May 30 - Rina Mushonga / Annie Goodchild

I'm sitting at the airport in KL on the 1st of 2 layovers on the way back to Shanghai. After my week in Malaysia for work, I went to visit friends in Hanoi for the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a holiday weekend in China. I'm kind of surprised it's not a holiday weekend anywhere else in Southeast Asia, but anyway it's not, so my friends did have to work. But I had the weekend with them, which we just spent eating and drinking. Which I was very happy with, since I've been to Hanoi before and really only cared about seeing Tom and Vicky. Plus I got to do a bit of touring on Monday. I ended up going to see Hoa Lo Prison (also known as the Hanoi Hilton, where the French first kept communist prisoners, and later where the Vietnamese kept US POWs). And I went to the Museum of Women. Both were pretty good, but the most interesting thing was how they present the information. In both, there's a big focus on the period of the Vietnam War and the successes and sacrifices made by good Communists or people who later became party leaders. At the prison, everything was presented as the French being horrible to the Vietnamese prisoners, and the Vietnamese later being super nice to the American prisoners. Which is definitely how it was, right? And the Women's Museum made an interesting choice in how they presented information as well. It's supposed to be a museum showcasing women and the roles they play in Vietnamese society, which, as you may have guessed, are quite traditional. And what's the first section of the museum? The first thing they decide to show you about women? Marriage. And then Childbirth. And once you get to the section about women in society and what contributions they've made, it's all about the Vietnamese war. Interesting choices. They've still got a way to go, I think. But anyway, it's nice to see they have the museum. And other than all that, I found this amazing laquerware shop called Hanoia, which I'm a bit obsessed with. I'm not sure if I've talked about the ceramics shop Spin in Shanghai, but it's the Vietnamese laquerware equivalent of that. You should look up both. And if you're in Shanghai, go buy things at Spin. And if you're in Hanoi, go buy things at Hanoia. And of course the food. I ate a lot of Vietnamese food. Including a banh mi for every day. That thing is my favorite. So all in all, great trip!

I've had some artists sitting in my backlog for quite a while now, so we're gonna clear a couple out now, starting with Rina Mushonga. She's a Dutch-Zimbabwean musician, now based in London, who's making some pretty interesting stuff. She had an EP last year, but then this year released the track AtalantA, which I love. It's super weird and there's all kinds of stuff going on, but I love the guitar and bass lines right from the start, and really love when it builds from about 2 and a half minutes onward. All that and her super cool voice, of course.

And we'll throw in her other song, Eastern Highlands also, because it's really beautiful. Very different from AtalantA, but really beautiful. And hopefully on whatever EP or album she's got in the works, cause it's nowhere right now except YouTube.




Next up, from across the pond, is Annie Goodchild. She's been working in this band Melou for years, and has put out a solo EP called A Random Physical Sensation. And the first single off of it, Rooster, is pretty great. If I remember, I didn't particularly like the EP. But I do like this song a lot. I'm not sure how I feel about the big change at around 3:15. I like both parts of the song a lot, but I'm not sure I like the actual change. Anyway, it's still a great song and she's still got a great voice. So I'll also go check out Melou and maybe report back if they're good.

May 25 - Local Natives / D-Pulse / Bruno Pernadas

Goodness, I haven't written in a long time. I'm in Malaysia now, and very busy. Busy during the day, not so busy in the evenings. Which is nice, because I've been waiting to catch up on some Netflix stuff. I finished Maria Bamford's show Lady Dynamite, and now I'm halfway through Master of None Season 2, and next will be Season 3 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Good times.

Other good times were had for my birthday last weekend! Yay birthdays! I wasn't sure I'd actually be around for it on Monday because I might have been on a plane to Singapore or Malaysia. In the end I was, but since I wasn't sure I just organized a little brunch on Sunday with some close friends. That turned into wine at the dog park and Shanghainese dinner. It was really a fantastic day, and now I know about this giant park where you can sit on the grass (an uncommon allowance in China) and bring dogs (another uncommon allowance at parks in China), so I will probably be spending much more time there this summer.

