Summer Love Playlist

Full disclosure, I’ve been terrible about widening my music horizon. But perhaps terrible isn’t the correct word; this lack of branching out means I’ve been exploring the contents of my own iTunes with a renewed vigor. On a personal note, I’ve recently moved to Oakland, and because we don’t yet have an internet connection, I’m writing this from the Urban Grind café downtown. You might have guessed, but I’m surrounded by literal crackheads. They may or may not influence my dialogue here. Without further adieu, here’s my not-so-new mix of tunes that have me fallin:

1. Hot Chip- “Look At Where We Are” (Major Lazer Remix)

Generally speaking, Hot Chip’s music is laden with gushy promises of endless love and their latest album, In Our Heads, is no exception. This song reflects a style shift, in that it’s a bit less electronic than a lot of the bizarre tracks they turn out, but not to fret—Major Lazer fixes that. This upbeat track will surely have you swayin’ with your boo long into the night…

2. Imogen Heap- “Goodnight and Go” 

I must admit, this one takes me back to my starry-eyed teenage years and makes me want to twirl around on my tiptoes. OK if you know me at all, you realize that this dance is not really just a desire. At any given time this summer, you’ll probably find me doing said twirl.

3. Metric- “Raw Sugar” 

This one doesn’t have much to do with love or summer, but it was a welcome blast from the past when this one came up on my iTunes shuffle. OH! Wait it does have a line mentioning the season, but somehow “summer never comes” doesn’t really render feelings of joy and toes in the sand….enjoy it anyway.

4. Alt-J- “Dissolve Me” 

Nothing says summertime quite like two tabs on your tongue…

5. Bob Marley- “Could You Be Loved” (RAC Remix)

You know I had to throw in a Marley track. A couple of his musically inclined children got together with a few incredible DJs and made this beautiful reggae baby that is Legend: Remixed. This is one of my favorite tracks from the collab because, let’s face it, anything RAC touches is gold. If you’re like me, this lighthearted take on his pop hit makes ya wanna start a fireside beach dance party in your own living room (maybe don’t light a fire though).

6. Disclosure- “Latch” 

OK so I regularly refer to myself as a bonafide music snob, and yes this is a pop hit and probably played on the radio, but I love this song. And it has an amazing video to go along with it!!! THERE’S SO MUCH LOVE! First kisses! Ahhh!! On that note, I love that there is a lesbian couple in the video. It’s impressively refreshing to see same-sex flirtation grouped with heterosexual hanky pankey.

7. Solange- “Losing You” 

Renaming this playlist might be a good idea. This track is a plea, an admission of strong-hearted desperation, and I totally feel for ma girl Solange on this one (I wish we were friends IRL). But the song is wonderful, and the colorful video was filmed in my beloved South Africa! Side note: I want to own her entire wardrobe from this shoot. Also- girl’s got moves.

8. Ja Rule ft. Ashanti- “Mesmerize” 

First: the video. Nothing says “summer” quite like the end sequence of Grease, and nothing says love like Ja Rule and Ashanti in all black strollin’ around a carnival. That logic may be flawed, but just embrace the warm weather, be a little more street, and rock ya body. Don’t forget, summer time= sexi time.

9. Twista- “Wetter” 

…I have so few words for this selection. But uhh…if it gets too hot, you’d rather be wetter, right?

10. Dominique Young Unique- “Hot Girl” (Mentalcut Remix)

This is so self-explanatory for so many reasons. The song’s aiight, but like…damn.

And the award for most repetitive, unnecessarily long musical intro goes to…

Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart”

I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable about this song. I think it’s perhaps because I associate it with the time in my life when I actually started to critically think about music. When I started college, I was obsessed with the notion of becoming one of those super cute indie kids who only listened to indie music (with the occasional token punk rock thrown in there…you know, so people would think I was edgy). Death Cab was easily my favorite band. I used to listen to Plans and make plans of my own to one day feel the agonizingly beautiful emotions that Ben Gibbard sang about. You know, because you can totally plan what kind of loves you’re going to have in your lifetime. Especially when you’re fresh out of high school and totes convinced you’ve found the love of your life. 18 is blissfully stupid.

