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. 140

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 31

The year is closing out, and that means I've been hard at work narrowing down all the albums I listened to this year to my favorite 25 as well as my favorite 100 songs! 

It's been quite the process since there were over 200 albums to begin with as well as thousands of songs to hear to make to the songs playlist. 

Anyways, those two playlists will be coming shortly, but in the meantime, here are some tunes I've been jamming to lately.

I found The New Basement Tapes randomly, but it's a supergroup of artists (Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Marcus Mumford, Elvis Costello, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and an unknown to me, Rhiannon Giddens) who were all assembled to take Bob Dylan lyrics from 1967 to record. It's a very cool album which begins with this track, "Down On The Bottom," which Jim James just crushes. 

G-Eazy is an Oakland rapper who has slowly but surely gained quite a following. He had a huge slot at Outside Lands here in SF, and "Random" shows his abilities. Check him out. 

Bully is a raw rock band with screeching vocals and a taste for distortion. Their sound is for those who like music without perfect edges.

I wrote about C. Duncan last week, but this album is sticking with me for its dreamy sound. “Say” is the opening track of Architect and sets the stage for the rest of the album. I’m still debating whether it makes it into the Top 25, but it’s close!   

Half Moon Run’s debut album last year made it into my Top 25 as they were one of the few rock bands that I heard with a bit of Radiohead in them. Their new album this year isn’t at the level of their debut, but “Turn Your Love” showcases their mix of electronics and more standard rock with barr chords and loud choruses. 

Prhyme is a collaboration of rapper Royce da 5’9 and legendary producer DJ Premier (outside of Q-Tip, no one exemplifies 90s rap beats more than Premier). I just started listening to this album from 2014, and I’m amazed I hadn’t heard about ti earlier. The album features Jay Electronica, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, Mac Miller, and more and is a great listen. 

Finally, I wrote a short piece about Scott Weiland’s passing a few days ago (along with a Best of Stone Temple Pilots playlist!), and I thought it would only be fitting to end with an acoustic version of their most famous song. RIP. 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 21

Sometimes a week or many weeks will pass by without too much music that gets me excited. Then a week will come by that is overwhelming in its breadth of tunes that get me amped. Last week was the latter.

Foals just released their fourth album, What Went Down, a more rock-oriented album which built on the pieces that made their prior stuff so enjoyable and unique. The title track is all you need to hear to gauge whether this band and album is for you. The buildup to this track hinges on Yannis' warbling vocals and an excitable drumbeat, culminating in an orgy of sounds blasting through your eardrums. I can't wait to see this album live.

Listen to the hip-hop drumbeat that starts "Cold Tears" by AM & Shawn Lee and ask yourself if it sounds familiar? Anything?

I LOVE this track by JT (and unabashedly love JT's music), but it's all propelled by that drumbeat by Pharrell. The fact that The Clipse are featured only makes the song that much better.

Speaking of rappers, guess who's back? Mighty Mos! Blackstar's (only) album and his own Black on Both Side are two of my favorite rap albums ever. His lyrics and easily identifiable voice (you can hear it's Mos in a split second - just like Q-Tip) are his trademarks. May I offer an example? (Starting at 0:15)

My restlessness is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write a rhyme
Sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature from the large to the miniature
I mathematically administer
Subtract the wack
Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
From the core to the perimeter black
You know the motto
Stay fluid even in staccato

Moving on, The Weeknd just released his new album, Beauty Behind the Madness. It's crazy how much he has blown up since "Can't Feel My Face" became the #1 hit on Billboard. It feels like an eternity since I wrote about his obsession with drugs, and now he's on the covers of magazines, performing at award shows, and constantly clogging your radio station.

I've listened through his album a few times and am overly impressed with the whole thing albeit a couple clunkers ("Dark Times" with Ed Sheeran seems like a completely forced guest appearance to gain listeners and sales). 

One of my favorite tracks from the album is the Kanye West produced "Tell Your Friends," an R Kelly-sounding slow jam with The Weeknd sweetly puffing out his chest as he talks about his usuals (see: his hair, poppin' pills, fuckin' bitches, living life trill, cocaine, and other blatant disregards for the opposite see - for further references, see: An Intervention for...The Weeknd).

The distorted, auto-tuned guitar (playing throughout but easily heard at 2:49 - 3:14) is pure Kanye. I recognized the sound from tracks from his classic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, mainly "Devil In a New Dress" and "Runaway":

Starting at 2:52:

   Starting at 6:05:

It's cool to hear influences remain and are still borrowed (somewhat) subtly in a musician's arsenal, and the production form "Tell Your Friends" is really superb.

I just started listening to Widowspeak - as in, I just heard this song today and instantly fell for it. I have a sweet spot for chill tracks, and this track has a subdued pace, sweet and soft vocals, and a bit going on in the background to keep it entertaining. 

I can't stop listening to this track from Half Moon Run. Their debut album last year, Dark Eyes, was a weird amalgamation (I looked this word up to make sure I was using it right, definiton: the action, process, or result of combining or uniting.) of Radiohead and Kings of Leon. I always heard a bit of Thom Yorke and Radiohead's spaced out sounds while keeping some rock elements I heard in KOL.

But if you can't hear the Thom Yorke's influence IMMEDIATELY from the beginning of this track, you haven't been listening to enough Radiohead! Although the pace is much slower on this Radiohead track (my favorite from King of Limbs), just listen to the opening vocals:

Lots of sounds and influences this week! Happy Labor Day!