The Green Mixtape: 1 it's beginning!
One of my favorite things to do is to curate music playlists. Ever since I got an iPod in the 8th grade a couple months before I turned 14, I've been in love with interacting with music in a musicological sense. I've talked about different playlists of mine before, and so I'm very excited to start a little musical blog series of a very special playlist of mine.
My dad and I have quite similar music tastes that are different enough to be able to find stuff the other wouldn't have found but would also totally love. When I was still in middle and high school, my dad and I would have conversations about music in the car on the way to school (especially with his workplace being my school). After moving out, we didn't have the car trips as much anymore, and we're both kinda bad at keeping in touch and having conversations.
So, we decided to make a joint playlist. Green is the favorite color for both of us, so we named it Green Mixtape and I put a pic of the two of us when I was little as the playlist picture. All of last semester we would send music back and forth and get excited about the new stuff we were finding. Then we started finding weird music suggestions and more things by the artists we had shared and wanting to share that too, Green Mixtape Outtakes was thus born.
Now that we're in a new semester, we're starting it up again, and this time, I'm blogging about it! Since we started before I started blogging, I'm posting our first two sets together. Here are the rules:
Green Mixtape Rules
- Once a week
- Pick 3 songs each
- Send a small description of why you picked them
- Don't send stuff by an artist who already is in the playlist (unless it's one of the members but in a different band or solo)
- If it doesn't follow the rules but you want to send it anyways, add it to Green Mixtape Outtakes
And that's it! We wanted to leave it pretty open to see how things go. Since we message back about forth about it, I'll post our conversations around the songs as we were listening and discussing.
Week 1
Sofia's Picks:
Knock Knock by Vinyl Theatre
I’ve actually seen this band perform at High Dive and got to talk to the band back when they were touring their first album. I love the space-y keyboard to electro rock with the connotations of being "out in the sun” like the lyrics say.
restless soul by flor
I’d become a fan of another song by this band but then I discovered this one and liked it more. I love the clock/timey intro to the song about something ethereal like someone's soul.
Welcome to the Family by Watsky
I found Watsky a couple years ago and he quickly became the one rapper I would listen to. He talks about so many important topics and also is very melodic, which I’ve always liked. I saw him perform a couple years ago too and I was right near the stage and I absolutely loved it.
Wayne's Picks:
Brain Invaderz! By Mamahawk
Sometimes you listen to a song and you know on the first listen that it's a keeper. Every hook feels right, the groove is perfect... it all just works. This is one of those for me.
The Optimist by Cory Wong
I'm not usually into guitar instrumentals, but this one just had such a, well, optimistic vibe. it's awesome.
Steed (for Jean Genet) by Joan as Police Woman
I don't exactly remember why I picked this one, but I did. Cool band name.
We didn't really manage to have a conversation about week one except to both love Brain Invaders! and to be incredulous at how optimistic The Optimist sounds.
Week 2
Sofia's Picks:
Paris in the Rain by Lauv
This guy is super pop-y (he did I Like Me Better) and a good amount of his stuff sounds similar but this song really stood out to me with the chilled out vibe and the string background.
Beverly Blues by Opia
Had such a hard time choosing which song from this EP to share but this is one of the more relevantly released ones and so I’m super into it right now (though I’m still super into the other 3 songs). I like how they overladed a heavier vocal/rocky vibe over light piano embellishments. I’ve played other songs by Opia for you, so it’s fun to look at this comparatively (ex to Four Winds by Opia).
Blame It On Me by Casey Abrams
I thought you would like the bass-y/string-y vibe to this. I love the instrumentals meshed with his slightly twangy voice and the smooth female backing vocals.
Wayne's Picks:
Think it Over by Wild Child
The breathing/sawwing wood beginning, the driving beat and minimalist bass, there's something both retro and fresh about this song.
Burn the Witch by Radiohead
Radiohead can make long non-radio-friendly pieces of art, and they can make accessible little songs that could easily be the opening titles for a Bond movie. Burn the Witch is the latter, though with its suggestions of the current insecurities and blame game perpetuated by anti-immigration politicians, it wouldn't quite fit a Bond film. But it's got that sound.
Selfless, Cold and Composed by Ben Fold Five
Stumbled across this song and since we were just talking about ben folds, I gave it another listen. Reminded at how talented he is as a songwriter and pianist. This album really was him at his peak, and this song is gorgeous, melancholy, and uplifting all in one.
Wayne: Your latest three are all great. Paris in the rain has a nice sound...I love the last third where it gets real atmospheric with the backing vocals.
Beverly Blues is perfection. It's another clear 1-listen keeper. Such great hooks. My Pandora list was called musical surprise, because that's what I love in music. Chord progressions which defy the norm, hooks you dont see coming, melodies that go to new places, etc. This song is a great example of that.
Blame it on me is fun and poppy. Great driving song.
Sofia: Wild Child almost reminds me of The Bird & the Bee mixed with something else, but I can't decide what that other one is.
Wayne: Yeahhh. Almost a hint of daft punk's get lucky.
Sofia: Burn The Witch almost reminds me of Black Panther/marvel movie with the dramatic tone, definitely like a bond title sequence. I totally see it.
Wayne: I like the shift at :58
Sofia: I get the daft punk vibe from wild child too.
Wayne: Uh, otherwise known as the chorus, I suppose. Lol
Sofia: lol. Oh yeah, that :58 shift. That's why NBT sounds like Radiohead- they do the same kinds of things
Wayne: Verses and choruses can be nebulous concepts for radiohead.
Sofia Eury: hmm yeah I see that. I love Ben Folds.
Wayne: So good
Sofia: This was definitely my favorite album of his. Glad to be able to pay more attention to this song. He just has so much compositional range!
Wayne: Not his goofy college boy silliness (which we love) but so well put together.
Sofia: Yeah but he does mix melancholy and hope so well together. It's like you can't separate the two emotions.
Wayne: Right. As good a songwriter as Paul McCartney is, for example, he's not great at mixing those.
Sofia: Hm, oh yeah, that's true. I never realized that before.
From there we dissolved into discussing Paul McCartney. Will not be the last time that happens. If you want to listen to our playlist, you can check out the stuff we added last semester and then follow along when we add new music. We don't really have a consistent day of the week for sending songs, so I'll just post as we go. I think this'll be fun!
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