Happy Friday

 

Here's just a couple feel good tunes to remind us all to not take ourselves too seriously.
Have a good weekend everyone!

1. Tanlines - Reinfo
   I couldn't wait until summer to post this.  A fan just sent this video to the band and they turned it into their official video.  Sound like nice guys.
2. Tourist - Placid Lake
   What a great kickstart to a weekend.  You're feeling a little tired, a little beaten down from the work week and then BAM you remember how fun weekends can be.
   
3. Faith Evans - Love Like This Before (B+S Edit)
   I don't find something like this too often.  It has some real rhythmic attitude, but gels perfectly with dance vocals.  This is more than an choppyy edit.  This is a whole new song. Nice work.
4. Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
   A clever use of the bounce.
5. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime (Moplen Remix)
   
   Just for fun.
 

image: sezio

Like Riding a Bike

 

For those of us who like a good bicycle ride.

Originally made for my brother's morning commute,

this has equal parts motivation, fun and patience.

1. Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - Shake It Out
   Throw some gear in your backpack or basket and let's go...
2. Amadou & Mariam - Dougou Badia (ft. Santigold)
   Best played loud.
3. Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It
4. Buddy Holly - Slipping and Sliding (Jacques Renault Remix)
   The part of urban biking that gets me is the feeling of gracefully sliding in between the immobile skyscrapers and slow pedestrians.  It's like you've discovered a better way to travel and everyone else is still asleep.  It's fun to cruise around, look up at the buildings and see how the daylight changes from street to street.  These next three songs go well with that feeling of awe.
5. Air Waves - Knockout
6. Flume - Sleepless (feat. Anthony for Cleopatra)
   At first this will sound like just another instrumental hip hop track, but the tension and build up lead to an all-encompassing outro where vocal samples are coming from all angles.  Great stuff.
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dance, Dance, Dance
   Yeah that's right, I put a Chili Peppers song on this playlist.  I wouldn't normally put this much bubblegum on the blog, but I happen to put this on when I was biking home from Mt. Tabor at sunset and it just FIT.  Best going downhill so you can feel the wind on your face.
8. SBTRKT - Pharaohs
   Somehow London's Aaron Jerome managed to squeeze two of the most fun tracks of 2011 on his selftitled album.  I almost didn't put it on here, because I didn't want anyone dancing so hard they don't notice that truck heading right for them.  You're on your own.
9. High Contrast - Racing Green
   Now you're not going to want to listen to this when it starts, but give it time and you'll soon be cutting off taxis running red lights.  The genius of High Contrast is that he hooks you with emotion rather than aggression like most Drum 'n Bass artists. He almost tricks you into becoming a DnB fan.
10. The Winstons - Amen, Brother
    When you get hired as a bike messenger they give you a Walkman
    with Amen, Brother and Sea Groove on it.
11. Big Boss Man - Sea Groove
12. Youth Lagoon - Daydream
    How can you have a bad day and listen to this song?  Man I feel like I just had a picnic with my sweetheart and now we're biking home in tweed on a Saturday in June.  Sheesh.
13. LCD Soundsystem - All I Want
    For those long rides alone.

 
Links
------------
Interview with Brendt Barbur, Founder of the Bicycle Film Fest
NYC to get largest bike-share effort in the country
Copenhagenize (pre-eminent bike blog)
Support NYC Bike Efforts
Reasons to bike to work
Bowery Lane Bicycles
Extraordinary Paths
NYC Bike Maps

Friends can message me for a download.

image: Design Sponge and Regular Basis

Design Will Save the World

"Architecture in general is frozen music"
-Friedrich von Schelling

A combination of design theory, IDM and sampled piano lead to one crisp, emotive playlist.
I recommend browsing some of the amazing shots at archdaily , ISO50 or Wanken while this plays out.

1. Swod - Hellerau
   I have been waiting for a track like this for a long time.  Someone who samples a grand piano and rearranges it into something of a hybrid.  I imagine this is what architects listen to when they draw up blueprints.
2. 3iO - Eple (Royksopp cover)
   3iO is a jazz trio that covers popular electronic tracks. It doesn't always work but the minimal style really plays well on Eple.
3. Gold Panda - Back Home
   Gold Panda has been a favorite of mine for awhile, but I have been waiting for the right mix to share his style.  Back Home has that driving energy that fits right in on train rides.
4. The Field - Silent
   I had the opportunity to see the Swede play recently and it was a real treat.  To me, it sounds like he creates drawn out soundtracks to those fleeting moments in life that make you feel like you're truly alive.  They all require patience, but once they sink in you are in love with the guy.
5. The Foreign Exchange - Happiness
   The Foreign Exchange have a Postal Service-esque story where a producer sends beats online to an MC and occassionally sparks fly.  I'm just happy someone is carrying the torch from Nujabes.
6. Bibio - Kaini Industries (Boards of Canada cover)

image: ArchDaily

The Long Journey Home

Saying goodbye to the Doug Firs and hello to the people.

As it turns out, America is beautiful.  We all just need to get outside more.
I just got back from a coast-to-coast trek across this great country with my Dad.  We visited too many microbreweries to count, built campfires under the stars and generally got on each others' nerves. 

These are the songs that make a roadtrip worthwhile
and will always remind me of those 4,632 miles.

1. John Prine - Flashback Blues
   Thanks to Johnny for turning me on to The Singing Mailman Delivers.
2. Tom Vek - A Chore
   All packed up...
   
3. Waylon Jennings - Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
   Cruise control
4. George Harrison - Wah-Wah
5. Dawes - My Girl To Me
   Dawes albums are the closest I'll get to books on tape.
   
