Warmer Climes: November 2009

WARMER MIXTAPES #74 | by Hans Mattias Hammarin and Ulf Martin Robin Rudén of Hammarin & Robin

SIDE A | by Ulf Martin Robin Rudén

I’m not that good at English, so I let Google Translator do the job!

1. David Bowie | Heroes
The world's best track! Always! It gives me hope and makes me feel like become beer. There you are...

2. Ray Parker, Jr. | Ghostbusters
First session of the Ghostbusters were fantastic! The logo, Ecto-1, Proton Packs, Bill Murray, then a mega soundtrack! Ghostbusters makes you cool in every way!

3. Antiloop | Start Rockin'
It was the millennium and Antiloop released a demo from the upcoming album, it marked the beginning of the new year.

4. Billy Ocean | Red Light Spells Danger
It was summer 2008 and we cycled around with Red Light Spells Danger of a bad tape machine, love was in the air!

5. Vangelis | Alpha
It's winter in my home town, listening to the Alpha and suddenly you never want it to be summer again!

6. Dario G | Sunchyme
1998...I have almost finished the stage, it is summer and I'm on the class trip. On the bus journey home I loop a song in my portable CD player. Can you guess what it is?

7. Sash! | La Primavera
Can you understand how beautiful sounds and melodies of this track did the first time I heard it? I bought two copies of the single just to play one at home and one in the car. This song made me start doing music, I promise!

8. Röyksopp | Eple
Röyksopp came when you had to think about! All of a sudden, you know how much Norsk forest sounds and I personally did not know how much I was missing before I heard Röyksopp Eple song!

9. System F | Out Of The Blue
First CheeseTrance-song ever! Can you imagine how cool it was with great melodies to 4/4 kick and a lot of fat Arpeggione without vocals? Wow!

10. Bomfunk MC's | Freestyler
Okay, now we are talking fat beats with whale sing in the intro! I was young and was in the disco. Anyone who wanted to dance - wanted to dance to Freestyler. The desired number of times on the same evening and no one could tire of it. Fantastic!

SIDE B | by Hans Mattias Hammarin

Hello, this is Hammarin speaking. So, Vlad has asked me to list 10 songs of my liking and wrap them up with personal stories. Well, there are several ways of doing this. As always, being an artist and all, it's tempting to brag about my taste of music and try to impress you with some songs you've never heard along with some that are somewhat obvious. Truth is, I have no such ambitions! Hell, I hardly listen to music anymore...It's impossible to while you're making music, right?...So, here's my list of 10 songs that ultimately made me the artist I am today. In order of appearance:

1. Scatman John | Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)
This was on the first record I ever bought. Long before I could sing or write songs of my own. I fell in love instantly and learned to scat and rap the entire song. I then performed it to kids at my school for a fee of 10 kronor (roughly 1 euro). Don't be surprised if I throw in some scat-singing in a Hammarin & Robin song someday!

2. U2 | Unchained Melody (Cover)
I was 15 years old and full of love, passion and pain. My friends hadn't yet crossed roads with the lure of womanhood and so I was alone with my feelings and cut off from the world where boys met girls on Friday night. I listened to U2's Greatest Hits album and this cover of Unchained Melody. Hearing Bono scream I need your love! on top of massive guitars I made a decision; I was going to learn how to sing.

3. Jim Carrey | Somebody To Love (The Great Society Cover)
Also from when I was 15. My older brother had downloaded a bunch of random songs from the Internet and, being the first mp3s I ever possesed, I listened to them alot! It's hard to choose one among them, but Jim Carrey's cover of Somebody To Love (from The Cable Guy movie) still rocks!

4. Di Leva | Två På Skilda Håll
Di Leva is a Swedish artist. A really weird guy, influenced by David Bowie and various mysticism. I listened to his songs often when I was 16 and started to write my own music. I was mesmerized by the simplicity in his songwriting and the extreme character of that man. There's no denying that my own songs follow that same recipe. This one is in Swedish, but I hope you'll find it interesting anyway.

5. Alice DeeJay | Better Off Alone
Simply because it is THE soundtrack to my first year in high school, my first kiss, my first girlfriend. All that. Hearing any of the synthesizers from that song will instantly hit bulls eye in the heart of my entire generation. We may not admit it, but it's the truth.

6. The Cure | Disintegration
Yes, the album...Man oh man!...This one needs no introduction. In high school I discovered many of the great bands of the 80's and even though I seldom felt as dark and gloomy as these songs, they sure helped me out whenever I did.

7. Daft Punk | One More Time
What do I love about the 80s? The costumes, the larger than life approach, the unreal stuff. I despise true indie music for the fact that it's all so down to earth. I am a man of spectacles. Enough said.

8. The Smiths | Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
I actually hadn't heard The Smiths until I was 20. One of my best friends told me that he had a video I had to watch...It's this guy, he reminds me so much of you!...And indeed he was right. I had struggled for a long time with my singing and the way I performed my songs. Most of the times I was either dead serious or just cheesy. But seeing Morrissey dance around on the stage with a tree in his pants, and at the same time singing such a heartbreaking song helped me realize what it's all about: Humor and wisdom in a beautiful marriage.

9. Talking Heads | Stop Making Sense (live concert video)
By the time I discovered this hidden treasure I was depressed. For real. I won't go into details about my condition (you'll figure it out through my songs one day) but in the fall of 2003 my life changed. I was heading the wrong direction. Away from music and everything I had dreamed about doing. As many others I dug deep into songs and artforms that could capture the essence of anguish and it only made it worse. I needed an electrical shock, something that reignited that spark that powers your senses and makes you feel alive. After seing this video I thought: Yes, it may be meaningless. I will still die someday and The Sun will still unevitably swallow up The Earth. But in the meantime, let's dance! Let's act like fools and, goddamnit, let's make some music!

10. Daniel Johnston | Peek A Boo
There's a sentence in this song that pretty much sums up the way I feel about my songwriting: You can listen to these songs, have a good time and walk away. But for me it's not that easy. I have to live these songs forever...

