Mixtape 321 • While My Machines Gently Weep
Death In Vegas means many things to many people, but in this case it means a form of audio pummeling.
Death In Vegas means many things to many people, but in this case it means a form of audio pummeling.
Guiding you to uncharted peaks of happiness, here is Mt. Joy.
The tang of fall is in the air, though the days are dressed for summer. I missed Frankie and the Witch Fingers when they were in town a couple of months ago due to work travel, and I was supremely bummed, as their particular take on electropunk is right in my wheelhouse. Tonight’s selection is a weird little experimental number from their latest release, which I highly recommend.
They said it was difficult terrain to traverse, but that never stopped Forth Wanderers from blazing a path.
The aleatory nature of playlist selection for The Lacking Organization means all-instrumental sets are rare, so having two in one show definitely merits a mention in the show notes. Tonight’s highlight is Mac DeMarco, whose new album provides the perfect soundtrack for this particularly floaty stage of summer.
Peach season is hot and heavy here in the Grand Valley, but I have yet to reach peach oversaturation. Give them to me in anything and everything, sure, I’ll try it. A special selection tonight in the form of The Beat, a one-hour set of music self-referentially dedicated to its own rhythmic components, after which things took their usual turn for the weird.
Omni unites their sound with the thinnest of guitar strings and rhythms of utmost precision.
Khruangbin promises exotic destinations and luxurious accommodations in the distant hum of a prop engine.
It was a globe-spanning show, with listeners checking in from the Grand Valley, the Florida swamps, and as far as Japan, where it was already Wednesday lunchtime. Meanwhile, The Libertines are up to their old antics again, at least the ones where they sound like a recently unfrozen cadre of British Invasion troglodytes. Also fun: playing a track called “We Will Not Apologize” and following that up with “Stop Apologizing”. Sounds about right.
When you set out to record a song that’s been famous, or popular, or claimed in some other way by some other artist, you are taking a shortcut with great risks and great rewards. Rarely can you pull it off the way Chicks On Speed do with their rendition of Cracker’s “Euro Trash Girl,” with a radical approach to deconstructing and reassembling the indie country hit. You’ll just have to hear for yourself.