So, someone recently asked me to recount my life.. musically.. It was an interesting task, and a fun one at that, so I looked back… and put together a little mix that represented my musical tastes thus far…
I’m trying something new.. a YouTube playlist of these songs — I’m actually quite impressed that YouTube has ALL of these songs. Wow.
(80s Phase)
Ok.. so I dont actually have any tracks in my iTunes from this phase — it was the 80s, and all of my music is either on LP or Cassette tape, and therefore, not in my iTunes… Anyway.. it WAS the 80s when I was listening to this stuff, so it wasn’t called “80s music” back then.. Back then, it was just “pop” and I remember listening to a lot of it on 107.9, aka POWER 108.
(Classic Rock Phase)
So, In high school, I was big into classic rock.. You know, Zeppelin, Clapton, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles. I listened mostly to 100.7 WMMS (aka the buzzard with the wig). Then, I got my first CD player, a Sony Discman D-4, by saving up for like 13 years, I think. My First CDs were.. Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
(Ska Phase)
I’m not sure how I found ska in college, but I did. All throughout college, I pretty much listened to like 80% ska music. I did the whole deal, I had the flight jacket, a porkpie hat, oxblood doc martens, and skanked. Ya, I even had a Vespa (and still do).
(Electronica Phase)
And then.. I moved to San Francisco. And in SF, electronica kind of found me. I probably spent like 6 months listening ONLY to trance, and on this one trip up to Tahoe, I ONLY had trance CDs in my car.. about 2 hours into the drive, I was so desperate for ANYTHING NON-TRANCE that I almost tore my ears out until I (thankfully) found a cassette tape from high school (classic rock) that I listened to for the rest of the weekend. I have a theory that you can only listen to so much trance in your lifetime, after which you’re just, like, done with it. So yah, even though I remember really, really liking this PVD track. Now, I can’t even be bothered to sit through it. Ugh.
So, from trance, I moved on to breaks, which I think is a natural progression. I probably spent the most time DJ’ing breaks, and my vinyl collection is primarly breaks. That said, for some reason, I don’t really like listening to breaks on my iPod. Maybe that’s cuz I don’t really like listening to breaks — I prefer dancing to it.
(Folky Phase.. Reprise)
I think as a backlash to my years of electronic/trance-ness, I rekindled my interest in folky stuff. These two tracks are my favorites:
(Hip Hop, Turntabilist Phase)
For like a brief time, I really wanted to be a good scratch DJ/Turntablist, and it was during that time that I found a lot of hip hop that was pretty rad.
(Indie Electronic Phase)
I think the pendulum swung back kind of crooked — and since everything merges anyway, I found myself in indie-land, with a bit of an electronic influence.
(Indie Phase)
Ok.. and now we’re kind of in my latest phase, which is just the “Indie Phase” — that said, “Indie” is kind of a wide spectrum of things, and pretty much, for the past few years, I’ve been putting together mixtapes like every quarter. So, here’s just a sampling from those mixtapes of tracks that I find to have a particularly high level of awesomeness.
I just got back from SXSW in Austin (my first time there)… I was there for the entire thing, Interactive, Film and Music, and it was a crazy, overwhelming experience. Interactive was well attended, supposedly with double the attendance of last year — with the recession (maybe) on it’s way out, and also with the huge rise of social media, it seemed like everyone was clamoring for.. something. Though Foursquare was definitely the talk of the conference (and actually quite useful on many nights), Twitter was definitely the Twitter of the 2010 conference (if their well-attended party was any indication). I met a TON of fantastic people whilst networking at Interactive. It’s really an amazing industry to be working in, and I’m quite thankful that I’m knee deep in it. Maybe I’ll write up some more stuff about the interactive part of the conference, but for now, music is fresh on my mind.
Though the music portion of the conference didn’t officially start until Wednesday, I kicked off my week with Band of Skulls at the Austin City Limits studios. Despite the humongous line outside, we were able to breeze right on through, Goodfellas style, thanks to Carlo’s friend Emily, who works for ACL. Sweet!! Better than VIP!
