Chemical - As I was tasked with providing the music for my best friend's wedding I took to compiling playlist ideas and pulling together all the guest's requests. Most were very overwhelming and not wedding songs. There were the occasional groovers that had most likely been added to the playlist already. Our friend group has almost exact music tastes so it didn't prove impossible to include everyone's song.
I saw Postey on the request list and, as I had been doing with each song, I threw it on the stereo. Immediately I was intrigued. Eventually I was entranced, in like with a new song. I never knew what range Post Malone had or how his music was going to make me feel tingly. In my first listen I knew I'd enjoy this song many a times to come. It has a lot of the ingredients in making some of my favorite guilty pleasure music. Popularity has always seem to shy me away from artists, but I think I'm coming around on the Postey train.
Its safe to say that I now love this track and put it on to feel a range of emotions. It makes me nostalgic and at the same time sad, thinking about past relationships and what holds they had on me. These types of songs seem so basic, so easy to create because they appear simple. I've come to learn that creating deep, impactful music that is also simple is one of the most difficult things in life. With so many words, Post Malone is able to make me feel certain ways and give my arm hairs a rise. He's a dreamy guy I guess too. Turns out being your true self and having fun is infectious.
The joke of the wedding weekend was the fact that "Chemical" was on every playlist from the dinner party, to cocktail hour, and the dance party. I think a younger Pat would have had some issue with this, but now he's into it and isn't afraid to like good music just because it is popular. We all danced and sang along and I'll forever have associate this track to that time.
Enjoy this fun, happy, sad, melancholy, and loving tune that will surely make you feel all those emotions in its brief three minutes. Postey for the win
Magenta Mountain - Thirty years old, waking up on an air mattress in my best friend's apartment, hungover and tired, I rolled over, greeted my friends and picked up the TV remote. The day before was my best friend's Thirtieth birthday and we watched music video after music video of what she wanted to listen to. "It's my day today" she said, "you can play your music tomorrow Patty." I was happy to oblige - it was her apartment after all.
Amidst Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, and Post Malone we played games and enjoyed the day together. Her birthday soundtrack wasn't that bad, but I was looking forward to mine. So, when the time came and I could annoy the rest of the crew with what I wanted to listen to I searched Youtube for my favorite band at the moment - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
I've found myself thinking about "Magenta Mountain" more than I've actually listened to it. In a subconscious decision I skipped over the more obvious choices and landed on the live version of this track at the band's Live from TimeLand set. The colors of the video, the vibes from the venue, and the Gorillaz-esque style of the track made me happy. I watched from my bed, directly under the TV and took in waking up a thirty year old.
We eventually moved onto over Gizzard tracks, stopping on Ice V, a silly and jubilant music video that everyone enjoyed. I was happy to hear not one gripe from the crowd and see that they enjoyed what I was playing. It was my birthday and they said I could play whatever I wanted.
Next up we landed on one of the funniest, most creative skate videos my friends and I have ever seen. Kryptonite is a track that screams hilarity and accompanies a montage of B-roll footy that will have you rolling on the floor laughing.
I don't know where it came from or who found it, but this video of a group of young friends skateboarding somewhere in the Midwest (maybe) made my birthday and made me forget how hungover I was if not for a little bit. I can remember watching this video together and dying with laughter. We still quote and preform some of the stupid yet genius things these kids said and did. Please direct yourself to the video below and set some time aside to admire this masterpiece.
This kind of video reminds me of the days going out in the morning, coming home late at night, shirts soaked, dirtied, all of us sugar high and tired, and a gang of footage to accompany it all. We'd terrorize spots with our shenanigans much like this group. The golden age of skateboarding and being a young kid fucking around with your friends. Get out there and get after it y'all.
Lightenup - In today's episode of bands who improve their own songs we have Parcels and their track "Lightenup." I first heard the music video version of this song after my friend shared a snippet through Instagram. I watched in wonder and intrigue as these five musicians, dapper, clad in style, rip through this tune with ease. Seeing the nuances of the musicians, most specifically the drummer, I knew that this video was a live take and was most likely completely different from their original recording. After taking the album version for a spin I was delightfully proved right and sought out to determine where the differences were.
Paying close attention to the drums on almost every song, being a drummer myself, I noticed some subtle nuances that made the video tight and authentic. Theses guys were really playing their instruments together and recording it all in one take. During the groove break in the track you can see the drummer utilizing the bass drum and cow bell, eventually shifting back to the hi-hat groove and incorporating some tasty tom fills. I did not notice these on the original track and much prefer having them instead of not.
I absolutely adore when bands take their own creations and improve upon them. These boys look and sound like they know what their doing. I'm sure they've taken this tune out for a spin more times than you can count. They know it inside out, front to back, back to front, and they know it so well that they are able to add in little details that weren't there before but make it that much better at the end of the day. In this video version we see the flute solo from the original take scrapped and instead we find a dueling guitar solo that will simply knock your brain into the stone age.
