213. Angel Olsen - 'Burn Your Fire for No Witness' + Chancellor Cocktail

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213. Angel Olsen - 'Burn Your Fire For No Witness' + Chancellor Cocktail

Ingredients: 2 ounces blended Scotch whisky, 1 ounce ruby port, 1/2 ounce French Vermouth, 2 dashes orange bitters.

Mixing Instructions: Combine ingredients in a shaker and stir with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Notes: The sophomore album from Missouri-born Angel Olsen strikes an emotional chord that I hadn't felt since last year's self-titled debut from Torres (pairing here).  Both women possess a wavering haunt in their voice that keeps you up at night.  Though she captured a good deal of praise for her mostly-acoustic debut album, Half Way Home, this album is a step forward musically, pulling in more instrumentation, electric guitar and an overall fuller sound to contrast her still stark and to-the-point vocals.  Additionally, lyrics like the following show a ray of hope that I don't remember from her earlier work, 

If you've still got some light in you 
Then go before it's gone
Burn your fire for no witness
It's the only way it's done

Fierce and light and young
Fierce and light and young
Hit the ground and run
Hit the ground and run 

If Torres was the high school drama student unironically reading Poe during lunch on a grassy knoll, Olsen was her slightly more rebellious sister smoking cigarettes instead of eating and tempting the dumb jocks in art class with her shy demeanor and vintage Pink Floyd t-shirt.  There's the sense with each that there's more to them than meets the eye and ear, which is enjoyable because there's already so much life in their music to inhale.  An early contender for one of the year's best, spin Burn Your Fire...with a ruby Scotch cocktail, the perfect blend of beauty and bite.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

Vinyl + Cocktails Top Albums of 2013

Vinyl + Cocktails Top 10 Albums of 2013

Cameron’s Picks:

1) Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

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Levi’s picks:

1) Deerhunter - Monomania

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212. Forest Swords - ‘Engravings’ + Cunningham

Forest Swords - ‘Engravings’ + Cunningham

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces Dewar’s White Label Scotch, 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice, 1/2 ounce fresh blood orange juice, 1/4 ounce Bénédictine D.O.M. liqueur, 1/4 ounce Cherry Heering Liqueur.

Mixing Instructions: Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled coupe glass.

Notes: Music has the startling ability to create a world simply by the way it arranges sounds in the ear of the listener.  Of course, various time periods are tied directly to the unique sound and style of music that they produced, but aside from historical relationships, the right combination of notes can conjure a scene as vivid as the pen could for Shakespeare.  

UK producer, Matthew Barnes, created his masterful sophomore album at his home in North West England and the sound and visual scenes created in the mind of the listener reflect its geographic origins.  Cold, shadowy, Nordic-like beats and instrumentation support the structure of an ambient album that feels like exactly what a master storyteller would create alone in a small cabin, deep in the European woods.  This album is winter.  Epic.  Solitude.  Layered.  And it’s one of the best albums of 2013.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

211. Haim - 'Days Are Gone' + Fuzzy Navel

Haim - ‘Days Are Gone’ + Fuzzy Navel

Ingredients:2 ounces peach schnapps, 6 ounces fresh orange juice, fruit of choice.

Mixing Instructions: Pour ingredients over ice in a highball.  Mix and garnish with fruit of choice.

Notes: This…

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

210. Darkside - 'Psychic' + Golden Arrow

Darkside - ‘Psychic’ + Golden Arrow

*Guest Pairing by Katie Chow*

Ingredients:  2 ounces whiskey, 1 ounce cherry liqueur, few dashes Fee Brothers aztec chocolate bitters

Mixing Instructions:  Put all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with the single tear you shed when thinking about how unaccomplished you are compared to Nicolas Jaar, who is probably younger than you.

Notes:  Nicolas Jaar likely impressed you back in 2011 with his debut album Space Is Only Noise, and he’ll win you over again with his latest project, Darkside. Bandmate Dave Harrington is pushing minimal electronica’s golden boy to new levels, and together they’ve made Psychic, one of 2013’s top triumphs. It’s a seductive cocoon of smoldering synths and louche guitar licks, cozy and unsettling all at once. These songs will slink into your skull and stay there, sounding a little different every time you hear them.

