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Playlists

It’s Fall, Y’all (November)

Brown background image with red and orange leaves overlayed with text that reads "it's fall y'all" in the upper left hand corner and "88.1 WKNC" in the bottom left hand corner

Now that it’s November, it’s time for me to give you the third and final installment of the “it’s fall, y’all” playlist. September’s theme was folk and acoustic sounds, October’s was haunted and synth-y for Halloween, and I’m happy to finally share with you what November’s theme is. 

These fifteen songs are jazz and blues themed. Although somewhat different genres, I decided to make the first bit of the playlist jazzy and the last couple of songs blues in order to tie it back to the folkiness of September’s theme. I hope these songs remind you of cold rainy days, warm fuzzy socks and twinkling street lights.

Without further ado, here are the final fifteen songs of “it’s fall, y’all.”

  • “I Fall In Love Too Easily” — Chet Baker
  • “The Starlit Hour” — Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra
  • “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” — Vince Guaraldi
  • “Some Enchanted Evening” — Etta Jones
  • “You Are Special” — Johnny Costa
  • “Nostalgia in Times Square” — Mingus Big Band
  • “Sleepin’ Bee” — Tommy Flanagan
  • “Don’t Smoke In Bed” — Nina Simone
  • “Lilac Wine” — Eartha Kitt
  • “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home – Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1958” — Louis Armstrong
  • “Happy Ending” — Sammy Davis Jr.
  • “Let It Be” — Bill Withers
  • “A Sunday Kind Of Love” — Etta James
  • “Mary Had A Little Lamb” — Buddy Guy
  • “Little Red Rooster” — Willie Dixon

I hope this playlist carries you through the rest of this Autumn and for all of the future ones to come. As always, I’ve made it into a Spotify playlist for your enjoyment.

Happy Listening,

Caitlin

Categories
New Album Review

Dochii: Oh The Places You’ll Go Album Review

Dochii Oh the Places You'll Go Album Cover

Alright my recommendations feed has come up with something great. It’s a rare occasion that the algorithm will promote someone without a lot of industry weight behind them, but Dochii is the exception because I had no idea who this woman is, and she’s left a relatively thin paper trail online. So, let’s take a look at this new force in underground rap, and her introductory album “Oh The Places You’ll Go.”

The obvious starting place for Dochii is the song “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” (yes I know, just bear with me). The song literally starts with a teacher asking her to introduce herself to the class, straight up “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” style. This is an extremely well-worn cliché, and you better be at the top of your game if you add something new this way. Fortunately for Dochii, she is. Beyond the persona and content of lyrics, there’s no getting around the fact that Dochii is just a technically masterful rapper. This album is based around Dr. Seuss, and her flows are accordingly very fragmented and sing-songy, but the song never becomes stale. She switches between rhythmic patterns, tempos, and dynamics at such breakneck speed that one medium length song feels like full ep, giving a full impression of her range, personality, and life story through little more than the bread and butter of hip-hop.

The album’s simplicity is a thematic force as well. The ep is centered around school and childhood, hence the Dr. Seuss stuff. Again, comparisons to both Lauryn Hill and about 30 other rapppers are inveitable, but Dochii remains her own person through these well-worn topics. One of the album’s most creative choices is the decision to write and perform from the perspective of an actual tween. Dochii isn’t so much reflecting back on her childhood years so much as performing from an entirely separate character.

If there’s one complaint I have with this album, it’s the interludes. The ep is extremely short, so loading the tracklist down even further with spoken word, found sound, and other skits really makes the pace drag between the actual songs. While I’m the last person to recommending skipping tracks on albums, this is probably a situation where skipping is appropriate.

Dochii is a great addition to underground hip-hop, and while I can’t make any crystal ball predictions about her career, I can only dream of the “Places She’ll Go,” in the future. Take a listen to this new artist, she’s worth your time.

Categories
DJ Highlights

Halloween History with dj mozzie

Howdy y’all! Halloween has some of the best holiday music around, and I wanted to write a bit about the history of the holiday and the music! Halloween originated from the Celtic festival named Samhain, which was celebrated in ancient Britain and Ireland. Ancient Celts believed that November 1st marked a new year, and that the souls of those who had died would revisit their homes the night before. People took part in rituals and practices to try and scare away these spirits, like lighting bonfires or wearing masks to be unrecognizable to the spirits. Today, we still dress up in costume, but it is not to scare spirits away. 

