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Though Rafael normally sits behind the camera (he is our resident video guy and shoots all of the Garden Party segments), he came into work yesterday wearing this amazing shirt so I forced him into doing a backyard photo shoot.

This week’s Mixin’ With Mixtape comes to us from the Old Believers. The duo, who contrary to their name are only 19 and 20 years old, moved to Portland recently from Kenai, Alaska and have created quite the stir for themselves with their particular brand of old timey folk pop. They now have their sights set on Los Angeles and are poised for a takeover with a live instudio on KXLUtomorrow followed by a gig at the Silverlake Lounge. Be sure to check out their “Chronology of a Perfect Day Mix” after the jump that features tunes by the Beach Boys, Love, Buddy Holly, The Replacements and more. 

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With summer in full swing, even us working types have had our share of crazy weekends and I for one could use some mellow time. Jesse Ainslie of The Castanets has just given us the perfect anecdote with his “Top 10 Songs With Which To Slow.” With tunes by Lucinda Williams, Black Sabbath, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus and more, this music is perfect for lazing around the house and just letting yourself take it easy. The Castanets are currently gearing up for the release of their 4th full length record, City of Refuge, to be released October 7th on Asthmatic Kitty. It is the result of the three weeks that head Castanet, Ray Raposa, spent alone in a Nevada Desert motel room. Stay tuned for more info on that upcoming release. Also, be sure to check out Jesse’s other project, Barghest.

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Festival Express Trailer

If the Rick Danko, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia clip left you wanting more, I present to you 2003′s Festival Express in it’s entirety. As mentioned in the last post, the documentary is based on the Inter Trans Continental Pop Festival Tour that traveled across Canada in 1970. Many of the artists chartered a train to take them from stop to stop and the following film documents both their performances at the actual festival as well as footage shot onboard the train. While the tour was generally considered a financial failure (young people didn’t want to pay what they felt were exorbitant ticket prices), many of the behind the scene moments caught by seasoned cinematographer Peter Bizou (The Wall, Mississippi Burning, etc) are absolutely priceless. If you missed the previous films in our Movie Lounge series, be sure to check out Celebration at Big Sur and Townes Van Zandt’s Be Here To Love Me.

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The Rosewood Thieves’ Rise & Shine is the best summer album that you’re probably not listening to right now. This effort is a meticulous slight of hand that manages to sound new and fresh, and somehow does so despite lots of borrowing from Bob Dylan and John Lennon’s solo work. When a young songwriter follows in the footsteps of such musical giants, the potential for an overly ambitious crap fest seems inevitable. What results here, though, is an immediately likable and nuanced pop sound that rarely feels trite or wooden. (more…)

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Replenish yourself with this week’s Mixtape, complements of Windsor for the Derby‘s Dan Matz. The Philadephila based group, who recently had a song featured in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, has a tour coming up in August that will take them to France, Spain, Beirut, Canada and New England. After all that traveling, Matz will no doubt be in need of a pick me up and his “Top 12 Refreshing Songs” mix, which features tunes by Blind Willie Johnson, John Lee Hooker, RL Burnside and more, outta do the trick. 

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