Smelling slightly of sulfur and whiskey, my day is currently being held together by caffeine and the quest for a new playlist. Why? Agreeing to any adventure Sach proposes always involves a high risk for hangover; but this month's musical coded, task-oriented road-trip with a 1Am final destination, might top my list of the most ridiculous moments in my life. Watching the moon rise from a natural hot spring built on an ocean cliff was never on my bucket list, but it has certainly been added.
In that vein, here are two songs that I would add to the enigma's playlist for the road trip component. I cannot wait for Jamie XX's solo work, I have been loving every single thing he touches and this might be my favorite version of his new leak 'Far Nearer'. In contrast, Cult's song 'Go Outside' has been getting a ton of press thanks to the cute New Wave French music video featuring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. Its definitely the opener on my Esashenanigans: The Aftermath Playlist.
Getting locked out of my apartment last night - due in large part to my own forgetfulness and partially an apartment manager lacking in the awesome category - caused me to spend the the night at Grant's place. The irony of the situation is that this morning, the doorknob to his spare room ended up malfunctioning, trapping me in the apartment. 20 minutes, MacGuyvering a zip tie as a screwdriver, and a window escape later, I was finally out, and enjoying his snazzy Tassimo Suprema espresso maker, a welcome boon to my morning.
Another welcome coffee-esque addition to my day has been the realization that I'll be seeing Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Fresh Espresso and Helladope this weekend with Ace! For those of you not able to go to the show (sorry Sash, Les, Curty), you should enjoy this vid of new musiks by Fresh Espresso instead
Yet another slow grow track for me was Peter Bjorn and John's 'Second Chance. For whatever reason I felt like I was thrown into a quick scene change in Gossip Girl with epic shots of New York City rapidly edited together before a cut to the dialog and it just annoyed me. (Probably due to the fact that it completely challenges my attempts to be cool when songs remind me of a show directed at teenage girls about life of the rich and vacuous.) But after an epic walk in which I attempted to not fast forward any track on the random shuffle, this tune finally won me back into the fandom of PB&J that they earned with Writer's Block in 2006. CW references be damned.
So someone even more crazy then yours truly put together a mix of every number 1 song from 1956 until 1992. While this might sound too skitzo to actually enjoy listening to, I would encourage you to reconsider; its amazing to hear music trends changes over time, or in this case over 40 minutes. You can actually pinpoint moments when we were at war or doing copious amounts of drugs. Bonus Fun Fact: the number one song the week I was born was Toto's 'Africa' and the start of Part 2 of this fabulous mix.
For no particular reason I was rather obstinate about getting into Oh Land. While it had all the trademark hooks of being spawned in the great Baltic country of electro-pop, a lead singer who is a former ballerina, and a catchy chorus set against retro tempo; it wasn't until recently I caved to internal pressure and added 'Son of a Gun' into heavy rotation. I'm going to chalk it up to good things happen to those who wait, because now I have a catchy little song to see me through these gloomy days.
Not sure how many of you know this, but 11 people do the vocals for the original version of Kanye's 'All of the Lights'. While this includes the usual suspects like Rihanna and John Legend, it also involves the more unexpected La Roux among others. Plus the video is pretty fun to watch when you are into typography like I am. (or...Rihanna's ability not to wear clothes....)
Winter has returned to California and its cold and rainy weather has put me in the mood for the contemplative music that Bon Iver has made so uniquely his own. As much as I adore For Emma Forever Ago however, there is a new artist I'm excited to add to my rainy day playlist who has a similarly folksy and blue-tinged sound. Actually- to be fair Chris Bathgate has apparently put out four albums prior to his upcoming Salt Year album, but he is new to me and my penchant for rain day music. You can download No Silver here for free, and can't wait to hear the rest in April.
Lucid dreaming, for those of you that haven't seen Inception yet (highly recommended) is a dream where you are aware you are dreaming. Most often, a person has no mental ability to recognize a dream state while they are in one. Things that would be quite unbelievable or even impossible in the real world, seem to happen so naturally in dreams: running in super slow mo whilst being chased, or experiencing first and third person simultaneously, or maybe you can even fly. In the dream, all of this is hunky dory, it's just the way things are....not so! Wouldn't it be awesome to realize the consequences of a dream aren't real and have fun with it? Zombies will not eat my braaaaainz, I will not die after falling off this cliff, no one is after me. The answer appears to be a resounding YES.
