Monday Mixtape, Vol. 200

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I had forgotten how loud indoor concerts could be. Band of Horses graciously reminded me this past week as they ripped and their speakers EXPLODED in distortion during “Is There a Ghost.” All concerts are loud, I suppose, but sometimes, they’re really, really, loud. This was one of those. My ears were awash in sirens of ringing, and I could do nothing but smile as a few people rushed to the exits in dismay.

As the song ended, someone tapped me on my shoulder. I came to the show solo, sitting in the balcony in line with the sound engineer. I turned my head to locate the tap, and a gentlemen, sitting down, with a walker to his left, easily 80 years old, gives me two thumbs up with a big smile on his face, basking in the enormity of sound. I gave him a fist bump, helped him get on his feet at the end of the show, and we went on our way. 

This week’s mixtape features a number of tracks Band of Horses played at the show, including two covers, one by Brooks & Dunn and another by INXS. For the record, both covers were phenomenally well done, and I thought the INXS cover was better than the original. But I can’t disrespect Brooks & Dunn, that’s just a great damn song.

Have a great week!  

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 199

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Getting back in the groove of things, there’s some hip-hop on this week’s mixtape that has been blasting through my ears.

We’ll start with the unknown Ahmad Anonimis, and the first track I heard from him, “Butterflies.” I’ve always been a sucker for songs built around a piano, and this is no exception. The beat definitely has that 90s era vibe, and he sounds a bit like a mix between JID and (the even more unknown) Nemo Achida. I highly recommend his 2021 album, clocking in at a palatable 30 minutes!

Then there’s Lute, a rapper I’ve been listening to since he was sporting verses on a bunch of Dreamville (J. Cole’s music label, including rappers Bas and Cozz) compilations. His new album, Gold Mouf, is one of my favorite rap albums this year, a melange of beats and influences, and flows.

More War on Drugs, please! I’ll absorb their album for the rest of the year, hearing new nuggets and trinkets along the way, appreciating the many layers this band inserts into their songs. Their albums usually only get better with time. Their last two albums, A Deeper Understanding and Lost In The Dream, are arguably two - if not at least one, take your personal pick - masterpieces, so I had no expectations that this album would exceed the past albums, and it has not, but it’s still fantastic.

I think the best song on the album, certainly the most catchy, is “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” with help from Lucius on the chorus. However, singer/songwriter, Adam Granduciel, is also a pro at the more subtle and subdued tracks, like “Occasional Rain.”

I included “Mimi” because I was taken by Ilsey’s vocals on the chorus. Gorgeous voice. Who is this chick?? She’s an unknown on Spotify with one song! Tell me more!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 198

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The War on Drugs released a new album, one I have not been able to ingest enough, but i did include one track that caught my attention. More to come.

Mac Miller’s 2014 mixtape Faces just got released on vinyl and streaming services, and it’s the one mixtape of his I had never heard! There are many, many references to drugs. Many. And it is obviously taking place in the middle of the blurry road he was on to his tragic overdoes only four years later. “Should have died already…” is Miller’s first line on the mixtape.

Listening to Faces, an album he mostly produced himself, it’s wild he was only 22 years old. His rapping and lyrics were really crafty and clever, and his production showed so many signs of the brilliance he could create. You may notice the sample in this week’s track, “Diablo,” a straight lift from “In a Sentimental Mood” by Coltrane and Ellington.

Although he took the back seat to producing his next few albums (while still writing every song), his final and posthumous album, Circles, was produced by him and super producer, Jon Brion. Faces is worth a deep dive for any Miller fan, and I’ll be adding my favorite tracks over the next few weeks.

Spotify led me to Yeek or Verzache, and I’m digging their sound!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 196

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I’ve never given Halsey a chance, mainly due to the fact that she got famous because of a feature on a Chainsmokers song, a band that hits about every note for my stereotype of shitty bands.

But did anyone else see her performances on Saturday Night Live this weekend?? I thought they were both phenomenal. Her vocals, something that time and time again, ESPECIALLY with pop artists, sounds terrible on SNL was spot on.

