Patent Pending Industries’ Jeff Kleinsmith and Jesse LeDoux, both natives of the Northwest, were both drawn to the rainy city of Seattle by its much-vaunted musical heritage—perhaps the only place you might have bumped into members of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden on your morning paper run (remember those?). Kleinsmith worked at influential Seattle music weekly The Rocket before being hired by Sub Pop as its first art director. He subsequently hired LeDoux––despite LaDoux’s confession that his music taste (jazz) doesn’t “align that closely” with Kleinsmith’s (metal). They are now in their 11th year of masterminding innovative rock posters. We asked them to hand-pick a few of their favorite tracks for this ten-song iMix, available on iTunes.

Jeff

Black Mountain—"Tyrants" (from Black Mountain, 2005)
Epic anti-war heaviness from one of my favorite new bands.

Yeasayer—"Sunrise" (from All Hour Cymbals, 2007)
File under: Modern Psych.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—"Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere" (from Boatmans Call, 1997)
Such a beautiful and painful love song.

Sonic Youth—"Catholic Block" (from Sister, 1994)
This album changed the way I thought about music. HIGHLY inspirational.

Poison Arrows—"The Lure of Lore" (from Casual Wave EP, 2008)
So many great things going on with this band. Seemingly drawing inspiration from so many of my favorite bands yet making something that sounds wholly their own.

Jesse

Modest Mouse—"Dramamine" (from This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About, 1996)
Hard to believe this is already 14 years old now. Still sounds new.

Destroyer—"Don't Become the Thing You Hated" (from Notorious Lightning & Other Works, 2005)
Solid words to live by.

Smog—"Cold Blooded Old Times" (from Knock Knock, 1999)
A pretty dark song wrapped in a happy melody. I think this has influenced my work far more than I'll ever know.

Country Teasers—"Please Ban Music / Gegen Alles" (from The Empire Strikes Back, 2006)
In a world overrun by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber flavor-of-the-day "hits," it's not a bad idea.

Julie Doiron—"The Life of Dreams" (from I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, 2008)
Provides a nice balance after listening to the misanthropic Country Teasers.