WARMER MIXTAPES #73 | by Caspar Bock of Northern Portrait and Champagne Riot

1. Mojave 3 | Big Star Baby
This was my favourite song for probably half of 2007! (The whole album is amazing). The songs for Champagne Riot’s Paris And I EP were all written around this time and although the sounds are quite different I was actually very inspired by this. It’s like the ultimate resignation from popular culture and modern music - a kind of calm give fuck all to rock ‘n’ roll -anthem. Yet at the same time I sense a strong longing in the song for the very same thing that the narrator is trying to escape. It’s rather complex in that sense. This album really inspired me to start making music again after having been disillusioned about it for a long while.

2. Boat Club | All The Time
The first tonal changes in the keyboard remind me of the Laura Palmer theme. And there is a slight melodic resemblance to Leonard Cohen’s True Love Leaves No Traces all the way through. Mix that with a lot of sunshine, a tropical vibe, a lazy groove, a beautifully shy vocal performance – and add a bit of heavily reverbed guitar. It sounds like your favourite song of summer 2009 doesn’t it? That’s right. It IS your favourite song of summer 2009!

3. Ash | Goldfinger
The most mindblowing musical experience I ever had was when, as a 16-year old, I went to see Ash play live during a summer school stay in Dublin. I was kind of into Britpop and all that - but this was more than just britpop. This was the essence of what life was all about. Three drunk teenagers making songs about girls, endless summer nights and the Star Wars movies. From that moment I knew I wanted to make music! Goldfinger was one of my favourite songs for years. Still is.

4. Jeans Team | Das Zelt
If a UK band of four cool and good looking 21-year old rock kids made an English language version of this 2-chord raid against modern life I am sure it would become the anthem of a whole generation. Absolutely 100% sure.

5. Rick Astley | Never Gonna Give You Up
As far as 80’s hit factory produced songs go this is the winner for me. I don’t wanna get started on this subject or I could go on for several pages that no one would ever read. But what happened around British pop in the 80s was pretty mindblowing and their producer driven hit factories deserve a medal for sparking some energy and provocation into an otherwise stagnated culture.

6. New Order | True Faith
I think this was the song that first got me into making dance music when I was 19 or something. I practised for hours with my newly bought groovebox, trying to imitate the drum sound. I still do that. I still haven’t succeeded!

7. The Depreciation Guild | Dream About Me
I hung out a few times with Kurt from DG this spring and summer because he is also the drummer of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart who we’ve played with. It was a great time and I was stunned to hear his own project where he’s the singer/guitarist. It’s really, really good. Dream About Me is one of my top-3 favourite songs from this year.

8. Air France | GBG Belongs To Us (with ROOS)
Another top-3 song from this year. This was not just a song but a whole project. There was a webpage, a guide to Gothenburg and so on. I envy Air France for feeling what they do for their home city, it’s a feeling that (sadly) I’ve never had in the different places I’ve lived. But they’re definitely on to something here. There IS something special about Gothenburg - just listen to this song as the perfect evidence. Amazing vocals by ROOS as well. If all female vocals sounded like this I am sure that the world would be a much nicer place.

9. Cocteau Twins | I Wear Your Ring
Heaven Or Las Vegas by CT is one of my favourite albums. I was very unsure which song to pick but this one is well worth a mention. I have no clue what words she’s supposed to be singing and I don’t think I want to know either. It would take away some of the magic!

10. Simon & Garfunkel | The Dangling Conversation
I’ve liked Simon & Garfunkel for almost as long as I can remember. This song paints a beautiful picture of sophisticated everyday melancholy in a Manhattan apartment. The colour palette is autumnal.

WARMER MIXTAPES #72 | by James New of MIRRORS

1. Kraftwerk | Metropolis
Metropolis has the most beautiful intro I can think of. Those incredible, slowly building chords, rising like an Escher staircase, the slowly ratcheting click, clack, click and that stretching, bending synth like an unearthly siren from another world, are together somehow joyously ecstatic and yet achingly sad. The music is perfectly poised, as if approaching an apex just out of view, and then it fades away, ushering into the vacuity a pulsating, pumping moog groove and a whip-thin snare. We're off!

2. Elora Festival Singers & Noel Edison | Nunc Dimittis (originally by Arvo Pärt)
Heaven is turning off all the lights, lighting a candle, sitting back and playing this at a loud volume, alone. Angelic, bewitching.

3. Charles Mingus | Solo Dancer
The beginning of this music is so intense, so brooding. To me it feels like the sound of a black mood, an uncomfortable, seething mental state. It's restless, warped, like a ship on a stormy sea. I love it. It's one of my favourite pieces of Jazz. When the drums kick in proper, the sax comes out with the most wonderfully sublime line, and the music flops into a bizarre space between the languorous and the tensely fraught. It a real mind-bender.

4. Karen Dalton | How Did The Feeling Feel To You
My discovery of Karen Dalton came as the result of a bitter winter's morning spent dredging through dew-soaked cardboard boxes full of records in a shed on the edge of a field just outside of Danzig. When I later listened to her album, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, her amazing voice shocked me. It is so stark and so pained. I was infatuated. I've never known anyone who hears her to be anything less than blown away.

5. Fad Gadget | Collapsing New People ( Berlin Mix)
I found this during a highly enjoyable visit to Berlin. I'd never heard of Fad Gadget but I thought it was such a great name, so I listened to it in the shop and was blasted with a deluge of insanely catchy hooks, stomping percussion, metallic clanging and huge synths. Then at five minutes in, it breaks down and an amazing grinding, grating rhythm covered in a rash of scraping noises comes in, slowy ushering in the main riff of the song again. If ever one needs a good shaking up, this is a dark, spiteful, full on blare of a tune.

6. Holger Czukay | Persian Love
I remember first hearing this song last year, during a springtime sojourn at the provençal abode of an exiled acquaintance of mine, and positively beaming. It's such a beautiful, sparkling shimmer of a record.

7. Drexciya | Sea Snake
This takes the prize of most deranged synth riff I can think of right now. Bumbling, bubbling bassline, schizophrenic whipcrack drum machine, and a squeaking, twittering synth line that sounds like a demented electronically modified sparrow on Ecstasy. It's a killer.

8. Talking Heads | Listening Wind
Remain In Light is one of my most beloved albums, and Listening Wind is the most beautiful, melancholic moment on there. The tight, thrumming rhythms, the myriad synth textures, the stringy little sounds scurrying in and out, the desolate, wailing noise slip sliding all through the web of sound, it's all enthralling, but the slow, chant-like chorus is what gets me every time. The name of the song is completely perfect - this is what the music evokes and it is utterly compelling.

