Harvest of Gold

This week it's all about the indie music, Baby. (Yes, I did just call you baby.) There's some rock and dance vibes plus a little bit of folk to keep it interesting. We talk about the 3 As: Avocados, Afterlife, and Alt-J.

October has been treating us well, wouldn't you agree? Although, it isn't over yet. This week, Jagwar Ma's Let Her Go gets a remix by Jagwar Yew. This Australian trio out of Sydney is already stirring up some waves from down under. Their new remix EP is out now. Check it out. (Here)

Kurt Vile also released a new song, Feel My Pain and it's available for free download. Download by clicking the link.

The new Los Campesinos! video for Avocado, Baby is here. The line: "I feel like I'm the host of a terrible game show" inspired the whole video, which is directed by Craig Roberts. (Watch)

Pitchfork did an interview with frontman, Gareth Campesinos!, and talked about the kind of music they'd turn to when faced with different circumstances for their feature called Situation Critical. Here's an excerpt: (Read)

Pitchfork: You're picking out songs for your own funeral...

Gareth: One song I definitely want played is “Three Lions”, which was England's official European Championship song in 1996 and the World Cup song in 1998. It’s properly euphoric and arguably my favorite ever song. I'd also want “Here” by Pavement, because it’s a really beautiful song and obviously very appropriate with its “everything’s ending here” coda. 

And I can’t do this interview and not talk about the Beautiful South, because they are like my Beatles. If it wasn’t for Morrissey, I think Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton would have been Morrissey. I love the Smiths, don’t get me wrong, but I think he’s 10 times the lyricist that Morrissey is. But he’s never been attractive or played the game or been cool or dressed well or anything like that. The Beautiful South are what I’d bring my kids up on.  

There’s a track off their first album called “Love Is”, and toward the end it deals with how, when you’re in a band, people think they care about you but in reality you’re just somebody who writes songs and they don’t really care about you as a person. So it goes, “Here’s the invitation to this caring nation/ Twenty-five years from now, will you come to my cremation?” It’s an appropriate sentiment. It’d be a nice send off if I was lowered into the grave or thrown into the sea.

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Better In The Dark

On The Radar: Issue #2 is all about the synths, funk, and a little bit of pop. This week we talk about sexy socialites, explorers, and being afraid. 

Charli XCX is tired of getting requests to write another 'I Love It' because it's not going to happen. She said: "We’ll never write a song like that ever again. I just kind of want to get out of that for a bit and do my thing." But she doesn't regret giving away the song to Icona Pop in the first place because they are "totally owning it". 

Now, she's focused on her second album and already released its lead single, SuperLove, to which Yeasayer just did a remix of.

Stereogum recently did a Q&A with her and I'd like to share this bit about their shared feelings towards pop music.

STEREOGUM: I think sometimes people want to imprint too much meaning on pop music when a lot of it is about that kind of simple, release. 

CHARLI XCX: Exactly. And I think it can still be meaningful, but I don’t think it has to be overly clever and ridiculously meaningful. I think stuff can be dumb and easy and be really important.

They also talk about the ultimate karaoke songs and the biker gang that tried to run off with her while shooting her music video for SuperLove in Japan. (Read the full article here)

Tha Funk Lordz are back with Sexy Socialite. Chromeo are at it again and bringing the funk back for their third studio album, White Women, which has yet to be given a release date. This 6-minute single has Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem, Museum of Love) playing drums for Dave 1 and P-Thugg. It's been said that the new album also includes appearances from Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, Solange Knowles, and Toro Y Moi. But for now, you can look back and reminisce on the Reddit AMA they did a month ago. (Listen)

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Beautiful Rewind

Welcome to the first issue of On The Radar, a weekly round-up of pretty much all things music related. Plus, a playlist to boot. 

This week, we talk about the mother*ckers who never loved us, taking chances with James Blake, what Chvrches is doing right and everything in between.

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Drake's album, Nothing Was The Same, has been getting high praises and even gets a "10 outta 10" from Vampire Weekend's frontman, Ezra Koenig. He's written a review for The Talkhouse and somewhere along the way it took an odd turn. At one point, he reveals he's colorblind. (But not really.)

Here's an excerpt:

"I have heard SOME of it. I heard that one called “Worst Behaviour,” the “motherfuckers never loved us” one – it really struck a chord. There are SO many motherfuckers out there. I’ve been making music since I was seven years old (started with piano) so I’ve been betrayed more times than I can count. You know how many people talk shit behind your back and then try to be your best friend over the course of 22 years in the industry?? Drake only got into music like five years ago, so if you see how angry he is — IMAGINE HOW I FEEL. 

Now, usually I can forgive but I won’t forget. However, there are some cases where I can forgive but I won’t forget OR forgive." 
Read the whole article here. 

While we're still on the subject of Drake, check out this hilarious list of his worst behavior by the Pitchfork staff. 
     "Made fun of friend for crying at the end of The Butler before silently crying to himself in the bathroom afterwards. - Larry Fitzmaurice" Surely, this happened, right?

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My Yoga Story

An open letter to future me (theme: yoga)

Dear Leica,

It's been two and half years since I started my journey with yoga and I can tell you that it hasn't been easy, to say the least. That first week of ever doing yoga was the hardest workout I've ever experienced since the only exercise I did before that was run the treadmill. But it felt so good to turn in those running shoes and step into the studio barefoot. I've never felt so in tune with my body. I only availed the one week beginners package and by the end of that week I didn't want to leave the mat. That's when I knew I fell in love with yoga.

I clicked with yoga instantly and I guess a major contributor to that is because of Yoga+. It's only a 7-minute walk from where I live and 5 minutes if I'm running late. Everything is there already, all I need to bring is my water bottle and myself. It's true what they say that the hardest part of yoga is going to the class because sometimes, your mind tells you to skip today and take a rest day instead - to let your body recover for a day... or two. Good thing I have my sister as my yoga buddy to push me to go practice and vice versa.

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