Dirty Beaches – Sweet 17 [Zoo Music]
Willie Nelson – Shotgun Willie [Atlantic CD]
Paul Simon – Crazy Love II [Warner Bros.]
Dwight Yoakam – The Late Great Golden State [Audium CD]
The Blow – Hey Boy [K]
Big Freedia – Azz Everywhere [540]
Tiga – You Gonna Want Me (12″ Mix) [Different/PIAS]
Kid Creole and the Coconuts – Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy [Ze]
The Kinks – Come Dancing [Arista]
Mates of State – An Experiment [Polyvinyl]
Xiu Xiu – Clowne Towne [5RC]
James Blake – To Care (Like You) [Polydor]
Debruit – 149 Dalston Airline [Civil Music]
Laurie Anderson – Let X=X/IT Tango [Warner Bros.]
Nobukazu Takemura – Mimic Robot (12″ Single Mix) [Thrill Jockey]
Delorian – Simple Graces [Mushroom Pillow]
Midnight Star – Operator [Solar]
Arthur Russell – That’s Us/Wild Combination [Bootleg CD]
How To Dress Well – Ready for the World [Lefse]
Maxwell – This Woman’s Work [Columbia]
Bob Dylan – Main Title Theme (Billy) [Columbia]
Bruce Springsteen – Racing in the Street [Columbia]
Magnolia Electric Company – Ring the Bell -> Cross the Road [Secretly Canadian]
Microphones – The Moon [Instatone 7"]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Hosted by DJ Gasp
Mountains – Choral [Thrill Jockey]
Mountains – Map Table [Thrill Jockey]
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Moya [Constellation]
Marcus Fischer – Wind and Wake [12k]
Ethan Rose – Untitled 3 [Locust Music]
Barn Owl – Mouths of Light [Digitalis]
Barn Owl – Visions in Dust [Thrill Jockey]
The Oo-Ray – Milky (live) [Luv Sound]
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Wild Moon and Sea [Type]
Belong – Who Told You This Room Exists? [Car Park]
Concern – Truth and Distance [Digitalis]
Lichens – Magnus (es) (AUM) [NA]
Cloudburst – NW Passage [Optic Echo]
A Broken Consort – Weight of Days [Tompkins Square]
Colleen – Sun Against My Eyes [Leaf]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Typhoon – Starting Over (Bad Habits) [Tender Loving Empire]
Gossip – Are U That Somebody [White label 12"]
Gregory Isaacs – Slave Master [Mango]
Augustus Pablo – Brown Jim [Pressure Sounds]
Ohioan and Native Kin – Clean Water [Casanova Temptations]
The Microphones – Mt. Eerie, Pt.1 “The Sun” [K]
Mogwai – Kappa [Matador]
Iron & Wine – Jesus the Mexican Boy [Sub Pop]
TV on the Radio – Modern Romance [Touch & Go]
Erykah Badu – Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long [Universal/Motown]
Nicolas Jaar – Variations [Circus Company]
Arthur Russell – Get Around To It [!K7 compilation]
D’Angelo – Spanish Joint [Virgin]
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Ain’t No Sunshine [Atlantic]
Gil Scott-Heron – Free Will [Flying Dutchman]
Curtis Mayfield – Do Do Wap Is Strong In Here [Curtdom]
Funkadelic – Adolescent Funk [Priority]
Neil Young – Cortez the Killer [Reprise]
Tom Waits – Big Joe and Phantom 309 [Asylum]
Willie Nelson – Can I Sleep In Your Arms Tonight [Columbia]
Songs: Ohia – Old Black Hen [Secretly Canadian]
Odetta – Oh My Babe [Verve Folkways]
Odetta – Little Red Caboose [Verve Folkways]
Abner Jay – St. James Infirmary Blues [Mississippi]
Bill Cosby – Baby, What You Want Me to Do [Warner Bros.]
