Music

Beatenberg

Tuesday 14 February, 2012 / Music / Comments { 14 }

couldn’t find a great pic of them so i just made this up

continuing with my music sharing, i thought i’d introduce you to Beatenberg – a band from good ol’ Cape Town, South Africa. if you’re a local you have probably heard of these guys and may have been lucky enough to see them live. if you are one of my international readers perhaps you haven’t heard of them, in which case – enjoy. if you’re into a paul simonesque / vampire weekendy / john mayerish (minus the douchebaginess) sorta sound then this is for you.

check out Beatenberg on soundcloud, twitter, facebook, youtube and buy their album Farm Photos too.

[for those of you reading via RSS there are some tunes embedded below. click through to listen]

Comments { 14 }

First Aid Kit

Wednesday 8 February, 2012 / Music / Comments { 15 }

i thought i’d try to talk about music more regularly on here, instead of just resorting to the music mixes every month. here’s someone you need to listen to - First Aid Kit. their new album The Lion’s Roar was released a couple of weeks ago. these photos were taken by Neil Krug, a fantastic photographer whose work you also need to get into. hey, double discovery whammy! also, if you don’t know anything about First Aid Kit – Johanna and Klara are in fact Swedish and were born in the 1990′s (as a child of the eighties it always amazes me when such accomplished people are about a decade younger than myself). now listen to their music, watch their videos, and prepare to have your mind blown.

Comments { 15 }

This Will Be Our Year

Friday 27 January, 2012 / Music / Comments { 32 }

hey, it’s a music mix. happy friday!

this will be our year. download it here. playlist:

  1. the shins – simple song
  2. miniature tigers – boomerang
  3. summer camp – down
  4. citizens! – true romance (gigamesh remix)
  5. ladyhawke – black, white & blue
  6. papa – i am the lion king (st. lucia remix)
  7. of montreal – dour percentage
  8. eli mardock – everything happens for the first time
  9. the brokenmusicbox – we will
  10. yellow ostrich – marathon runner
  11. ghost beach – first time
  12. memory house – this will be our year (zombie cover)
  13. conveyor – mukraker
  14. mesita – on through the dark

cover image one hundred percent completely inspired by this. all music is for sampling purposes only – please go out and buy the artists’ records & support them at their shows!

Comments { 32 }

Butter Your Popcorn

Friday 13 January, 2012 / Music / Comments { 22 }

i have a special treat for you. truth is it’s a special treat for me too. i have been nagging my boyfriend to make an extra special funk music mix for the blog for some time now. when i say nagging i mean, i make him coffee and shower him with chocolate speckled eggs and sweetly ask if that funk mix he’s working on is ready yet. it’s finally ready, and it’s here.

a little background story to this – when we were first getting to know each other we exchanged various bits and pieces online (as you do when you’re sussing someone out, wooing them as it were). he sent me a funk mix in a zip file – which is basically the modern day equivalent of making someone a mix tape – and it was all stuff i had literally never heard before. Anton knows his funk. you can have a discussion with him about funk. well, i can’t – but he can teach me. and now he can teach you a bit, too.

Butter Your Popcorn - a guest mix courtesy of my guy, Anton. download it here.

Funk is my favourite kind of music. It’s like the extroverted, more fun cousin of jazz, with some soul and R&B thrown in for good measure. Some of the best vocalists, guitarists, drummers and musicians who ever lived played in funk bands, but as skilled as they were they rarely took themselves seriously. Every time I hear funk I picture a group of people in a recording studio having the time of their lives. The mix starts with Miles Davis’ ex wife Betty who was a pioneer in her own right and pushed Miles into his later, funkier experimental work like Bitches Brew. It also includes one of my favourite artists, Sly Stone, who was a heavy influence on Prince. And then we end with a more soulful moment from the godfather himself.

  1. Betty Davis - If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up
  2. Carlton Basco - Don’t Chain My Soul
  3. Hank Ballard - Butter Your Popcorn
  4. The Meters - What’cha Say
  5. The Sweet Inspirations - Slipped & Tripped
  6. Cold Blood - Kissing My Love
  7. Round Robin Monopoly - Life Is Funky
  8. Cymande - Brothers Slide
  9. Sly and The Family Stone - In Time
  10. Roy Porter - Party Time
  11. Co-Real Artists - What About You (In The World Today) *
  12. The Fatback Band - Do The Bus Stop
  13. James Brown - That’s Life (Live)

* my favourite. all music is for sampling purposes only – please go out and buy the artists’ records.

Comments { 22 }

Six Months In A Leaky Boat

Friday 2 December, 2011 / Music / Comments { 14 }

i’ve been wanting to make the guest music mixes a more regular thing, and couldn’t think of a better way to kick that off than this playlist from my new friend Nick. he played it in the car when we were driving around cape town on one of those perfect almost-summer days, where the most important thing on your to-do list is eating gelato by the sea.

Because I’m out of touch with the new sounds, my mixes tend to be archaeological; I’m totally preoccupied with stuff thats a few sedimentary layers down and immediately recognizable and resonant to me when I find it. “Wait, holy shit, that’s Van Morrison?!? That’s important.”

To wit, 11 tracks of some importance to take with you on a leaky boat.

1. Once Upon a Time in the West – Dire Straits
2. Hold Me – Fleetwood Mac
3. Dweller on the Threshold – Van Morrison
4. Castles Made of Sand – Rhett Butler
5. Think Too Much (B) – Paul Simon
6. But I Might Die Tonight – Cat Stevens
7. Fearless – Pink Floyd
8. Green Shirt – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
9. Cattle and Cane – The Go-Betweens
10. Things Can Only Get Better (Live) – Howard Jones
11. Six Months In A Leaky Boat – Split Enz

Download the mix here.

cover image courtesy of the gahetna archives. all music is for sampling purposes only – please go out and buy the artists’ records & support them at their shows!

Comments { 14 }