You can call me cliche or hipster or both. It doesn’t change the fact that I love those bands to no end.

The bands I post are popular for a reason, because they are GREAT bands. Stop with your pretension that people listen to Sigur Ros, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, or etc because they want to be “popular” or accepted. Fuck that, good music is good music. You might think it’s shit or overplayed or mainstream or whatever bullshit adjective, but I don’t think that. I genuinely love this music, because it inspires me, brings joy to my heart, and gets me through the worst of days. And besides the music, I admit that I love the hipster scene. Hipsters are awesome in every way. I have a blast every time I get drunk on PBR in a concert in Willamsburg or get high in a Bushwick loft party and discuss the genius of The Smiths with red-flannel-wearing bearded friends. So stop judging, bro. If you love Justin Bieber, I ain’t going to hate on you for it, he’s popular for a reason too. If you love some obscure chillwave band only ten people have heard about, I ain’t going to hate on you because you think it’s dope music and that is all that matters. Fact is people only listen to music they like. Even if they are listening to fit in. It’s great to listen to music in order to connect with friends more or to enter a new community or dive into a new scene. Music is both a personal and communal experience.

So in conclusion, just shut up and enjoy the music.

Winter Has Arrived And All I Need Is You (8tracks Playlist)

In the dead of winter when the world is in a slumber as it’s blanketed by the snow, all I need is you wrapped under my arms. All I need is your warm soul touching mine. All I need is your smile to light up the grey skies outside. All I need is you and only you.

Track Listing:

1. Perth - Bon Iver
2. The Plains/Bitter Dancer - Fleet Foxes
3. The Funeral - Band of Horses
4. We Won’t Need Legs To Stand - Sufjan Stevens
5. Easier - Grizzly Bear
6. Sé Lest - Sigur Rós
7. Lakehouse - Of Monsters and Men
8. Minnesota, WI - Bon Iver
9. Yellow Light - Of Monsters and Men
10. Detlef Schrempf - Band Of Horses
11. The Past And Pending - The Shins
12. La Noyee - Yann Tiersen
13. Avril 14th - Aphex Twin
14. Fuck Me - Yann Tiersen
15. Horchata - Vampire Weekend
16. Generator ^ First Floor - Freelance Whales
17. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
18. Fine For Now - Grizzly Bear
19. Smoke - Moddi
20. Armchairs - Andrew Bird

“One kind word can warm three winter months.” -Japanese Proverb

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (8tracks Playlist)

Sometimes you have to dwell in the darkness to see the light. You have to live life. There will be sorrow, heartbreaks, and anguish. However it is all temporary, the dawn follows the darkness. You will feel joy in your heart again and again. That is what makes us human, our capacity to feel everything.

Track Listing:

1. The Sound Of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
2. Rolled Together - The Antlers
3. Thirsty - The National
4. Islands - Young The Giant
5. Futile Devices - Sufjan Stevens
6. Aviéntame - Cafe Tacvba
7. Anjos - Julianna Barwick
8. Spanish Sahara - Foals
9. Norwegian Wood (The Bird Has Flown) - The Beatles
10. Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Simon & Garfunkel
11. Latika’s Theme - A. R. Rahman ft. Suzanne
12. Brooklyn - Woodkid
13. After Glow - Foals
14. Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes

“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.”

The Plains/Bitter Dancer - Fleet Foxes

Every once in a while when the skies above are gray and raindrops are clashing with windowsills, I burrow myself in a museum for the entire day. Accompanied with the music by Fleet Foxes playing on my iPod, I roam the corridors of antiquity. I enter my own little world where I get lost in the art and let it sink into the deepest reaches of my soul. For an entire rainy day I find bliss in solitude and comfort in masterpiece works that are centuries old. And every time I do I learn something new about the art that surrounds me and most importantly something new about myself.

“You took a room and you settled in, washed off the chalk from your weathered skin.”

White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes

When I was little I used to have this reoccurring dream. I was walking towards a small beach which seemed to be hidden by a valley. It was night, the skies covered in grey clouds. Snowflakes dancing with the gentle sea breeze. The sand completely covered in a blanket of snow and the ocean waves were calm. However right in the middle was this massive willow tree. The trunk was twisted almost in a perfect spiral upwards. It was a tree completely filled with life, with some type of red fruit hanging off it’s snow-covered branches. I remember feeling completely at peace. I didn’t know why, but I knew I belonged there. Since then I couldn’t recreate that specific feeling I experienced in those dreams, but then I heard this song by the Fleet Foxes and all those emotions and feeling of belonging rushed into me. It was exhilarating when I first heard, it felt as if I was meant to rediscover that dream through this very song. Ever since then this song has become one my all-time favorites.

