#but there are like hundreds of samples used across the album. sometimes the same song sung by different people

[mybackiskillingmebb]

sorry for caretaker posting sm but the existence of the caretaker wiki just makes me really emotional. the fact that practically every sample for the album has been found by fans who love the album so much they just had to know what made it what it is is just so astounding to me. there are up to 22 layers of music and people have STILL been able to pinpoint samples down to the exact recording that was used, ranging from other works in the caretaker discography to recordings of songs that were so limitedly produced that finding them was practically a fluke is just such an intense labor of love it drives me a little insane

[totallyvain]

Vanity Hour With Hala

WORDS BY: Thania Garcia

Hometown: Oxford, Michigan

Sounds Like: Something you’d find in a soundtrack for a nostalgic film about teenage love in the 70s

Most music nerds can tell you that Detroit’s music scene in the 1960s and early 70s was rich in R&B and soul. Thanks to the success of Motown Records, Detroit became one of the few cities in the United States that is synonymous with music. It is also the home of Hala, an indie rock project that stemmed in the neighborhood of New Center in Ian Ruhala’s attic turned studio.

“From the tiny window at the front of my room I could see the Motown Museum from across the street,” says Ruhala, “The history as well as the musicians who surrounded me, were a definite influence when I started out in the local scene at the time.”

In 2016, Ruhala released “Spoonfed,” a collection of 12 songs, an altogether 40-minute project made up of wavy guitar interludes. “Spoonfed” turns five in a few months but despite its age, the album continues to pack a global punch. And thanks to the power of Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature, one of the most beloved tracks “What is Love? Tell Me, Is It Easy?” has a mind-blowing 8 million streams on the platform (and counting).

“I guess, the first really interesting thing that made me acknowledge that something positive was beginning to happen, came when my friend Samia messaged me a YouTube link to Emma Chamberlain singing “What Is Love, Tell Me Is It Easy?”, in her car. That made me laugh.”

His latest release came in a pair of sunny tunes one titled “Sorry” and the other “More Than Anything.” The success of Hala can be traced back to many roots but a notable feature is Ruhala’s artistry when it comes to guitar. The track “Sorry” best exemplifies that fact. it features jumpy strings and drums, with Ruhala’s dreamy vocals singing “Your weekend is drifting on and on/ I just don't know if I can go on/ To get it.”

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Totally Vain: In the past, you’ve shared that it's important you write and record music that is true to your experience. Has there ever been a sort of still period that puts you in a writer’s block? If so what do you do to get out of it?

Ian: Writer's block is definitely something I have felt from time to time. I just find it really hard sometimes to sit down with other songwriters, and write about a certain subject matter; “summertime,” or “love,” etc… It kind of feels forced at times like that. At home, I find that my best ideas come usually at night time, when my brain for some reason seems to be working at its most. And, if I get stumped, sometimes it is best just to step away from a song, or the guitar/instruments in general, and things will pop into my head much more naturally after that. Maybe a certain experience will also spark a lyric, or chorus line during this period of separation from the music.

TV: Your music often times reminds me of the kind of music you’d find on a movie soundtrack, so I’m just curious if you have a favorite one or if they are places of inspiration for you?

Ian: Many songwriters think of music in broad ways; colors, or with a much more theoretical approach. I really like to write sometimes with a more cinematic approach. In doing that, I find that music video concepts will sometimes come even before the song is completely finished. This usually makes the thematic element of the song more obvious in the beginning stages, which is definitely helpful in keeping my mind on track. Not to sound too simplistic, but Freaks & Geeks has a really great soundtrack that I find covers a lot of ground musically over every episode. There are a ton of others I could mention, but that one I feel is a good example of following a formula of being un-formulaic. Honestly the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, is another great, and popular example of this.

TV: I remember seeing an interview of yours where you’re talking about “What is Love? Tell Me, Is It Easy?” and you mention that you recorded most of the instrumentals on your own and you had to work that way since. Is that still true? Do you plan to incorporate a band during studio sessions? If yes, how has that transition been for you?

Ian: Up until this point I have recorded everything, by myself, and at home. I am definitely not ruling anything out, but I really do enjoy working and recording in the most independent way possible. But, who knows? One day I would really like to do a 70s style, singer-songwriter album, with string players, and all that additional “jazz.” Something a la Van Morrison, Nilsson, Bowie, or McCartney, you know?

TV: When you go into the process of making an album or any collection of music that tells a story, what is the first step? How does that vision play out in your head and finally come into fruition?

Ian: I think with making a cohesive body of work, I usually start with setting limitations for what I want to create for myself sonically speaking. For me, recording can sometimes take a long time, and working with the same gear helps with keeping things somewhat similar and following this idea of continuity in some form or another. With that being said, I think this also allows me to do whatever I may want to do genre-wise, or in the vein of storytelling, and get away with it; because I am still utilizing what gear I initially limited myself to use, in order to record the songs.

TV: Before you started playing music, did you keep a journal or write creatively?

Ian: When I was younger, I did a lot of illustrating which I would most definitely consider to be a creative outlet. I made comics with friends and things of that nature. But, no I did not really keep a journal, actively, even though now I do like to handwrite lyrics, in order to more visually realize what I like and do not like.

TV: What makes good production?

Ian: A good ear, that will not be satisfied until the sound imagined is created or replicated.

TV: What do you feel is the best song you’ve released and why?

Ian: That is a really hard question to answer, but I feel like “Sorry” is maybe the song that I am most proud of (as of right now). I spent a lot of time, vigorously focusing on that track, and I feel like it opened the door for me, capability-wise, to make music with a more intense production component. I probably did over a hundred takes just to nail the guitar solo in that song. Chopping up bits and pieces, making sure it was all in time, as well as I just wanted to create something different from other solos I had been hearing at the time. I wanted something fast, intricate, out of left field, but also with a pop sensibility.

TV: So you’ve finished your US tour and now you’re supporting The Regrettes & Greer on a few dates. Do you enjoy touring? What kinds of things have you learned about being a musician on the road?

Ian: I really enjoy meeting fans, and with touring, that is definitely the easiest way to pursue and have that connection. It is just incredibly surreal for me to meet people that are excited about my music in the same way I am excited about others. And, I know for me, those moments of interaction with an artist were and are really special to me. I think the biggest take away with touring in support of artists like Hellogoodbye, or playing on the road with Anna Burch, has been learning how to be patient, and empathetic towards your fellow bandmates. Knowing you could not be doing what you are doing without them, really puts things into perspective.  

TV: One of your songs was sampled on a hip hop track, Big K.R.I.T’s “High Beams (feat. WOLFE de MÇHLS),” did that at all persuade you to begin thinking about messing with other music genre stylings than the ones you have in the past?

Ian: Staying in just one lane, musically-speaking, for me has never been of interest. Going back to the question regarding movie soundtracks, I feel the best soundtracks are ones that run the gamut when it comes to musical genre. The music I am currently working on, to me, feels genre-less in a way. Because, I am consciously “attempting” to write out of my comfort zone. I think this will make a lot more sense when my next record comes out, as I try to tap into a little bit of everything, from hip-hop, to pop, punk, and country.

With every Vanity Hour comes a playlist curated by our featured artist.

Hala’s playlist can be found at the Spotify link below.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1z9FTLM4SNzggJh3NQxJpC?si=o2zOWHnbQymNBSMqt9rC9g

[russiancircles]

Russian Circles Interview with Brian Cook // Stylus Magazine

Full interview by Chris Bryson via Stylus

Russian Circles perform in Winnipeg on April 8th at the Garrick Centre. Chris Bryson had the chance to chat with bassist Brian Cook to get a sense of the world of Russian Circles. 

Stylus: You’ll be coming through Winnipeg on a pretty extensive tour. How do you deal with the challenges of being away from home when on a long tour?

