Nine times out of 10 interviewers feel the need to ask musicians, “So what’s on your iPod right now?” Unoriginality aside, there’s a cultural fascination with having musicians champion other musicians, as if it’s some form of validation within the scene or industry. It’s like asking woodworkers who the other great woodworkers are (we still ask woodworkers that, right?). We love knowing that Julieta Venegas listens to Kanaku y el Tigre or that Cedric Bixler-Zavala loves him some Burt Bacharach. It feels like one more piece of the complex puzzle that is “the human.” So, from now on, we let our artists do the talking (you must be tired of us by now!). Every month we’ll have a new artist curate their own themed playlist with the sounds they can’t get enough of. But enough from me, let’s hand the reins off to Helado Negro. –PCG
This playlist is about the people and bands I played with for the past few months. New music is the hardest thing for anyone to get into, convention and nostalgia are so strong that it overshadows the want to take risks with something new. Some of these people are new, some are old, but most of this music was new to me and it stuck with me while being on the road and spending time with all these folks. So it’s a mix tape about trying to listen to something new.
1. Javelin – Airfield
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2. Jamaican Queens – Kids Get Away
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3. Matthew E. White – One of These Days
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4. Jason Ajemian – Slowbird
5. Xenia Rubinos – Hair Receding
6. Leverage Models – Dreaming of Accidents
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7. JD Emmanuel – Expanding into the Universe
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8. All Tiny Creatures – A Lone Sound
9. Akron/Family – Until the Morning
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10. Sinkane – Jeeper Creeper
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On June 13th, Helado Negro will be performing at the NYC installment of our RemezcLab project, alongside Nina Sky, Jarina de Marco, and Qué Bajo?!