That said, there are some well known names on this list: O.V. Wright, Ann Peebles, and of course James Brown. James’ early recordings are insane! And not insane like him bragging about his lovemakin’ on national TV insane. But even those are mostly B-sides. This Mickey Murray track arrived by the aforementioned Mississippi Records‘ What Are These Things With Big Black Wings? tape, and to me sounds like it belongs on the Kill Bill soundtrack. The Alvin Robinson track was resurrected by Rjd2 on “Work” from his debut back in 2002. We cap it off with what is still my favorite of the Eccentric Soul tracks, the incredible “You Can’t Blame Me” by Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr.

[banner image by Thomas Wrede]

July 2010 Mix
01 O.V. Wright – Everybody Knows (The River Song)
02 Lattimore Brown – I Will
03 Alvin Robinson – Something You Got
04 Betty Lavette – Let Me Down Easy
05 Ann Peebles – Trouble, Heartaches and Sadness
06 Barbara West – Anyone But You
07 James Brown – Lost Someone
08 Mickey Murray – Lonely Room
09 Helene Smith – Pain In My Heart
10 Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr – You Can’t Blame Me

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But alas, I couldn’t help myself. The Future Islands album is too good not to point out, and “Vireo’s Eye” is an example of why I like it so much. I was out of town and missed them this time around. I hope they’ll make a return trip to L.A. soon. I also really like this ETHEREA mixtape, Free ETHEREA, which has been pretty much all over the internets since April, but I first noticed it at i guess i’m floating. I also really dig this Twin Sister track which is another freebie off of their Color Your Life EP. From what I can tell, it’s gotten some good attention in the blog world but not so much on the radio world. Yet.

London rappers Roots Manuva and Tranqill round off the mix. Tranqill, over one of my favorite recent Oddisee beats, off of Oddisee’s January mixtape, Odd Winter (he’s already up to Odd Spring, if you’re curious). And judging from his recent “producer showcase” set in Chinatown, there’s bound to be a lot more good stuff coming with his name attached to it. It’s a brand!

[banner time-lapse image by Alexey Titarenko]

June 2010 Mix
01 Wanda Jackson – Funnel Of Love
02 Future Islands – Vireo’s Eye
03 The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken The Memory
04 Twin Sister – Lady Daydream
05 Gaunt – Now
06 Autoclave – Dr. Suess
07 ETHEREA – It IS You!
08 Containe – Shy Song (or, I Want To Fuck You)
09 Oddisee feat. Tranqill – It’s Over
10 Cinematic Orchestra feat. Roots Manuva – All Things to All Men

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The other thing that runs through this mix is that for some reason there are a bunch of demos. Among those, Fluffy Lumbers‘ “Cruisers,” which I owe to Catbirdseat, as well as 80s garage rock band, The Mosquitos. Did I mention that this Underwater Peoples label has some really good acts? I didn’t? Well, Liam the Younger is off of their latest $5 mix that is completely worthwhile. And you better listen to that whole Liam track, because if you only listen for 2 1/2 minutes, you basically miss the song.

Last year Hudson Bell put up a album outtake cover of a Dead Milkmen song, which I promptly ganked off of Soundcloud. Apparently it is just one of many songs I wish I had gotten a chance to hear them play live that they never will again. I absolutely love these guys, and can’t figure out why, with them only being a few hours away in the bay area, I still haven’t seen them live. They never seem to tour. Come to L.A. Please.

By the way, after repeated requests from friends, I’m finally adding a simple zip file download of the mix since it is so annoying to download one-by-one.

[banner image from the amazing 4-D ultrasound images by National Geographic]

May 2010 Mix
01 Future Islands – Beach Foam
02 Fluffy Lumbers – Cruisers (Demo)
03 The Mosquitos – Darn Well (Demo)
04 Fashawn – The Healer
05 Alias – Fame Game
06 C.R.A.C. Knuckles – Love Don’t
07 Hudson Bell – Two Feet Off The Ground (Dead Milkmen cover)
08 Apollo Ghosts – Land of the Morning Calm
09 >Moss of Aura – Shallow
10 Liam the Younger – Please See

New:
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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.

