Monday Mixtape, Vol, 204

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Spoon. The band. The ageless wonders. These guys are in their 50s yet they’re still rocking. Example A: “Held,” the first track on their 13th album, 2022’s Lucifer on the Sofa. Certain bands and songwriters create sounds on records that are so clear and perfect that it sounds like they’re playing in your living room.

That hard bass drum beat in “Held” sinks into my skull, and I can’t help but nod. And the sounds of those guitar’s warming up into their opening riff, a riff that’s so clear in tone and so damn unique, I just get the feels when I hear stuff like this. Britt Daniel’s voice brings it all together and more instruments start to come in as the first verse winds up. God what a song.

(Don’t forget their first track, “Inside Out,” on their 2014 album They Want My Soul, was my #3 Song on my Top 100 Songs of 2014, and also an awesome listen to Britt Daniel’s break it down on Song Exploder

Tame Impala released a bunch of b-sides and mixes from their last album, The Slow Rush. Kevin Parker has said he spends 90% of his time creating music on the drum beats. It doesn’t matter if a drum beat sounds simple or not, it’s how it makes you feel, and “The Boat I Row” gives me the feels!

“Scared Money” is just an awesome rap track. It bangs hard, and I love J. Cole’s verse, so sick. YG kills it too.

As usual, Vince Staples is on a great track. His quality control is insane. He is rarely on a bad track.

This new Big Thief album is very long. 20 tracks and 1 hr 20 min. So it’s hard to get through it all. But they’re really weird and all over the place. “Time Escaping” gives you a good idea of their extensive palette.

My boy Pink Sweat$ with a feature from 6LACK ends off the mixtape with a beautiful love track. Enjoy the short week :)

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 153

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My loyal readers and listeners, I’m back! It’s been a couple months, and I apologize for the very long absence, but the silver lining is I have a TON new music to share, so I will try my best not to abandon you again.

Let’s start with Tame Impala. As you know, I love Tame Impala. In the past twenty years, I’d say my favorite bands are Radiohead, Tame Impala, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Wilco, and Kings of Leon, probably in that order.

Tame Impala’s (I’m sure you know this, but Tame Impala is really just Kevin Parker - He writes, records, mixes, and does engineering on EVERYTHING and has with all his albums) fourth album, The Slow Rush, is a companion album to Currents, in the same way that Lonerism is a companion to their debut, InnerSpeaker. Each duo has similar sounds yet show tracks and themes going in other ways.

The Slow Rush seems like a look back to the scale of fame and “rock star status” Kevin Parker attained after Currents. Crazily, Parker took five years in between these albums, and A LOT has changed.

I’ve seen Tame Impala live five times, and after their second album, they were still slotted in the 3pm-4pm festival circuit. Once Currents came out amidst full blown adulation and critical acclaim, Tame Impala started headlining every festival and selling out arenas.

Five years later, here we are with The Slow Rush. Meaning this in the best way possible, it’s the hangover album to Currents. The shades feel drawn on this album, like Parker doesn’t want a lot of sunlight in. Not depressing but reserved.

Compare the first tracks on both albums, “Let It Happen,” Parker’s masterpiece, with “One More Year,” a softer and safer version and vision. The difference in these two tracks is the difference in the album.

You don’t really get to a real upbeat rhythm until the ninth track! This track, “Is It True” is my favorite track on the album, and where I think Parker excels, finding different sounds (those drums and keys make the song) to pair with his reverb-laden vocals.

I don’t think there are any songs on this album that come close to the majority of songs on Currents, but I still enjoy every single song (except maybe “Tomorrow’s Dust”). I think I’d rank this album third, in front of InnerSpeaker then behind Lonerism and of course, Currents.

As for the rest of the this week’s mixtape, I gotta give love to Glass Animals, they are so unique. No one sounds like these guys, and they just find weird ass and cool hooks. I have no idea who Do Nothing is, but they give me a lot of vibes of Parquet Courts mixed with some garage rock like Interpol. Great track.

