Spotify Me Part 20: Playlist Harder

Spotify Me Part 20: Playlist Harder

Mark’s Discover Weekly Playlist for the week of 1/11/2016

This was a really good week for my playlist. I must have like half the songs this week, and it was because I genuinely wanted to listen to them over and over again. At the same time I finally broke down and bought Spotify premium, and have to say I love it so far. I don’t want to go too much into it because Spotify isn’t paying me to talk about them. So instead I’m going to tell you about the Google Cardboard I bought: it’s not here yet. I also bought a dry suit: it’s also not here.

Have you ever bought a gadget and then had to wait for it? It’s really hard. I love going to stores because then I have the gadget right away but right now, I’m sitting here waiting for mail to arrive and its horrible. It’s hard to imagine you used to have to order things through the mail. You send in a letter, wit for that letter to arrive, and then they mail the gadget to you. That’s too long to wait. That’s why I love Spotify, where I don’t have to wait. All my favorite songs are – you see I almost did it right there. That’s what I’m talking about.

Single
Kniles

Modify – Kniles 

Another frustrating game of “I know I’ve heard this song” was played this week. I kept listening to this song though out the week, because it’s a good song. But I could not shake the feeling that I knew it from somewhere. The hunt had no effect on how much I liked the song. It makes you want to move around, if not break into actual dance. It’s a “good times” kind of song that you might hear at a casual party, or in a 70’s teen movie trailer. I have always stated that I wish my generation had more of a chance with disco, and so this type of music usually wins me over. And what really makes the song stand out to me is ironically that it doesn’t fight for your attention. The song is perfectly content to just groove in and create the atmosphere. It’s a great song to listen to to cheer up or have a good time. Oh, and I did figure out where I had heard it before.It was in the Game of Thrones BLR video, which shouldn’t have surprised me.

In the Morning
Jayne Trimble

Meet You at the Gate – Jayne Trimble

One of my favorite albums to listen to is the soundtrack to the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou.” Due to the nature of the film, the soundtrack became a collection of bluegrass and American folk music performed by some of the greatest voices in the genre. Sometimes I listen to that type of music and feel a bit sad that I messed out on that part of American culture, the passing of songs through the generations. Even though that culture isn’t as relevant as it used to be, that style of music is still being written and recorded today, this song being a great example. It’s a quiet slow song, which is as soothing as it is beautiful. The singer has a soft voice that flows so well with the rhythm of the song, and has just enough power to put emotion into the song, but not break the songs tranquil nature. And the sudden rhythm at the end of the chorus is what really reminds me of that classic American folk sound. So, even though this isn’t the song your mother sings to you, because her mother sang it to her, it certainly calls to mind the idea of a time when she may have. And it’s these kinds of images that make me love this song.

Gizmodgery
maximum10

Trunk Fulla Amps [explicit] – Self

Loud, rude, rude and proud, the band Self Gives a very focused description on the exact content of their trunk. Exaggerated distortion floods the speakers as the lead singer boasts away about his clear and apparent abundance of amps. The in your face style of the song makes it as fun as it is obnoxious. The lyrics are fairly simple, allowing the instruments to do the heavy lifting with distorted guitar, thumping drums, and loud builds. The song contains the mood of a teenage rebellion, and the creation of noise for noises sake. But at the same time the song is extremely catchy, and can really become stuck in your head, which is ok as the lyrics aren’t that hard to learn. As we all know, the only thing worse than having a bad song stuck in your head, is having only half of a good song stuck in your head. This is a great song to have running in your pumping you up for your day. However, be warned that language is heavily used, so becarful about singing it to yourself in your cubicle.

Dead Zone Boys
Asthmatic Kitty

You Cried Me – Jookabox

With fast plucky strings and a wailing chorus, Jookabox howls into this week’s playlist. The song takes you for a fast paced ride where the vintage car is constantly veering in and out of control. The style reflects on a youth that is constantly in chase of new adventures and experiences regardless of the consequences. It feels like you have to keep driving with no opportunity to brake or pause. Any delay can result in missing out on what’s going on. The lyrics are simple in their idea. A man tries to warn a girl of the dangers of joining him on this self-destructive journey, and is ultimately unsuccessful as she refuses to leave his side. It’s easy to identify with this type of song, either due to the idea of pushing love away or convincing someone they are worth being loved. The tune and instruments do a great job of matching the raw nerves that can be so exposed, and the risk of chasing the one you love.

F Note
Too Many Zooz

To the Top – Too Many Zooz

So if you sit back for a minute and imagine that a saxophone were an animal, much like a dog or cat, and now consider the noise that animal would make if it were abused horribly. Now add a trumpet to the mix and this song roughly captures that experience. Based out of the New York subway that brought you Moon Hooch, comes Too Many Zooz, a loud an unapologetic Brasshouse (a mixture of jazz, rock and dance) band that is testing the distinction between sound and noise in a pretty incredible way. By using their instruments in all the ways your middle school band teacher told you not to, they create an intense sound, filing every inch of their soundscape with the energy of just three instruments. The band isn’t afraid to experiment to get every possible sound they can out of the instrument and use it in some form or another to make music. All of this adds up to a loud, rough, and chaotic style that somehow works. I would love to see them play live, especially in the subway where they first started to play.

Spotify Me Part 14: The Da Vinci Playlist

Spotify Me Part 14: The Da Vinci Playlist

Mark’s Discover Weekly Playlist for the week of 11/30/2015

This has been an interesting playlist. Many of the songs surprised me, not in that they were good, but in that there ended up being more to them than I had originally suspected. One song is from the soundtrack to a movie that is impossible to get a copy of. Another ended up being one degree away from Moon Hooch, a favorite band of mine. Yet another song described a mythical town that ended up being more real than I suspected. It was a fun adventure of puzzle solving and research for me. I was a kid in a candy shop.

