QTheMusic.com

Hailing from British Columbia singer-songwriter Dan Mangan knows a thing or two about enjoying the great outdoors. However with a host of UK and US tour dates coming this autumn to back his forthcoming third album Oh Fortune getting to the wilderness on a regular basis might be tricky. Instead local parks will have to do for Mangan and so here - inspired a bit by Blur - is a 'park life' soundtrack to while away the afternoon outdoors.

Beck - Nobody's Fault But My Own
"I've never been able to shake this song. I remember falling asleep with it in my Discman (old school) on a boat when I was a kid. Interesting use of the sitar-like sounds, and Beck's made up words.. It's a little magical."

Plants And Animals - Good Friend
"This song gets played in the van without fail every tour - and always gets saved for a choice moment. The groove is so heavy, and the layers of electric guitar kill me. There's a line, I want to wake up to see your shoes in the stairwell - it's so Montreal. That's what people do in Montreal. They put their shoes in stairwells. Parc Avenue is one of my favourite Canadian releases in the last decade - a truly remarkable album."

Albert Ayler - Ghosts
"My band is full of improvisational free jazz players, and in the last few years I've had my eyes opened up to a lot of music I'd never heard before. This is a song that keeps coming back on the night-drive iPod DJ set. Ayler's tone and phrasing is incredible."

The Daredevil Christopher Wright - We're Not Friends
"We played with these guys a few years ago. They're from Eu Claire, WI along with Megafaun and Bon Iver - in fact, I think Justin Vernon mixed some of this record. They're all great multi-instrumentalists and put on a crazy show. They deserve to be a lot more known than they are. The breakdown in this tune with the claps and the electric guitar is amazing."

Beirut - Nantes
"All about the drums. When they play this live it's a bit louder and smashier. The drums are rad."

The Crackling - A Joke
"The Crackling is my drummer Kenton Loewen's project. He's opened up a lot of our shows in the last year. He's one of the best drummers I've heard, so it really pissed me off when I found out he was also a great songwriter. Asshole."

Elliott Smith - Waltz #2
"A perfect song? The lyrics, the tone, Elliott's ability to toss your heart around like a rag doll? Ridiculous."

Ornette Coleman - Chronology
"Again, Ornette is someone I hadn't really listened to until going on the road with jazz players. He's bad ass."

Arcade Fire - Sprawl I (Flatland)
"Arcade Fire songs have this way of being so musically simple, but so well arranged and thought out. They find these incredible melodies inside the simplest of chord progressions. This song feels like an interlude on The Suburbs - totally different than the rest of the album. Great tune."

The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
"I love how when Pet Sounds was recorded it was so ground-breaking, and now it sounds like crap. But in the best of ways. The harmonies at the end of this song interweave like a really good dream, and when the song ends, it's like waking up from a good dream - you're happy about it, but sad that it ended, and then you spend twenty minutes thinking about it."

Radiohead - Gagging Order
"Great B-side. Nice to hear a stripped down Thom song. Little more for breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeakfast... Little more for tea. Just to take the eeeeeeedge off. The guy's got such an emotive voice, and it sounds so effortless. Lovely."

Aidan Knight - North East South West
"Aidan's a good friend from Western Canada. He's such a wonderfully natural musician and a great writer. I hope lots of people get to know his music. He's got this folk thing going, but he's in love with electric guitar tones. Makes for great moments."

Blur - The Universal
"Classic Blur tune. Love Damon Albarn's vocal performance in this song. The string ensemble lifts it up a notch too. Sometimes rock music should be epic."

Bob Dylan - The Man In Me
"This song is to The Big Lebowski what Jungle Boogie is to Pulp Fiction. With every cult classic favourite film comes a few gems from the past. Since The Big Lebowski, it's hard to hear this song without thinking of it."

Broken Social Scene - Guilty Cubicles
"From BSS's lesser known first album Feel Good Lost - which is mostly instrumental. More than anything, BSS has always had great guitar tones. Though I think their other albums are more important in the scope of modern rock, this first album is a go-to for solid background music with friends over or cooking etc."

Grizzly Bear - Deep Blue Sea
<"I remember when the Dark Was The Night compilation first came out. I was in an airport when a friend put headphones on me and turned on this song. Absolutely mesmerizing. An old Odetta cover. Grizzly Bear does this incredible potion of classic and contemporary sounds. Reminiscent of M. Ward. I love it."

Head to http://www.facebook.com/danmanganmusic for more on Dan Mangan.

2:44 PM | 29/07/2011