Oregon Bike Trails has created the ideal soundtrack for any summer. If “Cayucas” doesn’t get you in the mood for warmer weather, open air, some polluted water-way, and good friends I can’t help but wonder what is wrong with you.
After seeing Yuck play Radio Radio this year I’m at a stalemate between an intense love for songs like “Automatic“/ Oupa’s “Forget” and the absolute energy of the more upbeat songs like “Cousin Corona” and “Georgia” which develop into a whole other animal on-stage.
This song stirs emotions hiding in the back of my consciousness that occasionally need to be brought to the surface like a realized musical accompaniment to Bukowski‘s “Bluebird“. There’s a time and place for every great song. When the moment comes for this one to be fitting you’re thankful as you listen that a friend has created something to sing along with which aligns perfectly with those feelings.
The People’s Key is an album that grew on me gradually this year. I’m not sure what I was expecting but what at first felt like a let down developed into an absolute returned love for an artist that will always seem underated to me. Conor Oberst is the catalyst for an entire shift from mainstream to indie in the collective psyche of all things brilliant and “cool.”
The way he expresses himself in each song on The People’s Key was fashioned more along the lines of Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band than it was traditional Bright Eyes in that the lyrics are personal yet more metaphoric than personally descriptive but the same message is there, “Jejune Stars” is probably the best example.
“[Riding Coach] further expands the band’s musical palette. They’ve rocked out plenty thus far, and they’ve done the retro-soul vibe remarkably well, too. With ‘Riding Coach‘, Sickels pounds out a slow, steady beat and Nic Snyder’s near-falsetto vocals massage the ears with rhythm and soul. About two-thirds of the way through, there’s a funky little guitar riff before the pair chill out again. Absorb the cool … “- The Wounded Jukebox
“Catchy melodies blend and come apart in a swirling psyched-out pop frenzy. Seeing two colors together and apart at once. Happy, frustrated, and sad all at the same time. Messy Sparkles not only make sense of such calamity, it seems to be their essence.” – Zen Tapes
If Lana Del Rey sticks with the sound she’s given us in 2011 I confidently believe our generation may have it’s new Sinatra. She’s got the sound, she’s got the look, and she followed the ideal format this year in laying the groundwork for a shift towards huge commercial success. Who knows how we’ll feel about Lana Del Rey in a few years time but for now it’s hard to find anyone whose opinion I appreciate that doesn’t respect the songs she put out this year. “Video Games” was the song that took me from listening timidly to becoming a fan.
Unless it’s Merle Haggard there isn’t much “country” that I get into, which is what caught me off guard with “Rust“. I’m not even sure which blog I picked it up from when I downloaded this track yet I clearly remember when it came up on shuffle just stopping what I was doing and listening so intently that I played it three times in a row. There’s no doubt in my mind the place Nathan Bell was at when he wrote this song, although I may be wrong, I get the feeling that this song must have been a huge release for him when it was finished.
“Rust” reminds me so much of coming home from shows I’d play six hours away and driving all night to make it to work at 8 in the morning, wondering about the kind of things you wonder about on rides like that. One show in Michigan in-particular stands for me.
Late night, the window down, I had a cigarette lit and Blake Skidmore‘s “August Breeze” was playing on my 5th generation. I remember being overwhelmed by that feeling of age and time, the way those things feel when you are young, and just wondering if anything we ever do is worth the effort. It was one of the best shows I’d ever played and still there was an emptiness in me that I thought a show like that would dissolve. Each time I hear this song I’m so vividly transported back that I can feel the fall night wind and the uneasiness inside all over again. There’s definitely a reason for songs like this to be important…that’s mine.
When I posted the Best Albums Of 2011 list I added a link to it on Scott Orr‘s Facebook page he left a comment saying ” Thanks, very honored. But there’s no way I should be ahead of that Real Estate record. “
This was my response, ” If you go by lyric content and which artist feels more honest you should.”
For the same reason as the Nathan Bell track “Nobody’s Someone” deserves a place on this years list. Although this song is much more present than “Rust,” like a snapshot of the here and now looking towards the future as a response to the past rather than the inverse.
“More beauty in minimal pop simplicity courtesy of Boston’s Conor Maier who recorded his debut Memory EP under The Tao of Con moniker.
There is an unmistakable stripped-down fragility which pours through both his music and his vocals — an element that takes this bedroom pop to an entirely new wavelength. It’s sincere, it’s raw and it comes across as completely genuine. While the EP may play on the short side, it’s best to enjoy this as a single entity as the tracks all flow seemlessly together as one.”- Birp!
