Q#92 – October - November 2013

Please note that the zip file has a password: Q92

Download mix from:  http://www.mediafire.com/download/possaagntzy7nrc/Q92.zip

Q’s Compilations

Volume #92 – October – November 2013

October and November are odd times in the US, the “fall” (it’s still Autumn…) is beautifu, the sun is out and the skies are blue but there is a chill in the air, my kind of weather. Halloween is a big thing and thanksgiving is too close to christmas to know what to do with either. New York recently had the CMJ Music Marathon and I’ve been enjoying writing content for My Social List, here’s some stuff I’ve been listening to lately:

01) King Tuff – Anthem: King Tuff’s self-titled release was one of the best albums of last year, and his debut album from 2008, Was Dead, was re-issued in the summer. This tune opens his eponymous album and having seen him live twice this year I thought it was time I used another track.

02) Hector's Pets - Station Wagon: Regulars on the New York gig circuit for the last couple of years, Pets are one of the most solid live bands you can see and are an infectious act. They’re currently recording their debut album which should be great, especially if they can capture their live sound, this track is more of a demo but you’ll be humming ohhh la la la ohhh la la la before you know it.

03) Obits - It's Sick: I saw Obits at their record release show at the Bell House (which I reviewed here: http://mysocialist.com/blog/2013/09/24/live-review-obits-at-the-bell-house/) in support of new record Beds & Bugs. It’s a fine record and this is probably my favourite from it.

04) Nu Sensae – Swim: I saw Nu Sensae at the Northside Festival in June and enjoyed their ferocious set at Shea Stadium, but it wasn’t until I picked up their record, Sundowning, that I found a better appreciation for them and managed to tease apart the songs.

05) Joanna Gruesome – Sugarcrush: This Welsh band offers a ray of sunshine for the UK music scene, they were one of the best acts to play the recent CMJ Music Marathon in New York in October and their record, Weird Sister, is sure to make many a best-of list for the year. The album has been released on Slumberland Records in the US.

06) Blouse – Imperium: I was also at Blouse’s record release show in support of new album, Imperium, my review can be found here: http://mysocialist.com/blog/2013/09/03/blouse-live-review-glasslands-08302013/. The new album is more guitar-driven compared to the synth-heavy self-titled debut, but the change of direction sounds natural rather than forced.

07) Best Coast - I Don't Know How: After the fairly disappointing second album, The Only Place, which featured a much cleaner sound, new EP Fade Away is a real return to form. Sure, it’s more of a return to the blueprint of their wonderful first album than anything else, but I still think that Boyfriend is one of the best pop tunes of recent times, so I really want them to do well. Let’s hope the upward trajectory continues.

08) TEEN - Big Talk: This tune is a leftover from the sessions that spawned their last ep, Carolina. I love the big synth sound and eagerly await more!

09) Chromatics – Cherry: I saw Chromatics at Terminal 5 in September, almost exactly a year since I saw them at the New Museum last year (which was in my top 5 shows of the year) and they were once again fantastic. This track appears on the recent label sampler from Italians Do It Better called After Dark 2.

10) Weekend – Oubliette: Jinx is one of the finest albums of the year and while it has been available in the US for a few months, it finally just got a worldwide release. Not exactly the easiest band to find on google (and their debut album was called sports, just try finding Weekend Sports!), as with most things people consider to be dark and eerie, I hear a beautiful record.

11) Okkervil River - Down Down the Deep River: One of the most consistently great bands of the last decade, Okkervil River deliver another rewarding record in the shape of The Silver Gymnasium, which is a concept album based in New Hampshire in 1986. I haven’t dissected the lyrics enough find myself in that world but the music is of their usual high calibre.

12) Justin Currie - I Hate Myself for Loving You: New record, Lower Reaches, took me a little longer to get into than Justin’s two other solo records, it might be the more country influence (it was recorded in Nashville) or it might just be that my expectations for the man who sparked my love of music are just too high. Regardless, I ended up really liking the record in the end anyway. And to make things even better, Del Amitri are touring in the UK for the first time in 10 years starting in January next year. I’ve already booked tickets for a couple of shows, now I just need to figure out getting there!

13) Fly Ashtray - To Sir with Ignelss: Described recently as “one of New York’s best kept secrets of the last 30 years”, this track was co-written with R. Stevie Moore and appears on Reports. I managed to catch a rare set by the band at Cake Shop a couple of weeks ago.

