Monday Mixtape, Vol. 145

I’m watching the Nats game, and we just blew the lead in the 6th and are now down 5-2 :(

We need some good music to turn that frown upside down!

There are two sides to this week’s mixtape: Side 1 consists of recent rap tracks I’ve been diggin’, including two tracks from Danny Brown’’ new album, uknowwhatimsayin’?, one, “Dirty Laundry,” is produced by the inimitable Q-Tip and the other has Q-Tip rapping on, so this is all win win. Danny Brown is not for everyone, but I was actually just listening to Beastie Boys, and he reminds me a bit of Mike D, no one really sounds like that voice, some may find annoying, but I think his production and songs are interesting. So that’s that.

On Side 1 is also the rapper with the worst name out there, DaBaby. I mean, really? But he just released a new album, and I am enjoying it. Couple of my fave tracks from his album join this mixtape.

Wait…now it’s 7-2. ;(

Side 2 starts with a jam from Pond, that band I really like from Australia (who is not Tame Impala…and not Silverchair), and then two tracks to mellow you out. The first is from Clairo, whose debut album I keep coming back to listen to. I’m not sure what it is about her music and voice, but it’s bringing me back months and months after it’s release. This is the last track on her album, a beautiful ending to a beautiful album.

And finally to end the mixtape, a live track from Jim James and company. Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 144

I got to see John Mayer last Monday at the Chase Center, the third concert ever there (Metallica was the first obviously), and despite the terrible seats - they were second to last row in the whole building and in the complete corner of the arena, we could barely see anything - the sound was phenomenal, and John Mayer straight shredded the guitar, AND his voice sounded the best I’ve ever heard it live

I’ve seen Mayer three times since he released one of my favorite live albums ever, Where the Light Is, and this performance was far away the best of the three and had some very cool similarities to his live album. (It didn’t hurt that he played for three hours either! There was no opener, Mayer played form 7:45 - 10:45, pretty awesome.)

If you notice on Where the Light Is, Mayer changes his vocal cadences (he sings in different rhythms than his cadences on the songs on his studio albums) on a number of lines in different songs, and he did that with a lot of his new material from his latest album, The Search for Everything. It’s those subtle changes I find interesting, ways to tweak things here and there VERY FEW artists do to their vocals when performing.

He also had these awesome segways into songs. For example, take “I Don’t Trust Myself” on the live album:

This intro up until 1:57 is a segway into what then becomes the album version of “I Don’t Trust Myself.” He did this with a ton of his new songs, and as a listener (or as a guitar player myself), you’re trying to find the key or the chord that this “intro” is in so you can identify the song he’s going to go into - sometimes Mayer (and his amazing band) completely surprised me as I had no idea where they were going, and then they smoothly segued into “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” or a handful of other songs. I would just sit back and go, “Wow.” Mind blown.

I was trying to provide some context to friends at this show with how amazing his guitar playing was, and one way I tried to explain his ability and the level of difficulty was in explaining all the ways he bends his strings to hit a perfect sound EVERY TIME. When you bend a guitar string, it makes the note either higher (bend string up) or lower (bend string down), and I said that imagine each string can be bent 1 inch, and there are 10 different notes you can hit as you bend (one each 0.1 of an inch bent up or down), he’s able to hit the same note, at say 0.6 inch of a bend up, OVER and OVER again, always knowing PRECISELY how much to bend the string. And in his solos in one show, he’s bending the strings hundred and hundreds of times, hitting the right notes every single time. No joke, I’ve listened to Where the Light Is hundreds of times, and I CANNOT hear him hit one wrong note on his guitar or his vocals.

It’s truly amazing, I think he’s the best guitarist alive (not including all the 1960s dudes still alive but not exactly in their prime, like Eric Clapton), I just don’t know who compares to him right now.

ANYWAYS, I put John Mayer’s newest song to start this week’s playlist, a song that has no room for solos, and is just a very mellow track that really grew on me. Can’t get enough of it now.

As for other great artists on the mix, check out Jay Som’s new album, it’s very good and definitely making my Top 25. I still need to give the solo album of Alabama Shakes’ lead singer, Brittany Howard, more time to marinate, but I like this track. And some more Ghostface Killah for you cuz the dude knows jazz.

Have a great week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 143

Happy Monday all! Some jams to get your week started, and nothing bumps better than Friendly Fires! Their new album is great, a high dose of energy and electronic signals straight to the brain, and I added another one of my faves from the album on this week’s mixtape.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Post Malone ever since I posted “White Iverson” on Monday Mixtape, Vol. 19, back in 2015, many moons ago! His look and approach was always ridiculous, but the guy is as catchy as Bruno Mars and a sound all his own. I give kudos to the guy.

