Introducing new GGR contributor Lauren Fukano.

Departing ever so slightly from the normal albeit terrifying journey that is producing a new Giant Golden Radio podcast, I am pleased to introduce the newest podcast/blog contributor: myself. In GGR speak that just means John finally caved and allowed me to assemble and write this edition, his editorial hand at the helm, swift and piercing, ready to off any track suggestion deemed too dweeby. Or actually in his case, not dweeby enough. Our ultimate hope for this new partnership is that we will get more awesome music to you, the GGR listener, faster. So while sparing you the boring details of our back-end quibbles and music debate nerd out sesh’s, here’s the important end result. Fresh back from the Redbull vodka drinking/BBQ eating/fist pumping extravaganza that is SxSW, we’ve assembled a musical buffet of sorts for episode 23. We’ve got some hot new singles discovered in the Lone Star state, like Tanlines’ “Real Life”.  We’ve also got some internet-only business gleaned from our favorite music blogs, such as Passion Pit’s remix of the Shout Out Louds track “Fall Hard”.  And, in an addition made during furious last minute production, we’ve not forgotten the new new, single “Odessa” off of Swim, Caribou’s latest project released just days ago.  Pictured above, looking to me like he might put that thing down and ask if I know where the nearest elementary school is, John brushes me off thusly: “His new album’s the joint and he’s a mega-dweeb with a PhD in mathematics. My kinda dude.” Either way, this podcast spans France, the UK, and North America, includes side projects and new projects, and hopefully will affirm for you the way it did us, that 2010 is off to a damn fine start. Damn fine.

1. Freelance Whales – Starring
2. Fol Chen – The Beautiful Ones
3. Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know
4. Here We Go Magic – Collector
5. Penguin Prison – The Worse It Gets (RAC remix)
6. Jonsi – Go Do
7. Cults – Go Outside
8. Mountain Man – Animal Tracks
9. Big Star – The Ballad of El Goodo
10. Turin Brakes – Sea Change
11. James Yuill – This Sweet Love
12. Tanlines – Real Life
13. Caribou – Odessa
14. Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard (Passion Pit remix)
15. Memory Tapes – Bicycle

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

It really shouldn’t take eight months to create one of these mixtapes. I went through a little dry stretch when I wasn’t all that impressed with what I was hearing on the radio/internet. I was getting ready to chalk it up to growing old and out of touch; I was preparing to settle down and listen to my same favorite bands from my mid-twenties for the rest of my life. As LCD Soundsystem would say, “I could hear the kids creeping up from behind” and I was prepared to let them pass me.

But then I started digging a little deeper, listening a little closer and — wait just a goddamn minute — I can still do this. I’m not ready to be passed up yet. It just took a little kick in the arse, but behold episode twenty fucking two.

As the ancient proverb says, don’t call it a comeback.

1. Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros – Home
2. The Temper Trap – Love Lost
3. Islands – Switched On
4. Hot Chip – So Glad To See You
5. The Notwist – One With The Freaks
6. Mimicking Birds – Burning Stars
7. Evening Hymns – Dead Deer
8. Built To Spill – Else
9. Kills – Last Day of Magic
10. Local Natives – Stranger Things
11. Efterklang – Modern Drift
12. French Kicks – One More Time
13. Lusine – Two Dots
14. Phoenix – Rome (Neighbours with Devendra Banhart remix)
15. The Middle East – Blood
16. Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

Karin Andersson, the feminine half of the Swedish brother-sister group The Knife, has started up her own project under the moniker Fever Ray. And she has officially blown my mind. As spring becomes less of distant concept and more of a reality, hopefully we’ll still have the occasional dark and dreary day, the kind that goes best with her creepy vocals. I also stuck some Port O’Brien on here after seeing them live. They passed out pots and pans for us to bang on and told us to scream along. They sure know the quickest way to my heart. You might notice a whole bunch of other songs in the mix too.

1. Port O’Brien – I Woke Up Today
2. Caribou – Sandy
3. Noah And The Whale – Give A Little Love
4. The Mountain Goats – Love Love Love
5. Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision
6. The Arcade Fire – (Antichrist Television Blues)
7. Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance (Miike Snow remix)
8. Fever Ray – When I Grow Up
9. Trentemoller – Moan
10. Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning (Cut Copy remix)
11. Matt and Kim – Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare
12. Phoenix – 1901
13. Empire Of The Sun – Tiger By My Side
14. Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart (Familjen remix)
15. Born Ruffians – I Need A Life (Four Tet remix)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

I wanted to squeeze one more episode out of 2008, so I’ve been working feverishly to crank out this gem. I’m nearly out the door to go ring in the nuevo ano in warmer climes, so there’s no time to explain the particulars of this episode. But I think Laura Viers (pic) & co will keep you company through this turbulent time vortex that is the ’08 to ’09 transition. Hold onto your hats and I’ll see you on the other side!

