Daves Faves

Ugly Valley Boys

2011-07-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

If you are in Utah, go check these guys out.

(I got a random, much appreciated call from Ryan yesterday. It's been almost 15 years since I last spoke to my "big bro", great to see he's still rockin')

Chad Valley

2011-07-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Chad Valley - Now That I'm Real (How Does It Feel) from Lucy Bridger on Vimeo.

tUnE-yArDs

2011-06-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Sea and Cake

2011-05-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

Gorillazworld

2011-04-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

via Rhapsody

Campfire OK

2011-03-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Another great local Seattle band...

Yuck

2011-03-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

The best 90's revival I've heard. Gotta love those droning guitars and fuzzy riffs...

La Blogotheque

2011-03-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

La Blogotheque is a great (French) music blog. I especially dig "Les Concerts A Emporter"

Arcade Fire- Neon Bible

Phoenix

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

We Love It In Seattle

2011-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

This is so old, I was a faithful KUBE listener when it came out.

Say Hi To Your Mom

2011-02-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Artist: Say Hi To Your Mom
Song: Take Ya Dancin'

Flav of the Week: Foster the People

2011-02-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

Beware: There is a good chance this will get stuck in your head...

Band: Foster the People

Song: Pumped Up Kicks

Flav of the Week: Smith Westerns

2011-02-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

Band: Smith Westerns

Song: All Die Young

Flav of the Week: Grouplove

2011-02-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Band: Grouplove

Song: Colours

Tallest Man on Earth

2011-01-28T16:44:00.000-08:00

Never gave this a fair listen til NPR's All Song's Considered reminded me of him. Dang. Lovin...

Flav of the Week: White Lies

2011-01-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

White Lies
Album: Ritual

Daves Faves 2010

2010-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

Here it is. This was a fun one to put together. I hadn't realized how "electrified" my selections were this year until putting this together. Enjoy it here.

2010 Album Faves

2010-12-05T10:56:00.001-08:00

I can't spend too much time on this for a few reasons. 1) my head will explode 2) my first born is due to arrive tomorrow and I got bigger fish to fry... sort of.

At any rate, as I put the finishing touches on my 2010 Mix here are the albums that stand out as my faves for the year (in no particular order)...

Beach House - Teen Dream

Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Bonobo - Black Sands

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

and for good measure...

Chromeo - Business Casual

KEXP Volume 6

2010-12-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

KEXP's most recent live in-studio comp is amazing. Buy it.

KEXP: Vote for Year's Top Albums

2010-12-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Tough year for all the right reasons. I'm workin' on my list now. More to come.

Sound on the Sound

2010-12-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Just discovered this new blog. Love it.

Cantoma

2010-11-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

Not sure how I missed this but apparently Cantoma released a new album earlier this year- Out of Town. I have only given it a brief listen but I am thrilled to add this to my library as their first, self titled album has been the soundtrack to just about every zen, down tempo moment I have enjoyed over the past few years. I have fond memories of watching the sunset on the edge of the rain forest in Costa Rica, laying in the hammock with Colleen on our honeymoon in Barbados, hangin out on the patio for a summer bbq, and wiping the cobwebs away on many a hazy weekend mornings to these guys. I'm lovin' that my atmospheric chillout mix just got extended...

Sufjan's Impossible Soul

2010-11-28T10:26:00.001-08:00

I have now spent enough time with Sufjan Stevens' new album Age of Adz to not only appreciate it, but love it. For me, it has been the hardest album to get into as it is his most schizophrenic, exploratory project to date. It's one of those albums that you can't put on to suite your mood. Rather, you must let go of yourself and step inside Sufjan's world and let him take you where he will. My favorite song on the album is the last: Impossible Soul. If you didn't know, you'd think this single song is the entire album. At 25 minutes it takes you from Sufjan's soft signature emo-orchestration, up through an episode of auto-tuned cyberstaticity, on to some sort of high school musical group sing along, and back down and out with his more familiar stripped down acoustic stylings. It's a trip, but a journey worth taking. Here it is in parts:

Discovering Music

2010-10-12T08:04:00.001-07:00

I've had a bunch of folks ask where I hear new music. These queries have inspired me to compile a list of the sources I turn to for hearing something new. Would love to hear more about yours...

