Cruel Summer Music Mix 2014 - Vol. 2

As a southerner, I've been listening to these seven words all my life: "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." I call that southern science. And it's not particularly comforting when the sweat is rolling down my back into my underwear. Anyway, it's going to take more than sunscreen, shade, AC or lots of citrus-kissed blonde ales to get me through the next couple of months. Summer needs a soundtrack! In part two of this 6-part series, I'm featuring earworms from tUnE-yArDs, Sam Smith and Fucked Up.


tUnE-yArDs. Music meets performance art. Based in Oakland, California, tUnE-yArDs (yes, it's deliberately stylized that way) is the creation of Merrill Garbus, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist wild woman with a seriously unconventional imagination. She's an amalgam of influences, yet startlingly original. Accompanied by Nate Brenner (bass and synthesizers), they're work is an eclectic, convention-defying, passionately theatrical endeavor. Check out the tUnE-yArDs website here.

Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs
"Sexual roles just never really made sense to me at all," she told Mother Jones in 2012.

Song & Video: "Water Fountain" -- It's a tribal, percussive, and rhythm-driven pop song that's chaotic, exuberant and catchy as hell. You can dance to it. Wildly. Garbus says the tune may fool you into "thinking that you're listening to a kids' song," but it's actually about "the disintegration of society and the rotting of American cities." The video looks like a mashup of Pee Wee's Playhouse, Yo Gabba Gabba and Sesame Street on acid.

Sam Smith. This British singer-songwriter first got noticed in 2012 as the guest vocalist on Disclosure's "Latch," a synthpop cut that hit the charts in a dozen countries. That collaboration led to a solo EP and critical acclaim -- he landed on top of the BBC Sound of 2014 poll, a list compiled by 170 DJs, critics and bloggers to honor emerging artists. He has an amazing vocal range and claims he honed his voice by singing along to Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston records. And just before the release of his first full album (In the Lonely Hour), Smith addressed rumors about his sexual orientation by telling Fader magazine that the release "is about a guy I fell in love with last year, and he didn't love me back." Heartache + Music/Lyrics/Emotive Voice = Success? That formula worked pretty well for Adele a few years back.

Sam Smith

Song & Video: "Stay With Me" -- It's a raw, moving gospel-inflected ballad. There are multiple videos for the song, but I like this one, a straightforward studio session with a full choir. Smith's website, with an alternate video version of the song, is here.

Fucked Up. As their name suggests, this is a hardcore band. But beyond pushing buttons and boundaries with that name (The New York Times has referred to them as "a well-regarded, profanely named Canadian band"), this ambitious sextet has been delivering prodigious, melodic punk and experimental rock since 2002 -- and that's a long time for a hardcore punk band to remain relevant. Their live shows are raucous events that feature manic singer Damian Abraham, who's been called everything from "an unhinged monster" to "a brute wrecking ball of a man." He's got a killer grin, too.

Fucked Up, left to right: 
Ben Cook, Sandy Miranda, Jonah Falco, Damian Abraham, Mike Haliechuk & Josh Zucker

Song & Video: "Sun Glass" -- It's a rollicking, slamming but ultimately accessible wall of sound. Even if you don't understand most of the lyrics, you may find yourself sporadically shouting "Sun glass!" right along with Abraham. This is the kind of song you play at a pool party and people start asking, "Who is that?" The video is sort of effortlessly cool, juxtaposing sun-tinged glimpses of the band with images from a fervid live performance.  

There are some pretty great lyrics between Abraham's chant-like roar of "Sun glass!" See below.

Did you miss volume one in this series? See it here.

Planetary Video Mixtape #3

Another in my series of video mixtape blog entries...

Here's a handful of artists/bands I've happily discovered, but that haven't garnered much attention in the U.S., yet. The set up: I pick five, but only one can originate from the United States. Enjoy!

Slowolf. That's the stage name of producer and singer Andreas Asingh. There's very little info out there about him, but his Twitter and Facebook pages declare that he's "rising from the cold north of Copenhagen."

Slowolf (Andreas Asingh)

I fell in love with the first single I heard, "Dance Floor," a successful mix of metal, hip hop and dream pop that features iconic rapper Raekwon. Killer hook, terrific video.




Disclosure. These south London brothers started out making music in their bedrooms a few years ago.

Disclosure -- Howard (left) and Guy (right),  the Lawrence brothers

Fusing a handful of musical styles -- garage, house and soul -- they managed to concoct a gorgeous dance single, "Latch," with the help of guest vocalist Sam Smith. The video is like sensual icing on the cake.




The Ruby Suns. In the event that you can't think of a single indie pop band from New Zealand, here's one. The Ruby Suns have been around since 2004 when Californian Ryan McPhun moved to Auckland and hooked up with local musicians.

Ryan McPhun, frontman of The Ruby Suns

The Ruby Suns have a glistening, eclectic sound and McPhun's voice is a perfect fit. Seriously, get over to iTunes or Spotify and listen to this band. In the meantime, enjoy "In Real Life, a swell electro-pop single from their fourth album and its goofy video, which features McPhun playing all the parts in a parody of reality competition shows entitled Are You Good at Something?




Fucked Up. Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, they've been around since 2001. You're either going to love this band's name, or dismiss them simply because of it. You're either going to like the fact that they're unapologetically punk, or you won't. Fact is, Fucked Up is a great band. In 2009, they even won the Polaris Music Prize for producing the best full-length Canadian album. The award is based on artistic merit, regardless of sales, genre or record label.

This is Fucked Up. That's lead singer Damian Abraham in your face.

And this is what Damian Abraham usually looks like when he's performing...

Damian Abraham routinely performs shirtless.
You're either turned on by this, or you're not. I am.

In 2011, Fucked Up released their critically acclaimed third album, a rock opera entitled David Comes to Life. And here's the video treatment for one its songs, "Inside a Frame," featuring an emotionally charged choreography session for a punk dance crew.




John Fullbright. This singer/songwriter hails from Okemah, Oklahoma, the birthplace of folk music legend Woody Guthrie. Fullbright shares some of Guthrie's gifts, so make your comparisons. Hell, you might even hear echoes of Tom Waits or Neil Young in his music, too.

John Fullbright

After a 2009 live album, Fullbright released his first studio recording (From the Ground Up) in 2012. It received a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Americana Album. Considering where he was raised, it's not surprising that some of his songs are sprinkled with Biblical allusions. The surprise is that fan favorite "Gawd Above" is sung from the perspective of the deity Himself.



Peace out,
David