seanklassen

If you read my blog very often, you will know I’ve been really stoked on Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground. Well, they’re scheduled to play a show tomorrow night at the Marquis Theater in Denver, but I wanted to give you a heads up about an impromtu set they’re going to do tonight at 3 Kings. Monday night shows can be tough, but I think this will definitely be worth it

In other news, have you seen this article about scientists creating “invisibility” material? Whoa…

I just uploaded a new mix entitled Kite Flying Society. There is a rough theme of nostalgia, which more or less means there’s a bunch of old punk songs and some new stuff that has that vibe to me. Anyway, it is broken in to two parts and you can stream the first part over at http://seanklassen.muxtape.com.

You can also download the entire thing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of these songs. The tracklisting is below if you’re curious.

Part I

1. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (Vocal Track) / The Beach Boys
2. Angeline / The Howlies
3. Nightmares / Jay Reatard
4. About To Walk / Throw Me The Statue
5. Perfect Weapon / Communiqué
6. Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapagos / Man Man
7. Bikeage / The Descendents
8. In The Grass / LaGrecia
9. New Regulations / Downfall
10. Show Up Raising Hell / Fubar

Part II

1. Hamburgers
2. Simon Courage Flees the Coop / Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground
3. Rest In The Dew / Eureka Gold
4. Strangled By The Thought / The New Amsterdams
5. Josephine St. / I Love Math
6. Holland, 1945 / Neutral Milk Hotel
7. The Sprinkler / Sicko
8. Hands Up! / Walking Concert
9. Quick Check Girl / The Bouncing Souls
10. How To Escape / The Gamits
11. Barcelona (Early Mix) / The Rentals
12. Seldom Not Heard / Still Left Standing

Feel free to check out some other mixes I’ve posted here and here. Also check out the ridiculous amount of awesome summer mixes at the aptly named Summer Mix Series. Some of my favorites include Season Opener, Summer Politics and Beach Songs.

iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that monitors your music library and generates a personalized calendar of upcoming concerts in your city. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X and supports worldwide searches.

I just installed it and it is awesome. It runs within iTunes and its search is pretty expansive with shows ranging from Poison to my friend’s bands showing up for me. It also provides a calendar of upcoming releases from bands in your library. Anyway, I just found out Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick are playing in Denver on July 9th. I’ve got to go buy some tickets!

Go download iConcertCal

Update: Some people were asking about this, so I thought I’d clarify… Yes, you can sync this data with iCal.

Those of you who have been working in an office for a while probably remember the wonder that was OurTunes. Well, there is now a new, far superior program that has similar functionality: Mojo. The legality is probably questionable, so use at your own risk, but if you do try it out prepare to be amazed. Oh, and let me know your username.

As I promised earlier, I plan on releasing new mixes quarterly. I just finished a new one called The Old New Thing. The concept is based around so many “new” bands I’m hearing these days that pull some heavy influences from old bands. So, I paired one new song with one old and at least attempted to make things flow naturally. I ended up with a collection of songs that is all over the map from the Vince Guaraldi Trio to American Steel to The Bangles. Believe it or not, I enjoy everything on here quite a bit and I hope you do to! I’d like to especially call out the track from Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground though. I received their new record on vinyl from Virgil this week and everything from the artwork to the vinyl color to the music is all amazing. I can’t recommend this record enough.

Tracklist

1. Field Music / A House Is Not A Home
2. Electric Light Orchestra / Bluebird Is Dead
3. The Beatles / Her Majesty
4. Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground / Hey Momma
5. Django Reinhardt / Minor Swing
6. Man Man / Magic Blood
7. Queen / Death On Two Legs
8. Jellyfish / Joining A Fanclub
9. Vince Guaraldi Trio / Peanuts Theme
10. Sufjan Stevens / Come On Feel the Illinoise!
11. The Bangles / In Your Room
12. Tegan and Sara / Speak Slow
13. American Steel / Maria
14. The Clash / Police and Thieves

Download The Old New Thing

My friend Virgil is putting out the vinyl for a band called Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground. He was kind enough to give me a copy to check out and I’m totally digging it. Here’s a live version of their song Hey Momma…

The Arcade Fire has taken music videos to the next level. These aren’t quite videos and they aren’t quite websites. What has impressed me most though is the simplicity with which these are executed. I hope more projects like this are on the horizon…

Black Mirror or Neon Bible

I’ve recently compiled a playlist comprised of songs from my favorite releases of 2007. I usually find myself feeling more and more jaded each year about the state of new music, but this year was a lot different for me. A lot of old favorites of mine like the Rentals and Lifetime put out new records. They may not be as strong of releases as their old stuff, but I thoroughly enjoyed them still. I also found myself excited about a lot of new bands. A big reason for that is Darcie turning me on to a lot of things I had never heard before. Thanks, Darcie. FYI - I plan to put together new mixes quarterly, so keep an eye out for more…

If you click continue below I’ve included options for downloading the mix as well as streaming it live on the site. I’ve also included some thoughts about each track. Happy holidays.

Continue…

I was going to give a review of the new Rivers Cuomo album, Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, but this one by Jonathan Hawkins says it all far better than I ever could…

Read the Review
Download Longtime Sunshine