After the show, we hung around the studio for a bit, and I met Emma Richardson, the bassist and chatted with their upcoming show at Rickshaw Stop here in San Francisco. She’s lovely and has a charming English accent — yes, we Americans are suckers for English accents.
Monday night, at the Gowalla party, amidst a mild Texas rainstorm, Diplo rocked the Belmont, which was renamed “The Tiki Room” for the night.
Tuesday night was the official closing party for Film, and Bay Area was representing with Mike Relm, who is best known for mixing YouTube videos together like this:
Insanely awesome. And thanks to Grace, I got to meet and hang out with him as well. He’s super nice. I like it when people are nice.
And then the music portion of SXSW officially started… Now, at this point, I’m a little freaked out because thus far, I had already been meeting and hanging out with people every night until about 4 or 5 in the morning… for Interactive.. I shuddered to think at what kind of late nights would be had during music, especially after my many a late night at MIDEM back in January.
Wednesday.
Ok, after working most of the day Wednesday(yes, I was still working..) I managed to miss many of the day parties, but no worry, there was still a ton of music going on… After wandering 6th street for a bit, feeling the energy starting to grow in the city of Austin, by chance, I happened upon the Alamo Drafthouse about 5 minutes before the next movie was about to begin. Since I had a platinum badge, films were free for me as well, so I went on in, ordered a beer (yes! beer at a movie theater!) and found myself with the last seat in the theater, right in the middle of the theater. Awesome. The film was A New York Thing, and was a nice little French-ish romantic-comedy-drama set in NYC. Damn, that reminds me… I saw a great sticker in Austin that said: “I (heart) NY but I’m not in (heart) with NY.” Ha.
Anyway, Wednesday night, I hit up 5 shows:
Javelin: my friend Paul recommended them.. they were supposed to be a dope-ass electronic act, but for some reason, they decided to sing to their tracks, and ended up being like a bad version Chromeo. Not so great.
Broken Bells: I had heard a lot about this band, so I hopped on over to Stubb’s to check them out. Stubb’s is a huge outdoor venue in Austin that serves up some tasty bbq, but ugh, I’m not a fan of crowds, so while I really enjoyed their set, I did not enjoy being smooshed amongst thousands of adoring Broken Bells fans. That said, I really did appreciate having a badge at this point, since I was able to walk right into the show, whereas the poor wristband people had to stand in line for hours, I think… Ouch.
Frightened Rabbit: After the Stubb’s show, I whisked myself over to the Parish, where the Scottish folks were sponsoring the night. I had originally wanted to see We Were Promised Jetpacks as well, but was too late (and supposedly that show was PACKED).
Database: I met back up with my friend Paul, who was at the Hype Machine party at Vice, where these djs from Brazil were tearing it up. Solid stuff.
Delorean: Finally, to close out the night, 4 guys from the Basque country played some electro-indie stuff. Sweet.
Thursday.
I was walking through 6th again, and randomly I came upon the NPR party, where I saw that the top billing was Sleigh Bells. Um, awesome. I had been wondering if Sleigh Bells was going to be playing at all, but not having seen them on any official billing, I was kind of bummed. But.. there they were. SLEIGH BELLS. Right on the bill. I went on in. When I got in, a decent hip hop act was playing, G-Side, but they finished up and next up was Surfer Blood. This was another band that I had started hearing about a bit, but hadn’t really made any plans to see. They played a solid set, and then with my new found fellow Sleigh Bells superfan, Alison, we eagerly awaited the Brooklyn duo to take the stage.
Now, when I play SB’s track “Crown on the Ground” for people, most ask me if it is supposed to sound like it sounds. It’s EPIC, loud, and blown out — it sounds like it was improperly recorded — but, I really think that it’s part of what they were going for, and it’s perfect to me just the way it is. So, I was wondering if their lo-fi sound was going to translate properly into their live act, and it really did. They were awesome. I can’t wait to see them again.
