Tag: alternative rock

SOUNDWAVE : 132 : PIERRE LAPLACE

Today’s guest deejay is Pierre Laplace.

I invited Pierre to share a mix on Soundwave after hearing his 2019 album, You Disappeared. Since then, Pierre has released a new album, Sundown. Where You Disappeared felt like the soundtrack to a China Miéville novel, Sundown felt like a Koyaanisqatsisque soundtrack for a doomed planet. The album notes for Sundown tell a tale of desperate conflict in Rome in the year 2062. That works, too. The album drips with foreboding.

 

Pierre Laplace
Pierre Laplace

The first mix Pierre shared was an unexpected delight. Then I could hear the influences of someone like, say, Ennio Morricone, in his music, Pierre’s mix didn’t convey the feeling of his own music. Pierre’s mix for today’s show is further from his albums. His mix is more unexpected and just as delightful.

Aside from three artists, I’m unfamiliar with the musicians who appear in Pierre’s mix. I’ve gone down the listening rabbit hole on Spotify because all the music in his mix is brilliant. I’m sure you’ll be doing the same.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be KMRU.

See you then.

  1. Alexi Murdoch “All My Days”
  2. Mark Kozelek “Find Me, Ruben Olivares”
  3. Alela Diane “About Farewell”
  4. Hayden “1939”
  5. Townes Van Zandt “Kathleen”
  6. Spain “Easy Lover”
  7. Adrian Crowley “Some Blue Morning”
  8. Grandaddy “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot”
  9. Elysian Fields “Next Year in Jerusalem”
  10. Jackson C. Frank “Marcy’s Song”
  11. Bill Fay “Big Painter”
  12. Antony and the Johnsons  “Hope There’s Someone”
  13. Richard Hawley “Cole’s Corner”
  14. Nina Simone “Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 72 : VARGKVINT

Today’s guest deejay is Sofia Nystrand, AKA Vargkvint.

For months, Sofia’s music kept appearing on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlists. If I didn’t find Sofia’s music there, she’d pop up on someone else’s playlist. Or I’d find her music on Bandcamp. In fact, Brueder Selke (CEEYS), played Sofia’s “Utåt” on their mix for Soundwave a few weeks ago.

There’s a reason for this, of course. Sofia has that magical ability to trasnport you to a world that is uniquely hers yet utterly familiar though her songs. Sofia deftly weaves folk, contemporary classical, pop, experimental music, and ambient. It’s a gorgeous thing to experience and I’m delighted to share her mix with you on today’s show.

If you’d like to hear more music from Sofia, she is featured on the Realismo Mágico compilation album from piano and coffee records. Some of the artists you’ll find on Sofia’s mix can also be found on the album (Klangriket, Sjors Mans, Jakob Lindhagen, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Simeon Walker, Ceeys). Sofia has also just released a rework of the first track, “Pomegranate,” by Sergio Diaz de Rojas.

Sofia has some words about her mix below.

Before I get out of Dodge, I’m happy to report that this weekend I briefly had my wife and kids in the same house. It was short lived, though. My wife headed back to work Sunday evening, and the kids will be visiting their dad next week. But after months and months of being apart, it was a small blessing.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Jonathan Ammons.

See you then!

 

Sofia Nyland, AKA Vargkvint
Sofia Nyland, AKA Vargkvint

When I was working on this mixtape, I wanted it to be centered around collaboration and how music can change when being transformed by another person’s creativity. I’ve just released a rework album where people have reimagined my songs from the album Hav (I have two of them included in the mixtape), and it made me inspired to find other remixes or reworks to include. One of my favorite songs of this year is the rework that Alexandra Hamilton-Ayes have made of Frances Shelley’s ”Evening Star”. Apart from the amazing reworks, I have included a few newly released songs, and a couple of my personal favorites from artists who I really admire.

  • Sergio Diaz De Rojas “Pomegranate”
  • Rockettothesky “Grizzly Man”
  • Tim Linghaus “Love and Dust”
  • Joakim Alfvén “Opinium”
  • Richard Luke “Everything a Reason (Jakob Lindhagen Rework)”
  • Vargkvint “Fyr (Reimagined by Bonander)”
  • Justina Jaruševičiūtė “Prayer”
  • Frances Shelley & Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres “Evening Star (Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres Rework)”
  • Simeon Walker “Drift (Reworked by CEEYS)”
  • Marie Awadis “day 3”
  • Klangriket “Björk (Jakob Lindhagen & Vargkvint Rework)”
  • Bonander“Gone in the Wind”
  • Vargkvint “Stormen Kommer II (Reimagined by Klangriket & Sjors Mans)”
  • Simeon Walker “Compline”

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    Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

    Weekly Mix 27: July 9, 2017

    Last night my girlfriend watched I T2 Trainspotting. I haven’t seen Trainspotting since it was released back in 1996 and I thought it’d be fun to revisit those lovable junkies and hooligans from the first movie. And it was fun. The dialogue was whip-smart and the cinematography was was breathtaking and the actors were fantastic. But it was fun in a Trainspotting sort of way because it you remember the first movie it was about a bunch of Gen X kids who use heroin because they’re lives have been hallowed out by Thatcherism, consumerism and boredom. In T2 Trainspotting we get to revisit those characters except this time they’re older, a little thicker in the middle and they’re nostalgic while at the same time they’re considering they’re mortality.

