2013 So Far (In A Playlist)

My blog is now in its third year of posting the music that’s grabbed me the most, floated my boat, captured my heart during the first six months of the year, in a historically strict twenty-five tracks. (I fully expect the person who first made me think of doing this will, as usual, come up with a far superior list).

You can play my 2013 tracks so far via YouTube or Spotify.

1. Mount Kimbie – Made To Stray
2. Daft Punk – Lose Yourself To Dance
3. John Grant – GMF
4. Kurt Vile – Was All Talk
5. Public Service Broadcasting – ROYGBIV
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair
7. Daughter – Youth
8. Suede – It Starts And Ends With You
9. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
10. Boards Of Canada – Reach For The Dead
11. Haim – Falling
12. David Bowie – Where Are We Now?
13. Wolf Alice – Bros
14. Darwin Deez – You Can’t Be My Girl
15. Disclosure – Latch
16. Local Natives – Wooly Mammoth
17. Villagers – Passing A Message
18. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Mermaids
19. Jessie Ware – Imagine It Was Us
20. Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool
21. Fuck Buttons – The Red Wing
22. Gaz Coombes Presents – One Of These Days
23. Foals – My Number
24. Kelis – Jerk Ribs
25. Queens Of The Stone Age – I Sat By The Ocean

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Marylebone and Eton Mess

I won’t name the person in question as she’s far too modest and wrinkles her nose up at praise. Pay her a compliment and she accepts gracefully but always adds “funny how people see you isn’t it?”. I’ll leave it up to her if she wants to share this post. Today is her birthday and well, she’s truly been a bloody brilliant friend to me the past year.

She’s helped me move house on a Monday night straight from work, carrying boxes and boxes of books to the top floor of my building. Shared many a glass of wine and gin. Shared some special gigs. Reminded me I’m well loved during tough times. I remember a particularly low day last July she sat opposite me in a pub in Marylebone. Her expressions a complete mirror of my own, she was genuinely as upset as I was.  To me that’s a dear friend, someone whose very expressions show they’re going through it with you. She’s an amazing person.

So, this mixtape is for her, you can play it on Spotify or YouTube.

Happy Birthday and I’ll see you later so you can blow out the candles on your Eton Mess. ♥

1. Bonobo Feat. Andreya Triana – Stay The Same
2. The Knife – Heartbeats
3. Zulu Winter – You Deserve Better
4. Jessie Ware – Taking In Water
5. Polica – Lay Your Cards Out
6. How To Dress Well – & It Was U
7. Daft Punk – Get Lucky
8. Kindness – Swingin’ Party
9. Chromatics – Kill For Love
10. SBTRKT – Pharaohs

A Happy Easter Glastonbury Mixtape

I never sleep well during a full moon. So if you add that to Tinnitus playing its wicked part in a lack of a peaceful nights sleep regardless of the lunar cycle, this week has been restless. At some point around 4am Wednesday morning I started trying to compile an Easter mixtape but all that kept popping into my head was songs from Jesus Christ Superstar and Blue’s All Rise (blame a catholic upbringing and drinking a lot of cider in a town that loved pop, tacky boy bands and R&B). Despite the fact that the mere mention of these songs runs the risk of creating unwanted earworms to anyone foolish enough to be reading I didn’t want to actually put you through hearing them.

Last night as I was sat sinking pints listening to my male colleagues talk golf and scrolling through my phone the Glastonbury line up was partly announced (I know there’s more to come because Thom Yorke in some guise wasn’t listed so I am still hopeful for John Grant and Yeah Yeah Yeahs in my wildest dreams). So instead of Easter this mixtape is based on those first knee jerk excitements as I glanced through the stages. I can smell the petrichor, sloe gin in hip flasks and the mud already.

You can play this on either YouTube or Spotify. Have a very merry Easter. ♥

1. Phoenix – Girlfriend
2. Tom Tom Club – Wordy Rappinghood
3. Solange – Losing You
4. Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
5. Foals – Milk & Black Spiders
6. The Rolling Stones -Ruby Tuesday
7. Devendra Banhart – Can’t Help But Smiling
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Nobody’s Baby Now
9. Nas – The Message
10. The Horrors – Still Life
11. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
12. Haim – Falling
13. Local Natives – Breakers
14. Rodriguez – Inner City Blues
15. Peace – Bloodshake

The Letter ‘Z’ Mixtape.