After Sleigh Bells, I left the Parish elated and energized.. It was slightly weird to be so amped at 5pm in the afternoon, but I suppose it’s part of the SXSW experience. I met up with Espree at the AP party, where I had to weasel my way in since I didn’t RSVP ahead of time. One of the skills that I honed during my week in Austin was definitely the “weasel” skill. Apparently, if you just act like you know what you’re doing, most people will just assume that yah, you know what you’re doing and let you in. Although, you have to wait for the right time to do the weaseling though. Just walking right at a lone bouncer in a VIP section is *not* the way to do it (as I learned a few times). There should be a larger group already walking in, or he has to be otherwise distracted or something.
Anyway, I decided to start my evening with another movie — this time, The Runaways, a movie about Joan Jett and Cherie Curry, played by Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, both of which were in attendance.
Thursday night, I saw 4 acts:
JJ: Now, having really liked her song, Let Go, I was very excited to see JJ live. I arrived a little late, and found that JJ was just 1 woman, sitting by herself in an office chair, singing into a microphone. I mean, her music is pretty mellow, but wow.. low energy. I was slightly disappointed, but I guess after hearing her music again, maybe it makes sense that she’s just sitting there. Singing.
Timber Timbre: After JJ, I was originally going to stay for Holy Fuck, but then I called an audible and booked it over to the Central Presbyterian Church, where Chilly Gonzales was slated to play next. Well, I apparently mis-timed it, because I was waaay early, and instead, got to catch some of Timbre Timber, a pleasant folky group. Afterwards, Paul informed me that the Holy Fuck show was THE BEST SHOW he’d seen. Argh. Oh well. I’ll have to catch them at some point in the future. Erg, I suppose another lesson I learned at SXSW was that you couldn’t really be pissed to miss cool stuff, cuz there’s so much cool stuff that you miss that you’d drive yourself batty if you worried about it all.
Chilly Gonzales: Ok, this show was farking rad. I sat myself down in the 2nd row of pews (the show was in a church) as they rolled in the grand piano right in front of the first row of pews. They informed the 2 girls seated in the first row that they had to move back because they would be way too close to Gonzales as he played.. ha.. so I ended up sitting like 4 feet away from him as he played. Gonzales’ show was incredible — he arrived on scene in a bathrobe, slippers, and white gloves that he kept on during his whole piano performance.
Midlake: Closing the night out, I hopped back to Buffalo Billiards to catch Midlake. I like these guys, but their show was kinda enh. Oh well.
Friday
Ok.. Home stretch now… Surprisingly though, I’ve made it home each night at a reasonable hour, considering all of the music that I’d been seeing — who knew.. Interactive parties harder than Music.
Friday afternoon, I discovered a secret gem.. East Austin. After checking out the Levi’s Fader Fort for a bit, where Cherie Curry was demonstrating her new career as a chainsaw artist, I wandered eastward, following the faint lure of music and bbq. In East Austin, there’s a few cool bars, a chicken & waffles place served out of an old bus, and a typewriter museum, where a thriving hipster party with $1 lonestar was kickin’. Hello hipster gentrification.
I found East Austin to be intoxicatingly photogenic, even with a crappy iPhone camera. Yah. I need to return with my real camera.
I started Saturday evening at the Velveeta Room, a comedy venue, where I saw 2 comics, Howard Kremer and Doug Benson (who I’ve seen on Best Week Ever). Doug made fun of me for taking this iPhone picture.
Friday, I saw 7 acts:
Casxio: I saw this LA-based funk, soul, electronic group in a random parking lot in East Austin. Cool sound, and they gave me a cd. Thanks.
