Monday Mixtape, Vol. 146

Harry Styles is this generation’s Justin Timberlake, but he may just be more talented. He’d still have to have an album on par with JT’s FutureSex / LoveSounds, but the potential is there. I love his new track, I thoroughly enjoyed his debut album, and maybe if you heard a few mixtapes ago, I even found some One Direction tracks I liked!

Quiet Hounds was a band that - waaaayyyy back in 2012 - I was totally obsessed with due to their album Megaphona. They haven’t lived up to any of my expectations as nothing they’ve released has touched what I thought was their best song, “Calling All Gamma Rays,” but they just released a new album that I’m digging. I’ve put two new tracks and two classics on this week’s mixtape to enjoy!

Phantogram and Will Joseph Cook have new tracks for you to snag, and I have been on a huge Third Eye Blind kick as of late, and in particular, I keep listening to the second tracks of their first two albums, “Narcolepsy” and “Wounded,” two of my favorite tracks Third Eye Blind has ever made.

Come to think of it, “Wounded” is my fave song by them. It has everything I love: great lyrics and a story which feels genuine, a great build up, some orchestral elements, harmonics!, great vocals, great guitar licks, awesome use of reverb (the climax of the buildup “WOOOOOoooo ooo ooo ooo”), I mean what else can you ask for?

And “Narcolepsy” is similar in that it has a slow start which leads to a great buildup but an even better transition into a super bouncy and rhythmic track, but I really love the lyrics of “Narcolepsy” and the part where I sing along with Jenkins, building up from a whisper to an excited chant to a yell into a SCREAM for the whole the third verse:

I read dead Russian authors, volumes at a time
I write everything down except what's on my mind
Cause my greatest fear is that sucking sound
And then I know that I'll never get back out
And there's a bone in my hand that connects to a drink
In a crowded room where the glasses clink
And I'll buy you a beer and we'll drink it deep
BECAUSE THAT KEEPS ME FROM FALLING ASLEEP!!!!

And I can feel this Narcolepsy slide………….

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 75

Apologies for my absence, I've been traveling seeing friends and family, certainly a good excuse to abandon my musical duties. But I'm back, and my goodness, there's been some great music released in the past few weeks. 

Phoenix dropped their first single off their new album, and like their other unforgettable songs, most specifically:

This week's track from him, "Rollin," features Future, a man who continues to churn out great music at a prolific pace.

I really loved Childhood's first album, and their newest single shows some promise for what's ahead. "California Light" sounds retro with horns and Gibbs-brothers like falsettos. This song's played in the twilight of a roller disco. 

Finally, Foster the People released three tracks from their upcoming third album. Their second album was super out there, something I really respected from a band that took over the world with "Pumped Up Kicks," and decided to go in an alternate direction instead of taking over the pop world further. Mad respect! 

Have a good week all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 71

We all have nostalgic albums that make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, prompting slideshows in our minds of those times.

I still think of Band of Horse's Infinite Arms playing as I moved to Florida. I remember Third Eye Blind's debut album in the background of my sixth-grade life, playing Goldeneye on 64 and paintball in the woods of Leesburg, VA. Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers played on repeat as I visited one of my best friends who had moved to Switzerland. New Found Glory's self-titled album, Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, and Incubus' Make Yourself and Morning View all curated my high school days. Paul Simon's Graceland and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation were two of the first albums I ever remember hearing as my mom played them constantly in the background of my childhood. I could write a book about the albums of my life as each one had such an impact on me and a memory instilled.  

Then there's Acceptance. Who only had one album - the always and forever amazing Phantoms released in 2005. This album reminds me of my college days and very specific days and nights spent listening to this album, a girl I had a crush on, road trips jamming along to the tracks (I still know all the lyrics!), and just provides an overall warm feeling when I hear them. 

Acceptance had one of those wild cult followings which you may not have ever known about if you didn't know them. But people LOVE these guys. And out of nowhere, in 2017, twelve years after their debut, they decided to release their sophomore effort.

The new album reminds me of the heyday of my (and their) past, and they still make some great upbeat alternative rock (think The Juliana Theory-ish rock - SPEAKING OF, another amazing indie band from my high school days. Both Understand This Is A Dream and Emotion Is Dead are still amazing!) tracks that get you in a sing-songy rocking kind of way. My two favorite tracks from their new album are on this mixtape along with my favorites from their first album.  

If you have never heard of these guys, please do yourself a favor and dive in. It won't be nostalgic for you, and it may even sound a little dated (I actually think it has stood the test of time really well! I can't really say that for New Found Glory and Linkin Park though). 

But maybe, just maybe, you'll listen to them and get into them just like I did twelve years ago. And twelve years later, maybe you'll sit back and remember the time you read some dude's blog and were at a certain point of life, a mark in the map of life.