Aug

Dirtbag Playlist Vol. 4

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177576232″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]I hope everyone is out on vacation. At the moment, I’m running around gathering stories and trying to keep up with my tomato plants. This fall we will have some familiar voices and some new ones. There will be some laughter and one very serious story. There will be tales from afar and ones a little closer to home. I’m excited. I’ve also been working on a new project–one that will compliment what I’ve been trying to do with the Diaries. It will go live in January. In the meantime, here are some cuts to close the summer with. Tracks are listed below.

Bands:

Publish the Quest–The new project from long time collaborator Jacob Bain.

The Secret Life of Sophia (now Milagres)–This Brooklyn-based band created a concept album centered around the hopes and stories of alpinists.

Tracks:

1. Don’t Leave When Winter Comes (Featuring Slug) by CunninLynguists

2. Go On, Say It by Blind Pilot

3. Yea Yeah by Matt & Kim

4. Heads Roll Off by Frightened Rabbit

5. Easy by Deer Tick

6. Play On (Featuring The Jungle Brothers) by Rae & Christian

7. Feel.Love.Thinking.Of by Faunts

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Jul

The Shorts — Knees and Weather Permitting

Knees and Weather Permitting

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99575314″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Some of us were lucky enough to hoist a bulging pack onto our shoulders, stumble into the mountains and return changed at a young age. Some of us heard the mountains’ calling later in life. That doesn’t mean the passion burns any less bright. When writer Sarah Wroot took her first hike through Scottland’s craggy hills, she was overwhelmed with a surprising notion. “If I had a pack and a tent, I could keep going. I could be free to go wherever I want,” she thought. The idea took hold. Today, Sarah takes us all the way the Scottish Highlands and a journey that changed her life.

Jul

Three Eighths to Eternity

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99574815″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]“The planks of my boat are three eighths of an inch thick. Three eighths–this is the distance between myself and the depths,” writes surfer and adventurer Christian Beamish. Two years ago, Beamish crafted an 18-foot-long sailboat in his San Clemente garage. His obsession with sailboat-assisted surfing began with small week-long voyages and evolved into preposterous idea–sail the entire length of Baja looking for waves. It would be a solo mission. The proposed trip left his friends questioning his mental state and his mother in tears. It would require big, open-water crossings in rough seas, and in the end it would leave Beamish changed. How far would you go to find the physical and mental limits of human endurance? How raw does your soul have to get before you find peace?

Music: Easy by Deer Tick • Beach by West Indian Girl • Battle of 77 by Sunparlour Players • Apache Beat by Sinkane • Processed Spirits by Lymbyc Systym • Lotan Baba by Lymbyc Systym

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Jun

The Shorts — Summer Invocation

Summer Invocation

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99574519″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]Up in the Northwest, we say that summer doesn’t actually start until July 4th. Right now, we’re experiencing our annual June gloom. So I thought it was time to invoke blue skies and warmer temps. A season’s worth of summits, single track and lounging on the riverbank is just around the corner. It’s time for me to do my part in the changing of the seasons.

Music: Carved by Glaciers by Lymbyc Systym • For Whom the Bell Tolls by Seekret Socyetee

Music provided by IODA Promonet.

Jun

The Dreamers

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/99574221″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”300″ height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]“I had convinced myself at that point that my goal was so important it was worth dying for,” says alpine master Steve House about his 15-year-old dream of climbing the Rupal Face. Big Dreams require big commitment. We may not all dream on the same scale and commitment levels, but we all share dreams. They pull us through our lives on solid ground. Today writer and climber Sarah Garlick presents: The Dreamers—reflections from four generations of the world’s best climbers: Steve House, Henry Barber, Steve Schneider, and Colin Haley. In the process Sarah found out a little bit about herself. Do you have a life long dream? What if you completed it? What if you never realized it?

Music: Today’s music came from our friends, The Secret Life of Sofia (now Milagres). This Brooklyn-based band aren’t your typical indie rockers–they’ve got an affinity for the wide open space and big mountains. Their latest album Seven Summits is featured here today.

“It is in some ways a concept album – part historical fiction, part personal experience. Its writing was largely influenced by an obsession with the mountains and my relationship with them,” lead singer Kyle Wilson told me. You can purchase the album through their myspace page linked above.

On a personal note, I really dig this album. It’s very difficult to write songs that speak to the power of high places without falling into ridiculous cliche. I’ve listened to this album dozens of times and at each listen I find some new historical reference or emotion I recognize from my own connection to the mountains. It is in some ways as much a novel as it is a record and Wilson avoids the cliche by sticking to inventive images that we all know and recognize but would never think to include in a song. Seriously, check it out.