Back to the music, when I first heard this song on the radio I was like “uhhh…you’re going to possess someone’s heart? Like a demon? That’s not really romantic, Ben. Maybe you meant that you’re going to own it? Well that’s sort of rude…JLo always says that love don’t cost a thing so how do you plan to take ownership here? OK whatevs my friends like the song so I guess it’s fine.”

I apparently was not yet capable of deciding to outwardly admit that I disliked Narrow Stairs‘ debut single; I saw Death Cab twice on that tour. TWICE. The second time, my friend couldn’t go at the last minute so I went alone…obsessive and weird. Whatever, I had a good time.

Now that I’ve had some time to sit on it, it’s so painful to even listen to the non-radio-edit version of this song. Like…what the hell were they thinking? It’s so monotonous. The piano picks up and you catch a glimmer of hope but then it just goes on.They played the entire intro during their live performance. I just remember looking out into the crowd and seeing the same “when the fack is he going to start singing?” look on everyone’s faces. It’s so awkward to look like you’re rocking out for that fivefuckingminute intro. Especially when you’re in a crowd of indie kids who are awkward enough as it stands.

I love ever-evolving music taste.

Side note: trying to be indie is so fucking exhausting. Life is so much easier when you realize that it’s not worth it to care [so much].

Related side note: I’m aware of how stupid this post is. It’s ok though because I actually don’t care.

Funny-ish side note: “Cath…” used to be my ringtone. I was that committed to the image.

House music and other stupid things

Do you ever catch yourself listening to something and think, “This music is totally controlling me in the way that the artist wanted it to”? How about, “Why am I losing control of all bodily functions?” This is how I feel about house music.

I’m sitting here at the airport listening to a slew of genres and I keep catching myself in an all-too-absorbed, eyes rolling into the back of my head stupor. It’s as if no matter how hard I try to pass off House as mainstream bro bonerjamz, I can’t deny its power and ability to make the whole crowd catch a move and jive together like one mass of energy and sweat.

I’m sure it’ll get to a point where the wasted bros and e-tarded preteens get to me, but until then I’ll be groovin out to this in the Sahara with my eyes closed (LISTEN AND DANCE! MINDCONTROL! #toomuchcaffeine):

You Should Know, Volume III: POLICA

photo courtesy of thefader.com

Occasionally spelled “POLIÇA,” depending on which band member you ask, this indietronica group has caught the attention of big acts like Bon Iver (Mike Noyce is actually featured on a few of their tracks, like “Lay Your Cards Out”). This genre has become my favorite as of late, and POLICA definitely adds a diverse touch to my ever-growing palate. Their sound is a little moody and incorporates a nice variety of percussion. If you’re sensing a theme with my taste in vocalists, you’re absolutely right…Channy Leaneagh’s vocals are totally haunting and inspiringly beautiful. They hail from Minneapolis, which really makes me wonder if those long, “real” winters (that us Californians rarely experience) hold a certain weight in the creative process, one which must be experienced in order to derive a particular feeling or sound? I’ll probably never find out since I lose my shit when it’s below 50 degrees here.

Catch their set at Coachella this year! I’ll be the one dancing like a tree in the rainforest (that analogy makes sense, right?). Here’s one of my personal favorites, POLICA’s “Dark Star.” This song captures that wide variation of sounds that this group is known for.