Halloween music has that spine-shivering feeling because of the use of dissonance and minor chords. In the Middle Ages, they referred to this as the “Devil’s interval.” The Devil’s interval was an augmented 4th interval and was banned in Renaissance church music because of its association with evil. This interval can be heard in the opening of Danse Macabre. Part of the reason high-pitched nonlinear noise and dissonance in music is seen as scary is because of the association we’ve given it with scary movies. The other reason is because these sounds remind us of animal distress sounds. In the 20th century, blues was associated with the devil because of the secularity of the lyrics. A lot of blues music reflected the experiences of oppression Black Americans faced. Blues artists were accused of selling their soul for success and talent. Blues music uses the blues scale, which features a flat fifth note. This scale creates a similar interval to that of the devil’s interval.

One of my favorite Halloween songs, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” (1956) was part of this labeling of “the devil’s music.” Halloween specific songs did not come out until the 1950s-1960s. After this, Halloween music moved to the rock realm, with hits like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” The 1970s and 1980s was the peak for Halloween horror music from films. These years were also when cult classic horror films were being released. 

Now, here is my Halloween playlist to get you ready for the best holiday of the year!

  1. I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
  2. Halloween by Phoebe Bridgers 
  3. The Way Some People Die by Yo La Tengo
  4. Strange Things by Marlon Williams
  5. Ghosting by Mother Mother
  6. You’re Dead by Norma Tanega
  7. Hudson by Vampire Weekend
  8. Season of the Witch by Donovan (was mentioned in last week’s blog, but you can’t have a halloween playlist without it!)
  9. House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals 
  10. Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo

<3 dj mozzie

Categories
Weekly Charts

Daytime Charts 11/2

Film School album cover
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1FILM SCHOOLWe Weren’t HereSonic Ritual
2LAVA LA RUEButter-fly [EP]Marathon
3ILLUMINATI HOTTIESLet Me Do One MoreSnack Shack Tracks/Hopeless
4ILLISMFamily Over EverythingThe CRWN
5CHURCH GIRLSStill BloomsAnchor Eighty Four
6JPEGMAFIALP!EQT / Republic
7LITTLE SIMZSometimes I Might Be IntrovertAGE 101
8GUSTAFAudio Drag For Ego SnobsRoyal Mountain
9LALA LALAI Want The Door To OpenHardly Art
10STRANDEDMidnight SunDouble Phantom
11AUDIOBOOKSAstro ToughHeavenly/PIAS
12FJAAKSYS03 [EP]Self-Released
13JOSE GONZALEZLocal ValleyMute
14ODONIS ODONISSpectrumsFelte
15INJURY RESERVEBy The Time I Get To PhoenixSelf-Released
16NYLON SMILE“Conduit” b/w “We Don’t Need A Reason” [Single]Self-Released
17ZEBRA KATZLess Is MoorZFK
18TYLER THE CREATORCALL ME IF YOU GET LOSTColumbia
19PLANET GIZADon’t Throw Rocks At The Moon [EP]Self-Released
20SHYGIRLALIAS [EP]Because
21GENESIS OWUSUSmiling With No TeethHouse Anxiety/Ourness
22EVIDENCEUnlearning Vol. 1Rhymesayers
23JULIA SHAPIROZorkedSuicide Squeeze
24SKIIFALL“Ting Tun Up” [Single]Self-Released
25WEDNESDAYTwin PlaguesOrindal
26HOVVDYTrue LoveGrand Jury
27HELVETIAEssential AliensJoyful Noise
28IDLES“The Beachland Ballroom” [Single]Partisan
29LOWHEY WHATSub Pop
30MCKINLEY DIXONFor My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like HerSpacebomb

Daytime Adds

#ArtistAlbumLabel
1PARQUET COURTSSympathy For LifeRough Trade
2BLACK MARBLEFast IdolSacred Bones
3SPRINTSManifesto [EP]Nice Swan
4NATION OF LANGUAGE“The Grey Commute” [Single]Play It Again Sam
5LIILYTV Or Not TVFlush
6CUFFED UPAssymetryRoyal Mountain
7SADGIRL“Goodbye Queenie” [Single]Hard Feelings
8DENDRONS“Same Spot” [Single]Earth Libraries
9TOD LIPPYYearbookSelf-Released
10GOOD MORNINGBarnyardPolyvinyl
Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 11/2

