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

Weekly Mix 6: February 12, 2017

So here’s how we play the game: everday I post a song to Twitter and Facebook (#songoftheday) that I think is so marvelous and so spectacular that I have to share them with you. At the end of the week I gather those songs into The Weekly Mix for your listening pleasure. When possible, I accompany each song with a brief intro by the featured band or musician.

For example, on today’s show we’re going to hear from Eightch and one of the members of Ersatz. Nice, right?

Speaking of Erstaz, we’re going to kick off today’s show with their song, “Regret,” from their album, Hints of… “Regret” comes from their fourth album, which feels like it was recorded in some snowy vale, and I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter listening to this song.

After “Regret” we’ll hear “Midnight” by Monster Rally. I’m not sure how to describe this song, but it’s what I imagine what would be played in someone’s Space-Age bachelor pad during some long midnight of the soul. “Midnight” comes from Monster Rally’s 2016 Pelicans album, available on Gold Robot Records.

From Islam Chipsy we’ll hear “Trinity 2” featuring EEK from Chipsy’s album, The Bullet. Special thanks to Sean Hockings from Metal Postcard Records for tuning me on to this gem.

Following Islam Chipsy we’ll hear “Acceptance, Side 1” from Eightch. James Watson is the man behind Eightch and when I invited him to join us on today’s show we ended up talking for nearly an hour about music, the industry, technology, and about intergity and life and art. Good guy and I’m looking forward to meeting James in person some day in the near future. Anyway, I first heard this track on a rainy drive to work and it was the perfect soundtrack for that morning’s commute.

From Deodato well hear his funky disco cover of Franz Listz’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra.” Deodato’s a prolific guy and has produced or arranged music for more than 500 albums. That’s just crazy. “Also Sprach Zarathustra” comes from Deodato’s 1973 Prelude album on CTI Records.

We’ll also hear “My Hood” by Ray BLK. Ray is recognized as a new and exciting voice in grime and garage but you’d never know it from this soulful tune about her hood. I’m looking forward to hearing more songs from Ray’s 2016 album, Durt.

We’ll close today’ show with “Star Roving” by Slowdive. I was never really a fan of this band back in the 90s. I thought if you wanted to listen to shoegaze the only band worth listening to were My Bloody Valentine. Boy, was I wrong. I’ve spent the last couple months catching up on all the great shoegaze bands I missed. “Star Roving” comes from Slowdive’s forthcoming album, their first in over 20 years, in fact, which will be released later in 2017.

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

You can find me online on Twitter @josephaleo.

See you next week!

  1. Ersatz “Regret”
  2. Monster Rally “Midnight”
  3. Islam Chipsy “Trinity (feat. Eek)”
  4. Eightch “Acceptance Side 1”
  5. Deodato “Also Sprach Zarathustra”
  6. RAY BLK “My Hood”
  7. Slowdive “Star Roving”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 5: February 5, 2017

Today’s a special show because this will be The Weekly Mix’s first broadcast on Bondfire Radio!

Bondfire Radio is an internet radio station our of Brooklyn. I first heard about the station when Macedonia from the Both Sides of the Surface podcast started spinning there a year or so ago. Macedonia has exquisite taste in music so I figured anything he was involved in and was passionate about was worth listening to, so I tuned in. And loved what I heard. So much so that when I launched The Weekly Mix I approached Keisha and asked if she’d be interested in carrying my show. I’m thrilled that I’ve been invited to be part of their family and rather than try and tell you what Bondfire Radio is all about I thought it would be easier, and more fun, to have Keisha talk about the station.

You can tune into my show on Bondfire Radio every Friday at 11:30 AM, Eastern Standard Time.

Hope you enjoy today’s show. See you next week!

  1. Interview with Bondfire Radio’s Keisha Dutes
  2. US3 “Tukka Yoot’s Riddim”
  3. Grant Green “Sookie Sookie (Live) (Remastered)”
  4. David Cutter Music “Just Start Clicking”
  5. Mulatu Astatke “Tezeta”
  6. SoDown “Same Same”
  7. Post Malone “Feeling Whitney”
  8. Xinlisupreme “You Died in the Sea”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 4: January 29, 2017

Every day I post a song to Twitter and Facebook (#songoftheday) that I think is so amazing and so great that I am compelled to share them with you. Some of the songs are new, some of the songs are old, but you really, really need to hear them.

At the end of the week I gather those songs into The Weekly Mix. When possible, I accompany each song with a brief introduction by the featured band or musician. Previous shows have included introductions from hip hop recording artist Tall Can, UK country singer Yola Carter, gospel singer Phyliss McKoy Joubert and Dick Valentine from Electric Six.

This week, I’m sad to say, will feature no introductions. I’m not suprised. This is only the fourth episode of The Weekly Mix and I’m still growing my audience and the show’s reputation. Frankly, I’m surprised I got as many people to participate in the show as I have and I’m thankful for their generosity.