9. Betty Wright | Clean Up Woman
This I first heard as part of a massive Atlantic R 'n' B compilation, and I absolutely adore the laid back duel guitar playing. It sounds almost liquid, yet effortlessly tight and locked together. Betty's singing is bang on too. If I'm ever in need of pure R 'n' B mood enhancement, then I look no further than this beauty.

10. The Buzz | Holding Me Down
This absolutely unhinged Joe Meek production is a demented sixties garage pop belter. The machine gun guitars are truly insane, the whole thing is straining to escape from a quagmire of echo and the chorus is madly euphoric. The most exhilarating record around! I found it on a compilation of European garage rock called Searching In The Wilderness that I got during a frenzied record buying moment in my favourite shop Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Outrageous.

WARMER MIXTAPES #71 | by Travis Trevisan of Tape Deck Mountain

1. My Bloody Valentine | Only Shallow
Ka ka ka ka duh eerrhhhhh der waaaaa eeerrrhhhhh waaaa duh dun eeerrhhh waaaaa ka ka ka ka ka ka...

2. Queen | Bohemian Rhapsody
I'm a big fan of contrast in music and Bohemian Rhapsody might just be the starkest of them all. The lyrics are so nihlistic and hopeless, yet the instrumentation and melodies of the song are so beautiful that you can't help but smile and dance around like a fool singing along with Freddy Mercury about wishing that you'd never been born at all.

3. The Verve | Slide Away
Richard, Nick, Simon, & Peter at their best. RIP.

4. Mogwai | Mogwai Fear Satan
Heard this song at the age of 18 and quickly started an instrumental band. I always had a fear of singing into a microphone, Mogwai Fear Satan convinced me that you could make powerful rock music without vocals. Perfect driving music for slow and steady spead increases, 0-60 in 2 hours.

5. The Microphones | The Glow Pt. 2
After the instrumental band didn't work out as I had planned Phil Evrum was an big influence in my attempt to sing. You don't have to Jeff Buckley incarnate with your voice to make something cool/beautiful/interesting. Put on some headphones and trip out to the hard panned rotating guitars.

6. The Beach Boys | I Know There's An Answer
Probably my favorite song off Pet Sounds. Lovely percussion, vocals, winds...Is that baritone harmonica solo? Does a baritone harmonica exist?

7. Spiritualized | Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
I love the interweaving round of voices and melodies. Restores and crushes the listeners hopes and dreams simultaneously.

8. Bob Dylan | With God On Our Side
In a many dark hour, I've been thinking about this...That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss...Now I can't think for you, you'll have to decide...Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.

9. The Smiths | Girlfriend In A Voma
Dreadful and confusingly beautiful lyrics and story.

10. The Smashing Pumpkins | 1979
My friends and I would drive around in high school and play this song before toilet papering girls houses. After we were done it was Radiohead - Karma Police on the getaway.

WARMER MIXTAPES #70 | by Jacob Graham of Horse Shoes and The Drums

1. The Field Mice | Between Hello And Goodbye
The greatest song that's ever been written. You always have to leave...

2. The Wake | O Pamela
I've loved The Wake for a long time now, and this song took a long time to really get my attention. There's something to be said about pop music that lurks in the dark corners. I have no soul.

3. The Field Mice | An Earlier Autumn
Sometimes you need this perfect feeling. I have no desire to sound more competent than I know I don't. I've heard it a hundred thousand times and it still works.

4. Blueboy | So Catch Him
I don't think anything so true and pure has ever been recorded. My God, if my heart wasn't already broken, it would be.

5. The Field Mice | That's All This Is
My friends say I have the most severe case of tunnel vision they've ever encountered. I don't care about anything but love and perfect songs. My heart swells every time. Skips a beat and all that.

6. Another Sunny Day | I Don't Suppose I'll Get A Second Chance
I was all alone and I needed something new on a depressing trip to Wales and then I discovered this and it wasn't earth shattering but it was necessary.

7. The Wake | Carbrain
Such excitement! I don't even understand my own feelings sometimes, but when the chorus kicks in I remember. I used to climb that tree...

8. The Embassy | Just A Dream Away
When I take a step back and remember that there are more than three bands in the world I remember The Embassy. This song is painful. Please don't listen to it if you are too sensitive. I'm serious. I've listened to it in some weak moments and it did more harm than good. And then Boxcar...

9. The Cranberries | I'm Still Remembering
This is what I was listening too when I actually was a teenager and it's still just as important.

10. The Field Mice | I Wish I Meant More To You
There was a time a few years ago when I thought I hated The Field Mice. I didn't listen to them for a whole year. I used to listen to this song every day, twenty times or so. But I haven't listened to it in months. And my phone hasn't rung in days but it just did (4:52 am), someone who wishes they meant more to me. Relationships can be very difficult. I didn't pick up because I wouldn't know what to say and I had planned on going to sleep as soon as I finished writing this. If I never hear this song again it may be too soon.

WARMER MIXTAPES #69 | by Hugh Owens of Summer Cats

1. Michelle Phillips | Aching Kind
I've never been a massive The Mamas & The Papas fan but I was desperate to hear this record because of the Moon Martin connection. He writes three of the songs on the album, including Aching Kind, and is a hero of mine solely because his album Shots From A Cold Nightmare is one the greatest albums of all time. Michelle sings this song beautifully, Jack Nitzche's production and arrangements are superb and the song itself is another stunner from Moon. Be warned, however, Victim Of Romance does contain some real stinkers.

2. The Drums | Let's Go Surfing
Holy crap! This song's catchy. Makes me wish I could surf...

3. Raspberries | On The Beach
Kids nowadays don't like the Raspberries. I don't think their sound sits well with most people's modern sensibilities of what makes good music. Is it because Eric Carmen's voice veers from romantic crooning to rockin' yelps without warning that rubs people the wrong way? Is it because Eric Carmen’s lyrics straddle the line between romance and statutory rape that offends people? I don’t have answers to these burning questions...All I know is that On The Beach is yet more evidence that Eric Carmen is a total hornbag who'd stop at nothing to get laid, like a 70s version of the guy who wrote The Game.