That was all I had planned, but then since I didn't fly off on Monday my friends planned a little something of their own. I wasn't sure what to expect, all I knew was that I was to meet them after work. Luckily after work meant 11am, becase we had to shut the office early for a government environmental regulation spot check or something like that. So I left! Thanks Shanghai government for the birthday present! So I met up with a couple friends for happy hour first, and then was kidnapped. I was taken by my friends Graeme and Julia to meet my friend Nikki. Then they blindfolded me and tied my hands up and put me in a taxi. After about 40 minutes in the taxi they put headphones in, took me out and walked me around for like 10 minutes. I was very confused. But once they unblindfolded me, we were at The Cheesecake Factory! And other friends were there! They opened on near Disneyland last year and I've been talking about going ever since it opened, and now I've been. And it's exactly like back home. It was delicious and disgusting and all the portions were so huge. I loved it. It was a happy birthday. And then I woke up very early to fly to Malaysia.

I was thinking of blogging about this earlier, but didn't. But anyway I am now. But anyway the consideration was what I should post for my birthday. It had to be good. And luckily Local Natives randomly put out a new, really good single, called The Only Heirs. Not sure what it's from, but it's good!





This is actually the second random single they've released, after I Saw You Close Your Eyes. Maybe this means something good coming? Well just in case it's not, here's I Saw You Close Your Eyes, cause it's also great.




And then there's a bit of a backlog to get through. First is D-Pulse, a weird Russian band. Interesting Russian band. They make very interesting music. Their newest album, Serpentine, is very interesting. And it has this song Anna, which is amazing. It's slinky and sultry and sexy and covered in honey. Reminds me of Soft Hair. Super weird. Super good (at least this song. Other songs are good, but not super good).

And then I've got a bit more interesting foreign music, from Bruno Pernadas. This guy is a Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and producer making some really interesting stuff also. He's fusing jazz and world music and all kinds of other influences to make songs that sound like everything from Broken Social Scene to Tuareg rock or Brazilian jazz. Very interesting. And I'd say on average better than D-Pulse. This song, Problem Number 6 off of the amazingly titled album Those Who Throw Objects at the Crocodiles Will Be Asked to Retrieve Them, is amazing. Sadly it ends very abruptly because on the album it blends right into the next song. So as a stand alone it leaves you wanting more. But it's so good! And go listen to the whole album.

May 19 - Broen / Hazel English

There are two songs I've had on repeat for the last 24 hours. The first one is <3, by Broen. Yes, that's the song name. I can only assume it's pronounced "heart." Anyway, I heard it yesterday, then I listened to it like 5 more times, and then the same today. This is the first official single from the Norwegian band, after being signed to Bella Union, the same label as Beach House and Father John Misty. Although that's where the similarities end. This song starts out with a super weird spoken intro, then sounds kind of reminiscent of some Comfort Woman era Meshell Ndegeocello, before picking up with a pretty great cymbal hit and guitar riff around 2:45. Fantastic song. Their other stuff is ok, and their official 2nd single isn't nearly this good, but this has got me pretty excited.




The other song that's been stuck in my head (and therefore also on repeat when I'm not listening to <3) is Love Is Dead, off of Hazel English's debut album, Just Give In/Never Going Home, that came out last week. Although I guess technically it's a double EP? Not sure how that works. Anyway, this is definitely her best song. I talked about her in a blog post earlier this year, so I don't need to say much, just play you this song.

May 17 - JFDR / 6LACK

I am so so tired. I have been sleeping horribly all week. Well, that's not completely true. I've slept fine, just not enough. I was up at 5 on Monday, 4:30 yesterday, and 5:45 today. I don't know what's going on with me. But I need to go to bed early. So I'm going to write this, shower, and go to bed. For your reference, it's 8:30.

Today we get two new artists who I just heard in the last few days, both of whom are quite impressive. Not only did I just learn about both of them, but they both write their stage names in all caps. So they're basically the same person, right?

First up is JFDR from Iceland. This is the solo project of one of the twin sisters from Pascal Pinon (who are just so-so), and she's also the lead singer of Samaris (who are pretty good). Her solo stuff is definitely her best, though. Very Bjorky. Which is always a good thing. Her debut album, Brazil, came out in March, and it's pretty lovely. So here's Wires.