Malone now lives in Utah because “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” as his new album’s title states. Lots of bloodsuckers and friends who aren’t friends who become enemies, looking for a handout. I assume the Hollywood life for a guy like Posty is awesome for a period of time and then gets very weird when you realize your money and fame act like the world’s strongest magnet, attracting awful people looking for free drugs and god knows what else. So kudos to your move as well, good sir!

ANYWAYS, one of my favorite rappers ever, the one, the only, Ghostface Muthafuckin’ Killah, released a new album on Friday, and he’s got a killer track with Cappadonna and another original, Method Man. You shall be nodding your head shortly.

I’m seeing John Mayer tonight at the new Chase Center in San Francisco, and I haven’t seen him for six years when he was touring on his “Born and Raised” tour. Super pumped, particularly because he has no new album to play, so I’m hoping the setlist will be EPIC and have some mind-melting solos. Pumped!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 142

Hopefully you started listening to this week’s mixtape without looking at the playlist and just listening. Because then you might have really enjoyed the first track without feeling guilty. If you looked first, then maybe you said, “One Direction!!??" and then had a preconceived notion that you shouldn’t like this song, which may have become more complicated when you really liked the song. It’s up to you whether you’ll admit or not. And that’s how we start our Monday, like it or not.

You may wonder how this track got on here. I read Rob Sheffield’s Rolling Stone article on Harry Styles, a guy whose first solo album was really, really good. It’s hard not to like Styles. His charisma, honesty, and comfort with himself (at least at his age) is disarming for someone you’d expect to be a prick.

ANYWAYS, the article included a playlist about all the music they spoke about during the interview process:

Lo and behold, One Direction features somewhat prominently on it. So I heard the track (and didn't know who it was!) and loved it. So that’s how it got on this week’s mixtape (it’s also, by the way, how the beautiful Bill Evans track made it too.)

As for the other tracks on this week’s mixtape, there’s new stuff from numerous bands I’ve enjoyed over the years - Surfer Blood, Little Brother, Vince Staples - and a new band, Gender Roles, whose album I love. These guys are like a music child of The Deftones / Wavves / The Used, and I’m digging it. There’s rhythm, some screaming, and great rock n’ roll.

And finally, a shout out to my bud Sean. He asked if I had listened to the new Taylor Swift album. And speaking of guilty pleasures like One Direction, I am wholeheartedly a fan of Taylor Swift’s 1989, a phenomenal album, but I don’t like most of her other stuff.

Nonetheless, I listened to her new album and couldn’t make it through 10 songs (let alone the fact that the album is EIGHTEEN FREAKING SONGS - which btw is a pathetic scheme by artists to get more album “play counts” on streaming services which makes “the art” of making an album NOT AN ART and instead a money, attention, and awards grab. I’m sorry, but if you’re willing to intentionally manipulate your album to succumb to these bullshit reasons, you’re a sellout, not an artist (and I hate to say it, my boy Drake is in this category too)).

The first ten songs were terrible: formulaic, her annoying falsetto that she can’t actually sing in, “rapping” or whatever you want to call her fast talking, it’s all just bad pop music to me. So I stopped listening.

BUT THEN SEAN. So like I was saying, he texts me about the album and says his favorite track is track 13, “False Gods,” a song I didn't get to because I clearly was too fed up from the reasons listed above.

The song is subtle, quiet with a bit of reverb in her voice (no falsetto!), a horn, a slow beat, FEELING. From the start it just connects. It’s an amazing song. I’m blown away by it, really, and it shows what she can do when she really does it. Or maybe it’s just me and Sean.

So this is my mixtape of teen heartthrobs and pop sensations sandwiched with hip-hop underground favorites Little Brother and one of hip-hop’s current faves, Vince Staples. Definitely a different mix this week. Hope you enjoy.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 141

Ton of great fresh tracks for you thirsty listeners this week! From some recently found wunderkinds like Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster (uhh…maybe just J.P.K. bro?), the rockin’ Gender Roles, and the 90s-era hideous music child of Weezer and Dashboard Confessional, Oso Oso, to some more established bands like Bombay Bicycle Club and Circa Waves, this is a Monday for the indieheads.

Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 140

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 139

Whole lotta great stuff starting with the sisters of rock (and you may say pop, but if you haven’t seen them live, they rock), Haim! The beat and the “doo-doo-do-do-doos” have to be a direct homage to this classic:

Anyways, great song. On to Clairo, the next pop sensation. Speaking of beats, I love the drums that groove this song to her sweet siren. Love it.

