Brad Beatson on the beat.  I dream a lot in the winter. When I’m confined to my apartment thanks to wind chill, the dreams tend to amplify. And so they anchor this mix, along with lines that make me reminisce, allow me to recover, or inspire me to plot my next move. These songs show […]

Fall in L.A. isn’t markedly different than any other season of the year. There are fewer seventy-five and sunny let’s-go-to-the-beach days. And there are people (read: mental defectives) who wear heavy winter coats when the temp drops below sixty-five. Still, fall in L.A. isn’t really fall, just like the woman serving your latte isn’t really […]

I’ll make this quick because I’m hearing things that suggest I’ve worn out my welcome at this particular Dunkin Donuts like, “This guy needs to buy more than two munchkins every hour to use our WiFi” and “Why the fuck does he think it’s OK to take his shoes off?” Fall is a bullshit season, […]

It never rains in San Diego. I guess some people think that’s a good thing, but I think it sucks. I love the fresh smell that comes with rain, the warmth of staying inside, and the sound of cars streaking by. I like the grey skies and gloom: Staying indoors and wallowing in a bed […]

Harold Stallworth came to boogie. As a D.C. transplant and newcomer to the conga-driven sound of go-go, I’m certainly not qualified to encapsulate the genre’s last 40-odd years into a 63-minute playlist. So consider this mixtape to be a haphazard collection of odds and ends rather than a definitive canonization. I was introduced to jazz […]

I’m in my third decade on the planet and I’m still not sure that I understand what the exact point of a mix is. Even if I’ve been making tons of them for years. What I do know is that I’m inherently incapable of making a mix without trying to sneak in some shit the […]

Over the past several years, I’ve noticed some trends in my listening habits with regard to the changing of the seasons. In the spring and summer, I typically listen to more uptempo rock and electronic music, but in the fall and winter, after all the cookouts and music festivals have ended, it’s folk, alt-country and […]

If you live on this side of the world, the sun has vanished and you’re now undergoing seasonal depression. There’s no children running under fire hydrants or bikini-clad bodies to be seen and when it rains you watch re-runs instead of venturing to the bar. But it’s not all bad. Some of the best music […]

If you’re at all familiar with his work, it’s fitting that Ted Feighan moved from Ohio to Los Angeles. Over the past handful of years, Feighan’s sublime solo project Monster Rally has evolved from the Seasonal Affective Disorder escapism of exotic loop-based psychedelia/tropicalia to the twinkly-eyed glamor of Old Hollywood. With each successive release, he’s […]

Alex Piyevsky is independent, fuck your system. This happened in the most organic way possible.  A week ago, I came home after visiting my weed guy (s/o to H.), started sampling the wares, and turned on one of the stoniest rap oddities I know – a chopped & screwed blend of Sade’s “Smooth Operator” and […]