I promised a Sleigh Bells track and am living up to the promise. It was a tough choice between the more upbeat “A/B Machines” or “Crown On The Ground,” but “Ring Ring” is a gem and fits this mix better. They are already getting blog hype, and I expect that they will be a big deal like Ron Burgundy by the time Coachella comes to town. The Delta Mirror is less hyped, but is a local act that finished up a residency at The Echo last month, which I caught early but never got back to towards the end of the month.

Marv Won is among the most animated of Detroit’s stellar lineup of under-appreciated rappers. I liked “Stomp” so much from the video last year that it made it onto the end-of-year lists, but wanted to finally include it on a mix. House Shoes‘ beat is insanely good… maybe even better than his beat for Invincible’s “Locusts.”, and sounds like a collaged version of a Wendy Carlos arrangement. I dare you to listen without bobbing your head. I’m also including Zero Star, just because he doesn’t get enough attention and I could listen to him and Blueprint trade verses for days.

The last thing I’m going to mention is; Aaron Neville, man, what the fuck? “How Could I Help But Love You?” sounds to me like his take on Hank Williams. I think it is downright amazing.

[banner image by Marco Zamora]

April 2010 Mix
01 Let’s Wrestle – It’s Not Going to Happen
02 Sleigh Bells – Ring Ring
03 Don Cavalli – I’m Going to a River
04 Marv Won – Stomp
05 The Delta Mirror – And The Radio Played On
06 Clear Tigers – Kids
07 Aaron Neville – How Could I Help But Love You?
08 Family Portrait – Mega Secrets
09 Zero Star feat. Blueprint – Two Way Street
10 The Constantines – You Are A Conductor

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.

I slept on Fashawn‘s Boy Meets World until repeated plays on House Shoes’ podcasts finally caught my attention. Honestly, I’m just excited to have some new hip-hop to get me off of my Finale and Diamond District obsession. The entire Exile-produced album is so solid that it is difficult to pick individual tracks as standouts, but I’m going with the piano-laced “Life As A Shorty.” I think I’ve always been drawn to sob-story hip-hop tracks, and hearing this I feel like I need to go back through the shoeboxes of mixtapes that I made back in high school to add to a tape that I’m sure I made with “Ghetto Bastard,” “All That I Got Is You,” and Wu Syndicate’s “Where Was Heaven.” His lyrics are relevant and uplifting, and his delivery is full of charisma that feels familiar in a way that recalls countless mid-90s. Without trying to be all wine-snobby, I hear traces of Cormega, Nas, A-Plus, and Ghostface. Seriously, you’d like it. Don’t sleep.

Third paragraph, separate story: I have an iPod in my kitchen loaded with a bunch of vintage playlists that I switch between when cooking. The 30s blues and 20s jazz playlists are in frequent use. Most of them are long enough that I don’t tire of the tracks and still get surprised by songs that I either put on on a whim or haven’t listened to in a while. I had the 60s soul mix on Saturday morning and Clay Hammond‘s “I’ll Make It Up To You” came on off of the Kent Take Me To The River: A Southern Soul Story compilation. That’s some life changing shit.

March 2010 Mix
01 Goldfrapp – Black Cherry (M83 Remix)
02 Small Black – Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
03 Les Savy Fav – New Teen Anthem
04 Sad Brad Smith – Help Yourself
05 Hawa – D.A.N.C.E. (JUSTICE cover)
06 The French Semester – How Do We Act
07 Fashawn feat. J. Mitchell – Life As A Shorty
08 Rainbow Bridge – Big Wave Rider
09 Califone – Krill
10 Clay Hammond – I’ll Make It Up To You

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.”

I think that a lot of the other selections work well around “July Flame” and “Take Care,” especially the Washed Out track and the S (Jenn Ghetto, formerly of Carissa’s Wierd) track. Both are fantastic. Other (relatively) new music on here is Real Estate, who I have meant to put on a mix ever since Freed played them for me last fall, as well as a new Oddisee track from his free winter EP, and a new Dios track, from a free single. Oh, and Gloria Jones kicks this off because she is awesome and this version is 10x better than the version you are used to.

