Bobby Krlic aka The Haxan Cloak, creator of new horror film Midsommar’s score, takes the airwaves for an hour, playing inspirations, and cuts from the soundtrack.
Available to fans across Spotify, Apple and Deezer, F1 Tracks will be updated on a weekly basis, uniting global superstars with the sounds of F1. Filtered according to four key categories – Pace, Mechanical, Spirit and Fan – this unique set of principles will produce a bespoke and dynamic playlist, which embodies F1 and is distinctive from other weekly streamed playlists.
And that’s not all. Alongside the core F1 Tracks playlist a number of selected artists will also curate bespoke playlists, beginning with rising star Mabel. Look out for further collaborations with Hot Chip and Two Door Cinema Club among others.
I’ve only recently gotten into F1 Racing. I don’t know any of the racers but I must say, it’s a thrilling sport to watch. There’s a lot of heart and courage in high-performance racing. The Rolex British Grand Prix Weekend begins in two days and the circuit looks a bit fiendish. I’m sure it will be an adrenaline filled challenge.
Cassette tapes are having a minor comeback: sales were (somehow) up almost 19 percentyear over year in 2018, and where there’s a market, there’s a Kickstarter project looking to cash in. Case in point: the NinmIt’s OK. It’s sort of what a portable cassette player like an original Walkman would be if Sony continued to develop tape-based tech in 2019.
So while the It’s OK does the usual tape things, like playing cassettes or letting you record to tapes, it also bills itself as the world’s first Bluetooth 5.0 portable cassette player (a claim of such niche specificity that it seems to be true). It allows you to listen to your favorite jams with wireless headphones or even link it to a Bluetooth speaker, should you wish.
Call me crazy, but I think this is stellar. What a perfect time to revive cassette tapes too, right on the heels of the 40th anniversary of the Sony Walkman. Sign me up. Allow me to summarize my reasoning:
Men I Trust is an incredible indie band from Montreal. Lovely jams, I gotta say. Very chill, very shoegazey. If you’re fans of Mac Demarco, or Snail Mail — Men I Trust is pretty adjacent.
Men I Trust continue to get us psyched for their forthcoming LP Oncle Jazz with this dreamily warped and woozy new one, “Norton Commander (All We Need)“. Watch the video, starring Emma and the group’s friend Lawrence Dickerson as they cruise around southern California in a dope old LeBaron convertible, below:
I don’t speak Italian, but damn. This album has some sick riffs, fantastic composition, wonderful vocals and all the classical trappings of amazing emo jams. I get literal chills listening to this.
This is no At the Drive-in or Hawthorne Heights for me, but I just love that’s there’s a whole Italian emo culture that preservers. Enjoy.
I can easily say that Toro y Moi, also known as Chaz Bundick (aka Chaz Bear) is my favorite living musician today.
His deep, resonating songs turn my heart velvety. Toro regularly empties my brainspace into a dark smoky dancehall illuminated by a lone computer like neon equalizers dancing at a party. Chaz just has that effect on me.
I grew up alongside his first EPs and releases. If you can believe, I once upon a time saw Toro y Moi, Washed Out and Warpaint perform underneath a makeshift, sunbathed tent in the back of an Urban Outfitters in Austin, Texas at a SXSW secret show in 2010. Those were extraordinary times. Much, much simpler times back then. You probably won’t find me in any of these photos, but you can probably spot Chaz somewhere. Sidenote: those photos are an absolute time-capsule. I shamelessly downloaded them to keep forever. Anyways here’s a photo of Chaz that I can only assume was from the 2010 SXSW:
At some point we all grew up. Toro’s Anything in Return, was my coming of age album, and it’s comforting to put it on during hard times. A reminder, a penchant to stay the course — fight back the demons so to speak. That album (among many others) really got me through some hard times in my life. One of my really good pals, (and extraordinary artist if I may add) Zac is equally a die-hard, and self-proclaimed Chaz super-fan like myself. Toro may have even been the fertilizer (apart from art school) that grew our friendship.
Outer Peace, is no great departure from Chaz’s discography. It’s really nothing out of the ordinary. It’s absolutely everything I would expect from Toro y Moi. It’s warmer and a little bit more bumpier, than his last album under the Toro moniker. I’ll give him that. Give this track a listen and tell me that’s got a positive vibe. Boo Boo is like a rainy day album. Something to blast on the AirPods during a solemn walk or on a the way home after a long week at the office.
To me, Outer Peace is a nod to his weirder soundscape side-projects, and signals that he’s on the search for something again. Laws of the Universe, feels like it could be an earlier track from the days of Underneath the Pine. But really, it has these tropical, maybe even Latin undertones, so it stands apart from the rest of the record a bit. I love it. Like Freelance has these bouncey, modulated, pitch-stretched samples that just feels exploratory like this 80’s italian electronic song I just love to reference, Vamos a La Playa.
