Better in Headphones
25 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 7 years ago - ★★★★ - 1 ratingGood music has already prevailed. Now I just want the world to know.
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March 01, 2017 20:52I have mostly used Dropbox to host BiH mixes, and it turns out they are deprecating the shared Public folder which I use to host these files as of March 15. It might be a bit before I can update everything, if in fact I ever do. Sorry, but feel free to email me for them as needed.
BiH Favoritest Songs of the Year: 2016
December 30, 2016 20:41 application/jsonHere we are at the end if another year, and I only made 3 mixes of new songs this year (plus 2 Bands editions). My output has fallen off of a cliff, sadly. I have to accept that I am not finding the time nor motivation to produce these as frequently as I'd like. In fact what has been happening more and more is I am not completing mixes before I already have enough new music for another mix, so by the time I go back to finish the first one, it has already gotten a little stale. So I am going...
BiH 54
August 25, 2016 17:39 application/jsonIt seems these mixes are highlighting more and more well-known tracks. That's not necessarily bad thing, but I used to mostly include obscure amazing tracks. I also used to have a lot more free time to listen to music. Alas, this one is still pretty damn great. The new Frank Ocean dropped this last weekend and you'll hear a few of my favorite tracks here. I saw the Church open for the Psychedelic Furs a month ago and their closing song, Miami, was the highlight of the night. Animal Collect...
BiH 53
June 04, 2016 00:01 application/jsonThis one is a mix of slower electronic tracks that build to a wallop and slowly sort of fades ultimately into a 7 minute, mostly-acoustic little beauty to close it out. But if you listen, you'll hear that for yourself. Mostly new music, though I somehow missed this Kiln album a few years back and I've been listening to that a bit lately. But the new Holy Fuck, Deakin, the 1975, Rogue Wave and much more is represented here. I have been looking forward to this one. :-) I hope you enjoy it. ...
BiH Bands: Oasis
May 13, 2016 19:24 application/jsonI guess this sort plays like more of a greatest hits for these guys really. But it is remarkable that they have so many hits. I never got into their albums overall, and even my favorite albums had lots of tracks I'd skip. But these guys produced more than just a lot of drama in the media. They made some incredible music. At least as hated as they are loved, Oasis made it difficult to ignore them. Here they are at what I consider their best. BiH Bands : Oasis
BiH 52
March 29, 2016 23:57It's not that I don't want to publish more of these, it's just that I don't have enough time. But whatever. I complain about it every time, so I should just accept the new cadence and roll with it. I have made a few goes at BiH 52 over the last few months and it just never got off the ground. I think starting with this one, I am just going to be a bit less discriminating. We get what we get when we get it, and some will be better than others. Despite my efforts, BiH has always been this way...
BiH Bands: The Smiths
February 19, 2016 17:33 application/jsonHello everyone. My apologies for not having any new mixes in so long. But here is a nice mix from one of the best bands ever. The Smiths were not around for all that long, and I am confident that we will never see a reunion from these guys. Nowadays Coachella and other festivals pay millions of dollars to get bands back together and The Smiths are probably at the top of many most-wanted lists. It isn't ever going to happen. But we can still listen to their records, which are still amazing ...
BiH Favoritest Songs of the Year: 2015
December 23, 2015 20:532015 was personally a very busy year and I thus made the fewest BiH mixes in my 5+ year tenure as your humble music presenter. I hope to do better in 2016. But as a result there are a handful of songs on this mix that were among my favorites for the year but which never actually made it onto a BiH mix (granted, they are on some unreleased, unfinished mixes). I am not sure at this point if it makes sense to include them in future mixes or not. TBD. 2015 was a pretty great year for music. Sa...
BiH Bands: Boards of Canada
December 07, 2015 21:33In 1998, Boards of Canada released Music Has the Right to Children, and it was the most original thing I had heard since I couldn't even tell you. And that is really ironic because there was nothing all that original about it. There wasn't anything there that Aphex Twin and many others hadn't touched on before. But somehow with their deeply nostalgic tones, analog synths, field recording samples, and modern beats, they evoked something personal and beautiful deep down within me (for seeming...
BiH 51
November 25, 2015 16:36 application/jsonIt's been a while. My last new mix was published 3 months ago. My apologies. Life is a little hectic and I am not finding the time I used to to make these. I still get tons of new music, I just don't get to hear it. In fact, I still have a ton to sort through. But I am off work this whole week, and my wife is working most days so I hope to tackle the pile (though I just heard the new Adele and that may take up a lot of time...it's so good!). I feel like I have been working on this one fore...
BiH Love 4
October 25, 2015 03:46I made a whole series of BiH Love mixes when I met my wife, before she was my wife, and I dismantled all but 1 and 5 for our Wedding Mix. And I published both along with BiH Wedding Day. Tonight my wife is out at a concert that was supposed to be whatever but now I'm jealous because Spoon and St Vincent and Sheryl Crow and Neil Young are all playing (found that out today). I had an awesome night home alone with the kids so I wouldn't trade that for being at the show and seeing Spoon play 4...
BiH 50
August 24, 2015 02:41 application/jsonHere is a cool story. A long time ago I encouraged everyone to go and check out this amazing remix of Call Me Maybe by Saint Pepsi. That was maybe the first Saint Pepsi track I had heard (but maybe not; I don't remember). But I became a fan, for sure. Then I heard this guy Skylar Spence a few weeks ago, and played the song included here (called Affairs) over and over and over and I was totally in love. Because I never read blogs anymore I don't really keep up with music news. But I had to ...