Album highlight “Paper Trails” is arrestingly intimate upon first listen, thanks in part to Jaar’s underrated verve as a vocalist, but still offers plenty to unpack. The duo’s said that Darkside is about making “body music,” and they’re ready to get physical. The beats and riffs are wrapped in primal insistence, made with no regard for ticking the dance or rock boxes. Psychic’s longest tracks “Golden Arrow” and “The Only Shrine I’ve Seen” guide the album’s nocturnal journey, pulsing with dark energy. The whole thing closes with “Metatron,” a softly glimmering comedown at the crack of dawn. Don’t listen to this record when the sun is out.

Make the drink with bourbon if you want it to go down easily, try it with rye for a deeper flavor. Like Psychic, it can be whatever you want it to be.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

209. Italians Do It Better - ‘After Dark 2’ + Cardinal

Italians Do It Better - ‘After Dark 2’ + Cardinal 

Ingredients: 1 ounce Campari, 1 ounce gin, 1 ounce dry vermouth, lemon twist for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Shake ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with lemon twist and serve.

Notes: There’s something refreshing about a label that has cracked the code on their niche aesthetic and unapologetically camps out there while grinding out groove after mouth-watering groove.  After Dark 2, the italo disco/synth pop compilation from Italians Do It Better, is the much-anticipated follow up to After Dark, released in 2007.  Featuring Chromatics, Glass Candy, Symmetry and others, producer Johnny Jewel takes listeners on a journey into a European club…a discoteca if you will.  I spent four months in Italy one summer and the effortless coolness of the nightlife is exhilarating and contagious…this album took me back to that.  Mix a Cardinal, a slight variation on the Negroni, and let yourself welcome the wee hours of the night with one of the best albums of 2013. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

208. Dr. Dog - ‘B-Room’ + Whiskey Sour

Dr. Dog - ‘B-Room’ + Whiskey Sour

Ingredients: 2 ounces whiskey, 1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sugar.

Mixing Instructions: Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker.  Shake vigorously and strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass.  Garnish with cherry.

Notes: I once heard the whiskey sour described as the “comfortable t-shirt of drinks.”  To me, Dr. Dog has become my “comfortable t-shirt of bands.”  I can put on any Dr. Dog album at almost any time and feel myself relax like one does when sighting a close friend as they walk through the door of a busy restaurant.  With their seventh full-length album, B-Room, the band seems to experiment on many songs with simplicity, removing layer after layer until all you’re left with is their core sound…their Dr. Dog-ness - a sound which falls somewhere between Levon Helms, The Beach Boys and that one band, in that one bar that you sang along with at 2AM while your buddy kept shouting out “Free Bird!!”  While many will inevitably criticize the band for not straying far from their sound, I couldn’t care less…I just want to put the t-shirt back on and drink a whiskey sour.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

207. Chvrches - ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’ + Scottish Pair

Chvrches - ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’ + Scottish Pair

Ingredients: 3/4 ounce Hendrick’s Gin, 3/4 ounce Glenfiddich Scotch whisky, 2 ounces pear nectar, 1/2 ounce agave nectar, 1 lemon wedge & 1 pear slice for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: mix ingredients in cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktails glass, add garnishes and serve.

Notes: Few indie bands in recent memory have generated as much attention prior to having an album released as Scottish synthpop trio Chvrches (pronounced churches).  Things Chvrches did prior to album release: opened for Depeche Mode in front of 58,000 people, opened for Passion Pit on their U.K. tour, signed with Glassnote, released music videos that generated half-a-million plus YouTube views, made multiple year end “best of” lists, cured cancer (rumor)…I’m shaking my head as I right this. With all the hype, I approached their debut album with skepticism. The jealous child in me wanted it to suck…it didn’t…it was good…really damn good.  Dark, beautiful electronic/synthpop that reminded me occasionally of Niki & The Dove, but tighter and more substantial.  I’m half-Scottish so on top of being quite hairy I’m slightly biased, but this album should be on high rotation this Fall and paired with a Scottish cocktail that makes buying the hype a more tasty affair.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

