WARMER MIXTAPES #307 | by Olivier Olivier and Nigel Diamond of Bikini
SIDE A | by Nigel Diamond
1. Houses | Soak It Up
Olivier played this for me in Los Angeles after we visited the cemetery. He hadn't visited LA properly before so I decided to show him around and after an early lunch we put together that we should visit the MoMA because he is very into art. I fell in love with the song when it came on and later I reached out to Houses to tell him that I liked it. He said thank you and later I learned how to play it on a beautiful weathered old white grand piano in Paia where I stay with my family over the holidays. I played an hour long duet with my sister's friend of it on the piano and sent the recording to Olivier. I tell my friends who I play it for The Snare Is A Tennis Ball.
2. crystal light no-xqsz | Crystal Light
It's so rare to hear something special now. Paris sounds like Berlin which sounds like Toronto which sounds like LA. Then sometimes you hear one song that reminds you that you're wrong and stupid and small. This one was 15 minutes long and I listened to it on repeat. It's hard to capture infinity but they did.
3. Dreamboat | Patterns
This song is eternal because it will never crash. Dreamboat is a God to us because he is from our hometown and makes music that sounds like our hometown, but in a gay way. He can capture that reflection of Victoria like we can't. At this point in time I dont think we will ever be as good as Dreamboat. I often forget how beautiful things are and this song reminds me of that because it uses restraint.
4. The Killers | Read My Mind
I don't listen to this song often but I like it a lot and it stays with me because I noticed on Wikipedia that critics liked it because it had lyrics about poor people.
5. Dreams | Sennennes
This song is an important song for a close friend of ours. He has made music for many years but recently has made much more and has been sending it to us occasionally. Each new song shows a marked improvement from the previous one and it is tremendously exciting to watch. He has taught himself production and knows a lot about a lot of things. He is also very humble. During the day he works two very difficult jobs but he never complains. Then he makes songs like this.
6. Hey This Is Brian
This isn't a song but it's a conversation I had tonight a few hours ago on the phone when I called Olivier in New York to confirm that we were going to start our record label and a man named Brian answered and I asked him Have I got the right number? and he said Yes and I said Who is this? and he said It's Brian. There was a party going on in the background. He wasn't overly polite and accommodating as everyone is and I liked that. Plus, I found out later that he and Olivier are going to be purchasing a gallery space together in New York so that made me like him more. I hope that both people are Brian; I may have that wrong. They may be two people. One may be Greg.
7. Puff's Intro
We listened to this song in Los Angeles as well, coming home from a trip to the museum. We stopped in at a store that sold props and asked how much it would cost to buy the large Hollywood sign they had for sale. It was $10,000, which was more than we had for a prop like that. When we got back to the car this song was playing. I want to make a song like this but am afraid to because doing it right takes a lot vulnerability. I must be okay with who I am. Or stoned.
8. OO Studio
This is a recording I did in an old lodge on the water back home with James who plays guitar and it will be on our album when that come out. He played for hours and I recorded it all and then we talked about it for a small amount of time and then I dropped him off at home to take care of his half-sister because his father had escaped to South America. We were meant to get together the next night but he came down with the flu so this is the only recording that exists.
9. Le Knight Club | Nymphae Song
I like this song because it is loud and easily heard on small speakers, where so much of our music is played these days. Our fathers would have discussed this in terms of transistors and amplifiers in the 60s and 70s but now people are over that.
10. Pictureplane | This Is My New Song
I saw him in LA and came late because I was with a girl I have been seeing and we were fucking in a hotel room down the road. When we arrived the songs I saw were ok but I wanted something more because I had seen him before and was very impressed and wanted to take the next step with him and see where the road led. I was dissapointed at first that things were the same, though with more naked men and more people in attendance this time, and then he said I'm going to play a new song you havent heard yet and he played it and I swore to myself because it was brilliant.
+11. Bikini | ACheerlaeder (Teen Daze Remix)
This song was made after we met Teen Daze in British Columbia. He introduced a piano line that I love a lot. It is very house-y and 90s and I get what he is trying to say. He is very talented and I imagine him as 4 people instead of 1 because I think that would be better for him. Olivier played this recently at a fancy club in Manhattan and the owner of a large modeling agency there told him that he wanted it desperately for a runway show he was putting on.
1. Phillip Glass | Mad Rush
I woke up after having a dream about a house by the water, seemed like a Gulf Island or something because it was protected waters close to the sea. The house was so large, it must have had 20 rooms. The odd thing was that everyone I had ever met in my life was there.
