The month of August: back to school, back to college football, back to Breaking Bad, and back to listening to some cool tunes. This month’s playlist includes two bands that have “deer” in their names, I finally watch Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, and I pay tribute to The Postal Service and J.J. Cale.
Here are 20 songs for August 2013.
John Darnielle’s epic odyssey of the rise and fall of the best ever death metal band (in Denton).
With the exception of Yeezus, most of my June was spent going through bits of past ambient pop that I’ve grown to appreciate. Whether it’s IDM from the 90s (Aphex Twin), early 2000s indie-rock (Broken Social Scene), or the very recent dance pop from overseas (Disclosure), I was so into this music that I was almost tempted to go out and buy a mini controller. Almost. But of course there was plenty of other great non-electronic music to be heard this past month.
Here are my 20 songs for June 2013.
On Saturday I saw 2/3 of The Mountain Goats (Only Peter Hughes and John Darnielle were present) and it was one hell of a night. The show was held at the Bloomington famous Buskirk Chumley and it was an all acoustic set of songs spanning from the very beginnings of the band’s career to last year’s excellent Transcendental Youth.
Seeing John Darnielle live was exactly how I expected him to be — clever, good spirited and emotional, which gave the all acoustic set the emotional punch that I wanted. Of course most of his songs are story songs, so it was a night for the lyrics, though everyone was shouting as loud as they could singing along to “No Children”.
Here’s was the setlist.
Pure Gold
Cutter
In the Hidden Places
The Diaz Brothers
Dance Music
Heretic Pride
Song for Dana Plato
1 Samuel 15:23
Tallahassee
Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
Up the Wolves
Cry for Judas
Cobscook Bay
Woke Up New
Alpha Rats Nest
Fall of the Star High School Running Back
No Children
Encore:
The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
Terror Song (Furniture Huschle cover)
A new year means five more songs for my monthly random Spotify playlist.
As usual, these are the songs I listened to the most over the past month, including new music and oldies. This month’s collection includes all the 2012 music that I missed and discovered on every “End of Year” list throughout the Internet (Divine Fits, The Mountain Goats) and a bunch of old school classics (Ella Fitzgerald, Everly Brothers).
Here are my 20 songs for January 2013.
Well classes start again for IU, so now I’m back to balancing writing and staying in school (who knows, maybe I’ll even try to pass my classes!).
I’ve been listening to the Mountain Goats a lot lately, and for some reason I associate this song with a new beginning. I doubt this song has anything to do with a new semester of college, but that’s the beauty of music – it can mean whatever you want it to mean.
Enjoy.