Bobby Bland – I’ll Take Care of You [Duke]
The Black Keys – Never Gonna Give You Up [Nonesuch]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Special Guest – DJ Scott O!
The Jimmy Castor Bunch – It’s Just Begun [RCA]
Ultramagnetic MCs – Ego Trippin (MCs Ultramix) [Next Plateau]
Maestro Fresh Wes – On the Jazz Tip [Polydor]
Radical T – Coming Straight From the South [On Top]
Cat Stevens – Was Dog A Doughnut [A&M]
Edwin Birdsong – Rapper, Dapper, Snapper [Salsoul (mp3)]
Jermaine Jackson – Erucu [Strut/West End]
T.W. Funkmasters – Love Money [Timber!/Tommy Boy]
Earth, Wind & Fire – On Your Face [Columbia]
The Meters – Hand Clapping Song [Josie]
Junior Parker – Taxman [Groove Machine]
Mary Jane Hooper – Harper Valley PTA [Funky Delicacies]
The O’Kaysions – Girl Watcher [abc]
Diana Ross & The Supremes – He’s My Sunny Boy [Motown]
Foster Sylvers – Misdemeanor [Pride]
Inez Foxx – I Got It [Dynamo]
Walter Jackson – Speak Her Name [Okeh]
Dionne Warwick – You’re Gonna Need Me [Warner Bros.]
Latimore – Let’s Straighten It Out [Glades]
Bob & Gene – I Can Be Cool [Mo Do]
The Deboinaires – In the Rain [Moodisc]
Ann Peebles – If This Is Heaven [Hi]
Esther Phillips – Use Me [Kudu]
Ohio Players – Funky Worm [Westbound]
The D.O.C. – The D.O.C. & the Doctor (Noisy Mix) [Ruthless]
Raheem – Shotgun [Rap-a-lot]
Dr. Octagon – Blue Flowers (Automator’s Stop Confusing Me Remake) [Bulk]
The Psyho Realm – Temporary Insanity [Ruff House/Columbia]
Hank Ballard and the Midnight Lighters – From the Love Side [Polydor]
The Grouch – Wish You A Good Day [G&E]
Darkleaf – Eclectic Storm (DJ Design Posthumous Remix) [Ubiquity]
DM & Gemini – Omega Supreme [Lex]
Themselves – Good People Check [anticon.]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Asa-Chang and Junray – Nigatsu [Leaf]
TV on the Radio – Family Tree [Interscope]
Echo and the Bunnymen – The Killing Moon [Sire]
Dirty Beaches – True Blue [Zoo Music]
The Zombies – Friends Of Mine [Epic]
John Vanderslice – Me and My 424 [Barsuk]
Shuggie Otis – XL-30 [Epic]
Ned Doherty – Give It Up For Love [bbe]
Curtis Mayfield – Blue Monday People [Curtdom]
The Temptations – Ain’t No Justice [Motown]
Magnolia Electric Company – North Star [Secretly Canadian]
Billy Bragg and Wilco – I Guess I Planted [Elektra]
Bruce Springsteen – Factory [Columbia]
Elvis Costello – Hoover Factory [Columbia]
Palace Music – New Partner [Drag City]
Xiu Xiu – Clown Towne [5RC]
Yo La Tengo – Nuclear War (Version 2) [Matador]
Mogwai – D to E [Tour 10"]
Explosions in the Sky – First Breath After Coma [Temporary Residence]
Tarentel – Steedo Bonnet [Temporary Residence]
Low – In the Drugs [Kranky]
Four Tet – Unspoken [Domino]
Prince – If I Was Your Girlfriend [Warner Bros.]
Onra – Sitting Back [All City]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I watched love walking down the street today. There were two sets, both men were tall and the women were old, one with long long flowing locks of gray hair down her back, pinned in a ponytail. I couldn’t help but watch them part ways, the four of them, hugging and holding like it could be there last goodbye. I treasured the moment for them, because of the innocence and the notion that I was spying. They had no idea that I was watching, and I preferred it that way, as I’m sure they did too. The four of them loved each other, as old friends do, with the kind of gentle caresses and arm rubs and long holds that years together create. I couldn’t help but be happy for them in their time of great leisure, because I experienced it from afar and knew what they were feeling within.