“And turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime.”

Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes

The long-awaited second-coming of the divine and bearded. No, I’m not talking about Jesus Christ, I’m referring to the most anticipated folk album of 2011 by the legendary mountain-men of Seattle known as the Fleet Foxes. After listening to their epic debut album, which was critically praised and insanely popular, I found it difficult to fathom that they could top themselves. Well with this new single, Helplessness Blues, all of my doubts have been utterly obliterated. This song is pure folk glory! Epic in sound and angelic voices that cause my skin to crawl with goosebumps as I’m dying with anticipation to grace my ears with the rest of this greatness. This is heavenly bliss for your ears.

“I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night that would do such injustice to you.”

Journey To Enlightenment (8tracks Playlist)

This is a playlist dedicated to a book that completely changed my life forever, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. A parable about a Spanish shepherd named Santiago who goes on a journey toward the pyramids of Egypt in search of treasure and meets various characters that give him a new insight on life. What originally started as a quest for worldly goods turned into a discovery of the real treasure within him. This enchanting tale took me on journey of self-discovery, it showed me true wisdom about life, and elevated my way of viewing the world around me. I felt what the character felt, it’s a rare feeling reading a book and being completely taken on the same journey of the main character. One line from this book will always stick with me,“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”. This line alone opened my eyes much more than anything I’ve read before. The first moment I read those beautiful words, I realized the power I had that allows me to get what I truly desire in this world, and the fact that I simply have to keep maintaining a positive mindset, a glimmering beacon of optimism, in order to achieve anything. This simple, yet unbelievably profound, concept completely blew my mind away and my life since then has changed for the better. If you read The Alchemist it would be one of the few novels that will deeply challenge your current way of thinking, it will cause you to question your personal philosophy, and most importantly it will take on a journey that will forever change your life.

Here are various songs that evoke that feeling of enlightenment. All these songs possess an ethereal quality that shrouds itself in mystery. They emulate the eye-opening journey to a new way of thinking. With these songs I’m not really sure how they make me feel because they stir so many different emotions within in me, I imagine that’s how I’m able to see everything in retrospect by looking at the bigger picture encompassing all the good and the bad. So here’s a playlist dedicated to Santiago and his journey of self-discovery, and also to everyone else who is on a journey to enlightenment. Open your heart, open your mind, and delve into a new reality.

Track Listing:

1. Buildings & Mountains - The Republic Tigers
2. There Are Some Remedies Worse Than The Disease - This Will Destroy You
3. Andvari - Sigur Rós
4. Demon Days - Gorillaz
5. Porcelain - Moby
6. Return To Innocence - Enigma
7. Postcards From Italy - Beirut
8. Desert Rose - Sting
9. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
10. Ritmo De La Noche - Gipsy Kings
11. The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”

Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

If heaven had mountain men with beards as it’s angels, this would certainly be the chorus of the pearly gates of a folk paradise. Every thing about this song is absolutely divine. The lush vocals sound like the howling wind as it swiftly seeps through a maze of massive snow-covered pine trees. Fleet Foxes’ music has always reminded me of when I go to the wilderness and I hear the streams of water gently trickling down a mountain creek. That is the sound of the natural flow of life, where I actually hear how the universe works as it effortlessly keeps on flowing, changing, and adapting. Every time I listen to Fleet Foxes, I die and go to folk heaven.

“…with a vision of a gentle coast and a sun to maybe dissipate shadows of the mess you made.”

Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes

Venture forth into a place where the leaves are a perfect shade of amber and gold, the days are mostly cloudy with a few rays of sunshine leaking through, and peaceful animals roam free in their natural habitat. The air is filled with the scent of oak wood, the breeze is cool enough where a thick flannel shirt will suffice, in the distance you can hear the birds chirping, the leaves ruffling in the wind, and the red-tailed foxes hunting about. This is where you see nature in it’s golden years, a period of transition. I’ve always wanted take a girl with me, go to a log cabin in the middle of the American forest, and bask in the beauty of this autumnal paradise. I want to snuggle by a fireplace and look out through the window and see the first snowfall with Fleet Foxes playing in the background.

“Settle down with me by the fire of my yearning.”