And then there's 6LACK. For some reason he popped up in the header in the iTunes store recently, which isn't what made me listen to him. It's just what made me see his name. But then I was looking at the FYF festival lineup yesterday to make sure that Little Dragon is performing and I didn't make that up (they are and I didn't) and saw his name. So I thought I'd give him a listen. And I'm glad I did, cause he's somehow reminiscent of Frank Ocean. Which, much like being Bjorky, is always a good thing. He put out his debut album, FREE 6LACK, last November. It started out just ok, but about halfway in it started getting better and better. I actually haven't finished listening yet, but the song Gettin' Old came on and I fell in love with it and had to share it on the blog right now. So that is why I'm here writing this whole thing at all.

May 15 - The National / Lo Tom / Crystal Castles

Another great weekend with great weather, that ended too short. But, it is nice to be back in Shanghai! The highlight was probably seeing Crystal Castles, who played in Shanghai on Saturday night. I found out like 3 days before the show that they were coming. The publicity was terrible. But at least I found out and went, and it was an awesome show. It was pretty much exactly what I expected, but better. They had an actual drummer, which was unexpected, but totally great. He really pulled it together in a lot of ways. It was somehow hypnotic, too. I mean, the beers probably helped, but I think it was also the music and the lights. So I danced a lot. And then I also ate a lot this weekend (as usual) and said goodbye to two friends who move back to the US today. Sad times.

Anyway I'm not playing you Crystal Castles today. Quite the opposite. Today's music comes to you compliments of middle aged emo men. I shouldn't call them emo, because emo is the worst. But many of their sentiments are very melancholic and sad and lonely, which they share with emo. So I guess it's like shitty emo music makers who only knew how to complain and make terrible sounds with their instruments who then grew up and learned how to be poetic and realized what good music sounds like. And the first one is The National. Fantastic band. One of the best bands I've seen live. And they just put out The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, the first single off their upcoming album Sleep Well Beast. Can't wait for that one! I'm just said they're playing with Daughter in LA when I'm not there, because that would be a great show.





Then there's this new band Lo Tom, which seems to be some sort of super group or something, made of 4 men who have worked together and apart on various projects for a very long time, and now are working all together on the same project. I know nothing about them or their other projects, but I do like Overboard, the first single from this new group they've got.





OK I lied. I am going to play you Crystal Castles. An old one. Baptism, off of II. This is when they still had the old singer, who quit the band. But the new singer is also really great. And she sings this old stuff wonderfully, as I learned on Saturday.

May 10 - Peter Silberman / Woods / Perfume Genius

Once again I am in an airport lounge, this time Istanbul (again) on the way back to Shanghai. The work event was a pretty big success, I'd say. I think I told you I was in Germany for a work event after Croatia, right? It was our annual In-House Exhibition, where we display our latest product offerings and bring in thousands of customers from around the world. I go to help coordinate for our Asia customers and to have meetings. Seems like everyone had a good time, myself included. Plus I got to go down to Munich on Saturday afternoon and yesterday before flying out today and spent time with the Mangs, which is always a pleasure. Actually last night was really nice. Normally after the kids go to sleep I just hang out with Yasmin and Andy, chatting and maybe watching some TV, usually with a glass of wine or a beer. That's exactly what we did last night, but my parents and sister joined us on Skype and we basically just all hung out together. We weren't necessarily even talking the whole time. But it was really nice. I've never really just hung out on Skype like that. Usually if I call my family we talk. But it was really nice. I feel like I should do it more. I also feel like I should talk to my family more often. I usually only do it for like an hour at a time and have a big conversation every week or two. But there's no reason not to call for like 5 minutes to just say hi more often, right? So I think I'll do that.

Ok enough of that. So if you haven't noticed, I've started sharing multiple artists in each post, with mostly just a single song from each. There's a couple reasons, but mostly it's because I find a lot of songs I like and just don't write often enough to share them. When I was doing my song of the day a couple years ago it was fine, but now I'm not doing that. And I'm probably not going to do it again. So even though it's always felt a bit weird and kind of lazy to me to do it this way, I'm going to keep doing it. But generally I do try to play you songs that I feel are somehow related.

Today's first song is from Peter Silberman, the lead singer of Beach House. He put out a solo EP recently, titled Impermanence. It's pretty, if a bit boring, but the opening track, Karuna, is really beautiful.

