Well, the bar has been raised after one round and six solid mixes. I borrowed and stole a bit for this mix, but don’t we all to some extent? Thanks to Lindsay for turning me on to a few of these tunes - and to Lindsay, Sarah and Mary for being guinea pigs and listening to the first draft of the mix. I’m curious to hear how other people put together mixes and how much they listen (or have others listen) to them prior to burning the final. I’m already looking forward to finding the first track for my next mix. For one thing it will be summer, and that’s always a good thing. I avoided any Yuletide or seasonal songs on this mix. It’s all just whatever music has been rumbling through my brain over the past six months. Slidin’ these babies into the mailbox slot is gonna feel real good. See you in six.
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Noah and the Whale / Five Years Time
The first song on a mix is always a big decision. But this song settled into that spot early on and never let go. Seemed appropriate to start off with a kinda sorta happy song. This was their first single.
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Noah and the Whale were an English alternative/folk group formed in Twickenham, London in 2006. Their final line-up consisted of Charlie Fink (vocals, guitar), Tom Hobden (fiddle, keyboards), Matt "Urby Whale" Owens (bass), Fred Abbott (keyboards, guitar) and Matthew Petulla (drums). Former members of the band include Doug Fink (drums), Laura Marling (vocals, guitar) and Jack Hamson (drums). According to Songfacts, the band's name is a combination of the title of one of their favorite films Read more on Last.fm more...
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Assembly of Dust / Light Blue Lover
Lots of times guest artists are window dressing. But on this song Grace Potter and Tony Rice totally make the song - and a kind of sexy song it is, in my opinion. Tony Rice is one of the best flat-pickers of all time. His trilling guitar throughout and Potter's haunting harmony, especially on the outro, are splendid.
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Assembly of Dust (also known as AOD) is an American rock band formed in 2002 by former Strangefolk frontman Reid Genauer. Hearing Assembly of Dust has the flush of meeting a stranger who will inform your life in profound & happy ways, someone whose wise counsel might help you see the world in a fresh light. They possess the same tuneful philosophizing as storytellers like The Band, Paul Simon and Crosby, Stills & Nash, giving the listener good songs playing on a daydream radio. Read more on Last.fm more...
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One eskimO / Kandi
This is one of those songs that always seems to make people ask, "Who is that?" Actually, I'm not sure who they are, other than that they're British and have one album. Oh, and this song has some serious hooks.
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One eskimO was ‘born’ in 2004 and is the brain child of Kristian Leontiou. At the time Kristian was at the end of promoting his debut album: Some Day Soon (Polydor) which sold over 200,000 copies. His debut single (Story Of My Life) also went Top 10 in the UK singles chart. Kris (as he is known to his friends) grew up in the north-west suburbs of London, his first experiences of music coming from his older sisters, who would regularly shake the Leontiou household whilst practicing with their respective punk bands Read more on Last.fm more...
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Dylan LeBlanc / If the Creek Don't Rise
I had this song on heavy rotation all summer long. I love the simplicity - three chords - Dminor/C/G - repeated all the way through, both verse and chorus. Great lyrics and melody and then you throw in a dose of Emmy Lou. Doesn't get much sweeter.
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Dylan LeBlanc (born 1990 in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States) is an American singer-songwriter. LeBlanc grew up hanging out amongst the session musicians at Fame Studios. By age 7, LeBlanc was already learning how to play a Picking style on the guitar and began writing his own songs when his father bought him a guitar for his 11th birthday. When he turned 15 he began to hone his songwriting by playing live whenever he could, often traveling hundreds of miles on his own to play to just a handful of people. Read more on Last.fm more...
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The Dandy Warhols / The Last High
This song has kind of a 70s vibe and I find it infectious ear candy. I feel like I shouldn't like it, but I do, like a guilty pleasure. I couldn't get the chorus melody out of my head for weeks. It's still not completely gone.
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The Dandy Warhols is an American alternative rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1993. The band was founded by lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor, keyboardist Zia McCabe, guitarist Peter Holmström, and drummer Eric Hedford. Hedford left in 1998 to be replaced by Taylor-Taylor's cousin Brent DeBoer. The band's name is a play on the name of American pop artist Andy Warhol. The Dandy Warhols are strongly influenced by The Brian Jonestown Massacre Read more on Last.fm more...
