Monday Mixtape, Vol. 134

Happy Monday, all! A bevy of tunes for your enjoyment, starting with Dylan LeBlanc, a newcomer (for me) with a new rock album that’s been blasting through my speakers. The first track of his album, the first track of this mixtape, is probably his best.

Have I told you how much I love Midland? Probably the only “country” band that I listen to regularly a band who I also saw live and they completely rocked the place. Really great show and crowd. And did I mention that “Drinking Problem” has to be the best country song written in the past decade or two? IT JUST IS. This is their new track off their upcoming album. My britches are bunched.

Speaking of great live performers, one of the best rappers I’ve seen live, Big K.R.I.T., has a bass thumping new track which I believe you will enjoy.

A number of other great tracks, including a belated one from Andrew Bird, whose new album this year, My Finest Work Yet, may be facetious (I’m using Andrew Bird words) on his part but aptly named in my estimation.

Leaving us is a “demo” track from Hippo Campus. This band is AWESOME and UNIQUE, and I can’t exactly believe why they’re not beloved by more, but they released some more intimate demo tracks from their previous albums. Always cool to hear songs in their infancy.

Have a good week!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 125

Apologies for my absence the last couple weeks, but we’re back with a vengeance of sounds to rock your ears!

We’ll start with a band that you may say right off the bat is a Tame Impala wannabe, which I will say is a reasonable charge (actually a SPOT ON charge, I mean, listen to the solo at 0:50 of “Sky So Blue,” that is a blatant ripoff of their live album and all of Currents basically, and then I wonder what Kevin Parker would think if he heard something like this, like, this is EXACTLY my sound, what are you guys doing??), BUT Tame Impala, or should I say Kevin Parker’s vocals, are also a John Lennon wannabe, AND Hot Flash Heat Wave’s earlier stuff sounds nothing like the psych-synth Tame Impala that these two tracks (WHICH I LOVE BTW), so I’m giving them a SMALL PASS here. I just love “Trust” and have been humming it all weekend.

ANYWAY, Cherry Glazer’s album is pretty badass and rock n roll, Andrew Bird released a single reminiscent of his Noble Beast-era sound, aka WHISTLING, and I had to include a beautiful diddy from the brand new band no one has ever heard of: Crosby, Stills, & Nash.

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.