Illism Family Over Everything Album Cover
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1ILLISMFamily Over EverythingThe CRWN
2LAVA LA RUEButter-fly [EP]Marathon
3LITTLE SIMZSometimes I Might Be IntrovertAGE 101
4MCKINLEY DIXONFor My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like HerSpacebomb
5SHADTAOSecret City
6COMMONA Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2Loma Vista/Concord
7SKIIFALL“Ting Tun Up” [Single]Self-Released
8TYLER THE CREATORCALL ME IF YOU GET LOSTColumbia
9EVIDENCEUnlearning Vol. 1Rhymesayers
10GENESIS OWUSUSmiling With No TeethHouse Anxiety/Ourness
Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 11/2

Eyemaster's Charcoal Remains album cover
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1EYEMASTERCharcoaled Remains / Festering Slime [EP]Caligari
2CREEPING DEATHThe Edge Of ExistenceEntertainment One
3HOODED MENACEThe Tritonus BellSeason Of Mist
4MORBID MESSIAHDisgorged in the CoffinChaos
5ZETARDevouring DarknessSpirit Coffin
6MASTIFFLeave Me The Ashes Of The EarthEntertainment One
7AZZRIELL“Cycle of Shadows” [Single]Self-Released
8VENUS SYNDROMECannibal SarRockshots
9BORISNoThird Man
10CHARREDPrayers Of MaledictionEntertainment One
Categories
Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 11/2

Rochelle Jordan
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1ROCHELLE JORDANPlay With The ChangesYoung Art
2ERIKA DE CASIERSensational4AD/Beggars Group
3JULESDelta Ajax [EP]Happy Life
4WESTCOAST GODDESSU Up? [EP]Infinite Pleasure
5LSDXOXODedicated 2 Disrespect [EP]XL
6PARTIBOI69Mutual Pleasure 002 [EP]Self-Released
7NEGATIVE GEMINI“Utopia” [Single]100% Electronica
8MAGDALENA BAYMercurial WorldLuminelle
9CECILE BELIEVEPlucking A Cherry From The VoidSelf-Released
10FJAAKSYS03 [EP]Self-Released
Categories
Concert Review

My favorite Songs at Hopscotch

Animal Collective live
Animal collective performing live at Hopscotch

I am so grateful that I got to go to Hopscotch last month and see so many of my favorite artists perform live, most of whom I’ve never got to see before. Here are some of my favorite songs that I heard and saw being performed at Hopscotch. 

Caroline Polacheck

It’s hard to pick just a few songs from Caroline’s set to talk about because every song she played was my favorite. I was in awe of her performance the whole time. She has an amazing voice and range, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as she danced around the stage; throwing kicks in the air, spinning around, and mimicking her lyrics with specific moves. Of course “So Hot You’re Hurting my Feelings” is up there for my favorite performance, it was the first song I heard by her and it instantly became one of my favorite pop songs. The crowd was super into it and her energy during this song, and the whole set, was infectious. Another one of my favorites was “Caroline Shut Up” because she does an amazing vocal run during a breakdown before going into the last chorus and I was mesmerized, it’s hard to explain what she does without listening to the song, so I would suggest checking it out if you haven’t. She also played three unreleased songs that were all wonderful, and I can’t wait for them to be released so I can listen to them on repeat. 

Wednesday

Unfortunately I missed Wednesday’s set on Thursday at the Moore Square Stage, but I was able to see them at Ruby Deluxe the next day and it was amazing. I just recently got into them after they released Twin Plagues in August, and seeing them live made me an even bigger fan. I loved seeing “How Can You Live If You Can’t Love How Can You If You Do,” because it is one of my favorites off that album. It’s a slower song, different from most on the album that are layered with fuzzy guitars, loud thumping drums, and strong bass lines, but this one is stripped down and the lead singer, Karly Hartzman, is at the center of the song. The lyrics are beautifully written and vulnerable, which I admire about all of Hartzman’s writing, but this one sticks out the most to me. I also loved hearing “Cody’s Only,” “Handsome Man,” and “Fate Is…” which is from their second record I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone. 

