We haven’t had more than seven days that’ve dropped below freezing, but it is still technically winter. I keep hoping we’ll get one snowstorm before it’s over. Maybe. Here for you, there’s two bands from Finland, four from Australia, Dreams and Dreems, Cats and Cates, guitars and synths. One Dinowalrus. I think this will be the last Wintry Mix of 2012. But look for Spring Fever in April.

DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 2.22.2012

Tracklist:
1. Eux Autres – Right Again
2. Gap Dream – 58th St. Fingers
3. The Megaphonic Thrift – Tune Your Mind
4. Disappears – Pre Language
5. Black Twig – Death Scene
6. Woollen Kits – Out of Whack
7. Veronica Falls – Thorn in My Side
8. Internet Forever – Centre of Your Universe
9. NZCA/LINES – Okinawa Channels
10. Metronomy – The Bay (Clock Opera Remix)
11. Dinowalrus – Burners
12. Weird Dreams – Holding Nails
13. The Chap – What Did We Do?
14. Bad Dreems – Chills
15. Cardinal – I Am a Roman Gypsy
16. Field Trip – Sleeve of the Skin
17. Young Prisms – Gone
18. The Tough Shits – Cats and Dogs
19. Cats on Fire – A Few Empty Waves
20. Cate Le Bon – Ploughing Out Pts 1 + 2

No shuffling! Click through for liner notes.
(more…)

I don’t know about where you are, but we are having a very mild winter. Not so mild that I should have been eating at outdoor burger joint Shake Shack last night, but I was and is where I snapped the picture that is now this week’s cover art. There’s lots of good new music on here, including the returns of a few favorite bands. Dig in:

DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 2.03.2012

Tracklist:

1. Burning Hearts – Into the Wilderness
2. Wild Nothing – Nowhere
3. Piney Gir – Outa Sight
4. The Heart Strings – Don’t Let the World Gang Up on You
5. Air – Sonic Armada
6. Field Music – Who’ll Pay the Bills?
7. Old Monk – Warm Moustache
8. Moonmen on the Moon, Man – Oh Look, a Sweat Balloon Artist
9. La Sera – Please Be My Third Eye
10. Hooded Fang – ESP
11. Warm Digits - The World in Small Doses
12. Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
13. Lilacs & Champagne – King of Kings
14. Summer Twins – I Could Never Break Your Heart
15. Allo Darlin’ – Capricornia
16. The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag
17. Candy Claws – Do You Ever Feel That Way?
18. The Wedding Present – You’re Dead

No shuffling! Liner notes after the jump. (more…)

I’ve been mostly cut-off from the internet this week thanks to living in a pre-War building that has cable installed in ways McGuyver never would’ve attempted. (A vision of a SOPA future, perhaps.) But we’re back on now and I managed to put this one together while unplugged. Last week we got mostly dancey songs, and this week the guitars are back. A lot of exciting new stuff here I think. And one old song. Have a swell weekend!

DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 01.20.2012

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Standard Fare – 05 11 07
2. Little Racer – Split for the Coast
3. Hospitality – The Right Profession
4. Exlovers – Starlight
5. Toy – Left Myself Behind
6. Terry Malts – I Do
7. A Place to Bury Strangers – So Far Away
8. The Band in Heaven – Sleazy Dreams
9. Siinai – Marathon
10. HEHFU – Come Home
11. Mind Spiders – More Than You
12. Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
13. Prinzhorn Dance School – Your Fire Has Gone Out
14. Household – Phases
15. Liechtenstein – Ambitions
16. Frankie Rose – Know Me
17. Trailer Trash Tracys – Los Angered
18. A.C. Marias – One of Our Girls Has Gone Missing

Stay warm, don’t shuffle. Liner notes after the jump.
(more…)

There were a few snowflakes in the air today here in Brooklyn, the first of the season, so it’s good timing for the first Wintry Mix of 2012. Unlike the Summer Fridays mixes, these will be almost entirely new music… though I’m allowing myself one oldie per week. Lots of great stuff here: new singles from The 2 Bears, Diagrams, WhoMadeWho and Bear in Heaven. This one is pretty dancefloor-friendly. So have at it!

DOWNLOAD WINTRY MIX 01.13.2013

Tracklist:

1. The Golden Filter – Age of Consent
2. WIR – So and Slow it Grows
3. WhoMadeWho – Inside World
4. Django Django – Default
5. Errors – Pleasure Palaces
6. Chairlift - Sidewalk Safari
7. Expensive Looks – Nightfalls
8. Tanlines - Brothers
9. LESCOP - La Foret
10. The 2 Bears – Work
11. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Dream On
12. The Big Pink – Hit the Ground (Superman)
13. Bear in Heaven – The Reflection of You
14. Grimes - Genesis
15. Diagrams - Tall Buildings

Like all my mixes, the songs actually segue together so…No shuffling! Liner notes after the jump.

