New Daddy Mix

Yes, it's been ages since my last mix; my wife and I had a baby back in August, so nuff said. 

This mix started out as my wife's labor mix, then turned into my get-the-baby-asleep mix. As such, expect lots of the usual mellow stuff, e.g. Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Edward Sharpe, Andrew Bird, & The National. 

Enjoy.

Noah's Mix

Eye Candy

If you don't know what Gangnam style is then I imagine you were really confused about all of the people with slicked back hair in suits acting like they were riding horses on Halloween.

Anyway, this thing has been parodied to death, shit even Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei did a version...a terrible version. Seriously he can't find the beat, I am sure it's a huge political statement or something meaningful. But, to me it looks like an old guy that can't dance, you think you would nail that choreography before you decide that you want to make a video of you doing said choreography. I don't approve of that parody, I do approve of the David Lo Pan style video. "Big Trouble in Little China" got tons of play at my house when I was a kid. We played that VHS so much that it started to distort at certain points, I remember it went blurry during the big explosions right before Lo Pan escapes up that neon escalator into that giant Buddha belly statue thing. Ohh childhood. Fiction Pictures did an excellent job with this video, Psy would be proud.  They even get the original Lo Pan, aka James Hong, aka Mr. Anytime you need an Asian actor, aka Kung Fu Panda's Dad, to show up. It doesn't get much better than that. Check out the video below.
 
I haven't listened to the actual audio of this but the post from warming glow had me nodding my head in anger and approval.  The video below is like a Frankenstein cobbled together out of two of the worst things on the planet.  Entertainment Tonight and Will I Am.  Entertainment Tonight can be summed up by saying it's a vapid waste of time that will "report" on where Ashton Kutcher bought his holiday turkey from or some other inane bullshit.  I don't know how you can want to live after reading about  that off of a teleprompter.  Do you think the robots that regurgitate this sort of garbage have to stop themselves from constantly doing the "wanking motion?"  Will I Am makes terrible music so of course he made a new theme song for Entertainment Tonight.  Below you can watch him dance to his own song while wearing shitty Beats headphones that I hear have terrible sound quality.
 
Sk sent me this gif the other day.  She found it online and it was titled, "Every Mumford and Son's Song Ever."

Pretty spot on.  I have their new album, "Babel," but I haven't given it a serious listen yet...I am pretty sure what to expect though.  Which isn't a terrible thing sometimes bands diverge too much from album to album.  *cough*the morning benders*cough*  Below is the video for their song, "Lover of The Light."  It is off of, "Babel" and the video was directed by and stars the man who is at the top of my turn gay for list, Idris Elba.  *swoon*
 

Indie Mix 13

"Cliff House." Awesome art by Andrew Bannecker.  Check out more of his work at his site, located here.

*Clears cobwebs and stumbles into the room*  Uhhh.....hello.  So, I was just listening to Tres Ouias' more mellow mix the other day and thinking this guy has good taste and that I haven't listened to a ton of new music lately.  I wonder if Tres Ouias has any that he would like to share with me.  I sent out a carrier pigeon to touch base with him and he told me he just made a mix for baby Tres Ouias and that he would post it in a bit.  Post it I thought?  Why post...ohhh that's right, we used to run a music blog.  I told him that I had just finished a couple of mixes and that I had just planned on emailing him but if he is going to post his newest mix, I guess i could dust off the old blogging gloves as well.

This is another under the influence headphone kind of mix.  I was listening in the car while sober and it was not quite the same as having this stuff pumped directly into your ear hole.  Especially with the early part of the mix.  Kind of slow pretty, richly textured stuff.  Let me just say that this mix does not bump, it caresses.

There are lot of familiar names on this mix, a couple tracks from Blind Pilot's newest album, Port O'brien, The Morning Benders, We Are Trees, even Big Phony and Damien Jurado who may have first appeared 12 Indie Mixes ago.

Samples, download link, and tracklist behind the jump or just grab the mix here.

Upcoming Shows

May

I have loved the Roots since I was a wee lad in high school.  They always have a great live show with more than competent musicianship and delivery.  If you have never seen them live then you need to correct that situation.  The Roots have a show at the Regency Ballroom on Monday, May 28th.  Tickets range from $63-91 including service charges.  Grab them here


June

Have you guys heard of Mayer Hawthorne?  Mayer has a headlining show at the Fillmore on, Saturday, June 16th.  Tickets will be $35 after service charges and will be available to purchase right here. (That show is now sold out)  He will also have a show with Foster The People as the headliners on Friday, June 29th at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. Tickets for that will be $37.50 and they are available here.

Action Bronson, who is all over my hip hop mixes and sounds like a long lost member of Wu-Tang is coming to the Bay for a show at the Independent on Wednesday, June 13th.  Tickets are at college level prices, clocking in at $15.  It should be a good show...too bad it's on a Wednesday, and I am old.  Seriously worth checking out though if you aren't lame. Get tickets here.

Lyrics Born and the whole Quannum crew got a lot of playing time in our college rotation.  Though I think he could use some major label influence to rein in his weirdness I am not mad at him for doing his thing.  One time I went to a Lyrics Born concert by myself when I was in Tahoe with my family and randomly saw his name on the marquee.  I was also there at one of his first solo concerts where he was out of breath, kept stalling and after the encore said, "That's it" and quickly left the stage.  So we have history and I will always root for him to succeed.  It's nice to see a local, still on his grind and doing what he loves to do.  The show is at the Independent on Saturday, June 16th and you can get tickets for $25 here.


