Have you been missing 83Music? I know that I have.

For the past two months I’ve been focusing on a new venture here locally that has been quite a blessing. In May I was asked to take over music editor duties for our local alt-weekly newspaper the Source. So far it has been not only an invaluable experience, but it’s also been through-the-roof fun! My editors at the Source are very knowledgeable journalists and facilitate an exciting and thought provoking environment. For those of you in the area surrounding Bend, you may have read some of my articles and thought I was abandoning 83Music. Those who read my SW blog, might have noticed I haven’t linked up to 83Music in a while and wondered the same thing.

Well… I’m not quitting 83Music. I’ve just been working on getting my feet under me with…

This month we’ve got tracks from some fantastic albums! Former Fleet Fox J. Tillman debuts as Father John Misty, Portland band Horse Feathers is finally back with a new album, and break through artists Catch Bees and Alcoholic Faith Mission add to the discovery of this month’s playlist. Stream it below now!

For those of you who’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll probably remember that I started out years ago blogging about new music on MySpace. Eventually that morphed into a little Blogspot site, leading up to what is now 83Music. Some of those early bands I used to talk about haven’t made a record in years, some become so popular, even I have stopped listening to them, and others… despite their best efforts, still remain a little unknown. I’m launching a new series of Spotify playlists dedicated to revisting some of those bands while adding a few of my all time favorite songs from the last few years as well. Ocassionally, I may even post one of these new FLASHBACK playlists with songs that we all love and are just fun to…

Need something to listen to while you surf the interwebs? How about 15 songs from some of the best bands to play this year’s Coachella Music Festival? We’ve compiled great songs from Childish Gambino, Oberhofer, honeyhoney, Andrew Bird, and more! While we didn’t get to see all of these groups perform at the festival, a few of them are good previews of the music that will be at the Sasquatch Festival later in May.  Make sure to dig deeper into albums from these artists as many of them have awesome libraries out there to discover!

I spent a couple of days in Palm Springs California, leading up to Weekend One of the Coachella Music Festival. I toured the downtown area, bought a sweet Meerschaum pipe, ate some delicious tuna carpaccio, and found a couple bartenders who could make great old fashions (and one whom I had to walk through the ingredient list and construction). While wandering through the western capitol of mid-century America, I snapped some pics with my cell phone and the collage below is the result of the some 8 miles I walked around the area near my hotel. I know that there was much more to see and one day I will return to take a tour of some mid-century homes or rent a bike, but the architecture of the city is quite beautiful, even in the more mundane parts.

DOWNTOWN PALM SPRINGS TIP: Steer clear of “The Falls Martini Bar. It’s never a good sign when a place…