I am launching this blog for my friends who keep asking me what I've been listening to. For my old roommates, who don't know what to listen to without my guru-like guidance (or just have better things to do than wander the internet looking for new music). For my parents, both to help them find new music and in tribute to the taste they inculcated in me. For my friends abroad who want to keep up on what's popping in the states. For myself, as an outlet for my thoughts on music and as a way to force myself to stay current. So without further ado, here's what I've been listening to lately.
I'm gonna start by clearing the decks, so to speak, just unloading all of my favorite things from 2011, albums that I just can't stop bumping. These include Kendrick Lamar's Section 80, A$AP Rocky's LiveLoveA$AP, St. Vincent's Strange Mercy, Hanni El Khatib's When The Guns Come Out, Thundercat's The Golden Age Of Apocalypse, The Black Keys' El Camino, The Roots' Undun and Nicolas Jaar's Space is Only Noise. These are all incredible albums, across a variety of genres, that I simply cannot stop listening to. I highly recommend them to anyone reading this. There are dozens of other albums from last year that I loved as well, such as The Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues, Danny Brown's XXX and more. But those above are the ones that I still listen to regularly (although that might only be because I have them all in my car still)
Now, to move on to things from 2012, up to the present. Again, i'm just trying to give a brief run down of what I've been listening to up to this point in time, so that we can move forward and discover new things together, which is really the point of this blog. This spring, the things I have been discovering include: Action Bronson, a fat white Albanian dude from Queens, who sounds remarkably like Ghostface Killah but raps with intensity and a style that is distinctly his own. His Blue Chips is one of the better rap albums of the young year. But probably my favorite rap album of this year is Schoolboy Q's Habits and Contradictions . That shit is incredible, anchored by standout tracks like "Hands On the Wheel". Another incredible rap track, which my roommates have deemed my "go to rap song", is Freddie Gibb's "Thuggin". Although it technically dropped last December, it is only a teaser for an upcoming Gibbs and Madlib EP, which I could not be more excited about. Speaking of Madlib, he's been on an incredibly productive tear for this past year, and I'd recommend checking out any of his Medicine Show albums. Two other rap albums from 2012 that I ride for are Gangrene's Vodka and Ayahuasca and Heems' (of Das Racist) Nehru Jackets . Two very different albums - one all grimy production, dank raps and stoned epiphanies, the other a lyrical journey through underground NYC from a distinctly South Asian-American perspective.
So that was Rap. On the rock side of my brain, i've recently found a few incredible albums that I really just can't stop listening to. First up is The Chromatics' Kill For Love . This moody, atmospheric and honestly just gorgeous album has been pretty much all i've listened to since I downloaded it a few days ago. Thats a shame, because it bumped off another great album by The Men, Open Your Heart . The Men are more propulsive, rawer and rougher around the edges than The Chromatics, but damn if I don't really like their album too. On a more classic-rock style vibe, i've also really enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's new tape Wrecking Ball , and I've also just downloaded, and am enjoying, Alabama Shakes' new album, Boys and Girls (although the title makes me wanna go back and listen to The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls in America , one of my favorite albums of the past ten years). Also, the Shins' (or just James Mercer, whatever) new album Port Of Morrow is pretty good. Nothing will touch the impact of those first few Shins albums for me, but this one is very good and really reflects Mercer's growth as a musician and songwriter.
To close out, here are some other random albums that I've been digging lately. Lee Fields and The Expressions's Faithful Man is just good old fashioned soul music. Georgia Anne Muldrow's Seeds is new style, contemplative and beautifully sung hiphop/soul. THEEsatisfaction's awE naturalE will appeal to fans of Shabazz Palaces Black Up , or anyone who likes weird but great seattle hiphop/soul/genius music. Shigeto's Lineage is smooth, ambient beat music with serious chops, composition and a wonderful sense of history. Shlohmo's Vacation EP is a short but wonderful electronic EP by one of the brightest young stars in the beat music world. Julia Holter's Ekstasis is beautiful ambient beat music with haunting vocals and real intelligence. Lastly, Nite Jewel's One Second of Love is propulsive pop music with seriously strange underpinnings.
I would recommend that you (my hypothetical reader) listen to every single one of these albums. If that's too much to wade through at once, don't worry - this is a run down of my listening habits for the past six months to a year. I'd much rather you pick and choose a few that sound like they might appeal to you and really sit down and engage with them. They are all worth it. I can't tell you where to find these albums - if you feel like supporting these artists / the record industry, you can buy them. Otherwise, there's always the wide world of the internet, with free things around every corner, if you know where to look.
So where do we go from here? I'm going to be posting a few times a month, updating the site with new music as I find it. I'm also gonna invite a few other music nerds I know in to write and post about music they love. In general, I want to use this site as a way to share what I've been listening to with my friends. I may also veer into actually writing about some of that music, if the fancy strikes me. Thanks for reading this massive post - I promise in the future i'll be more concise. Maybe. I mean, it's me guys, I tend to let me mouth (hands, in this case) run away from me.
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