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Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros / Desert Song
Speaking of the 70s (or 60s) this song has a psychedelic aura that makes me feel like I should be listening to it under a black light with an oozing lava lamp close by. Makes me want to grow my hair again - if I could.
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Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American indie-folk ensemble band led by Alex Ebert, vocalist of the power-pop group Ima Robot. The band's first full-length recording, Up from Below, was released July 7, 2009 digitally and July 14, 2009 physically on Vagrant Records. Its first show as a full band was played July 18, 2007 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and joining a 12-step program for addiction Read more on Last.fm more...
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Jamey Johnson / Macon
Had to slip an alt.country tune in here. This guy's voice is thick and intoxicating. The album itself, The Guitar Song, will be on many a "best of 2010" list. Love how it starts with a lilting piano and devolves into thunder at the end.
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Jamey Johnson (born in Enterprise, Alabama) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single "The Dollar", which reached a peak of #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. An album, also titled The Dollar, was released in 2006. Johnson exited BNA in 2006 and signed to Mercury Nashville Records in March 2008, releasing his first single for the label that month. In addition to his own material Read more on Last.fm more...
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Good Old War / Tell Me
Alrighty. Noah turned me on to this album - and I scooped it. Sorry, Noah. I am a total sucker for a clean guitar and a soaring three part harmony. I keep thinking I hear the Hollies, CSNY and Simon & Garfunkel.
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Good Old War is an American indie-folk band from Langhorne, Pennsylvania featuring former members of Days Away. The second self-titled album by Good Old War is at its lush heart, an album of immense growth. A natural evolution from the band's debut Only Way to Be Alone (Sargent House), Good Old War radiates with warmth and vulnerability, both qualities undoubtedly cultivated by the band's hands-on self-production, and the environment of solitude in which the album was created. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Steven Page / Indecision
This guy's voice makes me think of having kids in high school when the BNLs were hot stuff. This is the single from his recently released first solo album.
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Steven Page is a singer-songwriter who was born in 1970 in Scarborough, Ontario. Page was the co-frontman (along with Ed Robertson) for Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies from the group's inception in 1988 until February 2009, his work with the group receiving international critical acclaim. Steve left the band amicably to pursue other opportunities including solo projects and theatrical opportunities, a prominent example being the musical effort The Vanity Project. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Beirut / Nantes
What other contemporary song can you think of that has a French horn, an accordion, breaking glass and bad French TV used to such effect? Weirdly international and haunting - a true cacophony.
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Beirut is an American indie-rock and world music band which was originally the solo musical project of Zach Condon (born Zachary Francis Condon in Santa Fe, New Mexico) and later expanded into a band. The band's first performances were in New York, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. Condon recorded before Beirut was established: when he was fifteen and under the name of Realpeople, he made an electronic record, fashioned after his love for The Magnetic Fields. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Elizabeth & The Catapult / You and Me
Okay - this song jumped right through my ears and lodged in my brain the first time I heard it. Berklee grads by way of Brooklyn. Great pop song-writing, in my opinion - laden with impossibly sharp hooks over addictive syncopation. I love this song.
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Elizabeth & The Catapult is American singer-songwriter Elizabeth Ziman. Combining elements of jazz, pop and funk, this New York City-based group creates a singular sound with memorable melodies and unique, sophisticated harmonies. Fronted by the clear sultry voice of singer songwriter Elizabeth Ziman, they are attracting a buzz from the music press. Ziman wrote her first song at age six, banging out melodies on an old upright in a Greenwich Village laundry room. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Fran Healy / Sing Me to Sleep
The patron saint of the Seedy Mixers - Neko Case - had to show up somewhere in this mix. Here she weaves her vocal around Fran Healy's and makes you want to go get married in a Vegas bar. He's Scottish, but lives in Berlin. How does Neko find these guys?
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Francis "Fran" Healy is a Scottish rock musician. He is currently the lead singer and main songwriter of the Scottish band Travis, having written nearly all of the songs on their six studio albums. Healy released his debut solo album, titled "Wreckorder", on October 4th on his private label, WreckordLabel. The album was recorded late in 2009 in Berlin and New York (and Berlin is where Fran currently lives), before being completed in Vermont early in 2010. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Cecile Doo-Kingue / Freedom Calling
Okay, I thought this gal was a dude the first time I heard the song too. She is New York born, of Cameroonian descent, now settled in Montreal. Love the loose quality and great guitar work. Makes me feel like I'm in the islands - somewhere. And not Long Island.
