Mixtape 199 • Kenneth
Little Dragon guards a treasure hoard of beats and drama, but they are quite willing to share.
Little Dragon guards a treasure hoard of beats and drama, but they are quite willing to share.
Always a special treat to be back on the air after missing a show. This is the third show in a year that I’ve started with a Fugazi cover, in this case Failure taking on “Waiting Room” with their trademark grinding, implacable approach. The power of these songs, its distinctive musicality and lyrical content, is undiminished in the hands of any band bold enough to take on the material. Tonight also featured the confluence of several loyal listeners, including James in California, Underdog in Georgia, and Charley who is on South Korea time and got to take benefit from the time zone.
Sometimes it takes a while for an album to be recognized as a classic, sometimes the shock of recognition is instant and universal. This is the case for Spoon and their latest release, Lucifer on the Sofa, which showcases much of what has made the band a constant source of solid material, but in a concentrated way that will make you start all over as soon as you hit the end.
The female vocals have a child-like quality, and the bass-forward music hulks behind it, sometimes like a princess’ bodyguard, sometimes like a delicate clockwork contraption.
There is no shortage of consuming urgency to the sound of this UK trio called simply Shopping.
The pair powered down the sand-skis as they approached the slight concavity in the beach that had been described by the vendor in the spice market. The cliffs of Levera National Park did not seem to be an ideal place for smugglers to congregate, but the actuary would be the first to admit they did not know the first thing about smugglers and their habits of congregation. The blacksmith was better versed in these things, and they didn’t seem to be bothered by where the assignment was taking them. As the morning fog absorbed the last echoes of the recently-killed engines, they marveled at the conical shape of Sugar Loaf rising above the azure Caribbean water.
This is HOUSE MUSIC, a special one-hour mixtape from yours truly featuring songs about homes, residences, possibly apartments, and other locations of abode. I ran out of time and didn’t get to play “Stranger In The House” with Elvis Costello and George Jones, but surely it will fit into a future show.
Chopping and channeling norteño music and dance beats, the Nortec Collective blows up like a cheap piñata. Have some candy.