I won’t lie to you. This mix has some weird stuff on it. As I sit hear typing, Laura and I are listening to it together and she thought it would be wise of me to preface it. I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music lately (surprised @garyzero?). These mixes are absolutely a reflection of stuff I’ve been listening to. I don’t know a lot about several of the artists on this mix. I really should start making notes about where I find things so I can thank the people that turn me on to them. Hope you enjoy this month’s mix.

1. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
3. Sigur Ros – Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
4. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
5. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
6. Department Of Eagles – In Ear Park
7. Kid Cudi – Plain Pat & Emile Presents a KiD named CuDi
8. Everest – Ghost Notes
9. Deastro – Keeper’s
10. Atlas Sound – Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
11. Portishead – Third
12. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
13. Imaad Wasif – Strange Hexes
14. Fink -Distance and Time
15. M83 – Saturdays = Youth
16. Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night
17. Frightened Rabbit – The MIdnight Organ Fight
18. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
19. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down In The Light
20. R.E.M. – Accelerate
21. The Whigs – Mission Control
22. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
23. Jim Noir – Jim Noir
24. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
25. Deerhunter – Microcastle

If you purchase music online, chances are you’re shopping iTunes or Amazon. I’ve never been a big fan of the iTunes store because I don’t like to be told how I can use my music. I continued to buy most of my music on CD until fairly recently, when unprotected MP3s were being offered at 256kbps from Amazon. Maybe you don’t care that you can only burn your iTunes downloads 5 times. Honestly, I rarely burn them, if ever. I do share a lot of music though. I’m not dumping the contents of my music library on other people’s machines or sharing music via BitTorrent, but I do like making mixes and sharing them. You can’t do that with an iTunes download, unless you opt for the unprotected MP3. That’s always been the deal breaker for me. As much as I like the overall experience of the iTunes store, I think Amazon’s user experience with their MP3 Music Store, is superior to Apple’s. When I shop at Amazon I feel like I’m among fellow music fanatics. The opinions are usually intelligent and substantive, recommendations are usually spot-on and the overall experience is just more pleasant. I’m about as big of an Apple fan boy as you can be, but I won’t be buying my music online from them.

Amoeba is one of the reasons that I love living in LA. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s one of my top 5 reasons. Amoeba is as much a record store as it is heaven on Earth. You can find pretty much anything you want, there’s people that know A LOT about music working at the store and they buy and sell used CDs. Find me a comparable brick and mortar retailer. You can’t. Amoeba is that good. I’m lucky enough to work a few blocks from the Hollywood location (currently the only LA location) and I visit fairly often. Some may find the experience of shopping at Amoeba daunting, and it certainly can be, but if you don’t have a lot of time to shop around, I highly recommend their end caps. The staff picks are so spot on, that a lot of times I’ll just pick something up because it’s recommended. I’ve only regretted doing that once. The used section is remarkable. If you’re willing to hunt, you can find some great albums at awesome prices.

I realize I’m an extreme case when it comes to shopping for music. For somoene that gets pretty much anything for free from the labels, I still spend at least $100/month on music. I want a great experience when I spend that money. For that reason Amazon and Amoeba are the two greatest places to buy music online.

[via Fred Wilson]

When I was working in music supervision for feature films, I had an awesome boss who taught me a lot. I wasn’t always fond of how he did it, but it’s made me a much better employee. The main things were to pay close attention to detail, exhaust all possibilities and be really nice. If you can’t pay attention to detail, it’s a non-starter. In order to be good at any job, you can’t let details slip through the cracks. We all make mistakes, but there’s no worse mistake that the kind that result from carelessness. Working as a Mac consultant comes with a lot more pressure than my other job, believe it or not. It’s all eyes are on you. Sometimes the client is literally watching everything you do. If you miss a detail, either the client will catch you or you’ll realize what you missed after you’ve spent too much time diagnosing a simple issue. Missing one small detail can make the difference of solving a problem in 1 hour or 4 hours.

I used to think that checking things online or calling someone else that might know a little more than I do would come off as weak to a client. Boy was I wrong. Clients are impressed by it. You know where to look and who to call to solve a problem. Having a second opinion is always nice too. I’ve even called Apple a few times when I’ve gotten real stuck. And the client was happy I did. You have to exhaust all possibilities when you’re trying to problem solve. There’s nothing worse that saying you can’t figure out why a computer won’t power up and then a client notices the power strip isn’t turned on. Many times, it’s the obvious stuff.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with some of the biggest egos in the music and movie business, it’s that being kind, saying thank you and smiling will get you really far. My Mac clients are no different. I would say that the vast majority of Mac users are cool, creative and hospitable people. When you’re kind in return and stay positive even when you’re sweating bullets, it can make a big difference. They may even buy you lunch or dinner.

Sometimes I forget a lot of this stuff when I’m doing my regular job. Doing a little consulting on the side helps keep my brain working and helps me think more critically when I’m at the office. Just like anything, you gotta practice to stay sharp and if practicing means I can make a few extra bucks, then I’ll be doing as much of it as I can.

I don’t think my parents were ever really happy with the choices I made once I left the house and went to college at the University of Kansas. My dad always encouraged me though. My hunch is that he didn’t share all of the details with my mom, who was either more disapproving or just quiet about her disapproval. Either way, I didn’t really talk to her about any of it. I always talked to my dad, particularly about the music business. My dad was pretty much responsible for getting me interested in music at a very early age. Instead of fairy tales, he would tell me stories about Barry Gordy starting Motown or Quincy Jones producing a hit record with Michael Jackson. I assume he read books about these people, but now that I’m thinking about it, I never saw any books on them in the house. But there were lots of records to listen to, and I listened to all of them over and over.

As I grew up, I became obsessed with music. Whether it was listening to Casey Kasem‘s American Top 40 or buying punk rock records at Streetside Records in Overland Park, Kansas, I knew I wanted to be a part of music. Since I wasn’t a talented musician and couldn’t sing, I decided that I was going to work behind the scenes. It all culminated when I went off to college and Lawrence, Kansas was probably one of the best places to be in the 90s if you weren’t in Seattle or Athens. I started working at KJHK in the production department and eventually worked my way up to hosting “Plow The Fields,” which was the local music show. I was also a college marketing rep for Sony Music and started as an intern at Red House Recording Studio (now Black Lodge Recording), but what I really wanted to do was to start a label. I asked my dad if I could take some money from my life savings account and with that deposit and an amazing band called Action Man, I started Barber’s Itch Records.

In 1995, I went to New York for CMJ. My dad was always urging me to meet with people when I went to New York, but I didn’t have any connections. My dad was active in the ACLU and served as the President of the affiliate board. At some point, and I can’t remember when, he testified as a psychologist against the PMRC and if memory serves (and it may not), that’s where my dad met Danny Goldberg. I’m sure he talked his ear off too, but he also used this meeting as a way to get me a meeting with Danny in New York, which he did. I vaguely remember meeting with Danny, playing him some music and seeking his advice on how to get acquired by a major or get my artists signed to Mercury. I think the meeting lasted all of about 15 minutes, but I was anything but discouraged. He told me to work hard, get my music out to as many people as I could and only then might something happen, but chances weren’t good. And that small chance was what drove me to keep at my little label. I didn’t sell many records, but it was an experience that I will never forget and it helped me decided what I was going to do for the rest of my life.