I don't know about where you are, but we are having a very mild winter. Not so mild that I should have been eating at outdoor burger joint Shake Shack last night, but I was and is where I snapped the picture that is now this week's cover art. There's lots of good new music on here, including the returns of a few favorite bands. Dig in: DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 2.03.2012 Tracklist: 1. Burning Hearts - Into the Wilderness [...]
I've been mostly cut-off from the internet this week thanks to living in a pre-War building that has cable installed in ways McGuyver never would've attempted. (A vision of a SOPA future, perhaps.) But we're back on now and I managed to put this one together while unplugged. Last week we got mostly dancey songs, and this week the guitars are back. A lot of exciting new stuff here I think. And one old song. Have a swell weekend! DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 01.20.2012 Here's the tracklist: [...]
There were a few snowflakes in the air today here in Brooklyn, the first of the season, so it's good timing for the first Wintry Mix of 2012. Unlike the Summer Fridays mixes, these will be almost entirely new music... though I'm allowing myself one oldie per week. Lots of great stuff here: new singles from The 2 Bears, Diagrams, WhoMadeWho and Bear in Heaven. This one is pretty dancefloor-friendly. So have at it! DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 01.13.2013 Tracklist: 1. The Golden Filter [...]
I could've made this list twice as long but I capped it at 50. Most of these are actual singles. The rest should be. Beyond the top ten, ordering is fairly arbitrary. Metronomy - The Look ( MP3 | Video ) I first heard this song back in February and I have yet to tire of it. I wish the keyboard solo outro lasted forever. Exlovers - Blowing Kisses ( MP3 | Video ) Rocking shoegaze pop of the highest order. [...]
I waited till 2011 to finalize my albums list - all my lists - partially due to laziness, being busy, the holidays... but mainly because I'm not sure what the hurry is. I don't do this for the web traffic (clearly), so I gave myself a little more time to decide than usual. (And as long as this goes up before the Village Voice' s Pazz n' Jop, I don't feel delinquent.) So here's my list, the top five or so have been a lock for almost half a year, but the rest were in flux right till I [...]
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. While you all wait with baited breath for my various year-encapsulating lists - just wanna make sure nobody sneaks out an amazing album tomorrow before committing to anything definitive - here's my 2011 Best Of mixes for you to download and enjoy. If you're a downloader of my Summer Fridays, Spring Fever and Wintry Mix mixes, you'll probably recognize a lot of songs here, now in a totally new order. Plus lots of stuff never put on mixes before, of course.They're broken up into stuff I [...]
Halloween is Monday so it's time for a new mix from me. Goth has really made a comeback, thanks to labels like Sacred Bones, Captured Tracks and Wierd and there's good "dark" music being made now, unlike a while back wehre it seemed that there was just a bunch of schlocky stuff being released on Cleopatra.For this year's mix, I decided to do a little old a little new. It all fits together pretty seamlessly. Some of it (Led Er Est for example) sounds genuinely vintage. I know there's a bunch of "spooky" music out there these days and I [...]
I think this was the 19th CMJ I have attended and though they don't call it the Music Marathon anymore, it still feels like it. SXSW is like that too, shows all day and night, but when you live in NYC and you're expected to do work too... you're running on fumes by the end. There weren't as many big names this year which turned out to be good. Most of the bands I saw were either entirely new to me, or I'd never seen them live before. Here's a rundown. Top Five CMJ Performances [...]
A little shameless self-promotion. I'm DJing a happy hour event this Thursday (September, 29) at Knitting Factory from 6 - 8PM that's being brought to you by the tastemakers at Flavorpill , with free Amstel and free burgers from the Frites & Meats truck. There's no cover, but you do need to RSVP to attend. Details on that part TBA. I'll update this post when I get them. To give you a taste of what I'll be spinning, I made a mix especially for the occasion: DOWNLOAD THE HAPPY HOUR [...]
The weather on the East Coast is now in the '60s, the leaves are changing and Fall's official start date is Wednesday. Might I suggest Veronica Falls ' debut album as the perfect soundtrack to the Autumn? Minor chords are strummed at a fierce jangle, dark romance sung at close harmonies, and production that sounds alive and full of space. The album was mostly recorded live over a three day period by producer Guy Fixen, which gives the songs a real immediacy, and shows off the bands chops. And as I said before, there's [...]