14) Sisu - Cut Me Off: Keen listeners will remember Sandra Vu’s band Sisu from Q#90 and Q#88, since then debut album Blood Tears has dropped and I heartily recommend it. They played my favourite set of the recent CMJ Music Marathon and Vu has really grown into the role of band leader.

15) Journalism – Denim Jesus: A recent discovery, I saw Journalism supporting Guantanamo Baywatch at Cake Shop and was an instant convert. There isn’t a whole lot out there to listen to at the moment so do enjoy this. I love their sound and just wait for the solo… My post about them on My Social List has turned out to be my most popular as well so take a look if you want: http://mysocialist.com/blog/2013/11/05/artist-to-watch-journalism/

16) Young Adults – Decay: Boston-based band Young Adults excel on this noisey/shoegazey/post-punky tune, I wanted to see the band recently but their show conflicted with another so I hope it isn’t too long until their gigging again. For more information see their bandcamp page http://youngadultsma.bandcamp.com/

17) Lil Daggers - After the Flood: One of my favourite recent discoveries, this track opens their superbly titled EP, No Pizza No Peace, and is a perfect dose of atmospheric psych-rock. This track even caused me to miss my subway stop late at night one time as its swirling production  dulled my senses (ok it could have been the beer). I had to fade this song a little earlier than I’d have liked due to time constraints.

18) Mark Kozelek and Desertshore - You Are Not My Blood: Kozelek has been pretty active this year, with a covers album, 3 live albums and 2 collaboration albums. This track is the closest thing to early Red House Painters he has released since even before Red House Painters broke up.

19) Chelsea Wolfe - We Hit a Wall: Latest album, Pain is Beauty, is a real success of different sounds and styles. This brooding piece is my favourite.

20) Zola Jesus - Fall Back: New album, Versions, is a collection of re-arranged song for strings courtesy of JG Thirwell. The new versions are brighter and bring the vocals to the fore, which is a good contrast to the electronic and dense original songs.

This is one of the most gratifying mixes I’ve made in a while so I hope you enjoyed it. The next mix will be a roundup of my favourite releases so I suppose I’d better get my thinking cap on for that. See you in 2014!

Until next time

Peace and love - Q

Q#90 – June – July 2013

Please note that the zip file has a password: Q90

Download mix from: http://www.mediafire.com/?04mam8z8dbhx5fy

Q’s Compilations

Volume #90 – June – July 2013

Greetings! The thing about doing a themed compilation (the Chilean mix of Q#89) is that you get a backlog of tracks from a regular mix, so chopping things down for this release was a bit of a pain! I hope you enjoy what is in store…

01) Books of Love - Space Time: We need more science in music! We also need more Katy Goodman, this song ticks both boxes. I’ll simply copy from the bandcamp page which paints the picture “While hiking past the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, friends Katy Goodman and Greta Morgan were struck with the idea to record a song together: A song about physics and love, science and romance, space and time. Have you ever felt the lovesick pain of falling for someone from a different dimension? We have too.”.

02) Grand Resort - Night is Dark: I saw this band support No Joy at Glasslands and really enjoyed their set, they remind me a little bit of The Sound which can only be good. Songwriter Andres Pichardo grew up in the Dominican Republic before moving to the US and has since released a record called Vanguard Dreams, which I can’t seem to find much about.

03) The Drowners - Long Hair: Uncomplicated catchy indie-pop doesn’t come much more refreshing than this, they have only released a few songs so far so it will be interesting to see what else they put out.

04) Pop Zeus - Devils in the Details: Sorry for the not-so-clear quality on this at times, it’s from a cassette transfer. I’m a big fan of Pop Zeus and think he is putting out the best power-pop around right now. Just listen and then go to the bandcamp page http://popzeus.bandcamp.com/  “I tried my best I really did”

05) Parquet Courts - Borrowed Time: I got off to a weird start with this band because I heard the record last year and thought it was ok, then earlier this year I saw them live supporting The Men at the Bowery Ballroom and really enjoyed them and re-examined the record which is actually really good. I guess that happens sometimes…  “I was up to my neck in motivation neglect when I felt soft waves of purpose crashing onto the surface. “

06) Deerhunter - Dream Captain: It has seemed like an age waiting for Deerhunter to follow up Halcyon Digest (released 3 years ago), but Monomania hit the shelves in May and is a bit of an expected shift into dirty glam-rock which takes you by surprise at first but for me made complete sense after a few listens. I’m excited to be seeing them for the first time in September.  “Could you be, for me, what I see in you, Or would you give me wings so I could fly, fly, or sink and die please!”

