Nov 7th

Loren's pick: "Human" by Rag 'n' Bone Man

While writing has eluded me over the past busy week's –music has not. Lot's of discoveries of all types....One that keeps sticking with me is English singer Rag 'n' Bone Man. He won Brit award's Breakthorugh Act and with good reason. His sound is rich like a blend of Paul Robeson playing with Hozier at the best gospel competition (with a little country twang and some sophisticated hip hop ballad thrown in). HIs lyrics are real and this track has appeared already in shows- but its hard to deny the appeal. Hoping The Human tour heads to this side of the pond.

September 15

Christina's pick: "Land" by Patti Smith 

Had the privilege to hear this one live last night in Central Park. Important tip for MMM followers - don't pay for summer stage shows when the music sounds just as good from the field outside, where the vibe is chiller and boxed wine is encouraged. 

"Land" is such an obvious anthem that I'm not sure how much I have to say about it. It's an artifact that pulsates on, the perfect confluence of the poetry and sounds of that time in music. 

Sept 13

Loren's Pick: "Geet Fi Waktak" by Warda (Al-Jazairia) or the Algerian Rose

First, a friend turned me on to this great new time travel site called Radiooooo. You pick a speed, an era, and a country and get thrust in a global sound adventure. I decided to start in Egypt in the 60's/70's. It was just one of the times that Egypt was at the top of the world. As a major travel destination, it dominated the silver screen of the Arab world and Egyptian dance and culture made its way West. Some of my earliest memories are looking at the album covers in my parent's collection of the "exotic" dances covered in veils and sequin tops. 

Warda was actually born in France and then moved to Egypt in the early 70's. Married to an Egyptian composer, she preformed many of his song and rose to fame both through her music and appearance in films. I wish I could translate & understand the lyrics,. I don't know if she is singing in Algerian or another dialect, but if I wasn't chained to the desk, I would time travel to a smokey coffee house and watch Warda live.

Sept 7

Loren's pick: "State of Art- A.E.I.O.U." by Jim James

Sometimes songs bring us to another medium. This track brings me right to a scene in the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. The protagonist, Christopher Johnson McCandless, loses his identity. The notion of names, speech, language no longer play a role. The way this song builds reminds me of that absence. Perhaps it's James's stripped down lyrics, "you need the dark, as much as the sun" and the rise of music, the use of naming out the vowels as if trying out the sound for the first time, there is a deep searching both in the music and lyrics. "It's a life worth living...you build it up strong". This song, like Krakuer's book, gets to the root of being human. With the swoons of A.E.I.O.U., some of our first sounds made and James' warning about technology and the power going out this is the most gentle warning about balancing technology and our sense of primial expression. Or maybe it was just an excuse to walk around with a t.v. on his head.

 

Christina's pick: "You Can Have It All" by George McCrae, and covered by Yo La Tengo 

Full disclosure, I was singing the Yo La Tengo cover of this (which I thought was the original) when my Mom chimed in and started singing along. "How do you know this song?" I asked her. "Haha, how do YOU know this song?" she snapped back. 

Turns out disco girl was right! This is a great groove that probably would have been totally lost over time had it not been covered by Yo La Tengo. I love how a song can take on such a new life that it sheds its former one. Yo La Tengo's version, for me, is melancholic car rides or walks through the park. For my Mom, it's sequins and tearing up the dance floor. Here are both versions, in all their unique glory: 

Aug 28

Christina's pick: "My Old Man" by Mac Demarco. 

After what we will call a little summer break of R+R, MMM is back. Here is a hazy one. Simple messaging but a really nice song that's sort of my generations "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin. 

 

Loren's pick: "Elephant" Tame Impala

I'm not a huge "Shazamer", but I found myself in a bathroom at the Rose Cafe (yum) in Venice this summer dancing hard. I had to push the button on this deeply rich beat and melodic voice. When I sent it to Christina as my song of the day, she digitally screamed YES! Lucky ducky had just seen them the week before at one of my favorite venues: The Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. Might have to go down under to see this Australian band. They also have some of the best poster and album art out there.  

June 23rd

Loren's pick: "Trampoline", Papooz 

Found it! My summer song. It's arrived just 2 days after summer started. A modern bossa nova via France. A delicious tune of whimsy and fun. But its too short...I wanted more and so I found more. All of Papooz's track both "old" (2015) and new (this past January) make we glow. Like it really is an endless summer and I don't have a job, a desk, student loans. Just a big bright bed of green moss on my favorite rock behind my parent's house and the clouds are floating by. And then I realize I need to run back through the fields and grab a picnic basket with crepes and peach marmalade. Yeah, this song will be playing in my headphones for a while.