Toro might dig a smoother and looser tempo nowadays, and that brings it to a mellower record for sure. I’m not even mad about that. But man, I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed by Chaz Bear. Looking forward to more jams. His records just get better and better ✌️
His newest EP, is pretty fantastic. It’s not a wild departure or anything, but I can tell that his taste and composition is certainly maturing. His tracks have had (for some time now), great rhythm exploration, thrilling bips, kits and sequence layers that are really just simply delicious to listen to. But this EP in particular has a heavy synthesizer, simple samples and overall has a decent homogeny that I just dig.
His previous releases are also worth a listen, click here to visit his Bandcamp. Otherwise, checkout Be On Fire below via Apple Music.
The Armed, a punk band from Detroit, Michigan continues to iron out their raw sound. Nowhere to be Found, from their 2018 album Only Love. If you’re searching for a melodramatic modern punk take — Only Love is it.
What seemingly begins as a familiar Underworld homage, it quickly devolves expectations. There’s a minor reprieve from a formulaic build-up, but director (and drummer for The Armed) Tony Wolski has something else in mind. He breaks the fourth-wall mid-video, revealing the film set (the band, a table, lights, equipment, but no PAs to be found). At the height of the reprieve, they deliver a chaotic noisy turn — a symbolic mosh pit and demolishes the scene in a violent wash of hardcore drums and screamo.
I really liked this interview. It’s also a shame to see this website go (thank you Internet Archive). I use to love surfing these music and band interview blogs.
I was introduced to Page France at around the same time I began questioning my future, myself and my religious beliefs. You know, those formative teenage years. I remember everyone loving to dissect the (existent or non-existent) sentimental Christian symbols from their lyrics. Hell, even David Bazan is a victim of that.
But, I thought this was such a great quote from Michael Nau (@naumichael) of Page France, I just had to share:
“The ‘Christian band’ inquiry wears me out, to be honest,” Nau said in response to numerous articles which have painted Page France as just that. “As for the Christian symbols in my writing – sometimes I don’t even realize that they exist until someone points them out to me. There’s really no reason; it just rolled out that way.”
While Page France is no longer producing music together, he continues to perform under his own name.
“The next Steven Spielberg is Anthony Scott Burns.”
Well, that’s what this Vimeo commenter said. This guy has an impressive resumé. Burns is a Canadian-bred filmmaker, visual effects artists, musician and producer — you know, like the rest of them. Is there something in the water up there?
Anyways, I came across this trailer over at kottke.org and guess who scored this project? PILOTPRIEST a.k.a. Anthony Scott Burns:
I freaking LOVED Akira. I thought it was mind-blowing. I mean, it still is actually. It’s a landmark animation piece. It influenced everybody from Steven Spielberg to Rian Johnson. So much so that, the destruction of Neo-Tokyo in Akira is literally a tirelessly repurposed knock-off trope reused over-and-over again in live-action Marvel movies.
But at any rate, it’s really cool to see such talented people working on such incredible admiration project like this. You can read more about Awaken Akira, here.
Here’s PILOTPRIEST’s latest release on Bandcamp.
Very chill stuff. Ethereal. If I close my eyes, I’m transported to a Weyland-Yutani Marscape in the year 2089… or something like that. Good jams. Reminds me of my buddy Justin’s work, BOUT.
Last month, I shared some February jams. Coming out of January, last month saw more nostalgic plays than anything. This month, I’m feeling more exploratory.
Wether it’s the Nashville babes Daddy Issues or the incredible Nosaj Thing’s latest LP. I didn’t forget about Dent May either. He’s something else. Apparently, he’s a Mississippi transplant drying up in LA. He’s got some great imagery in his lyrics. May’s tracks reminds me of the 2016 summer fun — hanging out on Bushwick rooftops, and warm beer at Coney Island. I feel like his gloomy, but bouncy voice has a bravado I can just get behind.
I couldn’t help but add a 2011 hit from Metronomy’s, The English Riveria. Looking inward, this was playing everywhere back then and was such a great soundtrack on late-night highway rides. Now, that I no longer own a car, this track has transmuted for me — a soundtrack for my early-morning/late-night subway commutes:
Get up and we get down We’re always running round this town And to think they said We’d never make anything better than this ‘Cause we’re always in small circles And everyone thinks we’re trouble We didn’t read it in the big book And now we’re giving you the look look Just remember how we shook shook And all the things we took took This town’s the oldest friend of mine
The last time I penned anything lengthier than 140 characters about music was probably during the times of xanga.
Today was a busy day at the office. I was feeling a little inspired, and a little chaotic. Nonetheless, this playlist really brought me back down to earth.
This past week, a lot of these artists got some play, and I decided to make the playlist which you can play below. There’s a few classic artists from the 2000’s. Some lesser-known indie stars and small-stage producers that never really stole that big post-millennium spotlight they so deserved. Lastly, some rulebreakers like Toro y Moi and Best Coast.
So many of these artists just completely shaped my formative years. It’s like smelling a box of crayons — the nostalgia just completely overtakes. Enjoy!
P.S. If you want to embed your own playlists from Apple Music, make them public, get the share URL from iTunes and paste it here for a iframe embed: https://tools.applemusic.com/en-us?country=us