Now it's on to Woods. It seems they've got a ton of albums, but I only found out about them recently, thanks to the song Hit That Drum, which is off their latest EP, Love Is Love. The link here is twofold. First, I think these songs feel very similar. Something about the mood and the way they build is similar. This is the good connection. The not so good connection is that they are both the only stand out tracks on otherwise somewhat boring EPs.




And last we have Perfume Genius, who just put out his new album, No Shape. He was on everyone's radar a couple of years ago with his last album, Too Bright, but I wasn't a huge fan. And for this album, I'm also not a huge fan. It's better than the last one (I didn't listen to the older ones), and better than the EPs from today's other artists, but still just ok. But Slip Away, which was the first single off this album, is amazing. So much fun. This one is not really linked musically to the other two, I just love it and want to share it. So I'm sharing it. Plus I figured I'd pick up a bit as we went through the songs. Lucky you for making it this far!

May 5 - Grizzly Bear

GRIZZLY BEAR HAS A NEW SONG!!!

As if this year in music couldn't get better. Literally the only thing missing is Tune-Yards (I use literally in the correct sense here. Although it's possible I'm mistaken and they are not literally the only ones missing, I cannot think of anyone other than Tune-Yards at the moment who needs to release new music). Anyway, NEW GRIZZLY BEAR! This is big news guys. In case the caps didn't tip you off.

The song is called Three Rings. It's... different...Like even the vocals sound different. But take a listen.





I think I'm going to really like it eventually. I'm not sure how I feel about it at first listen. But then towards the end it really digs in and gets better and better. It's just different. I will also mention that I am writing this as I listen to the song for the first time. So you're getting me raw reaction. Which is good, right? At the time of writing, this YouTube video only had like 3000 views. So it's totally new and raw. And now I'm on the second listen. And maybe I'll end up loving it. It's very, very likely.

But for good measure, here's a wonderful Grizzly Bear song that I definitely love from their last album, Shields. That album blew my mind. It was my #2 album of 2012. And the only reason it wasn't #1 is because Alt-J made their debut. So yeah. But they even beat out Hiatus Kaiyote, who also debuted that year and was my #3. So you know they're good. Anyway, here's Sun In Your Eyes.

May 4 - RAC & Rostam

I've got a few minutes to kill before checking out and going to catch my bus to my last site visit of this vacation. I'm going to a place called Klis, which is this ridiculous mountaintop fortress, which also doubles as Mereen. So I only have about 10 minutes so wont' go into the details of the trip, but let's just say that Dubrovnik is absolutely gorgeous, but 2 days is definitely enough time to see it. And Split is totally unique and amazing. Overall, Croatia may be in my Top 5 European countries. I think I need to look at a map before I can definitely say if that's true, but I think it is. The problem is there's a lot of places in Europe where I've been to like one city that I love, but not much more of the country. Or places like France, where I went around France 15 years ago, but since then only to Paris, and I love Paris, but not sure if I can place the country at the top just based on Paris and vague memories? Anyway, the point is: this little corner of Croatia is amazing.

Ok, now for some quick music, today all centered around Rostam. I've written about Rostam before. He's an ex-member of Vampire Weekend, and I think his stuff is generally better than their stuff. Even though he's only put out like 4 singles ever, in like a 4 year period. But they're all great. And he's got a new one called Gwan, which is also great. Maybe this means an album is coming finally? Who knows.

Even though Rostam has only released a few of his own songs, he's been very busy elsewhere since leaving Vampire Weekend. He's been producing a lot and featured on a bunch of stuff, including a full album that he and Hamilton Leithauser put out together last year, which had a couple of good tracks. And he's now featured on RAC's newest single. I've also written about RAC, another producer who I really enjoy. Started out making some pretty great remixes, put out his own album with all kinds of great featured artists, and now he's prepping for a new album, from which This Song is the first single. I enjoyed it straight off, but it took me a couple of listens to really like it. I think it was the little "Whoo!" before the chorus that I really like, for some strange reason.

May 3 - Haim

HAIM has a new song! Only took them like 4 years...

It's called I Want You Back and it's the first official single of their sophomore album, Something To Tell You. It's actually the second song they released. They put out a live in-studio performance of another song, Right Now, about a week ago. But I Want You Back is technically the first official single. And it's great! Nothing amazing, but good HAIM sound. This and Right Now both have me very much looking forward to the new album. Which was always going to be easy, cause I loved the first one.

