Monday Mini Mix: The Power Of Love

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No joke these two songs came on back-to-back once when I was running and listening to music on  shuffle. This speaks not only to my appreciation of music that encompasses both angular Manchester post-punk and daffy yacht rock, but also to the wide ranging powers we ascribe to love.

Mini Mix: Gold Hearts

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I was so sad to hear Charles Bradley passed away this weekend.

People Have The Power

If we keep writing it. Keep saying it. Keep singing it. Keep feeling it. Keep doing it, then it’s true.

Monday Mini Mix: More Baltimore

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I've never been to Baltimore, but these two songs give me lots of feelings about it. The dichotomies of city life versus country life. Trying to make it in the city. Plus, The Wire. Plus the way that Baltimoreans seem to pronounce the name of their city with the 't' somewhere between a 't' and a 'd' in a way you can't really achieve unless you're from there. Plus, John Waters.

Streets of Baltimore was written by Tompall Glaser and prolific Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard (whom I'm reading a lot about in this Waylon Jennings autobiography) and has been covered a lot. I haven't heard every version, but I'm still pretty sure GP's is my favorite all the same.

Strong Week Links 32

What an original Bill Cunningham was. Not just his eye, his whole ethos — doing only what he loved every day, eschewing attention, fiercely maintaining his personal and creative freedom and always impressing everyone with his kindness and humility while being incredibly revered and powerful. We won't be able to see New York fashion and personal style the same way without him.

Two obsessions combined: James Rowland Shop and the Moroccan babouche.

Stoked on discovering this band via kalx that's described as a Croatian Os Mutantes.

Are you a Dennis Hopper fan?

Speaking of Dennis Hopper, this David Lynch-curated music festival happening at the Ace Theater in LA looks amazing!

The Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana is another far flung art site it would be cool to road trip to someday.

Rodarte Is More Radarte Than Ever

Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind the complex and beautiful line Rodarte, are set to release a collaboration with H&M spinoff & Other Stories (now available stateside since first writing). It's set to drop next Thursday, and while that's exciting on its own (I've got my eye on the pajama shirts and shearling jacket), what really got my attention was the Spotify playlist they put together to coincide with the launch. They're girls after my own heart, and it's made up of exactly what i'd put on a roadtrip-ready mix — Gerry Rafferty aka the Raff, El Condor Pasa, Harry Nilsson — plus some stuff I wouldn't have thought of. Much like the way food always tastes better when someone else makes it for you, I find music has an extra bit of magic and appeal when someone else plays it for you. May finally be time to invest in one of those Radarte sweatshirts.

Just Like Christmas

I love Christmas albums. Maybe that seems cheesy, and surely lots of holiday music is, but there are so many classic and under-the-radar xmas albums with really delightful and solid interpretations of traditional songs (and some new ones). Case in point, Low’s Christmas. Aside from the joyfully unhinged Disco Noel, which we have owned on vinyl (x2) and cassette and which includes instructions for dancing the hustle, it’s probably my favorite. It just slays. I started there for this playlist and added in some more upbeat and festive tracks too. It’s meant to be perfect for decorating a tree, drinking a hot toddy, wrapping presents, or sitting in LA traffic to get to multiple family Christmases (what we usually do). Hope you enjoy. Merry merry xx.

Low | Just Like Christmas

The Ventures | Sleigh Ride

James Brown | Go Power At Christmastime

Nick Lowe | Christmas At The Airport

Willie Nelson | Blue Christmas

Low | Little Drummer Boy

Lord Kitchener | Christmas Greetings

My Morning Jacket | Xmas Time Is Here Again

Booker T. & The M.G.'s | We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass | Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Owen Gray | Christmas Greetings

Burt Bacharach | The Bell That Couldn't Jingle

The Beach Boys | Melekalikimaka

Low | Silent Night

The Vacant Lots | No More Christmas Blues

Psychic Ills | Run Rudolph Run

Paul Simon | Getting Ready For Christmas Day

Listen via Spotify

Take Me To The River

This summer has felt like all work and no play what with moving, and well, working. But last weekend we escaped for the day to a swimming hole a few hours outside of town. We scrabbled over rocks, dipped in the refreshingly chilly snowmelt water, swam from pool to pool between crevices beneath giant boulders and ducked under waterfalls. It was the perfect way to feel far away for a day. In honor of escapes, here’s a summer-day-at-the-river playlist. It’s a little bit rocking for the drive out with friends, a little quiet and contemplative like floating in a river and a little bit of mellow magic.