I felt it too. For the dear friends I know now and the ones in the making, and the kindred soul I hold closest to my heart these days. When I got to Carlton’s house I went out for a smoke and a head raise toward the stars. I felt things for the old earth and for the spirits that roam it. I gazed at the street lamps and the house lamps and the rain coating every living thing in luxury. The grass looked especially appealing and I bent down to it, biting it, feeling it’s wet fresh flavor between my teeth. I crunched it and let it rest on my tongue, because it felt as brand new as I do. The cool crisp greens sitting on my life force reminded me of cattle and unending fences and spring mornings full of light. How could I not bite it? How could I not want to feel it first hand? Tonight when I brushed my teeth there were tiny bits of green grass floating in the sink. It reminded me of life, and how badly I want to live it.
Frank Ocean – Dust [self-released mp3]
Jet Black Crayon – And So It Goes [f8]
Modest Mouse – Paper Thin Walls [Epic]
Curtis Mayfield – Hard Times [Curtdom]
Ray Charles – Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong [abc]
Gil Scott-Heron – Whitey On the Moon [Flying Dutchman]
Otis Redding – A Change Is Gonna Come [Atco]
Irma Thomas – Times Have Changed [Ace]
Barbara Lewis – Hello Stranger [Atlantic]
Shorty Long – Sing What You Want To [Soul]
Joe Frazier – If You Go Stay Gone [Capitol]
Joe Tex – I Gotcha [Dial]
The Midnighters – Sexy Ways [King]
Bill Withers – Harlem [Sussex]
One Way – Cutie Pie [MCA]
Midnight Star – Scientific Love [Solar]
Herbie Hancock – Everybody’s Broke [CBS]
Dr. Dooom – Welfare Love [Funky Ass]
Divine Sounds – What People Do For Money [JDC]
Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar [Stones Throw]
Mos Def – Mathematics [Rawkus mp3]
Nas vs. Portishead – It Ain’t Hard to Tell [Dangermouse 12"]
Spoon – I Turn My Camera On [Merge]
10cc – Dreadlock Holiday [Polydor]
De La Soul – Baby Phat [Tommy Boy]
Outkast – Spottieottiedopaliscious [Laface/Arista]
Oran ‘Juice’ Jones – The Rain [Def Jam]
William DeVaughn – Be Thankful For What You Got [K-Tel Sampler]
Monica – Don’t Take It Personal [Rowdy]
Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY) [Universal/Motown]
Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – Be Real Black for Me [Atlantic]
Rilo Kiley – A Man/Me/Then Jim [Barsuk]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
When I lived in Puerto Rico, I lived a couple of blocks away from the largest open-air drug market in the Caribbean. Well, that’s the claim that the boriquas who hung out in Old San Juan would make with a gleam of pride. It was called La Perla, and legend had it that the people who built the city’s ancient wall just squatted in the sliver of land between it and the rocky ocean and never left. It resembled the favelas of Rio, but much smaller, maybe three blocks deep and 15 blocks long. I always went to the west end, as it was closer to my flat, and not the main, east entrance that the cops busted regularly. Also, my favorite drug dealer was there: a thugged-out lesbian, holding court in a molded plastic chair, with her girl standing at her shoulder, both decked out in stunner shades and braids (as was the style). They ran the back of La Perla with panache.
I think of these characters when I’m listening to the Weeknd’s album, House of Balloons, which dropped anonymously on a rabid, hype-voracious internet last week. It deserves all of the hype. The album sounds like an Aaliyah CD playing in the next room, and the door keeps opening and closing, giving you earfuls of the gangster shit that’s going on in there.
