So here’s what I’m listening to– summery or no, seasonal appropriateness be damned:

Listen at 8tracks.com

1. Cults– “Abducted“
2. The Zombies– “What More Can I Do“
3. Active Child– “Hanging On“
4. Panda Bear– “You Can Count On Me“
5. The Veils– “The Wishbone“
6. Real Estate– “It’s Real“
7. Wye Oak– “Civilian“
8. Burt Bacharach– “South American Getaway”

I believe that this narrative cycle (setting goals, encountering obstacles, persistence above all, and eventual rewards) encapsulates what it means to be a band on the road. As the tour winds down with tonight’s blowout show in New York City, we’re all looking forward to a little break over the next few days. Thanks so much to all the people and places who hosted us. Our first long-distance tour was a smashing success, and while we could have technically done it without you, it would have been approximately one thousand times worse.

Next up, the band is retreating into seclusion for two months to write and record new songs (because that, kind friends, is what we do). Our usual blog features will be going on hiatus during that time to facilitate a zen-like creative focus. Keep checking in for the occasional update, and we’ll back before you know it this summer with more blogginess than ever!

1.Cauliflower heads
2.Painful swelling (from poison ivy)
3.Cellular fission
4.Lava lamp
5.Sunburned cheeks
6.Bouncy balls
7.Circus peanut
8.A symmetrical footprint
9.Gelatin golf balls

Dave
1. enormous travel mug of tea
2. withered grapefruit
3. cell phone, no charger
4. inexplicably empty shoebox

Don
1. already-dirty travel towel
2. awkward prep school blazer selection
3. binoculars for road-birding opportunities
4. Gummi Dinos and Sharks (one pack in every pocket)

Sam
1. old hummus and baby carrots
2. audio cables for every application
3. a recent selection from Oprah’s Book Club
4. reflective safety vest for night jogs

Auyon
1. lactaid
2. suspenders
3. backup suspenders
4. smartphone of dubious intelligence

Harris
1. moisturizing products for cowboy boots
2. “natural” shampoo (i.e. no shampoo)
3. purple women’s running shoes, size 11
4. perennially unread copy of Moby Dick

But sometimes toward the end of a long winter I appreciate a little nudge forward…

Enjoy listening to the streaming mix over at 8tracks.com!  Remember, you can only skip a few tracks before they cut you off, so this is best experienced as a whole.

1. Pepper Rabbit– “Older Brother” (Beuregard)
2. Beirut– “Nantes” (The Flying Club Cup)
3. Vampire Weekend– “I Think Ur a Contra” (Contra)
4. The Turtles– Happy Together (Happy Together)
5. Bright Eyes– “First Day of My Life” (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning)
6. Fleet Foxes– “Blue Ridge Mountains” (Fleet Foxes)
7. Stornoway– “Zorbing” (Beachcomber’s Windowsill)
8. Yellowbirds– “Beneath The Reach of Light” (The Color)
9. Dawes– “When My Time Comes” (North Hills)
10. Morning Benders– “Excuses” (Big Echo)
11. Punch Brothers– “This Is the Song” (Antifogmatic)

*Upon completion of the track list, I just realized that the title has a secret (i.e. unintentional) double meaning. Yesterday, I got the “spring” reverb tank on my amplifier fixed, which means happy guitar times for me in the coming weeks of songwriting.  Helloooooo spring!

You can stream this mixtape legally in its entirety at excellent new website 8tracks.  They encourage you to have a holistic mixtape experience by only allowing 3 track skips per hour.  Also keep in mind that for legal reasons, the second time a given IP address visits the mix it will play in random order.

Ahem, so here they are!

1. Spoon– “The Beast and Dragon Adored”   (Gimme Fiction)

I acquired this snarly little tune on a mixtape from my college housemate Thomas, but it didn’t hit home until a couple years later.  I’ve since come to love their consistently sharp catalogue.  I go to Spoon for their unique swagger and taut rhythmic arrangements.  Okay, and the occasional spastic guitar that enters late to stir things up just a bit at the periphery.
Further listening: “The Mystery Zone” from Transference.

2. Joanna Newsom– “Bridges and Balloons”   (The Milk-Eyed Mender)

I could not deal with the voice at first listen.  Watching this live video brought me around: the otherworldly attack on certain lyrics actually helps sell the archaic vocabulary  (“catenaries and dirigibles”).  The polyrhythmic harp has always been a winner for me, and the vocals have vastly improved as of Ys and Have One On Me.  She writes the epic art-folk songs nobody else is even trying to write.