6. The Wood Brothers - When I Was Young
7. Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, Edgar Meyer - Big Bug Shuffle
   I used to drink coffee. Now I listen to Big Bug Shuffle.
8. The Middle East - Hunger Song
   No action is boring or overlooked when you listen to The Middle East.  Every day has destiny attached to it.  Checking the GPS becomes an epic discussion of charts and routes to the Motherland. 
   
9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Wind Cries Mary
   We were fortunate enough to visit Marin County, California where Jimi serenaded The Monterey Pop festival-goers in 1967.  With his aggressive, loud style it was refreshing to return to Mary - an unflinching poem with utterly beautiful guitar-work.  I can't imagine something this intimate, head-strong and powerful being created today.  I couldn't find an mp3 version from Monterey, but I encourage you to listen to a live version instead of the studio.
   
10. LCD Soundsystem - Home
    Any long journey that ends in New York needs an LCD track.  Home is the song from This is Happening that stuck around for me.
    
11. College - The Energy Story
12. The War on Drugs - Come To The City
    I must have listened to TWOD's Slave Ambient upwards of 10 times on this trip.  It flows like a good book and begs close listening.  Fall roads and late-night trips really bring out the album's core.  Highly recommended.
13. The Arcade Fire - Une Annee Sans Lumiere
    End it at a sprint.
    
    
    
    Image: Noel

Happy Friday

Here are some slick, jazzy house tunes to get it started this weekend. 
Make sure you have some good speakers or headphones.
Gentleman, this is vodka.
Enjoy.

1. Robert Dietz - Pandemic
   This is what the getaway driver listens to...
   
2. Mendo - Inocencia
   Don't expect anything big to come from a tune like this.  It's not about big build ups of white noise and dubstep bass drops.  It's about the overall vibe.  By the time a song like this comes on, everyone is well beyond the initial awkwardness of dancing and has moved on to being hypnotized.  It's like those moments where you step back and realize that the night is going better than expected.
   
3. Tim Green - Lone Time
   It's refreshing to hear analog percussion like these brushes on the snare drum in an overtly electronic track.  Just something to get the blood flowing.

Scroll up to hear Pandemic.

image: Familiale

Happy Weekend

   
Here are some gems that I couldn't wait to share. 
They work well with a giddy weekend vibe.

1. Tycho - A Walk
   Tycho released his much anticipated new album Dive this month.  With these seven new tracks (and three re-releases) Scott Hansen breathes new life into his sun-drenched, Northern California wonderland.  You can't say this sound comes from the Haight & Ashbury 60's, because it's far too optimistic and perfect to be rooted in reality.  It's more like the soundtrack to your memories of a perfect day on the Mendocino coast.  I love a good album opener and A Walk delivers.  This is the best intro I've heard since the Secret Machines'   Alone, Jealous and Stoned.
2. Real Estate - It's Real
   The new surf rock of New Jersey's Real Estate returned this month with Days.  RE really gets me, because you can listen to their whole albums straight through and then easily decide to do it again.  I wish they had released Days on tape so it could be that album that never left my car's tape deck player - a perfect go-to that is creative and laid-back but not without it's sing-a-longs (see It's Real).
3. Os Mutantes - Bat Macumba
   The next time I come back from a particularly fruitful banana picking adventure, I'm going to load up my old wheelbarrow and throw this on.  The bass sounds like a rubber band.
4. Daphni - Yes, I Know
   I could never really get into Caribou, but Daniel Victor Snaith's side project, Daphni, has my full attention.  Snaith picks his samples wisely: a soulful chorus, native chants and tribal drummings - then he arranges and tweaks them in the true Caribou fashion to make an utterly timeless piece of music that is as much for your body as it is for you head.

 

Occupy

1% of Americans own 42% of US financial wealth.
The US ranks 93rd in "Income Inequality" (behind China, India and Iran.)

Occupy protests have spread to over 50 cities.
Over 10,000 people marched in Portland last week.
JP Morgan & Chase donated $4.6 Million to the NYPD on the eve of protests.
(The largest in the foundation's history)

There is a lot of unrest out there.  People that are not normally politically active now find themselves in an emotional throng of protesters.  The apathetic, confronted with the 99% statistic, are provoked to think about the nature of our political system.  Regardless of your perspective on the protests, there is no denying that there is a movement taking place that has challenged the status quo.  It is refreshing to know that common people, when organized, still have a voice and are capable of creating an atmosphere that makes change possible.

I hear people saying that they are frustrated with the lack of structure and demands from the swarming masses, but this is still the early stages of a movement.  I say let them voice their frustrations.  Give them the mic.  We'll get into the specific financial and legal corporate reforms once leaders organically emerge.
 -----

And of course, unsettling times call for unsettling music.  These songs are on the darker side that reflect the greedy, dog-eat-dog nature of capitalism.  If you think about it too long you start to worry where we will be in 50 years...

1. Radiohead - Up On the Ladder
2. Do Make Say Think- The Landlord is Dead
   Half of Canada's Godspeed! You Black Emperor make dark, winding multi-instrumentals that scare the hell out of me.
3. The Constantines - Life or Death
   Wish I could sing like this.
4. Radiohead - Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)
   "We don't want the monster taking over"
5. Radiohead - Codex
   Sorry about all the Radiohead, but this was a quick mix and they kind of own this sound.
6. Bob Dylan - When the Ship Comes In
   Classic. 

Here are some good reads on the movement, it's methods and what can actually be achieved.

Business Insider "What the Protesters Are So Angry About"
Krugman, Panic of the Plutocrats
Video: Kristof, Advice for the Wall Street Protesters
Must see video explaining Citizens United vs. FEC
Foreign Policy: Why the Wall Street Protests Actually Matter
The stats behind "The 53%"
Brooks, reminding us that simply protesting will get us nowhere in The Milquetoast Radicals

And a video from the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective. 
I like how they let the ambient sound tell the story rather than a narrative.