cameo or two and he makes the soundtrack for American Gangster and then calls up everyone to be in his video and they of course says yes.