[NIGHT OUT] Spencer Ludwig @ Mercury Lounge 2/13/2020

images courtesy of Some Kind of Awesome

Last week I finally had the pleasure of catching rising singer-songwriter and trumpeter extraordinaire, Spencer Ludwig. I’m thrilled that the Brooklyn can claim the Los Angeles born poptastic performer as our very own. It was a special treat for longtime fans because it was the first time that Spencer shared some new material that he’s been working on. Prior to the sold out show, I was fortunate enough to grab Spencer for a quick interview (which is coming in the next few days) and not to throw you too many spoilers from that, but he wasn’t exaggerating about how his newer material explores a much broader range of emotions than any of the work he’s released to date.

Another semi-spoiler from the interview: there was a moment during the interview where Spencer casually semi-downplayed his abilities as a singer, citing something to the effect of he didn’t have have a lot of vocal training yadda yadda yadda. I remember chuckling to myself a few songs into his set at that very thought. Granted, if he thinks there’s room for improvement in his vocal performance, I will always encourage someone to better themselves, obviously. All of that to say for only a few years into his solo career he’s already leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of performers that I’ve seen grace the same stage. He certainly had that audience in the palm of his hand from the moment he stepped on stage.

I should also relay that during his set, the Latin Grammy award winner announced that he will be making a return to The Freehold for another residence this coming March. Details should be rolling out momentarily on that. With regards to the aforementioned new music, there are no official details on any of that just yet. That all said, while this is the first we’ve seen of Spencer in 2020, it’s obviously not going to be the last. How often he’ll grace us with his presence is still up in the air, but rest assured I’ll be passing along every last update.

Spencer Ludgwig @ Mercury Lounge 2/13/2020 SET LIST

• Helium

• Welcome Party

• Right Into U

• Best Life

• Can We Just Stay

• Us

• Summertime With U

• Falling Out

• Growing Up In LA

• Hard

• Day That I

• Just Wanna Dance

• Diggy

• Made To Love You

• All Night Long

[SONG OF THE DAY] Jaded - "Bounce"

image courtesy of Jaded

Great news, everyone! Jaded, my favorite trio of troublemakers have made their first appearance of 2020!

Following up a string of solid singles in 2019, today they’ve decided to gift us with the Ounces EP. The release includes three brand new dance floor fillers complete with extended edits should you find yourself wishing these songs would never end (which SPOILER ALERT it’s gonna happen). Opening track, “Bounce” has one of those understated yet catchy as fuck hooks that will take residency in your brain for a decent amount of time just after a single spin.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on lovely London lads Nardi, Jordan, and Teo for some time now and I think the thing I love about these guys the most is that they always have the chops to back up their playful party antics. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels the same way, considering last year they released tracks on Don Diabo’s Hexagon label and this new EP is out courtesy of Higher Ground, Diplo's house imprint under Mad Decent.

I genuinely hope that this is the year that Jaded hits the stride they’ve rightfully earned. 💖

[SONG OF THE DAY] Cubicolor - "Melodies"

photo courtesy of Cubicolor

You only have three more sleeps until, Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night, the latest from Cubicolor is available for your ears to feast on, and feast you must! Following up their 2016 debut full-length Brainsugar, the trio has continue to build on their reputation for sultry soundscapes with HAD,HAN, which seems nothing short of suitable to spin for the first time at twilight.

To hold you over until Friday, the band released the Melodies EP, which features a thoughtful array of cuts from the record. As for the title track, “Memories”, navigates your eardrums through a slow build of textures that playfully ebb and flow throughout the track.

After scrapping what could have been their followup in 2018, the band explored some powerful themes as they wrote what would become HAD,HAN. The band shares, “There were a lot of moments when we weren't sure we'd ever find what it was we were looking for. On the way we lost friends, lost loves, battled health issues, lost an album, lost each other and came back together again. Looking back now it was pretty crazy but the world keeps spinning and I guess we just didn't want to put out anything that wasn't true to ourselves as a band, and the very best we can do as musicians, no matter how long it took.”

Fortunately for them it was worth the added effort.

Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night is out February 21 courtesy of Anjunadeep.

Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night

Release Date: February 21, 2020

1. Prelude

2. Rituals

3. All You Needed

4. Melodies

5. Points Beyond

6. Now You Know

7. Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night

8. Once Around

9. Wake Me Up

10. Airbeat

11. Kindling

12. Pale Blue Dot

pre-order

[SONG OF THE DAY] Tom Misch x Yussef Dayes - "What Kinda Music"

PHOTO CREDIT: Bardha Krasniqi

On Friday Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes launched their new collaborative project - What Kinda Music, which will be dropping on April 24th courtesy of Blue Note. For those who are familiar with both artists, the title of the album is likely the your knee-jerk reaction to hearing that the two made music together. While Tom Misch has been gaining notoriety as a producer working with the likes of Loyle Carner, GoldLink, and De La Soul, Yussef Dayes of Yussef Kamaal and United Vibrations fame is always pushing the envelope as a jazz drummer.

The result of the two joining forces is the kind of experimentation I wish would happen more often to be quite honest. As you’ll hear in the title track, “What Kinda Music”, the effortless genre fluidity that exists in this project can only come from musicians who are masters of their respective crafts. In this particular track there are moments of progressive jazz and trip-hop with some lovely string movements as the cherry on top.

So fun facts to tell at your next party when this song comes on: the pair both grew up in the same area in South East London and Tom actually saw Yussef play drums in the school talent show when he was 9. The two wouldn’t become friends until 2018 when they met at the launch party for Tom’s 2018 debut full-length Geography. The rest, as they say, is history.

What made the guys click, according to Tom and Yuseff, were the exact same kinds of reasons that it technically shouldn’t have worked. Tom explains, "Yussef comes from a more experimental background, and he has a lot of loose, crazy ideas. I know how to write a catchy melody, but with interesting chords and I have a good understanding of popular song forms, so I think I streamlined those ideas and made them accessible". 

What Kinda Music

Release Date: April 24, 2020

1.What Kinda Music

2. Festival

3. Nightrider (feat. Freddie Gibbs)

4. Tidal Wave

5. Sensational

6. The Real

7. Lift Off (feat Rocco Palladino)

8. I Did it For You

9. Last 100

10. Kyiv

11. Julie Mangos

12. Storm Before the Calm (feat Kaidi Akinnibi)

[SONG OF THE DAY] Miss Eaves - "Stacks"

image courtesy of Miss Eaves

VIBE O CLOCK ON FRIDAY

ON VALENTINES DAY NO LESS!

I know given my activity on the rest of the internet today that you might assume that I would have selected some over the top romantic bop on this polarizing over commercialized holiday, but I chose to go another route today. To be very painfully clear: I am NOT ant-Valentines Day by any means.I love the fuck outta love! Instead, I decided to go with something that reflects my impending Valentines Day plans that brings me and plenty of New Yorkers a lot of happiness on a daily basis: a song about bodega sandwiches.

Leave it to Brooklyn’s legendary cheeky wordsmith, none other than Miss Eaves herself, to pen a song that playfully loves on bodega sandwiches in a way they’ve always deserved. As she shared about her latest track, “Stacks”, “I wanted to write a song that reflected my real life. I don’t have a lot of money, but I still want to stack something. And sandwiches are delicious!”

Legit though since love is in the air today, have you ever had a bodega deli dude take a liking to you before? You wanna talk about stacking sandwiches…. they will make them bad boys thiccc. lolololol

If sandwiches aren’t your thing but you’re still fine with being single, she’s got a song for that, too! (“Paper Mache (Single AF)”) On the other hand, if you’re hoping to find love in a hopeless place and plan on hitting the apps hard tonight, there’s “Left Swipe Left” as well.

[SONG OF THE DAY] BOOTS - "Full Of Stars"

It’s been exactly 2 years to the day since we had an official release from one of music’s stealthiest producer virtuosos, BOOTS (born Jordan Asher Cruz). Instead of a releasing a full body of music as he did on his birthday in 2018 with #DARKDAZE, today we see the birth of not just one but three different projects from the Brooklyn-based beat master. So technically today you’re getting three songs for today’s SOTD instead of just one.

Strap in - we have a range of feels to cover in just one post!

The focal point of today’s post is definitely “Full Of Stars”, which comes from an album called XENOPOP. As the Emperor of Tweet and Deletes shared via Twitter, XENOPOP will be the final full-length album under the BOOTS moniker. I can’t help but fixate on his choice of words for this portion of the announcement.