Caribou released one of my favorite albums of 2020, and this track is awesome.

Arlo Parks is a new artist I stumbled upon, and everything I’ve listened to has been good. She’s one to watch out for.

For some reason, “Good Day” by BBC really resonated with me. It’s a song that doesn’t sound like them and stuck on our their average new album.

Finally, Dan Croll keeps improving as an artist. “Yesterday” is a really great song.

Have a great week all. Stay safe.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 125

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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. 117

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Shame on you! As in: Listen to Shame. These guys fucking rock. The youngsters from England scream and punish their instruments with no apologies. Raw bands have such a refreshing sound. I love this album. It took a little time to come around to the screaming, but this is punk at its best. While “One Rizla” and “Angie” are certainly there two most melodic tracks on the album with the least screaming, it shows their range and talents. I constantly picture Dave Grohl hearing this and just being like, “These guys fuckin’ ROCK!” as he headbangs away.

Speaking of Dave Grohl, if you don’t hear Nirvana’s sound in The Pollies track “You Want It” with Grohl’s thundering snare drum and lightning quick drum rolls, you aren’t hearing the right song.

Is it fair to compare Anderson .Paak to this generation’s Nate Dogg? He’s more talented than Nate Dogg because his albums are better, but it seems like every song with .Paak on it bumps. Anderson .Paak continues to release some good ass vibes, and I can’t wait for his new album which will will feature the head-bopping’ “Tints” with Kendrick.

Speaking of bands that have some awesome vibes, Holy Ghost! is back! Such an underrated band these dudes continually churn out great electro-pop while all sorts of worse wannabes win popularity contests.

SOAK is a young songwriter from Ireland who I’ve written about for a couple years, and this is one of her more accessible yet sad songs. Check her out!

BTW I’m seeing Lord Huron and Tame Impala tonight (it’s Sunday afternoon now not Monday, silly!) at Treasure Island Music Festival (Shame is actually playing here, but my wife is feeling under the weather, but she’s still a trooper and wants to see Tame Impala so we’re going late :) SO PUMPED!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 97

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This first track by Jonathan Wilson is far out. Starting off in a Pink Floydish spacescape floating as galaxies slowly pass by, the guitar slices repeatedly weaves with a Grizzly Bear-esque and then the track turns to distorted guitar and a beat like it came straight out of Dazed & Confused - and that's the first two minutes!

This dude is wild, and I just started listening to his album, so I'll have more to relay next time around, but he's got one interesting sound/s.

As you know, any Tame Impala song will be ingested by me and listened to numerous times. This one is more of a "Featuring Tame Impala" kind of song given it's pretty EDM-like, but I'm sold because I get hypnotized in the rhythms and vocals. Kevin Parker does it again!

I keep reading about Charlotte Gainsbourg's 2017 album, so I've finally given it a whirl, and I highly recommend it. With no apologies to Lana Del Rey, she's a more talented Lana Del Rey with that sultry voice. If Lana mixed with Robyn (with all compliments to Robyn, whom I love), their hideous music-child would produce something like Charlotte's latest album, one that weaves through in French and English and is pretty captivating the whole way.

For those who don't know, S. Carey is a part of Bon Iver (he has the second most angelic voice of the crew) as shown here (which I think I've posted about before):

I LOVE his voice. So pure.

ANYWAYS, he released his second solo album. It's good, and I'm not sure if it goes beyond that, but it's very easy to listen to, perfect background music. I'm going to continue to listen to him as I think this album will grow more and more, but right now they all sound pretty similar, and I'm having a tough time figuring if I love any song or simply like most of them. Time will tell, but this is the one I think that strikes me the most so far. 

If the chorus of Dega's "Mirrors" doesn't remind you of one band of the 80s, then we just don't know each other. Because it's clearly Hall & Oates! Such a catchy chorus that I find myself singing over and over. "She's thinking about it!"

Not exactly sure who the hell "Hibou" is or what the hell "Hibou" means, but this song kinda reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins. Or 90s music in general. So I'm a sucker for this stuff. 