3. Loudon Wainwright III– “Motel Blues”  (Album II)

The first LWIII songs I heard landed like novelty tricks.  This was the performance that unlocked the world of tragicomic songwriting for me.  I usually find the pat rhymes in this folk style to be unimaginative, but this guy can turn that liability into a huge asset by getting you laughing and then turning the knife.
Further listening: “White Winos” from Last Man on Earth

4. The National– “Lemonworld”   (High Violet)

I read that the band had a demo for this track and ended up unable to reproduce the magic of the initial recording during their album sessions.  So they just threw it in there anyway.  I’m very happy they did, because it was the immediacy and honesty in this track that opened up a whole bunch of their material for me that I’d been unable to get attached to previously (pretty much all of Boxer, for instance).

5. The Tallest Man On Earth– “Love is All”   (The Wild Hunt)

Honestly, I was into this music from the get-go, and I haven’t let go yet.  There is no individual track I can point to as my portal, so I’ll go with this one since it embodies a lot of what characterizes the artist: spry guitar picking and an unafraid vocalist who pushes to the fore the honest emotions that often get lost when using a surreal lyrical palette.

6. Janelle Monae– “Cold War”   (The ArchAndroid)

The one-take breakdown she has in this song’s music video did it.  Her eclectic songs and poise counterbalance the larger-than-life swagger and dancing.  She’s pure energy, no matter the exact genre.

7. Local Natives– “Airplanes”   (Gorilla Manor)

I was superficially struck by how this band was employing folksy group vocals and a mandolin (just like us)! This song is easy to get into, and I love that the drumsticks ticking away on the tom rim are just as important to the hook as the “I want you back” vocal.  Neat debut album from a young band we’d like to take some career cues from.

8. How To Dress Well– “Decisions feat. Yuksel Arslan”   (Love Remains)

I don’t normally go for R&B, but I’m taken by the way HTDW uses necessarily lo-fi recording techniques to mirror the mind’s degradation of remembered musical fragments.  I grew up with K-Ci and Jojo followed by R. Kelly.  Clearly, this guy did too, and he has taken me with him down the ambient rabbithole on Love Remains.

9. The White Stripes– “Conquest”   (Icky Thump)

I still don’t like The White Stripes as much as some bands on this list.  But this song’s theatricality won me over, and I’ve since been enjoying the bombast that is Jack White.  He goes wherever he wants to go and makes it work, and while I normally have fairly high standards for in-tune singing, I love that he just completely loses the plot by the end of this track.  The official music video only adds to the joy.

10. Grizzly Bear– “He Hit Me”   (Friend EP)

This is the band currently at the top of my list.  Oddly enough, it took this cover song (originally performed by The Crystals) to turn me on to their aesthetic in the first place.  The EP on which it appears shows the band in transition from their origins (a solo bedroom-recorded project) to their current rock band lineup.  The production on “He Hit Me” deftly mirrors the early 60’s pop sounds that Phil Spector had applied to the original.  But it also foretells a lot of what’s to come on 2009’s Veckatimest (which I now can’t stop playing, despite an initially apathetic reaction).

11. Twin Shadow– “I Can’t Wait”   (Forget)

The artful transition at 0:35–0:42 was what tipped me over the edge on first listen.  It could have been a straight-up 80’s b-side up to then, but that slightly ambiguous segue into the chorus pushes things into the“chill-wave” space that’s so big in the indie world now.  Sometimes those trends are just annoying until a particular artist sells it for you.  That’s Twin Shadow for me (the appeal was only heightened when I realized this album, along with the Morning Benders’ Big Echo that I just downloaded, is produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor).

12. Deerhunter– “Helicopter”   (Halcyon Digest)

Here’s another artist that didn’t do it for me the first go-around but later wormed its way in.  The surfy harmonies and echo-ey spaces on this song caught me at the right time, and though the concept of stream-of-consciousness lyrics would normally be off-putting to me, a lot of this album’s appeal for me lies in its mixture of craft with spontaneity.  Even their longer songs feel tight in structure, and when the lyrics go off the deep end, there’s usually some formal or textural element there to to bring things back into focus quickly enough.

———-

Encore! (because musicians simply can’t help themselves)

13. David Vertesi– “Cardiography”   (Cardiography)

Being in a band that hopes for the attention of blogs, I get to surf for new music on taste-making blogs and in the name of “research.”  One of my recent favorites is called Music vs. Misery (the title referencing mixtaping’s touchstone film, High Fidelity).  Thanks to this blogger whose tastes tend to align with my own, I’m just beginning to get into this song and this artist. I thought it was worthy of “encore” inclusion, since there are always new first impressions out there waiting to be made and whatnot.  Maybe you guys have been following music blogs all along, but I’d been missing out until recently.

We do hope you enjoyed the first MixTape– stop back in on Mondays for further installments from the band.
It could be music, or it could be a different mixture altogether!

New look, new feature content, new attitude – all at the usual address.

See you on the flipside…

The five men of Darlingside live together, create music together and, as they like to add, even cook for each other. Offstage and on, the band, made up entirely of alumni from the College, share an easy familiarity that often makes them seem more like brothers than anything else (or like spouses, as one band member suggested).

Full article here.