“Spoiler: he gets killed off.”

Throughout the song he’s incredibly transparent about the seemingly tumultuous relationship he’s had with the BOOTS persona, so the idea of it not just fading away or, to be more synonymous with the language used here, dying out, is such a striking distinction that eager does not begin to describe how badly I need to hear the rest of this album.

These are three different songs from three different albums. I'll be releasing this year.

XENOPOP
My third full-length LP and final ever as BOOTS. (Spoiler: he gets killed off.)

NIGHTDEATH
The dreaded existential club LP.

DAYLIFE
A meditation.

— -|---|- (@B00TS) February 13, 2020

The song itself is such a breathtaking evolution to his artistry, combining his signature production style along with these symphonic swells that leave you feeling like you’re actively wandering through a lucid dream, completely love stoned, and moments away from being in arms of your lover. The kind of dream that waking up from would be frustrating and take at least a full day to completely decipher.

Next up is the track “Language” from an album called NIGHTDEATH, which Jordan describes as “the dreaded existential club LP”. The track features Raye and Deradoorian and clocks in at just a few seconds shy of seven minutes, all of which are packed with so much intensity that movement isn’t an option, it is simply the appropriate response for what the song commands your body to do.

Last but certainly not least is an ethereal ambient cut titled, “Primordial”, which is a track from “a meditation” that Jordan is calling DAYLIFE. It’s lush and full of an almost mystical kind of magic. It’s one of those tracks that sucks any lingering darkness everywhere it goes. Given the range of songs that he’s shared with us today, specifically in the order that he chose to call them out, I can only assume that whatever he was working through when he was finishing up XENOPOP has left him in a much lighter and brighter state of being, and as a longtime champion of his artistic endeavors I cannot be happier for him.

So the only thing this update is lacing is TIMING. No idea if these projects are going to continue to roll out as simultaneously as the announcement was, if this will be a year-long endeavor, or if there’s a way to release three separate projects that I haven’t considered yet. Obviously as updates are made available I will be relaying them accordingly. Regardless, I am more than excited for what’s next.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Duck Sauce - "Smiley Face"

image courtesy of Duck Sauce

I know I’m a little late to properly celebrating this wondrous news but one of my favorite side projects to ever grace the planet, Duck Sauce has resurfaced with a new track and announced a few performances which leads me to believe that there HAS to be an album.

RIGHT!? No one would be that cruel!!

At any rate, “Smiley Face”, is a signature vivacious track from the dynamic duo and features a sample from the 1980 classic “Make Someone Feel Happy Today” from Two Tons O' Fun (who would later go by the name The Weather Girls. Yes, THE WEATHER GIRLS. As in, “It’s Raining Men”. “Hit The Road Jack”, etc. etc.) As previously mentioned, the group has unveiled that they will be performing both weekends at Coachella in addition to a Duck Sauce Block Party in San Francisco on May 9th featuring sets from Chromeo, Yung Bae, The Magician, Nancy Whang, Biscits, and DJ Dials. Not gonna lie, I’m definitely going to be wrapping up this post super quick so I can go look at flights to SF in May.

[SONG OF THE DAY] twst - "Are You Listening?"

image lovingly lifted from twst’s instagram

The internet, do you know about twst yet?

I came to know of the now London-based singer/songwriter/producer because I caught Husky hunny Danio Forni proudly promoting her latest track that he co-produced. Following her string of singles, “Girl On Your TV”, “Always”, and “sad girls club but u gotta be cute”, her latest track, “Are You Listening?” continues to flesh out the framework of the up and coming pixelated pop singer’s persona, which appears to be nestling her amongst the likes of artists like Lights, Poppy, Caroline Polachek, or Ashnikko.

“‘Are You Listening?’ is about the information overload we receive on a daily basis, and the struggle to try and find some truth and meaning in it,” explains twst. “There's a pressure to have strong opinions and present a certain image, but is anyone really listening and do they really give a fuck? It’s an angry, frustrated, helpless call out; inspired by fake news, climate change, consumption, internet addiction, misogyny; an apocalyptic feeling that’s kinda looming right now.”