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June 26th, 2007

New Mix compiled by our good friend Aaron Ray

We are happy to be hosting a mix tape compiled by our good friend, Aaron Ray. Aaron is a former employee of Suburban Home, current employee of Collective International (who was recently bought by Payless, as well as a freelance graphic designer. Aaron is one of the raddest designers I know and definitely miss the days when he used to work for us. He has put together a mix of some of his recent favorites which includes tracks by Pelican, Battles, C-Clamp, Apostle of Hustle, Blonde Redhead, Shellac, and more. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks Aaron for putting it together.

Click the link to read Aaron’s comments on the songs from his mix.

- This mix is really just a compilation of recently played iTunes tracks, but luckily I’ve purchased a bunch of albums lately so most of these tracks are from new releases. I feel it’s a really diverse mix, It covers a range of styles from “post-math-epic-whatever” to “angular-DC influenced-punk” to everyone’s favorite “Wuss-rock”. Here’s a brief run-down on the mix:

- The new Pelican record is really good, being a longtime fan I wasn’t sure if this would still be interesting to me. It was definitely worth the money, the sound has progressed with more melodic and upbeat songs, yet still heavy and thick.

- My favorite band over the past couple months has been Broken Social Scene. Realizing I had heard all their records I started researching side projects. Apostle of Hustle is the guitarist from Broken Social Scene. The new album is great.

- Battles are creating a style of music that no one has ever heard – You can’t even really categorize it. It’s technical, rhythmic, melodic, spastic, noisy, and really fun.

- C-Clamp are an awesome indie/emo band. By “emo” I mean when emo was more like melodic math-rock, not like the horrible goth-pop that people call emo now.

- Matador just released a Chavez box set featuring two of their best albums with some bonus tracks and a DVD. The video for this song “Break up your band” has male strippers in astronaut costumes, you can’t beat that.

- The Sea and Cake make super smooth jazz-influenced pop rock. They also claim members of Chicago super-band Tortoise. The music is perfect for hanging in the back yard with friends on a warm summer night.

- Beirut is the project of a guy named Zach Condon. Apparently he dropped out of high school when he was 16 and traveled Europe in a drunken haze. On his return he wrote his first album as Beirut, playing all the instruments and recording it using Pro-Tools. Now he’s 21 years old and Beirut is signed by 4AD. Shit.

- Blonde Redhead have a new album out. It’s more “electo” than some of their past material. It’s really good because you can dance in your bedroom to it…you know, in front of the mirror.

- I’m sure most of you have heard the name Steve Albini. If not, just search his name right here at Indie HQ and you will find his great article called “The Problem with Music” – I love this guy! Shellac is his band, they’ve been around forever. They just released a new album a week or two ago. It shreds hard.

- Dianogah is a band who’s songs I’ve heard for years but could never find their records. I finally bought the album directly from the label. It’s super sweet. The band consists of two bass guitars and a drummer. One of the bass players is Jay Ryan, he’s done tons of artwork and posters for many bands over the years, you’d recognize his artwork if you saw it.

Written by Virgil Dickerson