I was really disappointed to hear last night that Mark Linkous, the man behind Sparklehorse took his life yesterday. Although it was always the band name I was always least proud to mention that I was a fan of, his music was diverse and engaging, often delicate but not depressing. Sparklehorse easily eclipsed their start as a Cracker offshoot, and It’s A Wonderful Life is a perfect album that I could listen to for days on end. Oh, I also learned the word “fecund” from one of his lyrics.

Rest in peace Mark Linkous.

I also want to mention that there’s a lot of suicide prevention help out there:
AFSP
SAVE
Suicide Prevention Lifeline

: Sparklehorse – Cow :
: Sparklehorse – More Yellow Birds :

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

Pete & The Pirates, Tommy Sanders’ other outlet when he isn’t Tap Tap, just released a couple of live Take Away Show-style performances from Austria for They Shoot Music Don’t They. They do 2 songs, “Blood Gets Thin,” a haunting b-side from a 2009 single, and “Mr. Understanding,” from their full-length, Little Death. I was excited to see these because I really had very little hint at what the band looked like from liner notes and their lack of U.S. touring, but through the magic of youtube related videos, I’m now looking and realizing that they have a whole bunch of videos online for me to go through. I’m on it.

Here’s a couple unreleased (at least as far as I know) tracks from their WOXY SXSW session last year.

: Pete & The Pirates – Blood From A Stone (live from WOXY session) :
: Pete & The Pirates – Good Girl (live from WOXY session) :

“Read the shirt: pro-motor.”

Marv Won released his debut, Wayne Fontes Music last month, which finally makes available hearsay favorite “Stomp.” “Totally Awesome” is the latest video from the album, and is named after the gem of a Tracy Morgan sample from a movie of the same name that kicks off the track. Rio Data and Marv Won pepper the song with wit to rival Ricky Gervais at a Palin family gathering. And the cartoonish antics of Nathaniel Hall and Che Patterson’s video play off the insanity of Big Tone’s beat. It may have been straight-to-video, but being a Tracy Morgan and Half-Baked fan, Totally Awesome went straight to the top of my rental list.

By the way, if anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday, President’s Day, whatever… a sweatshirt reading “I’LL ROCK YO JAW” will do just fine.

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

02. Pavement reunion shows, maybe new material

03. Arcade Fire – LP3 {05.2010}

04. Beach House – Teen Dream {01.26.2010} [sample]

05. Black Milk – Album Of The Year [sample]

06. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks {03.09.2010}

07. Erykah Badu – New Amerykah, Part II: Return of the Ankh {02.23.2010}

08. The National – new album?

09. Black Milk, Sean Price & Guilty Simpson – Random Axe

10. Freeway & Jake One – The Stimulus Package {02.15.2010} [sample]

[2009 list]

topomodesto’s favorites 2009:

01. Diamond District – In The Ruff [mixtape sampler]
Released, at first, for free in order to grab attention; the fantastic boom-bap production, athletic lyricism, and all-together undeniable cohesion was well deserving of the amount that it got from the hip-hop blogosphere, though it should have gotten much more. If you haven’t been bumping this in your car or on your ipod in the subway, download it and do it now.

02. Tap Tap – On My Way [sample]
From it’s simple melody introduction to the all out promise to keep promises of “Half Moon Street,” Tap Tap’s second album seems to eclipse their debut in so many ways that it was a shock to the system. Witty and memorable lyrics centered around the travails of single-life and failed relationships, backed by some of the catchiest guitar-centered brit-pop of the decade. Get it mail-order if you have to.

03. Lattimore Brown – Nobody Has To Tell Me [sample]
An undiscovered gem that is a testament to the power of a well-informed and researched music blog, Lattimore Brown was rediscovered as a living should-have-been legend by Red Kelly of The “B” Side (and The “A” Side). Worth it for the liner notes alone, these unheard and barely-heard tracks from the 60s and 70s are collected here in a way that Numero would approve of and that would make TimeLife drool. They could sell it through infomercials and it would still be a must-buy.

04. Finale – A Pipe Dream And A Promise [video]
The most unique and exciting rapper since Busta Rhymes or Ludacris just happens to be from the already ridiculously solid Detroit scene. Oh, and his (essentially) debut album? Amazing.

05. Dan Deacon – Bromst [video]
Even the insane explanation for the album’s inspiration couldn’t take away from this being a fantastically experimental yet approachable album of spaz-pop dance tracks.

06. The Antlers – Hospice [video]
No other album was this emotional, this well considered, or this meaningful. Even if you aren’t necessarily into the emotional but orchestral rock of The Antlers, this album will touch you and stick with you.

07. J Dilla – Jay Stay Paid [sample]
How does an artist who passed away in 2006 still have this depth of material lying around unreleased? Only J Dilla could still be challenging hip-hop this way, 3+ years after leaving us. Turns out he never left.

08. Surfer Blood – Astro Coast [sample]
People finally complained about the last few Weezer albums enough that somebody listened. A catchy and fun, hip-shaking rawk, of which there wasn’t a whole lot of this year.

09. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion [video]
Completely deserving of the hype it received. And that is a tall task to manage.

10. Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day [sample]
If you would have told me last year that there was a chance of me ranking a folksy female singer-songwriter above Neko Case’s upcoming album, I would have called you crazy. And weakly slapped you before running away crying. Lo and behold, Julie Doiron’s latest is an amazing work of confident artist; with a wide variety of moods, but always centered around her delicate but strong vocals.

[2008 list]

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]

01. Matt & Kim – Lessons Learned [directed by Taylor Cohen & Otto Arsenault]

02. Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance [directed by Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan]

03. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks (unofficial) [directed by Gabe Askew]

04. Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Motion Picture) [directed by Tim Rutili]

05. Animal Collective – My Girls (unofficial) [directed by Rob Chesnutt]

06. Marv Won – Stomp [directed by Mario Butterfield]

07. Röyksopp – Happy Up Here [directed by Reuben Sutherland]

08. Black Milk feat. Royce Da 5′9″ – Losing Out [directed by Anthony Garth]

09. Forest City Lovers – Song For Morrie [directed by Stuart A. McIntyre]

10. The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken The Memory [directed by Mark Charlton]

[2008 list]