Silver Synthetic Reveals its Milky Way Before Playing Jazz Fest 2024

Silver Synthetic

The band that makes referentiality part of its musical story has a list as interesting as you’d expect.

When rock band Silver Synthetic released its self-titled debut album in 2021 on Third Man Records, the pandemic kept them from playing and doing the things necessary to help sell an indie album It would have been an interesting test to see what kind of inroads it would have made because the band’s sounds echo the guitar-forward ’60s and ’70s in a time where guitars have a smaller place in the cultural landscape.

As I wrote in a profile of Silver Synthetic when the album came out, the great artists and their records give them a shorthand how to talk about things they thought made sense in a song. Because their reference palate is broad and filtered through the songs themselves, Silver Synthetic’s tracks a sound like ones you’ve known forever, but they also sound new and fresh for discovery.

Silver Synthetic plays Jazz Fest’s Lagniappe Stage today at 2:50 p.m., and I asked Kunal Prakash for their Milky Way—the eight songs that define their musical universe. (I’ll take nine when/if Pluto is reinstated as a planet). As their songs suggest, his list is an interesting one.

“Danger Bird” - Neil Young

This whole list could probably be done with Neil songs, but I’ll try to limit it to just this one. He’ll be with Crazy Horse at Jazz Fest this year and I would just about lose my mind if they pull this song out. It covers so many of the bases that I love in his music. It creeps in and out in a way that’s both menacing and gentle. The plodding tempo and multiple guitar solos make it sound so huge, and then it returns to just a whisper. Neil in all his ragged glory.

“Totalled” - Eno & the Winkies

Taken from a Peel Session with a band Eno only performed with six times, this song turned into “I’ll Come Running to Tie Your Shoes” on Another Green World. This version is full of incredibly satisfying guitarmonies pushed over the top by Eno’s wild synth treatments. Compared to the later album track, it’s pretty unhinged and is a cool snapshot of where he was at after leaving Roxy Music to begin his solo career with a ridiculously good run of albums. It kind of feels like Eno’s last brush with being a rocker at least in the live performance sense. You might hear its influence on our song, “Around the Bend”.

“And Your Bird Can Sing” - The Beatles

Speaking of guitarmonies. This song is two minutes long and it took me a full day to wrap my head around one of the guitar parts. I never got around to the other one. For a long time, I assumed this was a George song because the guitars are so integral I can’t imagine it existing without them. We still haven’t written our version yet.

“They Call Me the Breeze” - JJ Cale

When we’re arranging and recording, we constantly try to strip things away. It’s easy to feel the need to keep adding ideas and, to be honest, it’s usually pretty fun but it can tend to obscure the song. This song has such a great chooglin’ groove built with just a few guitars on top of the simplest drum machine march beat. It’s stripped down but not in some kind of clinical, austere way. The production is so concise and it’s not missing a thing.

“Runnin’ Away” - Sly & The Family Stone

This is often the first song we play when we are asked to DJ. This one, and pretty much all of the There’s A Riot Goin’ On album, is built on a minimal drum machine beat but the vibe is so lively. What I like most is how playful the performances are. The rolled Rs on the vocals in the chorus and the horn solo at the end always kind of make me chuckle because it seems like they were really having fun with the song. I don’t know if that’s actually true but I’d like to think it is. Recording studios can feel really serious sometimes and some of my favorite recording memories of someone singing or playing something that makes everyone burst out laughing.

“Ultimate Painting” - Ultimate Painting

For just a second, let’s leave aside the genius move of the band naming their first album and it’s lead single after the band itself. This song, like pretty much everything I’ve heard Jack Cooper produce, is so fully formed and realized. You may be picking up on our appreciation of bands that do more with less and this band/album/song “Ultimate Painting” seems like a manifesto on just that. Be sure to check out Cooper’s current project, Modern Nature, as well. It’s similarly pared back with great intention but leans into more experimental and improvisational territory.

“Days” - Television

Television is a band that opened up what punk could be to me. In high school, I was in the jazz band and took jazz guitar lessons and wasn’t very exposed to much that would be considered punk music. I thought it just meant music played by people who didn’t know how to play their instruments because that’s what some other kid told me at the time. Later as I started exploring more, I finally got to Television and it was a real moment. I didn’t know punks were allowed to play guitar solos. It’s tough to choose just one of their songs, but this one feels the most relevant to what we do. The guitars seem wrapped around each other and are creating constant countermelodies that beautifully support the golden hour mood of the song.

“Hero” - Neu!

One of the first songs to solidify for us in the rehearsal space was “Out of the Darkness” which is definitely indebted to Klaus Dinger’s motorik beat. It seems like some kind of strange, gothic cousin of American chooglin’. Our song kind of starts with one and goes to the other, and I’d like to think it works.