KEXP Duh, the BEST RADIO STATION EVUH. We're lucky to have this amazing resource on our airwaves in Seattle at 90.3 fm. Good news is for those of you around the world, this is way more than a radio station and is online in a major way. It's web resources have real-time and archive streaming which allow you to tune in live or go back and listen to all the great shows, in-studios and check out playlists and music charts. Definitely worth exploring the site if you never have. You can usually count on their Top 10 as winners for your listening pleasure on any given day. They even have a pretty cool iPhone playlist app if you're one of those people.

Rhapsody: I still can't believe more people aren't using Rhapsody. It is relatively cheap, has great music selection, and with the iPhone and Android apps you truly have access to pretty much any song, any time, any where. For those who don't know, it is an online music database that you subscribe to. When you log into your account you have access to millions of artists, albums, and songs. You can save the music you like to your library (personal database) and create playlists you can access from anywhere. You're allowed to access library and playlists through 3 computers (most likely home, office and laptop) as well as a mobile device (phone). One of my favorite features is pretty simple: playlists. At the beginning of each season I create a playlist for whatever I listen to over the next 4 months. Additionally, I have another playlist for my favorite tracks: an easy way to keep a musical diary of sorts, and make the process of creating the end-of-year Daves Faves playlist. Even going back and listening to the winter playlist from this year is nostalgic. Other helpful features for discovering new music are the Pandora-like radios stations on Rhapsody, the "contemporaries" and "influences" links under each artist which link you to other related artists you may like.

Pandora This is the compromise between the control you have with, say Rhapsody and a standard radio station. This program seems to have made big improvements in recent years for controlling how far astray your station will go. 4 or 5 years ago I swear that all roads led to Elton John. Nowadays I can put on Passion Pit and not find myself an hour later singing along to "The Circle of Life."

New Music Tipsheet After Checking Rhapsodies new releases each Tuesday morning, I go hear to check out what has been released. Then, I head back to Rhapsody and add the albums I want to listen to, to my playlist. This is the best weekly source I have found although it doesn't have the real obscure stuff. If you have a better source that's updated often, let me know!

Perfect Shuffle I was turned on to this blog by a friend in Amsterdam. On the Perfect Shuffle section, this guy puts together great playlists of current and classic music which you can (whisper) download. The rest of his blog is pretty dang good too. It's in Dutch, but you can translate it with the click of a button if you need to.

Pitchfork Great music news and reviews. Not much for listening, but great for getting in the loop and learning/ discovering more.

Last FM I'll be honest, I haven't used this a bunch because with all the other resources listed above I don't really need to. That said, it is pretty good and worth checking out.

Friends I am fortunate to have some great music friends: the kind that can't wait to share something that they just discovered, a song or album they are certain will "change your life." You know who you are. I really do love it when somebody tells me "you gotta hear this." I love to know that somebody is as excited about music as much as I am and that they thought of me when they heard something they loved. So, share the love with others, cuz, even though I know I am likely in the hole lately with a few of you, you gotta give to get. Good news is Daves Faves 2010 is coming soon and is gonna be totally rad...

Arcade Fire

2010-10-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

Great show at The Key 10.29.10 (all things considered). My son's 2 1/2th show after Beach House opened for Vampire Weekend (who cancelled after making us wait an hour) at Marymoor and Pavement at the Paramount which was great. Not bad for a -.25 year old.

Back to the Future

2010-09-28T21:33:00.001-07:00

Chromeo: Hot Mess

Step inside the DeLorean and get launched back to whenever the future was. It's totally awesome. Good news is, you really do have the touch screen computer and pocket phone. Bad news is, you don't fit your skinny jeans like you use to.

Boom Boom for da Womb

2010-09-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Been distracted getting ready for this little guy growing inside Colleen. Just as for everything else in life, and so long as this boy is actually mine, I figured a playlist to put him to bed and wake him up in the morning was in order. I've heard that the sounds that a babies hear in the womb will be the ones that will comfort them in the future. I haven't read up on this theory, but the doctor side of our union has confirmed that more constant, pulsating, rhythmic sounds are soothing for developing life because they are similar to the sounds heard inside the womb. With that, I have created the following playlist for Jr. as he gets ready for his world tour (due to kick off Dec. 6th).

