Summer weather tends to creep in for Bend. Oh sure we’ve had a good streak of weather here lately, buy June is notorious for getting chilly just before July. Still, the sun is indeed shining.
That’s the feeling behind this week’s Friday Mixtape. Each song is brand new for 2014 and trades in bright warmth; not necessarily heat.
London’s Nerina Pallot kicks off her newest EP Grand Union with the rustic Adele-sounding tune “If I Had a Girl” and it appears here with all its handclaps and bayou choruses. Nashville’s The Apache Relay add the well-polished chamber folk song “Katie Queen of Tennessee” before lazy lo-fi beach-y sounds take over thanks to California’s The Donkeys and their melodic track “Nothing” as well as “Cool Runnings,” a dreamy take on starry summer nights by Tashaki Miyaki.
The still of a hot humid summer midnight comes across with Banks’ song Goddess and “Shut In,” the new folk rock track from Strand of Oaks actually feels more like a road trip tune for close friends despite the implications of the lonely sounding title.