Sir Sly to end the mixtape, a band that reminds me a bit of Foster the People but not as original or good. Sorry, Sir Sly, just giving my thoughts. Still a pretty good song, buoyed by the chorus. 

Have a good week, all! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 89

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All sorts of random tracks on this week's playlist. The Preatures are back in the mix with my favorite track from a pretty lackluster sophomore album. Tame Impala released three B-sides from the Currents album, one of which is the instrumental "Powerlines." If you want to see how the brilliant Kevin Parker makes a track, check out the video on his website: https://www.tameimpala.com

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BANDS WITH NAMES IN ALL CAPS NOW???

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy the remainder of tunes which give you a bit of a jumpstart to your week! Cheers.

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 59

I'm going to try to write this in five minutes. I'm exhausted. Here goes. 

I'm seeing Bon Iver on Tuesday at the Fox. I've never seen him. It's going to be an epic show, in part because he tends not to play a ton of shows, so I'll really savor this one. Hearing his falsetto live, playing his beat up guitar while singing "re:Stacks" (my favorite Bon Iver song right above "Beach Baby") will be a memory I hope I can have. Coming in third place of my favorite songs by Justin Vernon might be "33 God," it's just that good. 

Three minutes.

Ark Patrol is some weird DJ who lives in Berkeley and has made some very chill and spacey songs. This one is a bit more catchy. Check out "Tokyo" for another!

Alex Frankel is from the very talented duo, Holy Ghost! To date, I still think their debut is one of my favorite Electro-Pop albums I've heard, and I really don't think they get the respect they deserve. They're better than Chvrches yet get one tenth the love. 

One minute!

Night Moves FOR GOODNESS SAKE LISTEN TO THEIR ALBUM.

Temples! Tame Impala lite. Maybe Tame Impala wanna bes, okay Tame Impala wanna bes. Particularly on this track the lead singer's voice is even more Kevin Parker-ish. BUT their debut album was really really good. So there's that.

I did it! Seeya!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 57 (and Local Natives album review)

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My most anticipated album of the year was released on Friday: Local Natives' Sunlit Youth. 

There are albums where the first track completely takes hold of you - as LN's opener "Villainy" did for me - and the next track does the same - again as LN's "Past Lives" did - and again and again until I begin to say to myself, "Oh man, this could be a REALLY great album."

If I get through an entire album like that, it's a joyful experience for me hard to replicate in any other form. A couple albums this year have come close to that. I think of Anderson Paak's Malibu and Sturgill Simpson's release. 

SO DID THIS HAPPEN WITH LOCAL NATIVES, you ask, pleadingly. It did and then it didn't. 

As I got through the first four tracks, I was starting to get very excited. "Dark Days," their best song on this album, is track three. "Fountain of Youth," one of their most anthemic songs to date ("WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WAAAAAAAANNNNNTTT!"), a sing-along to experience live I'm sure, is track four. 

But then the albums starts to drift. The album is buoyed a bit by the mysterious and delicate "Jellyfish" - track six - the remainder wades without much direction. "Coins," an almost John Mayer-ish intro, is a weird direction and sounds misplaced on this album.

I'm not really sure what the majority of the lyrics mean either. There are all sorts of first names of different women of which no thread or theme I could deduce. There are vague references which may be specific to them but are lost on me. A few, like "Fountain of Youth," are a bit more straightforward, but overall I've never really understood their lyrics throughout their discography.

"Mother Emanuel" the other highlight on the back half of the album, soars on its catchy hook (which made me realize their singers don't really rely on catchy vocals but instead thrive on multiple vocal harmonies and lots of long "ooooohhhs" and "ahhhhhhs"), but I just haven't been able to find the rest of the album memorable.

Granted, I've only listened to the album all the way through a handful of times. I hope my feelings change on the end of the album, but I wish I got a warmer feeling from start to finish. 

It's a world apart compared (and this just isn't fair, really) to the quality and ingenuity of Tame Impala's third album. But Kevin Parker is the rock genius of this decade, the Thom Yorke of today, what Kanye has been to rap.