206. MGMT - ‘MGMT’ + French Margarita

MGMT - ‘MGMT’ + French Margarita

Ingredients: 2 ounces tequila, 1 ounce Grand Marnier, 1/2 ounce each - lime juice, orange juice, sweet and sour mix, 1 ounce Chambord, raspberries and blackberries for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Pour tequila into shaker.  Add Grand Marnier, lime juice, orange juice and sweet and sour mix.  Shake vigorously and strain into an ice-filled margarita glass.  Top with Chambord and garnish with a skewer of blackberries and raspberries. (via Cooking Channel)

Notes:  It’s tough to find a sturdy handle on MGMT’s third album, a heady psychedelic journey that starts as a jaunt with “Alien Days” and quickly makes its way down the rabbit hole, loosening up the song structures along the way.  Wrapped in layers and layers of densely-packed synths, spacey vocals and shimmering guitar riffs, you can’t help, but feel that you’re getting an insider’s tour into the creative influences of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden — in certain parts I swore I heard the neurons in their brains firing.  The fluid nature of the album means that one quick listen simply won’t tell the story.  This is the type of album that evolves with each listen, new details being picked up each time.  Approach this album like the French approach a meal…slow down, make a drink and soak it all in.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

205. Volcano Choir - ‘Repave’ + New Fashioned

Volcano Choir - ‘Repave’ + New Fashioned

Ingredients: 1 ounce rye whiskey, 1/2 ounce amaretto, 1/4 ounce simple syrup, 3 dashes bitters, orange peel for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Stir ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a rocks glass.  Serve neat and garnish with orange peel.

Notes: Many music fans have been introduced to Volcano Choir by way of, “another Justin Vernon band” owing to the bubbling fame of Vernon (Bon Iver).  With a Spring release from The Shouting Matches, another one of his bands, it might be assumed that Vernon is restless, but I have another theory — he just really loves music.  In fact, it would be a mistake to infer that Volcano Choir is “his” band at all as he provided none of the instrumentation for the group’s second album, but instead faded into the collective, contributing vocals only as other bandmates took the lead.  

Made up of members of Collection of Colonies of Bees (a band Vernon says changed his musical orientation during college) and All Tiny Creatures, the band’s second album contains much of the emotional depth you’d expect from anything associated with Vernon, but cranks up the experimentation a few notches churning out a fine collection of post-rock ballads.  The heart of the album, starting with third track, “Comrade” and ending with track six, “Dancepack” is where one seems to enter the engine room of a band who has created an album you’ll have on repeat throughout the Fall and one best balanced with a new twist on an old drink — fitting for an artist who seems to thrive on continually changing the recipe.    

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

204. Explosions in the Sky - ‘The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place’ + Steam Roller

Explosions in the Sky - ‘The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place’ + Steam Roller

Ingredients: 1 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur, 1 ounce rye whiskey, 1/2 ounce Heering Cherry Liqueur, 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 Anchor Steam Beer, Lemon Twist

Mixing instructions: Combine St-Germain, whiskey, cherry heering and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker, half-full with ice.  Shake vigorously.  Strain into a cocktail glass and top with your bottle of cold Anchor Steam. Garnish with lemon twist.

Notes: **September Record of the Month for Vinyl Me, Please**  We’re coming up on the 10 year anniversary of Explosion in the Sky’s masterpiece “The Earth in Not a Cold Dead Place” (Nov. 4th, in case you’re curious) and it’s an album that has not only stuck with us, but has continued to overwhelm us since we first heard it. If you haven’t heard this record before, or haven’t heard it in awhile, then get ready to get wrecked. Called their “attempt to write love songs” by guitarist Munaf Rayani, this record captures moments few others have and they do so with pure instrumentation, making this even more of an anomaly and treat. This should get you ready for everything Autumn has in store for you quite nicely.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Vinyl Me, Please

203. Washed Out - ‘Paracosm’ + Painkiller

Washed Out - ‘Paracosm’ + Painkiller

Ingredients: 2 ounces dark rum, 1 ounce cream of coconut, 4 ounces pineapple juice, 1 ounce orange juice.

Mixing Instructions: Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into an ice-filled hurricane glass.  Top with nutmeg and serve.