Talking Heads | Take Me To The River

Fleetwood Mac | Think About Me

Tame Impala | Yes I'm Changing

Steely Dan | FM

Spiritualized | Do It All Over Again

Jane Birkin | Harvest Moon

Jimmy Cliff | You Can Get It If You Really Want

CAN | Vitamin C

The Stone Roses | Waterfall

Steve Gunn | Way Out Weather

T. Rex | Mambo Sun

Nick Drake | Place To Be

Listen via Spotify

Strong Week Links 18

Bay Area-ites: Lisa Says Gah is having a pop-up shop at Ogaard next weekend. I'm excited to see their wares in person! Check out the deets: #oaklandsaysgah

The stories behind non-French French-y brands. 

Tame Impala's new album just came out. I've only listened to it once so far, but it's different and I'm liking it. Looking forward to giving it more listens this summer.

Feeling this lace-up style.

Lena Dunham is launching a newsletter with Jenni Konner, her bff and the showrunner for Girls. It's called Lenny and Dunham says it will be a place “to remember that the internet has the power to take you into quiet places — something we don’t usually use it for.” I'm all for it.

Image of Alice Wiese embroidery via Ogaard

Tune In: Lost In The Dream

Photos by Adam Granduciel via T Magazine

I recently came across T Magazine's article on a year's worth of photos taken by The War On Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel. As the year begins to draw to a close, reflection on its best albums will begin, and for me, Lost In The Dream will almost certainly occupy the number one spot. The photos span a year the band spent traveling the world in support of the third album and show Granduciel's eye is on the level of his ear.



This session for KEXP in Seattle has some fantastic live versions of songs from the album, along with a bit of background on its making. They've certainly earned their comparisons to Tom Petty and Dylan, but I was most delighted by the strains of Roxy Music that run through several tracks like Under The Pressure  and Disappearing. If he and sometime bandmate Kurt Vile can each put out a record on alternating years, we'll be in good shape. Also, as I learned from an interview with Vogue, Granduciel is a writer characterized by anxiousness and perfectionism, always on the quest for "beautiful moments of 'hey,'" and with a penchant for eBay alerts and vintage denim — a man after my own heart.

Tune In: Cate Le Bon

Loving this hypnotic mix of skate footage and Cate Le Bon's "Are You With Me Now?" Folksy, a little bit cosmic, a little bit country, her pretty guitar strains have electro-fuzz Os Mutantes moments and her singing has a definite Nico vibe. But the elements all come together in her unique, Welsh-inflected voice.

Tune In: Indian Summer

It's almost September and everyone's inner school calendar is probably telling them that summer's almost over. Luckily, in the Bay Area, it's all about Indian Summer. June gloom seeped into too much of July, so I'm looking forward to what I hope will be a gloriously awesome September and October. I'd say we're even owed a bit of November. In that spirit, here's a hopefully-not-belated summer playlist. I recommend listening on a boat if possible, but it should be equally effective for looking out the window on a road trip, walking around your neighborhood on a sunny day, or having a picnic at a park or beach.

Billy Bragg & Wilco | California Stars

Unkown Mortal Orchestra | Swim and Sleep

Kurt Vile | Wakin on a Pretty Day

Roxy Music | More Than This

Devendra Banhart | Never Seen Such Good Things

The Flying Burrito Brothers | Christine's Tune

Os Mutantes | A Minha Menina

Broken Social Scene | Pacific Theme

ELO | Strange Magic

Harry Nilsson | Coconut

Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra | I've Been Down So Long

Neon Indian | Polish Girl

Listen via Spotify.

