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july 2010 mix
Before I even did a mix dedicated to delta blues, I was determined to do a mix of vintage soul. At the time I was obsessed with the Numero Group‘s Eccentric Soul series (I still am), and it the first pass I took at doing a soul mix was too single-sourced to merit posting. My knowledge of soul is ever expanding from a number of sources – hip-hop samples, Mississippi Records’ tape series, and good old self-motivated research – so it was just a matter of time before I felt a mix would be deserving of the month’s focus.
june 2010 mix
Believe it or not, I actually tried quite hard to avoid making this month’s mix too current – starting with Wanda Jackson‘s incredible haunting 1961 country/rock “Funnel of Love,” as well as including a few 90s tracks that I think are just as good now as they were 15 years ago. RIP (Gaunt frontman) Jerry Wick.
may 2010 mix
It’s one of those months where I really don’t have time to properly write up the mix, but let’s see what I can do here in the next couple of minutes. Basically as soon as I heard “An Apology,” I knew that Future Islands would find a way onto a mix. “Beach Foam” goes back to their 2008 album, Wave Like Home. I am on pins and needles for their new album, In Evening Air, which comes out on May 4th. The other song off that they’ve leaked is “Tin Man,” which from what I can understand of the lyrics is brilliant take on heartbreak, told through an appropriation of The Wizard of Oz’s most robot-like persona. You’d have to be a fool… or at least an older brother traveling to see you little sister’s graduation, to miss their L.A. shows 5/21 + 5/22 at Sync Space and The Smell, respectively.
april 2010 mix
Aquarium Drunkard deserves an assist on this mix… first I guess for putting together a pretty amazing lineup for a post-SXSW festival last weekend, featuring Family Portrait. but he also gets credit for a consistently great blog that I think is one of the best music blogs out there, and easily the most interesting local L.A. one. Don Cavalli was featured recently, and “I’m Going To A River” absolutely floors me. I suppose I could do a “listen if you like” sort of thing for The Black Keys or Muddy Waters, but hopefully if you are even reading this you just listen to the mixes blindly like I’m a cult leader. Don’t make me go there.
march 2010 mix
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on in this mix… that it starts off with electronica, get’s kinda folksy before finishing on some southern soul. Washed Out makes a second appearance in a row, this month for their remix of Small Black, a band that had just hit my radar a couple months back on a completely different level. They’re on tour together and I suspect this remix speaks to what a good pairing the two will be. I guess I’m dyslexic because I almost accidentally went to a Wavves show last week before realizing that I had their names mixed up. I’m excited for the March 26th Washed Out/Small Black show in L.A.
february 2010 mix
What a good month for new releases January was, and at the top of my list are Beach House‘s Teen Dream and Laura Veirs‘ July Flame, both of which are included on this mix. I’m glad the Beach House album has gotten such a good response, I think it is entirely well deserved and no song depicts how amazing it is better than album closer, “Take Care.” The song is simultaneously simple and complex, layered with orchestration in a way that simultaneously recalls the 50s and 80s while feeling out-of-place enough that it is very ‘now.’ As always, I am constantly thrown off by Victoria Legrand’s sultry but detached voice, which reaches maybe an album-wide apex as she sings, “I’ll take care of you / If you ask me to / In a year or two.”
january 2010 mix
I’m excited for a new year, and I’ll let my anticipated list speak for itself in terms of my optimism for the year. This month starts of with post-Ima Robot band, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, who made it onto my best of the year list as well. “40 Day Dream” has probably the most Ima Robot feel of any of the tracks from their debut, Up From Below, which is probably why it is, nostalgically, one of my favorites. Surfer Blood was another 2009 favorite that never made it onto a mix until this one. Beach House sounds amazing, and I’m glad that I only have a few more weeks here to wait for the album.
favorite songs 2009
Most of these found their way onto the monthly mixes, with the exception of some of the more well-known songs. Here they are for you, provided again in a nice Muxtape-style Opentape format. Enjoy.
december 2009 mix
As soon as I finally got around to seeing Melancholy For Medicine, an indie flick that I missed at last year’s L.A. Film Fest, and that took a long time to make it to rentable DVD, I knew that I was starting off this month’s mix with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone‘s “New Year’s Kiss.” I must admit to have never fully ‘gotten’ Casiotone. I like an occasional song that seem like a different take on Stephin Merritt-style. “New Year’s Kiss” fits the movie perfectly: both in subject matter and mood. And hopefully it fits this mix as well.
november 2009 mix
For a while now (and when I say a while I mean more than 3 days… more like since i started doing monthly mixes), I’ve wanted to do a delta blues-themed mix. But every month something new comes along that I really want to put on a mix and I scrap the blues for a more eclectic mix. Occasionally one or two blues tracks make it in to the otherwise indipophoptronicoul mixes, but this one is finally dedicated to being more of mood music than the other mixes. And it was hard too… this month the new Diamond District and Tap Tap nearly put me over the edge. Luckily my all-together behindedness assembling selections forced my hand. Yes there are a couple gospel tracks, a jazz track and a 60s blues track, but I think they all fit the mood. Mississippi Records (out of Portland, Not Mississippi) should get some credit for this mix, as I used 3 tracks from their own delta blues and gospel LPs. Go out and research further into any of these artists, there is plenty more to be rediscovered. Well, except maybe Radio Four… I don’t think there really is anything else by them.