1. Neutral Milk Hotel – Song Against Sex
2. Point Juncture, WA – Sick On Sugar
3. M83 – Kim and Jessie
4. Modeselektor – Let Your Love Grow
5. Friendly Fires – Paris (Aeroplane remix ft. Au Revoir)
6. Feist – Sea Lion (Chromeo remix)
7. Youth Group – Shadowland
8. Parts and Labor – Nowheres Nigh
9. The Long Winters – The Commander Thinks Aloud
10. Bound Stems – Happens To Us All Otherwise
11. Bjork – Its Not Up To You
12. Passion Pit – I’ve Got Your Number
13. Mulatu Astatke – Yekermo Sew
14. Sigur Ros – Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

We live in the greatest country on Earth. We’ve just gone through a long stretch there where you’d have been hard-pressed to convince me of that. But we’ve just done significant and so powerful, something that will change the course of history and that will inspire billions of people, that I can’t help but feel immensely patriotic right now.

Look at this kid. Any child growing up in America from this point forward will view society with a completely different social lens. They will never question whether someone’s race or their name are significant factors in determining what they are capable of accomplishing. “Obviously not,” they’ll say, “just look at our president.” And that is worth. fucking. celebrating.

1. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
2. Jim Noir – Happy Day Today
3. Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream
4. Conor Oberst – Cape Canaveral
5. Bon Iver – Skinny Love
6. Jolie Holland – Mexico City
7. Headlights – Get Your Head Around It
8. Brazilian Girls – Good Times
9. The Notwist – Boneless
10. TV On The Radio – Love Dog
11. Roots – Criminal
12. Stellastarr* – My Coco
13. Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
14. Cut Copy – Feel The Love
15. Crystal Castles – Air War
16. Doves – Pounding

(And to folks seriously bumming over Prop. 8: don’t worry, this is only a speedbump. More and more bigots are dying off every day!)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

You know that feeling when you wake up on a sunny Saturday morning and while you’re lying in bed, you think to yourself: “My sole responsibility for today is to get as many people as possible to come kick it at Madison Beach. And I mean, kick it HARD.” Maybe you don’t know that specific feeling, but I do. So you go spend the afternoon in the sun as more and more folks trickle in, and by about 2:00pm there you are, wedged in on some old beach towels amongst about 8,000 fellow it-kickers and weirdos, and it. is. perfect. You’ve got cute girls in big hats on your right, bizarre old guy in a speedo working on his model boats on your left, the constant amateur diving (and belly-flopping) show out on the float in front of you, and a big ol’ quilt full of pride weekend flamboyance behind you. This is why I live in Seattle. This is why people from here get all smiley and dream-eyed when they talk about summers in Seattle. And this is why I make these podcasts, so that these kinds of days will have a soundtrack worthy of them. So here is the latest offering. In it you’ll find some Cut Copy (pictured), whose album I’ve had on blast for the past couple months. All spare you the details on all these other tracks, but I want to give you a heads up that there is an acoustic R. Kelly cover buried in here. Let’s say it’s in celebration of his recent acquittal. Whatever. That guys is still a major freak show and I don’t need some judicial decision to know that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

1. Feist – I Feel It All (Brit Daniels remix)
2. Frightened Rabbit – The Twist
3. Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT remix)
4. New Order – Temptation
5. The Dodos – Ashley
6. Sera Cahoone – Baker Lake
7. Bonnie Prince Billy – The World’s Greatest
8. Cut Copy – Strangers In The Wind
9. The Ting Tings – Great DJ
10. Esau Mwamwaya – Tengazako
11. Wolf Parade – Language City
12. TV On The Radio – Staring At The Sun (Diplo remix)
13. Flight Of The Conchords – Foux du Fafa
14. Mates Of State – The Re-Arranger
15. Devotchka – How It Ends

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

I’ve been working on this little ditty for several weeks now. I got a track list together that I thought was pretty decent, then I slept on it for a good two weeks, all the while deciding that I really wasn’t feeling a few tracks as much as I did at first. So after much revising, agonizing and second guessing, episode seventeen is ready to see the light of day. Just in time for one of these first few days of amazing weather that get sprinkled in amongst all the meteorological bullshit that goes down this time of year. This is one to be bumped with the windows open and the sun streaming in. We start out with a track from MGMT (again), but you know what, if an artist deserves the leadoff spot in two consecutive episodes, so be it. I’ve been eyeing Santogold (pictured here looking fresh) for a while now, but didn’t pull the trigger until I heard this XXXChange remix, which takes the original track makes it a little more of an all-out banger. I’ll let the rest of the tracks speak for themselves, but I want to set the stage for the last track by The Streets, which is one of my all-time favorite anthems. This is the last track on a concept album that tells the story of Mike Skinner losing 1000 pounds and basically everything else in his life going down the crapper. His girlfriend cheats on him with his friend and leaves him. He suspects that one of his friends took the money, and to top it off his TV’s busted. We meet up with our intrepid hero following a tussle with the TV repairman who tries to run up the fees on him. In the verse that follows, he drops some life wisdom on us: “No one’s really there fighting for you in the last garrison/ No one except yourself that is, no one except you/ You’re the one that’s got your back ‘til the last deed’s done/ Scott can’t have my back until the absolute end/ ‘cause he’s got to look out for what’s over his horizon/ He’s got to make sure he’s not lonely, not broke/ It’s enough to think about keeping his own head above.” It sounds better than it reads. Trust me.

