Monday Mixtape, Vol. 8

Good Morning! Hope the weekend treated you well. It's especially a good Monday because The Maccabees are back on Spotify! For some reason (due to their record label I imagine), their amazing album, Given To The Wild, written up and loved by yours truly, is not on Spotify, but their new album is set to release sometime in 2015, and their first single, "Marks To Prove It," IS on Spotify, so hopefully the album will be as well. The single is an in-your-face rock song that I've been listening to incessantly for a few weeks. Their sound changes constantly from song to song, so I still have no idea what the new album may sound like, but needless to say, I'm pretty excited.

Halsey, a 20 year old American, just released this track that should instantly remind you of another talented young singer, Lorde. This song is pure pop. It's catchy as hell, and I love the disdainful lyrics about the music industry complex, again like Lorde. 

Although I wasn't overly impressed with Strange Names' debut album, "Ricochet" is a great track!

For the hip-hop heads out there, "Countdown" has to be right down your alley. Great beat, great hook, and Consequence and Lupe Fiasco together on a track?? Yes please.

Jamie xx's (member of The xx) debut album, In Colour, has been getting a ton of love from critics all over. I've been enjoying the album as there are so many different types of music packed into the album which really showcase the true ability of a DJ - to understand and appreciate the multitudes of elements and genres of music yet make them intertwine seamlessly to the listener. It's a hell of an accomplishment of an album to veer so heavily in different directions yet still be listenable from front to back. Jamie xx's track on this mix, "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)," starts will some old soul sample then veers into a reggae-ish beat with "it" rapper Young Thug giving his off-kilter signature delivery. Yeah, it's a bit weird, but we all need to keep it weird (right, Austin?). 

Finally, Moses Sumney is a singer/songwriter I just stumbled upon because Pitchfork named one of his tracks Best New Track. This track, "Plastic," is just a simple ballad that spoke to me. Simplicity at its best.

Go See Patrick Watson Live!

A few months before I moved to San Francisco, I had become somewhat obsessed with Patrick Watson (check out my 5 Faves of him!). I have a thing for singer/songwriters. There's something about their ability to compose songs single handedly that makes me sit back and listen to their brilliance in awe. It's one thing when you have both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it's another when you can do it alone.

Anyways, when I moved to San Francisco, Patrick Watson had played two days prior (touring on his gorgeous Adventures In Your Own Backyard album from 2012 - "Lighthouse" remains to be one of those memorable first tracks on an album not only because of how great of a song it is, but because it sets the entire tone of the album) to the day I moved out here, and I was so disappointed I missed him, but I assumed he would be back shortly. I was wrong. The first chance I got to see him was Wednesday, over two years later, at The Chapel in the Mission in San Francisco, a teeny and intimate venue converted from (you guessed it) a chapel, so you guessed it, the acoustics in the place were pretty amazing.

The first thing that hits you with Patrick Watson, both live and on his albums, is his voice. Watson sounds like an angel in a choir, a falsetto so delicate yet substantial to rise above the fray of strings and keys. His vocals were astonishing live, even better than his albums. The crowd was completely absorbed and involved -

(and the crowd is such a key element to a memorable show - BUT ** TANGENT ALERT ** I really want to have a psychological study on the idiots and princesses that believe what they say to an artist during a show matters. Please, shut the hell up. I don't think an aritst gives a shit if you say, "I love you, Patrick!" in your annoyingly nasal tone while hiccuping on your (hopefully) last mojito. Or to the bro behind me that was whistling and hollering in the middle of a song because his goatee needed to let off a little steam while none of his friends were present because he most likely lost all of his friends acting in such a way for most of his adult life - to you both, I volunteer there should be some sort of psychological help at shows because this should not happen. Please, please, don't EVER, for the rest of your life, yell out something obnoxious at a show. Just listen to the beauty and brilliance of music and let it envelop you. Cheer and applaud when the song is over. Thanks. TANGENT OVER **)

- to the point where they started humming along to the beat of one song as Watson played maestro to the crowd. I have to say, San Francisco has some really great crowds at shows.

Watson was touring on his new album, Love Songs for Robots, another album in line with the four before him that are beyond comparison or peer. Watson's compositions sound nothing like anyone else out there. Though he has no comparable (another great quality of original singer/songwriters), I do think he has that cerebral quality like Andrew Bird (another one of my favorite singer/songwriters of the past decade). He played most of his new album, the highlights being "Good Morning Mr. Wolf," and "Bollywood," with close seconds being "Hearts," and "Long Songs for Robots." One of the most impressive aspects of the show was that Watson and the four other members of his band were able to recreate his orchestral thunderstorms of sound which I had my doubts could be done live. Listen to "Good Morning Mr. Wolf," and try to imagine that song live. It goes through highs and lows, loud and soft, acoustic guitar, strings, keyboards, it all just sounds like so much. Like it's overproduced or something. But no, it was all there.

It was definitely the best show I've seen this year, and it was all made the more memorable by the encore. Watson walked out, grabbed his piano bench and brought it out into the middle of the crowd, about 10 feet from me. The crowd came to a hush. Watson climbed up on the bench along with his guitarist and proceeded to play "Adventures In Your Own Backyard," with no microphone or amplification. All he used were the cups of his hands as he projected his majestic falsetto throughout the crowd. That moment was truly special and something I'll never forget. It was all the more appropriate that the song starts, "Twelve steps into your backyard," as he played inches away in a town I call my home.

