Live Review: Johnny Marr Teams Up With Best Coast, Tom Vek + More

A brand new project from Ray Ban called ‘Raw Sounds’ sees the Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr team up with California’s darlings of surf-rock Best Coast, Tom Vek (UK), Au Revoir Simone (Brooklyn) and Mona (Nashville).  No stranger to collaborations (Modest Mouse, Pet Shop Boys, Oasis, The Charlatans, Pearl Jam, John Frucante, Billy Bragg, Tom Jones, Talking Heads… the list goes on) Marr provided each artist with a poem, a map of New York, a Friedrich Schiller quote, a photo and an original piece of music for them to take inspiration from.

The end result is 4 finished works:

Best Coast -  'In Your Sleep'

Au Revoir Simone - How Long

Tom Vek - Film Your Own Television

Mona - Jericho.

Listen to all of the tracks over at Spin Magazine, each one really stays true to and respectful of each bands unique sound while adding Marr’s signature loose jangley playing style over the top.

With work currently commencing on Best Coast’s yet untitled second album, their track ‘Boyfriend’ was just named by NME Magazine as the #49^th best song of the past 15 years.