2nd Quarter Results 2009 Mix by BTreotch

April, May & June. Too much shit has been going on. It's been great though. Weddings, shows, baptisms, vacations & conferences. Too many flashing lights & noise. No A/C in south Florida for three weeks. Austin, Germanfest, Dallas, the Red River, Tennessee & Bonnaroo. Too much face time with men, women & horses in uniform. Bologna & cheese sandwiches are shit. Phish is still the shit. It doesn't slow down. Connecticut, NYC, Flagler Beach, Hawaii & the bunk dank of Waikiki. WTF happened to Juliet? I just spilled water on my laptop the other day losing the function of my 'k' and 'l' keys - I had to remap my keyboard and now I can't make brackets. What a life. It's cliche, but music gets me through it. As always, this should be played in it's entirety the first time through and with quality headphones so you can keep your shitty music to yourself.

The Bird and The Bee put out their second album - it doesn't melt me like their first one did, but its got some great tracks (plus an ode to David Lee Roth). The band/artist whose show I want to see the most is now Dan Deacon. He seems to be an uber-hipster nerd at first glance - an all-star from lookatthisfuckinghipster.com - but from listening to his live shows he appears to throw any pretension out the window. Crowd participation via dance-offs, choreography and just silliness run rampant it seems. The 8 minute "Snookered" is my favorite song off this mix. Strawberry Shortcake turned me onto Le Loup - Canto I is actually from their very chill 2007 album. They sound like the type of band I'd love to play in. I first heard Camera Obscura from Justin's epic 2006 mix (see the comments from this post and 2007 mix) - still one of my favorite mix tapes ever made. Fun, poppy and timeless - I secretly wish for lead-singer Tracyanne Campbell to come over to my house and sing this to my face.

Wilco of course put out a new album that is simply uninspiring save for a few songs. Their show at Bonnaroo was still excellent, but it seems that Jeff Tweedy opiate-free brain isn't going to allow for some of the madness that created Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. Regardless, the massive "Bull Black Nova" is one of my favorite Wilco tracks. Leilani Polk's review pretty much nailed Akron/Family's newest album Set 'Em Wild, 'Em Free. Thankfully the loss of Ryan Vanderhoof from the band didn't destroy the great energy their albums possess. And I still haven't had the chance to see these guys either - I need to move from south Florida. "Sleepyhead" was released last year on an EP, but indie flavor-of-the-month Passion Pit just released a proper album. It's not as good as I hoped, but this song is the tits. They're like this year's MGMT. Micachu - the stage name of Mica Levi - makes music that goes all over the place. Not all of it is as infectious as "Golden Phone," but Jewelery is a great listen.

Sunset is an Austin band that none of my Austin friends seem to give a shit about. They made one of my favorite albums last year - The Glowing City - along with three other albums or cassettes. "I'm Not a Perfect Person" is just one of two songs they've released this year. Slackers. Austin figures into my John Vanderslice story as well - he was the first artist I saw after I moved there in 2001. Michael Yates took me to hear him at the Mohawk(?) where he performed solo. Vanderslice had a funny name and long blond hair at the time. I remember thinking he reminded me of a Nelson twin who went solo, took some drugs and wrote better songs. Datarock's "True Stories" makes the cut purely on the back of the Talking Heads' epicness. If this song was described to me before hand, I probably would not have given it a chance - but it's a sincere tribute to a band that has inspired so many different artists.

Admittedly, I don't now shit about Blind Pilot, but "The Story I Heard" melts me. It should be played anytime it rains. The highly underrated EELS finally released another album. It took four years, but Hombre Loco is worth the wait and your $9.99. Hopefully they'll tour, but I'm not holding my breath. They album I've listened to the most is far and away Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's Vs. Children. Essentially a concept piece following a Bonnie and Clyde story in retrospect. It's just 11 songs - lo-fi and simple - but filled with every emotion.

What have you guys been into?

2nd Qtr 2009 download here: link

old mixes:

1st Qtr 2009 post

4th QTR 2008 post

3rd QTR 2008 post

2nd QTR 2008 post