Brian Cook: Well, at this point the band has been doing this kind of thing for 13 years, and I’ve been touring for about 22 years, so at some point you just learn how to cope with it on some subconscious level. There are a few obvious things you can do to keep yourself sane: take solo walks away from the club, keep in contact with friends and loved ones back at home, try to eat well and exercise when you can. A friend advised me before my first tour to spend 10 minutes alone every day, and that’s good advice. I find the bigger challenge to be dealing with coming home. Tour has its own momentum. You get in the van and it takes you to your next destination. At home, you have to recalibrate your brain to be self-motivated. I occasionally see articles about musicians dealing with post-tour depression and it’s a very real thing. You go from being constantly in motion, constantly validated, and constantly surrounded by people to being static and alone. Dealing with that is the bigger challenge, in my opinion.

Stylus: Does the band ever change or alter its approach to songwriting and if so what have been some of the reasons for doing so?

BC: Every song is a little different. We all live in different states, so we end up trading a lot of audio files. Sometimes songs are cobbled together out of a bunch of different ideas, sometimes someone comes to the table with a fully written song, sometimes we just stumble across an idea when we’re all in a practice space together. We don’t have an established process.

Stylus: Being an instrumental band allows you to cover more ground stylistically with less need for adherence to a particular style. What aspects of your music do you think best benefit from this flexibility?

BC: We’re all music hunters, so we’re always exploring new artists and new sounds, but we obviously owe a lot to metal. And for me, honestly, most of the interesting guitar-based music happening today owes something to metal. But metal also has a tendency to cling to these aesthetics that can be a little cartoony and juvenile, and that winds up manifesting in a lot of the lyrics and vocal delivery in the genre. So being an instrumental band has benefitted us because it allows us to cull from the instrumental side of metal without having to shoehorn some campy frontman into our sound. I think it opens up our music because we’re not working with the limitations of a vocalist, and i think it provides us with a broader swath of listeners who might not be open to the guttural growl of the Corpsegrinder or the operatic wail of King Diamond.

Stylus: The music of Russian Circles is filled with an emotional weight buried within transcendental darkness. What are some of the inspirations and influences behind the narratives and ideas for your music?

BC: Any narratives are totally subconscious. We don’t have an active muse and we don’t write music based on a theme. I have nothing but respect for artists who can work off a concept, but for us, the music either resonates with us or it doesn’t. We don’t try to cobble together songs based on a preconceived notion; we write music based on what resonates with us on a very immediate base level.

Stylus: Was the looping of guitar always something the band has done to give added heft to your music? Are there any other methods the band uses to further amplify or give added effect to your sound?

BC: We’ve always tried to fill as much sonic space as possible. Looping allows us have multiple layers and multiple textures going at any given time. We’ve also incorporated things like the Moog Taurus so that one musician can play two instruments at a time. Ultimately, we really just want to make things texturally rich and dynamic, but we also want to adhere to the three-piece format without resorting to backing tracks or having a laptop on stage. There are a few other tricks we employ, but we can’t give away all of our secrets.

Stylus: What made the band decide to do a live album?

BC: The songs are constantly morphing. With our studio albums, we’re making adjustments and edits all the way up until mastering. Once the album is actually finished, the songs still wind up evolving in the live show. We don’t drastically alter them, but we find new things to highlight and new ways to simplify things. So there’d been some talk about trying to record a few shows at some point just to document how the songs had grown. The problem is that going into a show knowing it’s going to be under the microscope of recording would ultimately sap some of the energy out of the performance because we’d be trying to play things as meticulously as possible. It just so happened that the Dunk! Festival set was recorded without our knowing it, and it was a concert we were all very happy with. There are still a few flubs in the performance, but that’s the nature of live music.

Stylus: From what I’ve read Russian Circles is a band whose members don’t live in the same city and don’t get the chance to play together often. When it comes to sculpting and recording what songs or a final album will be, how do differences in ideas and opinions get resolved?

BC: If it doesn’t resonate with all three members of the band, the material gets scrapped. We’re all pretty open to criticism; no one is afraid to ditch a riff or mix up a part if it isn’t working. Honestly, the biggest conflicts in this realm have been pretty minor. I remember Mike really gunning for this one particular thrash riff that wasn’t really vibing with Dave. I was the mediator, and I told Mike the riff was really “fun”. That was enough for him to willingly scrap it. There is no fun allowed in Russian Circles.

Stylus: I read in an article with The Seventh Hex that with the music you create you said you “want to make something that sounds natural and human.” As an individual player and collectively as a band, how do you go about doing that?

BC: I’m just not a fan of music that sounds like it was built on a grid. I’m not opposed to using technology to make the recording process cheaper and smoother. It’s way more financially practical to record on ProTools than tape, after all. But I don’t want music to sound mechanical. There is very little electronic music that resonates with me because so much of it sounds like canned music. It doesn’t ignite my imagination. It just makes me think of someone sitting at a computer screen, staring at a grid, and plugging sounds into quantized beats. It really depresses me. I want music to be an escape from staring at a computer screen. And more and more rock music is recorded in that manner. The drummer doesn’t even play on a lot of current metal records; the engineer just samples drum tones and they plug those sounds into programmed beats. It’s no wonder so many modern rock records sound so sterile and flat. There is no push and pull. No space. No interaction between the instruments. I know that’s what some people really want out of their music—they want it to be perfect and crisp and even. But i prefer when it sounds like the band is so passionate about what they’re playing that they run the risk of mucking it all up. That’s way more exciting for me.

Stylus: Do you think it’s important when creating music (or any art) to maintain a balance between the pursuit of perfection and retaining immediacy and cohesion?

BC: Absolutely. I’ve been really digging this Workin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet record, and there’s one note Miles hits in the first song that sounds flat to my ears, and I totally love it. It’s jarring, but it reminds you that this album was made in a live environment. It’s a snapshot of a time and place. It’s not trying to create its own reality. And it makes all the moments where the band locks in and plays off each other feel that much more inspired. But I’m also someone that would rather spend five years listening to a record and wrapping my head around it than to hear something that’s beat-detected, auto-tuned, and ultimately designed to be instantly digestible and quickly forgotten. I want to make art that’s still interesting ten, twenty, thirty years down the road. And as someone that still buys vinyl, I only want to spend money on music that still excites me after a decade or two of repeated spins.

Stylus:. Will the band be bringing any new elements into the fold with the next music you put out? Can you tell me anything about the next Russian Circles release?

BC: Hopefully. There are a lot of ideas floating around, but we haven’t yet started to put the album together, so who knows. There been discussion of trying to make a darker, uglier album, but we also have a tendency to wind up writing songs with the opposite mood of what was initially intended. So we’ll see what happens.

Stylus: If you were to give one piece of advice to a musician/band trying to make it in the musical world as it is today, what would it be?

BC: Well, first things first, you would need to define “making it.” When I first started playing in bands, all I wanted to do was play a show. Then it was just a matter of putting out a record. Then the goal was to tour. And that’s about it. I had “made it” by the time I was 18. “Making it” should really just be about creating something you’re proud of, and everything else is just icing on the cake. At this point, I’m way more interested in musicians like Sir Richard Bishop or Daniel Higgs—musicians that have a history of doing whatever the fuck they want even if it means they only draw 50 people in their hometown or only sell a few hundred records. It’s more exciting to see someone make art that makes them happy than to see someone try to build a lucrative career pleasing other people. So my advice is to do whatever you want and do it passionately. Be involved in your musical community. Go see other bands. Support underground venues. Buy bands’ merch. Throw your own shows. Make your own tapes or records or CDs. Value your own art. Make it special. Make it sacred.

[aliahaider-blog]

The time flamenco pop sounded like my Pakistani mom’s cleaning music

Boring, I thought. The first time I listened all the way through Rosalía's debut album, Los Angeles, all I could think about was that, boring. 12 tracks and an hour later it felt like I had listened to the same song over and over again, the same guitar strum repeating itself with some off-beat vocals scratching on top of it. This had been right after discovering Rosalía on J Balvin's new record, Vibras, in which she delivers an interlude ("Brillo") that completely overshadows Balvin and the rest of his guest features on the album. The hype built up later as I discovered her latest single at the time, "Malamente," and loved the choreography, the production by one of my favorite Spanish artists El Guincho, that sexy repetition of "malamente" aided by the claps in between. So with all the dance-y hype built up in me, I decided to listen to her debut album, reaching that first impression I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post: boring.