07) Kurt Vile - KV Crimes: Wakin On a Pretty Daze sounds like you would think based on the title, it’s a chilled out and hazy record. I love the guitar sound on this song. Have seen Kurt perform twice so far this year, one time just before the album came out and most recently at the 4knots festival. “all right, what now? that's fine, i think i'm ready to claim what's mine,
rightfully, yeah...”

08) The Disciplines – Emily: The Disciplines are a Norwegian rock band than feature Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, who is one of my favourite songwriters. This is taken from the second Disciplines record, Virgins of Menace, released in 2011. I bought this at Ken’s solo show at the Mercury Lounge earlier in the year.

09) The Teen Age - Second Youth: The Teen Age are a new band from Brooklyn, I’ve been following them fairly closely as they drip-feed their songs to the public, this was the second one (out of three so far). I managed to catch the band do a short set at Muchmore’s recently and really like what they’re doing, hopefully they will have a full-blown release soon.

10) The Yellow Dogs - This City: I was pretty blown away by The Yellow Dogs after I saw them play at Glasslands with Sisu, their story is quite amazing, they are from Iran where their music was deemed illegal. This post-punk/dance will get your grooving.

11) Cheatahs - The Swan: Those pining for some Swervedriver-esque shoegaze should look no further. I just picked up Extended Plays which combines the band’s two previous EPs.

12) Meat Puppets - One More Drop: The Pups have released another fine album with Rat Farm. I managed to catch them at the Mercury Lounge earlier in the year (they played two shows, I really should have done both!) and played a great show. Long may they continue. “One more drop then I'm gonna stop it. Climb back on a one-way rocket now ... rocket now”

13) Teen – Electric: I finally got round to seeing Teen live earlier in the year, supporting Memory Tapes (more on them later) at Glasslands in February. This is from their debut EP, Little Doods, they have just recorded another EP called Carolina (which I have yet to hear).

14) Fear of Men – Seer: Hailing from Brighton, I was a bit bummed to find out I had just missed a show in New York in March (just before I heard of them) but thankfully they just returned to play a free show at the South Street Seaport. The band had released a few limited cassettes before compiling the best material onto Early Fragments, they are about to release a full length album this summer.

15) Sisu - Two Thousand Hands: I featured Light Eyes on Q#88, Sisu have since remastered and officially released their EP (now called Light Eyes) and are set to put out an album later in the year.

16) Memory Tapes - Thru the Field: After seeing Memory Tapes live, you have to adjust somewhat to the studio output, which is more of a one-man electronic project whereas the live experience is fleshed out with real drums, bass and guitar. This is taken from the most recent release, Grace/Confusion.

17) Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle - You Missed My Heart: I recently reviewed this record for my blog so I suspect it will just be easier to link to that, here you go: http://someothersuckersparade.blogspot.com/2013/05/mark-kozelek-and-jimmy-lavelle-perils.html to summarise, I really like it! “I rattled off a list with everything I missed, Like going to the movies with her, And the way she kissed me. Driving into downtown Wheeling, Showing her off the back yard barbecues, And reunions in the park, I said I missed her skin and she started laughing, And while I clinched down on her wrist, She said thats quite a list, But there is one thing you missed. You missed my heart, you missed my heart”

18) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito: This is the title-track from the band’s latest album, which although solid, does not quite hit the heady heights of their previous three wonderful albums. It does have some highlights, however, including this song. I’ve seen the band twice this year and they are still a great live band. “They can see you but you can't see them, So are you gonna let them in? They're hiding underneath your bed, Crawling between your legs, They're sticking it in your vein, Were you itching when they called your name?”

19) The Flaming Lips - Look... The Sun is Rising: The Terror sees the Flips exploring their more morbid musical side, it is a record that has divided opinion as some claim it to be directionless and droning, personally I do not think that at all, it is a beautiful record with much more structure than people realise. I saw them recently in Prospect Park on a beautiful sunny day, which was a bit at odds with their set but I love them unconditionally. “Love is always something, Something you should fear, When you really listen, Fear is all you hear”

20) The Men – Supermoon: Contender for album of the year (so far at least) is The Men’s New Moon, which I also reviewed on my blog here: http://someothersuckersparade.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-men-new-moon-album-bowery-ballroom.html I thought this was a great closer and I ended up dropping a few tracks (and changing the Kurt Vile tune to a shorter one) to make sure I could fit it on. This is just a riot.

And there you have it, we are fully into summer here and New York is an amazing place to be for all the free summer shows that go on. The heat and humidity may be unbearable at times, however!

Until next time

Peace and love - Q