If A$AP Rocky’s first album was fogged in codeine and cough syrup and chopped up like his influences down South, his new album is a hazey dream on doper hallucinogenics searching for substance. In what is a surprising display of restraint and patience for an artist on a second album, A$AP’s record drifts along while I slowly visualize the world he sees. The world as described isn't all that interesting, but the music sure as hell is.
Read MoreComparisons to Lauryn Hill are inevitable, but when you have a voice like this, we should all just sit back and enjoy its beauty. There is life in New York.
Read MoreThe Weeknd has always had an original voice and a unique sound, so I was thrown for a bit of a loop that his vocals sound so much like Michael Jackson on "I Can't Feel My Face." It's apparent with each note that he's in a range or tone he hasn't hit before, but I imagine this one could be a big hit. Definitely deserves the first track on the mixtape!
I couldn't really get into Unknown Mortal Orchestra's new album, but this song has all these different elements, from the weird Wild West-sounding start, to the funky rhythm, to Ruban Nielson's delicate vocals.
Hopefully you remember "Polish Girl," and if not, please listen to this immediately:
(Side note: If you really like this track, check out my Stop, Drop, Electro-Pop, Vol. 1 playlist, which is a totally kick ass set of electro-pop jams which I made back in 2012 (so yeah, the tracks may be a bit old but they're still awesome). Does anything beat the start to "Shuffle???":
A playlist within a playlist?? So meta.)
Back to the story at hand, Neon Indian has been out of the spotlight for a bit (his last album was in 2011), but he's dropped his first single, "Annie," which many are hoping will lead to a new album!
Cheerleader, a band from Philly who just released their debut album, is in the pop rock genre similar to a band like Walk the Moon. These loud pop songs with distortion always seem to get me!
I stumbled upon Seoul somehow, and I placed the first and second track back to back because the first track slowly sets up a perfect transition into the second song, the catchy but sedate "The Line." Just listen to how well it flows! So cool. I have a thing for first tracks that intentionally bleed into the second, as I've spoken about with The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club.
Florence Welch has a voice that commands respect. There aren't many making music with vocals like hers. She sounds like she's screaming from the top of a mountain for the world to hear while hitting notes mere mortals could barely even play on a piano. "What Kind of Man," is a Florence lashing out against a lover who she can't seem to leave, and she sounds pretty pissed about it. Can't wait to see her live at OSL!
Parker dropped a few interesting tidbits, including:
You should always read!
Like the start of this post, this track is a little weird. The vocals remind me of Wild Beasts (themselves a bit weird but oh so talented), and the track continually surprises me. It's not for everyone, but hopefully a few will enjoy!
Outside Lands, San Francisco's three day music festival in Golden Gate Park, is only two months away! This will be my third year in attendance, and I'm really looking forward to this year's lineup. The last two years had a number of memorable performances. 2013 boasted a ton of great acts, including Gary Clark Jr. (a man who will never disappoint a festival crowd), Band of Horses (who get credit for the best setlist of the festival), Jurassic 5 (playing their first show in years and killing it), the Chili Peppers, and Paul McCartney (who put on such a memorable show). 2014 had Cut Copy (my highlight of the festival - there's nothing like thousands and thousands of people losing their minds, dancing their pants off), The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Tom Petty, Run the Jewels, Atmosphere (easily one of the best shows of the festival), and a disappointing Kanye (wah wahhh - but for the record, I still somewhat begrudgingly love Kanye).
So on to 2015, a lineup that I would argue may be better than Coachella's lineup this year. There are very few DJs (yay!) and a ton of varying genres of music to keep it interesting and different. There are way too many bands that I'm excited to see that I would love to talk about at length, but in the interest of time, I'll keep it a bit shorter.
With apologies to Local Natives, Tame Impala is unquestioningly my favorite band at the moment. I crave every show I can attend, and I believe this will be my fourth show of theirs. By August their new album will have been released which will set up the show to be downright epic. I CAN'T WAIT.
St. Vincent, a super talented and original artist, one who shreds the guitar and looks damn sexy doing it (side note - I read she was dating Cara Delevinge = power couple! Side note to the side note - Cara Delevinge had a profile in the Wall Street Journal Magazine which I thought was interesting and painted her in a bit of a different picture, not as celebrity and attention craved as you would imagine, maybe worth a read?) is always an act to see. Can't wait.
