JDK's Favorite Music of Q1 2014

I like to take stock of what I've been digging at the beginning of any year, only to look back on it at the year-end and just shake my head. Not like there are any slim pickings, but since I'd rank "staying power" as one the things I look for in an album, you really can't tell if time will be kind or not.

Also, I like procrastinating on Octoberan and posting little album art. (Even though, shit, Dark Soul 2 just showed up at my door.)

Alphabetical order to be fair, and only one sentence (one!) for each.



Black Lips - Underneath The Rainbow
Highlights: "Boys In The Woods," "Smiling"

Oh how I love Black Lips' brand of nuclear-sunshine punk.



Cheatahs - Cheatahs
Highlights: "Geographic," "The Swan"

If you don't mind some not-so-subtle MBV ripoffs and a lite tour of recent rock history (or, well, rock sounds), then this is my stealth favorite of the year so far.



The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams
Highlights: "I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You," "Oaks"

So what if I just finished my first listen two minutes ago?



Katy B - Little Red
Highlights: "5 AM," "I Like You"

I will not apologize for my love of British dance-pop whatever, especially when the deluxe version includes a seamless mix of the entire album resequenced.



Kevin Drew - Darlings
Highlights: "Good Sex," "It's Cool"

Now that this one isn't "Broken Social Scene presents..." we can all get on with the music of all those wonderful BSS players.



Liars - Mess
Highlights: "Vox Turned D.E.D.," "Mess On A Mission"

Very glad my hope that this album would be cut from the same cloth as WIXIW's electro-experiment "No. 1 Against The Rush" and the glow-in-the-dark raver "Brats." (Frontrunner for album art of the year, despite how it strangely reminds me of Gloss Drop or, specifically, Dross Glop.)



The Men - Tomorrow's Hits
Highlights: "Dark Waltz," "Pearly Gates"

And thus continues the trend of The Men to veer hard from their roots of scuzz-punk into some sort of big-band brassy country rockout.



Phantogram - Voices
Highlights: "Nothings But Trouble," "Fall In Love"

I have said this once and I'll say it a million times (and Minneapolis Bill has my back): To all the dudes out there, I guarantee your girlfriend will like this band as much or more than you do. (Edit: Whoa! Apparently this was up at #11 on Billboard. The regular Billboard, not any of its niche charts.)



Real Estate - Atlas
Highlights: "Had To Hear," "Talking Backwards"

These guys have some motherfucking chops as musicians, which they so cleverly hide amid all the idyll.



St. Vincent - St. Vincent
Highlights: "Birth In Reverse," "Regret"

While she might not be able to shred in the conventional sense, Annie Clark makes the craziest sounds out of her guitar since Tom Morello.



The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Highlights: "Suffering," "The Haunting Idle"

Gotta throw in some dreamy, fractured, quasi-ambient rock.

Mux141: Jack The Ripper

Boom.

1. !!! - The Most Certain Sure (Strange Weather, Isn't It?)
2. Disclosure - F For U (Mary J. Blige version) (Settle remixes)
3. Prefuse 73 - The Color of Tempo (One Word Extinguisher)
4. The Range - Everything But (Nonfiction)
5. Chromatics - Let's Make This A Moment To Remember (Night Drive)
6. EMA - Satellites (The Future's Void)
7. Pissed Jeans - Cathouse (Honeys)
8. Metz - Leave Me Out (Leave Me Out / Dirty Shirt 7")
9. Black Lips - Boys In The Woods (Underneath the Rainbow)
10. The Hold Steady - I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You (Teeth Dreams)
11. Cloud Nothings - I'm Not Part of Me (Here And Nowhere Else)
12. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Pink Moon)

TRT 44:30

Rookies: Nick Drake

2014 music: Black Lips, Cloud Nothings Disclosure, EMA, The Hold Steady

Mux126: Porkchop Sandwiches

You can never go wrong with closing on a Justin Timberlake cover.

Boom.

1. Zwan - Lyric (Mary Star of the Sea)
2. Marnie Stern - Noonan (The Chronicles of Marnia)
3. The Hold Steady - Massive Nights (Boys And Girls In America)
4. Foals - My Number (Holy Fire)
5. Cloud Nothings - Forget You All The Time (Cloud Nothings)
6. Broken Social Scene - Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old GIrl (You Forgot It In People)
7. Midlake - In This Camp (The Trials of Van Occupanther)
8. Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers (Modern Vampires of the City)
9. Chromatics - Cherry (After Dark 2)
10. Baths - Earth Death (Obsidian)
11. !!! - Infinifold (Myth Takes)
12. Klaxons - My Love (Justin Timberlake cover) (Live)

TRT 47:11

Rookies: Zwan

New(ish) music from 2013 albums: Baths, Chromatics, Foals, Marnie Stern, Vampire Weekend

Mux092: January 2012

Starting off the year with a bit of a clearinghouse. The sequencing holds, but a look at the tracklist looks rather unwieldy.