4. Sex Clark Five | 51-L
This isn't so much an endorsement for this song alone, rather what I’m telling you to do is go out and listen to Strum And Drum as a whole. 51-L is just one of many incredible songs on an album that sounds like a precursor to Bee Thousand and mainly concerns itself with girls and military strategy. What's not to love about that.

5. Catwalk | Past Afar
When Summer Cats toured the States our first show was at a Vietnamese/Hawaiian café in Oxnard/Ventura, CA. Before the show the band were killing some time in a record store and the guy from Catwalk gave me a CD of demos when he found out we we're playing with his YAY! label mates the Sea Lions. Anyways, cut long story short, I also bought this Catwalk 7" that night of the YAY! label head honcho Eric and is fricken fantastic. All three songs are classic indie tunes in the mould of early Sarah records (Past Afar being the pick). In fact, I put this 7" right up there with Another Sunny Day's You Should All Be Murdered. Seriously, it's that good.

6. Dwight Twilley Band | Looking For The Magic
Twilley is one of my heroes and back when he still had Band tacked to the end of his name he was shit-hot. Looking For The Magic by rights should a staple of classic rock stations. How it wasn't a hit is one of the biggest mysteries that has ever plagued mankind. As an aside, those of you who are long-distance parents should check out Twilley's book Questions From Dad: A Very Cool Way To Communicate With Kids for tips on how to keep the lines of communication open between you and your child.

7. Darren Sylvester | That's A Nice Haircut
Darren's a successful Melbourne based photographer (and Twilley fan) turned one-man-band. Most of his album sounds a bit like Always circa Metroland meets Roxy Music circa Avalon and is fairly serious in subject matter and tone. That's a Nice Haircut sticks out like a sore thumb on the record because it's an out-and-out dumb novelty song (think Denim) about chemotherapy executed with so much panache (and a straight face) that it ceases to be a novelty, or dumb, to the listener. It's also got a glam groove that The Dandy Warhols would kill their mothers for and will get stuck in your head every single day for the rest of your life. Go listen to it on his myspace.

8. Beathoven | Please Don't Go
I'm currently trying to get a documentary up about Beathoven who were a Tasmanian powerpop group from the 70s. They wore top hats and tales and had something akin to Beatlemania for about a year or so in Tassie and Melbourne. Their story is one of those hard-luck, tragi-comic tales that rock 'n' roll seems to be littered with. Please Don’t Go (a demo rejected by EMI Australia for being too Beatlesy!?) is just one of many examples of why Beathoven were one of the more cruelly shafted bands in the annals of Australian music.

9. Chris Stamey | The Summer Sun
A bonafide classic. A song that never fails to make me happy. Also, arguably, the last time Alex Chilton applied his considerable skills in the studio to make a song that was outright poppy without feeling the need to sabotage everything in sight. The version Stamey recorded a few years ago with Yo La Tengo is also great in an anthemic Wilco kinda way.

10. Pagliaro | Some Sing, Some Dance
I’ve been downloading this and that by French-Canadian rocker Pagliaro. So far I’ve only struck gold with Some Sing, Some Dance and Lovin You Ain't Easy (both hits in Canada I believe), the rest sounds too meat 'n' potatos pubrock for my liking. Some Sing, Some Dance has great string arrangements (and castanets!) and I love the way Pag goes from singing to a fake Country and Western spoken part for the chorus!

WARMER MIXTAPES #68 | by Adam Smith of The Kodaks

1. The Stills | Changes Are No Good
This comes from The Stills first album Logic Will Break Your Heart which is one of the most consistent albums to come from the first half of the 2000’s. This song in particular just speaks to me as perfection, it is 80’s influenced post punk with tight bass and drums, beautifully echoed leads and I love the first two chords of the rhythm guitar, they are major 7 chords and they are fun to play and always just sound pretty. The reason this record is The Stills best is because they had lead guitarist Greg Paquet, who left after the release of Logic.... Also, I love the artwork used on the album and especially on the single release for this track. Easily one of my all time favorite songs.

2. Toro Y Moi | Talamak
I have been a huge fan of the whole new genre that has emerged this year. Dreambeat, Chillwave, Glo fi... Whatever it is, I love it. Washed Out is probably my favorite but all of it is great. Neon Indian, Memory Tapes, and Toro Y Moi are becoming some of my all time favorite bands to listen to. It is strange because my friend Randy has been doing this kind of electronic throwback pop music for a couple years as Deastro, but it’s only now catching on because more of these types of bands are getting attention. I found Toro Y Moi because he (Chaz) is friends with Washed Out (Ernest) and I’ve simply become obsessed with anything those dudes are involved in. This track is one of the most accessible and just impressive songs from the whole movement.

3. The Walkmen | The Rat
Simply put, Matt Barrick is one of the best drummers alive right now. The Walkmen are one of my all time favorites, if not my number one favorite band. They have been such a huge influence on me and (guitarist) Paul Maroon has taught me the value of tone, reverb, precision and many other guitar-playing elements. I got Bows + Arrows right when it came out and I still listen to it at least once a week. This song has so much going on, the absolutely amazing drums, the reckless guitar, and the howling vocals all come together in a style that only The Walkmen can pull off.

4. Bombay Bicycle Club | Dust On The Ground
This is a new found favorite by guys from the UK that are my age. It is nice to know that someone is still keeping the guitar indie rock spirit alive and it is especially nice to know that these are such young dudes. The Joy Division influence is irrefutable here but a lot of my favorite bands would not have existed if it weren’t for Ian Curtis. This song isn’t as much a mega pop gem as Always Like This but when the bass and lead guitar come in together after the actual dust on the ground lyric, it is one of those life-completing moments.

5. Tears For Fears | Head Over Heels
As far as 80’s pop songs go, you can’t get much more legit than Tears For Fears. This is such a sonically pleasing song with all the production I just love it. I was obsessed with this song in the tenth grade right after I watched Donnie Darko for the first time. This song is played in the movie when Donnie and all the other kids are going to school and it just fits so amazing; it is a moment of cinematic perfection. I had listened to plenty of Tears For Fears before then but it was at that time in my life that this song just really hit home for me.

