Posts Tagged ‘ music ’

drake – more life and clarks collab

drakemorelife

drake’s long anticipated more life dropped on saturday night.   i just read it broke the 24 hour streaming record with 89.9 million streams.  wow.  that’s insane.  i’m about 4 full spins through and i really really like it.  on a scale of 1 to take care, it feels like a solid 8 right now, but that rating could go up with each listen.  there’s a lot going on in this record.  it’s going to take some time to truly dissect it.  with that in mind, stand out tracks to me are: “passionfruit”, “portland”, and “ice melts.”  that should give you a nice start for your spring break playlist.

in other drake news (and also on saturday night), he posted an instagram picture of some custom made ovo clarks desert boots.  hmm.  very interesting.  is there an ovo / clarks collaboration on the way?  i’m not a hypebeast by any means, but i do love me some clarks.

ovoclarks1

48 hours in nashville

nashville1

full disclosure: i’ve lived in nashville my whole life, so this 48 hours is not necessarily how i would do a weekend in nashville, but i’m happy with it.  maybe there will be a part 2 in the future.  i like that idea.

we had a guest in town this past weekend and we did our best to cover as much ground as humanly possible in 2 days.  many drinks were consumed and many ubers were taken.  i’m still tired…and full.

somewhere over the last 4 years nashville became the “it”city which means every single person in the entire world wants to be here on the weekends.  it’s insane.  the airport on friday afternoons looks like a la guardia or lax except it’s full of bachelorette parties and bros in flat brimmed hats looking to get absolutely obliterated on broadway.  honestly, if i didn’t live here and visited for a weekend, i wouldn’t want to leave.  it’s an amazing city.   Continue reading

required listening: t. rex electric warrior

trex

you know the song “bang a gong (get it on)?”  yeah, you do.  you’ve heard it every time there’s been a trailer for a movie about a 1970’s football or basketball team.  it would be hard not to put said song in said trailer because it sounds like the 70’s.  and if you knew nothing about t. rex and marc bolan, it would be easy to write off t. rex as some sort of gimmicky music from a forgotten era, but that’s not the case.

i bought electric warrior after hearing “jeepster” in tarantino’s movie death proof.  tarantino knows his music.  i figured if we was down with t. rex, then i should be too.  i had low expectations.  i’ve never liked the music of the 70’s or glam rock.  man was i wrong.

electric warrior gets better every time i throw it on the record player or in my car.  it’s full of catchy guitar hooks and trippy lyrics.  there’s a depth to this record – a feel to it – that’s hard to describe.  here’s a good analogy: have you ever had a sip of a stiegl beer on a spring day?  well, it sounds like that beer tastes (if that makes sense).  it’s party music for people that like to wear their sunglasses inside.  normally, i would call those folks assholes, but if t. rex was on, i would call them the coolest people in the room.

still not sold?  check out these jamz and get back to me: “mambo sun,” “cosmic dancer,” “jeepster,” “life’s a gas,” and “the motivator.”  if you don’t feel like you’re flying after listening to those songs, then i can’t help you.  electric warrior is this month’s required listening.  recommended on vinyl.  the ladies will love it.

chris stapleton and justin timberlake at the cmas

unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock the past week, then you’ve probably seen this video of chris stapleton and justin timberlake performing at the cmas.  if you haven’t seen it, then turn up your speakers and prepare to have your face melted.  i can’t stop watching it.  it brings a smile to my face.

i was in the audience last wednesday night.  it brought the house down.  it’s one of those things i won’t forget for the rest of my life.  i was lucky enough to hear chris stapleton back in the early 2000s when i worked in the a&r department at sony nashville.  i heard him sing through the walls and later told my boss that that was the best singing i had ever heard.  my boss replied, “yeah, he’s the greatest singer i’ve ever heard too, but he doesn’t want to be an artist.”

i’m glad he changed his mind.  he’s been one of nashville’s best kept secrets for a long time now.  i don’t think there was a person in that room last week that wasn’t pulling for him.  he’s worked his ass off and deserves every bit of success that’s coming his way.   i like seeing good things happen to good people.  now go buy traveller.

traveller

ue mini boom bluetooth speaker

ueminiboom

i feel like i’m always apologizing for not blogging in a while, so i’m not going to do that tonight.  it’s been a crazy spring and summer.  i’m hoping to get back on my grind for the rest of the year.  thumbs up.

tonight i’m going to recommend my new favorite purchase which has nothing to do with shoes or jackets or clothes or whatever.  i’ve been on the search for the perfect portable bluetooth speaker for the a couple of months now.  i patrolled amazon’s list of best sellers, bought a few, hated them and then took it back to the internet for more research.  the one i’ve landed on that destroys all other bluetooth speakers in its class is the ue mini boom that you see above.  it packs a punch.  i don’t know the technical aspects of this product and i honestly don’t really care.  just know that it plays music loud for its size.  it’s also around $100 which is how much you should be spending on an audio product of this size.  (you get what you pay for when go cheap.  trust me.)  you can get your very own right here.  you will love it.