It had to be impossible, though. It couldn't have been that this singer rose to fame among her peers had they thought she was boring. So I listened to Los Angeles again two or three times, and its beauty and elegance struck me in weird and nostalgic scenarios: as I cleaned my room, as I folded my clothes, as I drove to hang out with my friends. Her vocal range and constancy of such a raw performance took me back to childhood when my mom played her old Ghazal and Qawwali cassettes in those exact scenarios: when she cleaned, or folded clothes, or drove me to my friends' houses. Los Angeles likened itself to that hour-long string of consciousness prevalent in performances by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the feeling like you're listening to one long song with fragments of various identities that tie in with its overarching theme of love or loss or peace. Where I saw the beauty in the variety of her talents through "Brillo" and "Malamente," I now also saw in Rosalía's range of whispers and shrill screams compiled together into a central theme. Listening to "Si Tú Supieras Compañero," you inch towards the desire she emanates through her lyrics and lilting vocals (as my friend would classify them), following her through an awaited climax that never arrives, just as she does when she remarks,

Ay te voy pintando y pintando

Al laíco del brasero

Y a la vez me voy quemando

Por lo mucho que te quiero

Válgame San Rafael tener el agua tan cerca y no poderla beber

Oh! I am painting your portrait, painting you,

by the faint light of the brazier;

and at the same time I am burning away slowly,

consumed by my love for you.

May Saint Raphael help me, oh!

The water I need is so near, yet I cannot drink of it.

-Translation by Anonymous

The same effect captures you in the next song "De Plata," as Rosalía expresses her mere 14 lines of anguish towards this unrequited love for 4 1/2 minutes. The elongated "Cuando yo" at the beginning takes you inside that raw emotion, those periods that seem like forever just waiting for that person to understand the extent of her love. The pattern goes on from song to song, the concise feelings of loss piercing deeper in Rosalía's vocals and getting heavier in each song's lyrics. Time passes as the narrator's mother dies, and little brother dies, and the town's gravedigger buries his daughter, and by the time you can't handle anymore she concludes her narration with a cover of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's song "I See A Darkness," an ending that dually traps the narrator in her own head yet brings her closer to the ones she loves through her familiarity with imminent death.

Los Angeles and its similarity to Ghazal and Qawwali helped me connect to these feelings of loss in such a larger-than-life manner. This connection as well as Rosalía's objective with flamenco-pop moving forward helped me realize the quickly-changing landscape of music that she is adapting to. For me, this isn't the first time I've been exposed to South Asian/Arab and Spanish cultures coinciding. The Bollywood movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara draws connections between flamenco and Hindi music in its hit song "Señorita."  Indian authors like Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy incorporate elements of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude into their tales of India and Pakistan. El Guincho, Rosalía's co-producer for her newest album, has incorporated Hindi samples and Indian influences in songs like "Cuando Maravilla Fui" and "Bombay." I even wrote about a project by Moroccan artist Bouchra Khalili in which she juxtaposes speeches by prominent (albeit controversial) North African leaders and revolutionaries next to those by Latin American leaders and revolutionaries to universalize the experiences of Maghrebi immigrants in Europe. For Rosalía, she's not the first to try and bring a niche, traditional genre like flamenco into the pop or hip-hop world. "Despacito" became one of the most widely-heard songs in 2017, Riz Ahmed and Heems integrated Bollywood-inspired production with East coast rap and grime in their duo Swet Shop Boys, and Skepta found his way into every rapper's feature list from A$AP Rocky to Playboi Carti to Drake. But what seems to be so unique about Rosalía's flamenco-pop integration is that it embodies her transition into a purely diasporic art-form, beginning from the foundation of authentic Catalan flamenco and shifting according to her surroundings. In an interview with a fellow student named Jon a few months ago, we discussed the essence of diasporic identity being the ability to take the morally-rich parts of our parent-country's heritage and the morally-rich lessons we learned from the new environment we were raised in and combine them to create our own identity, one that transcends any doubt we experienced trying to fit into exclusive circles throughout our lives. Through that experience we learn to identify with people who experience the same feelings as us, like displacement and the necessity to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings, rather than exclusively people who look like us or share the same traditions as us. That's not to say I didn't mostly hang out with South Asians anyways. Sometimes people who experience the same feelings as us are also the ones that look like us. It's not mutually exclusive. And perhaps this inclusiveness, or absence of exclusiveness, is what allows Rosalía the ability to delve into these new areas of her music while staying true to her roots. This flamenco-pop wave she basks in is not a new era but a transitional one. In an interview with Tom Tom Mag, she discusses her perspective of creating popular flamenco, stating, "It is not my intention to alter, in any way, the status quo of this genre. It is more like….I sing flamenco from my perspective. For me to make music, and specifically flamenco, it is absolutely necessary for me to play in my own way." In this sense, she maintains that diasporic identity through the creation of her own perspective of flamenco, one that she hopes younger generations who were not exposed to its pure form since birth can identify with. And through this perspective, she capitalizes on the expanse of the genre without denouncing its purists. In a video set in Barcelona, a camera follows Rosalía through her favorite square. She reminisces on randomly meeting friends every time she goes there, and then the video quickly switches to her explaining the process of creating her new album, El Mal Querer. Through it all, I get to see how she manifests her explanation of this transcendental identity my friend and I talked about, but through her music. She remarks, "It's quite different from Los Angeles, but the essence remains. You can sense the flamenco inspiration," she says as she mimics the snaps and claps common in flamenco, "but at the same time, it's a whole new thing." This brief explanation rings throughout my head as I contextualize this leap in her career. Perhaps all the artists who pivoted to other genres of music and creativity never truly departed from their past crafts but just adapted to the environments they found themselves in. And perhaps as diaspora dominates more and more aspects of our lives, the preparedness to embrace unfamiliar circumstances opens the doors to many new forms of expression.

As I sat here writing this after hearing that quote in the video, I remembered where I had read something similar before. It was an interview with Riz Ahmed written by Carvell Wallace of the New York Times. In it, he explains his experience listening to Riz Ahmed's verse in the Swet Shop Boys song "Half Moghul, Half Mowgli." He ends that verse with four different voices talking to him, one of them calling him a "Paki" terrorist, one of them praising him for representing South Asian kids, one of them saluting him for his raps, and lastly an old Muslim man condemning him for his explicit content. Wallace explains his experience hearing that verse and coming to truly understand it, writing, "But the reason it unraveled something so deeply inside of me was that it also represented four different ways you can look at yourself. All completely opposite one another, and completely isolated, and yet completely validated by the world you live in. And when there are so many versions of self, maybe the only way to maintain safety is to develop a view that can see, literally, everything." Reading that passage a few months back brought me full circle in coming to terms with this "transcendental identity" Jon and I coughed up in our discussion, and now finding myself in the wake of this album that popularizes the artist's own perspective of flamenco, pop, love, loss and everything in between, I understand Wallace's notion of viewing "everything." I understand it through being a Pakistani-American who identifies with a piece of art from halfway across the world, one based in a language I can barely speak and a form of music I have virtually never heard before.

Through this piece and Rosalía's own expression of her diasporic identity, we get to see her perspective of flamenco come to life, whether it be in the fierce pop choreography in "Malamente," in the flamenco-inspired crescendo of the guitar and background of emphatic snaps and claps in "Que No Salga La Luna," or in the Bedouin-style auto-tune riffs in "De Aquí No Sales."

