"DECK THE HALLS!" with the 12 Not So Days of Christmas

Christmastime is here again and while many people (myself included) love to get lost in the merriment and festivusness that is the season, there are times when we need a break from Bing Crosby and his three word jingles. In lieu of such music, here's a nice little collection of "Christmas-themed" music... and when I say "Christmas-themed" I mean completely unrelated.

As the title of this post suggests however, there are 12 tracks and with that comes the inspiration of the 12 days (actually I think it was the other way around). This may be the most bizarre mix I've made seeing as many genres do not correspond to one another outwardly, but innately ingrained I think there is something that pulls them together... something other than the "Christmas-spirit".

So grab so cider... and by cider I mean booze, sit down, and relax... and when the moment comes... DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!

Tracklist:
12. Islands The Drums
11. Nickodemus Feat. Jean Shephard Peace Pipe
10. Caribou Lord Leopard
9. Lykke Li Dance Dance Dance
8. Shearwater White Waves
7. Iron & Wine Swans & The Swimming
6. Hot Chip Feat. Robert Wyatt We're Looking For A Lot Of Love (Geese Mix)
5. Beck Halo Of Gold
4. Architecture In Helsinki Like A Call
3. Genevieve Toupin L'Hiver (French Winter)
2. Dirty Projectors Two Doves
1. Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) Peach, Plum, Pear (Johanna Newsom Cover)

"Deck The Halls!" with the 12 Not So Days of Christmas

CoCo & JoJo's Suplendiferous Adventures in Careerdom!

So my friend Cory and I are doing our damnedest to find a job. Such pursuits have inspired this week's posting in which listening to this musical mantra will call on the job gods and offer up the opportunity that has been so elusive.

The playlist is in two parts... the first is for the soul lovers... sentimental of that sassy Chi-town aura. The second is a synthesized amped-up L.A. smackdown. All in all, it's a little something for everyone.

Enjoy.... and wish us luck!

Tracklist:
1. Shawna Feat. Johnny P. & Syleena Johnson In Tha Chi
2. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings Your Thing Is A Drag
3. Aretha Franklin Save Me [A Diplo Dub]
4. Santogold vs. Diplo Shuv It (Disco D Blend)
5. Chaka Khan Ain't Nobody
6. Ike & Tina Turner Bold Soul Sista
7. Ja'net Dubois Movin' On Up
8. Etta James Money (That's What I Want) [LIVE]
9. Diana Ross The Boss (Def Radio Edit)
10. Amerie Gotta Work
11. Nina Simone Work Song
12. The Noisettes Wild Young Hearts

CoCo & JoJo's Suplendiferous Adventures in Careerdom, Pt. 1

13. Elliott Smith L.A.
14. Little Boots Rich Boys (The Virgins Cover)
15. The Sounds Running On Turbo
16. The Kills Cheap & Cheerful
17. Santigold Creator (Konrad Old Money WTF Remix)
18. N.A.S.A. Feat. Kanye West, Santigold, & Lykke Li Gifted
19. No Age Loosen This Job
20. Wave Machines Keep The Lights On
21. Chromeo Fancy Footwork [KOLT13 Murdaphunk Remix]
22. Lissy Trullie Boy Boy
23. La Roux In For The Kill [Skream's Lets Get Ravey Remix]
24. Magic Wands Warrior [The XX Remix]

The Last Salesman

Today's post is difficult. Yesterday my stepfather died. I was having a difficult time processing it all, so I made a playlist to mull it over. I still have so much to process, but I think this will help.

It's not an easy listen. It will hurt at times. I'm ready for it.

I'm going to do a little something different this time around. I used to make poems out of the track names of the songs I'd put on a CD. Today, I'm bringing that back.

Here is one for my stepfather David, who I will miss for reasons unknown to me. He was a hard man, a cruel man, a bastard. I hated him for false reasons. Now when I reflect, I remember the good. It's what I'll keep. I hope it will change my perceptions.

Goodbye David.


The Last Salesman

1902.
From the deep ocean,
a beached baby was born
and inhabits
stolen houses
for shelter.

He was young when he left home.
It was a sort of revolution:
renegade, ruanaway, bad kid.
He would jangle on a bayonet
under the Milky Way:
murky white stars.

He turned from them,
to become a traveling salesman;
the last one.
Hands on the radio,
in that big red
machine.

Red lights,
black tables.
Action, reaction.


Breathe?
It was his time to die.