But before I get to that, I also discovered a few other things that I really want to mention. One is a podcast by the name of The Black Tapes. The podcast is similar to Serial but with ghosts and stuff. I don’t want to say too much about it other than try not to research the podcast until you have finished listening to it. You don’t want to ruin anything until the end. Next is that if you have ever been in or are going to a town called South Bend, Indiana (which I hear has a fairly well known college?) then there are two places you need to see. One is a restrain called J.W. Chen’s. The service is amazing and the food was incredible. The owner takes every order herself and is very present in managing the store. The second is a book store called Erasmus Books. Trust me, it’s going to feel like you are walking into someone’s house at first, but it’s a must see if you are a fan of books in any way. I picked up a few nature guides that I’m ecstatic to put to use. But we have to remember, this is a music blog, so:

Sunset Blood
Starcadian, Rob O'Neill & Mike Frankel

He^Rt (Album Mix) – Starcadian 

The original motion picture soundtrack to an 80’s film called Sunset Blood was released on October 31, 2013. A few things might peak your interest from that statement. For example, why was the soundtrack released so long after the fact?  Why are copies of the enigmatic Sci Fi thriller so hard to find? These are the questions that were running through my head during a half hour research session that ended with me discovering the truth: the movie Sunset Blood was never released, nor did it ever truly exist in the first place. And that is really a shame, because now I can’t think of a movie I want to see more. Sunset Blood then becomes a different kind of experiment in music making. It is written to be in the style of an 80’s film soundtrack, but is in fact its own standalone album. However, the fact that the movie does not exist cast a mysterious light on the electronic tones that the album presents. Instead of recognizing the music from a classic film, we the listeners are forced to imagine the kind of film that the music was written for. To comment specifically on He^rt, the song suggested to me, it is slow and soothing. It has a romantic atmosphere, thought the lyrics preach uncertainty in the singer’s life. Just listening to the song, and from my first glance at the album cover, I had actually believed it was an 80’s era electronic pop song. If the song hadn’t been able to lure me into looking for an exact release date, this paragraph would likely be much different. And while no actual movie may exist, the music video for this song is recorded in the style of the 80’s, complete with all the advantages and disadvantages of the technology available at the time. The description of the video reads “I make ear movies,” a humorous yet meaningful comment on the idea behind the music. This song, not to mention the album as a whole, is a very interesting exploration into the culture of music, film, and science fiction culture.

The District
Atwork Music

Fool’s Gold (Feat. Too Many Zooz) – Manicanparty, Too Many Zooz

While the singers voices and styles remind me of more modern indie vocalists, the instrumentation takes inspiration from big band jazz groups of the past. I’m’ not sure if this was the first or second song I listened to this week, but it was the first song I knew I was going to be writing about. This song makes you want to move, get up and dance. The drums in the song are ever present, keeping the song at a fast driving pace. And although the vocal styles do feel more modern, they never feel out of place. The horns roar in creating that partly like big band atmosphere. The Horn section, or the featured Too Many Zooz, can really create a rugged and dirty brass band sound, having also done some work with another band I like called Moon Hooch. The vocals come from the group Manicanparty, who have more often worked with that modern and distant sounding indie music. If you were to listen to the independent work of either group, you would never have put them together. However, the groups have a powerful synergistic effect that you do not want to miss out on.

hyperstory
Pureland Records

A Happening – Hyperstory

Slow, calm, collected, and cool, A Happening contains the relaxing energy of someone who is just too cool to be bothered by the problems the rest of the world is experiencing. The song is characterized by a steady electric organ beat that runs through the song. However, other small instrumentations such as distorted child singing or light electronic bells make the song feel just a little dark. The beat is overly casual, as though it couldn’t be persuaded to move any faster. There is an aloof and uncaring atmosphere about the whole song. They lyrics hint at more, something is happening, but the singer of the song doesn’t really know what it is. He has better things to do than to find the answer. It’s funny that I like this son because it doesn’t really make me feel anything, at least not in the way that other songs I like usually do. Other songs make me happy, sad, or angry; this song makes you not care. IT makes you feel distant, as though you were floating not too far away from the earth, but far enough away to no care about it. It’s a new emotion in music I hadn’t really explored before, but certainly an interesting style of music to think about.

The Sunlandic Twins
Philter

Oslo in the Summertime – Of Montreal

In this song, similar to the above mentioned song, there is a vague sense of indifference. However, whereas the above song can be described as cool and casual, this song is more unnerving. The synthetic tones that lead the song off have an ominous nature that never leaves, and is actually the last thing you hear as the song fades away. The lyrics seem cryptic at first, with descriptions of a strange town that seems unreal. However, Oslo is very real, and is in fact the capital of a very real and well known country called Norway. Due to Oslo’s northern latitude, Oslo experiences 18 hours of sunlight during the mid-summer, hence the title of the song. Knowing this does change the nature of the song slightly. The mysterious tone of the song fades as you realize it’s more a description of the difficulties of living in a place with sunlight that that dissolves the night as early as 4 am. The song also references other aspects of Oslo life such as sun lamps, difficulty sleeping, and vacationing in other parts of the world until the town becomes more livable. The song even contains mention of the high immigrant flow into the country, causing the cities high growth rate. But because of those synthetic tones, the high and light voices, and the minor chords, the song paints a real town like Oslo in a very surreal light, turning reality into fantasy.