MONTHLY PLAYLISTS
Featuring: Surprise Chef, Polibio Mayorga y Su Conjunto, Television, Eshu Tune feat. Danny Brown & Paul Wall, Princess Nokia, Julie Christmas, Dave Okumu, Caroline Rose, Huw Marc Bennett, Kara Jackson, Jordan Tice, Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy, Gotopo feat. Don Elektron, The Gaslamp Killer with The Heliocentrics, Dele Sosimi & the Estuary 21, Bandejas Especiales, Albert King, Lucho y su Conjunto, and Manzanita y su Conjunto.
Featuring: De La Soul, Marika Hackman, Florist, Bruno Pernadas, Temps, Lady Aicha & Pisko Crane’s Original Fulu Mziki of Kinshasa, Spiritual Cramp, Rozi Plain, Selda Bagčan, Camille, Anna Wise, Nappy Nina feat. Moor Mother, Don Couto and Karen y Los Remedios, Altin Gün, and Adam Brisbin.
Featuring: Banda Jardes, Natalia Lafourade, Julieta Venegas, Camille, Leland Whitty, Metric, Black Thought & El Michels Affair, The Good Ones, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou, Jerron Paxton, Adam Brisbin, Omar Apollo, Manu Gavassi, Fatoumata Diawara w/Damon Albarn, and Gorillaz
Featuring: Makaya McCraven, Lucrecia Dalt, Kaki King, Seamus Eagan, Latin Playboys, Abstract Rude and Aceyalone, R.A.P. Ferreria, Ski Mask The Slump God, Marlon Coles, Cindy Lee, Temple of the Dog, Depeche Mode, Low, Rozi Plain, Horse Lords, Bilou XIV and Zo Flame, Algiers w/Zack De La Rocha, SZA, and Hermanos Gutiérrez.
Featuring: Medicine Singers w/Jaimie Branch, Jack White, Carlos Truly, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Preoccupations, Ralfi Pagan, Ebo Taylor, Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger, Susso, Sylvan Esso, Doctor Nativo, Rebecca Lane, Freddie Gibbs w/Anderson .Paak and Raekwon, Cate Le Bon and Bradford Cox, and Meridien Brothers.
Featuring: Spacebomb House Band, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Y La Bamba, Camayenne Sofa, Damon Albarn, Samora Pinderhughes, Das Racist, Aesop Rock, Bambara, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Muzz, Preoccupations, Adrian Quesada, iLe, Doechii, Rosalía, Kilo Kish, Ellie Dixon, Noori & His Dorpa Band, and Matt Gold.
Featuring: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Son Rompe Pera, Charles Stepney, Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, Lady Wray, Leikeli47, Pote w/Chelou & Kojey Radical, Big Thief, Portishead, Maia Friedman, Sammus, Cumbia en Moog, Ak Dan Gwang Chil, KMD, and Mason Jennings.
Featuring: Doja Cat, Birdz, Gordon Koang, Pérez Prado, Billie Eilish, Jack Harlow, Black Milk, Suga Free, Hania Rani & Dubrowa Czocher, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Wilco, Feist, Orestes Macias, Jimmy McCracklin, La Sonora Dinamita, and Run the Jewels w/Mexican Institute of Sound & Santa Fe Klan
Featuring: Matthew E. White, Sleigh Bells, Mon Laferte, Aida Bossa, LUMP, Masked Wolf, DJ Shadow & Nils Frahm, Kurt Vile & John Prine, Beck, Los Miticos Del Ritmo, The Slits, Totó La Momposina, The Garifuna Collective, Ream Daranoi, Rubio, Brian Eno w/Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, Sotomayor, Graham Nash, and Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson.
Featuring: Los Destellos, Suda Chuenbarn, El Michels Affair w/Piya Malik, Ocean Wisdom w/The Four Owls, Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, Anna Fox Rochinski, Yu Su, Calle 13, Cut Chemist, El-P, Curtis Fuller Quartet, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Andy Shauf, Donny Hathaway, Angelique Kidjo, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
Featuring: Nadine Shah, La Doña, Little Simz, Billy Nomates, Lido Pimienta, Nikolai Lugansky, Minor Moon, Hiss Golden Messenger, Demonios Da Garoa, James Chance & The Contortions, GZA, Animal Chuki, Hit La Rosa, Madvillain, and Desmond Dekker.
