Monday Mixtape, Vol. 194

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. 61

It's time for a mixtape dedicated to all the hip-hoppers out there! I'm not gonna blow your mind with too many new names (though Caleborate counts), but there are some great remixes (see: Black Hippy's rendition of "THat Part" and Ab-Soul jumping on a remix with the super underrated Bas to his great original "Housewives"), a new track from Danny Brown, and some oldies but goodies, namely Ab-Soul's haunting "Illuminate" and my favorite rapper of the moment, Isaiah Rashad, head-bobbing classic from his first album, "Heavenly Father." For goodness sakes, just inhale this guy's discography and don't stop until next week.

Word is Ab-Soul may be coming out with a new album. Needless to say I'm excited to hear what the extraterrestrial professor has to say.  

Not a whole lot from me other than the tracks. Enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 46

Thanks to Memorial Day, there is quite a backlog of great music for you. Overall, I’ve been pretty disappointed in the music that’s been released this year, it just seems to me like a down year. But, there are a ton of bands I love (Local Natives, Blind Pilot, Young the Giant) still to release theirs.

I’m particularly excited for Local Natives’ new album. I’ve had three favorite bands in the past decade - Local Natives, US Royalty, and Tame Impala (while Radiohead being the all-decades favorite) - and they’re all on their third album with only Tame Impala to release the masterpiece Currents. Third albums are huge for bands that garnered a lot of recognition for their first album because the sophomore release is always allowed to be a regurgitation of the first since the first was so good. (And for the record, Local Natives second album was not like their first, but it just wasn’t as good.) Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys are great examples of that. Their second albums were pretty darn good, it sounded like the first, so no one complained. 

But the third is a different story. It shows whether a band has “it” however one may define it. My definition: a sound and structure that is unique and original and a dedication and labor of love that is apparent that it all makes for an unforgettable album, something to be remembered because it sounds like nothing else. Currents did exactly that for me. So did Vampire Weekend’s third masterpiece of an album while Arctic Monkey’s third album went a little too far off field and gave too much sound control to Josh Homme (producer of the album and lead singer/songwriter of Queens of the Stone Age). Though “Cornerstone” is still one of my faves by them.

SO WHAT I WAS TRYING TO GET AT: there’s a lot riding on this album for Local Natives. And that being said, their new single provides hope. I still think Taylor Rice’s vocals sound a bit whiney, but I just LOVE the sounds they get out of their drums and guitars. How awesome is the drum-off starting at 2:17 which leads into some serious kick-ass electric guitar lick? That is Local Natives' specialty, a messy conglomeration of harmonies and other sounds that bleed like waterfalls. It’s beautiful. So maybe I’m getting more excited for their new album now! 

A few other notes:

I though Post Malone was a joke - BECAUSE I LOOKED AT A PICTURE OF HIM - although I loved “White Iverson,” but I obviously couldn’t take him seriously. And though on his track on this Monday Mixtape he’s talking about flexing with gold grills and all sorts of other shit about his squad and sending “Snaps” to his girl, “Go Flex” has a great hook and even a little acoustic guitar in it! 

“Something to Believe In” is Young the Giant’s sultriest song yet. Sameer Gadhia is the modern day Brandon Boyd (of Incubus) - he has one of the best voices in the business, but I think Young the Giant is mainly disrespected by critics. Have they listened to “Islands??” (Yes, I know Incubus is still making music).

The beat that starts the song by Allan Rayman sounds like it should have been on a Montell Jordan tracks. Love it. I don’t know too much about this Allan Rayman guy nor an I sure how to describe him, but this is one of the catchiest songs I’ve heard all year.  

“Feel No Ways” is one of my two favorite tracks from Drake’s new, somewhat disappointing album. I think there are some good songs, but a lot of not so good songs which is not usual for Drizzy.

I am heading to LA on Saturday for two weeks, but I will try to post something for next week’s mixtape because there are a lot more songs I want to share.