Throughout her performance in everything--video, song, and stage--we see the two worlds of Rosalía combine to create a third. We see her perspective of pure flamenco come together with the pop and R&B she came to know growing up; we see extravagant displays of color and flare in costume, fabric and setting yet also her casual streams of consciousness through fluid dance, concise lyrics and steady cinematography; we hear the theme of love and loss carried over from Los Angeles--even hearing that lyric from "De Plata" in which she asks her love to tie her hands together with their braids carried into "Di Mi Nombre"--yet we find our narrator with a brand-new air of confidence in her; and we see her Catalan roots become universalized as listeners around the world share her experience.

In the song covers (yes, she has a different cover for each song) we see these elements come together even more, such as in the “Bagdad” cover as Rosalía lays on her side pointing towards the sun with stigmata in her feet, a fitting expression of the Catholic undertones for her liturgy rendition of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River.” The cover for “Que No Salga La Luna” displays two versions of Rosalía shaking hands during the flamenco medley, the left dressed in chic white clothes as if a pop icon, the right dressed in an embroidered flamenco suit. Keys of different colors float in between them as if to open a door not accessible previously.

In the beautifully-crafted lyrics we hear the story of the narrator play out through the darker stages of her love. In “Que No Salga La Luna,” we hear a male singer repeat “Que no salga la luna que no tiene pa' qué / No tiene pa' qué, no tiene pa' qué,” saying the moon has no reason to rise because the narrator has filled herself with light, yet deeper into the song those repetitions soon bring out the loss of oneself in this obsessive relationship. Whereas the line once serves as a reason for hope, it soon becomes a reason for doubt in the confines of this love full of diamonds and undying loyalty to each other. In “Bagdad,” the narrator prays to God repeatedly to see her way out of the trapped relationship, yet despite the descent of an angel she again falls in love with her evils. The story of this love bound to end in flames continues through “Di Mi Nombre” as she basks in the sexual moment between her and her love. The last three tracks show the narrator confront her desire to find that exit and maintain the hope of finding herself again too. The final track, “A Ningún Hombre,” brings us to her realization of self-worth, remarking that no man can dictate her life, asserting that she will tattoo his initials to remember what he did and how she came out of it. These songs, layered as chapters, tell the coming of age story that is born out of this obsessive love in a way so unique to the genres they touch. “Di Mi Nombre” epitomizes the sex-fueled undertones of pop and R&B, getting its name from the famous Destiny’s Child song “Say My Name.” The experimental production of “De Aqui No Sales” meshes flamenco claps, auto-tune riffs, and car engine sounds in a way that perfectly matches the scattered and fluctuating feelings of pain and infatuation this relationship causes. It seems that with every line comes its corresponding piece of instrumentation to fully embody the narrator’s circumstance.

Throughout this listening experience we perceive "everything" the way Carvell Wallace explains. We can be both the purists and the adapters, both the flamenco and the pop, both the familiar and the unfamiliar. Somehow, while having to balance all of these ambiguities, Rosalía does not fail to leave out any aspect of her new identity that she’s embracing, that of a powerful, self-realizing woman, a pioneer of the emerging genre of flamenco pop, and a product of cultural eclecticism and diaspora. 

Listen to El Mal Querer below:

[jessicakmatt]

11 Rob Burrell Tips To Improve Your Mixing

11 Rob Burrell Tips To Improve Your Mixing: via LANDR Blog

Pensado’s preferred mixer shares some hot tips.

Rob Burrell is a mix engineer who recently became Pensado’s Place’s preferred mixer. What do they have in common? A love of music and educating the next generation.

Burrell’s mixing credits include big rock and country acts like Michael W. Smith, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, and many others. He’s also mixed sound for film and is now working on a hard rock EP, a pop-opera album and music for three Sea World roller coasters.

“I don’t do genres—I make music. I listen to music that’s all over the map and I’m incredibly thankful that the same diversity comes across my console daily. My clients comes from all over the world, and I’m having the time of my life.”

He’s got us asking: what’s your secret Rob?

From Singing to Stepping Behind the Console

Rob Burrell wanted to become a singer and went to college to do a vocal performance major. One day a professor took him to a background vocal session he was producing. “I’d never been in a studio before, that night everything changed. Watching the producer and engineer accomplish what I had heard my whole life—and naively thought just happened automatically—my entire focus changed. It was the perfect blend of tech and musicianship.”

That made him shift gears and enroll in a Recording and Production program. “I got my first assistant gig in 1994 while I was still in college, and that first job turned into my first Platinum record to hang on the wall.”

A decade later, he decided to focus on being a mix engineer—not just an engineer who mixes. “This was scary because I had four young kids and a wife to provide for—but that’s a pretty good motivation to succeed! It was a rough transition, but it paid off. Somewhere around 5,000 mixes later, I still wake up everyday like it’s Christmas morning!”

Here are Rob Burrell’s 11 tips for mixing, studio workflows and living life, in his words:

1. Ask WHY?

I ask myself this question hundreds of times a day—consciously or subconsciously—out of years of practice. It’s a concept that I challenge all my interns, assistants and my clients with.

If you can’t define the “WHY?” to each and every action, you’re just wandering around hoping to stumble onto something that serves the song well. If you don’t know your end goal, you can’t know how to get there.

Sometimes it’s fun to hop in the car and drive wherever the road takes you. But if you’re supposed to be going out for a bag of coffee and your client is coming in 15 minutes… Might not be the best time for a joyride.

For example, I have a bass guitar on a rock track that is driving the chord changes and it isn’t cutting through. I’ve already defined “WHY?” it needs to cut through: because it’s crucial to the changes.

If I’m choosing a 1176 Blackface peak limiter over a STA-Level Tube Compressor after I pound it with 15dB of 800 Hz, 15dB of 1kHz and more shelf above that. WHY am I doing that? Is it because I read somewhere that you’re supposed to use an 1176 on bass? There’s no “WHY?” there—no thought process of your own.

I want the 1176 is because it’s quick enough to warm and round out a bunch of the clack up top I just created. I was looking for definition in the note changes and it gives me exactly that. The STA would glue it to the wall, but it would give me too much of the nasal region of the bass. It wouldn’t react as quickly to tame the front edge of the string noise.

Don’t get too hung up on “settings” or just become a preset robot. Instead, begin to be aware of your thought process and control it, rather than hoping to get lucky.

In the early part of your career, this will look more like “I THINK this is why…” As you learn and grow your mixing vocabulary, you’ll be able to say with confidence: “This IS why I chose what I did.” So don’t get too hung up on “settings” or just become a preset robot. Instead, start being aware of your thought process and control it, rather than hoping to get lucky.

2. Bring out the Emotion

Music is emotional! There’s no way around it. Sure, it’s technical and it’s a business. But at the end of the day music is born out of emotion—it expresses emotion, invokes emotion, and we should do everything we can to maximize it during mixing and mastering.

So listen to your songwriter, your artist, your producer and find the heart that drives the song. Sometimes this will be obvious when you listen, sometimes you’ll need to dig deeper.

If you invest emotionally and get inside the music, you’ll make much better decisions to serve it best as you can. And of course remember to ask your hundreds of “WHY?” throughout the day.

3. Check Your Acoustics

This is absolutely critical. If you spend any time on the internet, you’ll read that it’s all about “acoustics, acoustics, acoustics.” That’s true.

As a young up-and-coming engineer I always had my eye on more gear. I was sure it would make my mixes awesome. Or a new set of speakers so I could hear better. A killer set of speakers isn’t going to matter at all until you have a great acoustic situation sorted out.

The great news is that there are so many great products out there to help you. You don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your control room dialed in.

For instance, I use the ASC Attack Wall system which I’ve owned for 17+ years and it’s absolutely amazing! People walk into my room to listen and cannot believe that it’s a modular acoustic system and not a 6-figure buildout.

Take some time to learn about acoustics. It’s your job to understand how it affects your work!

So take some time to learn about acoustics. It’s your job to understand how it affects your work! Grab a free copy of Room EQ Wizard and a measurement mic, and make a plan for spending some money to get your room sorted out. Otherwise you’ll buy a killer new tube compressor and won’t even be able to properly hear what it’s doing.