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Mary Gauthier / Mercy Now
This song floated in and out of the final mix, but was there at the end. Love her throaty delivery - bet she's incredible in person. She's had an interesting life - adopted at birth in NO, in and out of rehab, spent her 18th birthday in jail, philosophy major at LSU (dropped out), ran a restaurant in the Back Bay for 11 years - etc. Now sober and singing.
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Mary Gauthier (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1962) is an American country and folk singer/songwriter. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, Mary was adopted. At age 15, she ran away from home and stole her parents' car, and spent the next several years in detox, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in jail. These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on (particularly her song "Drag Queens in Limousines"). Read more on Last.fm more...
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Rogue Wave / Solitary Gun
Off the latest album, Permalight, of this Oakland band. In keeping with the poppy slant of this mix. Love the snappy snare drum.
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Rogue Wave is an alternative rock band from Oakland, California, formed in 2002. They are headed by Zach Schwartz (aka Zach Rogue), who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was written, recorded and produced entirely by Zach Rogue (except the drums) - released privately in 2003 and finally re-released in 2004 on Subpop. In the autumn of 2004 they went on a national tour of the US, which lasted two years. Read more on Last.fm more...
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The Cave Singers / Seeds of Night
From this Seattle band's debut album. Subtle, but gets under your skin.
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The Cave Singers is an American folk trio from Seattle, Washington. Their music is folk for a rainy day: surprising, yet cozy, sparse, yet harmonious, pleasing yet torturous. Rising from the ashes of Pretty Girls Make Graves after its disbandment in 2007, former PGMG-member Derek Fudesco teamed up with Pete Quirk (of Hint Hint) and Marty Lund (of Cobra High) and began playing in the Seattle area. Soon after the band's conception, The Cave Singers signed with Matador Records on June 11, 2007. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Buddy Guy / Where the Blues Begin
I love that Buddy Guy is 74 and still making this kind of music. THAT, is inspiring. Maybe the fact that he enlisted the assistance of a younger guy (Santana is 63) helped him out a little. Love the dialog of their two guitars during the instrumental breaks. And what a freaking voice?
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Buddy Guy (born George Guy, July 30, 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana) is an American blues music and rock music guitarist, as well as a singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix and other 1960s blues and rock legends, Guy is considered as an important proponent of Chicago blues made famous by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He has influenced both widely known and local blues guitarists. Guy is known for his showmanship; for example, he plays with drumsticks and walks into the audience whilst playing Read more on Last.fm more...
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The Tallest Man on Earth / Like the Wheel
Kristian Matsson is only 5'7" - so I guess the moniker is wishful thinking. He led off Noah's first mix. This song was a bonus cut on his previous album, but done slower, in a much lower key and on the piano. I prefer this version off his newly released EP. This song just has it - some songs do. It gives me shivers.
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Kristian Matsson (born 30 April 1983) is a singer-songwriter from Dalarna, Sweden, who performs under the stage name of The Tallest Man on Earth. Matsson grew up in Leksand, and began his solo career in 2006, having previously been the lead singer of the indie band Montezumas. His music has often drawn comparisons to the music of Bob Dylan. Since 2006, Matsson has released four full-length albums and two EPs. He records and produces these in his home, and usually records his voice and guitar together on one track. Read more on Last.fm more...
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Broken Bells / The Mall and Misery
I had this on heavy rotation on our long car trip this summer. It has one of those choruses that you just wait for - and it never disappoints when it arrives. Love the way it fades - seemed fitting for the end of this mix.
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Broken Bells is an American indie rock duo which formed in 2009 in Los Angeles. The band consists of James Mercer (vocals, guitar) and Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton (multiple instruments, production). Mercer is a member of the indie rock band The Shins and Burton is a member of Gnarls Barkley and Dangerdoom, as well as being a respected producer for such artists as Beck, Gorillaz, The Rapture and The Black Keys. The debut self-titled album by Broken Bells was released on Columbia Records on March 9, 2010. Read more on Last.fm more...
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