I’ve been working on this mix for awhile now. A collection of songs that may, may not or most assuredly have influenced John Maus. Parallels, paths, phases abound trying to trace an influence wherever it can be found. A task I’ll readily admit is difficult with an artist like John Maus who carries such a distinctly unique sound. Enjoy (it at night).
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Peter Davison is a world. This song from 1986 (and really his entire incredible discography) feels like it had a pretty profound effect on Maus’ own music.
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An early John Maus demo that is such a revelation. Had to throw it on this mix.
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When the chorus kicks in this song gets so infectiously heavy.
I keep catching myself questioning the reality of every letter typed as I write this out, but nick nicely has graciously sent me over a mixtape this week. I could pretty much quit writing after this post because that has to be one of the most amazing things to come out of writing for Naturalismo. If you haven’t spent any time with his album psychotropia, stop what you’re doing and go buy it now. Psychotropia is a masterpiece of aurora borealis sparked psychedelia that really is quite unlike anything that came before (or after) it. It’s criminally underrated and just about everyone that I’ve played any of the songs for has immediately become a rabid fan. His music influence reaches far and more recently artists such as Ariel Pink, John Maus and Holy Shit have channeled some of his sonic innovations. As always, I’d so much rather have an artist convey where they’re at musically with music instead of words. So without further ado, nick nicely’s mixtape for naturalismo:
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Tracklist
1. Olivia Tremor Control….Tropical Bells
2.Paul Giovani……………..Maypole (from the Wickerman)
3.Phoenix…………………. Countdown (sick for the big sun)
4.Olivia Tremor Control…..Sleepy Company
5.nick nicely……………….On The Beach (alternate take)
6.Shangri-las………………Remember (Walking In The Sand )
7.The Eels.………………..Susan’s House
8. John Maus…………….. Do Your Best
9.Spiritualized……………. Do It All Over Again
10. Caribou………………. Bowls
11. Neil Diamond………… Solitary Man
This is a spring mix that’s pretty well suited for a blissful stretch of Highway 1 (hint hint, east/west coast people buy your tickets and make it out to the most beautiful drive/venue in the world for what looks to be a fairly epic line-up). I’ve been pretty set on these long, sprawling melodic tracks for the past few weeks and have finally whittled them down to a romantic thirteen. Born as an aside from the end of the left coast; it’s also just where the weather has been.
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I think Blind Melon owe a debt of gratitude to this rad sunwashed and stoned 60′s San Francisco band whose riff off this track sounds nearly indistinguishable from “No Rain’s.” I like where Kak take it. Something about this song makes so much sense again, it was one of my first discoveries when I first moved to San Francisco and captures that similar quixotic wave of optimism. They recorded one album in ’68 which was never promoted, played a few shows around San Francisco then called it quits.
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The production on this song really makes it. This track has been on constant rotation since I first heard it a bit back. Better than the original.
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Can’t help but feel a bit nostalgic when the beat kicks into this track. Cruiser just conjures up some oddly formative days spent watching generic alt., house, hip hop and grunge music videos ad infinitum while your older sister tried on chokers and you increasingly felt slightly sick to your stomach staring at the Brass Plumbs poorly contrived sign. What? Only adding to the perfection of the track are the barely audible vocals carrying an early JAMCesque melody.
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I find it pretty difficult to really define Peter Greens musical output for Fleetwood Mac and his solo material in a single genre as his songwriting was so diverse in style and changed so quickly between song and album. As big of a travesty as it was that for much of the 70′s Green’s music was absent (bad acid trip sent him along a similar path as Barrett), there is still a few later gems from the rough (and I mean rough, some of his later material saw him recording his brothers disco songs). This track from 77 is one of those tracks that is subtle on first listen but by the end builds to something tiptoeing in on what made Albatross so incredible.
With the release date of Animal Collective’s new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, still a few months off the new Panda Bear 7″ “remix” of Boneless serves as a good bridge to tide your ears over. If you haven’t heard it in its full yet you can download it here.
I’m always amazed by Noah Lennox’s ear and ability for finding just the right moment of a song that isn’t necessarily instantly infectious but ultimately proves addicting after he loops it through a few times. Furthermore, the sheer obscurity of some of the songs he samples from, combined with the fact that they’re nearly always lost gems of recordings always add to the overall greatness of his songs. Here’s a few of the albums that he has sampled from recently and in the past.
On the newtrack Boneless Panda Bear samples the gorgeous sunny opening riff to The Brazda Brother’s 1973 Canadian psych-folk self-titled debut album. Grab the entire (long out of print, and goes for 100′s) album here:
The second album by the Dovers is one of those lost gems from the 60′s that somewhat recently had a resurgence/re-relevance as artists such as Ariel Pink covered their songs and more recently were mentioned by Noah Lennox as being one of his 5 favorite songs. It’s easy to hear why The Dovers have been welling up from the underground for the past 2 decades on and off because after listening to their music it immediately becomes clear that what they were doing was largely turning much of the samey garage R&B pop their contemporaries were doing on its ear. If anything their music was slightly ahead of its time and plays similarly today. This is an extremely hard to track down album and also out of print so I’d grab it now… the password is “garagedovers”
Finally there’s the album by the formative 60′s band The Tornadoes that Panda Bear lists as an influence in the liner notes to Person Pitch. He also samples two of their songs “The Popeye Twist” and “Red Roses and a Sky of Blue” on it. Another must have with lots of early electronic experiments that paved the way for many other artists.
