Gold in the Summertime

It’s too hot to sleep

Laughing in the heat

We lay together

And watch the sky turn on

Matt Nathanson “Gold in the Summertime” (Show Me Your Fangs, 2015)

I hope you guys are all doing well. We’re in the deep monsoon here in Arizona, which means beautiful clouds, hot summer days, and unfortunately NO RAIN. Thursday brought in thunder and wind, but none of the good stuff. Which blows because then it’s even MORE humid the next day. I just need something man, it’s bad enough it’s a late monsoon, work with me here!

So the mix this month, is really good. I was listening to this a lot during the first couple of weeks of school while I was doing all my data entry and gathering student information. The main theme for this month, was cover songs.

Let me explain; so in July I finished “High Fidelity” on HULU in two days. I’m still seething that it was canceled because even though I’m not a huge Zoe Kravitz fan, she was fucking PERFECT as a female Rob Gordon. And, as someone who has obsessively loved both the book and movie since my early twenties, I loved seeing the character as a woman because I’ve always felt like I could be Rob Gordon.

Anyway, during one end scene, Rob’s sitting in a lounge chair listening to “I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Ann Peebles. Now you may not know that song directly, but if you like Missy Elliot then you do know the song because she samples it in “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)“. Then a few days later, I was listening to “Punch Up the Jam” (one of my favorite music podcasts) and they talked about Gotye “Somebody that I Used to Know“. I didn’t know this, but the guitar riff in that song is a sample of a Luiz Bonfa song, “Seville“. After learning this, I ended up falling down a rabbit hole on Youtube.

I started looking for songs that were used in sampling. We have “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)” by the Chi-Lites (sampled by Beyonce “Crazy in Love“), Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” (Coolio “Gangsta’s Paradise“) AND The Clash “Straight to Hell” which was used by MIA in “Paper Planes“. It was pretty awesome to see how new artists turn old into new, and I have some stuff saved on Youtube for future additions. I also plan on doing a playlist with the original song followed by the sampling.

That’s it for me. I’m going to enjoy what little is left of my weekend before Monday. So enjoy the mix, and go kick out the jams.