If you enjoy the show and you would like to have more bands and musicians joins us each week on The Weekly Mix, you can help. And it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Just tell a friend or co-worker, or anyone, really, to give The Weekly Mix a listen. The more people who listen to the show the more clout The Weekly Mix will have, which will attract more musical guests.

I’ve done it before. When I was producing my small WORKD talk show I was getting something like 40,000 listeners a month, and when I was producing solipsistic NATION, my electronic music show, I was getting 14 million listeners a month. All I need is your help. So please tell anyone you know who loves music about The Weekly Mix.

See you next week!

  1. Kweku Collins “Ego Killed Romance (feat. Jamila Woods)”
  2. Moses Sumney “Incantation”
  3. Pavel Dovgal “Nibiru”
  4. Max Cooper “Seed”
  5. Call Super “Puppet Scene”
  6. The Bad Plus “The Beautiful Ones”
  7. Cymande “Bra”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 3: January 22, 2017

I’ve got quite a show for you today. Not only do I have a fantastic mix of eclectic music for you to groove to, but we’ll also chat with Geneva Bee, who provides the illustration of the headphone wearing beauty who graces the album art for each show.

I first discovered Geneva Bee through my girlfriend, who follows Geneva on Instagram. Through her illustrations Geneva creates a world of whimsy and color that’s decidedly very girly. Seeing Geneva’s artwork in my Instagram feed always delivers a hit of dopamine. When I launched The Weekly Mix I asked Geneva if she’d allow me to use one of her illustrations for the album art for each show and she was generous enough to let me.

See you next week with another weekly mix. I’m out of here.

  1. Interview with illustrator Geneva Bee
  2. Tall Can & Generik “Bridge ft. Generik & 12Gage The Poet”
  3. OKBADLANDS “Dust & Gold”
  4. PNL “Le monde ou rien”
  5. Lil Uzi Vert “Scott and Ramona”
  6. Anderson.Paak “Come Down”
  7. Chairlift “Ch-Ching”
  8. Yola Carter “Home”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

Weekly Mix 2: January 15, 2017

Before we get to this week’s music I wanted to let you know that you can also hear The Weekly Mix every Sunday on KAOS Radio Austin at 6PM Central. KAOS Radio Austin used to be a pirate radio station but they’ve gone legit and now broadcast over the net instead of the airwaves, delivering the weirdness you’d expect from a city like Austin. I chatted with KAOS Radio Austin’s founding member and programmer, El Demento, last year for Pop Culture Intelligentsia, so it’s my great pleasure to be part of their radio station. It’s also my pleasure to have El Demento on today’s show and I hope to make it a tradition to talk with programmers from every radio station that carries The Weekly Mix.

You can find me online on Twitter at @josephaleo or on my website at josephaleo.com Want to contact me? Email me at joseph@josephaleo.com.

  1. Interview with El Demento, founding member and programmer for KAOS Radio Austin
  2. Rhiannon Giddens “Freedom Highway”
  3. The Joubert Singers “Stand on the Word (Studio Version)”
  4. The Incredible Bongo Band “Apache”
  5. NVDES “I Want to Make Out at the Gay Club”
  6. Electric Six “Gay Bar”
  7. Nora Dean “Barbwire”
  8. Georgia “Ama Yes Uzume”

Illustration: GDBee ©2017

solipsistic NATION No. 311: Head Cold

I’m keeping today’s show mellow. I’ve got a cold and I wanted to convey to you sonically what I’m feeling. I’m also not going to talk too much on today’s show because my throat is still alittle sore and I never know when I might cough and you don’t want to hear that.

You can find me on Twitter at @solipsistic or at @josephaleo.

Want to hear more great music? Go check out my brothers and sisters at futuremusic.fm!

Okay, time for me drink some syrzup. See you in two weeks with a show from the archives. Peace.

  1. Letherette “Blad”
  2. J Dilla “So Far to Go”
  3. Lemon Jelly “’68 aka Only Time”
  4. Shigeto “Pulse”
  5. Gold Panda “You”
  6. Onra “Ms. Ho”
  7. Flying Lotus “Zodiac Shit”
  8. Tycho “Coastal Break”
  9. Four Tet “Moma”
  10. Hidden Orchestra “Spoken”
  11. Lapalux “There Are Monsters In This Bed”
  12. Prefuse 73 “Storm Returns (A Prefuse/Tommy Guerrero Interlude)”
  13. Clams Casino “Treetop”
  14. Balam Acab “Motion”

solipsistic NATION No. 310: Mutamassik, Live

Today on solipsistic NATION we’ll hear a live set from Giulia Loli from Mutamassik, which was originally recorded for Fari Bradley‘s Six Pillars radio show on Resonance FM to promote Giulia’s 2012 release, Rekkez, out on Ini.itu Records. In fact, there are quite a few tracks from Rekkez on today’s live set.

