Monday Mixtape, Vol. 85

SO MUCH new music got released last week - St. Vincent's fourth album, Beck's latest, The Killers, King Krule, and Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile's Lotta Sea Lice - and all sorts of singles came out that I can't even include them all this week. 

Alas, what I was able to do was make this week's playlist a feel good, uppity, "LET'S DO THIS" type of mix. 

First off, Beck is superhuman. If I haven't said it before, he's our generation's David Bowie, a chameleon with so many colors of sounds that I'm left in awe of his range. Nobody else has the discography he does - it's insane.

Listen to "Devil's Haircut" on Odelay, a phenomenal first track to an album, what an opener!

Then downshift to soft and mightily mellow  "Morning" on Morning Sound:

Then to the wild 70s soul-funk of "Mixed Business" on Midnite Vultures:

To one of my favorite's, the kick ass "E-Pro" form Guero:

I mean COME ON. This is ridiculous. Which left me in huge anticipation of his recent release, Colors. It was being billed as a "pop" album by Beck, something he'd been working on even before Morning Sound. As usual, Beck morphs into a catchy pop star with pristine production and catchy choruses.

I've included the first two tracks from his new album on this week's mixtape. How can you not like these tracks? He's a savant, a true musical genius. 

I just remembered that I wrote a huge rant against Kanye West for messing with Beck when he won the the Album of the Year Grammy, so take a read of that if you have a few. (SIDEBAR: And how crazy that I wrote that two and a half years ago??)

Both Starslinger and The Knocks are party bands who make party music. Nuff said.

St. Vincent released MASSEDUCATION on Friday, and I'm still cycling through the album, so I can't say I have a total take yet. She gave an interesting interview to Pitchfork where apparently she spoke about every track on this album. Unfortunately, she basically answered nothing about the heart of the songs, but she's always an interesting read and just a badass performer.   

"Pills" is one of her more catchy tracks on the album, one where the hook was meant to sound like a commercial-like jingle. An epic comedown off those pills to end the song. 

Have a good week! And listen to more Beck! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 81

Palace was on last week's mixtape. They're on this week's mixtape twice. I can't stop listening to them, slowly rocking my head to their beachy blues and rhythms that just distinguish them from many others. I feel like they'd get along with the jazzy trio Badbadnotgood swimmingly, and I hear so many other influences from a ton of genres. You have to listen to their recent album from 2016. It's been on repeat for me.

Foster the People released their third album, and it's really good. There is not one song that I skip on this album. I think it's definitely better than their last album which was hit or miss. They have sultry "Sit Next To Me," upbeat and hilarious "I Love My Friends," distorted barr chord rocker "Lotus Eater," and spaced out beauties "III" (which I did not include - go listen to it yourself!)

St. Vincent has a large piece of my heart. She's a phenomenal performer, one of the few very who completely command a stage just with her presence, she's a kick ass guitarist, she loves David Byrne, she's a beauty, AND who knew, but she writes quite the ballad! "New York" is a simple and beautiful love song. Can't wait for her next album. 

I saw NE-HI on a Youtube festival and then found this track on Spotify. They're a bunch of young guys just banging away on their instruments. It's raw. 

Have a wonderful week!    

Coachella - Day 3 Recap

Sahara Tent

Started from the bottom now he's here. Headlining Coachella.

I was looking forward to Drake’s set as much as any other act this whole weekend. He has the charisma, the catalog of hits, and the abilities as both a rapper and singer to reach the entire audience. He is at the top of the game right now with only Kanye and Kendrick ahead of him (as much as I love Killer Mike, he's just not there in terms of reach). Putting Drake as THE headliner of Coachella was a huge gamble, but an epic performance could have catapulted Drake up in the discussion as the best rapper instead of the third guy.      

Standing with all my friends on the Coachella grounds with tens and tens of thousands of people around us, surrounded by speakers, clouds of smoke, and giddiness, the energy was palpable. Drake had the crowd in the palm of his hand as it was not only one of the biggest crowds of the whole weekend, but everyone was dancing and singing along to warmup tracks like “Lose Yourself,” and “N****s in Paris,” getting hyped to dance and sing along to so many of Drake's great songs. But then we waited. Drake gets on stage 25 minutes late and comes out so soft. No bangers, nothing to get the crowd into it, just a subdued malaise. If he had started the show off with "Started from the Bottom," the whole crowd would have immediately been invested and going wild. Instead, eight songs in my group of friends sadly asked if they could go see another group because they were so disappointed. 

Not only that, he was barely even singing (certainly not hitting the notes) any of his parts and he had backing vocals (of himself) on a lot of his tracks. The whole crowd looked a bit shell-shocked. THEN he brings out Madonna (which will be laughed and poked at by every rapper), they weirdly make out, and then she performs some of her own stuff. The whole experience was surreal…and terrible. The one and only rule for acts playing at festivals: PLAY THE HITS. We''ll see you on tour if we want to hear "Preach." 

Back on a positive note, the rest of the day was thoroughly enjoyable. I spent the most time of my Coachella career in the Sahara tent, dancing and frolicking with my friends to a number of different EDM acts, including Madeon, RAC, Martin Solveig, and Kaskade. As pictured above, the Sahara tent is like getting showered with lights in a cave. Visually, it’s astounding. I came to a bit of a realization that I had to open myself up a bit musically to hang with my friends from EDM act to act, but I'm glad I did it because I had a great time being with them. 

On the indie side, I got to see a bit of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Fitz and the Tantrums, but unfortunately missed Florence and the Machine. Annie Clark from St. Vincent is a real performer, one I couldn’t take my eyes off of. She’s a beauty and shreds the guitar! 

I'm going to post my favorite photos from Coachella tomorrow!