Changing Leaves

So as promised here is another mix.
Foliage.
This is one of my first mixes with a theme. It's meant for listening while driving around and looking at the Foliage! I'm posting this just in time to catch the late autumn leaves!
Enjoy!

Mix Cd's and Napping!

So for years I have been making Mix Cd's for myself and my friends. Mostly the mixes consisted of new music and artists that I had been listening to and wanted to share. Somewhere around 2008 I started making THEMED mixes. I'm actually surprised I didn't think of it before, it seems so natural to make a mix Cd with a theme... and I know people do it all the time... I just hadn't up until that point. First I started to make mixes that involved music that evoked the same emotions as a particular season... Those became known as Foliage, Blizzard & Spring Fever (Heat Wave is still in the works!) I will include those mixes at a later date! I just enjoy creating a feeling of sorts with a mix, intending every song to blend well with the next song that follows. Painting a musical landscape of sorts I guess! Today I'll share what my friends would call my most Celebrated Mix... and follow up with some other mixes very soon!

Napping...
So one day, as I was trying to get some much needed sleep, I decided to make a quick playlist of some gentle tunes that would ease me into a dreamworld! As the playlist progressed over the next few days my roommate at the time (after hearing the tunes and noticing me CRASHING every afternoon) begged me for a copy so he could use it to sleep. That was the day I created my first Nap Mix!

Entitled: You Want To Take A Nap?
It was intended solely for taking a Nap, easing you to sleep and then ROCKING you awake with one final song. The first song actually has to do with waking up, while the last has to do with getting to sleep... my own little "Tarantino" or "Memento" element to the "story" of the Nap!

I quickly shared it with some of my closest friends, most of whom came back to me saying that they were asleep and OUT by song 2. Some told me they had to put it on Random (a practice many of my friends know I never intend to be used with my mixes) just to be able to hear the other songs that were on the CD! But most of all, it turns out that the Final Song intended to be used for waking people up, wasn't doing it's job and most of the time my listeners (myself included) would sleep all the way through the Cd and longer!

It has now become common practice amongst a select few of my friends to use You Want To Take A Nap? to get to sleep regularly!

Over the years we have since used it at a Summer Camp (where we are counselors) to help us get to sleep when the young teens in our cabin are being too loud and raucous at night! The campers quickly became interested in the fact that the four of us would play this mix at the HIGHEST volume setting and seem to sleep like hibernating bears! After many a post-camp Facebook message about wanting to know what's on the mix so they could have one for themselves, I finally decided to share it with everyone!

So give it a try and go get some sleep!

Radio Paradise

One of the coolest stations I've found. It just plays EVERYTHING I want to listen to from Wilco to Gorillaz to Charles Mingus to Nick Drake! It's great.. I just turn it on at work, zone out and animate! Check'r out!

www.radioparadise.com

New Stuff!

The Carolina Chocolate Drops - Good old American Folk and Jug!

Wow this is just great stuff!



Short interviews withe the members and some music


The Bowery Ballroom Article - Here

Greensky Bluegrass

Pearl and the Beard

So for a few months now I have been listening to this new(ish) band out of NYC named Pearl and the Beard! The little trio consists of Jocelyn Mackenzie, Emily Hope Price, and Jeremy Styles. My friend Vanessa happened to mention them to me in passing during a facebook chat conversation. So I looked them up on youtube and low and behold I thought they were incredible!

This is my favorite song (so far)

I passed the word on to my girlfriend who I KNEW would love them... which she did! She then told me they were playing a gig that weekend, so we went and were completely blown away! We saw them in the basement of a small bar in Brooklyn that had about 30-40 people just sardine-canned in together. It may have been one of the more intimate shows I have ever been to. After their set Jeremy came out into the crowd to watch the next act and sat RIGHT next to us! We didn't say hello because we were far too nervous to be sitting next to someone so talented! We left that show as two of P&B's newest and biggest fans!

There's just something extremely refreshing in their songwriting, harmonies and astounding musical talent that seems to be missing from a lot of new bands lately. You can just see that they not only enjoy what they're doing but that they're extremely passionate about it as well. Oh and their live performance is absolutely incredible.

So we'll be seeing them again next week in Hoboken and I can't wait! I thought it'd be nice to just get the word out there on them, hopefully you enjoy them as much as we do! Oh and maybe at the show this time we'll build up enough nerve to say hello!

Here are some P&B links:

pearlandthebeard.com

Facebook Page

Emily Hope Price Blog

Obscure Beatles!

You can have your Hey Jude, Let It Be, and Come Together! While I still view these as amazing songs, I can't help but gravitate more towards the songs that never really get enough "air time!"

Here are some of my favorite Beatles tracks that I feel don't see the light of day enough. Now, maybe the term "obscure" isn't the right terminology here, maybe it's more along the lines of "underappreciated!" When I have my iPod Library on shuffle and I'm skipping furiously through every song I own to find something I'm in the mood for... I almost always find myself stopping on these songs!

In no particular order... Except for "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)." I absolutely LOVE this song! It's SO fun and the boys are just having a blast and switching into 3 different styles throughout the song. I LOVE IT! READ MORE HERE!

Rachels Preschoolers Grew Up

My friend Rachel asked me for some song ideas to put on a slideshow she was making for her preschoolers. This is what I came up with!

LOST!

Here is a playlist I made that includes every commercial song used in the TV Series LOST!
It's missing a couple of tracks because they are so obscure, but it will be updated as soon as I can locate the mp3's!!!

Enjoy!



And because Luis asked for it here's Geronimo Jackson! But since they aren't a REAL LIFE band (same goes for Driveshaft)I'll leave them off of the playlist!

Shel Silverstein Tribute Album!

There's a new album out paying tribute to the work of Shel Silverstein!
I'm excited, just because I remember reading A Light in the Attic, and Where the Sidewalk Ends as a kid and ALWAYS being entertained by Shel's creativity! There is an impressive array of artists on the album and what I've heard so far sounds fantastic!

Read about it HERE!
Preview it HERE!