July

Blind Pilot is back if you missed them the last time they were in town...like me.  I totally didn't go to that last  show...I even had tickets that I didn't end up using because it was raining, the show was in the city and there was a UFC fight available with the click of a button in the comfort of my living room.  The show is on Friday, July 6th.  So, maybe I'll make it to this one, no promises though.  Tickets are $32.50 including service charges and you can get them here.


Al Green will be performing at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco on Saturday, July 14th.  Tickets range from $58-$117, that's including the service charges though.  I feel like if you haven't seen Al you should probably get on that.  Admittedly the last time I saw him, it was not good.  The crowd got a bit rowdy, yelling at him, some people even walked out.  It was his last tour stop though so he could have been just coasting through his final show after a long stretch of time on the road.  He barely sang, allowing his back up singers and the crowd to do the heavy lifting, eliciting comments from peeved audience members like, "We paid to hear you sing!!!"  Despite all this...it's Al Green!!! He is so smiley and his stage banter is terrific.  Go see him, he is old, don't live with the regret of not seeing him.  I am still mad I didn't make the drive to Reno to see James Brown in person.  Grab tickets here.

The day after Al Green's show, that would be Sunday July 15th, Aesop Rock will be playing at the Fillmore.  Tickets are $32.50 including service charges.  Aesop is weird.  I have no idea what he raps about, he is the prototypical backpack rapper.  Lofty lyrics that could be genius or complete bullshit.  His studio production lacks structure, try and head nod and your neck will stutter and you may pull a muscle.  With that being said, he puts on a nice live show, the beats are sped up, the rhythm comes through and surprisingly you don't just stand there leafing through your thesaurus trying to figure out what the fuck he is saying.  Support the real!!  Brap Brap!!  Get tickets here.

Waters is the former front man of Oakland band, Port O'brien.  I love me some Port O'brien, I was sad to hear that they had broken up, but they gave us at least two solid albums that I still listen to today.  Now Waters is on his own and will be playing the Brick and Mortar in San Francisco.  The show is on Wednesday, July 18th and the tickets range from $10-12.  I haven't heard a ton from this new project but I am a staunch supporter of his previous endeavors.  Also with tickets priced like that it is probably worth checking out.  Grab tickets here.

The Funky 17

Although I love funk/soul music, I rarely put together a mix as DJ Greybush and Jeffro Tull handle it so well that I usually just listen to their stuff. However, I finally pulled together some songs that have not appeared on their mixes (except 2 tracks, actually -- it's impossible to avoid!).  I started off with a kernel of newer stuff from Daptone Records (Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley) and elsewhere (Michael Kiwanuka [love him!], Alabama Shakes), then built up the rest of the mix with 60s and 70s soul (Curtis Mayfield, Buddy Miles, Sly & the Family Stone, etc.). Then I threw in D'Angelo. Yup. (Actually, I think his album "Voodoo" was the greatest soul album of the 90's).

Enjoy.

The Funky 17

Eye Candy

Nice tribute to MCA. "Sabotage" re-enacted by little kids.
 
Asians in a laundry room huh? *Mumbles, something, something, stereotypes, ABERCROMBIE Shirt!!!.* Cue the techno and start spritzing the body spray. Seriously guys? Couldn't we have done this in the living room, or at the very least the opium den? I keed, I am racist for thinking Asians can't be in a laundry room. In fact, the real problem isn't the laundry room but that poppy asian youtube singers are a stereotype in and of themselves.


The War on Drugs - Brothers from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.
Creepy and not in the Uncle Byron way. At least he gives you candy.


Throwback video. Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force, "Planet Rock." Whenever this comes on I get the false belief in myself that I can b-boy. I am still paying off my Mom for the chandelier I broke in middle school. Well maybe if you didn't put it above the dining room table this wouldn't have been an issue MOTHER!!!
 
Raquel Welch doing the Space-girl dance. No idea what this is from or why it exists. Sorry, not really up on my Raquel Welch movies. Enjoyable throwback video though. *Kanye shrug*

R.I.P. Donald "Duck" Dunn

Duck, third from the left with Booker T. and the MG's.

Too many R.I.P. posts going on around here.  I couldn't let this one go unmentioned even though it s a couple of days late.  Donald "Duck" Dunn passed away on Sunday in Tokyo, he was 70 years old.

Duck is on so many of my favorite songs.  As the bassist for the legendary Stax band he providing the backing rhythm on, "Try A Little Tenderness," "Green Onions," "Hold On I'm Coming," and countless other classics.  As part of the backing band that formed the foundation of Stax he was basically on all of the hits that came out of the Memphis label in their heyday.
 
The song, "last Night" was his first hit. The song was recorded by his band the Mar-Keys when they were still in high school.

Here he is with Booker T. and the MG's performing, "Green Onions."  This was one of the first instrumental tracks that I really liked.  You don't need words when you have a groove like this.

Here he is backing Otis Redding on the Stax/Volt European tour in 1967.

Below he performs, "Hang em High" in 1991 at the Standard in New York.

R.I.P. Duck, thanks for all of the classics.