(more…)

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. While you all wait with baited breath for my various year-encapsulating lists — just wanna make sure nobody sneaks out an amazing album tomorrow before committing to anything definitive  – here’s my 2011 Best Of mixes for you to download and enjoy.

If you’re a downloader of my Summer Fridays, Spring Fever and Wintry Mix mixes, you’ll probably recognize a lot of songs here, now in a totally new order. Plus lots of stuff never put on mixes before, of course.They’re broken up into stuff I thought would sound good together, at least till you get to the last one which was a bit of “oh I forgot about that awesome song.” Anyway, they all flow well, I think. See ya in 2011.

DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 1
DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 2
DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 3
DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 4
DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 5 (correct link)
DOWNLOAD SOUND BITES BEST OF 2011 VOL 6

Here are the tracklists. You can also click the cover art to get to the download. Enjoy.

1. Pete & the Pirates – Come to the Bar
2. Real Estate – It’s Real
3. Jonny – Candyfloss
4. Beirut – Santa Fe
5. Gruff Rhys – Sensations in the Dark
6. Oh Minnows – Another Volunteer
7. Metronomy – The Look
8. Little Racer – Little Racer
9. Heavenly Beat – Faithless
10. Acid House Kings – Would You Say Stop?
11. Girls – Honey Bunny
12. Cashier No. 9 – Goldstar
13. The Go! Team – Buy Nothing Day
14. Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High
15. Craft Spells – Your Tomb
16. Baxter Dury – Trellic
17. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Heart in Your Heartbreak
18. The Strokes – Machu Picchu
19. Peter Bjorn & John – Second Chance
20. Catwalk – Home
21. Hong Kong in the ’60s – You Can Take a Heart but You Cannot Make it Beat
22. Ice Choir – Two Rings

1. Metronomy – The Bay
2. Toro Y Moi – Still Sound
3. Cities Aviv – Coastin’
4. Blood Orange – Sutphin Boulevard
5. Friendly Fires – Hurtin’
6. Washed Out – Amor Fati
7. Peaking Lights – All the Sun That Shines
8. M83 – Reunion
9. WhoMadeWho – Nothing Has Changed
10. The 2 Bears – Bear Hug
11. Azelia Banks – 212
12. Joe Goddard feat Valentina – Gabriel
13. Neon Indian – Polish Girl
14. Teams Vs. Star Slinger – Close to Me
15. SBTRKT – Pharaohs
16. Junk Culture – Chippewa Kids
17. Holy Ghost! – Jam for Jerry
18. Jeane – Jeane
19. Django Django – Waveforms

1. Brain Idea – Oh I’m Free (Earn Your Card)
2. Mikal Cronin – Situation
3. White Fence – Lilian (Won’t You Play Drums)
4. Bad Sports – Teenage Girls
5. Mazes – Summer Hits
6. The Limiñanas – (I’ve Got) Trouble in Mind
7. Sissy & the Blisters – We Are the Others
8. Crystal Stilts – Blood Barons
9. Moon Duo – Mazes
10. Balkans – Troubled and Done
11. Wax Idols – Gold Sneakers
12. The Peoples Temple – Where You Gonna Go?
13. Total Control – Last Days
14. Disappears – New Fast
15. Bleached – Searching Through the Past
16. Jacuzzi Boys – Los Angeles
17. Radical Dads – New Age Dinosaur
18. Grass Widow – Milo Minute
19. Allah-Las – Catamaran
20. Radar Eyes – Miracle
21. Small Reactions – Nerve Pop
22. The British Public – Bears
23. McDonalds – Good Parts
24. PS I Love You w/Diamond Rings – Leftovers
25. Cave – WUJ

1. Let’s Wrestle – In Dreams
2. Kids on a Crime Spree – Trumpets of Death
3. Exlovers – Blowing Kisses
4. Ringo Deathstarr – So High
5. Eternal Summers – Prisoner
6. Veronica Falls – The Box
7. Tunabunny – (Song for My) Solar Sister
8. Big Troubles – Misery
9. The Twerps – Dreamin’
10. The Proper Ornaments – Shining Bright
11. The Fresh & Onlys – Do You Beleive in Destiny?
12. Minks – Cemetery Rain
13. Ski Lodge – I Would Die to Be
14. Beach Fossils – Distance
15. Widowspeak – Fir Coat
16. The High Highs – Flowers Bloom
17. Elaenor Friedberger – Heaven
18. Parlovr – Hell/Heaven
19. Weekend – The One You Want
20. Yuck – I Can’t Get Away
21. Swiftumz – More Than Sleep
22. Comet Gain – Yoona Baines
23. Terry Malts – Something About You
24. This Many Boyfriends – Young Lovers Go Pop
25. Gold-Bears – Record Store
26. BOAT – Forever in Armitron
27. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Tigers
28. A Classic Education – I Lost Time