D'Angelo (assuming he doesn't cancel his show like he did two years ago at OSL) will be a total treat to see live. I wonder, because his music and voice is so fragile and intimate, if a festival setting will work for him. I think his backing band, The Vanguards, will bring the funk and be loud enough to absorb the place and crowd, but we'll see.
I love love love Wilco. I saw them for the first time at Austin City Limits, and I was disappointed in the set list, and I thought the performance was just dull. I don't expect that to happen twice for a band who has one of my favorite live albums ever, Kicking Television - Live in Chicago.
Hot Chip will be this year's replacement for Cut Copy. Though I like Cut Copy a lot more, Hot Chip has a ton of great and identifiable songs that the crowd will lose their minds to. It'll be a dance party. In the same vein, Classixx should put on a similarly great show.
I will see St. Paul and the Broken Bones this time. I promise!
Elton John is going to be awesome. I don't even know too much Elton John, I just know that he's a hell of a performer, one who will tear up his piano and belt out the hits. I think the crowd is going to really be into this one.
I've heard that Kendrick Lamar isn't performing much stuff from his new album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which makes me wonder whether A) it's too complicated or expensive to play live (as the instrumentation in that album sounds pretty expansive with a ton of different instruments) or B) this is some "artistic" statement that he won't play it for the masses because this is his album and he won't be pimped to play it. Whatever man. Don't make an album and then not play it. What is that about? (Update: Lamar just started playing some tracks from the new album at his appearance at Summer Jam this past weekend, so hopefully that means we'll get to see new stuff at OSL -though bummer for all the people who saw him prior to this). I saw Lamar at Austin City Limits a couple years ago, during the madness of his last album, Good Kid M.a.a.D. City, and I thought it was somewhat disappointing. But he's had a ton of time to get better so we'll see!
Two headliners that I'm 50/50 on - shows that I will certainly plan to see (assuming there aren't any other bands I have to see playing at the same time) that could be great but might also lose my interest - Mumford and Sons and The Black Keys. I saw The Black Keys at ACL, and I just feel like those guys need to be in a dingy, small venue to get the real experience of that sound and energy. A festival is too wide open and pristine of a setting. Mumford and Sons have festival ready songs which I think will be great, but I'm not sold on the new album, so that show will be a TBD.
Ok, so that was a bit longer than expected, sorry, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about OSL as the schedule is released, and I plan my days, but as for the playlist, these are my favorite tracks of each artist that I would like to see at OSL. Those with multiple tracks I am probably more interested in seeing, but each band has a gem or two worth hearing live. Probably best to just put the playlist on shuffle, buy your plane ticket to SF, crash on my couch, and come to a great festival!
Good Morning! Hope the weekend treated you well. It's especially a good Monday because The Maccabees are back on Spotify! For some reason (due to their record label I imagine), their amazing album, Given To The Wild, written up and loved by yours truly, is not on Spotify, but their new album is set to release sometime in 2015, and their first single, "Marks To Prove It," IS on Spotify, so hopefully the album will be as well. The single is an in-your-face rock song that I've been listening to incessantly for a few weeks. Their sound changes constantly from song to song, so I still have no idea what the new album may sound like, but needless to say, I'm pretty excited.
Halsey, a 20 year old American, just released this track that should instantly remind you of another talented young singer, Lorde. This song is pure pop. It's catchy as hell, and I love the disdainful lyrics about the music industry complex, again like Lorde.
Although I wasn't overly impressed with Strange Names' debut album, "Ricochet" is a great track!
For the hip-hop heads out there, "Countdown" has to be right down your alley. Great beat, great hook, and Consequence and Lupe Fiasco together on a track?? Yes please.
Jamie xx's (member of The xx) debut album, In Colour, has been getting a ton of love from critics all over. I've been enjoying the album as there are so many different types of music packed into the album which really showcase the true ability of a DJ - to understand and appreciate the multitudes of elements and genres of music yet make them intertwine seamlessly to the listener. It's a hell of an accomplishment of an album to veer so heavily in different directions yet still be listenable from front to back. Jamie xx's track on this mix, "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)," starts will some old soul sample then veers into a reggae-ish beat with "it" rapper Young Thug giving his off-kilter signature delivery. Yeah, it's a bit weird, but we all need to keep it weird (right, Austin?).
Finally, Moses Sumney is a singer/songwriter I just stumbled upon because Pitchfork named one of his tracks Best New Track. This track, "Plastic," is just a simple ballad that spoke to me. Simplicity at its best.