6 things I want to happen at Coachella this year:

photo courtesy of coachella.com

1. Phoenix/Daft Punk Collaboration

I’m prefacing this with the fact that Daft Punk is my favorite electronic artist and in my top 5 favorite acts of all time. BUT in spite of my wishful thinking, things are looking up and this collab might actually be a thing. Since the lineup was first released, fans have been speculating as to why Phoenix was deemed worthy of a headliner spot. I mean—don’t get me wrong, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are headlining Sunday and even the Stone Roses and Blur had to share. Something feels fishy to me. Phoenix’s guitarist Laurent Brancowitz joined the band after leaving Darling, a three-man act composed of Brancowitz and eventual Daft Punk members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Phoenix has been active since 1999, but did not float into our mainstream music scene until 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Curious that they would climb the ladder to headliner so quickly…OK even more suspicious: last night’s SNL featured a mysterious commercial promoting Daft Punk. Coincidence? That would be all too curious. Obviously I really want this to happen, but justsayin’ IT’S PROBABLY GOING TO HAPPEN.

Watch the ad via Pitchfork here

Listen to this track from Alive 2007: 

2. Lazerproof Live

So Major Lazer made this really epic mixtape with La Roux called Lazerproof that rocks so hard. La Roux vocalist Elly Jackson’s ultra-femme soprano notes compliment the dancehall and Moombahton sound that Major Lazer is known for.  The concept of live vocals over these already catchy beats makes me very excited. I can’t wait to dance my ass off.

3. Onstage reenactment of Eric Prydz’s “Call on Me”

One day, my roommates and I were hanging out with some male friends who started freaking out when they heard that we had never seen this video. Sure, he just tweaked a few things from the 80s hit “Valerie,” and sure, I had pretty much given up on radio and the concept of 80s reworks when FloRida came out with his horrendous version of “You Spin Me Round,” but something about this just works. The single was released in 2004 and it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t know about this video during my awkward youth years. If MGMT can bring out big-hipped girls in spandex, then why can’t a DJ bring out some sexi ladiez? *Side note: Even I want to be the one dude in this class, holy Sahara Desert.

4. Making it out of the Dropkick Murphys mosh pit without losing an article of clothing

I saw Dropkick Murphys for the first time at Warped Tour back in high school. I’m all for Celtic Rock and really, if you haven’t moshed with fans like theirs, you’re missing out on a crucial concert-goer experience. The only unfortunate thing about the pit was the fact that I lost my shoe. I found it later, but still, my 17-year-old self would have been pretty bummed if I had permanently lost my yellow Chucks with ladybugs printed on them. Actually considering how hot it gets in Indio, losing a shirt or something might not be so bad.

5. John Frusciante will just come back

I have a really hard time with the fact that RHCP is even on tour. I mean, without ‘ol Johnny’s incredible talent, obviously they get by, but something just doesn’t feel right. It wouldn’t be totally out of the question, right?! I mean, he’s left and come back before! Again, probably wishful thinking, but these guys are crazy so who knows. Also I would really appreciate it if they only played their music pre-2004…I still can’t hang with that Stadium Arcadium crap but I guess I like “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” enough. But seriously, just listen to this live version of “Can’t Stop” and die a little on the inside:

6. I will not faint/I will see Grizzly Bear’s set

I probably bring this up way too often for it to be OK, but the first year that I attended Coachella, I fainted. Like a n00b, I passed out from dehydration because, in the state I was in, my dumbass forgot to drink water. Hello it’s the desert! Whatever. Anyway, I missed Grizzly Bear’s performance because I was goin’ too hard during Them Crooked Vultures’ set and have clearly not forgiven myself yet. For crying out loud I was being hauled to the med tent in a golf cart instead of front row on the verge of tears watching Griz. This year I’ll be singin’ a redemption song as I groove to “Knife,” “Yet Again” and “All We Ask.”

You Should Know, Volume II: Purity Ring

“Electronic music” is such a broad genre, and Purity Ring showcases that fact. Don’t allow your mind to leap too quickly to Swedish House Mafia or Benni Benassi…This duo hails from Canada, which could perhaps explain why they create their live instrumentals using a tree? That’s right, Corin Roddick rocks a custom-built tree shaped contraption to make the ethereal dreampop that Purity Ring is known for. Combined with Megan James’ mythically toned vocals, these two deliver an indietronica experience that dances its way through your body.