Dave Brubek- Take Five

Bakra Bata- Pachelbel's Canon (Steel Drum Version)

Bob Marley- Natural Mystic

Cantoma- Marisi

Bonobo- Noctuary

Finley Quaye- Even After All

Telepopmusik- Breathe

Boozoo Bajou- Yma

Manu Chao- Me Gustas Tu

Winter 2010 Faves

2010-05-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

World News		Local Natives
Ambling Alp		Yeasayer
The Ghost Inside		Broken Bells
Stylo (Album Version) (Feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack)		Gorillaz
Bejan		Tanlines
Who Makes Your Money		Spoon
Alley Cats		Hot Chip
Liar		Dragonette
Walkabout [w/ Noah Lennox]		Atlas Sound
A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me To Charlotte		Los Campesinos!
C'Mon		The Soft Pack
Fast Jabroni		Surfer Blood
The Stranger		RJD2
Giving Up The Gun		Vampire Weekend
Take Care		Beach House
Open Up A Window		Sean Hayes
Finish Line		Fanfarlo
On a Frozen Beach		Feral Children
Carries On		Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto Remix)		Massive Attack

Daves Faves 2005-2009

2010-05-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

I've been sleepin on this blog for quite a while now. So, before I pick things up again, here's a backlog of the past few years of faves. More to come soon. Enjoy...

Daves Faves- Decade (2000-2009)

2010-01-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

I took a look back at my my first 10 years of the 2000's. Looking through my musical lens (for better or worse) here's what I saw...

Download

1. Lose You- Pete Yorn

2. Don't Panic- Coldplay

3. Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz

4. Lebanese Blonde- Thievery Corporation

5. Me Gustas Tu- Manu Chao

6. A Lo Cubano- Orishas

7. Una Musica Brutal- Gotan Project

8. Seville- Pinback

9. Butterfly- Mason Jennings

10. Breakdown- Handsome Boy Modeling School/ Jack Johnson

11. Freedom- Jurassic 5

12. Heavy Metal Drummer- Wilco

13. Gravity Rides Everything- Modest Mouse

14. The Way That He Sings- My Morning Jacket

15. New Slang- The Shins

16. California Waiting- Kings of Leon

17. We Will Become Sillouettes- The Postal Service

18. This is How I Feel- Finley Quaye

19. Tables and Chairs- Andrew Bird

20. Misread- The Kings of Convenience

21. Hit the Switch- Bright Eyes

22. Wake Up- Arcade Fire

23. All These Things That I've Done- The Killers

24. Burnt Offering- Blue Scholars

25. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!!- Sufjan Stevens

26. The Funeral- Band of Horses

27. Song Writes Itself- Pela

28. Hi-Fi- M.Ward

29. Liar- Built to Spill

30. Hallelujah- The Helio Sequence

31. Normandie- Shout Out Louds

32. Paris 2004- Peter Bjorn & John

33. Come to Me- Koop

34. Etoile- Cantoma

35. Paper Planes- M.I.A.

36. Slow Show- The National

37. Skinny Love- Bon Iver

38. Electric Feel- MGMT

39. My Girls- Animal Collective

40. Sleepyhead- Passion Pit

(The goals was to not include duplicate tracks from other year's Faves)

Daves Faves 2009

2009-12-17T16:44:00.001-08:00

There's such a love hate relationship with this ritual. Those of you who partake in this annual exercise know the struggle. With so much great music this past year, where, who, what, when, how to begin? Well, fortunately with the help of Rhapsody (yes, another plug) I've been dropping my faves into a playlist throughout the year. So, here in December, it just comes down to taking a look back, arranging and pairing it down to a CD length mix. 80 minutes of music; easy enough right? Not so much with roughly 100 tunes that made it into the 2009 "drop box" of faves. But in the end I made some compromises and came up with a mix that I think represents my year in music pretty well. There's a bit of everything in there. Some highs, some lows, but that's how the story goes. So, now, without further ado, Daves Faves 2009...