Notes:  A “paracosm” is a highly detailed imaginary world invented in the human mind.  Upon playing the first track of Ernest Greene’s second full length album, one indeed feels as though they’re being jetted away to a locale only accessible in a dream or vision…probably near the ocean and with no one else in sight.  The 9-track chillwave voyage offers listeners one last summer escape before Fall closes in with its weight and responsibilities. Made to be consumed as a whole, no one track stands apart from the rest, but instead each crashes like a wave into the next, bringing its own brief refreshment before retreating back to the sea.  As the first day of Autumn looms, give yourself one last excuse to celebrate Summer with an album and drink that put you in another place for a brief, but tantalizing moment.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

202. St. Vincent - ‘Strange Mercy’ + Absinthe Frappé

St. Vincent - ‘Strange Mercy’ + Absinthe Frappé

Ingredients: 1 ounce absinthe, 1/2 tablespoon superfine sugar, 1 ounce water.

Mixing Instructions: Pour the absinthe, sugar (the quantity will need to be adjusted according to the brand of absinthe, as they vary greatly in sweetness), and the water into a blender. Blend for a moment to dissolve the sugar and then, with the blender running, add 3 or 4 ice cubes through the hole in the top, pausing between cubes to let them get crushed. Blend until smooth. (via Esquire)

Notes: When describing St. Vincent’s music I can only say that she seems to be constructing her albums with a different set of building materials - specifically those that provide the most stark contrasts.  Guitar riffs deconstructed to chainsaw-like flurries bounce around dreamy, innocent soundscapes that can at any moment go from child-like wonder and amusement to a deformed state of confusion and horror.  Her voice, soft and lullaby-esque breathes out some of the most stark and self-aware lyrics around.  Simply put, Annie Clark’s music keeps you on your toes and Strange Mercy, her third studio album, twists all these contrasts and contradictions into a overwhelmingly strong piece of art.  If you don’t have this album in your vinyl collection, add it immediately and pair it with an absinthe cocktail that comes from a blender.  

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||    Insound

201. Arctic Monkeys - ‘AM’ + Corpse Reviver 2

201. Arctic Monkeys - ‘AM’ + Corpse Reviver 2

Ingredients: 1 ounce gin, 1/2 ounce Lillet, 1/2 ounce Cointreau, 1/2 ounce Pernod, 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Mixing Instructions: Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. (via Harry Craddock)

Notes:  I’ll be receiving this album in the mail today and I feel like kid on Christmas morning.  Having listened to the pre-release stream on iTunes earlier this week, I believe the hype - it’s damn good.  After a somewhat wobbly last album, the Arctic Monkeys are not only back in their groove, but, like Vampire Weekend earlier this year, seem to be hitting their ultimate stride.  Filled with a glittery mixture of glam rock, doo wop, and 90’s hip hop, this is an album that will tickle even the most critical ear.  As Levi said, “You could play most of these songs at a stadium and people would stomp and clap even if they had no idea who it was.”  This Fall we’ll have our fair share of sprawling, heady, niche releases, but for now, toast a band who is indeed back from the dead with an album that will have mass appeal for all the right reasons.

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

200. Bob Dylan - ‘Blood On The Tracks’ + Ortensia

200. Bob Dylan - ‘Blood On The Tracks’ + Ortensia

*Guest Pairing by Patton Dodd

Ingredients: 1 ounce blended Scotch, 1 ounce Punt e Mes, 1 ounce Aperol, 1 orange twist.

Mixing Instructions: Fill a mixing glass with ice. Add all ingredients except the orange twist and stir. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and garnish with orange twist. (via Amalia - Manhattan)

Notes: I’m dying to go to a Bob Dylan show where he showcases some of my favorite tracks from my all-time favorite album, Blood on the Tracks.But I’m dying for that show to be 15 or 20 or 25 years ago. Because I saw a Bob Dylan show last week, and he did showcase some of my favorite Blood tracks—“Tangled Up in Blue,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” and maybe “Idiot Wind,” but I can’t say for sure, because most of oldDylan catalogue is rendered fairly unrecognizable by the rambling swingtime mishmash approach he’s taking on stage these days. 