I heard Bleached on Sirius XMU, and I thought this song was a catchy, 80s-ish track with a beach vibe. Different meld of sounds. The chorus crushes.

Surfer Blood must be doing a covers album because I’ve heard a few, and I thought this cover of “I Melt With You” by Modern English. I actually always thought this song was by The Cure! Whoops.

And a little rap for those who need an inkling. I have to say Anderson Paak has blown up. He’s on every rap track now, and you can see why because he' kills this one. I will take credit for talking about that guy way early. My first mention of him was back on February 1, 2016! It was only 103 Monday Mixtapes ago, Volume 36! Pretty wild. (I’m patting myself on the shoulder btw).

So Morabeza Tobacco are really out there, but it’s chill synth and I think I dig it. Wonder what you think? Too weird, maybe.

Happy Monday all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 138

This White Reaper track has got to be the song of the summer! How good is the guitar??

It only takes a few seconds into this recently released Lupe Fiasco track that I knew it had to be recorded back in his Food & Liquor days. If it wasn’t for Lupe’s “F and F” shoutout (to Lupe’s label 1st and Fifteenth) that he constantly yelled out on his classic debut album, the production and flow is old school Lupe. According to Complex, this was recorded before Food & Liquor and will be part of a release by Lupe’s longtime business partner of unreleased tracks over many years of their label. Can’t wait.

Not sure who Litany is, but “My Dude” got me caught with its 80s vibe and the gal’s voice.

Funny because I was talking on last week’s mixtape write-up about how Whitney reminded me of Real Estate, but then I started listening to Golden Daze, and dear lord, Golden Daze wins for best album of the year that sounds like Real Estate. It’s not a bad thing, Real Estate had the acoustic indie chill vibe on lockdown for many years at which point Mac Demarco kind of took over (and might have ceded the belt given how much I disliked his last album), but there were bound to be a ton of admirers influenced by Real Estate. Often imitated, never duplicated.

Enjoy the other music on this week’s mixtape and have a great week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 137

Starting the mixtape with a new troubadour by the name of Alfie Templeton. He’s giving me some vibes of a more pop oriented Mac Demarco. His track “Stop Thinking (About Me)” show his pop chops while “Tragic Love” has that total Mac Demarco chilled out vibe.

ALPINE. These guys & gals are VERY underrated. A Is For Alpine is a really great debut album (from 2013) and no one sounds like them. They just released a new track that is as catchy as their best stuff and a hint of what’s to come on their new album. Check them out, go deep!

Speaking of underrated, Spoon is one of those somewhat unsung heroes of rock n’ roll. They’ve kept the torch alive for all the new bands to take rock forward, and they’re one of the most consistent bands in all of music.

Whitney’s debut album was really good. I can see how they’re divisive since the lead singer’s voice, is, um, a bit high, a bit weird, a bit whiny, and maybe VERY annoying to some, but it works for me, and they’ve developed a pretty big following. I compare them a bit - at least via the relaxed vibe - to Real Estate, though I’ll take Real Estate over them any day of the week.

Omar Apollo sounds like a mix between Gary Clark Jr. and Leon Bridges. Need I say more?

Faye Webster. If you didn’t read my earlier stuff, her album this year is easily one of my favorites, it might still be sitting at #1 today. SO LISTEN.

AND HAVE A GOOD WEEK.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 136

Hello all. Hope the weekend treated you well. Come along with me on this summertime Monday and listen to some tunes!

I just started listening to Crumb, and “Cracking” was the first song I ever heard from them. It’s entrancing with an out of tune horn reverberating in the distance to a slow beat. A cool song.

Tycho is not for everyone, or it’s not for every time of the day. Chill is it’s game when you need to space out to distract yourself and get down to writing or doing spreadsheets. This is the kind of music I tune in to zone out.

So Two Door Cinema Club hasn’t ever topped their amazing debut album, but their fourth album is a good change of pace, a bit less formulaic then their second and third albums. “Satellite” is probably my favorite song on the album, and I’m constantly singing along to every “Oh" in the chorus.

After listening to the Black Keys new album a number of times, “Lo/Hi” is the best track on it.

Kevin Morby is a singer/songwriter who has had a number of albums, some stuff I like, other stuff I didn’t care for. I’m liking his new album, and I love the way “Oh My God” ends in the last minute or so, it’s a reversal of course of where the song seems to be going and a surprise ending.

PUP’s new album is one of my leaders for Album of the Year. I keep going back to it. Front to back, it is one non-stop kegger. I love it.