Singles - Nakamarra (feat Q-Tip) - Hiatus Kaiyote

I heard a new track from this unique soul/funk/jazz/rap band on their new album that got me really intrigued to start exploring their two albums. After listening to a number of tracks, the rhythm and tone of this song really stood out. It's pretty hard for a band to make a song sound this jazzy and soulful without forcing the issue. I get some Little Dragon vibes, maybe Jill Scott a bit and their hip-hop influence reminds me of the oddness of Shabazz Palaces. This band is definitely different and worthy of a listen if you like this track!

Monday Mixtape, Vol. 7

The most universal subject in music: love. Musicians have found millions of ways to sing about it, be it through heartbreak, infatuation, dating, lust, longing, marriage, the list goes on. I get it though, it's easier to talk straight from the heart. When done wholeheartedly, it rings true and leads the mind to make decisions both right and wrong, but ultimately ending (in what most of us hope) in something forever. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This is a mixtape of all sorts of these emotions, and the lyrical powers that communication provides us to get love off our chest.

Lord Huron "Love Like Ghosts:"
Yes I know that love is like ghosts
A few have seen it but everybody talks
Spirits follow where I go
They sing all day and they haunt me in the night...
What ain't living can never really die
You don't want me baby please don't lie
but if you're leaving I gotta know why

Brett Dennen's "I Ain't Gonna Lose You:"
You can put a stick in my spokes
I can be the butt of your jokes
I can be the laughing stock
I can be the hoax
But I ain't gonna lose you...
They can come and tear my house down
They can run me out of town
They can tie me up call me a clown
But I ain't gonna lose you
I can't stand the thought of another man
No, I ain't gonna lose you

Angus Stone's "Wooden Chair:"
In another place
In another time
In another face
In another line
In another heart
In another world
In another girl
We were feeling fine
We were in love

Gemma Hayes' "Joy:"
I can take on anything
I can take it all
I can take on anything
as long as I can see you

Bombay Bicycle Club's "Eyes Off You:"
And I bathed in the light you gave
But it's dark in another way
Yes, you gave me the light today
But it's dark in another way...
I can't take my eyes off you.

John Mayer's "In Your Atmosphere:"
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch your life play out in pictures from afar
Wherever I go
Whatever I do
I wonder where I am in my relationship to you
Wherever you go
Wherever you are
I watch that pretty life play out in pictures from afar

Father John Misty's "I Went To The Store One Day:"
For love to find us of all people
I never thought it'd be so simple
 

NPR's Conversation with a Music/Entertainment Lawyer

NPR's Microphone Check had an interview about the music industry with Julian Petty, an entertainment lawyer that currently represents rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples as well as the estate of Biggie (and at one point represented A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Jackson, and Prince!). Petty sounds like an honorable person who really has the best interests of the artist in mind despite the surrounding pressure by record labels on many of these artists to go down the "get rich quick" scheme that may sound enticing without a real knowledge of the industry. 

There are a lot of great tidbits from the interview, including Petty's take on the dying music industry:

"There are six revenue streams for recorded music. There's physical sales. There's digital sales. There's advertising. There's subscription. There's sync licenses. And then there's performance rights. Four of those things have pretty much come about in the last ten years. So when people talk about the music business or recorded music business is dying or in decline, I'm like, 'I don't know about that. I think the ecosystem has changed. And you have a lot more different pots. And like publishing, you're making money from a lot of smaller — smaller increments. More pennies and nickels. Whereas the recorded business was used to making money at the $16.99 CD. Yeah, that doesn't exist. But from the streaming side, especially with the indie artist, there's some real money to be made there."

He also talks the "360 Model" that artist sign that labels have been using more now since many avenues of revenue streams are drying up. The model basically means that the record label will take a smaller cut than usual in certain revenues, but they then get a cut of everything, hence the 360.  

They also talked about the Robin Thicke vs. Marvin Gaye ruling which awarded Gaye's estate $7 million for copyright infringement in the song "Blurred Lines." Petty thought the case didn't come down to copyright law, it came down to Robin Thicke being an awful witness. If you haven't read Thicke's deposition on this case, it's sadly comical. Thicke admits he wasn't sober for one interview for an entire year and barely recalls anything he said because he was high on Vicodin and Vodka. He calls himself the White Marvin Gaye and says he really liked Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" after his own hundred songs. So yeah, Petty might have a point!

You can either check out the transcript here or listen to the Soundcloud clip embedded!

Whistler, British Columbia

After my trip to Vancouver, I drove up to Whistler with a bunch of friends for a few days of skiing. I've had the luck to ski at different resorts around Colorado, Lake Tahoe, Montreal, Vermont, and Maine, but I've never experienced something so jaw-droppingly beautiful and awe inspiring as Whistler. Hopefully, the pictures will do the slopes and mountains some justice, but if you're a boarder or skier, you have to come to Whistler at least once!

Music Video - Sanctified - Rick Ross (feat. Kanye West & Big Sean)

Not only is this a fantastic track released back in 2014, but after seeing this fan generated video, you can no longer say you hate emojis (and for the record - how did you hate emojis in the first place? Embrace it! If we're never going to talk to human beings on the phone again, at least I'm able to emote that your last text message was grammatically 💩). The video takes a bit to get warmed up, but then it gets ludicrous.

I can't imagine how much time this took!