It’s alright, Bob — you’re only making me spend more time with the real McCoy, because echoes, however faint, tell a tale of their origin.

I came late to Blood, first falling for it just out of college. I worked a job that had me in a small office behind closed doors, writing mindless copy that set me to despair. Blood might be about a specifically bad breakup—“The songs are my parents talking,” in Jakob Dylan’s oft-quoted words—but it captures a wide set of human experiences: loneliness, longing, lust, anger, regret, sweet hope. The album contains a story that contains multiple stories.

I once listened to all of Blood on the Tracks with a couple buddies and a bunch of strangers in a random Boston bar. We had stepped in to get out of a downpour. We sat and ordered pints just as “Tangled Up in Blue,” the album opener, started playing. “Simple Twist of Fate” came on next, and as everyone in the bar realized the bartender was playing the whole record—I swear this, or something like it, is true—we glanced around and caught each other’s eyes and smiled. It was a long rainy afternoon, and we had nowhere to be, and there was nothing to do but rest in the record and wait for “Buckets of Rain” to stop. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

199. Kurt Vile - ‘Wakin On A Pretty Daze’ + Sloe Gin Fizz

Kurt Vile - ‘Wakin On A Pretty Daze’ + Sloe Gin Fizz

Ingredients: 2 ounces sloe gin, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, 1 teaspoon super fine sugar, club soda.

Mixing Instructions: Mix ingredients in cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass and fizz an inch or so from the top. Splash the soda on top so that it foams.

Notes: All you need to know about Philly-rocker, Kurt Vile’s fifth studio album can be found in the opening track, “Wakin on a Pretty Day”. That absolutely is not to say one shouldn’t listen to the rest of the album, but simply that the DNA contained in the sauntering 9:30 ballad showcases all the ingredients that make Vile’s music sneakily addictive. The silvery twang of the guitar stretched out alongside Vile’s meandering vocals make music that could easily be passed by on first listen, but contain the intangible quality of get-under-your-skin-ness that all artists desire and few attain. Vile’s lyrics are sharp, his understanding of his own musical strengths is beyond his years. Putting it all together the result is a strong album that can be paired with no other drink, but a sloe gin fizz…I seldom feel as strongly about an album/cocktail match. Cheers!

purchase vinyl: Amazon

198. Akkilles - ‘Something You’d Say’ + Good Hurt

Akkilles - ‘Something You’d Say’ + Good Hurt

Ingredients: 2 ounces rum, 3/4 ounce grapefruit juice, 1/2 ounce Dubonnet, 1/4 ounce simple syrup.

Mixing Instructions: Mix ingredients in shaker, shake with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Notes: Maybe (probably) it’s because it was a cloudy Saturday morning the first time I put Kansas City-based Akkilles’ debut LP on my turntable, but I couldn’t help thinking “Man, this is the perfect album for a cloudy Saturday morning.” The experimental project of David Bennett, Akkilles fills a folk-gaze (possibly just made up a genre) niche that would land in my vinyl collection somewhere between Kurt Vile, Dent May and Beach House.  Chill, reverb-drenched vocals create a good amount of float, but the instrumentation, especially on standout track, “Country Boy Deluxe”, stays interesting enough throughout that one doesn’t float off to sleep. An album that deserves attention during the quiet part of your day, listen with a smooth rum cocktail that will soothe your soul in tandem with Bennett’s crooning vocals.

purchase vinyl: bandcamp

197. Classixx - ‘Hanging Gardens’ + Sea Breeze

Classixx - ‘Hanging Gardens’ + Sea Breeze

**Guest Pairing from Allison Baughman of Rock Couture Dreams**

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces vodka, 4 ounces cranberry juice, 1 ounce grapefruit juice, lime wedge for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Build all ingredients in a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime wedge.