There's a boy who builds coffins,
Harry Patch.
"In memory of," was engraved.

We walked the wake
and I bent to kiss
you on the cheek.

Ma said,
"it was something
to have wept."

We danced on his grave,
to the burial sounds of seagulls,
all to avoid the void;
the void
of sailing home,
of the sequel.

We are the souverians,
waiting,
for the first days of spring.



*Please take special note that there are four files to this set (so download them all!) and if you put them in order you'll hear the story.


Tracklist:

1. The Uglysuit 1902 Deep Ocean
2. Bon Iver Beach Baby
3. Iron & Wine Stolen Houses (Die)
4. The XX Shelter
5. Antony & Bryce Dressner I Was Young When I Left Home
6. Fink Sort of Revolution [The Cinematic Orchestra Remix]
7. Kings Of Convenience Renegade
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs Runaway
9. Black Lips Bad Kids
10. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Janglin'
11. Beirut On A Bayonet
12. Sia Under The Milky Way
13. Warpaint Stars
14. Patrick Watson Traveling Salesman
15. Au Revoir Simone The Last One
16. Chris Garneau Hands On The Radio
17. Justin Vernon & Aaron Dressner Big Red Machine
18. Vib Gyor Red Lights
19. Other Lives Black Tables
20. Choir of Young Believers Action/Reaction

The Last Salesman: Disc 1, Pt. I
The Last Salesman: Disc 1, Pt. II


1. David Gray Breathe
2. The Dodos A Time To Die
3. Florence + The Machine My Boy Builds Coffins
4. Radiohead Harry Patch (In Memory Of)
5. The Antlers Wake
6. Desmond & The Tutus Kiss You On The Cheek [King Of Town Remix]
7. El Perro Del Mar It Is Something (To Have Wept)
8. Paper Route Dance On Our Graves
9. The Phantom Band Burial Sounds
10. Motorama Seagulls
11. Atlas Sound Avoid The Void
12. Papercuts The Void
13. Karen O & The Kids Sailing Home
14. St. Vincent The Sequel
15. Andrew Bird Souverian
16. Noah & The Whale The First Days of Spring

The Last Salesman: Disc 2, Pt. I
The Last Salesman: Disc 2, Pt. II

Treasure Island: The Butter

So I planned my move to Southern California around the Treasure Island Music Festival. I have never been to a major music festival and after seeing the line-up I knew this was the one for me. It was insanedible.

Knowing that I would be driving down to and through San Francisco it meant that I had to do a lot of soul searching and by soul searching, I mean downsizing. That was hard. I got rid of nearly half my stuff just moving from college, but now I had to make it all fit into the back of my 1995 Ford Escort Wagon. This was no easy task. Then again, there were a few items (such as a bottle of Log Cabin Syrup, or 2 dozen pairs of straightedge scissors, or a t-shirt with a cowboy and his horse drinking from the same trough, caption reading "Best Friends) that would suggest downsizing was still a viable option.

Thus I scrapped and scrapped and dumped and pawned and gifted and re-gifted and stuffed that car like a turkey for twelve. I even fit my 8' carved wooden statue from Borneo in there! So the girl and I sat off for the show the night before the concert and drove for 12 hours to get to the gloriousness that is San Francisco.

Along the way I had an epiphany... in the seven years of ownership that I had on my car I had yet to name the beaut. And around 3am, just after crossing Grant's Pass (a real mammoth of a mountain pass) her name came to me. LOLA PEPITA ESTEBAN RUIZ. She'll kick your ass any day. She's bad like that.

In honor of this moment I decided to make a playlist of the show that inspired the trip that would henceforth conjure up the name of names for my queen of cars. Here are some of my favorites from the show.

Tracklist:
1. The Management (MGMT) Kids (Afterschool Dance Megamix)
2. MSTRKRFT Breakaway (Feat. Jahmal from The Carps)
3. Girl Talk Hands In The Air
4. The Brazilian Girls Last Call (Disco Pusher Remix)
5. Passion Pit Sleepyhead (Joel's Inch From The Edge Of The Bed Version)
6. Federico Aubele Su Melodia
7. Dan Deacon Slow With Horns/Run For Your Life
8. Murs What Do You Know?
9. The Decemberists The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid
10. Beirut La Llorona
11. Grizzly Bear About Face
12. Yo La Tengo Gentle Hour
13. The Walkmen On The Water
14. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down Beat (Health, Life and Fire)
15. Vetiver You May Be Blue (Neighbors Remix)
16. Tommy Guerrero Falling Awake
17. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Home

Treasure Island: The Butter Pt. I
Treasure Island: The Butter Pt. II

Tut, Tut... Looks Like Rain

Influenza... it's a bitch, especially when it's 70 degrees outside and the sun is shining down and all you can think is... "my body is hotter than the earth right now. What's up with that?"