6. Television | Marquee Moon
One of the best guitar rock songs, ever. My father has the Marquee Moon record on 12” vinyl so I have listened to the actual album all the way through more times than I can count. About eight years ago when I was getting truly obsessed with The Strokes my dad was like You should probably listen to who influenced them most and showed me Marquee Moon. The dueling lead guitars on this track are just out of this world. Some people only know Television as the band that Richard Hell was in at one point and they get grouped in with late 70’s punk a lot, but they are so much better than all that. Television was so ahead of their time and where The Ramones would write a two-minute song with three chords and a shout along chorus, these guys were putting together ten-minute plus masterpieces.

7. Gorillaz | Tomorrow Comes Today
Blur always wins the Britpop War for me, so I will always listen to anything Damon Albarn is involved in. But Gorillaz go beyond that. The first record Albarn and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura did together as Gorillaz is a masterpiece. Beginning to finish, no other album blends rock, pop and hip-hop together so well. Tomorrow Comes Today has my favorite video (I love Jamie Hewlett’s artwork) and the best beat off the record. It is such an original tune that captures so many different elements of music while still conveying emotion so well. Gorillaz laid the groundwork for artists that I like so much now like Toro Y Moi, who make beautiful pop songs with a hip hop backbone.

8. The Strokes | Hard To Explain
Is This It has been such a big part of my life it is hard to describe. Both of The Strokes first two records are just perfect in my opinion and they have had such an influence on me it’s ridiculous. Simple fast paced drums, run along bass, lazy vocals and roaring guitars. The guitar trade offs between Albert Hammond, Jr. and Nick Valensi will make any song The Strokes ever do worth listening to. I love the guitar tones and the way it was all recorded. Just perfect.

9. Interpol | Leif Erikson
Turn On The Bright Lights is another album that has impacted me more than any piece of art should ever affect one person. I actually bought Antics first but then I heard NYC and Obstacle 1 and I decided I should buy their debut also. One of the best decisions I made in my life. The simple chord progression at the beginning of this song builds up into such beautiful leads played by Daniel Kessler, amazing echoed leads that creep into your brain and crawl down to your heart to take up residency. Interpol has this dark depth to them that few bands have. One of my all time favorite albums, by one of my favorite bands and the solo riff that comes in towards the end of this song gives me chills every time.

10. Ambulance LTD | Stay Where You Are
In 2004 I saw The Killers play St. Andrews Hall in Detroit and I was very excited because they were one of my favorites at the time (their first record really is spectacular). Little did I know that within the next year they would sky rocket to success and then release completely shit albums from then on. But one thing I can thank The Killers for is Ambulance LTD. Ambulance opened for the Killers that night and almost got booed off by a rowdy Detroit crowd, but I knew there was more to them. I ended up getting their first (and only so far) record and it is another one of the albums that is so consistent it can be listened to beginning to end. My favorite version of Stay Where You Are is on that record, LP, and it has a two-minute guitar intro that is so spacious and ambient it almost estranges you to the song right before the incredible riff comes in to deliver the hook of the song. A completely perfect guitar pop song with a beautiful melody.

WARMER MIXTAPES #67 | by Amanda Zelina [The Coppertone]

1. John Lee Hooker | Boom Boom
I remember the first time this track came on as it immediately forever changed my life. I was sitting in my dark cigarette box sized studio apartment in Los Angeles. I had just moved there alone to study guitar at M.I. I was 3 months in overwhelmed with studying the technical aspects of music. I grew up on blues, soul, motown, and classic rock. My dad played mixtapes for me in our weekly drive downtown from the country ritual. Anyways, I was sitting there filling some paper...It was midday and the solitude of my dark apartment was the ONLY reprieve from the ungodly heat outside. All of a sudden that riff jumps in and bounces off of my concrete walls. My heart stopped. It's like love at first sight when you see someone and the world around you halts to an abrupt stop. My breath became short as Hooker's voice permeated the air around me. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, gonna shoot you right down...And shoot me down he did. The growl in his voice reminded me of that same heart defaning sorrow that I found in Howling Wolf years earlier; but John has a swagger about his songs. They were boogie. They were blues. They were everything I wanted in blues: raw, real, heart wrenching truth. This song opened up a word to me. A world filled with foot stomping blues that even in the depths of my pain would lift me up. To listen to a song and uncontrolably have it take you over and force you to stomp your foot so hard on the ground it shoots a pain up your shins to resonate in your whole body....That's a song.

2. Etta James | I'd Rather Go Blind
Etta doesn't get inside you with her voice...She shakes you up while she rocks you cathartically into a bliss; so strong it probably can't be described in words, but more so felt with your soul. She is one of the only female vocalist that I have heard in my entire life that (mind my french) FUCKS you up. Completely. This song is about Leonard Chess, the founder of Chess Records. Their love story has been touched apon in the recent film (Cadillac Records) none the less, the idea of wanting someone so bad and not being able to have them has never been described so perfect as in this song. I was just, I was just, I was just...Sittin here thinkin', of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah...When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips now, baby...Revealed the tears that was on my face...She than goes on to say: Baby, baby, I'd rather, I'd rather be blind, boy...Then to see you walk away, see you walk away from me...When she sings these lines you can feel her heart literally cracking alongside her voice. She cries this song...She doesn't sing it. She is living the song, and telling you about it. I've learnt so much from her. See Etta is incapable of just singing a song. She was born to sing, she tells her story through her songs. Etta doesn't sing, she yells you her truth with all that she has. She is a rarity, the real deal. Because, quite frankly; she is the blues.This isn't a front and this song is the proof of that.

3. Robert Johnson | Ramblin' On My Mind
This song was the very first slide song I learnt on guitar. I was in California on my porch, The Sun was setting and the sky was truly painted red. I was feeling passionate about music at this point. So hungry for knowledge, so thirsty for anything I could get my hands on. My boyfriend at the time was over and I heard him noodling on his slide. He was playing the opening riff to Ramblin'...I'm not sure if it was the perfect warm weather, the sunset or the man I loved sitting in front of me playing guitar but I was in heaven. There are moments in life that you want to capture and place in a time capsule so that you can take them out years from than when things are different and re-live them...This was one of those moments. This was what life to me is about. He taught me the song in about 20 minutes and for the next 6 years after I have not stopped playing this song. We recently went on a cross-Canada tour together and both got Ramblin' tattooed on our forearms. As a reminder that music , blues in particular has given me what few people get in a lifetime: complete bliss.