Notes: Music has an incredible ability to paint a picture for us; it makes us feel as though we are someplace different, and sometimes, in the best occasions, the place it takes us to is a beach during sunset in Miami circa mid 1980’s. Classixx, an electronic duo composed of childhood friends Michael David and Tyler Blake, have been a staple in taking dance music to the depths it deserves. With their amalgamation of disco, house, funk, spunk, happiness and good vibes, these two could soundtrack anyone’s summer. Classixx have been releasing remixes for a couple years now. They released their single “I’ll Get You” feat. Jeppe in 2009 and finally, in May of this year, released their incredibly stunning debut album, Hanging Gardens. So go ahead and throw this bad boy on the turntable, close your eyes, sip your drink, and imagine yourself driving alongside the beach at dusk in the warm summer breeze. 

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound

196. Thin Lizzy - ‘Jailbreak’ + 6-Pack Miller High Life Tallboys

Thin Lizzy - ‘Jailbreak’ + 6-Pack Miller High Life Tallboys

**Guest Pairing from Andrew Winistorfer of Vinyl In Alphabetical fame**

Ingredients: Miller High Life 16oz

Mixing Instructions: don’t, unless it’s by accident, while fishing out a cheese curd.

Notes: When the Vinyl + Cocktails dudes asked me to write one of their signature pairings in a quid pro quo exchange for a post they wrote for my blog, I could think of only one album to write about. It’s the album I play when I am anywhere from 1/7 to 15/7 drunk. It’s the album with three of the Top 5 songs to hear when you are drinking (this list is indisputable). It’s arguably the most American album ever recorded—it even came out during the bicentennial— even though it was recorded by a bunch of Irishmen. That album is Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak.

Recorded by the band when they were on top of their powers in the mid-‘70s, Jailbreak is a 9-track tour de force that has probably the best ode to male bonding ever recorded: “The Boys are Back in Town.” It’s easy to write that song off, since it’s become such a commercial placement staple, but its lyrics are a showcase for lead singer Phil Lynott, who peppers the song with small details about specific friends and bars, and women they met along the way, like everyone would understand the inside references. You don’t, but Lynott is busy making the personal universal, which is something very few songwriters are able to do effectively.

I feel like this is one of two or three albums that I could ever write one of those 33 1/3 books about. I could give you an essay right here on the interplay of the guitars on “Cowboy Song.” I could write a chapter on how Robert Christgau’s bitchy two-sentence review of this is maybe one of his biggest whiffs on a record. I could write 2,000 words on “the breakout” section of “Jailbreak.” If I had to give an album to an alien to understand what it was like to be in America, to hang with your friends, to feel wistful for the American west, I’d give them Jailbreak.

But now comes the hard part, right. Pairing it with a cocktail. This is Vinyl + Cocktails after all. I am from Wisconsin, a place that has a fair share of cocktail bars, but I’d be lying if I’ve been to 1 percent of them. I come from a place where we are practically weaned on Miller products, so I’d be doing my home state an injustice if I chose an Old Fashioned or a Hangman’s Blood. So, sorry Cameron and Levi, but I’ve gotta recommend that you pair this album with a cold six pack of High Life tall boys. Thin Lizzy make albums for hot days next to a grill and an American flag, and the best beer to drink when you are thinking about going out and getting wrecked with your friends is a High Life.  

purchase vinyl:   Amazon 

195. The Dwells - ‘Don’t Ever Leave Me Like You Do’ + Walden Street

**Guest Pairing from Alec Beloin**

The Dwells - ‘Don’t Ever Leave Me Like You Do’ + Walden Street

Ingredients: 2 ounces Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, 1/2 ounce Meletti Amaro, 1/2 ounce Kings Ginger, 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice, 1/2 ounce honey simple syrup, 2 dashes orange bitters

Mixing Instructions: Shake and strain into a Collins glass with ice. Top with soda water, and garnish with an orange swath.

Notes: The Dwells were born on the Fourth of July. When their first album, ‘Fortieth Floor’, was released in 2012, it was a soundtrack to my summer. The sounds of love, heartbreak, travel, and plain good Americana come crooning from the duo’s vocal harmonies and leave you flipping your record back and forth for hours. Now on their second LP, the duo brings a band along to accompany their powerful songwriting. In the midst of a US tour, this is yet another great summer soundtrack that will later welcome the fall. So sit back, listen, and enjoy a refreshing summer whiskey drink, made straight from Boston, birthplace of The Dwells.

purchase vinyl:   Bandcamp  

listen: Daytrotter session