Monday Mixtape, Vol. 202

Welcome to the world’s shitshow, 2022! On the most recent All-In pod, my favorite podcast, David Sacks made a comment I hadn’t heard yet: This global COVID crisis may be the biggest event of our lifetimes and may be the biggest event since World War II.

In essence, it’s been a war of many sorts, only one being the deadly virus that’s killed millions. But at some point, we’re going to get around the bend of this crap. I think 2022 is the year we turn.

So let’s get back to one of the biggest cures of all of our ills: MUSIC.

Lots of random stuff on this week’s mixtape, but the VIP is Bando, a new rapper from Texas that I discovered on one of this week’s tracks, “Payday”, with my favorite, Isaiah Rashad. This guy’s got bars, great beats, and he’s got a presence. He’s missing a unique voice like all the greats have, but he’s still got crazy talent. Keep an eye on this guy.

I heard Windser on a SiriusXM channel and loved the track. Gave me some Real Estate-y vibes.

Lucius and The Weeknd bring their catchiness, and lastly, Father John Misty released his first single to his new album. I like the track, and we’ll see what he’s got in store for the album. I’ve gone through waves with Misty, and right now, I’m not all that excited about him, but he’s got the talent to prove me wrong.

Have a great week all.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 73

Oh man, oh man. Kendrick. Let's start off with the fact that he released one of my favorite songs of the year, The Heart Part 4:

A song with three different beats that Kendrick destroys with a confidence and abandon that no other rapper alive could think of doing. This man KNOWS he is the greatest rapper alive. "Don't tell a lie on me, I won't tell the truth bout you," he threatens to all the shit talking rappers with little to back up against Lamar. 

This track was released prior to Lamar's album, DAMN. released on Friday. Because of the quality of The Heart Part 4, I was amazed by its absence on his new album. I thought, "Ruhroh. Either's he gone mad to not include something this good or his new album is so great he doesn't even need this track." 

So yeah, it's the latter. 

DAMN. is the astonishment of everyone hearing this album for the first time. DAMN. is the thought when Lamar announces on the first real track, DNA, aside the bass rattling, "I got loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA. Cocaine quarter piece, War and Peace inside my DNA." DAMN. is the realization that Lamar is now one of the best rappers of all time. There are too many damns that you almost stop giving a damn. But, really, DAMN!

I'm going to try to do an album review sometime soon of DAMN. because it's an astonishing piece of art. It's already getting crazy love on the interwebs, and as I am typing this, I am counting down the minutes until Kendrick headlines Coachella which can be watched (and almost all of Coachella, for that matter) for free on YouTube (God Bless America)! 

There's so much other great stuff going on in music right now, some of it included on this mixtape. Little Dragon released a pretty great album, Spoon released a quality album (they just don't make bad records - I don't like this one as much as They Want My Soul - probably because it doesn't have a track like Inside Out, but it's still a damn good listed), John Mayer released his best album since Continuum (more on this next week though I've written a ton about most of the songs on the album already since they were released in EPs before the whole album - this is some new gimmick thanks to Spotify and all the other streaming companies), Joey Bada$$ released a damn good sophomore album, and Father John Misty released an album which starts great but quickly falls off a boring ass cliff of regurgitated songs from his last two (great) albums. 

So this is a good one. Enjoy! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 54

The real star on this mixtape is Amber Arcades. This is the female Deerhunter. If you don't know Deerhunter, do yourself a favor and go listen to Halcyon Digest, one of the strangest, catchiest rock albums this decade. I included "Nothing Ever Happened" to follow Amber Arcades because a) I thought it sounded the most like "Fading Lines" although Deerhunter's "Desire Lines" was a very close second and b) it's my favorite Deerhunter song and it's actually not on Halcyon Digest! 

Just started listening to this track by Future Haunts - whoever the hell they are (all two tracks of them on Spotify) - and it immediately caught me. 

These Spotify Sessions curated by Jim Eno (the drummer of Spoon and producer extraordinaire) are recorded really well and worth checking out. I heard this one with FJM and have been digging into them since. 

A while back I wrote about Ghostface Killah making a really great jazzy album with a group called Badbadnotgood. This is a track off their new album with the wild and super cool live:

lead singer from Future Islands. (Letterman loved it!)

Have a great week all. 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 7

The most universal subject in music: love. Musicians have found millions of ways to sing about it, be it through heartbreak, infatuation, dating, lust, longing, marriage, the list goes on. I get it though, it's easier to talk straight from the heart. When done wholeheartedly, it rings true and leads the mind to make decisions both right and wrong, but ultimately ending (in what most of us hope) in something forever. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This is a mixtape of all sorts of these emotions, and the lyrical powers that communication provides us to get love off our chest.

Lord Huron "Love Like Ghosts:"
Yes I know that love is like ghosts
A few have seen it but everybody talks
Spirits follow where I go
They sing all day and they haunt me in the night...
What ain't living can never really die
You don't want me baby please don't lie
but if you're leaving I gotta know why

Brett Dennen's "I Ain't Gonna Lose You:"
You can put a stick in my spokes
I can be the butt of your jokes
I can be the laughing stock
I can be the hoax
But I ain't gonna lose you...
They can come and tear my house down
They can run me out of town
They can tie me up call me a clown
But I ain't gonna lose you
I can't stand the thought of another man
No, I ain't gonna lose you

Angus Stone's "Wooden Chair:"
In another place
In another time
In another face
In another line
In another heart
In another world
In another girl
We were feeling fine
We were in love

Gemma Hayes' "Joy:"
I can take on anything
I can take it all
I can take on anything
as long as I can see you

Bombay Bicycle Club's "Eyes Off You:"
And I bathed in the light you gave
But it's dark in another way
Yes, you gave me the light today
But it's dark in another way...
I can't take my eyes off you.

John Mayer's "In Your Atmosphere:"
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch your life play out in pictures from afar
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch that pretty life play out in pictures from afar

Father John Misty's "I Went To The Store One Day:"
For love to find us of all people
I never thought it'd be so simple
 

Albums to look forward to in 2015!

I've scoured the interwebs for a bunch of info on 2015 album releases (thank you Consequence of Sound, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Metacritic, Ranker) and here's an incredibly quick listing of albums that I promise to listen to MANY MANY times which are ranked from somewhat excited to RIDICULOUSLY excited):

Brandon Flowers - TBA
Savages - TBA
The Dodos - Individ (1/27)
Wild Nothing - TBA
Panda Bear (Noah Lennox from Animal Collective) - Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
Heems (from the now extinct Das Racist) - Eat Pray Thug (3/10)
Jose Gonzalez - Vestiges & Claws (2/17)
Fleetwood Mac - TBA
Chromatics - Dear Tommy
Pusha T - King Push
Freddie Gibbs - Lifestyles of the Insane
James Blake - TBA
DIIV - TBA
Purity Ring
Belle & Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (1/20)
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (1/20)
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2/10)
Death Cab for Cutie - TBA
Chance the Rapper - Surf
Blood Orange - TBA
Joey Bada$$ (finally!) - B4.DA.$$ (1/20)
Band of Horses - TBA
Drake - Views From the 6
Adele - TBA
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves (3/3)
Beach House - TBA
A$AP Rocky
Grimes - TBA
Run the Jewels - RTJ3
My Morning Jacket - TBA
Kanye West - TBA
Kendrick Lamar - TBA
Radiohead - TBA
Frank Ocean - TBA