Thursday Mixes

Been on the road all week. Thanks to everyone who came out to the talk on Tuesday night in Santa Cruz. Also: Santa Cruz makes so much more sense to me after reading Thomas Pynchon's oft-maligned Vineland, which really captures the occasional darkness and dystopia of California. It also features one of my favorite Pynchon lines about the "California pizza concept at its most misguided."

+Over at Arthur, Dave Reeves' last (latest?) installment on the anatomy of Defend Brooklyn hipsterism.

+Absorbing segment of Fresh Air, wherein Terry Gross confirms most of the prevailing stereotypes about NPR during her interview of Tracy Morgan.

+Wayne Marshall with the decibel levels of various things we might hear out there in the real world, some because they are merely the sound of modern life (lightbulbs humming) and others because they are the sound of a cannon trying to disperse a crowd. Related: is it still music if it's used for torture? (All this and more is discussed in Steve Goodman's upcoming Sonic Warfare, btw...)

MIXES

+Splitting the difference between Animal Collective, Burial and Dilla, Phaseone offers the White Collar Crime mix

+I appreciate that Gucci Mane's latest mixtape series is named after and inspired by the Cold War

+New Balance-wearing purists rejoice: the latest Southern Hospitality mix is all A Tribe called Quest

+Ian recommends, Jeff Chang likely approves: a T.R.O.Y. hip-hop mix featuring only songs that have "can't stop" or "won't stop" in their title

+Oliver's guest post of Latin (Funk, Soul, covers) over at Super Sonido

+Will C unearths a facemelting 1990/91 (?) UK rap documentary

+Via Lamaraba: an Eddie Ruscha cosmic jazz, funk, disco mix over at the always mighty Lovefingers