May 2 - Brasstronaut / Mesita

Well I guess I won't be blogging every day of my trip. It's already day 3 and I'm just getting around to my first blog. But I've been busy, I guess.

I'm not gonna talk about the trip today, because I still want to talk about Jasmine coming to visit. So Jasmine is a friend from back when I worked at the Cheesecake Factory. She's also a big traveler, and like many people I know has said that she'd come to visit for years. I thought she actually would, since she travels so much, and now that she's a flight attendant she finally has! And she loved it. Obviously. Mostly cause my friends and I are awesome, but also because Shanghai is the best.

She came at a pretty great time, because the weather just turned warm and there were all kinds of events and stuff going on last weekend. We started out with a bit of karaoke, because you can't come to Asia and not do karaoke. That was our Friday night and pretty much destroyed her for Saturday. So we didn't do much on Saturday. But then we drank all day on Sunday at a Spanish food festival out on the terrace with wonderful tapas and a live band. It was a great day. I don't remember some of it. We parked next to the champagne booth and didn't leave for 10 hours. And barely ate. Whoops! But somehow that didn't destroy either of us. Champagne, I guess. Just one more reason to love it.

Then I had to go to Guangzhou, so she just hung out. Luckily I have some friends who were able to show her around because they don't have normal Monday - Friday, 9-5 schedules. So that was good. And my trip to Guangzhou was... interesting... I really didn't want to go, but we have this big customer who's buying a bunch of machines, so we had to go for this contract signing ceremony. Which also meant eating a ton of food and drinking a ton of baijiu every day. It also meant a Monday night at a Chinese nightclub with "company." And a night at the fanciest karaoke place I've ever seen, once again with "company." The company aspect is so awkward to me, and I usually pretend to just not speak Chinese. Couldn't do that on the 2nd night though, cause my colleagues and the customer were talking to me. But I got it into my head that the girl with me was a normal human who would not have to provide a full range of unwanted services, and who I could just chat with and play drinking games. So I did, and it was totally fine. And she was sweet. And I'm sure she appreciated not having some horny old man treating her like shit. So win-win, right?

Then it was back to Shanghai for a private dinner at my friend Jenny's and our farewells. Jasmine wanted to stay until Friday, but she had to make sure she was back by May 1, and since she flies standby had to leave on Thursday because all the flights from Friday were totally booked, thanks to the holiday weekend. But that actually kind of worked out, because I had tickets to see Wicked on Thursday night, so she would have been on her own anyway. And Wicked was awesome, as expected. It's the first time I've gone to see a musical in Shanghai and I totally want to do it more. They have more coming this year, too, I learned at the theater, so I'll definitely be going. The actress who played Elphaba was not a great actress, but she had a pretty incredible voice. And the Glinda was a bit annoying at the beginning (which I know is the character, but different annoying, not character annoying) so I didn't really like her, but then she grew on me and by the end I thought she was pretty great. Made me go and listen to the soundtrack the next day though, cause it's been a long time since I've listened to it.

But we're not listening to Wicked today. Today we're going to start going through a few songs that I've been wanting to share. The first one comes from Brasstronaut, and it's called Hawk. This is the opening track on their newest album, also titled Brasstronaut, If you go to Spotify it seems to be their only one, but apparently they've made much more since forming back in like 2007. Anyway, it's a pretty good album with some awesome instrumentation. They do a pretty awesome job of mixing classical and modern instruments. Anyway, we've got some pretty awesome Jamiroqui vibes on this track.




And then there's Mesita. The tie-in here is that both Brasstronaut and Mesita have great opening tracks on their latest releases, so for Mesita we're listening to Compliments, the opening track on his newest EP, Mall Music. But that's about where it ends. Mesita kind of reminds me of Beirut, not because of how he sounds, but because of how he picked a random name for himself and then does absolutely everything by himself. His music is much more straightforward than Beirut, though. Pretty solid all around, and definitely worth giving a listen to his back catalogue. Nothing stood out to me as much as Compliments, but it made for a few good hours of background music while I was at work, with a few ear-catching moments. Anyway, here's Compliments.