There’s something about songs giving an upbeat feeling to downbeat lyrics that gets me every time. This song makes me think of the Lewis Blackskit about George Jr. always talking about the war with a smile on his face. Only in the case of “Shoelaces” it’s a welcome alignment of mixed feelings.
The Submarines deserve much more accolades for what they’ve done this year. I can only hope that 2012 is the year they finally reach a level of recognition fitting for their ability. They are so talented (and catchy) that it’s hard for me to grasp how little buzz has gone their way this year.
Princeton continues to give us new music two tracks at a time. This is the title track from the 7″ they just put out. I love their style of minimalistic brit-rock, especially since they sound like they could be Morrissey‘s younger brothers and yet they are from Santa Monica.
Princeton has always had a sixth sense about knowing how to keep from doing too much and everything fits and falls into place without it feeling empty. This is my favorite Princeton track as far as lyrics go but in all honestly it would be worth the listen just for the use of the word “clamoring” in a song.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that it’s long overdue for Princeton to give us a full length. Don’t get me wrong, having this as the second 7″ this year has been nice but it’s been nearly three years since “Cocoon Of Love,” and that’s way too long. – My post on Listen Before You Buy
My father was always a big Jackson Browne fan growing up which has carried over into a life long love on my part for his music. Each time I listen through one of Browne’si songs I find myself asking, “Why isn’t anyone doing this NOW,” thanks to the new Dawes album I can confidently say someone is.
There’s a big shift in music going from that folk sound that’s been up front over the last few years to a more seventies sound; Bands are bringing in larger sounding solo’s and traditional storytelling lyrics are making a comeback. Outside of being a great stand alone track, “Little Bit Of Everything” is a prime example of what I’m saying. Change is always good… even if I did hate the new Blitzen Trapper album Dawes has shown us the sound can be done well.
Hi Ho Silver Oh brilliantly wrote Showers Without Warning based on the Friday The Thirteenth moves. I’m both a huge fan of this song and those movies (half of them anyways, some are unwatchable ie Jason X). So if the lyrics seem a bit psychotic it’s good to understand what they are about.
If I didn’t hear this song everyday at work would I think higher of “Helplessness Blues” and for Fleet Foxes In General?
I ask myself this often. I mean, it’s not like the band has control over who does or does not like their music. Yet we live in a time when the reality is that your current fans and the amount of radio play you get is just as important as the music itself. It’s the masses that want a single song played ten times a day for months on end and unfortunately the same people who destroyed Kings Of Leon, The Black Keys, Mumford And Sons and Florence And The Machine have been swaying towards Fleet Foxes.
Kings and Florence brought it on themselves so I have no sympathy for them, I’m not sure about Mumford until their next album comes out, but Fleet Foxes and The Black Keys haven’t really done anything other than play a lot of shows to get where they are. Hard work should work for you not against you, unfortunately that’s not how things go anymore. So for those of us who still want to stay on board we might as well get use to getting chaffed at their shows from rubbing against Hollister polo’s and being asked if we’ve ever heard of Arcade Fire.
“Out Of Tune” is by far my favorite Real Estate track. It’s the perfect balance between chill-wave surf rock and early 90′s garage alternative. This song is one of the main songs I plan on listening to next month when I leave Indiana behind and finally move out to Austin. This is a side-one track one when soundtracking that sort of moment.
“This is a new song slash really really old song, because I think I wrote this when I was 17,” Zach Condon said when introducing “East Harlem” during a 2009 performance at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. Of course, the songs Condon makes as Beirut, while fresh and new to most audiences ever since he debuted with 2006′s Gulag Orkestar, also happen to be at least partly rooted in European folk traditions reaching back to who knows when. What’s been more interesting to watch, though, is how the handful of years since 2007′s The Flying Club Cup have made that still relatively recent record’s songs come to sound like old, familiar friends, even to those of us who didn’t quite know what to make of them at first.
As recorded for a new Beirut single, “East Harlem” looks poised to undergo a similar sort of ripening as it becomes more and more familiar. The lyrics are sparse and rooted in classic, instantly communicative tropes: “Another rose wilts in East Harlem,” Condon croons, as he wastes no words in vividly describing an intra-Manhattan relationship that feels like it’s separated by “a thousand miles” (have you tried getting from downtown to East Harlem lately?). The stately backing is what we’ve come to expect from Beirut, with swaying accordion, rich brass, lively piano, and trebly strums, all in all more like a 2010 Williamsburg performance. By the time Condon switches things up, repeating, “Oh, the sound will bring me home again,” over wordless backing vocals, he might as well be describing the warm, cozy but still distinctive feeling “East Harlem” has achieved. – Pitchfork
… It seems every time I’m about to go out I’m throwing this on the playlist to set my mind right. YATA’s the first band coming out of Chicago in quite some time that has impressed me. I think what is so damn attractive about Yourself And The Air is that they come across like a band that allows themselves to just play and are solid enough to do it anywhere.