4. Tom Waits | House Where Nobody Lives
Tom has given me the gift of confidence in my music. His total unapollegetic formula to creating a song gave me what I needed to create my own. Waits came into my life when I was searching for something, someone, anything to jolt me in a new direction. I was bored with what I was writing and too scared to really make the music I truly wanted to; blues. I was living in fear that no one would care, or listen because blues was not a genre that most (at least my age) listened to and loved the way I did. But I grew up on it, and no matter what I did I could not run away from my roots. When I put on Mule Variations and this song came on I cried. Tears streamed down my face, not because I was sad...I was deeply, but because it was like hearing a long forgotten voice. The voice of my true self, my true desires. The warm tears reflected back to me the warmth I was feeling from his deep, worn down voice. His lyrics were poetic and direct and told the most touching story I had ever heard. This song is summed up so beautifully in his closing lyrics: If there's love in a house...It's a palace for sure...Without love...It ain't nothin but a house...A house where nobody lives...Without love it ain't nothin'...But a house, a house where...Nobody lives.

5. Ray LaMontagne | Jolene
I was sitting in a Go bus on my way to Welland, Ontario, a very very remote town hours outside of Toronto. I had just moved back home from the sour taste Los Angeles left into my mouth. I had a bunch of songs on my iPod that a failed romance had uploaded for me. I was going through them randomly seeking something new...In reality searching for a song to come and save me. I was so lost, so hurt, so vulnerable, so cold and so exhausted. I had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder a week before this night and was in a deep depression. I had no energy to move, let alone find a song on an electronic device. The lights in the bus were out, people were sleeping around me and the rain outside the bus was crying down the windows. I was resting against the glass and the cold air conditioning was chilling my spine. This song came on, and was literally the answer to my prayers. Ray LaMontagne is our generation's Joe Cocker. It is still hard for me to talk about how much Ray LaMontagne has saved my life. His voice, his voice. If I ever were a great writer and could truly place words on a page to jump out and rip into every emotion you had I would do that now. He crept under my skin...With this one song he had the ability to reach into my rock hard exterior. To this day I don't know how it happened but he managed after months of numbness to make me FEEL. My heart started racing, I got hot flashes, I was alone on a bus surrounded by strangers going someplace I didn't even know what direction...I was running to try and maybe, catch a glimpse of my forgotten self along the way. This song did that. It brought me back into my body and spoke to me. It was my guardian angel, it said what I couldn't and what I was too afraid to: I still don't know what love means.

6. Otis Redding | Try A Little Tenderness
Soul music. Alongside Sam and Dave, Otis Redding was one man I looked up to as I do my father. I grew up with him, listened to his every word, obayed his every request. This song, throughout the years has molded, shape shifted and meant so many different things to me. I think it's done that because of its delivery. Otis has the same thing Etta has, truth. His voice is stunning, it can lift you up so high, higher than the clouds, it can drop you down to the depths of its despair and along the decent from the clouds to below the ground it has a way to give you goosebumps. Every time I hear this song I wanna scream Hallelujah!

7. Kings Of Leon | Use Somebody
This is a more contemporary choice. This whole album is genius. Every time I hear it I am in a constant state of nostalgia. Everything balances out so perfectly, it pushes and pulls and tears you apart, than puts you back together again with a soft kiss goodnight. This song is my favourite of the album. It comes in with vocals wailing in the distant background painting a picture in my mind of racing down a highway at dusk with the windows down. Than his voice pierces that air and whips into my heart. His words...I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see...Painting faces, building places I can't reach...You know that I could use somebody...You know that I could use somebody...Someone like you and all you know and how you speak...Countless lovers undercover of the streets...You know that I could use somebody...You know that I could use somebody...Someone like you...They reach a part of me that brings me desire. It's hard to explain but this song makes me passionate, and ready. For what?...I'm not sure, but I know it's something amazing. The guitar lines in this song are perfect. They sing what the lyrics shy away from in fear of being to obvious. The tone of the guitar is a voice, and that voice is opening up to you and telling you stories, infectious, delicious, passionate stories.

7. Carina Round | Come To You
I love Carina, literally. I met her as we were neighbours in L.A., we both lived in the same 5 house lot on Wilcox Ave in California. She was introduced to me by our mutual friend Miles. I fell in love, yes, real love. She was everything I wanted to be: bold, eccentric, sexy, talented, successful, funny, endearing.. The very first time I heard her sing I got weak in the knees. It was this song. I was standing in the Viper room on a first date and as she took the stage and commanded attention I was like a little puppy right there, wagging my tail, waiting for the ball. She opened her mouth and literally screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound vibrated the whole room and everyone was in a trance. She has buckets of attitude and millions of years lived behind those huge chesnut eyes. We quickly became friends and would jam together, go to the beach, talk about life, love and music. I desired Carina, she was a woman and a man and a life changing beast. This song reminds me of everything I egnited over her... The passion, the story, the love, the turmoil, the secrets/mystery, the confidence, the blood, the life. Carina breathes life, and is so humble yet so fucking blunt about it. And as she says : You tell yourself, it's the wrong time, it's the wrong time, and things go by, in the mean time, in the mean time.... And I will not come to you , I will not come to you, I will not come to you, I...I am again devoured.

8. The White Stripes | Ball And Biscuit
Jack White is my musical crush. Let me break this down. When Jack plays guitar he doesn't strum it, he rips it open and throws it on the ground, and wails it above his head and smashes it into the walls of your ears. His voice is his own, no one has it, no one ever will. Alongside Meg's barbaric way of playing the drums this band has for many obvious reasons been a major influence on me. I love this song because it's all about the riff and the groove. Meg's pockets as Jack has a tantrum and it sounds so damn good. Jack's guitar solo on this song is exactly what I want from a solo....Strong, no bars hold, weird/tension building notes and placed in a manner that is unusual and yet familiar. He breaks boundaries when he plays and teaches you how to listen.