(Download Here)

Album art: 2009 was the year of the black cat. (R.I.P. Lucy / Welcome little Louie)

1---Black & Blue--------Miike Snow

2---Smile Upon Me-------Passion Pit
3---1901----------------Phoenix
4---Psychic City--------Yacht
5---Set You On Fire-----Think About Life
6---Deadbeat Summer-----Neon Indian
7---Walking On A Dream--Empire Of The Sun
8---Bluish--------------Animal Collective
9---Dear God------------Monsters Of Folk
10--Gotta Cheer Up------Cotton Jones
11--Blood Bank----------Bon Iver
12--Blue Skies----------Noah and the Whale
13--Evil----------------Beads
14--Until We Bleed------Kleerup (Feat. Lykke Li)
15--Never Never---------Little Dragon
16--Islands-------------The xx
17--Leap----------------The Cave Singers
18--Hysteric------------Yeah Yeah Yeahs
19--Sweet Disposition---The Temper Trap

Rhapsody Commercial

2009-12-16T13:15:00.001-08:00

So the final Rhapsody commercials I'm featured in will start airing tonight on MTV networks. It was a memorable process to go through and it's been fun to see how they all turned out. The Rhapsody team, and MTV film crew were excellent. Director Brennan Stasiewicz did a great job capturing the "moments" and maintaining a sense of authenticity other such "reality" spots often lack.
If your interested, check out more of my thoughts on the commercial spot and music in general on the real networks blog.
Also, you can look for my Daves Faves 2009 playlist on Rhapsody Playlist Central next week!

A little background on this one. This is the spot where they'd give me a song to look up and describe a moment it would be perfect for. The reason I look so confused at first is because, well, I am. Just before the Lamb of God song shown, I was listening to and describing mellow, sentimental stuff like Bon Iver, etc. So the sound of shredding metal was a shocker no doubt! The only thing I could think of was the guy at the corner store we call Heavy Metal. Every time we walk into the store he's blasting some hard core death metal that gives a good jolt to the system; just like this moment! I hope Metal don't mind the reference!

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

2009-12-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Found out they were playing last night at Neumo's so we decided to stick around and see if we could get into the show. With the help of my cardboard sign and Colleen's sweet Southern charm the lady in the box office granted us a few extra tickets after selling out of the extra tickets to the already sold out show. So we made it in and the show was great!
First, the opener Local Natives was fantastic. (Kind of like Yeasayer.) The next band Fools Gold was really high energy with a afro-latin flavor that got the crowd movin. Then all 11 of ES & the MZs filled the stage. Definitely worth the trouble to see them. With such a big arrangement it of course is visually a great show, but they got into the crowd as well. It's been a while since I've seen an entire Seattle crowd doing the bounce dance in unison. Much fun. They got this Neo Hippie AM Gold thing going on that is super fun. Kinda of a fusion of Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton, and the Polyphonic Spree. Or maybe what Arcade Fire would sound like if they were to record an album from a 1970s California hippie commune. I don't know, its just good.

Take Me Home Love

2009-12-05T13:49:00.001-08:00

If this song don't make ya wanna get up and swing around the living room then you's a hopeless soul. The album version is great, but seeing their performance makes it even more better; love is infectious man, isn't life rad?

Think About Life

2009-12-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

More 80's inspired synth-pop to make your day a little more gay. (like thsuper happy, duh.)

Aye Ya Ya Ya

2009-11-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

We spent this Thanksgiving weekend (Wednesday night till Monday morning) up at Lake Wenatchee with our dear friends Chris and Mere. Most of the time was spent eating, lounging, playing dominoes, and of course, listening to music. The song I will forever associate with this memorable weekend is Yacht's Psychic City. The perfect song for havin fun doin nuthin with your people...

Constant Surprises

2009-11-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Little Dragon is one of those groups that has been lingering in my mind for a while, but for whatever reason hadn't got the play they deserve, until now. I first fell in love with Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano's voice on Koop's Koop Island record. Her smokey-smooth vocal stylings over Koop's sophisticated electro jazz were instant faves (she's easy on the eyes as well). Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't know much more about her until my dear friend and fellow music nut Ann turned me on to the Little Dragon album. Still, I hadn't given it the attention it deserves until the new release Machine Dreams came out recently. Listening to it I was inspired to revisit their debut and now I have both albums in heavy rotation where they should be. Constant surprises...

Set Adrift On Nineties Bliss

2009-11-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

One of my faves of all time. Who doesn't love this one? Christina Applegate ya gotta put me on...

Album: Of the Heart, Of the Soul and of the Cross (1991)

Sample: Spandau Ballet "True"

Neon Indian Summer

2009-11-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Neon Indian fortify their soft serve low-fi soundwith retro-futuristic synth-pop. Familiar yet refreshingly new and different, it's perfect background music for making any thirty-something get-together a little hipper. I miss summer.