I think of those drug dealers because I want to believe it’s an album for them – full of the wistful longing of the ballads of female r&b singers and the braggadocio and the unacknowledged privilege of male rap egos. I hold out hope that the falsetto voice on the record is that of a queer woman, or a transgendered person, fluid in their sexuality and confident in their desire for all vices. I choose to ignore the possible truth that this is just another male, heteronormative singer, pushing the r&b envelope ever so slightly forward – I want more. I want this record to destroy gender and sexual divisions, for it to show us that everyone can feel the same feelings of lust, hurt, longing, doubt and drug-induced paranoia. It’s a lot to ask of a record – especially one that’s free – but if we don’t ask, if we don’t push, we resolve ourselves to the more of the same.
Nas – It Ain’t Hard To Tell [Columbia]
Ned Doheny – Get It Up For Love [BBE]
Spoon – Who Makes Your Money [Merge]
Nicolas Jaar – Variations [Circus Company]
Miracles Club – Chango (Leech Remix) [Self-released]
Loose Joints – Is It All Over My Face (Larry Levan mix) [Soul Jazz]
The Weeknd – House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls [Self-released mp3]
cLOUDDEAD – Dead Dogs Two (Boards of Canada remix) [Mush]
Typhoon – Summer House [Tender Loving Empire]
Iron & Wine – Me & Lazurus [Warner Bros.]
Nick Lowe – Cruel To Be Kind [Columbia]
B.T. Express – Peace Pipe [Roadshow]
Ike & Tina Turner – Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter [Liberty]
Tom Waits – Better Off Without A Wife [Asylum]
The Blow – Parentheses [Tomlab]
Dungeon Family – Follow the Light [Arista]
Nappy Roots – Po’ Folks [Atlantic]
Aloe Blacc – Loving You Is Killing Me [Stones Throw]
Dirty Beaches – Lord Knows Best [Zoo Music]
Blind Mamie Forehand – Wouldn’t Mind Dying [Mississippi Records]
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Ain’t No Such Thing As Superman [Arista]
Erykah Badu – Honey [Universal/Motown]
NERD – Bobby James [Astralwerks]
TV on the Radio – King Eternal [Touch and Go]
Fellini – Zum Zum Zazoeria [Soul Jazz]
The Black Keys – Ten Cent Pistol [Nonesuch]
Loose Fur – Laminated Cat [Drag City]
The Clash – Straight To Hell [Epic]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Wu-Tang Clan – Can It Be All So Simple [RCA/Loud]
Steady B – Let the Hustlers Play [Jive]
Maestro Fresh Wes – Drop the Needle [LMR]
Kool Moe Dee – Wild Wild West [Jive]
Ice-T – Colors [Warner Bros.]
Ahmad – Back in the Day (Remix) [Giant]
Tony Toni Toné – If I Had No Loot [Wing/Polygram]
The Ebony Dukes – Girls [Jump Street]
Wilfred – La Abuela [Ariola]
Public Enemy – Fight the Power [Motown]
LL Cool J – I Can’t Live Without My Radio [Def Jam]
Eric B. & Rakim – I Ain’t No Joke [4th & Broadway]
Arabian Prince – Situation Critical [Orpheus]
CC Crew – CC Crew Rap [Queen Constance]
Miracles Club – A New Love [Self-released]
Midnight Magic – Beam Me Up (Jaques Renault Remix) [Permanent Vacation]
Arthur Russell – In the Light of the Miracle [White label re-issue]
Aly-Us – Follow Me [Strictly Rhythm]
Time Zone – Zulu War Chant (the Funky Remix) [Profile]
Grandmaster Flast & the Furious Five – The Message [Sugar Hill]
Run-DMC – It’s Not Funny [Profile]
Kurtis Blow – The Bronx [Mercury]
Boogie Down Productions – South Bronx [B-Boy]
T-La Rock featuring Jazzy Jay – It’s Yours [Def Jam]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