So those comparisons just aren't fair. Though I think I make it because I've always placed my love of both Tame Impala and Local Natives at the same heights. Now those heights are changing because Tame Impala is in the stratosphere, cementing what is probably my second favorite band ever behind Radiohead.

I STILL can't get over how amazing Currents is as well as Tame Impala's preceding two albums. It helps that I just saw them live at the beautiful Greek Theatre in Berkeley where they were the best I've ever seen in the four times that I've had the pleasure seeing them. They were light years ahead of their performance a year ago at Outside Lands right when Currents was released. And they were even better, tighter with the perfect mixing/level of sounds, than my previous favorite set of theirs at Austin City Limits back in 2013.

ANYWAYS, there's a ton of other music on this mixtape. If you haven't listened to Isaiah Rashad, whose debut, Cilvia Demo, was a favorite of mine, please see if he's your type. I love him and think his new album is pretty damn great. Though as is par the course, Kendrick absolutely steals the scene in "Wat's Wrong," as he spews,

I told them, the best rappers is 25
Been like that for a while now, I'm 29.
Any n**** that disagrees is a fuckin' liar.
Pardon me see my alter ego was gemini.

Finally, I'll leave you with the great "Leave Your Light On," from the enjoyable new album from Night Moves. Now THAT'S a hook! 

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 42

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Because I missed last week (which makes it two missed mixtapes in about the past four weeks - sorry), there is a large amount of music that I would love to just jam in here. Fortunately for me, I can add some tracks to the backlog that didn’t make the cut. 

So what’s happened in the past two weeks? Kanye’s album got released on Spotify, I discovered a new rapper from DC who is amazing (thank you Paddy), Pete Yorn released a Pete Yorn-y album, my Spotify Discover Playlist was ON POINT and I found two really cool new bands, Young Thug dropped a mixtape/album/who knows and was featured in a captivating GQ profile, Bibio released an album, AND Tame Impala decided to remix a song from Miguel’s new album.

The crazy thing about Tame Impala’s remix (last track on the mixtape) of Miguel’s “Waves - It wasn’t even the best remix. That honor goes to Kacey Musgraves, who gave a bit of twang and a whole lot of beach vibes while still keeping the super charged sexual innuendos alive. “Body surf on me / don’t stop / I wanna ride that wave / all night / I wanna ride that wave.”

Miguel makes some baby making music, but hearing Musgraves sing these lyrics takes it to another level. 

KANYE. A divisive figure who I officially can no longer defend. The transgressions are too many at this point. I can still love his music, but I’m totally tired of him. This is one of my favorite tracks from his new album with rap god Kendrick Lamar. I think the album is pretty great and certainly worth a listen for any rap fan. I’ll have some more tracks from the album in other mixtapes.

I spoke about Thugger earlier. His music is just strange, but that profile I read provides a bit more insight into the guy. He’s an alien. And it sounds like a man with a lifestyle that will leave him dead at a very early age. 

LOVE this song from Moses Gunn Collective, particularly that drugged out guitar bending to infinity. 

Remember Pete Yorn? That guy that had a classic album musicforthemorningafter? Well this track reminds me a lot of it. Sorry that I’m just asking the guy to play the hits, but when you’ve made like five other albums (most of which i’ve listened to!) and just aren’t doing it for me, it’s all I ask. 

Bibio releases tracks like “Wren Tails” that make me think I’m coasting through a Wes Anderson movie in a convertible watching the leaves change. Beautiful songs. 

Oddisee is a rapper from DC who my buddy put me on to. I have been listening to him a lot the past week and am amazed with his technical abilities (his second verse in “Want Something Done” is sick!) and production. This guy has some serious talent and is due to breakout. Just a taste of his rhymes: 

“We started off locally / and now this chains globally / that’s the way it’s supposed to be / single seeds only grow to trees / if left alone to breathe / so lets take some time to expose the weeds / feeding off the roots of the culture vultures next to you / convincing you to stay in the forest when they the record crew.”