We’ll also talk to Giulia about balancing artistry with industry, and her growth as an artist, musician and as a DJ.

Today’s show is eight years in the making.

When I launched solipsistic NATION podcasts were a new thing and most people didn’t know what a podcast actually was, which made it difficult when I would email labels and ask for them to send me promotional CDs for the show. And even if a label knew what a podcast was I didn’t have the audience that I do now, so why mail out music to show that only had a few hundred listeners? I can’t blame them, really.

But one label I did approach was generous enough to send a CD. I had read a review about Mutamassik’s album, Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works in XLR8R, back when it was still a print magazine. Definitive Works had been released by Sound-Ink Records and they sent me Mutamassik’s LP without questions or hassle.

Like I said, podcasts were an unknown quantity back then, so it meant a lot to me that Sound-Ink took me seriously enough to send me Mutamassik’s album. And it was a great album! I played it on the show and I played it on my iPod constantly. Someday, I told myself, I’m going to have Mutamassik on the show as a guest so I could get to know the person behind all this fantastic music!

That day is today. It took months of planning and aligning our schedules but it finally happened.

Join us again next week. I’m still getting my ducks in a row but I think our guests will be Known Rebel‘s Germán Escandell and Jaime Irles.

See you then!

  1. Mutamassik “Babomb”
  2. Interview with Giulia Loli of Mutamassik
  3. Mutamassik “Live”

solipsistic NATION No. 2: End of Summer

End of Summer

Ah, summer comes to an end.

I’ve been living in San Diego for the last five years and to be honest, it’s always been summer to me. Natives and long time residents of San Diego can tell the differences between seasons but I’m only vaguely aware of them. As a consequence, all the months and years I’ve live in San Diego have blurred together. There’s only an endless “now.”

While today’s show is a celebration of the passing of the summer it’s more of a salute to my summers in Boston, where the days are hot, humid and lazy and the nights are sultry. I wouldn’t trade the weather in San Diego for anything but I do on occasion miss those New England days where the heat would bake into your bones.

Another thing I do miss about living in Boston are my seasonal libations. In the fall and winter my drinks were whiskey and scotch and in the spring and summer my drinks were gin & tonic and rum & coke. As I said, it always feels like it is summer in San Diego so I have to go out of my way to drink my whiskey or scotch.

That said, I raise a gin & tonic in honor of the summer of ’06!

Photo credit: sk8master

  1. Steelzawheelz “Discotron”
  2. Effecctive “Tulsa Riots Pt. 3”
  3. Vinroc “Wine Country”
  4. Sure Shot “Sleepy Strings”
  5. Shad “Last Cigarette”
  6. Madrid De Los Austrias “Buscando (Karuan vs. Circus Remix)”
  7. Mark de Clive-Lowe “State of the Mental”
  8. Wintermute “Chillstorm”
  9. Autolect & His Meltdown Movement “Open Road”
  10. Urbs “So Weit”
  11. Cj_Harder “Mothra”
  12. Cling “Slipping Away (Of The Darkness Remix)”
  13. Chimp Beams “Menina”
  14. Bombay Dub Orchestra “Mumtaz”

solipsistic NATION No. 1: Relaunch!

I had always intended to bring solipsistic NATION out of retirement but there was always some sort of technical problem that prevented me from relaunching the podcast.

Originally I was going to use Macromedia‘s SoundEdit which came bundled with Director. Unfortunately, when I mixed down a set the track would be in mono and distorted. I tried doing the show using DJ-1800 and recording the set with WireTap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro but there was a touch of distortion in the recording I could never eliminate.

Last month the connection to the hard drive in my ancient G4 tower died. I didn’t have the cash to buy a new tower so I purchased a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was much more powerful than my G4 and as an added bonus, it came pre-installed with GarageBand. Suddenly all my problems were resolved in one fell swoop.

There are some deejays who like to do everything live without a net and on the fly. I was never one of those deejays. Oh, I’m fine at improvising live sets but my preference has always been to map out my shows in advance, meticulously plotting the segues and overall flow of a mix. Given my anal retentiveness for planning shows GarageBand is perfect with how I like to work.

I hope you enjoy today’s first show in the relaunching of solipsistic NATION!

Photo credit: dro!d

  1. Thomas Feijk “Leak”
  2. Butcherd Beats “Butcherd Beats”
  3. DP-6 “Vital Force”
  4. Wade Robson “Battlewalk”
  5. OPGave “Hiroshima”
  6. Jerry Mane “Magnificent Growlla”
  7. African Express “Overtime & In The Zone”
  8. Oculus “Lo Ki”
  9. Chloe Day “Kingpin”
  10. Autolect & His Meltdown Movement “Calm”
  11. Acoustic Ladyland “Something Beautiful”
  12. Jel “WMD”
  13. Circuit Breaker “Left Hook”