October is an interesting month.
On the plus side, October has two of the best seasons: Halloween and Fall, the former my favorite holiday and the latter a season that doesn’t actually exist in Southern California.
Thus, Halloween and fall in Los Angeles is a bit oxymoronic: pumpkin patches by the beach, Halloween decorations adorning palm trees, and though traditionally it rains around Halloween, this year we stayed nice and summery (re: 84 degrees) for most of the month. You have to travel to the mountains and forests surrounding LA to find fall foliage, or that one street in Burbank.
On the other hand, October is also my brothers birthday, and I never really know what to do about that, except, become increasingly melancholic as the month progresses.1
October is also ROCKtober, and luckily I went to some GREAT shows in October, from The Darkness celebrating the 20th Anniversary of ‘PERMISSION TO LAND’ to Death Cab For Cutie celebrating the 20th Anniversary of ‘TRANSATLANTICISM’.
Twenty years of so much great music plus everything else I was listening to, here we go:
“Right On Time,” Brandi Carlile - I caught Brandi Carlile and Friends2 at the Hollywood Bowl in October, and to say it was an emotional experience is putting it mildly. I am already emotionally primed when it comes to BC and her music: the first time I saw Brandi was in the fall of 2018 at the Greek Theatre, and I wept the entire show.3 This was my first time seeing her since she released her latest album, an album I didn’t connect with right away. As much as her previous album had spoke to me, this one didn’t… until the winter of 2021/22, when this song, “Right On Time,” came on shuffle one day when I was feeling exceptionally down and despondent about my personal life. “I lose you in these silent days” she sings, and truer words….
“Transatlanticism,” Death Cab For Cutie4 - I caught Death Cab and The Postal Service at the Bowl, celebrating Ben Gibbards dual 2003 albums.5 Surprisingly, it was my first time seeing Death Cab. I’ve long been a fan, but I came to them later. As much as the music of ‘TRANSATLANTICISM’ the album was everescent in my college days, and who could not escape hearing “The Sound of Settling” or “New Year,” my fav DC4C albums were later efforts, particularly 2008’s ‘NARROW STAIRS.’ That said, this is maybe their greatest song, imho, and one that never won’t be devastating and wondrous. Much like some of the songs later on this playlist, it creates a soundscape you want to live in, sound waves crashing on the beachhead of memories.
“Such Great Heights,” The Postal Service - “Everything looks perfect from far away….” Another album from twenty years ago, another band I caught for the first time celebrating its anniversary. I’ve used covers of this song on various mixtapes before, my favorite being this one.
And when you are out there on the road
For several weeks of shows
And when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home“Girlfriend is Better (Live),” Talking Heads - The first film we watched in my Intro To Film class in college was STOP MAKING SENSE, and it’s been a giant part of my self ever since. I’ve seen it at the New Beverly, on film, and projected at park screenings. But last month a24 rereleased a new remastered print in theaters and holy crap. I’ve watched it, and listened to, a thousand times, but every time I love it more and more. It’s the best concert film of all time, for so many reasons, and it’s worth watching as large and loud as you can. It’s hard to have a favorite track when it’s a concert of nothing but hits, but “Girlfriend Is Better” has always been my go-to from this one, and not just because it contains the title of the film.
I got a girlfriend that's better than that
She has the smoke in her eyes
She's coming up, going right through my heart“Under Control,” Brian Carr - This track I heard in Amazon’s ‘TOTALLY KILLER’ movie, and I wish I could tell you more about it, but, the internet doesn’t have anything to say about it. I assume it’s an 80’s track, because it sounds like it, but it could also be a new track to sound like an 80’s track. Who knows! Fun movie, good music, totally killer.
“I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” January Jane - I’ve always been of the belief that this song is Hall & Oates greatest song. This cover I heard one day in Rancho Cucamonga, on my way to the desert, and initially I was like ‘what’ but it’s become a staple of my exercise mix ever since. I can't go for that, can't go for that, can't go for that, can't go for that…
“Luna,” Roosevelt - Off his newest, another banger by Roosevelt.
“We Could Be Falling In Love,” Poolside - Another great one from Poolside, too. Gah. So much good new music this year, and all of it makes me want to live in its dreamy daze soundscape.
“Rule The World (Everybody),” Tiësto, Tears for Fears, NIIKO X SWAE and GUDFELLA - I heard this remix (reimagining?) of Tears For Fears greatest song6 on Jason Bentley’s Metropolis show a few weeks back, as I was driving around Hollywood on a Saturday night, as you do. It stopped me in my (tire) tracks. Your night is always better when Tears For Fears is part of your soundtrack.
“Purple Sand (My Home) - puko remix,” Big Wild - Another sonic soundscape I could get lost in thanks to Big Wild.
“Astral Plane,” Say She She - KCRW has been playing a lot of Say She She and this one has been floating around my head for a while now.
“No More I Love You’s - Radio Mix,” Annie Lennox - Annie Lennox was one of the “And Friends” that Brandi Carlile brought out at the Bowl, and honestly she was probably the best of those friends.7 This version of her song is a mixtape in and of itself.
“Worth It.,” RAYE - this song contains one of my favorite lyrics of late, the “classic like cars, classic like Elizabeth Taylor” line:
If my body was a boat, could you steer that, sailor?
Make it feel like it's a 1960s Hollywood trailer
Classic like cars, classic like Elizabeth Taylor“Never Stop,” Rick Astley - Yup, that Rick Astley. But this new song rocks.
