“Music makes sense to me much more than art. It doesn’t make any claims to anything, it just is.” - Sam Songailo

2014 marks the sixth year of Northside Festival, which is a three-day barrage of shows, both free and pay, across Brooklyn venues. On an annual basis, Northside does a nice job of including a range of up-and-coming bands across all genres in addition to the heavy hitters. Our favorites this year include some bands that are popular names on the indie tip right now, along with some garage rock staples.

My idea for this mixtape comes from the surreal juxtaposition of cultures and time periods we are allowed to experience through the internet. Many of the songs were discovered in a state of self-induced hypnosis, while exploring YouTube and blog sites where record collectors freely share their rare relics with the world for free through digital technology. It strikes me as beautiful and strange that these sonic portals were captured on archaic recording devices by people who most likely never imagined that someday the internet would exist, and now we can travel through time and bring these singular moments and performances into our daily lives, giving them new meanings in the process.” - Guy Blakeslee

Heavily inspired by an extended trip to Berlin, Candide is the duo of Candice Strongwater and Adam Brodsky, who imported the city’s European sounds to their home in Brooklyn, creating a brand of dark and sultry disco that is equally inspired by Rhythm & Sound as Donna Summers and Bee Gees. This could be the alternate soundtrack to the summer of 1977, if the disco clubs had acknowledged the paranoia and dread of the Son Of Sam running rampant, while still losing themselves in the sweltering heat of romantic dancefloor abandon.

It’s been a hot minute since a Portland band has possessed so much of their own force and flair, but draw your attention to Phone Call, who are now bringing their sound outside of local view for the first time with their latest 12″, out on Aerobic International. The duo, comprised of Johnny Ziegler and Bailey Winters, formerly of local dance heroes Strength, is swaggerific; Zeigler’s throwback funkiness bears endless satisfaction, and Winter’s ability to install any lyricism with mad steez is seriously impressive. Never before hath grabbing a coat from a coat rack sounded so damn enticing (read: so as to go home and get down and dirty), and such playful, loving filth is just what one can expect…

Droning strings find their visual counterparts in the moving paintings of director Peter Luckner, who has collaborated with Melodium’s Laurent Girard on this slowly unfolding piece.

July 1st marks the halfway point for the glorious year 2014. This indie R&B mixtape, curated by Portland duo Intuitive Navigation DJs (vVv Stardust and Serious Moonlight) calls for groove-centric celebration to this fact.