2. The Pixies | La La Love You
The first time I kissed a girl was in the summer of grade 9. There was a party at this rich kid's house; it was a private school party but it was one those rare times where the public school kids came in equal numbers and there was no fights. Anyways, this kid's house had a tennis court in the back yard with lights that filled the whole yard with this really surreal light, like there was a goddamn UFO above. Anyways, this girl's last name was alphabetically behind mine so she sat behind me in every class we shared. She grabbed me by my hand and we walked to the back of the yard. I had two Mike's Hard Lemonades and we sat in the grass. She sat cross-legged and leaned in and we kissed. I remember someone saying that you never forget your first kiss. I don't really remember the actual kiss anymore but I do remember this song was playing thru the open French doors from inside the house and I was so grateful for whoever was picking the CDs that night.
3. Meinrad Jungblut | Sonnendeck
I don't know what this guy is saying but I'm sure it's about babes.
4. The Smashing Pumpkins | Bodies
This song is one of the all time favorites, it's the perfect song. It's just got the right balance of fear and ignorance. I think this song really could be the front door to my house; it's what I want people to see before coming in. It's everything I try to get at with writing music, especially in terms of building and building a song until it caves in on itself.
5. Townes Van Zandt | Snow Don't Fall
At 30 seconds in he brings in a great organ. This song is really amazing. You gotta hear the lyrics. The strings are something to die for.
6. Nina Simone | Baltimore
This guy who I worked with for a bit at this art studio put this on one afternoon. It was one of those hot New York summer evenings where it was still light out, but like 9pm. I had been working for like 12 days straight and all the paintings were finished. It felt good to have a cold beer at the end of it all.
7. Bumblebee Unlimited | Ladybug
Post-Disco-Pre-House. Makes you want to drink a Nectar and Tonic.
8. Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters | Huzza A Hanna
This is one of my all time artists, he was just the best. This song can get you a date, get you that job you've always wanted, get that girl to take her clothes off, get your boss to give you a raise, get that girl pregnant and then get fired all in about 3 and a half minutes.
9. Inner City | Til We Meet Again
The artist I work for and I went on a stint where we would just listen to Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Inner City. I just convinced him to get a dope new sound system for the studio and listening to this song on those speakers was really nice, it made work pretty easy. I felt like the end of the summer last year I heard this song everywhere, we were in a cab dropping our instruments off at my apartment, we had just played like our 3rd show ever during CMJ and this song came on in the cab.
10. The Proclaimers | And Then I Met You
Duh!
+11. Nirvana | School
Bleach is one of my favorite Nirvana records. This song is amazing.
+12. The Smashing Pumpkins | Eye
This was for Lynch's Lost Highway (crazzzzy film, amazing soundtrack). This song plays during the club scene, I really like the idea of this song being a club banger, like instead of people going nuts for hearing Kate Perrier they were losing their shit over this. Eye made me want to start Bikini.
1. Houses | Soak It Up
Olivier played this for me in Los Angeles after we visited the cemetery. He hadn't visited LA properly before so I decided to show him around and after an early lunch we put together that we should visit the MoMA because he is very into art. I fell in love with the song when it came on and later I reached out to Houses to tell him that I liked it. He said thank you and later I learned how to play it on a beautiful weathered old white grand piano in Paia where I stay with my family over the holidays. I played an hour long duet with my sister's friend of it on the piano and sent the recording to Olivier. I tell my friends who I play it for The Snare Is A Tennis Ball.
2. crystal light no-xqsz | Crystal Light
It's so rare to hear something special now. Paris sounds like Berlin which sounds like Toronto which sounds like LA. Then sometimes you hear one song that reminds you that you're wrong and stupid and small. This one was 15 minutes long and I listened to it on repeat. It's hard to capture infinity but they did.
3. Dreamboat | Patterns
This song is eternal because it will never crash. Dreamboat is a God to us because he is from our hometown and makes music that sounds like our hometown, but in a gay way. He can capture that reflection of Victoria like we can't. At this point in time I dont think we will ever be as good as Dreamboat. I often forget how beautiful things are and this song reminds me of that because it uses restraint.
4. The Killers | Read My Mind
I don't listen to this song often but I like it a lot and it stays with me because I noticed on Wikipedia that critics liked it because it had lyrics about poor people.
5. Dreams | Sennennes
This song is an important song for a close friend of ours. He has made music for many years but recently has made much more and has been sending it to us occasionally. Each new song shows a marked improvement from the previous one and it is tremendously exciting to watch. He has taught himself production and knows a lot about a lot of things. He is also very humble. During the day he works two very difficult jobs but he never complains. Then he makes songs like this.
6. Hey This Is Brian
This isn't a song but it's a conversation I had tonight a few hours ago on the phone when I called Olivier in New York to confirm that we were going to start our record label and a man named Brian answered and I asked him Have I got the right number? and he said Yes and I said Who is this? and he said It's Brian. There was a party going on in the background. He wasn't overly polite and accommodating as everyone is and I liked that. Plus, I found out later that he and Olivier are going to be purchasing a gallery space together in New York so that made me like him more. I hope that both people are Brian; I may have that wrong. They may be two people. One may be Greg.