Dr. Dog

My dad actually introduced me to Dr. Dog a while ago. I remember he would play them around the house and I always loved hearing “Shadow People,” “Jackie Wants a Black Eye,” and more from Shame, Shame, but my favorite song he would play was always “Broken Heart.” I haven’t gotten super into Dr. Dog and didn’t know many songs they played, but I was really excited when they played this one because it reminded me of my childhood. Of course I had to enjoy the song a bit for myself, but I was also focused on taking a video of it and sharing it with my dad so he could somewhat experience it with me. They played “Shadow People” before it too, so I was excited by that two song run. The band sounded great live and were really tight. 

Flying Lotus

I don’t know many names of Flying Lotus’s songs, I really like his 2010 album Cosmogramma, and he did play “ Do the Astral Plane,” but I haven’t listened to much of his other releases. That didn’t matter though, because one of the great things about his set was that you didn’t need to know his songs, you just had to let loose and jump around. He played some remixes, one which included a Kero Kero Bonito song that made me super excited, a song off of Drake’s new album, and “Wesley’s Theory” from To Pimp a Butterfly. The crowd was super energetic and it was fun to dance with friends and watch others enjoy themselves too. 

Parquet Courts

The Parquet Courts set was so great, they were energetic and had great stage banter that made the breaks in their set super entertaining. They performed some new songs off of their album Sympathy for Life, which were all good and made me excited for the release of the album. I was most excited when they played “Almost Had to Start a Fight/ In and Out of Patience,” because I’ve listened to that song so many times and it was enjoyable to watch them play it. I also loved when they played “Wide Awake” because they had another member join them to play all of the bells and whistles that are on the recorded version, which add so much to the atmosphere of the song. The bass line is so dancey, and I did not see one person not moving around during that song. 

Archers of Loaf

This was my second time seeing Archers live, unfortunately I had to leave halfway through their set to catch Animal Collective, but they played most of my favorite songs pretty early. Like most angsty teens, discovering Icky Mettle was a very important part of my high school experience. There’s nothing quite like shouting the lyrics in your room to “Wrong” or “Might”, and it’s even better to be able to do it live with the band. “Web in Front,” was one of my favorite songs to hear live. I love the dynamic between Eric Bachman and Matt Gentling as Gentling shouts “All I ever wanted was to be your spine,” and Bachman powerfully sings over him about a failed relationship. They are still able to put so much emotion behind songs that are over 20 years old and I found that to be really special knowing they put so much effort into their performances. 

Animal Collective

Animal Collective is one of those bands that I really love, but I never thought I would see them in my lifetime. I’m not sure why, it’s possibly because I am much more attached to their earlier releases than their new ones and that’s what I’d really want to hear live, but surprisingly they did throw in some old songs in their set. They played “In the Flowers,” the opening track to Merriweather Post Pavilion, and one of my favorites from that record. It sounded beautiful live. My favorite song they played was “The Purple Bottle” from their 2005 release Feels. The song is so energetic and Avey Tare does a lot of screaming in the song, and of course I had to yell along and jump around. I made it to the barrier for their set and I had a great time watching each member make their unique sounds come to life. 

Categories
Blog Miscellaneous

Soundtrack Comparison: “Blade Runner” and “Palm Springs”

"Blade Runner" and "Palm Springs"
"Blade Runner" and "Palm Springs" soundtracks

I recently watched “Blade Runner” and “Palm Springs” back to back. These are two movies that, while both technically being sci-fi, are very different in tone and worldbuilding. And when viewed so close together, it becomes a lot easier to compare elements of the two, such as their soundtracks. 

For all the flying cars and flashing button panels of “Blade Runner”, the world depicted is not an optimistic version of the future. Characters are lashed with rain the moment they step outside into a grimy world of corporate overlords and murderous androids, and all of this is evoked in the soundtrack. Composer Vangelis was playing with synthesizers before it was cool and from the get-go his mark was made on the movie. “Opening Titles”, the iconic theme, hits with the intensity of a heavy guitar solo but with a futuristic bent that never veers into cheesiness, instead ringing out over the bustling streets and feeling if not triumphant, at least pioneering.

The presentation of “Palm Springs” is in sharp contrast to this. Where the rainclouds of “Blade Runner” felt like a weight on that movie’s shoulders, there is barely a cloud in the California sky, with bright and warm colors that contribute to the movie’s generally upbeat atmosphere. The soundtrack mirrors this with a playful backing that glides over the unfolding scenes. The track playing during the movie’s climax (whose title I won’t give away because it’s kind of a spoiler) was the high point: a subtle melody  not so much propelling the action along as matching it step for step.

