This is the first installment in what hopefully will become a regular thing here at LocalCut. In the absence of much, err, music on this site, I thought it would be pretty rad if we asked local musicians and tastemakers to make us a mix—and thanks to the power of the internet (and my former high school classmate Justin Ouellette), the LocalCut Muxtape series was born. Just click on the link below to stream the first mix: 12 servings of stoner guitar workouts, sadly forgotten ’80s bands and Malkmusian lyrical genius courtesy of Mr. Dave Depper, bass player for Norfolk & Western, Loch Lomond, Graves, White Hinterland and 148 other local outfits. Dave’s a music nerd of the highest order, so we expected something pretty great out of this, the inaugural edition of ITM, but this mix is just silly good. Dude was even kind enough to pen a few words about each selection.

Depper (right), seen here with dance music icon Moby (bald, smiling, left).

LISTEN WHILE YOU READ: LocalCut Muxtape - Dave Depper

Or (ingeniously), click on the first track below to get things started:

Citay - “First Fantasy”

Fact #1: I am genetically predisposed toward music that features layer upon layer of trippy guitars. Citay is like an army of stoners marching slowly toward you, armed with acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and phase shifters, ready to soundtrack your next wake-and-bake session/lovemaking/long drive/scuba dive with bobbing heads and sleepy smiles. These dudes are on Dead Oceans, a label that’s been pretty unstoppable since setting up shop in the last couple of years. I had the pleasure of sharing a tiny floor with half of this band and Phosphorescent for a week straight at SXSW earlier this year, but that’s another story.

Bobb Trimble - “If Words Were All I Had”

I’m a relatively new convert to the church of Bobb Trimble, having bought the vinyl reissue of his debut, Iron Curtain Innocence, at Slowtrain Records in Salt Lake City on the basis of its cover art alone. Dude put out two albums in the early ’80s and was pretty much never heard from again (I’m not an expert on the subject), but damn, what crazy shit this Bobb Trimble stuff is. More than anything, I get the feeling that Ween’s weirder pre-Elektra stuff was heavily influenced by Trimble. This song is one of the more straightforward things he put down (it’s on his second, and final album) but I picked it because it is simultaneously gorgeous and deeply strange, much like the women I tend to date.

The Pretty Things - “Grass”

In which the rock-gods-that-almost-were singlehandedly invent the sound of ’70s Pink Floyd. This album, Parachute, is another of my favorite jams of all time and was recorded at Abbey Road while los Beatles were laying down the album of the same name. Still not sold? Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

“The reviews at time of release were very positive, with Rolling Stone naming [Parachute] the best album of 1970, over Let it Be by the Beatles, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes, Morrison Hotel by the Doors, Pearl by Janis Joplin, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, Moondance by Van Morrison, and Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.”

The Chameleons - “Swamp Thing”

One of those bands that should have been at least as big as their contemporaries (I’m looking at you, Echo & the Bunnymen and The Cure) but were inexplicably exiled to the netherworld of music nerds and Anglophiles, the Chameleons put out three freaking incredible albums in the mid ’80s. I’d take Strange Fruit over Pornorgraphy or Ocean Rain any day.

Well, maybe not Ocean Rain.

John Cale - “Andalusia”

The prettiest song on an album chock full of ‘em. JC’s second proper solo album after leaving the Velvet Underground, Paris 1919 is very likely in the top 10 list of my favorite albums of all time. Lyrical insightfulness and pure gorgeousness throughout. I don’t know anybody that doesn’t love it. You should probably go buy this album right now, dude.

Jeremy Jay - “Nite Nite”

I read a review of Jeremy Jay’s A Place Where We Could Go in which the album was described as something like “a soundtrack to a Wes Anderson film that doesn’t exist yet” which is probably pretty accurate. In fact, I’ll go one further and postulate that said film is entitled Grand Steinway, about a family of piano tuners who possess ESP, but only at twilight. Hijinks ensure.

Quiet Village - “Pillow Talk”

Fact #2: I am a sucker for any music that sounds like the soundtrack to a pornographic movie, and doubly so if said music samples a jam by Alan Parsons Project. There’s been a lot of buzzy-ness about Quiet Village ’round the Interweb of late, and I can’t stop listening to its stony, sexy grooves. Who doesn’t like stony, sexy grooves, man?

Four Tet - “Ringer”

Yeah, yeah, this is kind of out of place on this Muxtape, but I’ve been listening to it pretty nonstop and I feel the need to get it out there. The first time I heard it, I thought “what repetitive garbage! Four Tet, how mightily you have fallen since the salad days of Rounds!” and second time I was all, “hmm, doth I detect some subtle variations and shifts in mood?” and then the third time I was totally like “damn it, Four Tet, you have drawn me into your colorful web once again! I prostrate myself before your unfuckwithable genius!” I mean, come one, that drum break at 8:06 that lasts for less than a minute? AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Scott Walker - “Duchess”

This is a peaceful little number off of my personal favorite of the maestro’s albums, Scott 4. I wish that I had more to say about it, but I don’t. Well, maybe I do. There’s no individual musicians credited in the liner notes, but the bass performance is strongly reminiscent of the great Herbie Flowers’ playing on Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” IS THE BASS ON THIS SONG PLAYED BY HERBIE FLOWERS ALSO? Can anybody solve this mystery for me?

Vetiver - “Hook and Ladder”

Vetiver is one of those sleepy, pretty folk bands that might seem mundane on paper, but upon listening it’s apparent that they possess that extra spark that sets them apart from the 8 million other pretty folk bands. They’ve just come out with an album of covers called Thing of the Past, and they cover all sorts of weird, obscure things. “Hook and Ladder” was written by Norman Greenbaum, who is much better known for writing that incredibly annoying “Spirit in the Sky” song, which made me want to throw things at my television whenever the trailer for Apollo 13 came out in 1999 or whatever.

Pavement - “Harness Your Hopes”

I’ve been pretty obsessed with this b-side to “Spit on a Stranger” recently. It sounds like it should have been on Brighten the Corners, and it features the utterly incredible line “show me a word that rhymes with Pavement/and I won’t kill your parents and roast them on a spit.” It would serve as Malk’s finest moment of self-reference until “he knew not what band he mixed/ they sounded a bit like the Zephyr and a bit like the Jicks” from Pig Lib’s “1% of One.” Oh, Steve.

Sparks - “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us”

Sparks is the most frighteningly prolific and consistent band in history. It’s true. Don’t even try to argue with me. I didn’t say the best; I said prolific and consistent. Anyhow, this is from their early years, when they sounded like a cross between Queen and Roxy Music. I’ve played this for people recently who were shocked to discover that it was recorded in 1974 instead of 2000-something. Just this month, these guys released their 21st album. Do not even try to front on that.

Thanks again to Dave for making the mix and putting up with some serious flakiness on my part. If you guys like this, let us know who else around town you’d like to see a mix from, and we’ll see what we can do. Happy 4th!

Links:
Dave DepperTape
Norfolk & Western
Loch Lomond
Graves
White Hinterland

Photo courtesy of Muxtape