Ben Gibbard: Best known as part of Dashboard Confessional Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, Ben Gibbard played a rare solo, acoustic set. His wife, Zooey Deschanel, was playing as part of She & Him over at Stubb’s at the same exact time, so any hopes of a surprise duet with her were dashed. Nonetheless, it was really cool to see him play. He did a fantastic version of Recycled Air.
Bachelorette: New Zealand chick… dreamy, poppy tracks.
Yacht: I had high hopes for Yacht, but I found them to be energetic, but musically meh.
The Death Set: These guys were hilarious. I’m quite sure they were hammered drunk. Ridiculous punk energy, stage diving into a sparse crowd of about 15 people.
Fanfarlo: AWESOME.
MG&V: This was the debut of the supergroup, formed from members of Dawes, Deer Tick and Delta Spirit. Supposely, they had played together for the first time just days before, which was amazing since they sounded incredible together. I’d love to hear more from them.
Saturday.
Andy showed up Friday night with his crew, who were all here for a bachelor party. Saturday morning, they got together and piled into a rented van headed for the Austin Rodeo. They invited me along, but unfortunately, there was no room in the van for me. So, instead, I had chili for breakfast. I missed out on the rodeo. And . And fried testicles. Oh well.
I wandered back into town after being rejected from the party van, but.. it turned out to be fortunate, since I discovered the IFC Crossroads house — where they film bands for some show on IFC, I guess. I walked in, and they were filming the Frightened Rabbit show, who I had seen before, but honestly, seeing them this second time with only like 20 people made me like them a lot more.
After having such a magnificent time at the IFC, I returned a few hours later to see who else was filming. It was the last taping of the festival, a group from Saratoga Springs called Phantogram. Wow. With complicated time signatures and catchy melodies, they are my favorite new find of the week.
And yes, I saw another movie.. Strange Powers, a film about Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields.
Saturday, I saw 8 bands:
Frightened Rabbit: 2nd time seeing them.
Phantogram: AWESOME new find of the week.
MyNameIsJohnMichael: Met up with Willo at this show, since I was across the street watching the movie. Fun band from Florida.
Casiokids: I wanted some electronic, to cleanse the palate.
Best Coast: These guys were recommended by SPIN as someone to definitely check out, and FourSquare gave me a nice badge for checking them out. Lo-fi girl band.
Felix Cartal: DJ rocked the house before the Wallpaper show.
Wallpaper: Bay Area! My friend Steve works with them, so I decided to check them out. They have a huge Bay Area following, so it felt like I was back in SF at this show.
Stars of Track & Field: To close out my SXSW, I went back to the Parish (where I claimed mayorship on 4SQ). These guys are great and under-appreciated, I think. A fantastic way to finish up my SXSW.
So yah… wow. That’s a lot of music. I’m still a little overwhelmed.
It starts off with Earworm’s tribute to the top 25 hits of 2009 — I can’t really stand that Black Eyed Peas song after the NRJ awards effectively hammered it into my head for hours on end, but the mashup itself is kinda catchy and a pleasure to listen to.
Caesar is an awesome track by Sting’s 19-year old daughter, “I Blame Coco” (whose name is strangely timely in light of all of the Leno vs. Conan stuff).
And then.. number 3, Brooklyn band Sleigh Bell’s “Crown On The Ground.” It’s a LOUD song. It sounds like the levels are mastered WAY too high, and actually sounds like your speakers are crapping out. But, for some strange reason, I love it.
So, as a palate cleanser, I thought M.A.G.I.C. was a nice choice — just picture unicorns floating across a rainbow filled sky as you listen to that one.
Dr. Rosen Rosen’s remix of Weezer is kind of awesome, but actually, all of his remixes are pretty incredible. I really didn’t mean for this mix to be all mashups and remixes, but I guess that’s just what I’ve been listening to a lot lately.
Ok, nobody really is reading this are they? Just go listen to the mix.
Happy New Year everyone.. 2010 is well on its way, so I’ve put together a little mix to get it started… 2009 was an amazing year for new music. Whoever said that the digital age is killing music obviously isn’t actually out there listening to the stuff.