Featuring: Run the Jewels, Tawny Newsome & Open Mike Eagle, SAULT, The Beach Boys, Prairie WWWW, Romperayo, Caroline Rose, ESG, La Perla, Young Cardamom & Hab, Songhoy Blues, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Featuring: dumama + kechou, Keleketla!, Melt Yourself Down, Sleigh Bells, Kim So Ra, Naeem, Steve Lacy, Becca Mancari, Anna Calvi & David Byrne, Silver Apples, Rev. Harvey Gates, Pixvae, Siba, Camarão, Rona Kenan & Gidi Gov, Bedouine w/Waxahatchee and Hurray for the Riff Raff.
Featuring: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Nihiloxica, KOKOKO!, Black Milk, Charlotte Adigéry, M. Ward, Bobby Charles, HAIM, case/lang/veirs, Buscabulla, Ike & Tina Turner, Esquivel, Junior Wells, Ximena Sariñana, and Billy Squier.
Featuring: Luke Temple, Sampa the Great, Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven, Clark, Moken, Mateo Kingman, Natalia Lafourcade, Margaret Glaspy, Dua Lipa, John Fahey, Algiers, The Black Crowes, BOBBY, Danny Brown w/Run the Jewels, and Penny and Dave Fox.
“Luckily, my first exposure to footwork was live, and came accompanied by about 12 dancers. Otherwise, I think it would have been impossible for me to understand this music. At once magnificently cerebral and viscerally physical, it's music that is quite literally designed for dancing.”
Featuring: Makaya McCraven, Onyeka Onwenu, Mala Rodríguez, Tshegue, and more.
“There's something strange about being at a live concert that involves a tuba, saxophone, and two drummers and thinking ‘This is the greatest rock band I've seen all year.’"
Featuring: Sons of Kemet, Paul McCartney, Pongo, Jay Rock, and more.
“This song knocked me out all month. At under two minutes long, it packs an incredible amount of narrative punch, summoning a whole short story's-worth of characters and situations with the barest amount of lyrical information. I imagine using this in a creative writing class as an example of how powerfully a work can be improved by decisive editing, whether it's a song, poem, story, etc.”
Featuring: The Shins, Pongo, Natalie Prass, Ebo Taylor, and more.
“We took advantage of a work trip to a conference in New Orleans to spend a couple days tooling around that fantastic music city. I made a pilgrimage to Euclid Records, where my fond memories from a visit in 2014 were confirmed. Euclid is just one of the best record stores I've ever been to, both expansive and expertly curated at the same time. Every section is chock full of gems, including the seemingly off-to-the-side world music section, where I stumbled on a record by Mlevhu, whose cover caught my attention.”
Featuring: Jean Grae & Quelle Chris, H. Hawkline, Lord Huron, Bombino, and more.
“This song exposes the asymmetry behind male grievance. It's about the way that the practical realities of living in certain bodies decimates the hypothetical framework of false equivalences. In short, there are real differences between negative feelings towards different groups, based on how likely those negative feelings are to contribute to the physical harm, or death, of their targets. And you thought you were listening to a jaunty indie rock song.”
Featuring: Angélique Kidjo, Wu Man, Clara Rockmore, Pussy Riot, and more.
"I thought of this song after watching news reports about people in Philadelphia rioting to celebrate the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. Many, many people pointed to the hypocrisy in the way officials and media treated these riots, as compared to Black Lives Matter and similar demonstrations. It's really kind of crazy how blatant the bias is on this front. Of course, Joe Strummer is talking about white riots in a different way in this song -- almost in reverse."
Featuring: Bilal, Manu Dibango, U.S. Girls, Lee Morgan, and more.
"New Years is an opportunity to collectively step outside the rush of everyday life for a couple days and recenter. This year, these moments have been an opportunity to inhale deeply and find a measure of tranquility. To recognize tranquility as an important counterbalance to the urgency of our disturbing political and cultural moment. Like twin planets that keep each other in orbit through mutual gravity."
Featuring: Bedouine, Ron Miles, Claude Debussy, Les Filles de Illighadad, and more.