4. Choose Your Monitoring Chain Wisely

After your space is dialed in, having a killer monitoring chain is key.

A master DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) and speakers that you know intimately will give you a window to how your mixes translate in the real world. You want your speaker to give you the whole picture—not to leave out or gloss over parts of the picture that need more work.

Speaker choice is a personal preference but don’t just pick something that sounds good. Choose something that will inspire you to work harder to make a killer mix. There are speakers out there that I’ve tried and made me think I had knocked the mix out of the park… Only to go listen in the car and realize I should’ve kept working for another two or three hours!

So it’s important to have an honest speaker to guide your way. My personal choice are these ATC SCM50’s with dual Bag End subwoofers. I know that what I hear in my room will sound the way I intended when the mix heads out the door.

5. Balance the Right and Left Brain

Mixing should be a fluid process of constantly moving back and forth between the analytical (left) and creative (right) sides of our brain—never staying in one side for too long.

I love the technology we have today. I’m not afraid to say that I don’t miss the days of analog tape. I absolutely have no issues with what’s going on in the digital world and really love the flexibility it allows us to have.

I do have one issue: the fact that we’re staring at a screen all the time. Looking at music? No thanks…

Give tactile mixing a try. It will truly change the way you think and hear in your process, not to mention increase the speed at which you can accomplish what’s in your head.

This is something I’m very particular about. My main screens are off to the side so I physically have to turn my body to see them. I just don’t want to see music while I mix! Instead I’m grabbing faders, turning knobs, staring off into the space in front of me visualizing my mix and being moved by it—rather than being influenced by pretty colors on the screen or an EQ curve that “looks” too aggressive when I see the graph on the computer.

It’s very important to my personal workflow that I focus on the music. Obviously for editing we need to look at the screen or occasionally a plugin, but mixing is different. It should be a creative and musical experience. Even if it’s a single fader with a few knobs that let you to do more than one action at a time. That already has more emotion.

Give tactile mixing a try. It will truly change the way you think and hear in your process—not to mention increase the speed at which you can accomplish what’s in your head.

6. Think Analog for Headroom and Levels

In the digital age, even with great 32 and 64-bit mix busses, we should still be aware of analog reference levels. We love all our hardware emulation plugins, and designers have primarily created those based on analog gain staging.

The key to getting the best sound is to understand that the zero we see in our DAW’s is 0 dBfs (dB full-scale). That means end of the line, no more room. With Pro Tools meters, I always say that yellow is the new red.

Take a vocal, for instance. When a vocalist hits the region where green becomes yellow, the vocal is likely approaching digital zero. This is because of the slowness of PPM meters (‘pseudo peak’) and the harmonic complexity of the human voice. If that same vocal is glued in the yellow or tickling red, you are missing out on the optimal operating range of analog gear—converters and plugins alike.

Learn what reference your DAW uses (-16, -18, -20, etc.) and start watching your meters. So much of the width and depth we want a plugin to achieve is often easy to do by simply reclaiming the headroom we’ve lost from poor practices.

This applies to samples and Virtual Instruments (VI) as well… so often they output right at zero. Don’t be afraid to turn the master of the VI down 10 or even 20dB! Who cares if the waveforms look small! GOOD! That’s why we have zoom functions on computers.

7. Get Down to Business

“Business Matters.” As musicians, we hate to think this way. But for a lot of us, learning to be businesspeople is crucial. At a certain point, you’ll need to make money to keep making music.

With intellectual property being so undervalued today, do your best NOT to undervalue it further with your clients. When you do work for free, that client will rarely want to give you more.

Study the business around you, understand your place in the chain, and think forward. Not just how to survive today, but what it will take to survive in the future.

Charge something, even if it’s just a little. As your ability and clientele grows, your rate should also. Eventually, you may be supporting a spouse and children—free doesn’t buy a lot of groceries or diapers!

Study the business around you, understand your place in the chain, and think forward. Not just how to survive today, but what it will take to survive in the future.

8. Don’t chase. Lead!

Any time you play it safe, you risk losing the client. We are hired for our opinion. If the client hears the mix and isn’t more moved than when they sent you the rough mix, what do they need you for, anyway?

I work hard to push boundaries every day—my own personal boundaries as well as the client’s. I might go too far and scare them a bit… AWESOME! I can always dial it back if I’ve gone out of bounds. If I went 10% beyond where they thought they were comfortable and we dial it back 5%, we’ve all still pushed our boundaries by 5%. This is evolution—carving new and exciting paths.

Playing it safe won’t get you a win. Be bold, maybe even reckless! Music is dangerous, so be fearless! BUT here’s two rules to remember…

Don’t be different just to be different! Know WHY you’re doing something different!

Make sure you are ready to listen to your client above your own ego, because if you aren’t a good collaborator, you may not get the call next time around.

9. Know the Reference

There are two components to this.

The first component is: what audio format is the reference? Always be aware when checking against commercial releases of the format you’re listening to. Streaming? iTunes download? CD? HD Master? Lossy formats are just that… Information has been lost.

If you listen to a stream and try to copy what you’re hearing, I can almost guarantee you’ll have less top and bottom than you should and too much overall compression/limiting. These formats don’t breathe the way your full resolution master should.

Be aware of the effects of these processes and listen for vibe and generalities, rather than accepting it as complete sonic truth. We shouldn’t be trying to copy another mix anyway, but be super careful of the tonal shape of each of the different formats.

It’s also crucial to know what your clients are referencing, because I’ve had “the mix is a bit too bright” comment before and after sending an MP3 reference rather than a WAV file, the top end was suddenly what they wanted. Sad, but true… know your formats!

The second component is simple. Just remember that no two songs are alike! Don’t try to squeeze your mix into a sonic box to match a commercial mix that you love. Again, listen for vibe and generalities. Do your own thing!

10. Ask questions

We ALL should ALWAYS be learning! I purposely set out to learn something new everyday.

There’s always someone who’s been at it longer than you, and those of us that have been at this for a minute love to share our passion for what we’ve learned.

Fight for knowledge and understanding on your own, but don’t be afraid to ask those that have years of experience.

Fight for knowledge and understanding on your own, but don’t be afraid to ask those that have years of experience. We all start at the bottom and grow from hard work and people speaking into our craft and career. This is community at its best!

11. Live life

Hustle, yes. Hustle hard. Music life is challenging, but therefore very rewarding! So live life with those you love.

Inspiration comes from the world around us. Work your tail off—we all need to in order to keep our edge. But without recharging you’ll get burned out.

No person is an island, so go hang out on an island with some family or friends!

Visit Rob Burrell’s website for more on his discography and studio. Follow Rob on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The post 11 Rob Burrell Tips To Improve Your Mixing appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog http://blog.landr.com/rob-burrell-mix-tips/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/161291828004

[tinymixtapes]

Composer Steve Gibbs shares exclusive video loops and track-by-track rundown from new album Adrift with Tiny Mix Tapes. And, courtesy of the Associative Property of Addition, with YOU!