Purity Ring performing at NXNE in Toronto. Photo source: wikimedia commons

Their haunting sound takes me places. Be sure to catch their set at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Really, you’re cray if the idea of a tree producing such layered sounds does not catch your attention. Purity Ring is one of the best new artists to surface in the festival circuit this year. Whether you’re trying to relax, study, raise your spirits or just listen to an incredible sound, this is it. You should know. Props to my girl Addie for turning me on to them!

*Note: this is one of those groups that yields strange Google results…

 

You Should Know, Volume I: Alabama Shakes

(Pieter M. van Hattem / Contour by Getty Images, photo souce: thedailybeast.com)

As a new weekly series (or perhaps more frequent…there’s a lot of wonderful stuff out there), get ready for You Should Know. Here, I will spotlight artists and tracks that are lesser known. Basically, if you haven’t heard this yet you should probably hit “play.” For a while, I’ll be focusing on artists playing at the 2013 Coachella Music and Arts Festival because I have heard quite a few folks point out that they are unfamiliar with many of this year’s acts. YOU SHOULD KNOW.

For the first in this series, I have chosen Alabama Shakes. They were nominated for three Grammy’s this year and I’m so glad to see that they’re getting the attention they deserve. They hail from, where else, Alabama, and lead singer Brittany Howard’s voice gives me some serious shakes–in the best kind of way of course. Their sound draws from afro-soul, Southern rock, and the blues; if you’re a Black Keys fan, you should probably already have their album Boys and Girls in your music library. Give their hit “Hold On” a listen, but for now check out this live recording from Virginia’s WNRN Radio of one of my favorites, “I Found You.” If it doesn’t knock you off your feet, you probably weren’t listening.

I’m glad to see rock ‘n roll coming back to center stage and I was in no way prepared for that comeback to be such a flooring experience. Ladies and gentlemen, you might want to grab a glass of whiskey for this one:

DIY indie band naming

I’ve recently begun an insane amount of music research in preparation for festival season and my upcoming Coachella posts. One thing I’ve realized after scrolling through endless tracks in my iTunes is what an absurd process bands must undergo in inventing a name for themselves. Some leave you wondering what origin allowed them to stumble across such a unique word or strand of words, others are all too transparent. In particular, indie/hipster bands, in their never-ending quest to be relevant before anyone hears about them, must have a unique set of requirements for creating their group persona. Here’s a brief list of elements essential to creating one of your own:

1. Select your sub-genre description

And you’d better hope that it doesn’t exist yet. For example, Fleet Foxes must have thought that “folk” just wasn’t cutting it for them. Their latest album, Helplessness Blues, was dubbed “cosmic tones for mental therapy”. FF are one of my all-time faves, and while I appreciate that they want their individuality as a group to shine, anyone who listens to ‘similar’ music would be able to understand why theirs is different. The sub-genre comes into play because it leads you into the next step in the band creation thought process, which is:

2. Deciding upon a theme

Have you noticed that all of a sudden, everyone is a Native American who loves to simultaneously wear feathers with nostalgic americana duds? Putting aside this offensive oxymoron, there has been an insurgence of bands created around this theme of sorts. I blame it on MGMT and their strange on-stage tribal dancers. Bands such as Cave Painting, Flume, and Boy & Bear are really riding Pocahontas’ technicolor leaves wave. But perhaps you can’t relate to this particular trend? Do not fret, child. Dinosaurs, fish, the supernatural, and anything related to being outdoors are also hawt this year. *Note: if your band is still in creation mode, you may use this as a list to assist you with idea omission. Most of these will lose their cool by yesterday.

3. Choices are for suckers

So you’ve narrowed your potentials to two names, huh? Both equally cool in caliber, both entirely nonsensical enough to get you on the radar, and yet impossible to choose between. For purpose of example, I’ll tell you a little about the girl band I was in back in high school. We’d whittled our massive list to two fantastic options: ‘Sushi’ and ‘Fat Girls’.  The identity crisis was causing all kinds of rifts until EUREKA! We settled on Fat Sushi.* It was everything we’d wanted.** And duh, the fact that we were an all-girl band would have made the word “girls” redundant. (GIRLS, the two-man music project, really had it right.) Some of my favorite mashup-named bands include Jinja Safari, Snakadaktal, and BeachesBeaches.