BiH 49
July 14, 2015 01:55Apple Music just launched. I was hoping to host BiH there but it won't work. Too bad. Would anyone be interested in me sharing playlists, albeit unmixed? Personally I like BiH because of the transitions between tracks, and not only for the tracks themselves. I've always sought to enhance the material via their placement in a larger mix. And I still strive for that and still think it is worthwhile. But if you think playlists of raw tracks would also be good (because BiH will never die! 6 yea...
BiH 48
June 06, 2015 20:09Hello world. Sorry it has been more than 2 months since my last post; I hope this one is worth the wait. I have been crazy busy with work, and not had a lot of time to sift through the piles of new music (most is terrible). This one came together slowly, but finally I was inspired enough last night to finish it. Now that I am putting the tracklist together, it seems I didn't really do a bang up job of finding mostly-unknown music. But how can I not include these amazing new Tame Impala trac...
BiH 47
March 17, 2015 15:05We moved to our new house and it has been beyond great. I am loving life in the mountains, as well as having so much space inside and out. It lends itself to a serenity I've not felt in a long time. We are still pinching ourselves, wondering if it is all real. I stole this picture my friend Scott took in Big Sur. There will certainly be images of our new life gracing many BiH covers in the years to come (5 years of BiH this September!). But for now this image is appropriate because I keep ...
BiH 46
February 21, 2015 01:02 application/jsonMost often, these involve more than one take. I compile a mix, listen to it, decide what to change, and do it again. I repeat that process until I am happy with the whole thing, or at least until I can't find a way to improve it with recent material at my disposal. But this one came together in 1 take and I haven't been able to find anything that needs changing. It has some variety, even some alt country (not normally my thing). This will probably be the last mix I make for the next few we...
BiH 45
February 11, 2015 16:55This one has been fun to make, because it has a lot of variety. I really do love many different types of music and this mix has everything from progressive instrumental to punk rock to indie to electronic to drone and more. It is almost 11 minutes before a single lyric is sung, and even then it is barely audible. What fun! At the same time, it is hard to contend with the greatness of songs like this Say Hi track, and others. So there are most certainly some great songs included. And a new...
BiH 44
January 28, 2015 22:41Happy Belated New Year. I have been really busy lately so haven't had much time for this, but have been slowly amassing songs for this mix. It was a little slow-going, but this works for me. This edition includes a bunch of new tracks from 2015 and also a few I missed last year that I found on the Pitchfork 100 best tracks. Most of those were really not that great, and none of the tracks from my end-of-year mix are in their list. I am happy about that. I like blazing my own trail here. Admi...
BiH Favoritest Songs of the Year: 2014
December 24, 2014 00:19 application/jsonI've been making these mixes for over 4 years now and pretty much every year I make some sort of statement about how end-of-year lists are stupid. I just can't stand the precision of a numbered, ordered list of music. But recently a friend asked me what my favorite songs of this year were (after I said I wouldn't give a year-end list of albums), so I went through all the BiH mixes from this year and picked my favorite songs. Here they are, in absolutely no particular order. This was an in...
BiH Bands: Brian Eno
December 18, 2014 20:27 application/jsonOfficially, yes I know, Brian Eno is not a band. He is many things: an artist, a musician, a producer, an innovator, a pioneer, a composer, a futurist, an evangelical atheist, a fiercely intelligent human being, a writer, a collaborator, a speaker, a developer, and much more. Most people know him as the producer of U2 in their glory days (he and Daniel Lanois produced The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby) or the inventor of an entire genre of music: ambient (which in hi...
BiH 43
December 03, 2014 04:13 application/jsonIt's starting to rain here in Santa Cruz. And the dark nights come much earlier than just 2 short months ago, when we could still grasp the last light around 7:30 or so. It's a great time to cuddle up with a loved one, some great music, some wine and just relax. There has also been a lot of great new music this past month, making the days seem just a bit longer than they actually are. This mix is really flexible. You can play it loud or quiet and be equally rewarded. Play it in headphones...
BiH 42
November 13, 2014 17:12 application/jsonI'll be 42 later this month, which of course is the nerdiest of all numbers (possibly second to 3.1415926535). I've been making these mixes for over 4 years now, and have published almost 100 different mixes, which is crazy to think about. I have no plans to slow down, and in fact I have every reason to think that I'll be at this for at least another 4 years. Though maybe I should stop when I hit 50. So much great new music on this one. The HAERTS album finally dropped, and with few surpri...
BiH 41
October 23, 2014 02:1741: my age. And I am happy to say also nerdily commemorated with one of the best mixes I've produced in a while. There is some really amazing music on this one. And dare I say, it has mad flow. It makes me feel how much I love music, and not just love some of it and like the rest (because really I do like almost all of it). That's saying a lot. It's one thing to love the sculpture in the out-of-place park on Manhattan's Upper East Side somewhere around Central Park & 115th, but another thin...
BiH 40
October 09, 2014 02:17So. For someone having a somewhat difficult time mentally getting past the hurdle of 40, here is the very definition of letting it go: a first take mix of songs I hadn't listened to in their entirety before queueing them for possible release on a mix. I gave them each a very quick skim, threw them in a playlist, and tried to mix them together. And quite by accident, I absolutely assure you, it is 40 minutes, 40 seconds long. It stands among the shortest mixes I have made. Sure, it is not th...
BiH 39.75
October 06, 2014 20:17 application/jsonI still can't bring myself to name one BiH 40 I guess, though I think it's time to just let it go and not make any more fractional releases and just give in. I may just do a regular one after this because the last few have been coming out pretty good, and this one is no exception. This one starts out a little slow but has some mid-to-late-game personality. I got a bunch of these songs stuck in my head over the last few days so they landed here. It's been way fun to make these again as a ...