The amount of time it’s taken me to get round to the final letter of this self-imposed alphabet playlist challenge is living proof that I have found myself in a job where I have a severe, and saddening, lack of time to fart around on the internet. Oh to be a grown up.

But finally it is here. The letter Z. From Zoe to Zola Jesus, and Zulu Winter to ZZ Top. It has been a pleasure trotting through the alphabet musically for you all. I hope you’ve enjoyed at least some of the tunes.

Now onto the next mixtape challenge… coming soon.

You can play my letter Z mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Zulu Winter – Silver Tongue
2. Zebra – Right Here, Right Now
3. The Zutons – You Will You Won’t
4. ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’
5. The Zombies – She’s Not There
6. Zola Jesus – Night
7. Zoe – Sunshine On A Rainy Day
8. Zero 7 – Destiny

The Letter ‘Y’ Mixtape.

The penultimate letter of my alphabet playlists features one of my favourite bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I had to resist the temptation to only list tracks of theirs. From French electro pop to sixties legends. Part of me wishes this alphabetical challenge was ending here as Yazoo feels like one of those songs you walk away to, or from, if your life was a film.

You can play my letter Y mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People
2. The Young Knives – Weekends and Bleak Days
3. Young Rebel Set – Red Bricks
4. The Yardbirds – For Your Love
5. Yo La Tengo – Is That Enough
6. Yeasayer – O.N.E
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Pin
8. You Say Party! We Say Die!
9. Yelle  – Que Veux-Tu (Madeon Remix)
10. Yazoo – Only You

The Letter ‘X’ Mixtape.

With the best intentions I thought I’d get through the entire alphabet in playlists last year but I failed with only three letters to go. Frankly, I’ve run out of steam and enlisted the help of Gareth and Matthew as X and Z are proving tricky. Thanks to them I am pushing on to finally complete this.

If you listen to the entire playlist IOU some sweets and/or booze. I can’t stand X-Press 2 but I was determined to get to 10 tracks and was willing to select this based on David Byrne featuring on it. Likewise I’ve never found my way in to The XX but I loved Angels from last year.

You can play my letter X mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. The XX – Angels
2. XTC – Making Plans For Nigel
3. Xpansions – Move Your Body
4. X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
5. XXXY – Ordinary Things
6. Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. The Xcerts – Aberdeen 1987
8. X – Soul Kitchen
9. Xzibit and Snoop Dogg – Bitch Please
10. X-Press 2 feat. David Byrne – Lazy

Twitter presents The National

I found myself sitting very still at my desk this morning, certain that any sudden movement would send me spiralling into an exhaustion pit. Last night I went to see the Oh Land gig at Heaven (make your own heaven and earth pun, I can’t be assed) and done a lot of accidental wine drinking in plastic cups. She covered The National’s *Bloodbuzz Ohio in her set and gig companion Jo & I both conceded they were a band we knew little of and should probably rectify that given her rendition.

I send many annoying pleas for help on Twitter. Some get little response (who should I call about the dead cat I found on the pavement got two) and some get more responses than I can keep up with (asking if anyone could make me an edible Morrissey cake topper is still ongoing). During my “sit very still in case you wake the hangover” morning I asked what tracks by The National I should listen to and lovely Twitter responded.

That my friends is what an artist doing a cover version and social media can lead to. An introduction to a band you are falling for hard. Like the first time you saw River Phoenix in Running on Empty and thought “hang on a minute”.

The suggestions above were provided to me by @goodstufftom @georgiamof @tomwaitsripoff @theboycarve @hcarrowsmith @Goingundrground and another man I know (IRL) called Gareth (so huge thank you to you all). It resulted in me doing little work and the following playlist which you can listen to on Spotify. Twitters introduction to The National. Enjoy. ♥

*I didn’t know this was the track name, I just assured Jo I’d remember the “money to the money I owe” part of the song. Then we ran into McDonald’s for a wee and got talked at by a lively motormouth of a girl from Wolverhampton who told us the name of the track. Then we got on the tube. Went home to bed. The end.