GRABBINGSAND

Category: Listening

  • Throwback: The Reclaimed and Revisited Summeration Mix of 2008

    Back in June of 2008, I went to work on a summer mix. Calling it good enough, I posted it here. Five years and a month later, I was surprised to find that particular ZIP hanging out on a mostly abandoned file sharing website. Once I remembered the password, I reclaimed that stack of tracks…

  • The Very Necessary Summeration Mix for 2013

    It’s here … [mixcloud]http://www.mixcloud.com/thomasls/the-very-necessary-summeration-mix-for-2013/[/mixcloud] Tracklist: Summertime (Part 1) By Sam Cooke Streakin By The Honeydrippers Right Here Human Nature Mix By SWV Remember The Time (New Jack Radio Mix) By Michael Jackson I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) By Hall & Oates Sunrise By Simply Red I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)…

  • Nobody’s Top Ten But Mine (for 2011)

    Every year, I do one of these top ten lists. Or a top fifteen. I try to play the critic and justify my choices with a range of reasons from erudite to ridiculous. This year, I think I’m suffering the same critical fatigue as the rest of the Internet-aware world — which I suppose is…

  • Revisiting The Wrath

    In 2009, I threw together a mix inspired by Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreaks. Here’s what I said then: I couldn’t dismiss it entirely. I left it on my iPod, letting shuffle find tracks on occasion and usually letting them play out. I started to think of it as a friend going through a rough…

  • 2009 Sounded Like This

    The end of the year brings lists and this is mine. I fell behind on my reading and darkened the door of few movie houses, so this list of fifteen will focus on the sounds of 2009 as I heard them. 15. Jon Hopkins – Insides. Almost as good as 2007’s Untrue from Burial. Almost.…

  • But I Want His Wings

    Watching a musician work magic with a sequencer isn’t new. Imogen Heap does it all the time. But there’s something very simple and lovely about the way Lou Rhodes — previously half of a duo called Lamb — goes about building her one-woman version of “Gabriel.” Especially, I like how the crowd slowly but surely…

  • The Top Twenty Albums of 2008 (The Top Five)

    With less than eight hours to go, here’s the rest of my picks for 2008. These five kept shifting positions, so any one is probably interchangeable with another. The changes in position were based less on my own taste than the general state of the world. Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue Gnarls Barkley – The…

  • The Top Twenty Albums of 2008 (20 Through 16)

    Once again, I’m taking up the critic’s mantle. For no other reason than the fact that I can, I’m looking back at 2008’s musical offerings to determine those I find worthy of being called The Best. And so, here begins my list of The Top Twenty Albums of 2008 … starting with the bottom five.…

  • The Hope Fix Mix

    Caught myself this afternoon, just watching the Dow Jones steadily plummet. A stalled airplane, spiralling. An imminent train wreck in slow motion. This isn’t the end of the world, I know, but it feels like the end of something. There are a couple of analogies that have entered my mind in the last month or…

  • Plugging-In

    Been playing a bit with a newly updated plug-in.  If it works, then you ought to be seeing album covers for the last four songs I scrobbled up to last.fm … right about now … [lastfmrecords|recenttracks|4]