Sunshine Pop

It is too apt a time in my imagined California summer to bring about the idea that sunshine can in fact be infused with the power of pop. My nostalgia of the tourist trap of summer sun, lay a mere week in passing but its sandy memory, made fertile under the wrestle of these London showers, still tears at my heart strings with every digital spin of my formerly mono, wax recordings. All of this pop once thought a passing fad, now turned eternal, celestial, somehow utilizes musical and production techniques that infiltrate passed usual musical understandings to sonically define the sun and summer weather. Its an important and magnificent example of how experience in a physical nature, be it summer love or catching curls of ocean currents, can be symbolized into sound waves and magically translated by a sound recipient miles and lifetimes removed from such happenings.

In listening to the Turtles’ “Happy Together”, the flagship example of sunshine pop, a routine early morning, California cloud cover takes shape over minor chord arrangements, a somewhat dismal portrayal of the pre noon doubts that are met by every California beachcomber praying for a break in the gray overcast. These prayers give life to the hope for breaking rays of noonday sun, embodied in the filled out harmonies of major chord chorals and lyrics of proclamation: “I can’t see me loving nobody but you for all my life”. In listening to these recordings it feels as if some part of my history is buried back there in 60s and 70s California. Have my parents’ experiences of their carefree summers of past somehow been transmogrified into my being to help me more fully understand the symbolism of these songs? Or is there something here that speaks on a higher plane in some secret sonic language that others can similarly identify with?

Or maybe I just watch too much TV.

[mp3] The Turtles – Happy Together
[mp3] The Beach Boys – Catch A Wave
[mp3] The Mamas and the Papas – Monday, Monday
[mp3] The Association – Along Comes Mary
[mp3] The Fifth Dimension – On The Beach (In Summer Time)

Coastal Mixtape for a California Dream

I love California. I have no intentions of leaving. I have claimed my turf and set up shop, for there really cannot be any hidden treasure of property that can equal the celestial burn that has grazed and purified this southern coastal kingdom. Go ahead and call me out on my stereotypical, Californian brag, an annoyance, quite possibly, greater than any southern drawl or eastern drone. But in many ways I buy into the whole dream of our mythical coastal landscapes and possibilities for endless summers. For I have drudged the chills of Siberia, the suffocating stench and choke of northeastern humidity, and failed to find comparable troves of feminine form elsewhere. Friends, please do forgive my ostentation and inability to compromise my stable pretense but it is only in good faith that I propose for your conversion. Please do accept the gospel of our ways. Follow me to the light of the eternal sunset. California here we come.

[mp3] America – Ventura Highway
[mp3] Low – California
[mp3] The Beach Boys – California Girls
[mp3] Stereophonics – Have A Nice Day
[mp3] The Clientele – From Brighton Beach to Santa Monica
[mp3] The Thrills – Big Sur
[mp3] Joni Mitchell – California
[mp3] The Decemberists – Los Angeles, I’m Yours
[mp3] Radiohead – I Will (Los Angeles Version)
And for good measure...
[mp3] Death Cab For Cutie - Why You'd Want To Live Here

Welcome summer...

The Voices In My Head

They keep on talking. I keep them company. When my days run long and my nights run late I hear these voices in my head. Everyday in everyway they’re there singing their praise for a brighter day, a better way, the next best thing. I have temporarily been assigned to a halogen buzzing room, lined with books penned by prophets, to write papers upon linoleum pressed tabletops.

These are the short and sweet voices that have been keeping me company while I create fiction about the failing democracy in the Russian state. Wish me luck. I'll be back with more new music as soon as I prove that Putin is an autocrat.

The ‘421 Second’ Mixtape
[mp3] Animal Collective – College
[mp3] The Beach Boys – Our Prayer
[mp3] Spartan Fidelity – 1st Sun
[mp3] Brian Wilson – One For The Boys
[mp3] Radiohead – I Will (No Man’s Land)

The Content’s Happy/Sad Valentine’s Day Mix 2007

Valentine’s Day has always been an enigma. The dichotomy that exists on this day is as equally romantic and lovely as it is achingly lonely. Its wonderful to have a day dedicated to try and resurrect those butterflies that swam within you on your first date or the awkwardness as you walked her up to her door that night. It is also an awful reminder of how much us lonely ones love to wallow in our own heartache. However you spend this Valentine’s Day, the Content wants to let you know that we are there for you and we want you to make the most of it. So with that said, the Content is providing a mixtape for the both of you: the romantically childish and the heart torn crier. We just hope we can carry a little bit of the weight on this day by providing you with the soundtrack.

XOXO,
The Content

- St. Valentine’s Day Mix -

[www] Asobi Seksu – Then He Kissed Me
[www] Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats
[www] Jimmy Eat World – For Me This Is Heaven
[www] Jens Lekman – I Saw Her In the Anti War Demonstration
[www] Al Green – Love and Happiness
[www] Devotchka – Somethin’ Stupid
[www] The Beach Boys – Don’t Worry Baby
[www] Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender
[www] Hall & Oates – Sara Smile
[www] Iron & Wine – Fever Dream (Demo)

- St. Lonely’s Day Mix -

[www] Ben Folds Five – Song for the Dumped
[www] The Dismemberment Plan – Time Bomb
[www] Roy Orbison – Crying
[www] El Perro Del Mar – This Loneliness
[www] R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts
[www] Elliott Smith – Twilight
[www] Hank Williams – Your Cheatin’ Heart
[www] Magnet – Nothing Hurts Now
[www] Rachael Yamagata – The Reason Why (EP)
[www] Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You In The End