Tune In: Kurt Vile

Settle in, take your time, and let this Kurt Vile gem, the (almost) title track from his stellar new album Wakin On A Pretty Daze, unfurl. Forget you were listening and drift back in. Like the best songs, it's going to be A+ driving around material — at over 9 minutes long, imagine how many landscapes could roll by. It's a perfect intro to the rest of the album which is just as dreamy and addictive. Also, check out this really cool short documentary put out by Matador in which local graffiti artist Steve Powers talks about creating the mural and how it fits into Philadelphia's urban and artistic landscape.

I got to see Kurt Vile and the Violators this past week at the Independent, and it was a great show. There was a good mix of songs played by the whole band, with guitars on top of guitars on top of keyboards on top of synth tracks (and sometimes with a sax), and stripped down moments, just Vile and his guitar. I love that Vile's songs are suffused with diverse influences in a way that's evident and traceable, but totally his own. There's this sense of earnestness in his songs and his whole approach that's really appealing. Plus, you just cannot fuck with his hair. Tip for music journalists: instead of asking the same old questions about his influences and stint as a forklift driver, ask him what products he's using.

Pick up Wakin On A Pretty Daze here.

Tune In: mbv

Have you been wearing grooves into your iPod listening to Loveless for the past 22 years? Well, happy My Bloody Valentine's day. Alright, the advent of the iPod was only 12 years ago, and I probably discovered Loveless around that time, but none of that changes the exciting fact that the servers are back up, and there's a new My Bloody Valentine album out, mbv.

A bit more percussive, a little floppy even, here and there, but mostly still a mosaic of layered guitars like beautiful, bending buzzsaws — mbv is the My Bloody Valentine you know and love, but who've developed a few new tricks over the past couple decades of recording.

Happy shoegazing, friends.

P.S.- Some totally gaze-worthy shoes and an awesome Amazon review of Loveless.

Tune In: Solange

Way into this video for Losing You off of Solange's new EP True. There's nothing better than when fashion and music collide, and Solange always strikes the perfect style note. I'm waiting for her to kick out a super jam, even though I get that that's Beyonce territory, and Solange is carving out her own lower-fi, electro-influenced, Dev Hynes-produced style. Maybe we can hope for one when her album drops later this year. Still, this song has remained quietly and insistently stuck in my head for the past couple weeks.

The video was filmed in South Africa and features a local chapter of Les Sapeurs, who only add to the style quotient. Say what you want, but I'd definitely like to be invited to that pool party, and I don't think you can argue with shoes and the genius-level pattern mixing on display here.

Tune In: Tame Impala

Tame Impala is probably my favorite band from Perth. Their 2010 album Innerspeaker is awesomely atmospheric and listenable the whole way through, and now they've got a new one out, Lonerism. Everyone's all Elephant is the jam, and it has the trippier video,  but I think it's Apocalypse Dreams.

Listening through a cloud of cannabis isn't my thing, but Tame Impala is great driving around on a sunny day tripping on being alone (as the album's title suggests), spacing out, and soaking up fuzzy, vintage guitar sounds.

Tune in: Harry Nilsson

Wacky, wonderful, rocking, poignant at turns,  Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him? His best friends are the Beatles, he'll take you out for a night of drunken revelry that might turn into a weekend (or a year, ask John Lennon), he'll wake up in his robe and sing you one of his songs about being hungover (he was an expert) and then break your heart with his original version of "One." He'll offer to let you stay in his London flat, but you probably don't want to take him up on it.

Nilsson's music is idiosyncratic, weird, verging on novelty (maybe getting there sometimes), but there's an affecting, heart-piercingness at its core, in his voice and lyrics, and he had undeniable talent as a songwriter. No one sings noises like he does, and whenever I listen to him, I find myself singing every yowl and wah wah hours later in my head. Plus, he's a genius with album titles: Nilsson Schmilsson, Son of Schmilsson, A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, Knnillssonn.

If you like his music and are interested in his hijinks, I recommend the above referenced documentary. Let Harry Nilsson give you whirl!