Allen Toussaint – The Art of the Mixtape

“Big Love”, Matthew E. White

Label: Hometapes (released August 21, 2012)

Big Inner is by far one of the more intriguing debut albums to come out this year: it’s equal parts experimental Beck, cynical Randy Newman, brooding The National and Big Easy celebrating Allen Toussaint. "Big Love" grooves with a percolating bass line and a fantastic jazzy piano hook that could have found a home on a Nina Simone album. It’s an arrangement that you want to stick around for as it bounces from “Tomorrow Never Knows” territory to a loose gospel-influenced call and response. Surely one of the better cuts of the year and coming from a man who looks like he could have been a cult leader. Check out the beautiful brass/string arrangement on the epic “Brazos”, one of the more enjoyable nearly 10:00 songs perhaps ever and surely a call to inherit Harry Nilsson’s long lost throne.

Big Love

Brazos

RIYL: Harry Nilsson, Beck, Randy Newman, Allen Toussaint, The National

Treat Her Fine: A Mixtape

As finals draw near and the first semester comes to a close, here’s a little playlist to get you through.

1. Hank – Treat Her Right (off of Tied to the Tracks)

2. Maybe Baby (Buddy Holly Cover) – Justin Townes Earle (off of Rave On Buddy Holly)

3. Let’s Go Young – Hundred Visions (off of Permanent Basement)

4. Don’t Stop Loving Me Now (Floating Action Cover) – Juston Stens (via Everybody Taste)

5. Who’s Gonna Find Me – The Coral (off of Roots and Echoes)

6. Thought and Commonsense – Cheers Elephant ( off of Like Wind Blows Fire)

7. Where’d All the Time Go – Dr. Dog (off of Shame, Shame)

8. 50 Lashes – Floating Action (off of Floating Action)

9. Lonely Lonely Night – Juston Stens (off of Trash or Treasure)

10. California – Cheers Elephant (off of Man Is Nature)

11. Hot Love – T. Rex (off of Electric Warrior)

12. You Never Know – Wilco (off of Wilco)

13. Leaves, Trees, Forest – Dan Mangan (off of Oh, Fortune)

14. No Voodoo- Allah-Las (off of Allah-Las)

15. Soul Sister – Allen Toussaint (off of Life, Love And Faith)

16. In Living Color – Lands & Peoples (off of Pop Guilt)

17. Big Bad Love – Andrew Combs (off of Worried Man)

18. Leap – The Cave Singers (off of Welcome Joy)

19. You Had Me At Hello – Mystery Jets (off of Radlands)

20. You Silly Git – Dan Mangan (off of Nice, Nice, Very Nice)

21. Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen (off of Nebraska)

Listen to it on Spotify

Treat Her Fine (.zip file)

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances, A Mixtape

Art of the Song presents Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances, a free mix for your downloading pleasure! Perfectly calibrated to get those hips shakin’ and feet tappin’, play this on your speakers and get ready to dance the night away! If you’re feeling lucky, just click the picture for the download, or wait til after the tracklisting to click the link below.

Please note that it’s a zip file, and won’t have the proper track order, but if you put all the songs on your itunes, then click the Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances.m3u file, iTunes does the work for you. Now that’s what I call Doin’ It Right!

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances :

1. Hang Fire – The Rolling Stones
2. Coming Back to Me Baby – James Carr
3. Pressure Drop – Robert Palmer
4. Keep On Movin’ – King Tuff
5. Doin’ It, Right – Cheers Elephant
6. Hit and Miss – The Tins
7. 100 Yard Dash – Raphael Saadiq
8. Black Snake – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
9. Soulless- Fake Problems
10. I’ve Got To Convince Myself – Allen Toussaint
11. Morning Crimes – Theme Park
12. Caught Me Thinkin’ – Bahamas
13. Fantasized – Robert Cray
14. Happy Pills – Norah Jones
15. Land Of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
16. Shotgun – Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
17. Ophelia (from The Last Waltz) – The Band
18. Act Nice & Gentle – The Black Keys
19. The Night Before – The Beatles
20. Please Be It – The Generationals
21. Hold On! I’m Comin’ – B.B. King & Eric Clapton

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances.zip

Summer Gems 2012: A Mixtape

To grab the mix, either click on the image or the text.

Track-listing:

1. Peoples – Cheers Elephant

2. The Fritz – Cruiser

3. The Walk – Mayer Hawthorne

4. Everyone Knows – Vacationer

5. This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) – Talking Heads

6. Milk – Theme Park

7. The Hale Bop – Mystery Jets

8. She’s So Scandalous – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

9. Fletcher – Blitzen Trapper

10. Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

11. Skin It Back – Little Feat

12. Carrying The Torch – Generationals

13. My Baby Is The Real Thing – Allen Toussaint

14. Come On Sock It To Me – Syl Johnson

15. Got To Be Some Changes Made – The Staple Singers

16. Scratch My Back – Otis Redding

17. Knock On Wood – Eddie Floyd

18. Blackmail – Robert Palmer

19. Ain’t Gonna Stop – Natural Child

20. Greatest Hits – Mystery Jets

21. If You Let Me Be Your Anchor – Dawes

(Image Courtesy of We Are Handsome)