A Music Blog for Recovering Mix-Tapers
"This month has been all about resisting apocalyptic notions - adjusting to the new political reality, the new social reality, the new personal reality. Hell, this month has been just about resisting, period."
Featuring: Elza Soares, Laura Marling, Idriss Ackamoor, Killer Mike, and more.
Read More"We went to Cuba for six days this month, the first time I've been out of the country for at least 15 years. As usual, searching for vinyl was a central activity. Like most things in Havana, this isn't as simple as it is here in the States."
Featuring: Benny Moré, Run the Jewels, Psalm One, Benny Thomasson, and more.
Read More"This is two metal guys (from Enslaved and Wardruna, respectively) collaborating on a song cycle telling the history of Norway in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution. It’s easily one of the oddest yet most satisfying albums I’ve picked up this year."
Featuring: Wovenhand, Gojira, Lush, and more.
Read More"I just don’t recognize my reality, my America, in all this crap. I know that my life, and the lives of so many people I know, has nothing to do with these cartoonish characterizations. So, to battle this maddening reductionism, I want to state for the record who this real American is."
Featuring: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, A Tribe Called Quest, Laura Marling, Run the Jewels, and more.
Read More"It's interesting to compare the parallel careers of Solange and her sister, who both released albums in 2016 that are largely about black pride and the empowerment of black women. With her lower pop-profile, Solange seems to be able to come at it from a sharper angle - the lyrics more plainly and assertively hew to the theme, and the music is more stripped down, much further out from the center of pop radio accessibility. Delightfully, the album still hit number 1 on the charts."
Featuring: Deerhoof, Kate Tempest, Danny Brown, EL VY, and more.
Read More"Margaret Glaspy could hang with the gutsiest belters around, but chooses not to - which makes her even more magnetic. Like just a small handful of concerts in my life, I left the Green Mill that night feeling sure that I'd witnessed the earliest days of a major artist, one likely not to play such a small venue the next time around, or ever again."
Featuring: Swet Shop Boys, Arvo Pärt, Kevin Morby, Jody Stecher, and more.
Read More"One day at work my co-worker Sammi asked me if I ever listened to Ought. "Are they a punk band?," I asked, likely with barely disguised disgust. "Ah, yeah, I guess so," Sammi replied. "Oh, I don't like 'punk' music," I declared, using actual air quotes, and walked away. What. The. Hell?"
Featuring: Mbongwana Star, Juan Gabriel, Twenty One Pilots, The Avett Brothers, and more.
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"I found myself being incredibly moved by RP Boo's set at Pitchfork. It was getting a glimpse into a genuine Chicago, an organic and utterly unique expression of culture from a part of the world that is reliably portrayed in the negative. It felt like a clear and forceful refutation of the idea that all Chicago's south and west sides have to offer the world is violence and poverty."
Featuring: Xenia Rubinos, The Frightnrs, PWR BTTM, William Bell, and more.
Read More"One of the surprising things I've learned is how much more moving I find dance performances than classical music. Spurred by that experience, I've been trying to develop my classical music knowledge a little. As I suspected, knowing something about the historical/musicological context and technical skeleton of the music really helps."
Featuring: Margaret Glaspy, Vince Staples, Christian Scott, Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band, and more.
Read More"This month was my 40th birthday. Leading up to my birthday, my friend Robb jokingly told me I was 'halfway to 80.' I think it was partly meant as a needle, but it has actually served as a pretty great way to put everything in perspective. "
Featuring: Har Mar Superstar, ANOHNI, Bee Gees, White Denim, and more.
Read More"The greatest perk of my job at the Harris Theater is the opportunity to see some incredible dance. It seems pretty clear to me when a choreographer cares about the music - and it can just wreck a dance for me when either the music is terrible or it just doesn't seem to have anything to do with the dance."
Featuring: Anna Wise, Rachmaninoff, Billy Paul, Big Black Delta, and more.
Read More"It's not like the world needed more evidence of Bowie's artistic courage and genius, but holy shit what a swan song."
Featuring: Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Anderson Paak, Gustav Mahler, Yuck, and more.
Read More"I've been trying to slowly educate myself about Chicago's deep bench of new music ensembles, and I'm betting it will be hard to find any more interesting, virtuosic, and soulful than eighth blackbird."
Featuring: Christian Scott, Yeasayer, Gabby Pahinui, Ron Funches, and more.
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"Winter sex is the most distinct. Something about staying home. Something about slowing down. Radiators. Light through ice. Snow reflection. Drafts. Stone dry air. Static. Something at once concentrated and calm, a core. The thirteen songs pulled here will give you just over an hour to reconnect with that lover of yours. You’ve got time. You’ve got repeat. What are you waiting for?"
Featuring: Rodrigo Campos, Letta Mbulu, Smokey Robinson, and more
Read More"Lately I've been serving as iTunes valet for my favorite 11-year-old. We sit and search for songs that she wants downloaded on her iPod, with her largely guiding the search and me trying to throw golden nugget in front of her ears every once in a while. To my utter horror and amazement, I found myself feeling a sense of relief when we landed on Britney Spears. It's an experience I would have sworn would never happen."
Featuring: The Arcs, Carlos Malcom, Kronos Quartet, Pell, and more.
Read More"The only love I knew was my longing for dudes in hair metal bands. Duff McKagan, Nikki Sixx, Sebastian Bach— they were my dreamboats in leather pants, hair flowing like the dolls I hadn't yet quit, their heroin needles and STDs invisible to my eyes."
Featuring: Guns N' Roses, Warrant, Def Leppard, you get the idea
Read More"My old rule about mix tapes was that each one should drop you right into the present tense. Even if the first song isn’t brand-new, the mood it evokes should speak to the current moment in some important way."
Featuring: Dan Deacon, Deerhunter, Explosions In The Sky, and more.
Read More"The previous day at Pitchfork, I experienced serious queasiness and cultural disorientation when ASAP Ferg exhorted the crowd to 'put their guns in the air.' What does it mean for a crowd of privileged people to do that in the same city where this 'shooting tracker' shows 29 shootings that weekend, including a 12 year old boy riding a scooter? It's gross."
Featuring: Freddie Gibbs, Mdou Moctar, The Wood Brothers, Jimmy Whispers, and more.
Read More"This month's playlist offers a mini-exploration into the breakdown of genres that seems to have reached a new level of maturity in today's music, especially in the blending of rock and rap that has been lubricated by the ubiquity of electronic music and tools. This also involves evolutionary step in the synthesis of digital & analogue sounds into a new sonic language, making me wonder if that synthesis will be recognized as a signature of this era twenty years from now."
Featuring: Deradoorian, A$AP Rocky, Brahms, Ornette Coleman, and more.
Read More"Never mind the problem with essentially equating music with breakfast cereal or shaving cream, this conversation betrays an even deeper and more troubling misunderstanding in our culture: That who we are as people - what we value - is demonstrated and defined by what we spend money on. That our most important role is that of consumer. It's just the most rotten idea around, and I, personally, am against it with every fiber of my being."
Featuring: B.B. King, Drinks, Mohammed Fairouz, Ry Cooder, and more.
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