    I’m a Gen X kid. I’m older. I’m a little thicker in the middle. I think about my mortality. But I’m not nostalgic. The 90s were just another decade for me and then I moved on. Each decade had it’s peaks and valleys and some friends dropped out of my life but they were replaced by new friends. But the 90s were special, special to me, anyway, because I was a young man with a bright future ahead of me and my life was so vivid because I was experiencing everything for the first time. I got to fall in love as an adult for the first time. I also got to experience my first heartbreak as an adult. I got to meet friends for the first time that I’ll probably know until the day I die. Or until they die. Hopefully they go first.

    And I was always listening to music and the first five songs you’ll hear on today’s show were part of the soundtrack to my life at that time. The stuff is heavy. As usual, I listened to a lot of different kinds of music back in the 90s, everything from hip hop to avant-garde jazz, but hardcore and industrial was the music that I really responded to. Can you blame me? America was fighting in the first Gulf War and it was clear that it was going to come back and bite us in the ass further down the road. The Republican and Democratic parties were just starting to become recalcitrant and hyper-consumerism was becoming a cultural value.

    I’ll see you again next week. I promise it won’t be as heavy as today’s show. See you then!

    1. Godflesh “Love Is A Dog From Hell”
    2. Bastro “(I’ve) Ben Brown”
    3. Loving Six “U.S. World”
    4. Gore “Mean Man’s Dream”
    5. Head of David “Dog Day Sunrise”
    6. The Bug & Earth “Dog (feat. JK Flesh)”
    7. Pale Sketcher “Plans That Fade (Faded Dub)”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017

    Weekly Mix 26: July 2, 2017

    I subscribe to several newsletters but I usually delete them as soon as they hit my inbox because they’re uninteresting or sharing links to other articles. The only newsletter I read from start to finish is Bob Lefsetz‘s newsletter. Lefsetz is a music industry analyst and critic and the reason I read his newsletter while I delete the rest is because he always has a fresh take on things, whether it’s music, politic or sports or just talking about his life.

    Recently Lefsetz wrote a response to an article on the Washington Post about the decline of electric guitar sales. In short, rock is dead. Or on life support. As Lefsetz pointed out, rock is still around but it has all the relevancy of jazz or folk music. Why? Because rock has been so thoroughly corporatized that rock has been de-fanged. It’s no longer dangerous. Songs are no longer crafted, they’re manufactured on spreadsheets and ProTools and and any spontaneity left over is autotuned out. Not only that, rock has nothing new to say. It’s an exhausted genre. Furthermore, rock is reductive. It simplifies more complex music like blues or folk or Cajun music, etc. But now rock is reductive of rock music. It’s become pablum.

    The only thing fresh and exciting happening in music today is hip hop and electronic music. It’s taking chances. It’s experimenting. Even the stuff you hear on the radio (who even listens to radio these days?) is more inventive than what passes for rock these days.

    The electric guitar is dead. I mourn it’s passing. But to put things in perspective, there was a time when the accordion was huge. Now it’s an instrument regarded as hokey and old-timey.

    1. Oumou Sangaré “Kamelemba”
    2. Gordi “Heaven I Know”
    3. Crooked Man “Coming Up for Air”
    4. John Moreland “Sallisaw Blue”
    5. Amelia Payne “Down”
    6. Army of Lovers “Crucified”
    7. DJ Cummerbund “Earth, Wind & Ozzys”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017

    Weekly Mix 25: June 25, 2017

    Before we get to today’s show I wanted to tell you about a game I just started playing called Vampire: The Masquerade. It’s a role playing game like Dungeons & Dragons but instead of warriors and wizards it’s based on vampires. And we’re playing the game with dice and paper and not on a laptop.

    I confess, vampires aren’t really my thing but I’ve been having a blast. It’s been ages since I’ve been part of a role playing game and usually I’m the person running the game, so it’s fun to be a player character. I’m also tickled that my girlfriend is playing, too. When I tell her that she is my dream girl I don’t think she understands how much I mean that.

    I won’t go into the game too much because I don’t know too much about it myself aside from what I’ve read on Wikipedia. But I’m really digging how the game incorporates the mythology of vampires and also how morality and humanity is also a very important part of the game. What I can tell you is that there are a bunch of clans of vampires and each clan has their strengths and weaknesses. There’s been a murder within the clans that could possibly throw everything into turmoil and me and my fellow players have been tasked to get to the bottom of things. Pretty dramatic, huh?