That's a Rhap

2009-11-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I had my brush with reality TV fame as an MTV camera crew followed me around for a Rhapsody commercial shoot. The concept for the spot was that for every moment there is a song and you can get that song "anytime, anywhere on Rhapsody." To convey this they set out to capture an average day of a normal Rhapsody user (me) and overlay the personal soundtrack I'd choose for specific moments.

A Little Background

Those who know me well know that I am a big Rhapsody user/ fan. So, it seemed fitting that when Heidi O' sent me a link for a "Rhapsody's biggest fan casting call" I had to submit. I answered some questions (written and on film) and sent in my submission. A few days later (last Friday) I found out I was selected. Before I knew it (or could rethink it), 10 guys were out here from New York to shoot a commercial!

The Day

The plan was to capture a normal, yet interesting day. With not much happening on this particular fall Saturday and the inclement weather adding another twist, interesting proved to be a bit difficult. The crew was super cool though and made do with my surprisingly uninspired day. Starting at our house around 9:30 a.m., the following is a list of the scenes we shot and the songs that they reminded me of (to be edited in as the soundtrack to the commercial).

Making breakfast for Colleen and I- My Morning Jacket- The Way That He Sings

Bike Ride Through City- The Temper Trap- Sweet Disposition

Catching the sunset at South Lake Union Park (self reflection scene)- The XX- Islands

Workin late at the office- Thievery Corporation- Lebanese Blonde

Hangin out with friends- Passion Pit- Smile Upon Me

That's a Rhap

All in all it was a pretty fun day. I wish we had some better weather though to make getting out around the city a bit easier. The hardest parts were definitely the close-up shots when they asked me about the moments we shot and what song it reminded me of. Picking a song off the top of my head and describing why I chose it proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be. With the lights, cameras, and crew all up in my grill, expressing personal moments through song off the cuff was not an easy task; a bit stressful even.

So, I don't think I'll be signing up for any reality shows any time soon, or ever for that matter. I'd much rather be on the other side of the camera for sure. I definitely could see marketing for Rhapspdy or creative director being a pretty sweet gig...

(The commercial should air on the the various MTV channels sometime in December/ January.)

Blue Skies Are Coming

2009-11-06T17:21:00.001-08:00

Been spending some time with the new Noah and the Whale album The First Days of Spring. It's gotta be the best break-up album I've heard in years, possibly ever. Intimate guitars and expanding orchestration; this is a collection of lonely portraits depicting the struggles of finding optimism with a broken heart. A beautiful sad happy album that'll almost make you wish you just got dumped... almost.

Jeepers Creepers

2009-11-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

Without even realizing it this album has snuck its way into my top faves of the year. It's one of those I put on, listened to the whole way through not thinking too much of it, then found myself humming the tunes hours later needing another fix. It's got this dark romance thing going on that I find quite appealing for the season. Emo hipster brit kids do it again!

Roll Up Your Sleeves For Winter

2009-11-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

Walked to work this morning. A crisp fall day, I brought my studio ear warmers along- a bit over the top but dang they sound amazing! Anyway, this was the standout track crunchin 4 miles of fallen leaves. Straight forward punky rock thatScott soul.

We Were Promised Jetpacks: grit I'm diggin for grindin out my day.

In the Mix: November '09

2009-11-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

The year is winding down. Looking forward to shortlisting my 2009 faves. In the meantime, thought I'd share what's in my mixer right now...

Daves Faves: November '09 (1)

Daves Faves: November '09 (2)

Daves Faves: 2009 (Drop Box Unmixed)

(Gotta love Rhapsody... more to come on that...)

Desert Island Discs

2009-10-25T17:45:00.001-07:00

You, know the scenario: You're stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life and you only have 10 albums to listen to.

Not just your favorites, this list must be something more. Variety is key. Selections need to span the extreme highs and lows of your lonely life in paradise. The following is what would get me through...

Bob Marley- Exodus

Manu Chao- Proxima Estacion: Esperanza

The Postal Service- Give Up

Van Morrison- Moondance

Neil Young- Unplugged

Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Bright Eyes- Digital Ash In a Digital Urn

Pearl Jam- Ten

Kings of Leon- Aha Shake Heartbreak

Public Enemy-It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back