The year opened for me with a whole lotta Bon Iver, whose Blood Bank EP was an awesomely haunting way to open the new year. Then, pretty much most of my 2009 was spent listening to Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.. man, that entire album is insanely awesome. And then, just as 2009 was about to close, the xx stormed the scene.
2009 was also the year of the remix for me, aided with the hype machine, remixes (good AND bad) are flooding out more than ever. Yes, it takes time to sort through the crap to find the gems, but once you do, it’s quite rewarding. Also, if you haven’t heard the brazilian remixing duo, The Twelves, yet.. I highly suggest you go and check them out. Now.
Anyway, I’m rambling.. so, without further adieu, here’s my picks for best songs of 2009.
Enjoy.
As long as I have your attention, I might as well also list out the live shows that I saw for 2009:
The Bird & The Bee @ The Independent
rjd2 @ 103 Harriet and Vessel
Toshio Hirano @ The Rite Spot
Ratatat @ The Fillmore
Band Of Horses @ The Fox
Jason Reeves, Brendan James, Amber Rubarth @ Cafe du Nord
Emilie Simon @ Le Poisson (NYC)
Bon Iver @ The Fox
Dawes (opening for Langhorne Slim, but I left after seeing Dawes) @ The Independent
Joan As Policewoman @ Knitting Factory (Brooklyn)
Friendly Fires & The xx @ The Independent
Not a bad take for this year, I suppose.. I got to see 2 of my top 3 acts of 2009 — Phoenix actually played the Warfield, but I refuse to go to that venue cuz I hate it.. yuck. Clearly, The Independent is my favorite place to go see shows this year (and I’ll be back there for Miike Snow soon). Strangely though, no shows at the Greek for 2009.. Weird.
Anyway — hats off to a super awesome musical 2009.
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Mine was spent with family up in Tahoe. After pigging out on Turkey with all of the fixin’s, we marked the official start of the holiday season by putting up the tree.. Nature cooperated by dusting Tahoe with a few inches of white, fluffy snow. Awesome!
And, to put the whole room in the mood, I played my xmas mix.. Yes, I had originally thought that last year’s xmas mix would be the last one, but people keep putting out new, fantastic renditions of holiday classics. Even Bob Dylan did a holiday album this year.. I love ya Bob, but.. um.. yah, not my favorite, sorry. Anyway, here’s this year’s mix:
12 Days Of Christmas – The Bird And The Bee
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – The Trekky Yuletide Orchestra
All My Bells Are Ringing – Lenka
All That I Want for Christmas (Is to Give My Love Away)- The Rescues
Please Come Home for Christmas – Charles Brown
Come On Santa – The Raveonettes
Winter Wonderland – Jason Mraz
Christmas Day – RuRu
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming – Feist
I Heard The Bells – Desert Noises
Let it Snow – Her Space Holiday
Fa La Freezing – My First Earthquake
Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas – The Eels
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – The Pretenders
O Holy Night – Weezer
White Christmas – Jason Castro
Christmas Will Be Another Lonely Day – Brenda Lee
First Noel – My American Heart
Lonely Without You (This Christmas) – Mick Jagger
Kissin’ by the Mistletoe – Aretha Franklin
A Marshmallow World – Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin
O Come All Ye Faithful – Pomplamoose and Wade Johnston
Christmas Must Be Tonight – The Band
Silent Night – Sarah McLachlan
Anyway, if you want a cd/downloadable link — tell me and I’ll get it to you.