These are distinctly different experiences, but there’s a reason I’m comparing them here. Both stay with the listener long after the credits roll with sneaky but very present earworms present. Being soundtracks, they rely heavily on repeated motifs and even tracks being used multiple times to create a narrative just through music and to call back to earlier scenes. “Blade Runner” uses these thematic threads to turn up the tension as the titular android hunter closes in on his targets. “Palm Springs” does this in a similar fashion, but as this is a romantic-comedy first and foremost, it races alongside the plot towards the inevitable conclusion without ever feeling formulaic.

A soundtrack is maybe a movie’s most underrated asset. When a soundtrack really hits, you often won’t consciously notice it because of how interwoven it is with the events onscreen. “Blade Runner” and “Palm Springs” both use music to skillfully walk the line between letting the plot play out without interruption and enhancing the emotions the audience takes away from the movie. The dark dystopia of 2019 Los Angeles and the sunny, maybe even too sunny, titular desert come to life with strings and synthesizers and without the works of Vangelis and Cornbread Compton, these amazing movies wouldn’t be the same.

-Erie

Categories
Classic Album Review

Classic Album Review: “Pool” by Porches

"Pool" by Porches Album Cover
"Pool" by Porches album cover

There is a lot of music dedicated to the concept of transience and that resonates due to its exploration of the moment slipping away. And as the saying goes, life imitates art. There’s something poetic about a band who introspectively details attempts to capture the moment doing the same thing artistically. Here that band is Porches, and that moment is Feb. 5, 2016, the release date of their masterpiece “Pool”.

I want to start off by saying that Porches have been and remain a very solid band and I’ve enjoyed their albums released since that day. It’s just that “Pool” was lightning in a bottle and from “The House” onward, there seems to be an effort to recapture what made that album so special.

“Pool” was Porches second studio album and it marked a major departure from the style of the first. 2013’s “Slow Dance in the Cosmos” is a fun indie rock record with light, jangling guitars and lyrics drenched in liminality. In hindsight the sonic departure Porches would take was a logical evolution of “Cosmos”, but hindsight is of course 20/20. In the three years that passed between it and “Pool”, lead singer and bandleader Aaron Maine would record the album out of his apartment and reshaped Porches from a rock band to a synthy electronic outfit. The result was an album that was at once polished to a sheen and beautifully flawed.

The instrumentals are the star of the show here. Every track glistens like the surface of the titular pool. The synths on “Glow” add a distinctive bounce, turning a meditative track that could have dragged a little into a breezy experience that gets in and out while leaving a lot for the listener to chew on. Pacing is a huge focus, other than a slightly awkward 30-second outro on “Be Apart” there’s not an ounce of fat on this album. The structure of the songs never get in their own way; choruses aren’t distinct entities but instead bleed out of the verses they follow. The aforementioned “Be Apart” might be my favorite song on the album and the way the instrumentals melt around “cause I want to be apart” along with the way the “I” is drawn out across for syllables has imprinted this chorus into my memory in a way few have.

There are a lot of unlikely lyrics that somehow work perfectly with their surroundings. Over a shimmering synth line and skeletal drums Aaron Maine turns “Hi there, Franklin underwater” from a Frankie Cosmos reference into a triumphant nexus for relationship swan song “Underwater”. Porches detractors have called Maine’s vocal deliveries “flat” and complain that they drag down the music but I couldn’t disagree more. His voice is so distinctive and the way it blends with the instrumentals on this album evokes a swimmer bobbing up and down through waves.

On this album is an important qualifier because, like I said earlier, this really was a high water mark for Porches’ output. Something was missing from later albums that really made this one soar, and while they were still standout tracks like “Find Me” and “Back3School”, these stood out because of how they felt like “Pool” castoffs rather than a genuine advancement of the band’s sound. I think there has been some improvement here; 2021’s “All Day Gentle Hold!” was my favorite album of theirs since 2016 and I snapped up tickets to their April 15 show at Cat’s Cradle as soon as they dropped. But “Pool” was one of my favorite albums of the last decade, such a weird and wonderful collection of songs, that anything short of that feels like Porches aren’t reaching their true potential, and are instead stuck looking in the rearview mirror. Here’s hoping they can find the way forward again and deliver a masterpiece for the 2020s like they did for the 2010s.

-Erie