Their being from the midwest does get me excited since it makes it much more likely for us in Indy to get a chance to sweat with them, my fingers are crossed. (Via)
“Shell Games” is the first Bright Eyes song I can ever remembering wanting to hear while around other people. Normally the music is so personal the idea of experiencing it without headphones on while participating in my own existence just feels off, maybe “Lover I Don’t Have To Love” comes close but it’s a different kind of collective cognizance when that one comes on.
The Guitar/Key combo throughout this song is such a change of pace for Conor and company it’s still hard for me to believe the shy emo kid I fell in love with years ago has developed into a presence and confidence that is put on display in “Shell Games.” Not to mention, for how epic sounding this song is the lyrics are more revealing than just about every other song on the album… you just have to follow along.
I could easily pretend like I’ve been a lifetime fan of Nillson, that his influence over modern music is constantly in the back of my mind with every new band I hear, but that wouldn’t be true. What’s the point of what I’m doing here at Heycoolkid! if I’m not being honest. If it hadn’t been for the documentary Who Is Harry nillson (And Why Is Everyone Talking About Him), and if Dodge over at My Old Kentucky Blog hadn’t posted a link for it on facebook I would still be as clueless as I was a year ago, more importantly I never would have given the Netherfriends cover album as much of a chance as I have.
As a huge Netherfriends fan I feel almost ashamed about this being my favorite song he has put out, I’m not though and one listen through you’ll understand why.
Certain songs just hit home and this is a perfect example. Having the days pile up one on the other, the looking back and seeing where I thought I would be at this point in my life, remembering the friends and the hope, feeling that weight and stepping back from the moment and just saying there’s still a chance, there’s still possibilities, let’s live for tonight, let’s live for a change and forget about the past, I understand this, I connect with it. Hurricane Bells definitely did this one right. (Via)
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All songs are for promotional use only. If you or an artist you represent would like content removed email me at Heycoolkid@yahoo.com
Time for night drives, passionate crushes, longing breakups, and all-night conversations with the best of friends. Fall is finally here and I can’t help but feel that life just gets better the second i get to zip up a hoody.
I grew up in an exceptionally small town between the edge of suburbia and the middle of nowhere. As far as my memories go when i look back it seems my group of friends will always remain in my memory on endless drives through Podunk (it’s a real town) with the leaves changing and the air cooling off.
If I could go back to one point in time it would be on one of those drives, feeling complete but at the same time fighting back an unspoken worry that with morning would come change, that we would reach the moment called “grown up” and would all say goodbye. Those drives had an undercurrent that whatever we were going to do we had to do it immediately because change was coming, so we drove until the last breathe of night holding on to the moment with the firmest grips and the quietest of hearts.
Never ending conversations with crushes, falling in love through nothing more than words and and the electricity of being so close and talking so quiet, both truly listening. Those first kisses that lit my life on fire, those heartbreaks that destroyed me, and those quiet nights when I’d drive alone and reminisce about it all.
Sitting on the hood of my car next to a close friend, in intense conversations about “what does it all mean,” “is this all that there is to life” and coming to our own conclusions about God and the way everything is broken and pulling apart and yet it all makes sense, it all forms a whole, and how we’re all drawn together by some secret that we couldn’t even begin to understand. How many cigarettes did we smoke in succession on nights like that? How much of anything did we smoke on those nights?
That’s the place I’m at when it comes to making up this playlist. I plan it out all year so that by the time Fall hits and I’m heading down to see my brother in Bloomington or heading back to my hometown to visit family I can pull these songs up on my ipod and feel that fullness once again.
I’m still making memories, I’m growing up but not yet grown up and the friends I have now feel that as well, we’re perpetually in a moment where things are about to change. This fall as with all the ones I’ve known before reminds me to embrace what we have because soon it will be gone, so in a way i guess some things will forever remain the same.
The idea of this playlist is to capture all of that, if there’s one mix other than a solid break-up mix where lyrics carry the entire thing this is it. I really hope you find something on here that makes life better or helps you get through the worse or at the least gives you a friend that understands.
Send me a message or comment with your own playlists I’m interested to see what yours would look like.
