Magana is the haunted alternative pop project of Brooklyn resident Jeni Magana. She is soon to release her debut EP, Golden Tongue, with our pals at Audio Antihero, who describe the record as “brittle and erratic guitar pop… delivered with both anger and acceptance”. Our review will be posted closer to release, but in the meantime Magana kindly agreed to play our little game and make us a Mini Mystery Mix.

Life and Love and Growing Up

Song with a colour in the title

Lianne La Havas – Green & Gold

What a lovely young lady.  Everything about her is appealing.  This song is celebrating her unique heritage.  I feel like it’s about growing up and learning to love yourself and where you came from.  Green and gold are representing the Jamaican flag.  Neat.

Song with a name in the title

Dolly Parton – Jolene

Dolly Parton is the best and this song is such a classic.  Super simple and catchy but a unique perspective of a relationship that might fall apart.  It puts responsibility on the other woman, but not even in anger.  I feel like her husband is actually just her pet in this song and it makes me laugh.

Song from at least 50 years ago

Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire

I’ve been listening to this song constantly since my childhood.  I can’t believe it’s more than 50 years old.  Released in 1963.  Time moves too fast sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ViaGyzfAk

Song that reminds you of school

Ryan Adams – Why Do They Leave?

I listened to this record a ton when I was in college, but I chose this song specifically because one time my friend Luke drank too much and missed a flight the next day and so my friends made a cover of this song called “Luke, why do you drink?” and it was pretty amazing.  I’m sure it exists on the internet somewhere but I can’t find it anymore.

Song in a different language to your native tongue

Yael Naim – Selcha

I went to college in Boston and after college I moved to NYC, which is about a 4 hour drive.  For a while, I played bass for my friend Gina who also moved to NYC, but the rest of her band still lived in Boston.  This meant her and I took a lot of long drives and I got to know her CD collection way too well.  This was one of the CDs that we could agree on and so for a while this was one we played all the time.  Eventually I broke down and listened to Taylor Swift the whole time like she wanted to, but this song is still beautiful.  Yael Naim is Israeli-French and that is super cool.

Quietest song you know

Keaton Henson – You

I first heard this dude on Tiny Desk, and the description of the set was that he basically whispered the whole time and people had to crowd super close to him just to hear what he was saying.  The recording has a bit more instrumentation, but you can tell that he’s still basically whispering into a microphone.  I’m so into quiet music; I feel like it can be so emotional and it’s often overlooked because people think of loud wailing and yelling etc to be the emotional stuff.

Here’s the entire ‘EP’ as one thing, if you want to kick back and listen:

Magana is releasing Golden Tongue EP on the 28th of October on Audio Antihero. Pre-order it now via Bandcamp. And if you’re in New York, head to The Studio at Webster Hall on the 26th of October to catch the EP’s release show.

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Oh, and there’ll one a month from now on, which will give us plenty of time to have a think of a new idea before we catch up to present day.

The year 2000 was remarkable for lots of reasons. We got to be the first people to see a new millennium in, well, a millennium, Putin took over within the Kremlin, Bush Jnr. all but made it into the Oval Office, films such as Gladiator, O Brother Where Art Thou? and the indomitable Chicken Run thrilled the public, and, most importantly, Roberto Di Matteo won the cup (again). There were also some pretty notable musical releases, and we’ve cherry-picked some of our favourites (admittedly in retrospect) for your listening pleasure below:

Tracklisting:

1) Shellac – Prayer to God
2) The New Pornographers – Letter From an Occupant
3) Pedro the Lion – Simple Economics
4) Johnny Cash – I See A Darkness
5) Bratmobile – It’s Common But We Don’t Talk About It
6) Elliott Smith – Son of Sam
7) Cat Power – Satisfaction
8) Sleater Kinney – You’re No Rock ‘n Roll Fun
9) Lifter Puller – Nice Nice
10) At The Drive In – One Armed Scissor
11) Dillinger Four – Who Didn’t Kill Bambi?
12) Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven…
13) Yo La Tengo – Everyday
14) Múm – Asleep On a Train
15) Sigur Ros – Staralfur
16) The Weakerthans – Left & Leaving
17) Damien Jurado – Johnny Go Riding
18) Songs:Ohia – The Ocean’s Nerves
19) Ryan Adams – Come Pick Me Up
20) Smog – Permanent Smile

The post Millennium Mix: 2000 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The album opens with ‘I Know You’re Gonna Leave Me’, which starts as what appears to be a peppy little folk/country song. But some sudden electric guitars kick things up a notch and by the end the thing is a fully-fledged rock song, with crashing drums and Porter’s repeated cry of “I know you’re gonna leave me all alone!”

Next up is a country-folk ode to Chris Bell of Big Star, whose death in 1978 led him to become another member of the so-called “27 Club”, a group of famous musicians (including Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix) who have died at the tender age of twenty seven. Porter himself has now reached that fabled age, and so decided to base his album on this troubling idea, using it as a springboard to explore topics such as mortality, legacy and coming-of-age in the modern world.

Another stand-out is ‘Mountains’ which stands tall and indomitable at the album’s centre, opening with a repetitive percussive thump and sober pianos and some gentle acoustic guitar. This is a proper folk-rock ballad, epic in scope and romantically reflective in outlook. The song addresses religion and faith and what happens when you get to a point where neither offers much solace. “When I was young my father said that faith could move a mountain / Now there’s mountains as far as I can see,” he sings at the start, before defiantly insisting at the close, “And as I stare across the vast expanse I can hear my father shouting / The mountains are all that I can see.”

The real triumph of the album is the way in which Porter inhabits a range of genres and seems entirely comfortable in each. He has shown himself adept at playing the rock & roll star, country singer and folk troubadour, all in the space of a single album. Best of all, it works. Not a single track feels out of place or shoehorned in for effect. Fans of Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Wilco and even Springsteen will doubtless also be fans of this.

You can get 27 right now via Black Mesa Records, or as a digital download via the M. Lockwood Porter Bandcamp page.

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