My Summer Pop mixes soldier on! From Paul Weller’s city snapshots to Woody Guthrie’s California skies as sung by Jeff Tweedy, this batch is characterized by a surprising number of 90′s entries. But they are surely balanced out by cuts both as nouveau as Sleigh Bells and as retreau as Cat Stevens! Plus… “Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes. Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same!”
(Playlist after the fold)
O’Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #9
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For those of you who enjoyed April’s “Jazz & Soul on Outerspace Parole” Mix. This is, in many ways, the sequel but with a refined focus on electronic jazz and instrumental hip-hop. The title is a reference to a scene in my favorite movie of the last decade, 2046. And the mix ends with a classic off of DJ Shadow‘s Endtroducing, the 90′s masterpiece that turned me on to these very subgenres and directions in music. More Summer Pop next week…
(Playlist after the fold.)
2Bougie2Strong Mix #7 – “Tree Secrets & Android Gentures”
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“Anthony walked to his death because he thought he’d never feel this way again,” begins the Belle & Sebastian opener to my first Summer Pop mix of the season, and it’s a strangely accurate warning of what lies ahead. As always I’ve picked tracks that are hummable, catchy and eclectic, but as I was building the mix an unintentionally dark and even morbid lyrical undercurrent began to appear. I mean, I’ve always thought “Girlfriend in a Coma” was a brilliantly bilious and simultaneously syrupy little ditty, but who knew featuring it in a mix would infect the whole batch?
And then, on top of my mix accidentally morphing into an fun, upbeat, and occasionally danceable downer, somehow two killer latin breakdowns snuck over the border and winded up in Summer Pop-land as well. Who knows? Chalk it up to my personal hydrant-flood of anti-Arizona 1070 sentiment I guess…
…Plus it’s got my all-time favorite Sleater-Kinney song.
Enjoy!
(Playlist is after the fold.)
O’ Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #7
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For the one-year anniversary of the Mixtape Friday series we’re going back to basics: great songs in the verse-chorus-verse mode by rock outfits and singer-songwriter types.
Much like my first posted O’Pinionated Mix “Lost Verses” and July’s “Lost Causes”, the songs are a combination of classic favorites by folks like Tom Waits and R.E.M. as well as recent discoveries, like Port O’Brien and Boston’s own Hallelujah The Hills (whose Colonial Drones was my favorite rock album of last year). Enjoy…
(Playlist is below the fold.)
O’Pinionated Mix #9 – “Neverending Math Equation”
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For the return of Mixtape Fridays, I have let the jazz and soul masters take command and guide us into the spring. It takes several tangents (many of them African), includes a track Nas did with his father, a Sade song off my favorite new album of 2010, and opens with a great Nina Simone remix, that feels, at times, as much like an argument as it does a recording. Dig it.
(Playlist is below the fold.)
2Bougie2Strong Mix#6 – “Jazz & Soul on Outerspace Parole”
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Did I hear you say, “All I want for Christmas is electronic funk and jazz?” Well, good. ‘Cause I’m gonna stuff your stocking as full as I would if it were Kilted-Yak-Eve!
Check out the first track (a spanking-new cover, just out this week) and it should give you a sense of whether or not you’re in the mood for the retro-outerspace-vibe that today’s mix is clocking. The title comes from the Tom Petty tune Spike. As always, right-click to download or play and Playlist is after the fold.
O’Pinionated Mix – “Future Ain’t What It Used To Be”
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Yes. I know it’s a Summer Pop Mix in December. But it’s a testimony to my belief in the longevity of the latest installment of tunes. Don’t you want a little Pop in your life in the dead of winter?
I know I do. (Playlist is below the fold.)
O’Pinionated Mix – Summer Pop #6
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Half as many songs as usual today.
But that’s only because these are twice as long.
Some epic-novel-type-slow-build cuts. (Playlist after the fold.)
O’Pinionated Mix #7 – “Stars Are Projectors”
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