DANCE PLAYLIST: Seasonal Affective Dance (S.A.D.)
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Everything is worse in the gray light of winter: your job sucks harder, your relationship jumps into the toilet, and to top it off, your chapped face is scaring small children. It’s called the sads, and you’ve got them. Fear not: a healthy dose of our Seasonal Affective Dance (S.A.D.) playlist and the world will be right again! Let your manically-excited friends Rusko, Unicorn Kid, Fool’s Gold, Eli Escobar, Canblaster and a masked Azealia Banks bring the bright with energetic, squiggly and smiley dance jams tailored-made to turn that frown upside down. Consider this list your well-deserved sonic light box. All you have to do is go turn up the hi-fi and let it shine.
Weekend Playlist 02.03.12
Unemployment is down. The weather is up. It's a new month, and maybe this is the one where all your dreams come true. While you wait, though, some new music is always a good strategy to keep it moving. Check out our weekend playlist with cuts from Wild Nothing, Scuba, Active Child and much more. We'll see you next week with plenty of treats, including the next installment of our new series On The RCRD featuring the one and only Panda Bear. Peace out!
Weekend Playlist 01.27.12
Woo! It seems like it took a minute, but 2012 is finally bubbling with all sorts of fantastic new music and sounds. You don't believe us? Well, that's why we have trust issues. Check out our weekend playlist with new entries from Xiu Xiu, Damien Jurado, Veronica Falls, Matthew Dear, Young Prisms, Scissor Sisters, The Joy Formidable and much more. Be safe and stay sharp.
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: 00s NYC Underground
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(Photo: Gang Gang Dance)
There was certainly something in the air during the aughts in New York City. I mean, you know the deal. It was a confusing time here – an apocalyptic threat around every corner, and many local musicians responded with a level of brutal honesty that we haven't seen since 'the laptops' took over. As the legend goes, the big three – Black Dice, Animal Collective and Gang Gang Dance – all shared a practice space, but it's actually informative to view the period through the prism of these three acts. They all eventually built on early critical accolades to become influential behemoths.
Perhaps you want to revisit the period, learn the basics or just get a little weird for an afternoon, so I threw together this Spotify primer of my favorite (and likely, the most lasting) underground New York acts of the early-mid 2000s. Yes, we love The Strokes and Grizzly Bear at RCRD LBL, but we'll save that for a different time with less sawdust on the floor.
Weekend Playlist 01.20.12
Given the bitter cold outside, it might be tempting to curl-up under the covers and sleep the weekend away in the midst of guaranteed warmth. Forget that, though. We're taking Rusko's lead above and jumping off a parked car to show, yes, we are alive and have the power to do what we want. We're also going to dive even further into new music like Cate Le Bon's late-night lilt, the chamber stylings of Oberhofer, a Florence And The Machine remix and a muted hip-hop cut from Dice Raw. Check out our weekend playlist for all of the above and more. Covers be damned.
The Aronow Review: January 2012
From the desk of RCRD LBL Creative Director Elliot Aronow
After the pills wore off and the drinks dried up, 2012 was still looking to be a promising year for yours truly. And if this first crop of tracks from the RCRD LBL stacks is any indication, it's going to be ALRIGHT, brothers + sisters. Props to Carter and the crew for tee'ing up so many rad tracks. Right now Cate Le Bon's "Puts Me To Work" is owning my stereo, but that doesn't mean there's not space for the avant-pop of Matthew Dear and the kid-friendly big-room stomp of Rusko. A spicy mix indeed! So yeah, these are some songs I like. I hope you like them, too.
Weekend Playlist 01.13.12
Review a great week in new music with entries from some of our favorite artists. In addition to Jay-Z using his new baby girl Blue Ivy Carter for a father-daughter rap song that made us privately cry in the bathroom, we had excellent new efforts from Vivian Girls side projects La Sera and The Babies, a remix of the ever-controversial Lana Del Rey, a new spin on CREEP and so much more.
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: RCRD LBL Rock Guide To Coachella 2012
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(Photo: Oberhofer)
Coachella, everyone's favorite three-day festival, is back for another round over the second and third weekends of April in Indio, CA. Yet again, promoters have stacked the lineup with talent both new and classic (hello, Dr. Dre and Snoop!), but there are so many choices that it might be hard to know where to go and what to watch. For our rock fans, we've prepared a special playlist that highlights our favorite guitar-heavy acts slotted to play the festival. Featuring the neo-indie of Yuck, Real Estate and Oberhofer, as well as legacy acts such as Pulp, Refused and Neutral Milk Hotel, this is definitely a something for everyone situation.