June 14

Christina's pick: "Sister" by Angel Olsen 

Loren's generation = Cat Power 

Mine = Angel Olsen 

I love the slow sprawl of "Sister." Feels like a mini odyssey that starts off like a sad country song with a soft guitar and swerves into something deeper, darker, and more modern. I feel like she captures a particularly feminine sadness handed down from Patsy Cline to Joni to Mazzy Star to now. All it takes is a bit of guitar.

She is in Camden and Randall's Island late July - let's go! 

June 7th

Loren's Pick: In the Mood for Love, Shigeru Umebayashi

I'm still not sure how I got here, but I have been swept away. Umebayashi, I want to live in your mind and hear the sounds you hear unedited and raw. This composition was created for the Wong Kar-Wi In the Mood for Love which I now need to revisit. I truly can't even tell if its just repeating itself as well...it just puts me into a joyful trance and I am lost in violins.

Christina's pick: "Yesterday" by Noname 

I turned 26 today! Here is what I'm vibin' on. Nice song about reflection and moving on, perf for a bday 

"don't grow up too soon // don't blow the candles out // don't let them cops get you." 

(first track of the album )

May 2

Loren's Pick: "Want Ur Love", Spoek Mathabo

Spoek Mathabo sent me down the rabbit hole. He is a South African artist, producer, rapper who has coined his sound, "Township Tech". His fifth album, Mzansi Beat Code just dropped and Want Ur Love is the lead track. NPR's Piotr Orlov did a great indepth piece you can read here. Mathabeo is also part of the Pan-African creative collective Batukfounded by South African electronic music producers Aero Manyelo, Spoek Mathambo, Nandi Ndlovu and poet Carla Fonseca. And this is where I fell and am still chasing the rabbit. The collaborations are endless and Batuk's sound is unique, fierce and energizing. I want to make a flow chart, I want to listen for hours, I want to be in a dark room dancing, with a few red lights hanging and the sweat rolling off my back. Okay I just realized I was brainwashed listening to Força Força. Transport me there.

April 25

Christina's pick: "The Big Big Beat" by Azealia Banks 

Azealia doesn't fuck around. Sitting at a desk all day often makes me want to dance / punch someone, and her music is like, basically the perfect fit for that. She's often written about for being foul-mouthed, on her twitter, in her music, in interviews (which she often cancels if she doesn't feel like it). She certainly has said some misguided stuff, but her simply saying it, and and saying it angrily, is radical and deserving of respect in its own right. Also attached a reel of her sassiness for fun. 

 

 

April 21

Christina's pick: "The National Anthem" by Radiohead 

It feels disingenuous to have just one song from Kid A, since that album is really meant to be one formal, tortured and amazing emotional odyssey. Alas..

I've loved Radiohead forever. (Remember when we saw them years before we even knew each other, haha?) 

This one, in title and sound, fits today's political climate really well. Current nationalist // fascist movements are swelling up in countries around us and including our own, and it's all happening so quickly that it's hard to make out any single moving piece of it. This song is like that, it's hard to separate one instrument from another, just a cacophony of trumpets, guitars, battling one another, and then a final discordant blare at the end. If I had to pick a song to serve as a warning sign to France, the UK, and the US two years ago about the things to come, I'd choose this one. 

 

 

April 15,16?

Christina's pick: "Ambling Alp" by Yeasayer 

Another one from that period of Brooklyn 2000-2010 music, a la Animal Collective. I'm almost embarrassed to put this band because I think they were a weird one hit wonder and mostly full of hot dudes. It's likely that said hot dudes are half the reason I saw them live a few years ago and danced a whole lot. There are lots of weird little ~technological~ noises in this one that I think people have seen shyed away from in music in recent years. (Remember Passion Pit, lol?) But I miss how carefree and Kraftwerk-y that genre was. 

April 4th

Loren's Pick: "Canticles Of Ecstasy, Hildegard von Bingen"

Where to start? 

That is always the question I ask myself when I am about to embark on a personal project. It is also the number one reason why I get stuck- why we all get stuck. When I realize the vast interconnectedness of all the parts, I am sometimes stymied by how to begin. So as I travel back through time to have a better understanding of classical musical, I am calling this my starting point. Why here? Well its fun to start with a woman, the voices are magical and somehow starting at the beginning of the last millennium is about all I can handle. Her story is amazing and so are these recorded voices, 2 medieval fiddles and a harp. 

 

 

March 28th

Loren's Pick: Rox in the box, The Decemberists

If you haven't been able to tell from my Song of the Day selects yet, I grew up with folk music. My brain is a small library of sea shanties, gospel songs, and Appalachian tunes. I much rather sing "Down in the Valley" than listen to then Knife Party. So it's somewhat a surprise that I didn't jump on the indie folk revival. It kinda annoyed me. My dad has a beard, I didn't need to see 25-year olds with the same look. I was a little bit of a hater- I admit. And I suffered for it. Lot's of good music came and went. I enjoyed it while I was around it, even seeing some shows, but not buying albums and truly getting to know how great some nuevo-folk payers were. So that lands me here with Rox in the Box. A fantastic song, with lyrics about a folk-worthy incident of a 1917 mining accident in Butte, MT that killed 168 people. (a place I have a special affinity for superfund site, prostitute tunnels and all). I know this song, then I let it go and now I am placing it in the library.

