Category: Mixtape

Sidetracks

Self promotion is never a good thing, in fact it comes off mostly as desperate and uncouth.  But I’m not promoting myself in this case, this next song is a cover of the National’s 90 mile water wall done by my brother, its pretty low fidelity but he recorded it on a mac just using the built in mic, still its very well done and i did some after the fact editing to try to bring out his vocal more and get more space on the lead guitar, see what you think

90 Mile Water Wall

This next track is off of an EP Spoon did in collaboration with Bright Eyes back in 2004 and typical of both bands its a great melody as well as great lyrics that drives this song about long distance love.

Let The Distance Keep Us Together

And lastly a great old school Motown track, This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You) by a very young Isley Brothers who would later be known for such songs as Who’s That Lady and providing the funky samples behind Ice Cube’s It Was A Good Day and many other rap songs.  This song however is pure Motown, great melody, great vocals and lyrics focused on falling in love and finding it

This Old Heart of Mine ( Is Weak For You)

New Music Sunday! Vol 3- A.A. Bondy, As Tall As Lions, Jason Diaz, Justin Townes Earle

A.A. Bondy-

A.A. Bondy is blessed with the talent of taking the age old guitar and harmonica duo and breathing new life into it. While his lyrics match those of another famous guitar and harmonica wielding folkster, Bob Dylan, his voice is much less scratchy, warm and endearing.  He’s got a new record out as well, which shows he has a knack for arrangements, something Bob Dylan didn’t really flesh out.  His voice rings out against the dark moody instruments in the background and its hard to shake his warm spirit.  Troubadour say some,  but he seems to possess a depth beyond labels.

American Hearts

When the Devil’s Loose

There’s  A Reason

Witness  Blues

Hey Preacher

Black Rain, Black Rain

The Mightiest of Guns

I Can See the Pines are Dancing


As Tall As Lions-

As Tall As Lions is a group that thrives in its technical ability, its crazy modern arrangements, and its talented high register singer.  It would not be a stretch to compare them to Radiohead, nor an insult to either.  Beautiful these melodies are, derivative they are not.   The moods this band is able to create with each different song is remarkable and reason enough to listen

Circles

Sleepyhead (acoustic version)

Love, Love, Love (Love, Love)

Song for Luna


Jason Diaz-

I heard Jason Diaz on a music blog site, unsure at first of what his particular talent was until he opened his mouth.  Soulful, stunning, and absolutely exquisite, Jason Diaz’s voice can be a little too moving sometimes,  but the biggest highlight here is Foresaken which melds his croon with great jazz piano and guitar that seems like its right out of the Hendrix songbook, its an odd trifecta to be sure but one not to be missed out on.

Pleasure in Pain

Forsaken

Take Me or Leave Me

The Prodigal (Sweet Caroline)

Unholiest War

When You Lay Down Your Life


Justin Townes Earle-

Now, the one genre I have generally had no respect for is country.  It’s easy to hate on and make fun of since it is such a pigeonholed genre with little variation involved.  It seemed Justin Townes Earle would not fall far from the tree.  His father Steve Earle had already been a famous country singer and he seemed fated to fall in his footsteps.  Yet with Midnight At the Movies, his latest album, he manages to break free from the mold, he lets the style breathe with his simple arrangements and his voice has a slight twang that doesn’t overpower his singing abilities.

What I Mean To You

Poor Fool

Can’t Hardly Wait

The Ghost of Virginia

love

George Harrison once said “What is my life without your love?” and he’s right.  If there is one thing for certain in life it is our need to be needed, to be accepted, to find relationships with people that mean more than growing up with the person.  We find that our friends early in life are more to teach us how to be more personable, sociable, and make connections to grow past our fears of alienation and loneliness, a concept that persecutes our everyday lives, as people we want to provoke ourselves.  And in a way, a social life educates us more than just an academic education.  With friends we have people to bounce our ideas off of, to whittle down beliefs we have that are not necessarily untrue but are not fully developed.  Love however defies our logic and sense of friendship, a powerful feeling that can make you feel lonely even with friends, a connection we seek our whole lives to make us feel, oddly enough, whole.  Physical attraction is an entirely different animal not to be confused with love, we’ll say “Damn, that girl/guy has a nice body, I wish I could get with her/him.” But that’s not love, love does not necessitate a physical attraction, but a mental attraction; feelings we share, connections we can’t explain but want to know.  In love there has to be as much unknown as there is known, for it’s in the seeking of such knowledge that we bond, we fall in love.  It drives us to do irrational things; to murder, to wage war, even just simply overspending our money.  We feel uncomfortable in our own skin, we feel it is necessary to project an image that is above ourselves.  It’s funny to see that true love can be based on white lies that we believe about ourselves to make us more mentally intriguing to the ones we seek.  It’s not wrong though, it drives creativity in our culture.  What would our society have without this unquenchable search for love and the trials we go through finding it?   Now ladies and gentleman, I give you, a mixtape driven and concerned about love.

Love Mixtape

Please note the link is to a folder not an individual song, enjoy

New Music Sunday! Vol. II- Voxtrot, The xx, Coconut Records

Voxtrot

Voxtrot sounds like its a band that didn’t forget the eighties.  But this isn’t a bad thing, rather they come off as the Smith’s heir apparent, with dashes of The Strokes thrown in.  Ear candy for the music fan who wishes more bands were like The Smiths, and ear candy for the music fan that loves a good early Motown meets classic pop melody.

The Start of Something

the warm somewhat unclearly recorded vocals only makes this song more endearing, and it does give you that warm feeling of starting to fall in love, euphoric.

Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives

Excellent transition from a reverbed opening into clanging chords, great guitar and drum work on here and just goes to show the bands ability to stretch their style.

Kid Gloves

Yet another variation and undeniably catchy

Berlin, Without Return

This song stands up to some of Spoons best, great build, great arrangment, simple and beautiful

The xx

The xx is a very intriguing band in the way they develop their songs, arrangements play a huge role in what makes them good, and the dual female and male lead singers only help their cause

Basic Space

theres a lot of space in the arrangement as the title might suggest, and the harmony betweeen Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft is sublime.  Croft has a beautiful achy voice that just cuts right into you

Crystalized

Ever wonder what it would sound like if Thom Yorke had a female counterpart to sing with in Radiohead, I do, and this gives you a little glimpse.

Heart Skipped A Beat

It’s amazing they manage to take drum loops and make them sound like they fit nowhere else but in their songs, and this is a great duet

Coconut Records

Coconut Records is the brainchild of actor Jason Schwartzman, yes that actor who played that annoying kid in Rushmore and is also known for playing drums for ‘that band that played the theme song to The O.C.‘ (Phantom Planet). Don’t let that dissuade you though, Schwartzman has a knack for crafting pop melodies, and he plays all the instruments on the record as well.  Think of  Elliot Smith except more upbeat.  Schwartzman fully deserves to be recognized as a musician and an actor, not an actor/musician, because there is a difference.

Drummer

Off of Davy, his latest release, this song mocks his fame as a musician, and its got a great melody to boot

Saint Jerome

Somehow Schwartzman came upon the perfect meld of sound between his voice, guitar and piano, sure the arrangement is nothing groundbreaking but it sounds fresh in his hands

Microphone

He certainly has his own sound but his knack for making great pop melodies reminds me of Paul McCartney and thats not a stretch

West Coast

Off of his first album Nighttiming, everything about this song is perfect from the synthesizer to the organic backing instruments to his beautiful background harmonies.