This track is funky as hell, has some near perfect vocals, and grooves like a motha. Take a listen to the two versions and see if you can discern where the differences are. These boys are tight, tight, tight, and that only improves everything they play from now on. If ya ain't progressing, you're losing.
What's Going On - I have a love for Marvin Gaye so ethereal and deep that it feels like It's been their since I was born. His soft, sweet voice just gets me every time I hear him sing. His music makes me happy, it lifts me up, and it makes me want to party. I'll break out my falsetto and not care how off key I am. Marvin picks up the rest, all I have to do is enjoy and have a good time.
"What's Going On" shouts love, it emits kindness, it pleads with so much emotion that I can't help but feeling drained and completely full at the end. What are we getting ourselves into in this world? Why can't we listen to Marvin and hear what he's saying, what he's preaching?
"Who are they to judge us simply because our hair is long?"
I used to love the Temptations movie, seemingly watching it every couple of weeks just because it was on TV. That movie introduced me to the Mo-Town sound and flavor. It got me excited and in awe of how cool these people were and how they were creating this delicious music. I like to think about Marvin Gaye and his choices. Hard choices he had to make not because he was forced to but because he felt like he had to. Listen to his boss, a genius and music giant, or produce the music he wanted to create and get his message of peace, love, and acceptance out there for the world to hear.
Like any great timeless artist, Marvin was met with contention when trying to change his path and veer into another lane. He would go on to create some of the catchiest, coolest, and sentimental pieces of music during his time. Marvin did things on his terms and it shows through his music. What's going on brother? Why can't we all just get along? I'm confused too and I wish you were still around to fight for what you believe in. Rest in peace to a true genius and innovator.
What's the Use - Friday morning I got in the van at 5 am and my friend and coworker just popped on Mac Miller's Tiny Desk. A Tiny Desk performance that lives in infamy in my friend group, along with the rest of the world, Mac Miller, wide eyed, giant smile, and good vibes leaking out into the crowd gave us a memorable show that will forever make the world remember him with awe and love.
It's a bit odd, but I'm not a Mac fan and have never really listened to his music. I like him and appreciate his talents and pursuits, but I never got on board that train when it set off. I have on-boarded at a rural, far away station after my friends continuously threw on this Tiny Desk whenever their was a TV around and Youtube was pulled up. I've learned to really enjoy these songs and see them through a new eye as my previous opinions floated away and I didn't have my labels to use anymore. If you're exposed to something enough its eventually going to rub off on you.
"What's the Use" is my favorite track from this video. A fun, upbeat, groovy piece that put a smile on the face of whoever is watching. Thundercat's bass line makes the song for me. All the ingredients here are on point, very much needed, but when that bass saunters over, dripping with some much cool you can't help but shake your thang, it all comes together.
While the studio version of this song is more mellow, even sadder, I added it to this playlist for everyone to get both perspectives. I had actually never heard the original version until I added it here and I will say, it has it's own vibes. Take a listen to both and make your own conclusions. I think you'll enjoy one of them.
Speedway - The most anxious I've ever been at a concert and yet the most intrigued I've ever been at the same time. Black Midi came onstage just after dusk, fog machines rolling, odd bits of sound flying around, and proceeded to fuck my ears repeatedly. I didn't know who this band was, I was there to see King Gizzard, my favorite band, and what I was greeted with was a small panic attack as the crowd pulsed around me. It felt as if I was transported to another dimension.
I can be certain that I've never heard anything quite like Black Midi. They may be compared to some artists yes, but at their core I feel as if they are unlike anyone else. I may just be naive to certain genres of music, but I will say that nothing has ever made me feel the emotions that were rifling through me. Both scary, and immensely interesting, Black Midi took off like a rocket shot into space as their song shook my entire body (I was directly in front of the biggest subwoofer on planet earth.
Continuing on the unintentional theme of this playlist, "Speedway" turns out to be incredibly different on the studio recording from its live renditions. I had no idea what the an on stage was singing, but I liked his energy and I sought after it once the show was over. Turns out I didn't find it because the studio version is very much underwhelming if you thought it was going to be even remotely like what you saw live. Everything, besides the keyboards (that didn't reach my section of the pit), filled the airwaves in complete chaotic unison and slapped me in the face so hard I couldn't comprehend what was happening. Four dudes that looked nothing alike and very much like a random group project of musicians set out to make the oddest music I've come across live.
Even now when I listen to this band at home or in the car I get waves of anxiety much like I did when I saw them. I'm not sure if it's the connection from when I first experienced these songs or if they really are that weird of a band. Maybe don't listen to these guys today if you're looking to stay way from the Sunday scaries. Don't want you to have trouble sleeping before the beginning of the week.
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