Please note that the zip file has a password: Q97
Download mix from: https://www.mediafire.com/?hhc19wsztb61eyb
Q’s Compilations
Volume #97 August – September 2014
Well
hello, everybody. Summer is coming to an end, although September seems hotter
than most of the summer combined… anyway, enough about the weather. It’s a case
of good news / bad news at the moment. The bad news, and it is rather terrible,
is that my favourite music venue, Death By Audio, is closing at the end of
November, I can’t even accurately portray how much I like that place… as for
the good news, well, I did get to interview my favourite musician of all time
and someone whose music changed my life, Del Amitri singer Justin Currie (http://freewilliamsburg.com/interview-justin-currie/). So
that was cool… anyway, this mix is the usual mishmash of things I’ve been
listening to and seeing live lately.
01)
Tsunamis – Homework: Cast your minds back to Q#89 and my fantastic Chilean mix
(if I do say so myself) and you may remember Tsunami’s incredible song, Rosita Queen. Well, the good news is
that after a few years absence, the band are getting back together! This is
basically just an intro song that I’ve edited because it’s the next track that
I wanted to include…
02)
Tsunamis - Eterno Retorno: These two tracks appear on 2012’s EP Crac!, which is a bit more polished than
their other records, but the songs are still wonderful. This popped up on a
shuffle the other day (not a feature I usually use but it’s nice to mix things
up from time to time) and it always jumps out at me when I listen to the band.
03) Black
Wine – Komrades: This track opens the band’s latest record, Yell Boss, which was released in August.
I went to the record release show at Death By Audio which also included
labelmates, Brick Mower. The new record (released on Don Giovanni records) hits
a little harder than their previous record.
04)
Hectors Pets - School Days: I was surprised that I hadn’t used anything from
Pets’ debut album, Pet-o-feelia, which
was released at the end of May. I’ve been watching the Pets live with some
regularity over the last couple of years and was wondering if they’d be able to
capture the essence of their live shows on record, thankfully they have.
05)
Monotonix - Late Night: I saw guitarist Yonantan Gat play at Death By Audio a
while ago and after some digging around found he was in an Israeli band called
Monotonix. During the last few days of Kim’s Record Store (RIP) I picked up a
stack of vinyl and CDs, including a couple by Monotonix. This track appears on
their record, Not Yet, and has a
really chunky guitar sound, like Swervedriver in overdrive.
06) Peace
Creep - Interstellar Alimony: San Francisco’s Peace Creep put out a self-titled
EP this year on Alternative Tentacles and it is an unashamed in-your-face
SST-influenced rocker.
07)
Beverly - All the Things: You may remember the fantastic Honey Do demo from a couple of mixes ago, well now the band have
released their first album proper (Careers),
another purchase from Kim’s (RIP, yes I will say that each time). This tune has
a lovely uplifting arpeggio and now I’m typing this I realise I probably don’t
use enough of those…
08) Anna
Calvi - I'm the Man That Will Find You: Covers albums and EPs are nice enough
but one always hopes they’re just stepping stones before new original material.
Having said that, Calvi’s covers EP, Strange
Weather, features a nice mix of modern and classic material. This
particular tune is originally by madcap Kiwi, Conan Mockasin. “Listen to your heart,When feels right from
the start.
Your empty kind of strange, Yours is for the past. Listen to your head, When you're drowning every day”
Your empty kind of strange, Yours is for the past. Listen to your head, When you're drowning every day”
09) Gemma
Ray - Shake Baby Shake: I can’t remember how I heard this song… I think I was
just browsing through show listings and finding tunes by unfamiliar names, but
I could be wrong. Anyway, on first listen this tune seemed a bit standard but
then I found it was in my head with some regularity, so I’m putting it on the
mix. I saw Gemma live a few weeks ago and she didn’t play this, which was a
shame and the other material didn’t seem as interesting, but I like how this
builds and the strings rising to a crescendo.
10) Matt
Kivel – Underwater: Ok so Matt Kivel has now appeared on the last three mixes,
call me unoriginal, but they are three different releases. This tune appears on
his just-released 2nd full-length album, Days of Being Wild.
11) Tim
Woulfe - Naked Waves: Speaking of Matt Kivel, you may remember the last mix
featured a song by him called Palomar, that
featured on a split EP with this man, Tim Woulfe. The lo-fi production is
endearing rather than distracting and Woulfe has one of those voices that on
first listen sounds basic but further listens reveal an earnest depth. “And I want my songs to remind me of how I
felt.”