Being “rather important” players in the music media biz, it will not shock many to know that the Tiny Mix Tapes staffers gets up to all sorts of wild and rascally things…even on a school night. Whether it’s night swimming less than thirty minutes after eating or brazenly flaunting our tighty-whities at a post-Labor Day celeb-soirée, there is simply no stopping us mischief-makers when we’ve got our rebellion on! Why, just last night, resisting the urge to order a hundred pizzas to the White House (oh my! can you imagine?!?!) or hot foot it outside to leave a half eaten pie at my neighbors doorstep, this merry TMT prankster decided to stay in and quietly write up a thoughtful news story! (While that doesn’t “sound” too impish at first, let’s just say I took plenty of writing breaks to tent my fingers and twirl my imaginary curlicued mustache!) Another “rather important” music-media guy who would be justified sporting a sly-boots smile of his own lately is the gifted pianist and composer Steve Gibbs. Besides being in constant demand for his inspiring film/television/stage production/ad campaign mood pieces, Gibbs has released his debut album and, not surprisingly, it is one full of epiphanic occasions. Adrift expands upon and updates his acclaimed 2014 EP (of the same name) and properly encapsulates his unique spin on modern classical and intelligent ambient, with songs of stark piano, electronic-embellished pieces, and lush cinematic sound composition. But why should I wax un-poetically further when its creator has graciously given us an insightful track-by-track commentary of the album, complete with EXCLUSIVE VIDEO SNIPPETS? Adrift is available RIGHT NOW on 180-gram vinyl and download through the rebels at Injazero Records. Take it away, Steve, you scamp! Steve Gibbs’ Adrift track-by-track breakdown: 01. Passion “Passion” was an original score for Australian company, Energetiks and was directed by David Dang, who I have previously worked with on projects such as “Christ Air” and “Where am I.” Our styles complement each other really well. With this project in particular, the ambient nature of the music mixed with the slow motion visuals help to highlight the fluidity of the dancer’s movement. 02. Evoke I had the pleasure of working with the extremely talented fine art photographer Alexia Sinclair again, following her “A Frozen Tale” video. Evoke soundtracks the creation of Alexia’s artwork in “The Art of Saving a Life,” an initiative from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I was blown away by how well received “Evoke” has been on SoundCloud. With over 400,000 plays it is by far the most popular track on my SoundCloud page. 03. Råklipp “Råklipp” is an original score written for a short film by Norwegian filmmaker Håvard Fandrem, which translates to “Rough Cut.” I felt that delicate solo piano would be the best way to add intimacy to the score and reflect the personal message being put across in the story. The track is built around arpeggiated patterns, that vary in complexity as the film progresses. As a result, the track ended up being much more rhythmical in its approach, than the layered, ambient nature of other tracks found on Adrift. 04. Patterns I like to experiment by treating acoustic instruments electronically as a way of creating unique textures. One such example of this can be heard throughout “Patterns.” To create the pad sound I sampled a small section of a piano chord as it was tailing off. I reversed and looped it to act as an ambient bed for the melody to be played over. 05. Low Light As well as music, I also have a background in the visual side of creativity and see a lot similarities between the two. I find that many of the processes involved in creating visuals are also present in music production. This is something I’ve tried to convey through song titles (“Low Light” and “Bokeh”). I like to experiment with ways in which I can add character to my recordings. One such example is recording onto tape using my reel to reel, as a way to add warmth and age. This helps to move away from pristine digital recordings. The same applies to imagery, the noise from film grain and bokeh (intentional blurring) are both methods that can be used to help add life to an image. “Low Light” was written around the same time I was working on In Passing, a collaborative release with American composer, Cyrus Reynolds. 06. Adrift “Adrift” was one of those rare occasions where everything fell into place. As a result, the track came together fairly quickly with little editing. I feel this is to its benefit, sometimes ideas can take a lot of work to come across how you intended but can lose its initial impact in the process due to being overworked. 07. Seul “Seul” was a track I began working on a few years ago. Through working with Injazero Records, it was the perfect opportunity to revisit the track and develop it with fresh ears. 08. Contention “Contention” is the result of my first original score. Written for a documentary about a young female boxer hoping to represent Great Britain in the 2016 Olympic games. The score came together very quickly, written and recorded over a weekend with the final version remaining relatively untouched after presenting the initial idea. “Contention” went on to appear in projects for Alexia Sinclair’s A Frozen Tale,” selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick and [for use in a] Zeal Optics [promotional video]. 09. Bokeh Adrift is a very piano-driven album. Guitars feature elsewhere but as ambient swell in the background. For “Bokeh,” they take the forefront. The instrumentation remains the same as other tracks. http://j.mp/2pUrEE7

[thebigcitynightsband]

no news

Hello and Greetings.

Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. There is a rich white guy running the country below us, there is a rich guy running the country we live in. The Toronto Maple Leafs are struggling to clinch a playoff spot, while the Blue Jays are playing in the Grapefruit League, getting ready for their season down in Florida. Okay, so maybe some things have changed.

We are sitting on anywhere from 25-50 songs, some of them already recorded except for vocals, as with Better Days Are A Toenail Away and Heck ‘Em All. There are others that haven’t been recorded or even fleshed out. I wrote a new song last night that sounds like a mix between “Guy I Know” and Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter.” I demoed it so I wouldn’t forget it.

What Are We Doing?

Nothing. Nothing at all. I haven’t seen James since last May and I haven’t seen Ryan since November, when he dropped off my mixer downtown Brampton while I was visiting a friend.

I have no idea how to fix this situation at the moment. I work most Fridays and Saturdays. I have at least two Sundays off a week, but I can’t always get to Brampton and the guys don’t always want to come down here to jam at the Rehearsal Factory.

I have been enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program for the past long while, a program that involves group meetings and individual counselling with an addictions counsellor. The type of treatment involved would likely cost its participants thousands of dollars per year, given the expertise and intensity of the doctors involved, but for me and for others, it costs considerably less than that, about a hundred dollars a month. That’s the financial cost. The social cost is a bit heavier: I have to submit a urine test every single day.

What this means is I have to be at Bloor and Lansdowne once a day, every day, to submit a sample or I will be kicked out of the program. There are no second chances, there are no doctor’s notes for illness. You simply cannot miss a single day. Period. The fact that I have been doing this for months now should demonstrate my devotion to the program and how seriously I’m taking it, but just in case it doesn’t, I’ll say it here: I am taking this program very very seriously. It has given me back my life.  On weekdays this requirement isn’t too onerous, seeing as the clinic is open from 8am to 5pm. Since I work in the service industry and my work day usually begins between 2 and 4 pm, it’s not too difficult for me to get up a half hour earlier than I normally would and head over to pee in a cup. It’s a small price to pay for a program that has helped me so much. On weekends, though, it’s a lot harder, because the window of time I have to be at the clinic is seriously shortened. On Saturdays I have a four hour window, from 8am-noon. Not bad. On Sundays, I have a 90-minute window. If I am not there between 10am and 11:30am, I lose my spot in the program. Which I don’t want to do given that this program has essentially given me my fucking life back. I cannot understate the extent to which this program has helped me. It literally saves peoples lives.

But if I were to go to Brampton on a Saturday evening to play music, and then stay over there, I would be completely dependent on transit to get me back to Toronto before the clinic closes at 11:30am. This would likely entail getting up at 8am in Brampton, since transit takes so goddamnn long and I’d be taking three different types: Brampton Transit, GO Transit, and TTC. Things can get a little shifty there.

Best case scenario would be to go to Brampton on a Sunday morning after hitting the clinic, since I could crash there and then take my time getting back to Toronto the next day, since the clinic doesn’t close on Mondays until 5pm. But both James and Ryan work on Mondays, and Ryan has family obligations, and James usually doesn’t like to do stuff on Sunday afternoons cuz he has to get up so early the next day, so I’m not sure we’d be able to get too much done on a Sunday afternoon, especially since the earliest I could be in Brampton is around 12:30 or 1pm, depending on when the GO bus leaves Union station.

So it would make the most logistical sense for me to go to Brampton on a Sunday when both Ryan and James have a Monday off, like on May 24 weekend, unless Ryan’s going camping that weekend, which he usually does, so…

I dunno. Hopefully I can get a Saturday off soon and we can jam at Bathurst and Richmond for a few hours and work on some new material. We’ll worry about recording whenever the hell I can get to Brampton, which depends on my work schedule.

What Am I Doing?

I’ve been working a shitload of hours lately as a server/bartender for an events company, meaning I work a lot of weddings and corporate gatherings. With wedding season just around the corner and my home venue opening the outdoor terrace midway through April, I’ll be working even more soon; six days a week from mid-April to mid-December, without a break. Finding a way to shoehorn some recording into my schedule during that time will be a challenge, but I’ll try my best. I will.

A few days before last Christmas I joined my friends Mark Hornich and Michael Schooley in Hamilton to play some music. I’d been hanging out with Mark every other week or so last summer, writing songs on acoustic guitars, for a project that we’ve been trying to put together since at least 2011.