I went to Mexico City in search of this psychedelic sound, manifest in any way possible. The problem with the record shops was that they were full of American imports, things I could easily buy in 10 different record stores in Chicago. Finally, seeing my relative disinterest, the owner asked what I was actually looking for. "Things I can't buy in the States. Especially psychedelic cumbia, stuff like that." He immediately named two shops I needed to check out. I never did get to either of those shops, but looking them up online (especially Dedos Sucios) it was clear that what I was looking for did exist. I'll be back...
Featuring: Sonidos Gallo Negro, Elton John, Irreversible Entanglements, Juan Gabriel, and more.
"This month I hit a major wall in my life as a grassroots political organizer. Back when I was leading meetings of our neighborhood Indivisible group, I got in the habit of encouraging everyone to find some time in their week to do something joyful that has nothing to do with politics. I guess that's what I've been trying to do this month. This music has been a major part of that recharging."
Featuring: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Lonnie Johnson, Sampa the Great, Alessandro Cortini, and more.
"Seeing basically every woman I'm friends with on Facebook write "#metoo" (and sometimes much more detail) really breaks my heart. And, even though I feel generally confident that I'm on the positive end of the spectrum of male behavior, hearing so many stories has me revising my take on some things in my past and thinking deeply about the way I move through the world, connecting some dots that needed connecting. My personal take-away: Keep learning, keep listening, keep striving to be better."
Featuring: Tanzania Albinism Collective, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Témé Tan, Snoop Dogg, and more.
"Hiss Golden Messenger's M.C. Taylor introduced his song "When the Wall Comes Down" by commenting on how ridiculous the idea of a wall with Mexico is. Although his music is never explicitly political, it's clearly on his mind. His descriptions from the road of seeing Trump signs disappear in towns that were littered with them prior to last year's election has been one small spot of hope for me this year."
Featuring: Mastodon, Jane Weaver, Youssra El Hawary, Nilüfer Yanya, and more.
"Working on putting this playlist together, it started to feel like there was a secret theme - music that sounds like it's from Africa, but isn't."
Featuring: Msafiri Zawose, Steve Lacy, Deerhoof, Deradoorian, and more.
"Everything Ishmael Butler has a hand in sounds amazing, and the two new albums from Shabazz Palaces are no exception. I've said it before, but this music is leading the vanguard of hip-hop, pushing the outer edges of what it can be. This group has perfected the formula for blending spaced-out experimentalism with street attitude. Yup, this is rap music, but, damn, it's got very little to do with, say, Gucci Mane, or even Kendrick."
Featuring: Dizzee Rascal, fIREHOSE, Colin Stetson, The Damned, and more.
Regardless of your conclusion about what gates have or haven't been knocked down, or what technological/political changes in the music industry have taken place to create opportunities for women in music - women around the world are clearly making some of the most exciting, diverse, confident contemporary music.
Featuring: The Coathangers, Tune-yards, Sisyphus, Quilt, and more.
Even though it was kind of like eating candy for me, I felt slightly guilty about the retro focus of last month's playlist, with its severe dearth of new music. This month I renewed my commitment to finding new music, and also devoted energy to researching some new sources, a few of which I'll mention below. Looking at this mix now, I wonder if I've swung too far in the other direction - but that anxiety is assuaged by what I think is a pretty tight, well-paced mix.
Featuring: Xenia Rubinos, Sharon Van Etten, Black Milk, John Lurie, and more.
A good cover honors the original and puts a new spin on it. A great cover can make you completely reevaluate an original (no matter how mediocre) by seizing the kernel of genius within and spinning it into something barely recognizable.
Featuring: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moondog, Neneh Cherry, Tinariwen, and more.
When trying to fulfill a New Year's resolution, it helps mightily if you've chosen to nudge yourself in the direction of something pleasurable, rather than trying to force yourself on an odious task. With one of my two musical resolutions in mind, I've been spending some time checking out Bandcamp as a resource for new music, and it's been pretty rewarding, turning me on to this incredible collection and more.
Featuring: Asaf Avidan, El Rego, Martin Carthy, Sharon Jones, and more.
Gabe and I completed our Tennessee Tour 2013 this month with a few days in Memphis, a city whose musical culture, both past and present, is a gift that keeps on giving.
