Monday Mixtape, Vol. 208

Happy to be back a second week in a row, making this mixtape. Routine is important. It’s a security blanket. It’s a reminder. It’s easy.

My life has not been easy the past year. Now I crave routine. I crave normalcy. To feel that again will be divine. This is one of those starts, so stick with me :)

ANYWAYS, the crypto market is crashing, but it’s ok. It’ll wash out the massive detritus that usurped its way to the top. I guess maybe 10% of crypto is well meaning? No, it’s gotta be higher than that. It has to be. I’ll give it 25% at this point. But this washout will bring that number up higher. And everyone rebuilds better with better tools and things incrementally get better. So then in 10 years I guess crypto/web#/blockchain/NFTs take over the world.

ANOTHER ANYWAYS SINCE WHEN DO I EVER TALK ABOUT CRYPTO, I came for the music:

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 207

It’s been a long time. Months. It’s felt like years. I’ve been through some crazy shit. It’s been a journey I will never forget, and I have the scars to prove it. But I made it, and I’m so happy to be back, writing, listening, and loving life.

There’s so much new music, new artists, new playlists, and more to share. I can’t wait to get back into it, refreshed and ready to rock.

Thanks for staying with me!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 181

Happy Monday! I first heard about Mallrat by listening to BENEE who I first heard about by listening to Joji, all new artists I’ve discovered in the past handful of months. Seeing who artists choose to feature on their tracks is a great way to find new music ;)

Speaking of new music, check out King Green’s new album if you like the track on this mixtape.

Also, Benny the Butcher’s recent mixtape, The Plugs I Met 2, is really good. It’s dark as hell coke rap, a brutal honesty of a life before rapping:

This supposed to be success / then why the fuck I feel stressed out and guilty? / Cuz I’m paid and all my niggas in the Feds or the grave / that shit kill me / That coulda been me / I think about it every day / That coulda been me / I answer every call from jail cuz that coulda been me.

Go find some new music and go down the rabbit hole of sounds :)

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 123

It’s a Monday, but this one will be filled with upbeat jams to keep your spirits high. None exemplify an optimistic take than this first track, a remix of ODESZA’s “Falls” by The Knocks, one where the remix destroys the original.

Toro y Moi released a new album (his 7th!) a couple weeks ago, and this is his best album since 2013’s phenomenal Anything In Return. In keeping with this week’s mixtape, this album is a club banger, I highly recommend it.

Maggie Rogers, the musician who achieved overnight success because of Pharrell’s face, finally released her debut (didn’t that Pharrell thing happen 3 years ago?? NO GOOGLE, I will not ask you to verify.) Anyways, the album is good, I might have to listen through again, but these two tracks jumped out to me.

SOAK is an Irishsongwriter who I’ve posted a number of times and has some incredible talent and originality. She could be someone special, or just a continued indie ingenue.

Have a good week all!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 85

SO MUCH new music got released last week - St. Vincent's fourth album, Beck's latest, The Killers, King Krule, and Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile's Lotta Sea Lice - and all sorts of singles came out that I can't even include them all this week. 

Alas, what I was able to do was make this week's playlist a feel good, uppity, "LET'S DO THIS" type of mix. 

First off, Beck is superhuman. If I haven't said it before, he's our generation's David Bowie, a chameleon with so many colors of sounds that I'm left in awe of his range. Nobody else has the discography he does - it's insane.

Listen to "Devil's Haircut" on Odelay, a phenomenal first track to an album, what an opener!

Then downshift to soft and mightily mellow  "Morning" on Morning Sound:

Then to the wild 70s soul-funk of "Mixed Business" on Midnite Vultures:

To one of my favorite's, the kick ass "E-Pro" form Guero:

I mean COME ON. This is ridiculous. Which left me in huge anticipation of his recent release, Colors. It was being billed as a "pop" album by Beck, something he'd been working on even before Morning Sound. As usual, Beck morphs into a catchy pop star with pristine production and catchy choruses.

I've included the first two tracks from his new album on this week's mixtape. How can you not like these tracks? He's a savant, a true musical genius. 

I just remembered that I wrote a huge rant against Kanye West for messing with Beck when he won the the Album of the Year Grammy, so take a read of that if you have a few. (SIDEBAR: And how crazy that I wrote that two and a half years ago??)

Both Starslinger and The Knocks are party bands who make party music. Nuff said.

St. Vincent released MASSEDUCATION on Friday, and I'm still cycling through the album, so I can't say I have a total take yet. She gave an interesting interview to Pitchfork where apparently she spoke about every track on this album. Unfortunately, she basically answered nothing about the heart of the songs, but she's always an interesting read and just a badass performer.   

"Pills" is one of her more catchy tracks on the album, one where the hook was meant to sound like a commercial-like jingle. An epic comedown off those pills to end the song. 

Have a good week! And listen to more Beck!