Since that first jam in Hamilton, me, Mark and Michael have met up every other week, sometimes once a month but usually more often, at various spaces across the city, sometimes Paul’s Boutique, sometimes the Richmond-Bathurst rehearsal spaces, to play our songs, of which we now have six, complete with vocal melodies and lyrics and everything.

We’ve challenged ourselves to be show-ready by May, and we’ve hit our target early. As far as I’m concerned we could play a show next weekend without making fools of ourselves, though another two jams wouldn’t hurt either. Mark played in one of my favourite local bands of all-time, Crop Failure, and Michael played in an excellent instrumental band from Kitchener-Waterloo called New Wings, that my old band Sleep for the Nightlife played with once in Waterloo in a café next door to a movie theatre downtown. I actually taped some of that set and uploaded it to YouTube a few years ago, and I’ve played a lot of shows with Crop Failure with old bands like GIANTS and Sleep for the Nightlife, and The Big City Nights Band have played with C.F. a couple times too, so there’s a lot of overlap here in terms of the scene and shows played together. We all come from the same scene, and we’re all old enough to know that we don’t need to try to conquer the world or “make it big” or anything like that. We’ll be content with playing a few decent shows here and there, and making a good EP or LP that might catch a few people’s ears. That’s about the extent of our ambitions right now. The tentative band name for this project right now is Traffic Yeller, though none of us are sure if the name is permanent. While is does connote a certain energy and anger, none of us are totally sure if it describes us properly. So we’ll see. Either way, we’ll continue to make music together this year and will hopefully play a show sometime soon. If we get one booked, I’ll letcha all know.

In the meantime, I’m obviously going to try to finish some Big City Nights recordings this year and put out some records. As I’ve said before, we have enough material to release at least two albums, maybe even three or four. No, we don’t see each other as much as we used to, and we don’t play anywhere near as many shows as we used to, but we’ll try our best to match the output we somehow tallied in both 2010 and 2012, years that saw us release four full-length recordings, all of which I still stand behind, from records I did mostly myself like Gimme Gardens and Dancing Days, to albums we all contributed equally to like Yawns Beyond, Oscillation Drills, Popular Favourites, Might Minutes, and Under the Overpass.

I’d like to document the recording of our upcoming records, if possible, as it’s always fun to go back and watch videos like the making of Oscillation Drills or Yawns Beyond or West Bestern. So I’ll try to make sure someone has their camera phone running at all times whenever we get together next. And it’s also about time we update our default photo on the bandcamp, which was taken by Jessica Fisher in summer 2010. So I’ll try to organize a photo shoot asap, but it’s not at the forefront of my worries. The music comes first, naturally. So if a new photo should appear, rest assured that we’ve taken care of the audio aspect and have some new recordings on the way.

No shows booked at the moment but we’ll be trying to get something going soon, some shows with the Flying Museum Band to celebrate the tenth anniversaries of our respective first albums. Our tenth anniversary is actually around this time…as I recall the album coming out in either March or April 2007 and playing our goodbye show @ All Stars in Bramalea that May. So I’ll have to go back and get some exact dates. Born to Bar Band is a solid effort, even though it’s a little difficult for me to listen to now, since my vocals were so rough on that record. Our live staple, “Catch You,” for example, has been played at almost every show we’ve ever done, so that when I hear the version on B2BB I barely recognize it.

No shows, no new music. Overall, taking the last ten years into account, this is uncharacteristic of the Big City Nights Band. But I know all too well that, in the  past few years, this has become the norm. Not a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on. I’m working hard on my problems and have been staying on top of things in the past long while So it’s about time I focused some energy on this long-neglected band, my favourite band that I’ve ever played in. I’m tired of old memories, I want to make some new ones.

And when we do finally get around to making those new ones, you’ll be the first to know.

That’s the news, or lack thereof, lose yer blues.

[mistermexico-blog]

Favorite Songs of 2016

21 tracks that moved me in 2016. 

Celebrate by Anderson .Paak

In my humble opinion, 2016 was the year of Anderson .Paak. Like many, .Paak (pronounced pok) first graced my ears on Dr. Dre’s Compton.  In early 2016 he dropped the soul/funk/hip-hop masterpiece Malibu, of which I could put almost every damn song on this list (and he did sneak his way onto this list multiple times). Celebrate literally brought a tear to my eye.  I was driving, and the song hit my face with a wave of emotion. This song wins with simplicity. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that simply being alive is a gift in itself-- so why not celebrate?

Favorite Lyric: It’d be a bad look talkin’ bout what could of been, so lets celebrate while we still can”

Also check out: The Bird

Celebrate VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SKpOW_o8Do

Forever’s Gone (ft. Na’el Shehade & Via Rosa) by Drama Duo

This song is beautiful. New age, bassy edm production laced with the voice of an angel.  You can kick back and chill with it, or get lifted and dance to it. That is something special, folks...to me at least. I’m excited to see where this duo out of The Windy City ventures next.

Favorite Lyric: “And I’ll love you far, after forever’s gone, and I’ll be here long, after forever’s won”

Also check out: Low Tide

Forever’s Gone VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVZRKAGD-kw

Cash Machine by D.R.A.M.

After Drake’s Hotline Bling allegedly jacked Big Baby D.R.A.M.s Cha Cha (the production is strikingly similar), I was very happy to have discovered this guys catalogue. Cash Machine is that feel good Chicago style piano driven jam (prod. by Ricky Reed) that makes you want to celebrate success. I took the crew to see him in Seattle and had the pleasure of a spacious front row viewing in an iconic intimate venue (Neumos). Dude can really sing, too!

Favorite Lyric: “I'm in the sky like all the time and now it's no layover, my records all across the wave and there was no payola”

Also check out: Broccoli

Cash Machine VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rx0eqQl8wk

Stupid Rose by Kweku Collins

My brother & I brought back “ghostriding the whip” to Stupid Rose this summer in Lake Chelan, a short and sweet highlight of the summer for me. Not the traditional song for such an extremity, but if felt right. His rap/sing style seems to come from a very natural place; hippy vibes, educated, rides the rhythm like a joyride pilot? Is this the result of the legalization of pot? Either way, this killer D’Angelo flip is a hypnotic warped out bouncy son of a bitch.

Favorite Lyric: “’Til she sat across from me my curiosity coiled like a snake around a finger”

Also check out: Death of A Salesman

Stupid Rose VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl6OW07A5q4

Show Me Love (Skrillex Remix) ft. Chance The Rapper, Moses Sumney, Robin Hannibal by Hundred Waters 

This song was hot, then I watched the video and for some reason fell in love. It gave me chills. I’m assuming it was shot in LA, but it’s a gloomy day and they’re just running around the city enjoying themselves. Chance the Rapper brings the best energy to every track he graces-- just anticipating his verse gets me hyped! Great message here too.

Favorite Lyrics: “Don’t let me show cruelty though I may make mistakes, don’t let me show ugliness though I know I can hate”

Also check out:

Show Me Love VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5bAVKzrBzI

Crazy Dream ft. Loyle Carner by Tom Misch

My guy Chase Decker threw this on a video he made and I HAD TO KNOW WHO THE FU$K IT WAS. I dug into the London prodigy’s Spotify/youtube accounts back in early Spring and continue to visit them on the regular. He plays guitar like a boss and sings like a swoon, bringing an incredibly sexy rock element to hip-hop. 

Favorite Lyric: “I had a dream about you last night, and we were listening to Pharcyde”

Also check out: Beautiful Escape

Crazy Dream VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa5HNkGrl8E

Real Friends (ft. Ty Dolla $ign) by Kanye West

This was one of the first songs I heard at the start of the Pablo run. I wish every song on the album was in this vein. This is as close as we’ve got to “old Kanye” to date. They snagged a sample from Couches by Frank Dukes and that just might be the kicker. Definitely a nostalgic, dreamy feel, Kayne getting a little vulnerable, Ty Dolla doing what he does, it’s nice.  