Basic Space, by The xx
Fables, by The Dodos
HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPOS, by Harperactive
The Lucky Ones, by Tim Myers
Lisztomania (Classixx Version), by Phoenix
RadioheadChopin, by Jack Conte
Melody, by Kate Earl
I Want You To Want Me, by Damhnait Doyle
From South Carolina, by Her Space Holiday
I Don’t Know What To Do, by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Grey Skies, by Alexa Wilkinson
Fun Stuff, by Frightened Rabbit
Tired, by Adele
Exit Music (For a Film), by Vampire Weekend
Save Me, by Aimee Allen
Somewhere, by Vic Chesnutt & Liz Durrett
Psychic City (Voodoo City), by YACHT
Rome (Neighbors remix feat. Devendra Banhart), by Phoenix
When Will Be The End, by The Ethiopians
This one is quite mellow.. even the electronicky songs are kind of mellow. I suppose I’m in a mellow mood or something. And the other thing I noticed is how many covers are on this one. Maybe it’s cuz I just saw Joan As Police Woman on her “Cover” album tour. (Check out the CD that she signed for me). Anyway, there are a ton of covers on this mix — definitely check out “I Want You To Want Me,” it’s a great version. And yes, there are two Phoenix songs on this mix, breaking a cardinal rule that I have (don’t repeat artists on an album), but I also arguably have the same Radiohead song twice (Jack Conte and Vampire Weekend) and that’s an even bigger rule I’ve broken. But, rules are made to be broken, so whatever.
And yes, it’s that Scarlett Johansson.. Her new cd is.. ok. I blame Anna’s review for me buying her cd, but I like that track.
I was just chatting with Masnick last night about how much frikkin’ good music is coming out lately. I mean, I consume a lot of music as it is, but with sites like The Sixty One, RCRD LBL and Hype Machine, it’s getting easier to find awesome new music (and with SonicLiving, easier to see them live). Anyway.. this year has been awesome so far for music.
Next up.. the 2009 xmas cd.. I know you are waiting for it with bated breath.
It opens with Lisztomania, by Phoenix, which you may recognize from the Brooklyn ratpack video that I posted awhile back. Damn, I love this song, it just gets me in a good mood every time. Cool in the Cool Way is a local band here in SF, made up of a bunch of my brother’s CMU classmates. Its video ironically bashes hipsters, which, in and of itself, is kind of inherently hipster. (Whoa, how meta.)
Moth’s Wings, by Passion Pit, and Velvet, by The Big Pink are two tracks that I found whilst listening to my favorite XM station, XMU. I still think that it was better when Toby was around, but whoever is running it now is getting better at finding good stuff. Except the lazy-voiced dude in the mornings. I can’t stand him.
Any one of my mixes is bound to be sprinkled with a liberal dose of female folky indie chicks, and this one is no exception. Blue Lips is one of my favorite tracks off Regina Spektor’s newest album, Far, and Bitter Heart by Zee Avi is a lovely tune sent to me by my friend Jason, who knows I’m a fan of this genre.
Definitely check out Blue Motorbike, by Moto boy, who I found through my work at Techdirt — we’re featuring some great things from Moto boy in the Techdirt Music Club that we’re currently selling, so go check that out. And buy it.
I was introduced to The Real Tuesday Weld by the movie Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist — their song, Last Words, was in the movie, and from there, and this track, It’s a Wonderful Li(f)e has that same dreamy, hopeful yet melancholy quality that I loved in Last Words. If you’re a fan of Indie music and Michael Cera, you should definitely go see Nick & Norah.
Quiet Little Voices is an epic post-rocky track from We Were Promised Jetpacks, from Scotland. Thick, luscious sound. Good. Hat tip to my friend, Ali, for this one. Kettering by the Antlers seemed to continue the epic tone that WWPJ had set, so I threw that in here as well. Closing out the triplet, and bringing us nicely back into a happier, lighter land, is Andrew Bird with Take Courage.
From there, Landon Pigg paints a light hearted picture of Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop — although if you’ve been to a coffee shop lately, I don’t know if that can really happen anymore, since everyone there seems engrossed in their laptops nowadays.
Wee.. music. Love it.
Update:
I just found another track that I’m going to add.. She & Him’s cover of the Smiths song, Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want. Zooey is da awesomes.
