Best of 2009

This two-disc mix is inspired by Pitchfork's Best 100 Tracks of 2009. When I agreed with their choices, I included the track, and if I disagreed, I either added an alternate track by the same artist or I put in some of my personal faves from last year that Pitchfork decided to snub. The first mix is the more upbeat tracks, and the second is the more mellow, emo-y stuff. Let me know if there are any glaring omissions. Btw, I did not include any hip hop; although I have my favorites, I leave the hip hop mixes up to DJ Greybush. For now....

Best of 2009 Vol.1

Best of 2009 Vol.2

Indie Mix

Can I play the Indie mix game?  This is admittedly my weakest genre.  If this was school indie would be my math class.  Actually that's not right, because I don't hate indie music.  When I think of indie music I don't shut off my brain and rock myself to sleep while cowering in the corner, numbers on the other hand do elicit that type of reaction from me.  I guess it's just not my speciality, I am sort of a rookie, these are uncharted waters for me.

Like the pop princess folk music I bump, the indie music I rock carries with it that same easily digestible pop sensibility.  This is not abstract at all, you don't need to listen 40 times to understand what's going on.  It has depth, I am not saying it doesn't but it's also pretty.  It's easy listening.  It's more folk than anything.  Check out some samples.


Peasant is Damien Derose.  He is from the sleepy town of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, population 8000.  Which could be the reason he is on that sleepytime, folky, indie, acoustic, type vibe.  Whatever the reason, I am feeling him...no homo.

 Peasant- Well Alright


Peasant- The End


Damian Jurado is from Seattle has been getting down since the late 90's.
He is smooth, check him out.
Wiki wiki whaat!!

Damian Jurado- Arkansas


Midnight Masses are dope.  They just seem really well oiled, a nice solid band.  Great vocals, great arrangements, great music.  A bit slow but just chill out and let them soothe you.

Midnight Masses- Walk On Water


Bowerbirds are from Raleigh North Carolina.  They remind me of a lot of groups I like from Portland.  Sort of a melancholy tone to some sweetly alluring lyrics and sound.  Pretty, depressing, stripped down, and most importantly purdy.

 













Their space
Bowerbirds- The Marbled Godwit


Harper Simon..I bet he hates this...is Paul Simon's son. Sorry dude that's kind of hard not to mention.  But hey your Dad was good, it's not like he was say...Kenny Loggins, you're good.  I like him, still in that folky, acoustic wheelhouse, just well put together tunes. His space

Harper Simon- Wishes and Stars


All of these and then some are located huurrr
Indie Mix 1-14-10

The Goods

Dilla Dounts goodies.  Might have to cop that vinyl, I am a sucker for clean packaging...plus it's Dilla. 

"Serato and Stones Throw have teamed with the J Dilla Estate for the official J Dilla Serato release, Donut Shop. This is 2 discs with six J Dilla tracks, 2 sides with Serato Control Tone (for use with Serato Scratch Live DJ software), and 2 donut slipmats in a package designed by Studio No.1. This will be released May 10th (the day after Mother’s day–what’s up Ma Dukes?). Pre-order is available now.

The J Dilla tracks consist of three previously unreleased instrumentals selected by J.Rocc from the Dilla archives – “Safety Dance”, “Sycamore”, “Bars & Twists” – and three unreleased instrumental versions of Dilla’s production for Mos Def, Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes, each remastered by Elysian Masters who mixed and mastered J Dilla’s Donuts, The Shining and Ruff Draft albums."





 
This is a nice little package of Hiero/Souls goodies from Carhartt in the UK.  That shirt is pretty clean.

"Introducing the Souls of Mischief x Carhartt Limited Edition Box-set. The package includes a copy of their 2010 album ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ repackaged in a special black foil embossed housing & 8 page booklet, a Spring / Summer 2010 Master Shirt in Leather with breast embroidery, a Chenille Varsity Patch in Carhartt Duck Brown and a selection of A6 size foil stickers.
This Box-set is an edition of only 200 worldwide which we are officially dropping Monday 15th March at The Carhartt Store, Neal Street. Souls of Mischief themselves will be in attendance for a signing session from 7pm. See you there!"
 http://www.thecarharttstore.co.uk/

I just got an email for the preview of the BarnStormers Group show at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York.  "The Barnstormers are a collective of New York/Tokyo-based artists who create large-scale collaborative paintings, films and performances."   

The Barnstormers are:
Chulo, Che Jen, Daikon, David Ellis, Doze Green, Maya Hayuk, Kenji Hirata, Mike Houston, Che Jen, Kami, KR, Alex Lebedev, Madsaki, Martin Mazorra, Christian Mendoza, Mike Ming, Blust One, West One, Jose Parla, Stephen Powers, Rostarr, Sasu, Yuri Shimojo, South, Swoon, Chuck Webster, Kiku Yamaguchi, and documentarians Joey Garfield, Miyuki Pai Hirai, and Gion Yukio

It is a super legit collective of some really high ranking figures in the art world.  My favorites are Doze Green, David Ellis, Stephen Powers, Swoon, and Parla.