Glasslands' has this art instillation backdrop to the stage, a giant sea clouds made from tissue paper. With Christmas lights implanted, it looks like a snapshot of a fierce thunderstorm. It can make for striking photographs, but compliments some bands more than others. The clouds fit with chilly UK act Still Corners so well they feature in their press photo . Portland's Blouse , who made their New York debut at the venue on Thursday, mine '80s mope and '90s shoegaze and those clouds seem like they brought them with them. (Not [...]
It dropped 25 degrees yesterday and now feels like Fall but that season doesn't technically drop for five more days, so here's the final Summer Fridays mix of 2011 on an autumnal tip. Which means some '70s folk, sad strings, and mellow grooves. But as always, there's some great new music on here: new singles from Django Django (the first in a year and a half), Still Corners and Radio Dept. offshoot Korvallren and Junk Culture (featuring Phantogram's Sarah Barthel). Plus some oldies, cult obscurities (Yes that's Matt Berry of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The IT Crowd [...]
Apart from coming up with good songs and being able to play them live*, one of the hardest things new bands face these days is choosing a name. For example: Those of you who follow my Summer Fridays mix series (this week's the last one of 2011, by the way) may remember the song "Jeane" from Brooklyn trio Vacation that was featured way back in June . But there was already at least one other band called Vacation and a couple called Vacations, so they decided to change their name while it was easy to do so. [...]
This is the penultimate Summer Fridays mix for 2011. As these are a lot like The Wire , you know that a lot of stuff is going down over the next hour. Spoiler alert: your favorite character may die. Cover art was done last-minute by yours truly. DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.16 Tracklist: 1. Echo & the Bunnymen - Silver 2. Hospitality - Friends of Friends 3. Box Codax - Charade 4. Robert [...]
It was the well-deserved encore and the Bruar Falls crowd - heavily Asian, how often do you get bands from Beijing? - were bouncing around like crazy. A guy who'd been dancing the whole show jumped on stage and immediately didn't seem to remember why he'd done it. He then tumbled into the drumkit and the amps, bringing Hedgehog 's set to a crashing end. Turns out that dude was the band's U.S. tour manager. Don't let him drive the van guys! This was the first night of Hedgehog's stateside jaunt and the band [...]
Labor Day weekend, folks. Party it up, you've earned it. Here in New York, we've recently weathered earthquakes and minor hurricanes and other inconveniences. So fire up the grill, put a cold beverage in your hand and turn up the mildly twee indie pop jams on this week's mix. Cover art photo was taken by Kate Bryant at the Friends With You inflatable sculpture park which is at the upper end of the Highline park. While Labor Day is seen as the end of summer, Summer Fridays mixes will continue to the Autumn Equinox... so you get two [...]
The calm before the storm. Literally. New York is bracing for the biggest hurricane it's ever faced (named after Irene Ryan, Granny Clampett was one tough cookie) and I'm just hoping my 100 year-old building will survive the winds. (It survived the earthquake on Monday... what a week!) Until then, or if you're somewhere not on the East Coast of the United States, please enjoy the collection of mostly jangly pop. This week mostly ping-pongs between now and the mid-'80s (hey, that's new for me!), with a few stops in the '90s as well. Cover art this week [...]
We're at #13. Unlucky for you...this week's cover art is by me, the first one I've done this year. The original photo is by Danny Lyon, part of a series he took in Brooklyn the summer of 1974 . My photoshop skills could use a little polishing but I don't think it turned out too bad. Musically, this week's mix was partially inspired by me seeing Upside Down: The Creation Records Story where Primal Scream features heavily. A little madchester, a little dub and some other stuff that made sense at the time. [...]
Death by Audio, one of Williamsburg's longest running DIY spaces, is probably the perfect place to catch a couple French garage rock bands. It's one of the few clubs in New York where you still leave smelling like an ashtray. I know it's a stereotype but smoking and the French do pretty much go hand-in-hand. A lot more so than rock music and the French, though both The Limiñanas and Gaz Gaz proved that not all clichés hold true. Mind you, both bands' brand of rock n' [...]
When was the last time you were knocked out by a record on first listen? It happens less and less frequently for me, but I'm happy to report just such an occurance this weekend upon listening to Happy Soup , Baxter Dury 's just-released third album. I've been aware of Baxter Dury - yes, son of Blockheads frontman Ian Dury who put Baxter on the cover of his 1977 classic New Boots and Panties - since [...]
Sound Bites
The Kills on Letterman (Video)
Circo Voador anuncia shows de The Kooks, Foster The People, Friendly Fires, Gogol Bordello e mais
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
My Funny Valentines
