I’m coming home! Back to the land of the free. Back to San Diego. But not without a stop in Nashville, maybe Birmingham and maaybe even Atlanta first to have a proper American welcome.

If I were to properly describe how excited I am, I would likely just start laughing, because the only way all this residual happiness is going to get out of my system, it’ll be through my own teeth.

That being said, I most likely won’t be able to properly tend to all of you, but fear not- there is no shortage of cool shit coming up. But to hold you over for now, I’ve put together a mini mix.

I hope you enjoy, and thank you so kindly for keeping up with me. I’ll be checking out some pretty incredible shows that I’d love to brag about to you, very soon. But before that, I need to take the trip to end all trips, what could be better than Nashville? Other than Buffalo, now thats a city.

.

affectionately yours (forever and ever, amen)

Nada.

TRACKLIST

Directed by Shannyn Sossaman. That’s all.

yesyesyesyesyes.

Deerhunter – Helicopter (Diplo & Lunice Remix) from The KiD on Vimeo.

Seems everyone is going nuts over two new released tracks from Lykke Li, I’ll throw myself in that category. I love this girl for so many reasons- most of them being because she’s involved in Invisible Children’s La Blogotheque music documentary. The doc will also feature Yeasayer and Polyphonic Spree as they travel to Uganda and meet music with humanity. It’s going to be pretty powerful. Check out her new tunes, I’m really into Paris Blue, because there is a tender femininity to it- a fear that she’s not good enough, which reminds me of the book Lolita, a young girl entirely unaware of the fierce power she possesses.

Lykke Li- Get Some

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Lykke Li- Paris Blue

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I recently mentioned the kick ass music festival presented by Sezio called Four Day Weekend, so I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve all purchased your tickets. If not, stop right here and do that. I’m particularly excited about Lefse artists Dominant Legs, (Ryan Lynch of Girls and Hannah Hunt). I fucking loved their EP ‘Young At Life and Love’ for it’s summer-infused harmonies and soft keys. They play these gauzy nostalgic songs that are sentimental and naive, something I can relate to.

They’re being paired up with San Diego band Writer, who are one of my favorite SD acts. Writer play in the key of of all my highschool records, the adolescent emotion of a quivering voice, but with a steady folk rhythm with that piercing percussion and all the words sounded-out, as if they were speaking. This is going to be one of my favorite shows of the 4-day weekend, as a prelude to the next day’s Dodos show, I’m going to lose my mind. It’s going to be historical. See you there.

Dominant Legs- Young at Life and Love

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Writer- Anymore

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November 2nd I will be sitting on someone’s couch, somewhere in San Diego, for the first time in months. Where it all began. It’s going to feel like the beginning, it’s going to feel like home. November 2nd is also the release date for the latest record from Faces on Film called ‘Some Weather’. Faces on Film have been accidentally immortalized on this blog, because their song lyrics are the namesake of it. When I launched this blog last summer (really? feels like forever ago) I was thinking up names right around the time I discovered a record called ‘The Troubles’ and a few days later went to a show at the Horseshoe and it was like, ‘I got it!’. So I will always share a certain kinship to this band, and I’m so glad it’s them and no other music I might have picked on a whim. Their lyrics read like poetry, and Mike Fiore’s voice is something of a great comfort to me. I will never forget last summer, and how it felt to drive around with my best friend Andrea dreaming up things that wouldn’t happen, thinking very hopeful that they would, speaking with real words about real things.

If you haven’t heard their record ‘The Troubles’ please do that, it’ll only serve you as required listening for their beautiful new record ‘Some Weather’. The Troubles felt more anxious, darker. But ‘Some Weather’ lays on it’s back, breathes deep. In ‘A Hunderd On the Hill’ he sings, “and I know that the wishes hidden in her lungs/Are the same ones people speak/So she comes down slow/And I give her my eyes and teeth” and I’m just imagining the gravity of this moment, and what this could mean. The comfort of an equally frightened boy from the valley to the hill of where she is. One of my favorite tracks is called ‘Under Newry’, it brings me back to ‘Indicator, Indicator’- the minimalism. It’s a love song not required to take you further than a minute and a half, it’s abrupt like the lyrics, a few lines, “and you tell me not to leave, under you, again, Newry Newry”. I’m really excited to just sit with this record for a while and extract some feeling from it, in a very full-circle kind of way.

If my blog’s name weren’t a testament enough, I encourage you to grab this record.

Faces on Film- Under Newry

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Faces on Film- Garrison

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My buddy Brandon sent over this video for Mount Kimbie. I couldn’t stop watching it but I couldn’t decide whether it was sweet, a parody, or really cheesy. Maybe it is everything, at once. Thanks Brandon.

Oh and ps- there’s a little film festival in San Diego called Frightstorm, Brandon made a film, it’ll likely win, I’m in the flyer as an honorary part of it. My friends are the very best. Check out past videos they made (and won) last year, here.

Mount Kimbie “Would Know” ((OFFICIAL VIDEO)) from Mount Kimbie on Vimeo.

My buddies over at Tome The Weather Machine and Speaker Snacks and Analog Space put together a pretty awesome compilation featuring a bunch of Denver artists in support of their Vodoo Halloween Ball on Oct. 3oth. The lineup is stupid good, so if you’re in the Denver area, you really need to check it out. If not, you can always download the mix and live vicariously.

Tracklist

1. Nite Chimes For Lucid Lovers — Cory Brown & Brittany Gould
2. Running — Modern Witch
3. Fantasy Cloak — Hideous Men
4. Magnet Flow — Hollagramz
5. Airport — c.db.sn
6. Apple Trees — FLASHLIGHTS
7. Make It Funky — Peddahblak
8. Balance — Woodsman
9. All Eyes — Gauntlet Hair
10. Welcome To Your Doom — St. Elias

Click to download Denver Afterdark

Gauntlet Hair- All Eyes

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Woodsman- Balance

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album artwork: Noah Smith // Hard Mixx

ARMS is one of those bands that immediately takes me to a space, let’s call this space April, San Diego river- a turqoise bike, and my legs turning pedals at a remarkable rate downhill. Flying. I remember first listening to ARMS here, in this place. But like all things, I moved physically, geographically, chronologically away from this space. When I hear Todd Goldsteins smooth vocals over plucked guitar strings I can smell it all again, that river. When Todd sings, it’s as if every word were deliberate. In his song, ‘Heat and Hot Water’ he begins with, “dark never came and we spoke in the sand till we ran out of things to say” making us remember when words ran their course and that was perfectly fine. All we have left is the warm body next to us and sky above. For someone who can write a pop song like Todd, I was pretty interested to see where he gets his inspiration from, and it’s exactly what I’d hoped- entirely unexpected. It also lays my hypothesis to rest, that Todd is really fucking cool. You guys need to download this mix if ONLY to get that Baths song, I think I’ve listened to it at least ten times today. Thanks Todd!

Tracklist Continue Reading »

Further proof that Feist is way too fucking cool.