Kimbra- Plain Gold Ring
Meg Myers- After You
ZZ Ward- Morphine
Zambri- Places
La Sera- Break My Heart
2:54- Revolving
Lissy Trullie- It’s Only You, Isn’t It
Sleigh Bells- Crush

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Breakups suck. If you’re anything like me, sometimes music can help get you through the stages of grief. I realize several of these are pretty mainstream, like Adele, but they just had to be included.

Nothing- Katy McAllister (The Script cover)
Last Love Song- ZZ Ward
Everything I Ever Had- Lindsay Fuller
Lose You- sami.the.great
Once You’ve Loved Somebody- Dixie Chicks
The Last Day of Our Aquaintance- Sinead O’Connor
Jar of Hearts- Christina Perri
Somebody That I Used To Know- Ingrid Michaelson (Gotye cover)
Over You- Miranda Lambert
Someone Like You- Adele

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Kathleen Edwards- Sweet Little Duck
Ingrid Michaelson- End of the World
Jessie Murphy- Last Car on the Train
Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound
Catcall- The World is Ours
Jenny Owen Youngs- Pirates
Kathryn Calder- Who Are You

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Bess Rogers- Good Enough
Redgrave- Taunt
Lexie Roth- Stay or Go
The Like- WIshing He Was Dead
Hexes and Ohs- The Colors
ZZ Ward- Til The Casket Drops (live acoustic)

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Lou Canon- Heart Of
We Are the Woods- God Save Owen Wilson
Shannon Stephens- Care of You
Emily Jane White- Lay to Rest (California)
Courtney Barnett- Lance Jr.
Fear of Men- Doldrums
Tristen and the Ringers- Avalanche
Oh! My Blackbird- Stone

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Summer Camp- Better Off Without You
Kitten- Cut It Out
Eternal Summers- Millions
Foxes- White Coats
Russian Red- The Sun The Trees
Anna Zoe- Princes and Kings
Exitmusic- The Sea
Adaline- The Noise

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Rubblebucket is an amazing psychadelic, afrobeat, dance band from Brooklyn by way of Vermont. If you haven’t heard them, you should go right now and check out their latest album Omega La La. Front woman Kalmia Traver took a few minutes to answer a few questions for the Friday 5.

Where did the name Rubblebucket come from?

A Rubblebucket is what certain english dialects call that tool used in construction and stone masonry- a bucket or giant dumpster which holds…. rubble! We met our bandmate Craig at a art opening one summer night in Burlington Vermont- we were all supposed to be the band together, but we just made it up as we went along. We were billed as Rubblebucket that night, and afterwards when we decided to take the recordings from the night and start a serious project, the name totally just stuck.

You’re the only girl in a band full guys. How do you deal with that on the road?

The question should probably be how do they deal with ME on the road!? Haha. That’s a joke…. I’m probably one of the more free-spirited members of the band, and I get into my own pockets of existence. I go off on my own and eat my own meals a lot, and have Kalmia’s arts and crafts hours. I really love all the guys in the band and they are my brothers, but it’s hard for me to keep up with their constant playfulness and brand of humor at times. Luckily we all connect deeply on stage every night, and spend parts of everyday analyzing and evaluating the last night’s performance- so we have a lot of work to all dig into together.

Who does most of the writing?

Usually Alex and I draft songs either together or separately, but then we’ll take them to the band and work through them to create a performance together. Band members will contribute to creating the instrumental parts, and feels and vibes of the music.

Who is your biggest musical influence?

If I had to pick one, personally I’d say Moondog. The Viking of 6th Avenue. American composer active largely in the 60s and 70s, who built his own magical instruments and wrote for them and orchestras and singers. Very rhythmically-focused, cyclical music that incorporates rich acoustic sounds, polyrhythms and chanting, and results in meditative but playful feels. These are so many of the fundamentals I start with when I write music. For the band I’d say the 3 most important influences are Fela Kuti, the Talking Heads and Phil Collins.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

It shifts from week to week! I’m currently very excited about one of our newest songs called “Pain From Love” – Alex wrote it. It has a lilting dark melody over straight soul, and then a really fun outro where we 3 singers get to flex our harmony skills.

Sara Bareilles- Stay
ZZ Ward- Better Off Dead
Noun- Holy Hell
Mancie- Only the Wanted
Emily jane White- Requiem Waltz
Danielle Ate the Sandwich- Handsome Girl
Julia Easterlin- There There
Lily & the Parlour Tricks- Little Angel

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I first heard Hank and Cupcakes 2 years ago while looking for some cover songs for a show. I stumbled upon their version of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control” and I was mesmerized. I still think it’s one of the most brilliant covers I’ve ever heard. To me what sets Hank and Cupcakes apart is their live show. H&C features Sagit aka Cupcakes on drums and vocals with her husband Ariel (aka Hank) playing bass and looping everything else. What you get is two people creating an enormous sound. Words fail me on how fantastic their live shows are (check out a video below).

Their new album “Naked” will be dropping in June and I can’t wait. The new songs I have heard have all had a fantastic energy to them and in a word are amazing. Be sure to check out the new album and do not miss them when they go on tour.

I had the chance to ask Sagit Shir aka Cupcakes, a few questions.

Where did the name Hank and Cupcakes come from?

The name H&C is a consequence of the fact that we are both big Charles Bukowski fans. If you’ve read a Bukowski book, you know who Hank is. Cupcakes is actually one of Bukowski’s real life lovers. The idea for the name came up while we were watching a documentary about him called ‘Born Into This’ which we highly recommended

How do you approach your songwriting and where does your inspiration come from?

Songwriting for me is a daily routine, something that needs a lot of discipline and consistency. I try to start every morning with song writing – While my mind is still relatively uncluttered- The best songs come to me when I’m not being judgmental at the moment of writing and I just let the ideas flow out without putting any pressure on myself to deliver. When I manage to be in that open place, inspiration can come from absolutely anything.

You are a classically trained pianist. What prompted you to pick up the drumsticks?

My mother used to play rhythm games with me when I was very young so I might have had an early taste! But I truly fell in love with drums at a beach in Tel Aviv which I discovered when I was 18. It was a kind of hippie beach and every Friday they would have a huge african drums jam, playing into the sunset. I stumbled upon one of these jams and was immediately hooked. I came back to the beach every night that summer and learned to play with people who were always hanging out there jamming.

Recently in the comments for Liquid Mercury on YouTube, there were a bunch of people on there saying that you were copying Lady Gaga. How do you deal with critiques and criticism like that?

Truthfully, it makes us smile and even a little happy because it means that our music is expanding and reaching new people beyond our circle of fans and that is always a good thing. We encouraged our fans to respond to the comments but it was all in good humor. We’re very confident in our music and don’t feel threatened by this kind of criticism. On the contrary, if ‘Liquid Mercury’ reminds people of Madonna or Lady Gaga we take it as a compliment.

What can we look forward to in 2012 from H&C?

We’re hustling & bustling at the moment getting our new album -’Naked’ – ready for print and will be releasing it in June followed by a U.S and later European tour. We’re already hard at work on our next music video for the song ‘See Through’ and have started writing new material for our next album!

Karmin- Jar of Hearts (Christina Perri)
Screaming Females- If It Makes You Happy (Sheryl Crow)
Russian Red- Let It Be (The Beatles)
Holly Figueroa- Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen)
Jayme Dee- Speechless (Lady Gaga)
Allison Weiss- Umbrella (Rihanna)
Kendra Morris- Can’t Tell Me Nothing (Kanye West)
Santigold- Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

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