Monday, January 31, 2011

I like Mike

Just bought this track from eMusic the other day. It's on a Jonny Lang album that I don't have (I stopped after the first 2 since the third one was horrible) and was pleasantly surprised to hear Mr Michael McDonald's voice on here.



When I heard him, I thought of another unsuspecting duet of his that I had from a few years back and decided to post them both here. I don't think either song is THAT well known.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

December Playlist

I've been feeling a bit out of it since the holidays and don't really know why. Today, I've been wandering around the apartment today in a haze, so I figured I'd put together a comp for December and share. The password to d/l is kalikimaka.

It's not as diverse as the September mix. No metal this time and only one house track in the lot.

Does anyone burn CD's anymore? If so, this is one CD's worth of music. I can't figure most people commute farther than 72 minutes.

I'm not listing tracks again (that way the tracks don't come up in Google searches as links for download) so you'll have to take your chances on my picks. Hopefully the links & notes give you some ideas about what's here. :)

There are 17 songs. Unzip the folder and you'll find that there's an .xml file in there along with the mp3s. Import the mp3s into iTunes and then go to

File > Library > Import Playlist

and select the .xml and you'll get a new playlist of the songs in the order in which I compiled them. I'm not sure if the album art copies over or not.

I coded everything at a measly 128kps because a bunch of these things can be downloaded free from the creators or purchased cheaply elsewhere. If you REALLY need something, let me know and I can figure out how to get it to you.


1. Thanks to Kathy for raving about her experience at the show and her fondness for the album. I can't say I dig the whole thing (maybe 4 tracks) but every time this comes up in my shuffle, I end up humming it for the rest of the day. Purchased at eMusic but not there any more.

2. Hey I didn't even plan for a back-to-back Kathy reference, but here we are with one of her boyfriend's songs. I wouldn't have thought this ripe for an edit but this is pretty nice. Rayko is pretty prolific on his Soundcloud page and I've grabbed of few of his tracks.

3. One of the artists that Gypsy's work represents now. Another song that gets stuck in my head whenever I hear it. Nice kinda country/blues feel. Available here.

4. When this album came out, I bought it because it was Al Green produced by ?uestlove (among others)


and although I liked it, it ended up sitting aside for a long while. I have found myself coming back to this time and again in the last few months for several tracks. This one is on here because track 5 reminded me of it when I started listening to it. Purchased from iTunes but available at Amazon as well.

5. This needs a mixable intro which I have yet to attempt to put together. Super catchy as Willie Hutch compositions tend to be. Soundcloud continues to introduce me to funky edits of older tracks and I'm so happy I found Dan.

6. Gypsy is a big Lyrics Born fan and picked up the new album which I was sad to discover had him SINGING on a lot of it. Ouch. The same voice that makes his rap distinctive just sounds terrible when he tries to be melodic. This is catchy in a boogie sense so I crafted an edit extending it and creating a mixable outro. Check his page for the album version and/or check out Blackbots which is the other track on the album I like.

7. Soul-sides schooled me on this. A reggae version of a Sister Sledge song that I already liked. I found a link to an artist page and bought the 320 version of this and 2 other songs (see #16 below)

8. I posted this on Facebook after a friend shared Jerusalem on her page.



I had never given Alpha Blondy a chance despite selling 100's of his tapes at Jelly's. I knew Jerusalem and Cocody Rock and that was about it. This is super catchy and ripe for an edit.

9. Reminds me of the Gypsy Kings a bit. This was a recommendation on eMusic from some other jazz artist that I was looking at. Kinda "chill" or some my say "restaurant jazz" but this is one of the more lively tracks on the album

10. Lots of great stuff on this album showing that the track he did for Twilight was not a passing fancy with "alternative rock". Fuck You is on here and I grabbed 5 or 6 others. I can't get over how diverse this cat is when I think of this, Goodie Mob and Gnarles Barkley.

11. Still getting the occasional keeper from Giant Step. Hadn't heard of the cat who does the original version of this but supposedly he sings and raps on his tracks. This is a dope drum & bass rework that keeps the fun aspect of the song. A couple other remixes went dark & dirty.

12. I can't say I love his new album as much as his first one, but I do enjoy a bunch of the songs by this Chicago native now in LA (or is it Nashville?) His collaboration with Dave Barnes is pretty evident in the sound of the record and it seems to work for him. I like the idea of the lyrics of this song.

13. These guys just sound 80's to me. There are elements of "Friday I'm in Love" in this (guitar sound? chords?) and the intro led me to also digging up the track that follows this.

14. 20 years of djing makes the library in my brain think of "mixes" for new songs that I hear. #13 led me back to this 80's favorite.

15. I guess this has been in a few commercial's? This really hit me when I saw this video from Christa's pool party

Super CW's Best of 2010 B-Day from Banzai Media, LLC on Vimeo.



(It might have been in another one of these guys videos as well) and when I checked out the album there was a lot more on there that I enjoyed. eMusic has it.

16. I downloaded a reggae/disco song (#7) along with a spacey/electronic/disco track called Cosmic Echoes and this track where he busts out Afrobeat. Hope this dude gets some notoriety from the album. A few people have got some info on him. New Zealand represent!

17. The single house track here just because it bumps. I like how he chopped the vocals on this and there's a sick break toward the end. D/l link on his page.

Hope you like it. Aloha, Sean