“Take a breath just to let it out again
waking up is an excise in trust
that your gonna find something to hold close
in a moonless night i wait for your ghost
oh how we put the days away.”
“We sing with our hero’s thirty three rounds per minute
We’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished
I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all”
“We think of those days while we’re living these ones.
Through highway signs and telephone lines we try and keep in touch.
And I hope you’re in a good place yeah I hope you’re having fun
like so many years ago”
“there’s only three weeks until we reach the great lakes city
when I got the news that that you were with somebody else
and apparently this was going on since before the night I left for you
kissing me wishing me safely”
“Call me a safe bet, I’m betting I’m not
I’m glad that you can forgive, only hoping as time goes, you can forget
…
It’s cold as a tomb, and it’s dark in your room
When I sneak to your bed to pour salt in your wounds”
“I once heard the worse thing
A man can do is draw a hungry crowd.
Tell everyone his name in pride an confidence
But leaving out his doubt.
I’m not sure I bought those words
When I was young I knew most everything.
These words have never meant as much to anyone
As they now mean to me.”
“saw you slip on the icy icy street
and i smiled accidentally
and you swore at the ice and you swore at me
and my heart melted instantly
in the warmth of the strangest thing”
“And maybe blue eyes are more my style.
I don’t know but I’m willing to try.
And maybe I’m dumb, for making you smile.
I don’t knowbut I will in awhile.”
“And I’m afraid to sleep because of what haunts me
Such as living with the uncertainties
That I’ll never find the words to say
Which would completely explain
Just how I’m breaking down”
“Last night I saw the flashing lights I quickly ran outside
neighbor lady told me that Jackie’s youngest boy had died
and I was surprised to see the cops had Jackie handcuffed in the car
until this mornings paper told me that jackie’d gone to far
and now they’re saying Jackie, he aint the only one to blame
because battered children they almost always grow up to do the same
oh you think you know somebody…”
“Well I told him I too had been traveling around
living out of my van from town to town
playing for tips and whatever records I could move
I said I don’t ‘reckin I’ll be making in big
you know it’s hard to get rich off a tour of coffeehouse gigs
he said ‘but yeah ain’t it a blessin’ to do what you want to do’
…andI said I don’t know what I’ve been looking for, maybe me”
“Mother remember the night that that dog had her pups in the pantry
blood on the wall fleas on their paws and you cried til the morning
so may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
songs are like birds flying always over the mountain”
I realize how ridiculously long this post ended up being. I’d debated breaking it up as i had with the “Trapped In Time, Surrounded By Evil, Low On Gas” playlist but that one was easy to breakdown. Although you may only download one or two tracks in my mind it’ll get listened to as a whole (I may have just truly realized why bands hate downloads instead of listening to an entire album). Either way I hope you can look past the length and enjoy.
As usual all songs are for promotional purposes only. If you or a band you represent would like some content removed leave a comment or send me an email (the address can be found in thesection).
I’m starting to believe I may have the plague; 30 hrs straight in bed with no end in sight. At least I know who the douche was to give me this little gift of death, if someone sees that Shane Sweeting punch him in the face.
Most people load themselves up on Nyquil and vitamin C, I on the the other hand take advantage of my situation. So far today I’ve nearly drank three pots of coffee and have downloaded two gigs of music:) if my internet goes down then I’ll start complaining.
Hopefully by the middle of next week I’ll have the coveted Fall Playlist up. I’ve got the songs gathered I’ve just got to find a way of narrowing the four hundred songs in my own personal fall mix down to twenty-five to pass along. It’s coming I promise.
So here are the download worthy songs I’ve compiled this week:
The title track off of their self-titled EP from this unsigned band out of Chicago who I’ve yet to see live. Hopefully they’ll stop by Indy in the near future so i can change that.
By now it’s not much of secret how impressed I have been by “Shut-Up.” I’m not sure what else I could do to promote that track (Heycoolkid.net, Listen Before You Buy) but I’m trying. “The Human Condition,” the title track off of Jhameel’s self-released EP, shows again how well he uses his vocals to carry and shift the rhythm of a song. His range is incredible, I can’t remember ever even caring about someone’s “range” that’s how much he impresses me, it has something to do with how his vocals are merely part of the song rather than the focal point. How everything blends so well amongst itself is what capture me the most about this track. That and we get a vibe from the song that is quite askew from what should be given off if we were only to take in the content of the lyrics. If you want more head over to his website and pick the EP up for free yourself.
