She laid her poetry upon us like a mystic laying hands on pilgrims, reminding us we are slobbering, laughing, dreaming and alive, however painful that can get. And pain seeps through songs like “Pissing in a River” and “Beneath the Southern Cross,” but still something as trite and often blankly appealed to as hope overrides all of that. Even in “Free Money,” where the protagonist clearly can’t afford any of the things they dream about, waxes poetic about the sweetness of those dreams.

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Download: “Oh Yes, Los Angeles” mixtape by When You Awake

Jody from the fantastic blog When You Awake—your sympathetic destination if homesick, lonesome, riled, fiery or any mindstates in between—presents us with this week’s mixtape, dedicated to cosmic cowboy/cowgirl rock songs about the city of Los Angeles. (City of doom and freeways, too.) Listen to Jody’s [...]

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I wish I had better words for each member’s abilities, truth be told. But I ended up completely losing my shit that night as the band seemed to strike the main vein. I was overcome to the point where all I could do was bust into my best truffle shuffle and badly sing along with each harmony. It’s what I’d imagine Grateful Dead fans felt like in the ’80s (no irony). I was nothing but powerless.

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