David Ellis does these dope ass "Sound Sculptures" in addition to his paintings.  One of them is featured on the cover of Verve remixed  vol 3 and can be seen at  his actual show in the picture below.  I thought that he did the one for volume 4 but I think that it might have been done by Mikal Hameed, based on the pieces he has in the group show.  I would totally cop that one from Verve 3, it's amazing, I would settle for a turntable tree though, I am not picky.  Some of the tracks from Verve remixed will be on the next old person mix and one will be on an upcoming soul mix, check out that series though if you haven't heard of them.  They get contemporary people to remix the old verve catalog, so if you ever wanted to hear a Postal Service remix of Billie Holiday, your wish has been granted.  The RJD2 remix of Astrud Gilberto's "Gentle Rain" is a head nodder, maybe I will post it later.

If you have a couple g's and need a new sound system why not go all out?  Here are the pieces from the current show.

























Barnstormers
Mikal Hameed - Bossanova
Fully functional sound sculpture
2010
$6,000

Mikal Hameed - Bon Vivant Soul
Fully functional sound sculpture
2010
$8,000

Not sure about the chair ones, I don't really agree with taking away the functionality of the object, chairs you can't sit in isn't really my thing but it's pretty I guess.

All of the show can be viewed here Barnstormers Group Show

And some concert news.


Maxwell and Jill Scott will embark on an arena tour starting in Cleveland on May 21. Announced today (Feb. 26), the tour will bring the neo-soul artists to 20 cities including New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington DC, with more dates to be announced through June.

Date and venue information for the LiveNation / Haymon Events tour will be released shortly. Currently, the tour is scheduled to stop in Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York.

Who's coming with me?

"All my favorite singers couldn't sing..."

So "sings" Dave Berman of the Silver Jews in the opening track of this week's mix. I've always liked that line, so I decided to pull together a mix of my favorite less-"accessible" singers/bands. My criteria are little loose: some are talk-singers (like Berman, Serge Gainsbourg, Jarvis Cocker [of Pulp], and Kurt Wagner [Lambchop]), some are famously "off" (Dylan, Neil Young, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop), and some are straight-up "challenging" (Jeff Magnum [Neutral Milk Hotel], Kim Gordon [Sonic Youth], Wayne Coyne [Flaming Lips], Ira Kaplan [Yo La Tengo], Doug Martsch [Built to Spill], Daniel Johnston, and Ian Brown [Stone Roses]).

Whatever their vocal issues, however, all these singers have managed to earn my respect and admiration. But it wasn't easy, and not everyone agrees with me -- these guys tend to have a very polarizing effect on listeners, most people either love 'em or hate 'em. With that in mind, I've tried to pick out some of the more accessible tracks from their catalogue. I hope you find them worth the effort. Let me know in the comments which ones work for you, and which ones I should file under Not Fit for the Blogosphere.

Enjoy...?

Can't Sing Mix

Mr. Blue Sky

For those of you living in Northern California, I really hope you had a chance to enjoy the sun the last few days, if not, make sure you take advantage of these gorgeous blue skies sometime this week! Just a quickie, every time the sun starts to pop it's head out, I can't help but sing this song in my head. It's like my non-summer-summer-jam.

ELO- Mr. Blue Sky


As a bonus, here is a video of Mayer Hawthorne doing a cover. Who do you think did a better job??

Hip Hop Mix

Had this in the pocket for a bit.  Time to let the beast out, if I was a glittery Liam Neeson I would say, "Release The Kracken."  But, since my bedazzler jammed on me last week that is not the case.  I only got my trapper keeper, seven skorts and 1/3 of my bathrobe done before it died on me.  So I will just say here you go. 

                                           Hip Hop 1-28-10

The Musical Wanderings of a Baby Bush

I thought it might be a good idea to give people an overview of my musical history. But this is coming from a guy who also thought it was a good idea to have American Gladiator night at the retirement home.  The hamster ball event went down smoothly, it was the Eliminator that really ruined the night.  R.I.P. Estelle, you should have picked the door on the left you have no one to blame but yourself...and Herman...because that was a vicious hit son!!!  *Chest Bumps Herman* 

I grew up on Golden oldies, the station was called Cool 101, and the DJ's had names like the Big Bopper and the Godfather. Those deep baritone voices of the Casey Kasem era. Your typical golden voiced dude, spitting lines like,

"Comin up next we got the Temptations with "My Girl." "This is the Godfather hoping you and YOUR girl stay cooooool." You could hear the fake cheese oozing over the airwaves but it felt so comfortable.  That's what DJ's sounded like.  They were Shooter Mcgavins constantly firing at you.

After listening to our soothing music we all went to the hop and acted racist, right before we drag raced and got buzz cuts.  Ohhh the good old days, with those gas shortages, wars, and outright racism, I miss them like I miss my subservient, well manicured, always baking something awesome wifey.  Shout out to June!!

The station played pop hits from the 50's and 60's.  I remember getting down to some Little Anthony and the Imperials, "Tears On My Pillow."


Grab some music after the jump.