1. Young Galaxy – Peripheral Visionaries
2. Trailer Trash Tracys – Wish You Were Red
3. I Break Horses – Wired
4. The Raveonettes – Forget That You’re Young
5. Violens – Totally True
6. Blouse – Time Travel
7. Cat’s Eyes – The Best Person I Know
8. Still Corners – Into the Trees
9. Grimes – Vanessa
10. The Horrors – You Said
11. Wire – Please Take
12. Plastic Flowers – Strange Neighbors
13. Cold Cave – Catacombs
14. Xeno & Oaklander – The Staircase
15. John Foxx & the Maths – Evergreen
16. Austra – The Future
17. Wild Beasts – Bed of Nails
18. Peggy Sue – Song & Dance
19. Wye Oak – Holy Holy
20. Colourmusic – Tog
21. The Caretaker – The Sublime Is Disappointingly Elusive

1. TV Girl – Benny and the Jetts
2. Sloan – Beverly Terrace
3. Destroyer – Kaputt
4. North Highlands – Bruce
5. Razika – Why We Have to Wait
6. Hollie Cook – Shadow Kissing
7. Dent May – Fun
8. Princeton – The Alps
9. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – How Can U Luv Me
10. The Stepkids – Shadows on Behalf
11. Zoos of Berlin – Haven’t Eyes
12. Murder Mystery – Problems
13. Spanish Prisoners – Rich Blood
14. Dirty Beaches – Lord Knows Best
15. The New Lines – A Hunter’s Penance
16. Rotifer – Jazz Cigarettes
17. The Drums – Days
18. Shit Robot feat Alexis Taylor – Losing My Patience
19. BNLX – Garbage Strike
20. Jeffery Lewis – Cult Boyfriend
21. The Beets – I Think I Might Have Built a Horse
22. Alex Turner – It’s Hard to Get Around the Wind

p.s. no shuffling.

Halloween is Monday so it’s time for a new mix from me. Goth has really made a comeback, thanks to labels like Sacred Bones, Captured Tracks and Wierd and there’s good “dark” music being made now, unlike a while back wehre it seemed that there was just a bunch of schlocky stuff being released on Cleopatra.For this year’s mix, I decided to do a little old a little new. It all fits together pretty seamlessly. Some of it (Led Er Est for example) sounds genuinely vintage. I know there’s a bunch of “spooky” music out there these days and I like some of it, but this is more my thing.

Cover art was done by Joe Jurewicz who used to front Dirty on Purpose and now plays in Neckbeard Telecaster when not making gig posters or doing animation on Superjail. Download, enjoy, goth out!

DOWNLOAD NEAR DARK: HALLOWEEN SOUNDS 2011

Tracklist:

1. The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary
2. Blouse – Time Travel
3. Bauhaus – Dark Entries
4. The Soft Moon – Total Decay
5. The Chameleons – Soul in Isolation
6. ZAZA – Ruin
7. Led Er Est – Lonesome XOXO
8. Ministry – Every Day is Halloween
9. Staccato du Mal – Desespero
10. Clan of Xymox – Louise
11. The Danse Society – Somewhere
12. Cold Cave – Catacombs
13. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Walking on Your Hands
14. Chelsea Wolfe – Demons
15. Xmal Deutschland – Polarlicht
16. The Sisters of Mercy – Dominion / Mother Russia
17. O. Children – Ruins
18. Siouxsie & the Banshees – Arabian Knights
19. TRUST – Bulbform
20. Skeletal Family – Promised Land
21. The Damned – Twisted Nerve
22. Plastic Flowers – Drive Me Home

And I re-upped my Vampire Bites mix from a couple years ago for those who still need the ultimate goth hits.

It dropped 25 degrees yesterday and now feels like Fall but that season doesn’t technically drop for five more days, so here’s the final Summer Fridays mix of 2011 on an autumnal tip. Which means some ’70s folk, sad strings, and mellow grooves. But as always, there’s some great new music on here: new singles from Django Django (the first in a year and a half), Still Corners and Radio Dept. offshoot Korvallren and Junk Culture (featuring Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel). Plus some oldies, cult obscurities (Yes that’s Matt Berry of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The IT Crowd opening this mix) and other sonic ephemera. This one turned out pretty well.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.17

Tracklist:
1. Matt Berry – Take My Hand
2. Cashier No. 9 – To Make You Feel Better
3. Korallreven – As Young as Yesterday
4. Django Django – Waveforms
5. Baxter Dury – Leak at the Disco
6. Junk Culture – Chippewa Kids
7. The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up
8. Yo La Tengo – Can’t Forget
9. Wendy & Bonnie – The Paisely Window Pane
10. Fan Mondine – Another Eventale
11. The Field Mice – September’s Not So Far Away
12. Weekend – Hazel
13. Still Corners – Into the Trees
14. Heaven’s Gate – Salome
15. Donovan – Hurdy Gurdy Man
16. Shimmering Stars – Dancing to Music I Hate
17. Mercury Rev – Goddess on a Highway
18. The Shortwave Set – Is It Any Wonder?

