Mixtape 261 • The Famous Polka I
Welcome to a near-biographical experience as we focus on songs named after (and occasionally about) real people you may have heard of.
Welcome to a near-biographical experience as we focus on songs named after (and occasionally about) real people you may have heard of.
It was a day of jet-setting, starting in the dark hours of morning, and it wasn’t going to be over until the studio light went off. To keep up the energy levels, we presented a double-header of a special, first an hour of The Famous Polka, featuring songs titled after real (mostly) people, and following that two hours of Balkan Fever, with music that was far from exclusively Balkan but all fed into that manic two-step non-stop feeling.
It’s time to take perspective on our hyper-technologized society, through the audio lens of song.
The new album from Jen Cloher is magnificent, and when her Twitter account favorited the playlist entry for the lead track tonight, I near swooned. I recommend you listen to I Am The River, The River Is Me from start to finish, and enjoy something you’ll be doing for years to come for the first time. In other news, our recently adopted cat Princess Otoboke Beaver (aka Pris) gave birth to four healthy kittens on St. Patrick’s day — Ziggy, Stardust, Spider, and Mars.
Coming straight outta Dublin, Fontaines DC have an insistent and incisive sound that carves anthems out of marble using only guitar strings and a chiseling voice. No particular theme seems to emerge tonight, although we will be closing with Angel Olsen’s “Go Home.” Go home, it’s midnight.
I just recently noticed the Morbysphere, the term I had to come up with just now for all the interesting music swirling about Kevin Morby, his solo work and that with Woods and Babies, and now the work of his frequent musical collaborator Justin Sullivan as Night Shop, which vibrates in roughly the same product-of-two-primes harmonic frequency. Also tonight, I will be breaking my personal record for longest track played on the air with the full length of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s “The Dripping Tap”.
Sure, they claim to be joking, but the chops you hear from Lizard Music are as serious as a car accident, their indie guitar pop leaving no hook unsharpened or ear unwormed.
As individuals, Jay Som and Palehound each have their musical quirks and unique style. Together as Bachelor they plot a strange new course through the realm of dream pop.
Bill Callahan has been wandering the halls of music for quite some time now, his deep voice and aimless arrangements a constant hypnotic presence.