Drought? What drought? There’s a deluge of good new music out this month, as always we stick our ear to the firehose for your listening pleasure. Vets like Sharon Jones and Dead Weather put out some of their strongest material to date and are joined by some promising up-and-comers like Peggy Sue, Hospitality, Pontiak, and more. Click the cover art below!
Our first four-legged intern of 2014 arrived yesterday. Meet Sherman, a 1 yr old male Terrier mix. His hipster credentials include: skinny as all hell, loves to party, hates to exercise, and comes via east of downtown. We’re fostering him until Monday morning.
If anyone is interested in hiring, er, adopting him, please contact us before then. Come Monday he’s getting shipped up to a No Kill shelter in Oregon, although he’d love to find a permanent home and skip the travel. Either way, he could use to put more weight on his (currently 10 lbs.) frame, so living in a weed-friendly state could do this dude some good.
If you’re reading this after Monday but are still interesting in adopting or fostering dogs, there’s plenty more where this guy came from. We’re happy to point the way.
When I first heard the premise for Spike Jonze’s “Her,” it brought to mind the 30 minute short film we’d worked on together a few years earlier called “I’m Here,” about a pair of robots who fall in love in an LA of the not too distant future. Here’s a recent article in Slate that recaps all of Spike’s shorts, several of which I had the pleasure to music supervise, and how they lead back to “Her.”
The article includes full length versions of the shorts, but here’s the “I’m Here” trailer , which btw won Best Original Music at the 2010 AICP Awards (it was actually sponsored by — in a remarkably hands off fashion — Absolut Vodka).
Enjoy our latest selection of tracks from December plus some under-the-radar favorites from the rest of the year. There’s a new single from The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. and a cool remix featuring Danny Brown and Co. rapping over Vampire Weekend.
Special thanks to Lawrence for helping out with the selections and artwork throughout the year!
[Click above image to download]
FAVORITE ALBUMS
(Top 10 per genre, in no particular order)
INDIE ROCK
Arcade Fire – Reflektor
Foals – Holy Fire
Local Natives – Hummingbird
Telekinesis – Dormarion
Portugal, The Man – Evil Friends
Arctic Monkeys – AM
Man Man – On Oni Pond
Junip – Junip
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down – We The Common
Cayucas – Bigfoot
ELECTRONIC
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
Lorde – Pure Heroine
Toro y Moi – Anything in Return
The Knife – Shaking the Habitual
Jagwar Ma – Howlin’
Zomby – With Love
Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe
Dungeonesse – Dungeonesse
Darkside – Psychic
Alunageorge – Body Music
HIP HOP
Drake – Nothing Was the Same
Pusha T – My Name Is My Name
Oh No – Disrupted Ads Audio Dispensary System, Vol. 1
Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels
RJD2 – More Is Then Isn’t
Ghostface Killah – 12 Reasons to Die
Boldy James & Alchemist – (M.1.C.S.) My 1st Chemistry Set
J. Cole – Born Sinner
7L & Esoteric / Inspectah Deck = CZARFACE
Chance The Rapper – Acid Rap
RETRO/PSYCH/PUNK
(yah, ok apparently we listen to a lot of this so we had to split off from indie rock)
King Khan & The Shrines – Idle No More
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Queens of the Stone Age – ….Like Clock Work
Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
2013 was a great year of growth for Woofer, which is why it’s so rewarding to start off the new year with the Gatorade ad we worked on airing during tonight’s College Football (BCS) Championship Game. The spot shows all the hard, dirty work that must be put in behind the scenes, far from the bright lights and adoring fans, in order to achieve success. We were thrilled when TBWA\Chiat\Day asked us to find the right song for it.
In addition to having thematically spot-on lyrics, we also knew that the song had to reflect the natural, minimal, yet still rousing music that’s been the hallmark of Gatorade’s recent run of commercials (“Lightning Bolt,””Evolve,” etc.). Once we came across the U.S. Army Airborne Rangers cadence “Hard Work,” we knew we’d found the perfect piece. Recorded live in the field, the track has a grit and earnestness that was exactly what we were looking for.
Enjoy!
Gatorade “Hard Work”
Directed by: Josh & Xander
Edit: Rock Paper Scissors
Music Supervision: Woofer Music & Sound
Hope your holiday bellys are full but you’re still hungry! Here’s our latest mix of new favorite tunes, feat. tracks from Cut Copy, Broken Bells, Liam Gallagher’s new project Beady Eye, and more!
LA-based illustrator Geoff McFetridge lets his pen wander (while waiting for his tea to steep) in this cool little spot we just scored for Bigelow Tea. Directed by Bucky Fukumoto of Republic Content. Check it out below. You deserve a break (doodling optional).
Click the flyer above for our playlist recapping our favorite new October tracks, just in time for all those Halloween parties. This month features a can’t-miss track from Thief’s debut EP, plus some strong returns to form from Best Coast, Poliça, Cults, RJD2, Sleigh Bells, and more!
If that’s not enough to get your spook on, check out the video below from LA duo Evensong. They set their stripped down take on Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For A Film)” to footage from the 1922 silent horror classic “Nosferatu” (which yes, is now public domain).
This September we not only say goodbye to summer but also one of the most amazing TV shows in recent memory, AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” which concluded last night (no spoilers here).
It also marks the 12th monthly mix we’ve put out, and more or less the 1 year mark since Woofer Music & Sound launched publicly. In that time span we’ve supplied the audio for Gatorade, Scion, and a slew of other commercial, TV, and film projects. We’d love to hear from you, either just to catch up, talk shop, or maybe hear how one of these mixes made your day a little more enjoyable.
Just click the image above, yo!
BONUS:
Of the many classic “Breaking Bad” montages, this one is still our favorite. Beyond the stellar writing and acting, the show wows in all aspects of production and post: directing, cinematography, editing, etc. But really, Thomas Golubić’s unearthing of the forgetting 1969 gem “Crystal Blue Persuasion” is what take it to another level. Music supervision at it’s best!
Wednesday we were treated to another amazing concert at 72andSunny’s new outdoor space across from their offices in Playa Vista. The striking bandshell provided a unique backdrop as LA indie-band-done-good Local Natives played a stripped down set to an admiring crowd of advertising and music industry peeps. Of course, the free beer, setting sun, food trucks, cozy grass slope, and arguably LA’s best weather in weeks didn’t hurt the mood, either. Not to take away from the performance — the group nailed their 3-part vocal harmonies and kept their acoustic arrangements lively, driven by the combined percussion of lead singer Kelcey Ayer and drummer Matt Frazier.
All in all it was a relaxing, enjoyable evening that almost made it seem like it was still mid-summer and not in fact Hump Day a week past Labor Day. So far it’s been 2 for 2 for outdoor parties at 72andSunny’s new digs at the renovated Howard Hughes campus. Looking forward to keeping the streak alive at the next event.