Like the shortening days, the songs onto the mix flow into one another and we’ll be back at the beginning before you know it. So no shuffling. I’m going to get liner notes up later this afternoon.

This is the penultimate Summer Fridays mix for 2011. As these are a lot like The Wire, you know that a lot of stuff is going down over the next hour. Spoiler alert: your favorite character may die. Cover art was done last-minute by yours truly.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.16

Tracklist:
1.    Echo & the Bunnymen – Silver
2.    Hospitality – Friends of Friends
3.    Box Codax – Charade
4.    Robert Wyatt – Heaps of Sheep
5.    Summer Camp – The Last American Virgin
6.    Twin Sister – Gene Ciampi
7.    Jean-Claude Vannier – La Girafe Au Ballon
8.    Gaz Gaz – Faster
9.    Mystery Artist – Heartbeat
10.  Wax Idols – Dead Like You
11.  Babybird – Candy Girl
12.  Princeton – Clamoring for Your Heart
13.  Elephant – Actors
14.  Blouse – Videotapes
15.  The Drums – Days
16.  The Frank & Walters – Fashion Crisis Hits New York
17.  Masters of the Hemisphere – In the Volcano
18.  Shack – Dragonfly
19.  Translations – Pigeon Suit

Please refrain from listening to this whilst in shuffle mode. Liner notes after the jump.

(more…)

Labor Day weekend, folks. Party it up, you’ve earned it. Here in New York, we’ve recently weathered earthquakes and minor hurricanes and other inconveniences. So fire up the grill, put a cold beverage in your hand and turn up the mildly twee indie pop jams on this week’s mix. Cover art photo was taken by Kate Bryant at the Friends With You inflatable sculpture park which is at the upper end of the Highline park.

While Labor Day is seen as the end of summer, Summer Fridays mixes will continue to the Autumn Equinox… so you get two more after this. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.15

Tracklist:
1.  Zumpano! – The Party Rages On
2.  Allo Darlin’ – Darren
3.  Future Bible Heroes – Hopeless
4.  Ski Lodge – I Would Die to Be
5.  Murder Mystery – Problems
6.  XTC – Day In Day Out
7.  Peggy Sue – Song & Dance
8.  Devon Williams – All My Living Goes to You
9.  Papas Fritas – My Revolution
10. Radiation City – The Color of Industry
11. The Liminanas – (I’ve Got) Trouble in Mind
12. The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Hide and Seek
13. Music Machine – The People in Me
14. The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know the Devil
15. Pale Saints – Fell from the Sun
16. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Keep Me Waiting
17. Grandaddy – Chartsengrafs
18. Destroyer – Savage Night at the Opera

I’m not even going to write it this week, but you know what I’m talking about. Liner notes after the jump.
(more…)

The calm before the storm. Literally. New York is bracing for the biggest hurricane it’s ever faced (named after Irene Ryan, Granny Clampett was one tough cookie) and I’m just hoping my 100 year-old building will survive the winds. (It survived the earthquake on Monday… what a week!) Until then, or if you’re somewhere not on the East Coast of the United States, please enjoy the collection of mostly jangly pop. This week mostly ping-pongs between now and the mid-’80s (hey, that’s new for me!), with a few stops in the ’90s as well.

Cover art this week is by me. This was taken on the Williamsburg Bridge on a summer Friday back in June. I know I said no Hipstamatic pictures, but I can break my own rules, dammit. Anyway, it’s a nice picture I think.

DOWNLOAD SUMMER FRIDAYS 4.14

1. Tommy Keene - Places that are Gone
2. This Many Boyfriends – Young Lovers Go Pop!
3. Easterhouse - Out on Your Own
4. Cut Off Your Hands – Nausea
5. The Smiths – Half a Person
6. Real Estate – It’s Real
7. Kitchens of Distinction – Third Time We Opened the Capsule
8. Violens – Through the Window
9. Psychic TV – Godstar
10. Male Bonding – Tame the Sun
11. The Candyskins – Submarine Song
12. Big Troubles – Misery
13. Girls - Honey Bunny
14. Rockpile - Teacher Teacher
15. Grass~Show – 1962
16. Race Horses – Benidorm
17. A Classic Education – Baby, It’s Fine
18. The Lucy Show – Ephemeral (This is No Heaven)
19. Oberhofer - Gotta Go
20. Oh Minnows – Another Volunteer

Stock up on batteries, water, and read-to-eat food, and no matter what you do…no shuffling! Liner notes after the jump. (more…)