A few months before I moved to San Francisco, I had become somewhat obsessed with Patrick Watson (check out my 5 Faves of him!). I have a thing for singer/songwriters. There's something about their ability to compose songs single handedly that makes me sit back and listen to their brilliance in awe. It's one thing when you have both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it's another when you can do it alone.
Anyways, when I moved to San Francisco, Patrick Watson had played two days prior (touring on his gorgeous Adventures In Your Own Backyard album from 2012 - "Lighthouse" remains to be one of those memorable first tracks on an album not only because of how great of a song it is, but because it sets the entire tone of the album) to the day I moved out here, and I was so disappointed I missed him, but I assumed he would be back shortly. I was wrong. The first chance I got to see him was Wednesday, over two years later, at The Chapel in the Mission in San Francisco, a teeny and intimate venue converted from (you guessed it) a chapel, so you guessed it, the acoustics in the place were pretty amazing.
The first thing that hits you with Patrick Watson, both live and on his albums, is his voice. Watson sounds like an angel in a choir, a falsetto so delicate yet substantial to rise above the fray of strings and keys. His vocals were astonishing live, even better than his albums. The crowd was completely absorbed and involved -
(and the crowd is such a key element to a memorable show - BUT ** TANGENT ALERT ** I really want to have a psychological study on the idiots and princesses that believe what they say to an artist during a show matters. Please, shut the hell up. I don't think an aritst gives a shit if you say, "I love you, Patrick!" in your annoyingly nasal tone while hiccuping on your (hopefully) last mojito. Or to the bro behind me that was whistling and hollering in the middle of a song because his goatee needed to let off a little steam while none of his friends were present because he most likely lost all of his friends acting in such a way for most of his adult life - to you both, I volunteer there should be some sort of psychological help at shows because this should not happen. Please, please, don't EVER, for the rest of your life, yell out something obnoxious at a show. Just listen to the beauty and brilliance of music and let it envelop you. Cheer and applaud when the song is over. Thanks. TANGENT OVER **)
- to the point where they started humming along to the beat of one song as Watson played maestro to the crowd. I have to say, San Francisco has some really great crowds at shows.
Watson was touring on his new album, Love Songs for Robots, another album in line with the four before him that are beyond comparison or peer. Watson's compositions sound nothing like anyone else out there. Though he has no comparable (another great quality of original singer/songwriters), I do think he has that cerebral quality like Andrew Bird (another one of my favorite singer/songwriters of the past decade). He played most of his new album, the highlights being "Good Morning Mr. Wolf," and "Bollywood," with close seconds being "Hearts," and "Long Songs for Robots." One of the most impressive aspects of the show was that Watson and the four other members of his band were able to recreate his orchestral thunderstorms of sound which I had my doubts could be done live. Listen to "Good Morning Mr. Wolf," and try to imagine that song live. It goes through highs and lows, loud and soft, acoustic guitar, strings, keyboards, it all just sounds like so much. Like it's overproduced or something. But no, it was all there.
It was definitely the best show I've seen this year, and it was all made the more memorable by the encore. Watson walked out, grabbed his piano bench and brought it out into the middle of the crowd, about 10 feet from me. The crowd came to a hush. Watson climbed up on the bench along with his guitarist and proceeded to play "Adventures In Your Own Backyard," with no microphone or amplification. All he used were the cups of his hands as he projected his majestic falsetto throughout the crowd. That moment was truly special and something I'll never forget. It was all the more appropriate that the song starts, "Twelve steps into your backyard," as he played inches away in a town I call my home.
I heard a new track from this unique soul/funk/jazz/rap band on their new album that got me really intrigued to start exploring their two albums. After listening to a number of tracks, the rhythm and tone of this song really stood out. It's pretty hard for a band to make a song sound this jazzy and soulful without forcing the issue. I get some Little Dragon vibes, maybe Jill Scott a bit and their hip-hop influence reminds me of the oddness of Shabazz Palaces. This band is definitely different and worthy of a listen if you like this track!
This a sandstorm created from original thought
I bust boundaries son, you just do what you're taught.
My vocab is powerful, spit shit subliminal
slang therapist, my whole style is criminal.
Bugged like Bob Digital, fly visual
Mind body and soul, I'm a strong individual
Come through in the final hour, with gun showers
Stand the fuck up like Flav to fight the power.
I'm an activist, socialist, deadly ass poetrist
Supreme Clientele, I'm a goddamn vocalist.
My thoughts are so heavy I could change a generation
The x-factor, we puttin' ho's through inflation.
- Ghostface Killah, "Gunshowers"
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