Everyone's got go-to tracks for the summertime. Even pretty much brilliant Everyones like Dave Longstreth. This week's NY Mag asks artists what songs would make their summer muxtape, and then NY Mag puts those songs together on a summer muxtape. They've already posted listen links to the RZA's, Albert Hammond Jr.'s, and Free Kitten's (buy the mag for the accompanying blurbs, looks like), but I was most intrigued by today's Dirty Projectors playlist web-only bonus (guess he's not fit to print?). This is because the Projectors' catalog suggests that Dave's a voracious, equal opportunity listener with a soft spot for the unexpected, and also that he's a pretty witty guy. The glad fact of this exercise is that I'm right up and down: the playlist spans from Black Dice and Lucky Dragons to Jackie Wilson and Stevie Ray Vaughn, the supplementary quotage is clever and occasionally head-turning. Like when he says John Mayer's lyrics are better than Radiohead's. (SUSPENSE...)
This comes in Dave's joint discussion of "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" and J. May's "Waiting On The World To Change":
"I noticed how similar these albums [Radiohead's In Rainbows and John Mayer's Continuum] were during a bout of insomnia in Portugal. It's something about the late Bush years -- these songs are for the last Bush summer. The titles of the albums make me think of an axis or spectrum. Maybe they're about possibility. And the lyrics! Radiohead's lexicon is all about bureaucrats telling you you can't succeed. And really, Mayer says the same thing, but with more ambiguity -- and it's better."
Enjoy that, John Mayer's Ego. Here's the full list, quick and Dirty style:
- Jackie Wilson - "Lonely Teardrops"
- Lucky Dragons - "Morning Ritual"
- Van Halen - "Eruption"
- Stevie Ray Vaughn - "Crossfire"
- Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
- John Mayer - "Waiting On The World To Change"
- Black Dice - "Endless Happiness"
- David Byrne - "Glass, Concrete, Stone"
Ahh, Lucky Dragons, which Brandon spotlighted in a recent Outsiders. Ahh, David Byrne, who has recently become a Dirty Projectors fan himself. Longstreth's "Glass, Concrete, Stone" blurb hits on it a bit:
A great artist for any season, really, but we recorded some tracks together recently and I've been digging deep into his catalog. A really impressive musician. Makes me want to change my name to David.
I also like his allusions to what qualifies these songs as summer jams. Like for "Eruption," he says:
Eddie's guitar on 'Eruption' expanded the lexicon -- a summery thing to do, I think.
Agreed, although that means good old Squid Brains had the summeriest blog post of the summer. Also check out the Black Dice bit, which wonders why the Black Dice/Excepter/Gang Gang Dance/Animal Collective NYC generation "didn't get the Seattle '91 treatment." Anyway! You can hear the playlist at Muxtape, and you can (should) read the rest at Vulture.
Dirty Projectors have two records out this year -- one more on Dead Oceans, and their first for their new home, Domino. Keep you posted.
