Monday Mixtape: Nick Hamm of Citizen
"I try my best to keep my ear to the ground, but when that doesn’t work, my friends and girlfriend put me on!"
Monday Mixtape is another path towards music discovery, featuring people whose taste I admire answering a series of questions and prompts with songs (which might change from time to time).
Given the audience of this Substack I’m guessing for many of you the band Citizen needs no introduction, but I won’t lie to you - I personally was quite late to this band. In my defense I haven’t been to a Warped Tour since 1997 and spent the bulk of the mid-2000s in a time warp listening almost exclusively to Dipset mixtapes and The Smiths. However, Run For Cover is another of those record labels that has a 99% hit rate with me so it’s unsurprising that the band’s latest release, their fifth album Halcyon Blues, has been getting a lot of airtime on my (corded) headphones. The band has been somewhat quietly and stubbornly great for nearly two decades now, and crucially they have spent those seventeen years refusing to make the same record twice.
On his now-defunct personal website (I have the Wayback Machine babe) frontman Mat Kerekes “credits Third Eye Blind as having a big influence on his writing” and you already know how I feel about 3eb (as well as my theories around their self titled album being a seminal emo album, I said what I said). I’m also personally partial to the ineffable vibe siblings bring to a band, and we grabbed one of the brothers who make up the nucleus of Citizen, guitarist Nick Hamm, to give us his Monday Mixtape:
Nick Hamm
Capricorn
Toledo, OhioHow do you find/discover music?
I try my best to keep my ear to the ground, but when that doesn’t work, my friends and girlfriend put me on!
What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?
Bob Dylan “Too Late”
What song have you listened to more than once this past week?
Gary Stewart “I See the Want to In Your Eyes”
What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?
Institute “The Shooter” (ed note: god tier band and song)
What’s a song that reminds you of where you come from?
Pat Dailey “Put In Bay”. Hyper regional Parrothead shit.
A song off your workout playlist:
Unified Right “So It Goes”…if I had a workout playlist…
What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?
Last time I did karaoke was “The Weight” by The Band and we got thru it.
Song you associate with being 13 years old:
Green Day “Having a Blast”
What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?
Bad Brains “Stay Close to Me”
What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?
Bill Fay “I Hear You Calling”
What song do you use to renew your spirit?
Webb Pierce “I Ain’t Never”
What is your favorite cover song?
Donny Hathaway “You’ve Got a Friend (Live)”
What song would you like to hear just before you die?
Chuck Jackson “Any Day Now”