power cat, jewel of the nite

[Chan Marshall by Melodie McDaniel]

I've been going through a Cat Power renaissance lately. Her voice is so wistful and calming. Though she hasn't put out an album of all-new material in a while, she did just put out a reboot of "King Rides By" for charity and there's a new LP slated for 2012.

My current Cat Power playlist:









A new album I've been enjoying is Night Jewel's One Second of Love. This album is the stunning brunette of nighttime suitable female-sung electropop. (That made more sense in my head.) You have to listen to the title song, which has a sort of churning movement to it under Ramona Gonzalez's cool vocal delivery, and "Memory Man", which wouldn't sound that out of place on early 90s radio. Also, Ramona seems like a really cool lady. She does multimedia installations in the LA area.



In other news, suddenly contemplating warm caramel highlights.

Mix #01: February 15th or the day after

Basically, one of my favorite things to do is to make a mixtape. I make dozens per month. Usually now they just sit as cleverly playlists in my iTunes, but back in the day they were literally burned to CDs and sometimes distributed amongst my friends, and before that yes, they were recorded on a cassette tape. I was all of four though, when cassette tapes were still common, but I love the phrase 'mixtape' so I still use it in lieu of 'playlist'.



Sophia Knapp - Close to Me
Princeton - Florida
Jack White - Love Interruption
Chairlift - I Belong in Your Arms
Tennis - Petition
Chromeo - When the Night Falls
Lana Del Rey - Lucky Ones
GRANIT - Marea Viva
Miike Snow - Black Tin Box (feat. Lykke Li)
Daniel Rossen - Saint Nothing
Damien Jurado - Nothing Is the News
Diana Vickers - Music to Make the Boys Cry
Destroyer - Leave Me Alone (New Order cover)

Download the 'February 15th, or the day after' mixtape HERE.

[Photograph by Kris Maccotta]

you lost your focus but I got a plan for it

If you're like me and you save your homework until Sunday night (even now that I'm in grad school I do this), procrastinate a little more and listen to my favorite release in 2012 so far: Chairlift's Something. You might be familiar with the single "Bruises" off of their first album--it was in an Apple commercial--but the songs on this sophomore effort are even better. Caroline Polachek and fellow bandmate Patrick Wimberly mine the 1980s in a completely unselfconscious way and come up with track after track of languid pop. Polachek delivers her vocals just above a whisper, sometimes dryly, sometimes sweetly.



You can stream the album in full here (tracklisting) or catch the interesting music video for single "Amanaemonesia", below:


I caught Chairlift live last year when they were opening for James Blake at the Trocadero Theater in October. The result was a full-on Caroline Polachek obsession.


by Drew Innis, July 2010

While we're at it, bonus Joanna Newsom and Fleet Foxes live on Austin City Limits.