*the name of our band name has been slightly altered for privacy purposes

**the band consisted of real people, but none of us ever got into the same room with instruments. come to think of it, I’m not sure that anyone actually knew how to play anything…

4. The+_______

Lots of bands have made it big by transforming a floating, general object into a direct, distinctly identified object. For example, you might have little idea what your friends were talking about if the word “shins” kept flying around their detailed account of a concert they saw recently. You might ponder, “did they obtain an injury to the front portion of their calf?” The Shins become them when accompanied by definite article. Go ahead and pretend you haven’t felt the urge to correct someone when they leave off the all-important “the”. This article is so powerful in fact, you could pull an Anchorman-style “I love lamp” and just start naming your band after inanimate objects you see around yourselves. How do you think The Doors got people to take them seriously?

5. INVAA (INVentAnAcroynm) 

MGMT does it, SBTRKT does too! Putting your acronym in all caps is obviously essential. Okay, so for grammar’s sake, these aren’t exactly acronyms but merely vowel-less versions of actual words (MGMT= management, SBTRKT= subtrakt). Changing some of the consonants will also help give your band more uumph. SBTRKT realized that a “k” is so much harder than a “c”, and why do you think it’s so common to replace “s” with “z” to pluralize something? C’mon, all the kewl kidz are doing it…

6. Forget everything you know and make it weird

Did you hit some quality ideas while reading this tutorial? Throw them all away. All of them! Yes, that includes Rock Fight, Cafeteriot, Floragram, and The Basketweavers. Throw them deep into the abyss, never to return to your noggin. Drop some LSD and let your mind wander until you eventually have a blazing moment of clarity in which you discover that the perfect name for your indie band is:

Why we love festivals

With tonight’s announcement of the official Coachella 2013 lineup came a wave of reactionary social media posts. Inevitably, too-cool types will moan and groan about how the headliners are disappointing or too outplayed or not big enough to lead the night, but they will still join the hordes who scramble to get a coveted 3-day festival pass (OK guilty as charged).

View from the Mohave tent at Coachella 2012

Why do people from all walks of life flip their s&*t over a digital poster and then proceed to pay $300 for a ticket?

Because it’s fucking worth it. 

Coachella-goers and haters alike troll message boards with their grumbles of how overtly mainstream the festival scene has become over the last few years. Clothing companies like Free People and Nasty Gal roll out their own lines of festival wear. People who you’d once regarded as ‘born without music taste buds’ or ‘tainted by the radio’ are tweeting about how OMG EXCITED they are to get cray in the desert. And yet out there on the polo fields of Indio, these trendsters are mixing with music elite, freaky metal types, alt kids, children that are way too young to be there in general but have somehow acquired/taken large amounts of ecstasy, Danny DeVito, betches with flower crowns, bro tanks (with bros in them), people who never leave the DoLab, and college kids alike. Throw in some of the best music of this, last, and the next generation, and you’ve got the best social experiment any first year Psychology Grad student could ask for.

While this year’s headliners don’t include a token hip-hop artist as the last three did, I’m sure that 2 Chainz is going to really steal the show for us all.

So why do we all go apeshit over sleeping on the ground for three days (or in a hotel if that’s your thing…is being bourgeois out again this year?), being constantly surrounded by loud noises, practically offline à cause de cell tower crowding, and at high risk for witnessing some drug OD? Like I said–because it’s fucking worth it.

There’s something about listening to live music in the hot sun, wind urging the glorious notes all around you, that no recording can come close to. I don’t think my best friend and I stopped dancing once during Santigold’s set last year. We were practically naked one moment, forced by a sudden desert storm to retreat to our camp for warm clothes the next. It’s very can-you-paint-with-all-the-colors-of-the-wind. Much like the lessons of the Disney false presentation of Pocahontas, being at Coachella teaches you that everyone is capable of being a savage but in the end we all want one thing: sex. Or adventure…? Did I miss something?