It’s taken me a minute but I’m adjusting to Gobble Gobble’s new name. I still prefer the original and think that the change wasn’t necessary. They make great music though so it really doesn’t make much of a difference, Born Gold just seems so pretentious. This is the single they’re pushing off of the upcoming Bodysongs album coming out on Sept 9 which will include Heycoolkid! favorites Lawn Knives and Boring Horror, I’m yet to find if the re-release will be new versions or not, I do know that they are working on the Lawn Knives Video as I type which I am stoked about so you can be sure I’ll put it up on the facebook page the second it touches the internet.
This is my favorite track from Sound Kapital. The day where simple yet embracing lyrics like “I feel alone, I feel Alright” don’t connect will probably be the end of my love for music and the things it helps me get through. Handsome Furs just continue doing what they do best, which is prove why I hate Canadian music…because it’s so damn good.
Pat Grossi first came onto the scene last year with his highly praised “Curtis Lane EP” that bloggers couldn’t get enough of, myself included. Active Child’s debut album “You Are All I See” came out on Monday and perpetuates what he started a year ago. This is how good Chillwave can be and indie at it’s finest.
I’ve had this song slated to add on a playlist for weeks but have been waiting for the video to go viral before doing so. They started leaking photos from the shoot and two things immediately hit me; one this video could be amazing and two I’ve never been annoyed more by a slow leak. So today the “America’s Son” video has officially been released and I’m instantly in love. I didn’t think it would hold up to my own hype but it exceeds it. Honestly it makes the song better and that is a rare thing indeed. The video actually chokes me up, i could try to explain why but I think once you’ve watched it yourself you’ll completely understand and if not it probably wouldn’t be worth the effort to try.
Audio milk described the Youth Lagoon debut album as “…lush arrangements that travel through his nostalgia while capturing a deep sense of yearning…” which is completely fitting (I think I want something similar as my epitaph). “Montana” drifts and drifts and draws you in slowly then explodes into an unresolved mass of emotion. Hope you dig it as much as I do.
I stumbled upon The Traveling Band a few weeks ago when I caught a live video of them performing “Sundial.”I’ve been getting more and more into them each day since. This is my second favorite song thus far, sundial still remaining numero uno for the time being.
Conrad Plymouth put out an EP earlier today of b-sides that didn’t make the upcoming album. Really? If these songs aren’t good enough to make the cut how incredible is the LP going to be? It’s a name your price thing so if you want it for free you can have it for that but if you want to show how much the songs are truly worth you may have to hold a kickstarter to raise the funds. Once again this was brought to my attention by Tim Showalter on his Strand Of Oaks page who refuses let anything Conrad Plymouth go unnoticed. That dude is nearly as good at noticing great bands before everyone else does as he is at creating music.
How it has happened I’m not sure but this is the first time I’ve featured a song from Pomegranates. I caught these guys at Locals Only a few years ago and have kept my ear in their direction ever since. They were so subtle live and passive, letting the songs breathe and be themselves so each song came across immensely impressive. This song showed up on My Old Kentucky Blog last week and reminded me how I’ve neglected one of my Midwestern favorites.
I’m rather new to Mad Atlantic. Kaelin Bougneit obviously has been influenced by Ben Gibbard and probably the whole year of 2005 and some neutral milk or more likely some band that was influenced by neutral milk. What I’m getting at is there are underlying influences that come across on “Take A Minute And Just Dance” that are far from obvious yet familiar enough that you know instantly whether it’s something you enjoy or not, i definitely enjoy it.
If this song touches radio, which inevitably it will, each and every one of us promoting Lana Del Rey are going to regret how great this song is. If you want to enjoy this song with like-minded people who appreciate music for the artistic aspect you better get to an LDR show soon because next year expect to hear conversations about “America’s Next Top Model” and “Jersey Shore” being shouted over her other songs and then watch those same kids go nuts when this one comes on. It’s a horrible tangent about great music like this, it’s so good we can’t keep it to ourselves and eventually we have to either leave it or appear amongst mainstream followers. I’m going to enjoy it while I can.
This is me attempting to make up for being late to the party with Stornoway. There isn’t a single song from them that I haven’t fallen in love with. Not a single one! If you haven’t given them a chance I can’t help but ask why not.
I’m closing this weeks’ playlist by letting the song speak for itself. IMR make great emotion driven music, “hollis” is a good example. I’ll leave it at that.
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All songs are for promotion purposes only. If you like what you hear make the effort to get a physical copy or at least go to see the band when they are in town which is even more important. If you are/represent an artist on this page and would like it removed, all you have to do is ask. I honestly believe the art is more important than the artists and will make sure to let everyone know that you disagree with that philosophy.
