Song of the Day

Sometimes the old jams just can't be beat. When they come on I just can't help but dance along and be in a good mood. This one from Jr. Walker and the All Stars is one of my favorites. I first heard this song in the Circa Shoes skate video, " It's Time ".  It was Adrien Lopez's song for his part. I was immediately stoked on the song and had to get it however I could. 10 years later and it still remains on playlists that I create. In fact, in that same video is a song by Sam and Dave called "Hold On" in Windsor James' part ; another great old classic jam.  From that loud shotgun sound (which is supposedly an amp being kicked) and the moment that dirty saxophone hits you know it's a groover. "Shotgun" is actually a dance and it's hard not to be compelled to dance to this thing.

I want to apologize for the lazy posting over the weekend. I was busier than I had expected. My brain tends to get messy. Speaking of messy brains, Courtney Barnett, from Melbourne, Australia, apparently has one too. She even wrote a song about it. “Avant- Gardener” is an autobiographical anecdote about her taking up gardening and attempting to revive her ambition only to be met with catastrophe. She wakes up lazy on a Monday not wanting to do anything and describes it sarcastically, “ It’s a Monday, it’s so mundane, what exciting things will happen today ”. She decides that taking up gardening and growing vegetables would be a good idea. I always enjoyed her wordplay of this idea; “ I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps. Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes ." Things are going good. She’s feeling “proactive”. But suddenly she can’t breathe. It’s not exactly clear why she all of a sudden is having trouble breathing. Some people speculate that it was an anxie...

I'm not going to lie. Dallas is playing Oakland right now and it's a pretty killer game. I also have to get up for work pretty early. Sooooo, here's one of my favorite Allah Lah's songs from their self-titled album. I remember listening to it while checking out the Tucson, Arizona mountains as the sun was setting. My buddy and co-worker Andrew and I drove around the mountain and blasted this song.  This music is made for traveling. Also, they are great live.

I was absolutely addicted to this song when I first heard it. I still am honestly. True Widow is a stoner/shoegaze rock trio from Dallas, Texas. Their music is in the same vein of “doom metal” and sound pretty similar to Windhand, but they are a little more tame. The guitars are still dark and thick, but their presence isn’t as prevalent. There are two lead vocalists that switch off on certain songs; male vocalist and guitarist Dan Phillip and female vocalist and bassist Nicole Estill. They are backed by Timothy Starks on drums. For just three members they put out quite a sound. “Four Teeth” is an absolutely ear tugging song. The guitar riff that opens this thing and plays out through the song is absolutely addictive. Nicole’s vocals are clean and pure and contrast well with the  low end tones of the bass and guitar. Give it a listen. I promise you’ll want more. And if it hit you like it did me...you’ll have it on repeat.

Parquet Courts are a bunch of lovable slackers. Hailing from New York City, the group is known for writing unkempt, punky jams. Their sound is sloppy at times and their lyrics juvenile and humorous. However, Parquet Courts are incredibly intelligent...and write some damn good music.  "N. Dakota" is a perfect example of what Parquet Courts are all about. It's a short little tune, with one of the coolest bass lines I've ever heard, about what seems to be disdain for the state of North Dakota.

Genre assigning can be pretty confusing sometimes. Every foundational genre of music has a myriad of "sub-genres". Sometimes it can become a bit overwhelming due to the sheer amount of them that exist. One in particular that I find myself scratching my head at is the genre of metal: doom metal, death metal, black metal, heavy metal, thrash metal, grindcore, industrial... the list goes on. Each one of these sub-genres has their own list of descriptions: hard, dark, heavy, gloomy, evil, sad, etc. Sometimes these genres start overlapping and can bleed into one another making them even harder to distinguish. A great example of this is a band called Windhand. They are classified as a "doom-metal" band. At first I wasn't really hearing  the "doom" in their music. It sounded more like a psychedelic, post-rock act than it did "doom". However, upon further listening I started to see why they are indeed a "doom metal" band. The guitars ...

I’m very tired. Work has been pretty gnarly this week. So I figured I throw up one of my favorite Beatles songs... which happens to be about being tired. What's interesting is that this song is actually about John Lennon suffering from insomnia during a three week stay in Rishikesh, India.The band had apparently traveled there to study meditation. While there Lennon was apart from his dearest Yoko Ono and had been missing her, which is evident in the song; " my mind is set on you ". Lennon continues to sum up the sleepless experience in many clever ways: racing thoughts and a tireless brain, wondering what he would say to the one he admired if he could speak to her, and temporary pleasures such as tobacco and alcohol that may take the edge off. What's even more interesting is the very end of the song, which features an indistinguishable mumbled bit of dialogue. The section puzzled people and even sprouted a conspiracy theory. People have played the part backwa...