Dan Wakefield of Mirror Mode/Lotus Plaza breaks down 6 synth rock records that changed his life
Mirror Mode and Lotus Plaza play 529 tonight (Wed., March 7) with Psychic Ills, Lyonnais and X-Ray Eyeballs.
- Elise Tippins
- In the Mirror Mode
Warming up for a cross-country tour with his new Lotus Plaza album, Spooky Action At A Distance (out April 2 via Kranky), Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt makes a rare hometown appearance with Lotus Plaza’s current live incarnation, which includes Dan Wakefield (guitar) and Allen Taylor (keyboard) of Mirror Mode, along with Frankie Broyles (drums), and TJ Blake of Lyonnais (bass).
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“I don't think many bands are comfortable saying in what genre their music belongs, but if you were going to stick a term to what Mirror Mode does, you could say synth rock, or electronic rock, or something like that,” Wakefield says. “Standard rock/pop format but with various electronic implements that replace what you normally find in a conventional rock band (like, say, a rhythm section) and textures that take more from the Blade Runner soundtrack than an AC/DC record.”
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Today, Wakefield has put together a list of six albums (in no particular order) that changed his life.
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__1) Sparks: Number One In Heaven — This is one of the first records that made me and Allen realize we should obviously be friends. I love pretty much every Sparks record but this one is most applicable to this list, plus it has Giorgio Moroder all over it. Every song on here is amazing, which I can say about .01% of albums I can think of, but they're working from an advantage because there are in fact only six songs. And as always they have a killer sense of humor, which you can't learn no matter how much your band practices or how good at your instrument you are.?
2) Yellow Magic Orchestra: Solid State Survivor — Again, this is one of those things where when Allen and I started hanging out I saw these guys in his record collection and realized at some point we would start a band. This particular album is my favorite, if only for their warped cover of "Day Tripper." Crazy to think that these guys are like national heroes in Japan (they inspired their own haircut at the peak of their fame!) but so few people know of them here. I saw a video of them on Soul Train during their failed attempt to break into America and you know they totally threw Don Cornelius (R.I.P.) for a loop.
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