[Image by Bryan Schumaat]

February 2010 Mix
01 Gloria Jones – Tainted Love
02 Laura Veirs – July Flame
03 Dios – I Feel Finite
04 Velocity Girl – Forgotten Favorite
05 Oddisee feat. X.O. – Black Broadway
06 Lali Puna – Alienation (Alias Remix)
07 Washed Out – New Theory
08 S – Falling
09 Real Estate – Beach Comber
10 Beach House – Take Care

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. Many of the others are older favorites, the only one I’ll stop to point out is Califone‘s “Michigan Girls,” which I was reminded of when they performed it live after debuting their feature length film, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. It really is one of the most beautiful and engaging tracks they’ve recorded… I love the pace, the pizzicato strings, and the “don’t give it a name” lyric. And then there is Detroit rapper, Danny Brown. Danny Brown, with his nasal and unapologetic delivery, had my favorite guest verse on Elzhi‘s The Preface (“I fired up the blunt and it tasted like gumbo / Hit the trees hard like George in the Jungle”), and another solid cameo on J Dilla’s Jay Stay Paid last year. I finally did a bit more digging to find some old mixtapes of his from 2007. “Get Down,” a reworking of the Nas track of the same name, references various Nas lines and recontextualizes them into an utterly brilliant demonstration of why Brown is one of the most exciting rappers out there right now.

January 2010 Mix
01 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream
02 Clear Tigers – Boredom
03 Danny Brown – Get Down
04 Beach House – Silver Soul
05 Califone – Michigan Girls
06 Surfer Blood – Take It Easy
07 Arthur Alexander – Dream Girl
08 The National – Without Permission (Caroline Martin cover)
09 Modest Mouse – Sleepwalking (Santo & Johnny cover)
10 Mt Egypt – Song Till 1

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.

: BEST OF 2009 MIX :

[2008 list]

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 of theirs that seems like a take on Stephin Merritt-style deep-voiced pop. But I can tell there is more to them than that. “New Year’s Kiss” fits the movie perfectly: both in subject matter and mood. And hopefully it fits this mix as well.

Again this month, a lot of artists that should be familiar from older mixes. Vitalic is a throwback to the sort of electronica Freed used to play when we worked together many years ago. For the record, we also played American Analog Set back then. And Calla too. I still am crazy for the last year’s Wilderness album, even though I know “Own Anything” is probably a bit too post-hardcore for the average hearsay mix, and I may very well get complaints about it.

I promised myself to dedicate a post (it’ll happen…) to Diamond District, so I won’t expound on it much except to say you can expect to see it high on my albums of the year list. “Hologram” is a head nodder that puts me in a good mood every time I hear it.

And then there’s this Charlie Feathers track. Charlie is probably one of the most well known Rockabilly acts, and an good bridge between country folk and rock n roll. Punk kids from the 90s might know him thanks to frequent covers by The Cramps. Today people will probably be most familiar with him thanks to use of his songs in both Kill Bill soundtracks. I love listening to Feathers, especially at work – where I know that the his country twang is too much for some coworkers to take. “Early In The Morning” is centered around painfully obvious subject matter (“Early in the morning it’sa hard to get up”), so much that it is a fantastic song to start the day with. This mix, and this year ends with another Pete And The Pirates track. One of my absolute favorites, and also one of the most Built To Spill-sounding. In the best way possible, short of having Doug Martsch as your singer and songwriter.

[Image by .kimmika. The font is FFF Tsuj by Magnus Cederholm]

December 2009 Mix
01 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – New Year’s Kiss
02 The American Analog Set – Come Home Baby Julie Come Home
03 Vitalic – Trahison
04 Dirty On Purpose – Fake Lakes
05 Charlie Feathers – Early In The Morning
06 Diamond District – Hologram
07 Calla – As Quick As It Comes/Carrera
08 That Ghost – When There’s No One Else To Sing To You Sing To Yourself
09 Wilderness – Own Anything
10 Pete And The Pirates – Song For Today

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.

[Image by Stan Douglas. The font is League Gothic]

November 2009 Mix
01 Cryin’ Sam Collins – Lonesome Road
02 Cecil Gant – I Wonder
03 Radio Four – Walk Around My Bedside
04 Jack Teagarden – Stars Fell On Alabama
05 Mississippi John Hurt – Stack O’Lee Blues
06 Memphis Minnie – North Memphis Blues
07 Elmore James – Dust My Broom
08 Kokomo Arnold – Milk Cow Blues
09 Robert Wilkins – That’s No Way To Get Along
10 Washington Phillips – The Church Needs Good Deacons