Featuring: Amy Lavere, Quadron, Wiley, Ry Cooder, and more.
For me, this month essentially began and ended with Ry Cooder. I've fallen in love with albums of his before, especially the stellar I, Flathead, but the enormity of his genius, the sheer amount of time he's been making great music, escaped me until I started sifting through his catalogue (which goes back to 1970) this month.
Featuring: Cate le Bon, Arcade Fire, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and more.
Last week I had the privilege of visiting my friend Johnny Suh's music appreciation class at Linblom High School and playing some music for them. The opportunity to blather on about music for 45 minutes to a group of people who have to listen and can't leave the room is a dream come true for me.
Featuring: Tanya Morgan, U2, Linda Thompson, Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest, and more.
A couple weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of DJing a birthday party at an outdoor pool in Jupiter, FL for my friend Griffin, who turned four.
Featuring: Johnny Otis, Nirvana, STRFKR, NRBQ, and more.
I used to rely on the library heavily for new music, checking out CDs regularly from the public library and hitting the music section of my college library hard for four solid years. Without thinking about it too much, that habit tapered off into nothing long ago. A few weeks ago, though, I found myself killing some time in the music section of the Harold Washington Library downtown, and wandered into the world music CD section.
Featuring: Lucius, Cam'ron, Moderat, Eleanor Friedberger, and more.
The Pitchfork festival was this month, and was my second year of going - but only for one day this time. It was especially fun because I got to take Gabe to her first outdoor music festival. There are more details about what we saw below, but I walked away with a general impression - younger artists need to step it up.
Featuring: Kobo Town, Mikal Cronin, Bjork, Tyler Ramsey, and more.
This, well... This is what happens when you're messing around on Spotify searching for "Bosnian." It's stuff like this that makes me really love Spotify.
Featuring: Percy Mayfield, Alpine, Queens of the Stone Age, and more.
I've never been a big fan of Vampire Weekend, although it always seemed to me like I should. But I love this new record.
Featuring: Death, Huey Lewis and the News, K-Os, Rick James, and more.
I've been interested in the incredibly diverse and all-around badass music coming from Mali for probably about 15 years. Probably about 60 seconds into hearing Bombino's new album Nomad I thought to myself, "This is the next evolutionary step of Touareg music."
Featuring: Bombino, Blood Orange, Bassekou Kouyate, Bronski Beat, and more.
Thank god for the Carter Family. There's something so elemental, so foundational about their sound. Even though I grew up with their songs, and experience the same kind of spiritual relief when hear them as when I hear my mom sing, there's still so much of their music I've never heard.
Featuring:
Regions of Light and Sound is this month's obsession for me. Like most music obsessions of mine, it is like a teacher whose lessons seem bottomless. The more I listen to it, the more I learn.
Featuring: Jim James, John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, Gramma's Boyfriend, and more
Is really seems like more and more contemporary musicians are shrugging off the tyranny of linear time, figuring out how to embody older musical ideas while maintaining a completely up-to-date feel.
Featuring: Joe Barry, The Amazing, Chavela Vargas, Tame Impala, and more.
Lots of sentimentality in this month's mix, which I guess is fitting for the holidays. And romance, which is also fitting for a month which hosted a very romantic trip to New York City, and New Years Eve - which is my personal favorite holiday.
Featuring: Ella Fitzgerald, Nico, Frank Ocean, Radiation City, and more.
Every once in a while I get obsessed with just one song, and listen to it over and over again - which I'm sure, if you are someone who spends a lot of time in my company (like, say, a really patient girlfriend), can become insufferable.
Featuring: John Fahey, Macklemore, Cody Chesnutt, Solange, and more.
This month's mix reflects, in large part, a major event in my life - falling in love.
Featuring: Calexico, Flying Lotus, alt-J, Fruitbats, and more.
Featuring: Buck Meek, Rayland Baxter, Yussef Dayes feat. Shabaka Hutchings, EL VY, Cornelius, Coco, Jockstrap, Depeche Mode, Blake Mills, Mike Reed feat. Bitchin’ Bajas & Ben Lamar Gay, Black Milk feat. Phonte & Raphael Saadiq, Gaye Su Akyol, Dorotheo, and Jolie Holland.