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Posts from the “Playlist” Category

Playlist: Summer ’15

Posted on August 31, 2015
Summer_2015

It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to publish a playlist but here’s our fourth installment in our musical journey through the soundscapes of Spotify. As a reminder, you don’t have to be registered with Spotify to listen to our playlist, just play it in-browser at the end of this post. Summer’s beginning to wind down; the kids are headed back to school and Halloween stores seem to be popping up everywhere in our little corner of Los Angeles but it’s still hot as hell and the unforgiving heat combined with unusual humidity has us dragging our summer day trips on for just a few more weeks. Per usual we’ve been doing a lot of driving with the AC blasting and when not driving we’re parked on the couch trying to avoid working up a sweat by moving, even slightly. Whether you’re driving, working, or trying to beat the heat by sipping a few cold ones this playlist is sure to have something to get you by.

There’s a bunch of instrumental tracks on this one combined with some Americana goodness to remind you of the mountains and maybe some cooler days that lay ahead. There’s plenty of standout tracks here from our favorites Wilco and Dawes along with some newcomers to the playlist: The Six Parts Seven, The Barr Brothers, Alluvium, Gardens & Villa, Other Lives, and more. There’s also the classic track “Jane” by Jefferson Starship nestled in the first half of the playlist with a heavy nod to the revamp of Wet Hot American Summer. The list concludes with a completely out of character but necessary track from Kamasi Washington who recently released his solo endeavor, The Epic, for which I was fortunate enough to attend the incredible release show for. If you like jazz, this one should blow you away.

The cover art for this playlist is from our annual summer pilgrimage to Yosemite National Park. We summited the legendary Half Dome this time around and found this epic cairn (it’s called a cairn, I had no idea…) situated at the top. Full post on that trip coming soon but here’s a little piece from it now. Click here to listen to the full playlist.

Categories: Playlist

Playlist: Spring ’14

Posted on March 28, 2014
Spring_2014

It’s time for our third playlist, just in time for the Spring season that is upon us. I started compiling this in November with an intent to release it in December…and then again in February. But here we are and it’s almost April (can’t believe it). A lot of the darker tracks were taken out and more upbeat ones replaced them because it is, in fact, almost spring. Here in Los Angeles the weather is always fantastic but I’m very well aware it snowed recently on the East Coast. There’s a few well known tracks on here: Father John Misty has been spinning at our West Coast HQ lately even though it came out a few years ago, same with Real Estate though they have a great new record out. There’s a few mostly-instrumental gems in this one, notably tracks by Blockhead, J-Walk, The Octopus Project, and Working For A Nuclear Free City and a quick visit to the opening tracks off of Beck’s new album. Hang in there, folks; warmer days are right around the corner and enjoy Vol. 3 of our playlists. Be sure to click the button at the top right of the embedded Spotify player if you’d like to follow us and add the playlist on your Spotify account. Click here to listen to the full playlist.

Categories: Playlist

Playlist: Summer Into Fall

Posted on August 30, 2013

Summer_Into_Fall

This is our second playlist; a smattering of tracks we’ve been listening to lately. As the seasons shift into late summer mode, fall is certainly in the air and while it’s still hot as hell some days, night time ushers in the sweet smell of change that signifies we’re arriving into a new season. While there are plenty of warm days ahead, especially for those of us here in Southern California, we’ll be traveling quite a bit this fall to some not very warm places. This playlist is anticipatory: it’s looking ahead to things just around the bend. Mountain weekends, cool nights in the city, changing your beer pick from that double IPA to an oatmeal stout, and pulling out that duck cloth jacket you bought at the end of last season but never got the chance to wear in properly. This playlist goes just as well with those hot days coming up (we’re just hitting the heatwave here in LA) with a little Tom Waits, Dr. John, and Band of Skulls as it does with crisper walks home in the evening with Soosh, Pomegranates, and The Felice Brothers.

This is also the beginning of labor day weekend, the last bastion of summer. As you head out to your respective places of celebration this weekend, leave this on in the background. It’ll keep you in good company. Prepare thy selves, good readers. This is the most exciting time of the year: the death of glorious summer and the birth of beautiful, merciless fall and winter. Click here to listen to the full playlist.

Categories: Playlist

Playlist: Summer Begins

Posted on June 4, 2013

summer-begins-masthead

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the very first American Classic playlist. I’m sure there’s a host of you expecting a smattering of classic tracks containing nothing newer than 1970 but you won’t find that here. No, instead what we’ve done is compiled our favorite tracks we’re listening to right now and stuck them into a Spotify playlist for your listening pleasure. We like Spotify because it’s flexible and makes things super easy for us to share things with you. If you want to shell out a little extra cash each month, you can get it’s incredible service on your mobile device and get rid of those ads. That being said, you’re still getting a pretty great deal by coping with the occasional Daft Punk ad in exchange for our playlist.

Not all of us live in Southern California and can have incredible beach weather all of the time. Steve (who designed this kick ass masthead, by the way) lives back in Philly and from what I can tell from speaking with him, it sounds like the rest of the country is getting a little bit warmer day by day. This might not be the playlist for the incredibly sticky days where your shirt sticks to you even in air conditioning and your dog literally refuses to move because it’s so hot, but this is to start easing you into the mindset of tequila, IPAs, ice cream, cool shade, lazy days, beater shoes, and ocean blues. For those of you who live outside of our weird and freakishly sunny paradise here in Los Angeles, here’s a little taste of summer that’s just around the corner. Click here to listen to the playlist.

Categories: Playlist