And of course she gets bonus points for bringing our Lindsey Buckingham for her second song, “Darling.”

Buckingham’s acoustic Taylor guitar (I have one myself) has such a gorgeous tone. It’s bright, clear, and sings in reverb. THAT sound is a Taylor guitar.

Talk about two different songs! The album versions start and end this week’s mixtape.

Enjoy the other jams and have a good week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 195

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The star of this week’s mixtape is Falle Nioke, a man from Guinea now living in the UK. I stumbled across “Leywole” which stopped me in my tracks. What a sound! What a presence. What a beat.

There’s something going on that I can feel. Something hopeful and energizing. The success and future of bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general) - a transparent and decentralized currency that can essentially be owned by anyone for any amount which no government can control, usurp, or overtake - is setting the stage for the emergence of sort of a global community no longer defined by borders and lines on maps.

Yes, there will still be wars and extremist religions and corruption and greed, but these things will be harder to finance (like US taxpayers paying $2T for a war in Afghanistan that cost 170,000 lives, 47,00 of which were Afghan civilians) because the world population will have control of the money, and that is where power lies.

There will still be borders separating countries, but those physical representations will fade as technological advances and “cloud communities” (as Balaji calls them) will become the norm. This is a decade or decades away, but it is happening.

Why the hell am I saying this? Falle Nioke may be singing in a different language, but I feel like I understand him. I feel connected to him in a way I haven’t felt before with a person singing in a different language. And I think it represents a connection I hope occurs globally with all sorts of people with different life experiences, upbringing, cultures, norms, and so much more humanity could benefit from understanding more.

A lot to come to mind by just one song, I suppose.

Happy listening.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 194

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This Saturday, I had the joy of seeing My Morning Jacket in concert at the beautiful, one of a kind, Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. It was my third time seeing them, and my first concert since pre-COVID. As they always do, MMJ kicked ass, starting their set with the hard rocking, riff-spitting “One Big Holiday,” followed by the classic, “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream, Pt. 2” (and yes, Pt. 1 was played later!), and then into “Wordless Chorus.”

Their setlist was an epic spectrum of their entire discography. They played at least one song from every single album except for their first (and worst, IMO), The Tennessee Fire. They even played one of my favorite MMJ songs, “Steam Engine.”

They played their two newest songs, one of which, “Love Love Love,” I started this week’s mixtape with. It’s a great song with a distorted guitar’s bull rush of rhythm, constantly pounding and leading the track while the Carl Broemel falsetto of “Na Na Naaaa” adds a catchy hook.

One track from the show, “Wasted,” was an unknown to me. It’s the second to last track on their most recent album, Waterfall II, and the track has one of the best changes of trajectory (coming in at 2:20) that MMJ has ever done.

All images by @jayblakesberg taken @greekberkeley

“Wasted” takes a route you would never expect it to take, particularly because listening to the first two minutes of this track doesn’t add much to the imagination, and then BAM, we go to funky town on the keys (as the rainbow lights shined down while they played live) and then the horns come in, and then the song comes back around, jumping in line with the original trajectory of the track. What. A. Song. So cool to see live.

The concert was a reminder that MMJ stands in the Mount Rushmore of rock bands over the past two decades. There is an aura MMJ exudes, one that bands rarely shine.

Here’s the setlist of the show if you were curious:

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 193

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All sorts of stuff on this week’s mixtape to absorb! I had never listened to Deafheaven until this past week, and I really dig their new album. They’re best described as shoe-gaze rock (although many categorize them as metal, which I imagine comes from their previous albums because this album doesn’t have much metal sound albeit some screaming and kick ass distorted guitars), and if you like the band Nothing, these guys are for you!

My buddy introduced me to The Brook & The Bluff, and I think this track from their 2019 album is the best. Great rhythm, good singer, upbeat.

More Kacey Musgraves for all those who didn't get enough of her on last week’s mixtape.

Remember Sneaker Pimps?? Remember the greatest song that every 90s kid should know?

Well they’re back with their first album in…checks Spotify…double checks Spotify…19 years!! I need to listen to it a bit more because they have their own sound, but if you like “Fighter,” listen to the rest of the album.