12)
R.E.M. - Get Up (acoustic): This is an oldie but this year REM officially
released both of the VH1 unplugged sessions. It’s quite amazing to think that
this song was released as a single in September 1989… twenty-five years ago. As Stipe sings in this song, Where Does Time Go?!
13) Tom
Clark - New Toothbrush on Your Sink: Tom Clark hosts The Treehouse at 2A on
Sundays (25 Avenue A, corner of East 2nd), I went a few weeks and enjoyed his
set of Byrds-esque originals. And you never know who is going to turn up at the
sessions, Lenny Kaye got up and played a short set when I went. Sorry for the
abrupt start, it’s how the song came down. “You
had something else in mind, I guess you thought was better”
14) T.V.
Smith – Lies: I picked up the hard-to-find album Channel 5 from Kim’s (RIP) recently, it had been on my radar for a
while after watching a documentary about him and how it seemed like the
underappreciated ugly-duckling in his discography. It’s a lovely little album
with some real pop sensibility that I guess fans just weren’t into at the time.
Just listen to that guitar at 3:20, gorgeous.
15) St.
Vincent - Birth in Reverse: I bought the St Vincent album with a Best Buy
voucher a few months ago and have to say, I wasn’t buying into the hype at all,
it seemed very disappointing. However, I went to see her in Prospect Park last
month and she really won me over, a great performer, singer and guitarist. I
certainly enjoy the album a lot more, just goes to show the power of live
music.
16) Total
Slacker – Satisfied: NYC’s Total Slacker had been playing most of the songs on Slip Away for the last couple of years
(it was released in February) and again there was a question of whether or not
the band’s fiery live performances could be captured on record, and again the
answer was yes! The band have since parted ways with guitarist David Tassy
which was a shame as I thought he was fairly integral to their live appeal.
17) David
Kilgour & the Heavy Eights – Dropper: I recently saw The Clean live in
Brooklyn (review: http://freewilliamsburg.com/kiwi-legends-the-clean-played-rough-trade/) and
also managed to score a copy of David Kilhour’s latest solo album End Times Undone, which is a fine mix of
jangle-pop and Neil Young-esque guitar wigouts, of which this is a fine
example.
18)
Elephant Stone - Wayward Stone: I saw Elephant Stone recently at the Mercury
Lounge, having missed out on seeing them last year due to conflicts in
schedule. This track is more of a nod to their previous records with that
lovely jangley sound, but most of the Three
Poisons taps into a sound a bit more like 90s Britpop (but is, thankfully,
a bit better than most of that turgid movement (save a few highlights)). Always looking back on tomorrow but never
thinking of you.
19) Wand
- Flying Golem: I missed Ty Segal this time around in NYC (actually for the
second time around…) but I did manage to catch Wand (who are one of his openers
on this tour) at Death By Audio and you can immediately hear why he has taken
them on tour with him.
20)
Dinner – Girl: Anders Rhedin is from Denmark but currently lives in LA and has
just signed to NYC-based record label, Capture Tracks. This has a wonderful,
lo-fi electro-goth sound to it. Fans of John Maus will no doubt get into this. They
played at Baby’s All Right this month but I didn’t end up going, hopefully
there will be another chance in the future.
21) Del
Amitri – Hadrian’s Wall: It’s been quite the year for Del Amitri fans, Justin
Currie has released his third solo album and Del Amitri played some reunion
shows (their first in 12 years), to cap things off, they just put up a couple
of new tracks on their soundcloud page. This song has some great orchestration
with sweeping strings, not something the band used too often.
22)
Patter Matthew Bauer - You Are the Chapel: A former member of The Walkmen (who
broke up), Peter Matthew Bauer has produced a rather spiffing solo record
called Liberation! It almost seems
like a shame to take a song out of context with the record which has a great
flow to it.
And
there we have it, I hope you enjoy something on this, as always. I have some
ideas for the next one (I might do a Death By Audio – RIP mix) but it could
just end up being the standard mix of whatever I’ve seen live or listened to
lately. The two pictures are animals that look like me. On the front a Harpy
Eagle and flipside is the red-lipped batfish
Until
next time
Peace
and love - Q
Please note that the zip file has a password: Q97
Download mix from: https://www.mediafire.com/?hhc19wsztb61eyb