“Madman Across The Water,” Elton John - Brandi Carlile covered this at the Bowl, though it certainly seemed and sounded like she was meaning to cover “Sixty Years On,” as she started introing that song while playing the opening of this one, before realizing her mistake. The ensuing performance of “Madman” blew the roof off the bowl, one of the highlights of a night full of highlights.8
“Green Eyes and a Heart Of Gold (Live),” The Lone Bellow - I’ve long maintained that none of the Lone Bellows albums capture what they are like live, so the fact they’re releasing a live album this month is exciting! This track has long been one of my favorites to hear live, and this is the first single from that upcoming release. They’re currently on tour celebrating their ten years as a band, catch them in a city near you!
“Good Guy,” Dream Nails - blistering pop punk at its angriest best. “It’s not a bad apple, it’s the whole damn tree.”
“Impressively Average,” Brigette Calls Me Baby - this song and the one above I heard on Jason Kramer’s show late one night on KCRW, and I became OBSESSED with this song. So much so I’m going to catch the band next week here in LA. This song sounds like vintage Smiths by way of Roy Orbison, and I cannot wait to hear them live. “And you can’t fall asleep cause your dreams are haunted…”
“Little Bit O’ Soul,” The Linda Lindas - another song from the ‘TOTALLY KILLER’ soundtrack, this one a rocking cover by LA’s favorite band du jour. “You'll get a lot more kicks with a little bit o' soul…”
“Love Is Only A Feeling,” The Darkness - I can tell you exactly where I was when I first heard The Darkness. I was standing in the hallway of the house I rented the last few years of college, in Norman, Oklahoma, as one of my roommates played “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” on repeat. I caught The Darkness that summer in St Louis, a show I remember most for introducing me to their opening act, The Wildhearts. The Darkness are celebrating their 20th Anniversary of this album, ‘PERMISSION TO LAND,’ an album that is top to bottom fantastic. I’ve seen them three times now, most recently last month at the Wiltern. It might’ve been their best show yet. They’ve never sounded better. And they’ve always sounded great. And of all the tracks from that album, “Love Is Only A Feeling” has always been the best, the ballad of ballads.
“Say Don’t Go,” Taylor Swift - “'Cause you kiss mе and it stops time, and I'm yours, but you're not mine…” a “Taylors Version, From The Vault” track from her recently rerecorded and rereleased album ‘1989,’ which has long been my third favorite Taylor album.9 The new ‘1989’ has the best ‘from the vault’ tracks of any of her Taylors Versions, and it was hard not to include more than one here. As is, “Say Don’t Go” is too fucking on the nose, and I’m glad I have this Taylors Version album to carry me through another winter of discontent and heartbreak.
Why'd you have to lead me on?
Why’d you have to twist the knife?
Walk away and leave me bleedin’, bleedin'?
Why’d you whisper in the dark
Just to leave me in the night?
Now your silence has me screamin', screamin'
“Kozmic Blues,” Janis Joplin - used perfectly at the end of the first episode of season two of ‘LOKI’.
“Everything Was For Love,” Carla Morrison - Raul Campos played this on one of his KCRW sets this past month and it’s haunted me ever since.
“The Story,” Brandi Carlile - “these stories don't mean anything when you've got no one to tell them to…” This song won’t ever not be relatable and incredible and epic. Dolly Parton has a cover I will never not shut up about, but, it remains a staggering song and Brandi sings it so well.
You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through like you do
And I was made for you
A few years ago, I got into a good tradition of traveling around his birthday, alternating years where I’d go to Oklahoma and then the next year some other locale. The less said about how the Covid years impacted that tradition the better. Let’s just say the past few years gave me other things to worry about and fixate on than how to celebrate my dead brothers birthday.
“And Friends” = Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Wendy & Lisa, her wife, other people that weren’t Annie Lennox and Joni Mitchell
The day I saw Brandi at the Greek in 2018 was the same day I found out my then-girlfriend was cheating on me, and had been for *checks notes* the entirety of our two year relationship. She also lived with me. The day of the show, she was headed to a “social media convention” out of town, except, she wasn’t: she was actually headed to LAX to pick up one of the men she was seeing, and they spent the weekend at a hotel in town. I spent the morning and afternoon of the show day putting all of these pieces together, talking to friends and even a lawyer, before confronting her about it. I was told I was crazy for thinking these things, not to do anything rash, and we’d talk when she got back. She gaslit me all the way through it. I went to the show, alone, and had one of the single most emotionally cathartic experiences of my life. Brandi’s album at the time was “By The Way I Forgive You,” an album about hurt and loss and forgiveness and pain and cheating and history and love. It ended me, and yet, it renewed me as well. Within the next week, I had thrown my now-ex out of our house and out of my life, and have not seen or heard from her since. There’s a bigger, crazier version of that story, iykyk, but that show at the Greek, and Brandi’s music, helped me at a time when I needed it more than I knew.
Technically, this song has made an appearance on mixes I’ve made for others, but not on the actual Mixtape Project. I know nobody cares, but, the devil is in the details.
Interesting observation from the Hollywood Bowl show: Death Cab went first, and the crowd was mellow and mostly silent. When Postal Service went on, the crowd fucking exploded. It was such a difference in energy. Also, Jenny Lewis and Ben came out to encore this song again, as a duet, and it was magical a f. Then Deatch Cab and Postal Service both covered Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence” and it was spectacular.
I realize this is like the third or fourth version of this song to grace this years mixes, but you know what, it’s a fucking great song, remix or cover or original. Too much Tears For Fears on these playlists? It’s a free Substack, my dude.
Sorry Joni Mitchell!
the number one highlight was when she performed “Over The Rainbow” solo & acoustic as the Bowl glowed in rainbow colors. It was breathtaking. Sorry again Joni Mitchell!
Red, Lover, 1989. Except when it’s Lover, Red, 1989. And the times when it’s 1989, Lover, Red. idk, man, those albums are fucking fantastic.