 

you may have missed: the exploding hearts

guitarromantic2 copy

i remember the phone call like it was yesterday.  a friend of mine called me back in 2003 and said, “dude, you’ve gotta check out this band the exploding hearts.  you’re going to love them.  they’re right up your alley.”  he described them as sounding like the clash.  i f**king love the clash, so i drove to tower records during my lunch break and bought guitar romantic.  he wasn’t wrong.  i love everything about this album: the cover art, the attitude, the melodies, the jangling guitars.  it was the record i’d been waiting for since i first discovered punk rock in 8th grade.  the best part was that at this point in time they were my little secret.  the internet was in its infancy stages as far as discovering new music was concerned i.e. i still relied on word of mouth for new bands in the early 2000s.  i was going to spend the next several weeks telling everybody about the exploding hearts, but 3 months later their budding career came to an end when their bus ran off the road, flipped over and killed 3 out of 4 members of the band.  that was the end of the exploding hearts.  i go back to guitar romantic every couple of months.  it’s a short record – 10 songs that average about 2.5 minutes each.  you can listen to it over and over and hear things you missed on the last listen.  it’s a classic and one you should have in your library.

explodinghearts

current listening: michael kiwanuka

there’s a lot of good new music out right now (e.g. frank ocean, gaslight anthem, dirty projectors), but i can’t turn off michael kiwanuka’s debut album home again.  kiwanuka cut his teeth as a london based session player before stepping out as a solo artist late last year.  home again is a stripped down, raw record of throwback 60’s / 70’s soul.  i tend to stay away from records you can buy at the starbucks counter, but kiwanuka is special.  be sure to check out “tell me a tale”, “i’m getting ready,” and the dan auerbach collaboration “lasan.”

early takes: volume 1

you may have noticed i haven’t been posting a lot lately.  without getting into too much detail, let me just say that the last two months have been a complete whirlwind for me.  i’ve been emotionally drained and had little to no energy to focus on anything besides work.  i hate to be vague, but i don’t think anyone comes to this blog to hear about my feelings.

one of the things that’s helped me get through this difficult time is music.  at the beginning of may, a collection of george harrison demos called early takes: volume 1 was released.  i tend to be skeptical of most demos, but i heard the stripped down version of “all things must pass” on some music blog and ended up downloading the whole album (which unfortunately is just 10 songs).  it’s phenomenal and all i’ve listed to for the past month.  if you’re a song at a time kind of a person, be sure to download “all things must pass”, “mama you’ve been on my mind”, “awaiting on you all”, and “run of the mill.”  actually, just download the whole damn thing.  it’s 10 bucks.  you can afford it.

recommended christmas listening

it’s december 20th.  i’m 20 days late on my christmas music recommendation.  it’s my fault.  i was hesitant to download a very she & him christmas, because i didn’t want it to be bad and ruin the massive christmas crush i’ve had on zooey deschanel since she sang “baby, it’s cold outside” in elf.  i’m glad i finally got around to it.  a very she & him christmas is a nice, refreshing change of pace to the traditional christmas music we’re accustomed to hearing this season.  the vibe is very 1960s california.  i dig it.  i think you will too.  download it on itunes today and enjoy it for the next 5 days.

required listening

let me start this required listening post by saying i don’t know anything about jazz music.  with that said, there are a few jazz albums music fans must include in their collection like kind of blue, bitches brew, ellinton at newport, and the cover you see above getz / gilberto.  the album kicks off with the well known “girl from ipanema” and moves through 9 more jazz bossa nova tracks that are sure to cool you off during the long, hot days of summer.  when you listen to it for the first time, you’re sure you’ve heard the music before – it’s some of the most recognizable music ever created.  i got into a friend’s car last week and knew we were listening to getz / gilberto in about 5 seconds.  it was also the first jazz album to win the grammy for album of the year in 1965.  if you’re looking for a change of pace to all that indie rock you listen to on a regular basis, then go buy this album.  if you don’t like, i’ll consider reimbursing you for it.  

the team behind getz / gilberto.  stan getz is the first one on the left and joao gilberto is standing next to his wife astrud gilberto who sings vocals on “girl from ipanema.”