    There are four of us. My girlfriend is playing a Nosferatu-like vampire who is also a hacker. Our friend Becky is playing a corporate-raider type on vampire and our friend Glenn is a biker vampire. Me? I’m playing an effete, club-footed vampire from the 19th century who is a cross between Oscar Wilde and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

    I’ll tell you more about the game as we go along. And if you’re listening to today’s show and you also play role playing games I’d love to hear about your own experiences.

    1. Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody (Played by 100+ year old fairground organ)”
    2. Golden Vessel “Shoulders (ft. Elkkle & Mallrat)”
    3. Wolf Alice “Yuk Foo”
    4. Ex Eye “Opposition/Perihelion; the Coil”
    5. Be the Bear “Erupt”
    6. Terror Jr “Come First”
    7. Mary J. Blige “Strength Of A Woman”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017

    Weekly Mix 24: June 18, 2017

    I’m going to keep the introduction to today’s show short because I only have a little time to record this before we head out to see The LEGO Batman Movie at the nearby park. The kids and I have already seen it but my girl hasn’t. She’s not the comic book nerd that I am but she likes those kinds things well enough and indulges me in my nerdy. We’re also going to meet up with my new friend Blanca, and her family. So let’s get to today’s show before I have to leave.

    1. ANIMA! “Blood”
    2. Trapo “Hello”
    3. The Beta Band “Dry The Rain”
    4. Elohim “Hallucinating (Mariachi Version)”
    5. Mondo Cozmo “Automatic”
    6. Boyfriend “Fun Shit (feat. Cindy Wilson)”
    7. Swell “I’m Sorry (feat. Shiloh)”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017

    Weekly Mix 9: March 5, 2017

    There’s a lot of tools I use to put these shows together and I thought I’d share one of them with you today. It’s called Pinboard. It’s a social bookmarking service that’s a lot like Delicious, if you happen to remember Delicious. It’s okay if you don’t because Yahoo pretty much killed Delicious when they purchased the service. Killing services is something that Yahoo seems to excel at.

    Anyway, the way Pinboard works is that when you come across a website or article or blog post that you want to go back to later, you can bookmark it on Pinboard. You can also tag your bookmarks, include a summary of what your bookmarking and search all your bookmarks or any of the bookmarks others have saved to Pinboard.

    Some people use Pocket or Instapaper or Evernote for bookmarking and I use those, too, but Pinboard is pretty much where I save everything.

    So why am I talking about Pinboard on today’s show? Because I bookmark everything that I might want to reference on each episode of The Weekly Mix. If there’s anything that comes up on The Weekly Mix that you’re even remotely curious about, you can find it there. Bands, labels, interviews, videos, all of it is on Pinboard. You can click the link to my Pinboard account on today’s show notes or go directly to bit.ly/WEEKLYMIXPINBOARD

    Thanks for indulging me in my nerdery.

    1. Jim’s Big Ego “Feelin’ Groovy”
    2. Francis and the Lights “It’s Alright to Cry”
    3. Erik Blood “The Attic System”
    4. El Michels Affair “Tearz (feat. Lee Fields & The Shacks)”
    5. Bishop Briggs “River”
    6. Kojey Radical “Gallons (feat. PW)”
    7. Dawn of Midi “Io”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017

    Weekly Mix 8: February 26, 2017

    From time to time The Weekly Mix features interviews. In the past we’ve chatted with artist Geneva B, KAOS Radio Austin co-founder, Nick Dement and Bondfire Radio founder Keisha Dutes. On today’s show we’ll talk with the members of The Brevet, who I had the pleasure of chatting with before the performed at Lestat’s here in beautiful San Diego. There’s a bit of static that creeps into the interview here and there and I apologize for that. It’s the first time I’ve done an interview on live streaming video and I’m learning how to do it on the fly.

    Today’s show has a lot of introductions. The most introductions ever, in fact. We’ll hear from Indian Handcrafts, All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors, Pulco, Ash Walker and Tangents.

    Click the links below to download and purchase the songs you heard on today’s mix that you liked. Show the bands and musicians your love and support!

    You can listen to The Weekly Mix every Sunday on KAOS Radio Austin at 6PM Central and every Friday on Bondfire Radio out of Brooklyn at 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time.

    Okay, I’m Audi 5000. See you next week!

    1. The Brevet “Moving Mountains”
    2. Interview with The Brevet
    3. Indian Handcrafts “Bruce Lee”
    4. All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors “Saturn Jig”
    5. Nisennenmondai “#1”
    6. Klara Lewis “Beaming”
    7. Pulco “Oxbow Lake (feat. Adam Leonard)”
    8. Ash Walker “Thunder (feat. Lord Saville)”
    9. Tangents “Oberon”

    Illustration: GDBee ©2017