7. Puff's Intro
We listened to this song in Los Angeles as well, coming home from a trip to the museum. We stopped in at a store that sold props and asked how much it would cost to buy the large Hollywood sign they had for sale. It was $10,000, which was more than we had for a prop like that. When we got back to the car this song was playing. I want to make a song like this but am afraid to because doing it right takes a lot vulnerability. I must be okay with who I am. Or stoned.
8. OO Studio
This is a recording I did in an old lodge on the water back home with James who plays guitar and it will be on our album when that come out. He played for hours and I recorded it all and then we talked about it for a small amount of time and then I dropped him off at home to take care of his half-sister because his father had escaped to South America. We were meant to get together the next night but he came down with the flu so this is the only recording that exists.
9. Le Knight Club | Nymphae Song
I like this song because it is loud and easily heard on small speakers, where so much of our music is played these days. Our fathers would have discussed this in terms of transistors and amplifiers in the 60s and 70s but now people are over that.
10. Pictureplane | This Is My New Song
I saw him in LA and came late because I was with a girl I have been seeing and we were fucking in a hotel room down the road. When we arrived the songs I saw were ok but I wanted something more because I had seen him before and was very impressed and wanted to take the next step with him and see where the road led. I was dissapointed at first that things were the same, though with more naked men and more people in attendance this time, and then he said I'm going to play a new song you havent heard yet and he played it and I swore to myself because it was brilliant.
+11. Bikini | ACheerlaeder (Teen Daze Remix)
This song was made after we met Teen Daze in British Columbia. He introduced a piano line that I love a lot. It is very house-y and 90s and I get what he is trying to say. He is very talented and I imagine him as 4 people instead of 1 because I think that would be better for him. Olivier played this recently at a fancy club in Manhattan and the owner of a large modeling agency there told him that he wanted it desperately for a runway show he was putting on.
SIDE B | by Olivier Olivier
1. Phillip Glass | Mad Rush
I woke up after having a dream about a house by the water, seemed like a Gulf Island or something because it was protected waters close to the sea. The house was so large, it must have had 20 rooms. The odd thing was that everyone I had ever met in my life was there.
2. The Pixies | La La Love You
The first time I kissed a girl was in the summer of grade 9. There was a party at this rich kid's house; it was a private school party but it was one those rare times where the public school kids came in equal numbers and there was no fights. Anyways, this kid's house had a tennis court in the back yard with lights that filled the whole yard with this really surreal light, like there was a goddamn UFO above. Anyways, this girl's last name was alphabetically behind mine so she sat behind me in every class we shared. She grabbed me by my hand and we walked to the back of the yard. I had two Mike's Hard Lemonades and we sat in the grass. She sat cross-legged and leaned in and we kissed. I remember someone saying that you never forget your first kiss. I don't really remember the actual kiss anymore but I do remember this song was playing thru the open French doors from inside the house and I was so grateful for whoever was picking the CDs that night.
3. Meinrad Jungblut | Sonnendeck
I don't know what this guy is saying but I'm sure it's about babes.
4. The Smashing Pumpkins | Bodies
This song is one of the all time favorites, it's the perfect song. It's just got the right balance of fear and ignorance. I think this song really could be the front door to my house; it's what I want people to see before coming in. It's everything I try to get at with writing music, especially in terms of building and building a song until it caves in on itself.
5. Townes Van Zandt | Snow Don't Fall
At 30 seconds in he brings in a great organ. This song is really amazing. You gotta hear the lyrics. The strings are something to die for.
6. Nina Simone | Baltimore
This guy who I worked with for a bit at this art studio put this on one afternoon. It was one of those hot New York summer evenings where it was still light out, but like 9pm. I had been working for like 12 days straight and all the paintings were finished. It felt good to have a cold beer at the end of it all.
7. Bumblebee Unlimited | Ladybug
Post-Disco-Pre-House. Makes you want to drink a Nectar and Tonic.
8. Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters | Huzza A Hanna
This is one of my all time artists, he was just the best. This song can get you a date, get you that job you've always wanted, get that girl to take her clothes off, get your boss to give you a raise, get that girl pregnant and then get fired all in about 3 and a half minutes.
9. Inner City | Til We Meet Again
The artist I work for and I went on a stint where we would just listen to Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Inner City. I just convinced him to get a dope new sound system for the studio and listening to this song on those speakers was really nice, it made work pretty easy. I felt like the end of the summer last year I heard this song everywhere, we were in a cab dropping our instruments off at my apartment, we had just played like our 3rd show ever during CMJ and this song came on in the cab.
10. The Proclaimers | And Then I Met You
Duh!
+11. Nirvana | School
Bleach is one of my favorite Nirvana records. This song is amazing.
+12. The Smashing Pumpkins | Eye
This was for Lynch's Lost Highway (crazzzzy film, amazing soundtrack). This song plays during the club scene, I really like the idea of this song being a club banger, like instead of people going nuts for hearing Kate Perrier they were losing their shit over this. Eye made me want to start Bikini.