March 27th

Loren's Pick: Symphony No 7 in A major, Op 9, Ludwig van Beethoven 

There are things we tell ourselves that we will do within our life time: learn Spanish fluently, visit all the 7 Wonders of the Modern World, learn to tap dance, tie over 10 knots, mediate daily, and the list goes on. Somewhere during the days I spent laying on the bench during practice for the Marlboro Music Festival, I added "understand the roots of classical music" to the list. Inspired by a piece by pianist Piotr Anderszewski; I am now embarking on that journey. Classical music 101 - here I come. My first lesson was to listen to this piece. I still don't know why this "this piece", but I do know it brings me great joy to hear this string section. I have so many questions, like what orchestra to listen to, how does a piece change depending on the note it is played in, how to even by an album, who will my favorite composer be....

Christina's pick: "I am Stretched on Your Grave" by Sinéad O'Connor 

When I chose this one, I was deep in the post two-weekends of celebrating St. Patty's Day cold/cough/ general dopamine lack. 

Sinéad needs no introduction. She is a force to be reckoned with. I think a lot of people remember her only for her poppy "Nothing Compares 2 U" (which is great in its own right) and that Pope-burning thing on SNL (also tremendous in its own right) and not for some more of her politically charged, feminist songs. Her lyrics cut deep. Here she is layering a translation of "Táim sínte ar do thuama," or "I am stretched on your grave," an anonymously written poem from 17th century Ireland on top of that funky beat. 

I can't post about Sinead without going slightly off the rails. Below "I Am Stretched on Your Grave," watch this live version of "Black Boys on Mopeds" and "Troy" from some music fest in the 80s. Few female artists successfully express anger, in its both tender and powerful sides. Maybe because women are discouraged to do so their entire lives. Fuck yeah Sinéad for ignoring that entirely. 

 

March 22nd

Loren's Song: "Apocalypse", Cigarettes After Sex

Last week Christina and I went to NYPL for a piece written by Lou Reed and Stewart Hurwood. Drones was an onslaught of electronica and life instruments (violin, sax, bells, accordion) that interjected intermittently. Prior to going, I spent the afternoon listing to all Velvet Underground and Lou Reed tracks. What's this have to do with "Apocalypse"? I feel like I have been fast forwarded to a new rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes". And similarly I can almost listen to this song on repeat. This four-piece band form Brooklyn has nailed the dreamy, ambient tone that Reed mastered years ago, but with a seductive, smooth voice like their band name promises. Their fourth album is on pre-order now.

Christina's pick: "Eyes Be Closed" by Washed Out 

Last night, I'm home early enough with a touch of sunlight left. I could flop, or I could put the sneakers on.  I'm circling the track at this small park in Woodside (I think it's called Windmuller? I feel like Loren would know it?) when this euphoria rushes into my ears from shuffle play. Washed Out (whose song "Feel It All Around" got them famous as the opening theme to Portlandia) helped usher in 'chillwave' as a genre in 2008? 2009? Although it's sort of drifted from popularity, chillwave was all about using lo-fi techniques and vintage synthesizers to create a sense of nostalgia, and a relaxed, almost corporeal way of embracing memory. Legs pumping, I sort of took the song title's advice, and just closed my eyes and let myself feel it. Maybe the best songs for running are ones that make us forget we're doing anything at all. 

 

March 14

Christina's pick: "Seasons (Waiting on you)" by Future Islands 

Around two years ago Future Islands performed this song on Letterman, and literally broke the internet. The leader singer's dance moves/ general aesthetic were so wildly hilarious that I still just watch this video for kicks. It's a snowy day today and we're all sort of trapped in the office, and I sort of just want to blast this and get weird for a minute.  

also, Future Islands are great for car rides. That voice is addictive. For the actual album track, listen here. 

Loren's pick: "A Shot Rang Out", Emily Jane White

Mornings can be chaotic. A former "early bird", I now like to sleep in abit, but still maintain the aura of a chill day. I popped on my Sonos Folk FM station and this song cut through the noise. White is a song writer from Oakland, Cali and has a new album coming out this summer. Her voice is like a cup of second flush darjeeling. Clear, flavorful and smooth. The accompanying instruments are rich and resonant (in this song, but also all her tracks). Melancholy but also warming. 

March 8

Christina's pick: "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison

Woke up today to birds chirping, a gray and moist sky. A sombre sort of happiness, perfect for  Van Morrison. A year ago I was listening to his album, driving up the western coast of Ireland to his hometown of Belfast for St. Patrick's Day. Counting sheep, literally.