Saturday, May 30, 2009

the damage is done

from the road:

i promised myself i'd leave the blog alone while on vacation, but i was at a cubs home game yesterday and it made me think of long-time nashville indie pop band the features.

like the cubs, the features have a loyal fan base seemingly willing to follow them to the gates of hell. they are also perpetual underdogs who occasionally eek out some well-deserved recognition outside of nashville before their own curse of the billy goat pulls them back. this isn't to say that the features have failed at anything. it's just that, like cubbie fans, features fans are always hoping the band will get what they deserve and we're rarely satisfied with their luck. and just like any self-respecting cubs fan, we're passionate. we want to tell the world all about nashville's most beloved local band.

which leads me to the point: brett white has taken it upon himself to catalogue every features song known to man in a new blog called the damage is done. brett has been a fan of the band for many years. as far as i can tell, ever since he moved to nyc he has been preaching the gospel of the features far and wide across the 7 boroughs and beyond. a couple years ago he put together an extensive compilation of features rarities for me with even more extensive notes - take it from me, brett knows what he's talking about.

so bookmark the damage is done, stop by often to learn everything there is to know about the features, and feel free to drop brett a note with suggestions and interesting factoids.

by the way, the cubs beat the dodgers 2-1 yesterday, so there's still hope for all the underdogs out there.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

dark night of the soul


in case you didn't already know, danger mouse and sparklehorse put their heads together and made one of the best albums of 2009. it's called dark night of the soul. like its very distant stepcousin dark was the night (no real relation), this album features an array of contributing artists. david lynch is responsible for the album art and participates on a couple tracks. i'm bound to bring some bias to the table since i'm a big fan of danger mouse, sparklehorse, david lynch, and nearly every artist on dark night of the soul. but this is a great album.

due to problems between danger mouse and emi, the music is not for sale. it is available for download if you can find it and you can visit the dark night of the soul website to support the artists by purchasing artwork and a blank cd. you can also stream the album for a limited time on npr music.

check out david lynch's artsy page here.

here's the track list with handy wikipedia links:
  1. "Revenge" (featuring The Flaming Lips) – 4:52
  2. "Just War" (featuring Gruff Rhys) – 3:44
  3. "Jaykub" (featuring Jason Lytle) – 3:52
  4. "Little Girl" (featuring Julian Casablancas) – 4:33
  5. "Angel's Harp" (featuring Black Francis) – 2:57
  6. "Pain" (featuring Iggy Pop) – 2:49
  7. "Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It)" (featuring David Lynch) – 3:10
  8. "Everytime I'm With You" (featuring Jason Lytle) – 3:09
  9. "Insane Lullaby" (featuring James Mercer) – 3:12
  10. "Daddy's Gone" (featuring Mark Linkous and Nina Persson) – 3:09
  11. "The Man Who Played God" (featuring Suzanne Vega) – 3:09
  12. "Grim Augury" (featuring Vic Chesnutt) – 2:32
  13. "Dark Night of the Soul" (featuring David Lynch) – 4:38

Saturday, May 16, 2009

show #49 playlist

and here's the playlist:

doves - firesuite
papercuts - future primitive
the asteroid no. 4 - these flowers are ours
you la tengo - the race is on again
doves - compulsion
the good, the bad, and the queen - northern whale
grizzly bear - cheerleader
the botticellis - table by the window
grandaddy - laughing stock
dan auerbach - i want some more
elbow - i've got your number
the beta band - assessment

the second hour of the show is mostly random stuff culled from the studio's collection, so you'll have to find the playlist on wrvu.org if you're interested.

see you again saturday, june 6 at 10am. the show's audio archive (the "listen to the show" icon at the top of the site) should work by then.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

sorry, we've moved

nashville mixtapes is moving and it looks like it's going to be one of those oops-i-forgot-to-bring-my-toolbox kind of moves. here's what's going down:

1) the show will now be on the air every saturday from 10am-12pm. it all begins this weekend and will run until mid/late august.

2) the show will immediately take a vacation from may 17 - june 5, but should be back in full swing on june 6. this also means the site will pretty much be stagnant for a couple weeks. hopefully things will pick up nicely (and the site will have a different look) when i get back.

3) your listening experience will change somewhat. because of internal changes at the studio that are too dull to go into here, nashville mixtapes will be even more mixtape-y (100% what i want to play) during the first hour and far less mixtape-y (random stuff from the wrvu vaults) during the second hour. if you've followed the show for a while this means it'll be similar to last summer.

4) the online audio archive will not work until the june 6 show, so i'll try to put up a good mixtape on the site before i disappear for a few weeks.

pretty sure that's it. see you saturday.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

show #48 playlist

check back here in a few days to see if/when the show will exist this summer...

here's tonight's greatest-hits-and-some-new-ones playlist:

love - 7 and 7 is
the animals - i'm crying
? & the mysterians - ten o'clock
the electric prunes - train for tomorrow
elvis presley - crawfish
cotton jones - blood red sentimental blues
deer tick - baltimore blues no. 1
grizzy bear - cheerleader
fleet foxes - white winter hymnal
the botticellis - table by the window
doves - spellbound
david bowie - black country rock
the monks - i hate you
pixies - bone machine
the amps - tipp city
them - bring em on in

Friday, May 8, 2009

birthday show

nashville mixtapes turns 1 this sunday! to celebrate, i think i'll play my favorite segments from the past 52 weeks. not sure if anybody has a request out there in internetsland, but feel free to email me if you do.

if you miss the live broadcast or you don't live in nashville, just access the weekly archive here. i've been meaning to ask the studio's tech guy if he'll create a running archive that lasts beyond a week, so look out for that down the road.

also, this may be the last time you'll find the show on sundays at 7pm for a while - the new schedule should be up sometime next week. the twitters and nashvillemixtapes.com are the best places to find out about schedule changes and to keep up with things throughout the summer.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

more doves stuff


my obsessive doves-related blog posts will end at some point, i promise. bear in mind, it's been 4 years since their previous release and i'm going to see them in a month... it'll all subside soon enough.

but maybe you're a hardcore fan like me in which case you should visit this doves fan site and follow the band as they conquer the world in 2009. the curators do a much better job than i could with tons of interviews, downloads, lists of bootlegs, frequent tour updates, videos like this, etc. and now that you know where to go to find out more about doves, i can stop talking about them all the time.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

feel good downloads

now you can download music AND support your local record store at the same time. grimey's now has a presence on thinkindie.com, so bookmark it and visit often. also, keep an eye out for the occasional freebie.