Monday Mixtape, Vol. 115

The surprise of the weekend was seeing that Hippo Campus released their sophomore album, Bambi, on Friday. And what an album! The lead singer reminds me of Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, but their melodies are a bit more out there, I’m not really sure they sound like anyone else. Their second album shows some subtleties in songwriting that show the band’s growth. This is an album that flows from front to back with slow jams bookending the albums intersected by waves of rhythms and tempos. What I’m trying to say is just listen to it!

My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel released his second album and this “Wished Out” track immediately reminded me of The Allman Brothers Band. Never a bad thing.

I’ve gotten on a bit of a Jeff Tweedy kick recently, one because he’s such a great lyricist, two because he’s in one the best (and most underrated) bands of the past two decades, and three because his solo album of acoustic Wilco tracks is phenomenal (it’s called Together at Last - check it out!). Tweedy has a voice that finds a place in the hollows of the acoustic guitar. This is his most recent solo effort.

Speaking of voices I love, Thom Yorke released a track from what I hope is an upcoming solo album, and Bright Light Social Hour (whose vocalist’s solo album I had on last week’s mixtape) released a new track for all to hear, the spacey “Trip with Lola.”

Finally, the killer three-piece jazz band, BADBADNOTGOOD, who do a ton tracks with rappers and bands, have just released a track with Little Dragon, and it’s a “raise your lighters” type of jam.

That’s all I got folks, enjoy!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 51

I’ve never really thought to count this before, but in the last six days, I’ve added 30 tracks from approximately 23 artists to my “Songs” list in Spotify! It’s amazing to think of how much new music we can be exposed to in such a short amount of time.

This is one huge reason to love Spotify. There are others to dislike (over saturation of genres, too much garbage to wade through, copycats (I mean listen to Desiigner - a jackass who paid $200 from some other jackass to buy the beat to “Panda” and then just made himself sound like Future and released it to the world. At which point people thought “this is a sweet new song by Future!” And now this 19 year-old is huge and getting co-opted by Kanye on HIS new album (which btw is also weird and something I’m not digging about Kanye - is it just me or is he jacking 2 Chainz flow on “That Part”) Wow, that was a rant. Sorry.

WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY was there’s a ton of great music this week. There’s no rap on this one since I think next week I’m going to have a rap-centered mixtape because Schoolboy Q’s new album is so sick. 

All these artists on this mixtape are random as hell and mainly people I’ve never heard of. The only exception is Carl Broemel, and if you know who this dude is, pat yourself on the back! If you don’t know him, he’s the seriously brilliant guitarist (and many other instruments as well - killer on the pedal steel guitar!) for My Morning Jacket. 

I’ve been lucky enough to see MMJ a couple times. The first time was at an amphitheater in South Florida that can hold thousands. I’ll never forget this show because MMJ sauntered out onto the stage, and Jim James was wearing his cape and had whatever instrument it is that looks like a Nintendo controller that he plays for songs from their Circuital album (as that was the album they were touring to support - which btw was an unreal time in their discography to see them live). 

They all finally made it out to the stage, and Jim James looked out to the crowd and looked a bit perplexed. There was maybe 500 people there. This was a band that was selling out Madison Square Garden and a huge draw. James looked over at Broemel, who shrugged his shoulders at James who in turned shrugged his shoulders, and off they went to play a TOTALLY kick ass show. (P.S. Everyone has shrugged their shoulders at one point in time at South Florida).

WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY was that I was able to see Carl Broemel up close, and the dude’s a magician. He effortlessly played memorable hooks and destroyed all sorts of solos when prompted. I think at the most recent show he was playing the saxophone! It’s cool to hear him do his own thing, and “Snowflake” is a layered and delicate track that shows his finer sides. 

And the one other band I know - Nice as Fuck  - is Jenny Lewis' new band (and I think there's  someone from Au Revoir Simone as well) which is pretty kick ass. "Angel" and another track not on here called "Runaway" really remind me of Lucious Jackson. Remember Naked Eye???

But I haven’t seen any of these other bands let alone heard of them - Hoops? Really? (Though I'm digging their Real Estate vibe). Though I guess I've heard of Japanese Breakfast since she’s getting a lot of love on the blogosphere. But I digress.

If you’re still here, thanks. Have a good week!