Stay tuned for a playlist of the artists I think you should hear from this year’s lineup. Spoiler altert: 2 Chainz won’t be featured.

Contemporary dating in crisis mode?

A recent New York Times article titled ‘The End of Courtship’ discusses the degradation of dating culture that afflicts our generation. The much-discussed hookup culture that millennials often experience has shaped a new norm in which post-college life more closely reflects alcohol-fueled dorm debauchery.

Author Alex Williams interviews several women in their late-20s who essentially point out that chivalry is a dying art. She makes the claim that the ‘date’ has been replaced by the ‘hangout,’ leading to such repercussions as lack of commitment, uncertainty of relationship status, and an overall depletion of quality, traditional dates.

What exactly constitutes a date? Dinner and a movie? A picnic in the park? A day of wine tasting? Each of us has our own vision of what a date should be, but when it comes to the idea of actually going on a date in the traditional sense…well, that’s a whole new can of worms.

Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, sums it up nicely in his lyric “Are we datin’? Are we fuckin’? Are we best friends? Are we something in between that? I wish we never fucked and I mean that…but not really…”

Williams’ article points to rising expenses in relation to average income for twenty-somethings. When you break it down, a date can seem like a huge investment if you are not more than 80% certain that you might have a future with that person (be it three months or three years–who has that kind of time?).

From a personal standpoint, dates make me slightly uneasy. Perhaps it is from lack of concrete experience in the matter, but I always panic that the other person is going to be either totally freaky in the worst way or dreadfully boring and generally awkward. I’ve also never been a fan of traditional chivalrous values.  Sure, it’s nice to get a free meal every now and then, but I’ve been forced to rely upon myself first and foremost my entire life and it is tough for me to shake that.

My step-dad always opens the car door for my mom. He makes her wait in the car while he walks around the side to let her out. She loves it. It’s all I can do to keep from vomming all over the backseat. I’ve gotten really good at disguising my eye rolling with complaints of an imaginary eyelash in my eye.

I have been on quite a few dates in my short lifetime, most (but not all!) of which were with men I was already in a relationship with. I have also invited quite a few people on dates. But I’ve also been in that questionable land of limbo more times than I’d like to think about. You know, those situations where you describe someone as “that guy I’ve been boning” to your friends but stammer when you start to tell a story about the same person to your mom or some other respectable adult for lack of any real certainty.

Men, I feel for you. I am definitely guilty of being scared off by dudes who initially seemed overly eager to please but in hindsight were just being courteous. It’s like we can’t win!

While there is something playful about receiving sexually direct texts from that attractive stranger you met through a friend, it gets old when it becomes clear that Mr. Intrigue only has one game to play and that it slightly resembles a broken slot machine (maybe he/she’ll ask me out this time? maybe I’ll hit the jackpot and be able to count on this person for longer than a hot sec? oh nvm he/she’s just stealing my quarters).

Chivalry has certainly morphed into something different than it was in our parent’s generation, but that does not mean that all is lost. Reflecting upon our generation, which is more gender equal and more screwed in the entry-level arena than that of our parents, it seems we’re just growing up a little later. I am 22 years old and at my age my mom was just about to introduce me to this cruel, cruel world (as cruel as California can be anyway). I do not plan on settling down with anyone for a number of years, nor am I sure that I want to have children at all. I am not yet at that much-described ticking time bomb stage of my life. But that does not mean that I’m down with building up an armored exterior just to keep myself from feeling offended when the person I’ve been exchanging pleasantries (and more….) with for the last several months of my life randomly halts all interaction with me.

All too often girls are played as the psycho bitch who loses her shit when you stop texting to her. But it’s like…dude, don’t waste my time here. I’ve got shit to do and fun to have. Homie don’t play dat.