9. The Black Keys | Strange Desire
Another blues rock duo that I fiend for. Dan Auerbachs main riff in this song seduces me. His voice is a whole other story; a whole other story that involves me having a heart attach every time I hear it. I LOVE this band. I love the way Patrick plays his parts so thoughtfully and unkempt next to and alongside dans guitar/voice. I couldn't pick one Black Keys song as my favourite but I figured this one has all the element I love about them: the riffs, the simplistic arrangement, the voice like a trigger impounding my heart as it shoots off cleverly written lyrics.

10. Ray Charles | Georgia On My Mind
When people use the word GENIUS to describe Ray Charles this song comes to mind. In fact, this song comes to mind everyday as I work on music. There are those songs that you go through your entire life and wish you had wrote. The songs that will be timeless and will touch more people than the human mind can fathom. Georgia On My Mind is perfect. It is eloquent, its arrangement is stunning, the story is such a classic love song, and the man behind the sun glasses...Ray, oh Ray, he will never be matched. I think that every few centuries a man or woman comes to this Earth to sweep up all up and show us something so beyond what is going on that it shakes us to the core. This shaking brings us to new higher levels of thinking and feeling...These few individuals I believe are the chosen ones. They are the Ray Charles, the Stevie Wonders, the Joe Cockers, the Janis Joplins...They are the ones that come and will go and will leave behind them a legacy. If there was one song I could hear before I die to carry me up to heaven this one may just be it.

WARMER MIXTAPES #66 | by Avner

1. Thåström | Karenina
This song reminds me of my childhood in the ex-military suburb to Stockholm. Grey. Russian. Great sand paper-voice.

2. Pyrolator | Im Zoo
My friend Kendal Johansson played this song for me and I felt so happy...Pure joy.

3. Håkan Hellström | Atombomb
The spirit of this song tastes a bit like Karenina but Håkan's track it more of a contrast in itself, isn'it? I am in love with Håkan's voice.

4. The Stranglers | La Folie
I just love this tune. The bass here. My God - so simple and still it affects my whole living. I put this on whenever I'm in a too good mood to be true - to take that top of and bring me back down again. Simplicity.

5. Suicide | Surrender
This song IS almost Avner. This tune will transport itself from the stereo, via my dead body, to my relatives at my funeral.

6. Kendal Johansson | Blue Moon (Big Star Cover)
If or when this song is released from its deep dark depressed dungeon it will take the whole world by storm. His voice. His pure voice. Fuck his voice - THAT IS HIS HEART SINGING! I love Kendal.

7. Mariah Carey | Angel (The Prelude)
My female dream artist. A little bit to heavy now but MY GOD - what a voice. I adore her whistle-singing and this track...It's not Mariah singing like an angel - IT'S AN ANGEL SINGING THRU MC! Tears in my eyes when I listen to this song and at the same time watch what her body has become.

8. R. Kelly | Ignition Remix
My idol. R. Kelly is larger than an artist. He is a dream. A crazy stereotype. A superman. He pisses on the establishment - over and over again. The tomorrow / yesterday man, always three steps ahead or behind. This song catches his whole voice and persona. Perfect.

9. Michael Jackson | They Don't Care About Us
It doesn't matter if you are innocent, if you are like a God, if you treat the children of today like the tomorrow men they are - the world still won't care about you. When I think about MJ I hate myself and all haters for ever feeling doubt towards him. I hope he continues his charity work in heaven. I love you, Michael, I love you.

10. Eric Serra | The Big Blue Overture
This song is beyond gender-love. This is pure love. The essence of love. The love for the world, for the people, for the sea. When I hear this song I feel like I am in love with Kendal and his love for the movie. I love you all. World. Europe. Sweden. Stockholm. Avner.

WARMER MIXTAPES #65 | by Petter Gjöres and Johan Norberg of Kuryakin

SIDE A | by Johan Norberg

1. Paul Williams | Time
When the winter is dark and rainy and the world outside looks like Mordor, I usually listen to the Someday Man album by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols and forget about it for a few minutes.

2. Trash Can Sinatras | Obscurity Knocks
I usually like the bands of the late 80s, early 90s that was influenced by The Smiths more than I like The Smiths.

3. SWV | Right Here
I could have chosen Human Nature by Michael Jackson but sometimes I think that this one is even better. When I listen to this song I remember the last days of this summer when me and my friend Björn went to abandoned beaches in a rowboat, threw freesbee and listened to this song.

4. Tammy St. John | Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways
I think I found this song on a complication made by Bob Stanley. I don't know anything about the artist but it's one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. When I was like 20 years old and hated my life I used to listen to it, smoke cigarettes and feel sorry for myself several times a day.

5. Westlife | Fool Again
At first I hated boybands like all the other 11-13 year old boys in my school did. Then I started listening to them in a somewhat ironic matter, but soon found out that I loved many of the songs for real. My love for boybands is stronger than ever 10 years later!

6. Martika | Love...Thy Will Be Done
Martika was very cool and this song is amazing. I wish every music video was like the video to this one, in black and white and with crosses and stuff.

7. Texas Is The Reason | Back And To The Left
I've listened a lot to punk and hardcore when I grew up. I bought a Revelation Records complication in the local recordstore one day. It was cool and had a skateboarder on the outside and I was a wannabe skateboarder who had bought a skateboard but never learned any tricks, so it was perfect for me. It wasn't that good except for a few songs like this one. I got absolutely obsessed by it. I remember that I worked in a food store and locked myself in the bathroom and listened to this in my walkman on the lunchbreaks all the time.

8. J. Holiday | Be With Me
I've listened to this all the time when I lived in Stockholm and worked in elder care. I became friends with a funny finnish doctor, a 80 year old comics fan, and the weather was fantastic all the time. This song made me feel almost the same way that I've felt when I was 14 years old and listened to Texas Is The Reason.

9. O Terço | Criaturas Da Noite
Brazilian pop from the 60s and 70s are often incredible and this is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard from that era, and also one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

10. The Montgolfier Brothers | Journey's End
When Dumbledore died in one of the Harry Potter books I got a bit emotional and went out for a walk listening to this song. It was a great moment. (My life isn't that exciting...)

+11. America | Ventura Highway
I think I'll have to have this one on the list as well.

+12. Prefab Sprout | Bonny
...And this one too. Now it's done.