And finally, a band that is slowly becoming one of my favorite bands, The War On Drugs. They’ve released two new singles from their forthcoming album on October 29th. They are on an epic run as their last two albums were phenomenal. Each year, I love both albums more and more (and I still need to listen to their three earlier albums much more.). Also, the markings of a special band is when they’re even better live. These guys are a must see in concert.

That’s all I got. Enjoy the week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 192

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Kacey Musgraves shocked me with a newly released album on Thursday! Her last album, Golden Hour, was my #1 Album of 2018, and received all types of awards. It’s a classic, an album any artist would kill to have just one of.

After any classic album like this - I think of Tame Impala’s Currents or Arctic Monkey’s debut album - There’s a lot of expectation for the next album but also a bit of leeway because it’s very, very hard to recreate perfect again, and a band has to go in a totally different direction - think Radiohead’s Kid A - to make another classic. Usually, the album after a classic sounds like a B-Side to the classic: similar sounds, still great tracks, but not the same magic. Musgraves’ star-crossed is the latter.

It’s a very good and listenable album, nowhere near Golden Hour, and is more of a mellow, stoner’s ride through Musgraves’ divorce peppered with some sass and pop.

It’s a wistful goodbye to her marriage and ex-husband. Given the stage she has, she was reasonably kind to her ex (and who knows what all really happened, of course, you never get both sides). Though she makes her point that he couldn’t handle her fame and attention.

It wasn’t a revenge “Dear John” Taylor Swift-style attack, it was more of a retrospective and thoughtful, “So I think this is how we got here…” with a few punches thrown in here and there.

Her vocals carry everything. She has such a delicate and gorgeous voice, and it sounds like no one else. That’s her biggest magic trick to me, and as she keeps experimenting with sounds (and drugs!), it will be interesting to hear where she goes.

On another note, Isaiah Rashad dropped a new version of “H2BU” which trims the fat from the track on his new album. “H2BU” on his album is seven minutes and two songs in one, and the first song is amazing and not so much food the second song. So he created a version where it was just the first song, one of my favorite tracks on one of my favorite albums of the year.

Drake’s new album is pretty disappointing, but I have to listen to it more. There are still great tracks. I love how he comes right in and attacks “No Friends in the Industry.” Great rap track.

Now this song by Jack Harlow and The Homies, “White Lies,” was more of what I was hoping for with his recent album. This is just a feature he’s on, but it’s pure Harlow.

Disclosure released some tracks, and no surprise, the songs are awesome. These guys have quality control down.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 191

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Happy Labor Day all and apologies for my weeks of absence. Fortunately, there’s been no lull in music! All sorts of new albums to dig into like Chvrches, Drake, Jungle, Kanye (27 tracks??? 1 hr 48 min?? Sigh.), and a bunch of others. I’ll get to Drake and Kanye next week.

Chvrches new album, Screen Violence, their fourth, is right up there with their phenomenal debut, The Bones of What You Believe. Lauren Mayberry knows how to sing a hook and her melodies are on point, exemplified by two tracks on this week’s mixtape.

Then we have Jungle. I don’t even know how to categorize this band, but they’re a great band to throw on for background music at a party. Upbeat, rhythmic, and all sorts of soul and beats to keep your head bopping.

Nas has a new track with Lauryn Hill on it?? A reminder amidst all her craziness (I remember seeing her years ago, she was an hour and a half late to her show - the opener went off at 8:30pm, she didn’t get on until 11:00pm! I can’t believe I waited, but yes, it was worth it, because she’s that much of a talent.) that she’s one of kind.

How serene and beautiful is “Sidney’s Lullaby” by Washed Out? It reminds me a bit of “Kid A” by Radiohead but more subdued and restrained. I’m always a sucker for songs like this (“Postcards from Far Away” by Coldplay also comes to mind).

Finally, Gorillaz released an EP with a few songs on it, and I was blown away by the first track featuring an unknown Jelani Blackman rapping and an awesome beat and production behind him. Another beautiful track.