Atlanta based shoegaze/dream pop/indie rock unit Widow 100’s recently released their debut E.P. “Cherry Burning” which has quickly become one of my favorite records of 2025.
Band members Joseph McMichen and Benjamin Lande share some of their favorite songs in this weeks edition of “Five For Friday” but first enjoy their song “Milk Of Poppy”.
Jon – Ornette Coleman – Street Woman
Hearing the Science Fiction sessions for the first time in college was for me an almost total paradigmatic shift in my understanding of what music could be. like that line from Velvet’s Heard Her Call my Name: “then I felt my mind split open.” horns like lamenting cries, drums skittering past & through time, & that incredible raw frenetic bass channeling the energy of the cosmos. like after the first time I got high: for better or worse, I’ve never been the same since.
Ben – The Smiths – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
As an 80’s kid, MTV was always on in the background, cementing my love for new wave early on before finding teenage retreat in the more intense world punk and metal.
Later on in art school everything shifted after hearing Louder Than Bombs for the first time. By the time “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” kicked in, my perception of emotionally intense music changed instantaneously.
Morrissey’s dramatic vocals and Johnny Marr’s clean, sparkling guitar tone were the total antithesis to what I’d been listening to at that time. Lyrically, I was blown away, leading me to quickly acquire the complete Morrissey canon which has been in constant rotation ever since. Dissecting Marr’s playing and how it weaves through Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce’s legendary rhythm section has been a lifelong obsession as well and still shapes how I approach my own guitar playing today.
Bennett – Spacemen 3 – Losing Touch With My Mind
I could probably pick any song by Spacemen 3 but I think it was Losing Touch With My Mind that struck me first. Ever since stumbling upon “Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to” in the depths of the WREK vault, I’ve been fascinated by Spacemen 3’s capacity to make music that is simultaneously meditatively grounding and psychotically disorienting. Where feedback and a hypnotic rhythm section clear the canvass of the listener’s mind allowing the lead to tell its own story. Spacemen 3 has always been a warm reminder to me that sometimes less is more.
Joseph – The Stone Roses – I Wanna Be Adored
From the opening seconds of I Wanna Be Adored you’re instantly mesmerized by what sounds like the screeching of train tracks and wind chimes before it breaks out into a thumping and continuous groove. I always find myself dancing to this song like bass is picking me up by the fabric of my sleeves and moving me along with the track. The vocalists pleas and simple desperation for someone’s love and adoration is haunting, beautiful and moving. The guitar floats and dances along the track so beautifully it perfectly harmonizes with Ian Brown creating an angelic chorus consuming the whole song. The song feels like a ritual or a spell. I find myself blasting it before going out for the evening or to hype myself out of a bed locked depression. By the time it gets to the end and he’s speaking “I wanna I wanna I wanna be adored I wanna I wanna I gotta be adored” if you’re not off your ass moving around, you might be lacking a soul.
Widow 100’s collectively pick – My Bloody Valentine – When You Sleep
Simply one of the greatest groups to ever exist. Is there an album more perfect than Loveless? We can’t think of one. The obsessive work that went into to making it is pretty unmatched. When You Sleep wonderfully captures the albums haunting, beautiful, and deeply mesmerizing sound. A perfect song from a perfect album.
