When I think of summer and the hot weather that we’ve been sometimes enjoying, I often conjure this majestic image in my head:

Treated. It’s the Tornado at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. You can probably see this thing from space. It’s huge. I’ve made one pilgrimage across town this summer to do bidding with the mighty Tornado, and plan to go five more times (as per the season pass). Not that any of this matters to you, of course. You probably just want the jams. Fair enough. Here is a summerish mix that, despite my admiration for Brian Wilson, does not feature any Beach Boys songs. That’s just too obvious, ya know:

As a buddy of mine once said “keep it crunk, but keep it positive.”

MP3 :::
Darker My Love – Summer is Here
Shop Assistants – Almost Made It
Sun City Girls – Radar 1941
The Jesus and Mary Chain – On the Wall (the better Barbed Wire Kisses version)
Atlas Sound – On Guard
City Center – Gladest
Amen Dunes – In Caroline
Friends – Summer Sunday Blues
Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze
The Clean – Beatnik

I had the privilege of enjoying Sir Richard Bishop’s opening set for teh Animal Collectivez during the spring 2007 tour when they premiered just about all of Strawberry Jam. The audience seemed to listen and enjoy the music, despite the fact no one was actually looking at him on the stage. It was odd, but understandable – unless you’re a guitar player yourself, the versatile guitar maestro and ex-Sun City Girl is just a bearded bro sitting down and noodlin’. However, if you’re one for tonality and next-level musicianship, the richness of his international musical vernacular, shifting modalities, pure dexterity, and evocation of ominous spirits through a Peavey amp at 120 decibels was a fucking shamanistic thing to experience.

Sir Richard Bishop’s latest, The Freak of Araby, is, as you could probably glean from the name, straight outta the Ottoman Empire. Most songs tend to air on the sparse side, which is as much for utility as mood – the tempo changes so often that very few percussions could probably keep up with the knighted one. When the rhythm does drop, though, the results are the best example of truly hypnotic music. The gypsy psych of “Kaddak El Mayass” and “Sidi Mansour” is a burgoo of eastern traditionals and western composition so seamless that David Byrne should probably feel retarded if he heard this. While The Freak of Araby offers no change of direction from earlier Sir Richard Bishop releases, his conceptual yet tangible explorations across desolate soundscapes and past (or possibly) parallel worlds are so unique that Bishop has placed himself in a position wherein he need not reinvent himself to sound “fresh.”

The Freak of Araby is out today on Drag City.

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating

MP3 :::
Sir Richard Bishop – Kaddak El Mayass
Sir Richard Bishop – Sidi Mansour

Last week, I had part one of the 26-song, seasonally-inspired, massive clusterfuck mix. Guess fucking what! This is part dos, just in time to send March off like a lion (or a lamb, depending on where you are I suppose). Spring rules, and I want you to have the jams I’m cranking in my car with the windows down and rims still spinnin’. Below are 15 more songs that are one million times better than the new Phoenix or St. Vincent or Lykke Li albums (or whatever the other blogs are poppin’ boners for). Fuck that shit. String Band, Meadow, Growing, Yoko, the Banke, Lilys, some Ghost Box, some insane old and obscure psych… I even put ol’ Ginger and Eric on here. I mean, Jesus, I wish someone had made me a mix like this.

No annotations just time. Just enjoy the jams. As always, if you think these shits is tight, support the artist and grip their album(s).

As a visual aside, I took some photos yesterday evening of the beautiful seasonal unfurling in the Old Louisville neighborhood. For our readers in the area, you should grab this mix (as well as the samples from the new Akron/Family and Lotus Plaza albums), load the tracks onto your iPod, iPhone, iCranial RFID chip, pipe ‘em through some big headphones (not shitty earbuds), and take a stroll down South 2nd Street between Magnolia and Lee Streets for a most transcendental time. Nature owns.

MP3 :::
The Incredible String Band – Koeeadi There
Penny Arkade – Woodstock Fireplace
Tower Recordings – Other Kinds Run
Belbury Poly – Scarlet Ceremony
Dungen – Familj
Dead Meadow – Stacy’s Song
Cream – Passing the Time
Growing – Wrong Ride
Margo Guryan – Sun
High Places – Namer
The Left Banke – Desiree
The Free Design – Now is the Time
Lilys – FBI and Their Toronto Transmitters
Sun City Girls – The Flower
Yoko Ono – Mind Holes