Boxed.

1. Battles - Africastle (MPLS.tv session) (Gloss Drop)
2. The Roots - One Time (Undun)
3. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy! (Boys And Girls In America)
4. The Strokes - Barely Legal (Is This It?)
5. Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (One Beat)
6. Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
7. Deerhunter - Saved By Old Times (Microcastle)
8. Phantogram - Futuristic Casket (Eyelid Movies)
9. Oneohtrix Point Never - Child Soldier (Replica)
10. Air - Alone In Kyoto (Talkie Walkie / Lost In Translation Soundtrack)
11. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up (The Smile Sessions)

In particular, "Saved By Old Times" and "Alone In Kyoto" have been in my pending to-be-added-to-a-mux playlist for at least two years. And "Surf's Up" been there even since I heard The Smile Sessions; but given the multi-suite nature of most of Smile, it's hard to cram a Beach Boys cut into the mix. Thus, it caps it off.

Rookies:
The Beach Boys
Oneohtrix Point Never

Mux053: June 2010

Download or stream at drop.io.

1. Band of Horses - Laredo
2. The Hold Steady - Soft In The Center
3. Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
4. Dom - Bochica
5. Phantogram - Turn It Off
6. Caribou - Found Out
7. Tobacco - Fresh Hex
8. LCD Soundsystem - What I Want
9. Wolf Parade - In The Direction of the Moon
10. The National - England
11. Broken Social Scene - Water In Hell
12. The Radio Dept. - You Stopped Making Sense

Mux049: Back to Rock 2

Download or stream off drop.io.

1. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
2. Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
3. Jay Reatard - Night of Broken Glass
4. The Smashing Pumpkins - Siva
5. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Mourning In America
6. The Hold Steady - Party Pit
7. Pavement - Trigger Cut
8. Free Energy - Light Love
9. Surfer Blood - Fast Jabroni
10. Death - Politicians In My Eyes

Mux045: February 2010

Download or stream at drop.io.

Oh, and the tracks? Total mystery. The usual mix of old favorites, new favorites, and stuff the shuffle dredged up.

1. The Thermals - Here's Your Future
2. The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend
3. Beach House - Norway
4. Broken Social Scene - Almost Crimes
5. Pavement - Date With Ikea
6. Los Campesinos! - Straight In At 101
7. Tapes 'n Tapes - Insistor
8. Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes
9. The National - All The Wine
10. Four Tet - She Just Likes To Fight
11. Spoon - Written In Reverse

Mux003: July 2008, the reissue

At this rate I'll catch up in a mere twenty days.

Stream or download at drop.io.

Tracks:
1. No Age - Everybody's Down
2. The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
3. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
4. Asobi Seksu - Goodbye
5. Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee
6. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
7. The Joggers - Every Other Word
8. Jay Reatard - Oh It's Such A Shame (Blood Visions version)
9. Spoon - I Summon You
10. The Stone Roses - This Is The One (20th Anniversary remaster)
11. Battles - Race Out
12. Jonathan Mak / Everyday Shooter - Porco In The Sky

The Best Mix Ever (as of July 15, 2009)

Download via drop.io.

Very flavor-of-the-year, but that's the beauty of it. Also, omitted "The Tourist" by Radiohead, which is my Favorite Song Ever but doesn't really fit anywhere.

Oh right, the occasion: Yet another drive to Chicago tomorrow for, among other things, the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. This should kick things off to a good start.

1. The National - Fake Empire
2. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
3. The Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis
4. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
5. Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
6. Jay Reatard - Nightmares
7. No Age - Everybody's Down
8. Radiohead - Fog
9. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
10. My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
11. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
12. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home On Ice
14. Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
15. The Thermals - A Pillar of Salt
16. Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
17. Spoon - Finer Feelings
18. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel

Mux001 flashback

How strange of me to reference my first muxtape without supplying said muxtape? Here's the download link at drop.io. And here are the tracks:

1. Wolf Parade - Language City
2. Cut Copy - Saturdays
3. Ted Leo - La Costa Brava
4. My Bloody Valentine - Off Your Face
5. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
6. The National - Slow Show
7. Destroyer - My Favorite Year
8. The Joggers - Back To The Future
9. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
10. The Hold Steady - You Can Make Him Like You
11. Spoon - Finer Feelings
12. Dan Deacon - Pink Batman

That's a solid line-up. Probably because it was my return to mixes after moving out of Chicago, where I was the unofficial music guy at the Post-Production Center. (And, you know, having two years of new music to compile.) While I kept my still-current rule of never repeating a song on a series of mixtapes, back then my only restriction was that a mix came in under 1 hr. 20 mins. so I could burn it to CD and rip it on the work computer. That was in the dark ages before thumb drives - how novel!

I'm glad muxtape added the rule of a max of twelve tracks. For one thing, it weeds out anything not in the top tier of songs. And second, twelve tracks usually rounds out around forty-five minutes, and I usually don't do anything that requires continuous music for more than that time.