SIDE B | by Petter Gjöres

WARMER MIXTAPES #64 | by Simon Kronholm [The New Waves]

First and foremost this is not a top-ten list of the best songs of my choice. It is just some songs I think is good. If I wanted to describe my musical development I would need about 100-200 songs but now only ten can be presented so here you are...

1. Geoffrey Burgon | Sebastian's Summer
I know what you think: Whats the the deal with this dude?!... Well I can’t chose one song from this album that’s the deal. This is the soundtrack from the Brideshead Revisited TV-series from 1981, not the movie from last year. The music is the best part of the movie is the TV-series soundtrack far more emotional and beautiful. All the track is fantastic and it accompanies the scenes really fantastic but it works really good as a own piece of music to.

2. Sigur Rós | Hoppípolla
What a song! Really. I Love it. Sigur Rós at the Way Out West festival last year is one of few times I’ve cried while watching a concert. It was during this song my tears ran due to the fact this song is one of the most beautiful ever made. Those icelandic people may not have a stable economy but thier song writing is fantastic.

3. The Libertines | Never Never
Carl Barât and Peter Doherty. Those guys could really write good songs but unfortunatly thats not what they known among most people. Pete’s relationship with Kate Moss and his drug abusing have always overshadow his musical works, and Carl’s. Since the break-up of The Libertines they’ve done good works both of them. Dirty Pretty Things and Babyshambles… Both of them are good bands but the magic that was in The Libertines songs isn’t there. I love those bands anyway and hope they keep doing great stuff together or on their own. This song is one of The Libertines forgotten songs. It was a b-side on the Can't Stand Me Now single but it is a really good song with all important components. It’s a pure should’ve been hit.

4. KRS-One | Sound Of The Police
When I was a little kid I was playing in the woods, climbing in treas or throwing snowballs if it was winter but when I was at home andIfelt for some music I putted on a CD with a collection of the best hip-hop tracks ever. Today I can’t say that the finest hip-hop songs are on that CD but most of them are really good. 2Pac, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre and more can be find on this CD but I miss Biggie and Mobb Deep to call it the best hip-hop tracks ever made. This song was my one of my favourites song on that CD. I still think is good, but the most intressting thing is, how come I liked hip-hop when I was 6 years old? I didn’t understand the biggie and 2pac thing that was going on. I did’nt understand the lyrics. This must prove that they did fine art and can conect with anyone. Or this proves that media was fooled by the record-companies and promoted the groups as cool guys which kids like. I don’t really know.

5. The Stone Roses | Fool's Gold
This is an epic song. It has a certain groove that i’m trying to reach when I write songs. The break-beat rythmic, laidback lyrics and a hypnotizing melody that affects the mood in a soft way. You just want do dance slowly the whole night. Those madchester musicmasters really knew what matters in a song. It is the groove. If it isn’t groovy it don’t have that special IT.

6. Håkan Hellström | Brännö Serenad
One of Sweden's best artist. His first three albums are fucking brilliant. No, the second is not as good as the first and the third. But those two are maybe some of the best records ever made. He is a well known for his pickpocket-song-writing. A melody from The Cure, some lines from Morrissey and Dylan or prehaps Eldkvarn. He is mixing his favourite artists in his way and it nothing wrong about that. His style is nothing worse than a uncredited sample in a song. If Justice can do that and get away with it Håkan can to. He does better music to. This song is from his third album Ett Kolikbarns Bekännelser... It is more acoustic and warmer than earlier, and after. With Björn Olsson as producer, a string quartet is a obvious choice for this song. Hearbreaking and magic. There is reasos why he has become one of the giants in swedens musical industries. Björn who have played with Union Carbide Productions, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and The Bear Quartet has also co-written the songs with Håkan and the most of them is also on Björn's solo record Kräfta. His solo work is instrumental and has a even more natural sound. But the songs is at it’s best when it’s a hybrid with Björn's epic but natural ideas and Håkan's gothenburgian stories.

7. The Tough Alliance | 25 Years And Runnin'
Always turns a boring party to a good party. Good eurodiscoish pop served by Sweden's best band that still exists. The summer feels near everytime I hear this song. They were a musical revolution for me. When I had lost my faith in music they came into my life and turned around. It’s intense and dreamy at the same time. They have written the best pop song of the 00’s with Koka-Kola Veins and is always re-inventing their sound and is not afraid of changes but they still got their TTA sound. The unwillingness to compromise and their neo-punky I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude is inspiring too. This song is also part of the EP from 2006 where from the name The New Waves is inspired by. The genre and Daft Punk-song is also a part of that name but that is a whole different story.

8. Broder Daniel | Cruel Town
Sweden's best band ever. Håkan Hellström has played with them. Theodor Jensen from The Plan too. Daniel Gilbert who just released his first solo single Maelstrom has played guitar with Håkan and bass in BD. The drummer, PopLars, have played with The Embassy’s Lindson in a band called Easy and with Hästpojken. Why the members of BD have reach success with so many other projects is a mystery to me, but it must be some sort of mental thing. Their songs really expresses something, they really want to tell the world about something. They did some great songs in their early years but the production of the albums that came out wasn’t the best. Their swan song-album sounds best and unfortunately it wasn’t until this album they reached public success. The album came out in 2003 and after the following tour the band was put on ice. But The end for BD came first when the guitarist, Anders Göthberg, died last year. They had a concert to pay tribute to him and since then BD is no more.

9. The Clash | Guns Of Brixton
In 2002 when Joe Strummer suddenly passed away it was time to sum up his work. What he did with The Clash is what most people value the most and I agree with that, The Clash is one of the best bands ever. They started as a punk band but their open minds changed them to something else that can’t be described in words. They combined different styles into something new and really changed music.

10. Grizzly Bear | While You Wait For The Others (feat. Michael McDonald)
I thought it would be nice to tell something about a band I have listening alot to recently. Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is my choice of 2009’s records. It is a damn good album. If I had only one word to describe the album that word would be perfection. I’ve listening to this album since the summer and I have fallen in love with this song again recently. The new version is pretty much the same as on the album besides that the lead lyrics is sung by Michael McDonald’s dark voice that suits the song very well. But the best part of the song is still the break. Listening to the song, fall in love and if you are in Stockholm next week, go to Debaser Medis to catch up with these Brooklyn guys.