We recently ran into Greg Alsop, drummer for Newmarket’s Tokyo Police Club at our showcase earlier this month. It seemed only fitting that we ask him to get involved with the 7 Day Mixtape. Luckily for us (and for you), Greg agreed to curate the latest installment. Have a listen to his amazing picks by downloading the mix – there are some real gems here. Be sure to check out Tokyo Police Club at the websites below.

1. We Barbarians- Yesmen & Bumsuckers
This song lurches and stomps. The noises in this track that they get out of just some dusty old drums and a heavy amount of wet amp reverb are some of my favourite sounds ever put to tape. A dark start to the mix, but I couldn’t leave it off.

2. Harlem Shakes – Nothing But Change Part II
This is the opening track off of one of my all time favourite records. Sadly, this band dissolved before they got the attention they deserved but they left a short catalogue of songs that never fails to excite me when I throw them on. If I could, the rest of this list would just be every other track off  Technicolor Health, in sequence, but that would ruin the mixtape format and any retirement royalties they could be expecting, so please go buy this record!

3. ARMS – Heat And Hot Water
Luckily, there is a bright point to the early demise of The Harlem Shakes and that is that it gave Shakes’ guitarist and secret weapon, Todd Goldstein, a chance to finally concentrate on his other musical project, ARMS. Download the whole EP for free off their website. I can’t get enough of the hooks that this guy is writing, so thankfully, every song has at least a half dozen of them for me to obsess over.

4. Ruby Coast – Stability
Ruby Coast is a band that I’ve known for years now and am so glad that their debut album, Whatever This Is, is finally out there and finding an audience. This is the second track off a stellar record that’s so good it makes my ears curl up on themselves whenever I try to listen to anything else after it. And wait… this record is being given away for free too? Yep. Go support them and see them live if you can!

5. The Whigs – Technology
This song feels like a classic to me. I guess it almost could be soon, seeing as it came out nearly five years ago, but it feels like it could have been released thirty years before that and have lasted through generations of listeners discovering it in their dads’ record collections, living in a milk crate in a basement somewhere between Tom Petty and Elvis Costello albums. This is a mixtape staple of mine.

6. Kathryn Calder – So Easily
A beautiful, hushed, minimal song about loss. It makes me cry and I love that about it.

7. White Denim – If You’re Changing
This song is what I had hoped ‘The Band’ would sound like after so many people told me I ‘had’ to listen to them. All the groove and feel of a Levon Helms tune but without anyone telling you how “The Last Waltz” will just “totally change your life, man”. This song is off a collection of recordings this band made while working on their new record and is also available to you for free off their website! The music industry may be crumbling around us but at least there’s no shortage of great music being given to us to enjoy while it all falls down.