Beck and Jack vie for my heart!

“What beer should I drink while listening to this band?” This is a question I run into nearly every night around 7:30 when Ben’s about to start cooking dinner and I’m doing yesterday’s dishes. I turn up the stereo in the other room so we can hear the music over running water and sizzling butter. After pairing beer with authors, setting my evening drink to music seemed the natural next step.

Let’s start by having a ball and a biscuit, baby. Jack White often screams along to our grilled cheese-making, usually in White Stripes form. I suppose it is no surprise that I’m secretly in love with Mr. White, considering he resembles my Mister a good bit. (He’s pretty good looking for a boy.) How easy it would be to suggest a Red Stripe for my White Stripe? How easy, indeed. Here’s what matches White: a black IPA. Try a 21st Amendment Back in Black or a Fade to Black from Left Hand Brewing or even an Iniquity from Southern Tier (an imperial). All strong, bitter and dark as nightmares–same way I like my rock stars.

The Black Keys, while also one of my favorite driving-around-Ohio sing-along bands, is also a great cook-along band. While Ben is slicing potatoes and beets onto a cooking sheet, I’ll be wagging my butt along to the El Camino album, which naturally has a van on the cover. The beer in my hand? A rye ale. It tastes like the bright green fields of winter crops you pass on your drive up to Akron, and it tastes like the rubber processing plants you pass on your way out of Akron. Founders Red’s Rye P.A., mentioned earlier, and Sierra Nevada’s Ruthless Rye IPA. Not for the faint of heart.

When we’re cooking up some particularly sensual meal, like guacamole or something, we turn to Lana Del Rey, whose voice will never break glass, but could maybe glue it back together. She’s so American and even sings of PBR on ice, but come on, she’s totally a Unibroue Éphémère. It’s like an apple Jolly Rancher in a beer bottle. Another fruit beer or lambic may fit, but she’s on the label of this decadent drink.

Modest Mouse is another great-to-cook-to band, as it makes it sound like something meaningful and epic is happening in your kitchen, even when you’re heating up tater tots. This band is a staple in my collection; they do what they do very well. The music is always piercingly new and the lyrics, genius. I recommend another standard that is easy to do poorly, usually done averagely, and on occasion is done brilliantly: the amber ale. Try Lagunitas Imperial Red, Tröegs Hopback Amber, and Red Rocket Ale by Bear Republic.

Lastly, “bottles and cans, just clap your hands, just clap your hands.” Beck! Jack White’s main competition for my heart. This is a versatile man. From Cheez Whiz to Winona Ryder, he always puts a little twist on reality so you know only to expect the unexpected. I’ve got to raise a Belgian IPA to him, bitey and fresh and well-carbonated. Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch is one of the best, second to Cambridge Brewing Company’s The Audacity of Hops, which unfortunately doesn’t make it far out of Massachusetts. They are all dirty blond and I bet Beck tastes a little like citrus, too.

But this list barely scratches the metaphoric record of my musical and libation tastes. Who do you listen to, and who’s in your glass?