1. MGMT – Kids
2. LCD Soundsystem – 45:33
3. White Williams – New Violence
4. The Mountain Goats – Sax Rohmer #1
5. The Dodos – Fools
6. Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes (XXXChange remix)
7. Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen
8. Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
9. Lykke Li – Little Bit
10. Born Ruffians – Foxes Mate For Life
11. M.I.A. – Paper Planes (DFA remix)
12. Royksopp – Eple
13. Why? – Close To Me
14. The Streets – Empty Cans (Pt. 2)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

You lucky dogs. We’ve got a real good one for you this time, with tracks new and old, running the gambit from a modern day interpretation of an old immigrant folk ballad to some remixes fit for the sweatiest of dance floors. And you’d be surprised how few songs it takes to transition between those two extremes. In the new newness department, we have some tracks by MGMT, Thao (pictured), the Seattle band The Helio Sequence, Ravens and Chimes, and Lightspeed Champion. The group formerly know as Say Hi To Your Mom is now know as just Say Hi, which I personally think is a tasteful simplification. They’ve moved to Seattle and felt compelled to write a song about northwestern girls (“It must be in the air here…”). And I’m pretty pumped up about Sam Amidon, whom I just discovered during the making of this episode. He does a powerful reprisal of the classic folk song Saro on his new album, full of muted horns and very deliberate guitar picking. Apparently, missing your girlfriend has been a persisting sentiment throughout history (“’Tis not this long journey that grieves me for to go /Nor the country that I’m leaving /Nor the debts that I owe /There’s one thing that grieves me and bears on my mind /That’s leaving my darling pretty Saro behind”). You’ll also come across a lovely little instrumental from the guitarist for Band of Horses, Tyler Ramsey, as well as a beat from the LA producer edIT that sounds to me like a warm bath. But that’s just me.

1. MGMT – Time To Pretend
2. The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
3. Ravens And Chimes – This Is Where We Are
4. Say Hi – Northwestern Girls
5. Thao – Bag Of Hammers
6. Ambulence Ltd. – Anecdote
7. Luna – Malibu Love Nest
8. Tyler Ramsey – Birdwings
9. Sam Amidon – Saro
10. Lightspeed Champion – Dry Lips
11. Headlights – Cherry Tulips
12. Phoenix – Napoleon Says
13. The Little Ones – Lovers Who Uncover (Crystal Castles remix)
14. Black Lips – Veni Vedi Veci (Diplo remix)
15. edIT – Southern Belle
16. Junior Boys – In The Morning (Hot Chip remix)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.

Merry holidays, everyone. I’m leaving in an hour to spend a week in the arctic north, so I want to make sure this episode gets out to you before I go. Just in time for X-mas, I give you the fifteenth installment of our little mixtape series. So turn off all the lights in the house, turn on the christmas lights, turn this up loud on the stereo and treat yourself to a goblet of nog. ‘Tis the season of music and nog. In the lineup this time around are a few old favorites and some bands which are brand new to me. Some of these new discoveries are Menomena (three dudes in the tub), Yeasayer, Los Campesinos!, Matthew Dear, Simian Mobile Disco, and Mobius Band. The song from Mobius Band is apparently about one of your friends stealing your girlfriend: “There’s lots of gray shades, but that don’t make black the same as white.” Speak on it. Interspersed between these new tracks are some goodies off the most recent releases from Radiohead, Kings Of Leon, Caribou and Hot Chip. I have to go finish cramming stuff into my backpack now, but I’m not exactly sure how you pack for -40F. I’ll probably toss in an extra hoodie or something.

1. Shout Out Louds – Tonight I Have To Leave It
2. Les Savy Fav – What Would Wolves Do
3. Yeasayer – Sunrise
4. Mobius Band – Friends Like These
5. The Flaming Lips – Are You A Hypnotist??
6. Hot Chip – My Piano
7. Muscles – Ice Cream
8. Radiohead – House Of Cards
9. Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!
10. Kings Of Leon – Fans
11. Matthew Dear – Deserter
12. Caribou (feat. Luke Lalond, Adem, One Little Plane) – Melody Day (Four Tet remix)
13. Menomena – Wet And Rusting
14. Simian Mobile Disco – It’s The Beat (The Teenagers remix)

Subscribe to the podcast to receive these mixtapes whenever they are published, or if you’re so inclined you can download the individual episode.