So as to distract myself from this thought, I've been whiling away the hours on a pharmaceutical cocktail codeine cough syrup and various pills coaxing the fever from my system and the phlegm from my chest. The past five days have been MAJOR to say the least.

Just prior to this infection I was in Seattle and it had just begun it's transition from pristine, crisp, autumnal afternoons to the rather dreary, slippery, wet ones. And that's how this playlist started. When I got to California however, it seemed a bit contrived and so I lost interest.

But then I got sick, and I craved soup and the weather that called upon such a state as I was in.

Here's the result of it all...

Tracklist:
1. Otis Redding Cigarettes & Coffee
2. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings Humble Me
3. Jaime Lidell Wait For Me
4. Amy Winehouse Me & Mr. Jones
5. Mayer Hawthorne One Track Mind
6. The Noisettes Never Forget You
7. Aretha Franklin Day Dreamining
8. Miles Davis & John Coltrane 'Round Midnight
9. Etta James Stormy Weather
10. Jamie Cullum Fascinating Rhythm
11. Mint Royale Singin' in the Rain
12. Feist Inside & Out
13. CéU Grains de Beauté
14. Cat Power Naked If I Wanted To
15. Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra I Cover The Waterfront
16. Nina Simone I Put A Spell On You
17. Ray Charles Just For A Thrill
18. Duffy Hanging On Too Long
19. Neko Case Runnin' Out of Fools [Aretha Franklin Cover]
20. James Brown Please, Please, Please
21. Miles Davis So What

Tut, Tut... Looks Like Rain, Pt. I
Tut, Tut... Looks Like Rain, Pt. II

Nostronomy, Fibonacci & Their Musical Playthings

So by Tuesday, I meant Friday... HA!

Um, so this week is a bit off the deep end. I started noticing a lot of numerical references in songs this year and drew up the idea to see how far I could get making a playlist directed by the fibonacci sequence. Surprisingly, 70% are from this year! The art that resulted from this looks like some conspiracy theorists' homage to Nostradamus... if only the numbers could glow and enlarge like they do in those cheesy reenactments on the History Channel, like guiding stars in the night sky only words on the page that miraculously highlight as you read them... like... Astronomy by Nostradamus... NOSTRONOMY... know what I mean? That would be something.

No tracklist this week... it's all in the (ch)art.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377

Follow it and you shall see.

Links:
Nostronomy, Fibonacci & Their Muscial Playthings Pt. I
Nostronomy, Fibonacci & Their Muscial Playthings Pt. II

Humandroid

This is way overdue... and I want to do my best to keep this a weekly thing... every Tuesday do a new music segment... but it's a bit taxing for some reason... I'm a busy boy and blogs get pushed back to the wayside. I'll do what I can to keep up on it though from this point forward.


Up for this week is a playlist I've been working on off and on for about a month. It's called Humandroid and is a mix directed by the theme of Humans/Androids and the creation of a new race. Bionics here we come!

So much inspiration from the new music this year... and I've done what I can to draw parallel threads throughout multiple genres. Give it a listen and hear what I mean.

Until next time...

Tracklist:
1. Röyksopp The Girl & The Robot
2. La Roux I'm Not Your Toy
3. Marina & The Diamonds I Am Not A Robot
4. Andrew Bird Not A Robot, But A Ghost
5. The Juan MacLean A New Bot
6. Patrick Watson Wooden Arms
7. Bonnie "Prince" Billy Heart's Arms
8. The Features Wooden Heart
9. Florence & The Machine Hardest of Hearts
10. Bike For Three! More Heart Than Brains
11. Spoon Stroke Their Brains
12. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists The Numbered Head (Robert Pollard Cover)
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs Heads Will Roll
14. The Juan MacLean Human Disaster
15. Rodrigo y Gabriela Hanuman
16. Stardeath & White Dwarfs New Heat
17. Spinnerette Distorting A Code
18. Papercuts The Machine Will Tell Us So
19. Justin Vernon & Aaron Dessner Big Red Machine

Links:
Humandroid Pt. I
Humandroid Pt. II