My good friend Aditya is an accomplished lucid dreamer, and has been talking it up big time. I must say, I'm quite intrigued and have been working on recognizing my own dream states. I've had minor success, and recognized my dream, only to be woken by the shock of the realization :'( Amongst all of this, (and I'm trying my best), I still trick myself and fail to recognize dreams. Asking questions of yourself in a dream state can be quite the conundrum and your brain will almost certainly try to 'lie' to you and tell you this is all real (my mind to me: "Yes, John, your peak running speed is actually a 25 minute mile - you're SCREWED...and they're going to get you!"). Give it a shot next time.
I think the following audio clip from Inception, and Ariadne's resulting "Aha!" moment, is a great introductory description of lucid dreaming, and how easy it is to fool yourself. The accompanying We Plants Are Happy Plants remix of Hans Zimmer's fantastic score is also impressive.
There are lots of resources out there that will help you learn moreaboutluciddreaming, or if you know Aditya, you can ask him yourself and watch the smile spread across his face...
Another perennial favorite on my mixes is LA band Fool's Gold. I love their charming and somewhat African inspired sound, and their ability to make even the most sullen person start tapping their feet. And now another reason to love them: the Clift hotel is hosting a free Fool's Gold show to celebrate the presence of Weis and Dowks being in town. Or to promote their newly redone Velvet Room. Either way, we will be dancing.
The last time I was in SF was over Thanksgiving 2010, Bruno Mars' Grenade was literally blowing up the radio everywheres (srsly, James' radio was in shambles and Weezy almost took some shrapnel to the eye). Well, now that the original version has died down (a bit) and the explosions have subsided, it's given my ears and nerves a chance to recover enough to really enjoy this Passion Pit remix. I'm glad Passion Pit doesn't feel like they have to stick to their own music and their DJing is really just fantastic. Big ups to Bruno on collabbing with the boys on this as well. Keep it up good sirs!
Last time I saw the Knux live, it was a bizarre showcase where they played three songs and were so, 'Up' that I'm pretty sure they weren't even remembering lyrics. Questionable live show aside, they have apparently been working on a sophomore album, and if its sounds like this new track, I think I can forgive their questionable showing. Courtesy of Consequence of Sound here is their new track.
'Hang With Me' is one of those songs that constantly changes meaning and import depending what is going on in my life. Joywave has done a fantastic cover of one of my top played songs by Robyn, turning it into a chill and dreamy tune, in direct contrast with the dancetastic original track. I do believe the mark of a good song, like a great friendship, is the ability to evolve into something so different from its origin and still enthrall you.
This is one of those songs that I've had in my library for a while now and yet had never managed to play. I'm regretting this delay but since my fit of focus this weekend, I have been playing it nonstop in concert with Pretty Lights and anything We Plants are Happy Plants cares to touch. Silver Swans has perfected that dreamy pop sensibility I find so appealing during the mid-week lulls and are San Francisco locals to boot. So enjoy the mellowness before what I know will be an insanely fun and intensely musical next few days.
Carls and I were up in Tahoe this past weekend, celebrating her birthday, skiing and meeting her crazy (but generally cool) winter cabinmates. The two of us were enjoying some pisco sours and discussing all things music when we came across the Kanye song All of the Lights, remixed by Pretty Lights. I'm a big fan of the work that Pretty Lights does, so it's no surprise that several of their songs are up on my iTunes most played list, or that I included them on Carls Thanksgiving mix.
We didn't have these lights or balloons, but much like the peeps in this vid, we had a kick ass time, complete with plenty of booze, celebrity and even some smashed cupcakes. Things can only get more glorious with Weezy's arrival on Thurs and a Fool's Gold concert on Saturday!
I have been lucky enough to have amazing friends (see: Dowks post about it here) and for the last two years I have been able to go to the Sundance Film Festival and generally live the glamourous life with my far more grown up friends. As the resident hipster, my annual contribution to the 'dance crew is an mixtape to pull them kicking and screaming into a new year of awesome music. It's always an interesting challenge finding music they can find accessible and expand some musical horizons. Since they all dug Passion Pit last year, I thought that Strange Talk would also appeal to the gang, but got worried it might be a little too much dancetasticness. While I'm still debating whether it makes the cut, this video provides a ridiculous and apropos contrast to the muzak.
Everyone's favorite Sister Wife, Alex Winston shot these super cool live movies while in London for a show. She sounds like she would be such an amazing live performance no? In other news- yes Weis, someone else saw your text and without any context now thinks you are a little odd and into polygamy. I'm rolling with it.
