My second-best-English-mate Rob is living in New York City these days, and he sent me over an artist he’s hyping named Baba Ali. He’ll be touring with Gold Panda and rolling through town on August 18th for a show at Fortune Sound Club. Check out the song “Not Loving You.”
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The next song that popped up on my soundcloud after Baba Ali was an artist named Neda. When I was listening my boss Ronnie walked in and said, “CHVRCHES?” I think that is a good thing.
She is from Carnarvon, WA…the town has a population less than 5,000 and is 900 kms north of Perth. Sounds lovely.
I have more than a couple jammers to share. All very bright, booty-shaking, catchy, poptastical cuts. Almost all these songs were recommended to me by quality folks and now I’m passing them on to you.
Our musical journey begins East of the rockies in a little burgh that maybe you’ve heard of… Cincinnati. This fine metro of 2 million folks straddling the Ohio/Kentucky border is famous for WKRP, Ocho Cinqo and soon to be dance-rockers Walk the Moon.
My girl Scotty Fraser said I HAD to check out the song “Anna Sun.”
Growing up in Coquitlam…me and my friends would play “guns.” Basically we trolled the neighbourhood fighting an epic war between the righteous and the not so righteous.
What if someone took our imagination and made a music video? My friend Paul tracked this music video down from the band Is Tropical and went, SWA? Holy shit right!?! Did those kids just cut another kid’s head off in cartoony gory violence? I think so.
Do these London cats have it dialed in sans rad music video? I was feeling it. I seriously want to make-out with Paul for sharing this song with me. no wait… errrr. You know what I mean. or do you?
Trolling the net I found this poignant prose in regards to Is Tropical’s music video and quotes George Carlin circa 1988:
“It’s a great country, but it’s a strange culture… This has got to be the only country in the world that could ever come up with a disease like bulimia; gotta be the only country in the world where some people have no food at all, and other people eat a nourishing meal and puke it up intentionally. This is a country where tobacco kills four hundred thousand people a year, so they ban artificial sweeteners! Because a rat died! You know what I mean? This is a place where gun store owners are given a list of stolen credit cards, but not a list of criminals and maniacs! And now, they’re thinking about banning toy guns — and they’re gonna keep the fucking real ones!”
… and because France has it figured out right now in electro-pop, I found out Is tropical is on a record/fashion label called Kitsune Maison. Same label as Zone modern rockers Two Door Cinema Club. There I found this glittery remix of the hot single “What You Know.”
Two Doors Cinema Club – “What You Know (Mustang Remix)”
I like making mixtapes… I guess its almost the same rush as someone who plays fantasy baseball or something. I go through my collection and build a setlist.
With some help from Pitchfork, iTunes Genius and my friend James… I found a set of fuzzy electronic off-kilter beats split up by some adorable indie pop.
The set begins with an ominous song from How To Dress Well. A song that is also side 1, track 1 from their album. It rises with some mellow and enjoyable beats, then bogs down with crackling distortion of Hudson Mohawke. Maybe the most most interesting of the songs I included, if only for its spooky weirdness.
A Sunny Day In Glasgow has some of that ethereal-ness of Hudson. Then I jammed out new music from Alexander, aka Alex Ebert aka the dude from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
Something delightful from Kelowna band We Are The City and its a wrap.
01) How to Dress Well – “You Hold The Water” 02) Baths – “Plea” 03) Gold Panda – “Back Home” 04) Teen Daze – “Neon” 05) Bibio – “Ambivalence Avenue” 06) Hannah Georgas – “the national” 07) Hudson Mohawke – “Star Crackout” 08) A Sunny Day in Glasgow – “Nitetime Rainbows” 09) Alexander – “Trust” 10) We Are The City – “Time, Wasted”
The Morning After 