Favorite Lyric: “Who your real friends, we came from the bottom, I’m always blaming you but what’s sad you not the problem”

Also check out: 30 Hours

Real Friends VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUkV-U6_F_Q

Lingerie & Candlewax by Mayer Hawthorne

I’ve been hot on Mayer for almost a decade now, and the man continues to impress with every project he puts out. Definitely play Mayer’s Man About Town at the next function you host/DJ/highjack the aux at. This is some 213 meets Marvin Gaye, fighting temptation in the cadillac, smoking with the boo-thang music. 

Favorite Lyric: “Angel on my shoulder said, hold up, don't touch it, I'm so torn up, Latoya Luckett”

Also check out: Love Like That

Lingerie & Candlewax VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuBlCRYE4rQ&list=PLykkJfCk9HuODiVwhic00RUlnF05jwnSU&index=18

Nights by Frank Ocean

Frank is such a unique artist. Nights, is nearly three songs in one. He delivers these incredibly intriguing lyrics over rather bare-bone guitar and drum. I can’t tell if he’s rapping or singing and it doesn’t matter because it sounds fantastic. The song starts off upbeat then slowly transforms, allowing Frank to change up his delivery accordingly. His content is mysterious; I want to know what he’s talking about but at the same time I get the feeling it’s personal and therefore don’t need to know everything. He coulples up a lot of his bars, allowing just a few lines to coincide together then he’s off to the next subject. It’s a borderline ADD stream of conscious and it’s beautiful.  

Favorite Lyric: “Why your eyes well up? Did you call me from a seance? You are from my past life, hope you doing well bruh”

Also check out: Solo

No audio sorry folks! (Frank’s a boss like that)

Dang! (ft. Anderson .Paak) by Mac Miller

Mac Miller dun grown up! He seduced this groovy Pomo production just right, smooth talking his feminine subject until his honesty pushes her away. In an interview I watched, Anderson .Paak was apparently talking about losing someone to the skies above. Mac decided kept it here on earth and I think it worked. 

Favorite Lyric: “Wait, we was just hangin', I guess I need to hold onto, dang, the people that know me best, the key that I won't forget, too soon”

Also check out: We ft. Cee-Lo Green

Dang! VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3GQfryp9M

Riot by Jon Waltz

Problems have never sounded so good.  Things aren’t picture perfect for Jon, yet I’m jealous of the picture he’s painting. I’d really like to see a video for this song; so much room for audio irony! The song itself is sonically untouchable, yet the lyrical contrast makes it super badass! 

Favorite Lyric:”We just wanna be loved, we need money and drugs, and a new place to stay”

Also check out: Bang

Riot VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNh34RlmE-A

Jusfayu (ft. No Wyld) by Kamau

While Andre 3000 was snoozing, Kamau must’ve crept in and inhaled Mr. Benjamin’s soul.  I first discovered him by his interpretation/cover of Hey Ya! by Outkast (well played) and instantly had to find out this guys story. He uses a decent amount of VOX throughout his tracks; beat-box elements with incredible harmonic layers. He sings, he raps, he dances, he’s fun as fu*k and despite drawing comparisons to Andre he brings a very unique flavor to the music industry.  

Favorite Lyric: “I’m not a bad guy, I ain’t all put together, but if you stick around you gon see I’m getting better”

Also check out: Gaims

Justfayu VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tim7MeDItPw

Lucy The Tease by Allan Rayman

I don’t have a lot of info on this guy, but he was a Spotify Discovery find and I’ve really enjoyed his raspy chilled out vocals over it’s dirty hip hop production.  Super sexy track. I can see it in some action/drama movie soundtrack in the near future. Waitress seduces badboy motorcycle dude in a cheap hotel? 

Favorite Lyric: “And don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Lucy The Tease VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o04LHGQwNf4

The Waters (ft. BJ the Chicago Kid) by Anderson .Paak 

The song is too smooth! .Paak rides the beat with such natural, genuine swag, telling his story so effortlessly. BJ lays it down like a young Usher meets D’Angelo. I had the pleasure of catching BJ open for Anderson in Portland in early 2016, and when they took the stage for this song I felt like I was witnessing the reason people make music. 

Favorite Lyric:”And I can do anything but move backwards, the hardest thing is to keep from being distracted”

Also check out: Am I Wrong

The Waters VIDEO: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2R2ticmolk

Caroline by Amine 

Young dude reppin’ Portland, Oregon! Another jam I found on Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” and instantly put in on repeat. So damn bouncy! Every component of this song is catchy. Amine played this like a savage too, being that this was his first release!  

Favorite lyric: “I love your bloopers, and perfects for the urgent, baby I want forever��

Also check out: Baba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j8ecF8Wt4E

Guru by Coast Modern

This is simply a chill-ass-feel-good-airy-summer song. Take it slow, cool out bruh. Reggae vibes with a hint of Glass Animals. Makes a man giddy for summer.   

Favorite Lyric: “Chillin’ on the sofa, I don’t want to yoga, I don’t want to life right now”

Also check out: Animals

Guru VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6XVrGv2W7Y

Wow by Beck

I recall thinking, “this is in response to Kanye West discrediting him after he won album of the year for Morning Phase” (he later admitted not even listening to the album).  Anywho, Beck’s Wow felt like old Odelay Beck was back in business.  Hints up hip-hop with modern cowboy vibes are you kidding me? This has to be Kanye approved, not that it matters. 

Favorite Lyric: “Standing on the lawn doin' jiu jitsu Girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini shih tzu”

Also check out: 

Wow VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyCkhPTU13w

Need to Know (ft. Chance the Rapper) by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

I feel like Macklemore’s This Unruly Mess I’ve Made was overlooked. Lot of great songs that album. This song was a highlight for me; an honest song about telling lies. Or rather, leaving out the truth. Ryan orchestrated this bad boy to perfection, Mack put his heart on the horn and Chance was the perfect addition. 

Favorite Lyric: “I cry when she smile with her eyes closed”

Also check out: Bolo Tie

Need to Know VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqFztNcQ0KE

One Dance (ft. WizKid & Kyla) by Drake 

I Can’t not have a Drake song on here. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t vibe the f*ck out to Views all damn summer. He recruited an amazing team to collaborate here and the result is this worldly piece of perfection.   I’d like to the video shot at some sexy beach side hostel somewhere near the equator. 

Favorite Lyric:”I need one dance, got a hennesy in my hand, one more time for I go, higher powers taking a hold on me”

Also check out: I’m With You 

One Dance VIDEO: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcer12OFU2g

Dapper (ft. Anderson .Paak) by Domo Genesis

Like Dang!, this is another groove monster produced by Pomo and headed by Anderson .Paak. They shot the video in a roller rink and they were 100% correct in doing so. Just dance y’all. 

Favorite Lyric: “Now I can turn a pussy to a kiddy pool”

Dapper VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_9HNEyLa4U

Neighbors by J. Cole

My guy Jermaine’s flow is straight head bobbing call the fire truck fuego here.  And I think I can call him Jermaine because dammit, I feel like know the guy-- he’s one hell of a story teller!  Apparently the house they rented to record the album at in North Caroline was raided by SWAT while they were away because “the neighbors think I’m sellin’ dope”. All they found was a studio. I believe it’s J. Cole’s altered voice on the chorus and that matters because he’s suddenly two different dudes. This is the Cole I’ve wanted since Warm Up. He might even slip up in my top 5 with this song alone.  

Favorite Lyric:”I been buildin' me a house back home in the south Ma, won't believe what it's costin', and it's fit for a king, right? Or a nigga that could sing and explain all the pain that it cost him”

Also check out: Change

Neighbors VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOPgg7qqlcA

COMPLETE YOUTUBE PLAYLIST: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLykkJfCk9HuODiVwhic00RUlnF05jwnSU

ALSO, 

follow on Spotify @ Tyler Roberts “best of 2016″