Each Monday I will release a new playlist to get your week started. I will hand select and order a list inspired by my week past, sounds I am looking forward to hearing and what I have most recently discovered and enjoyed.

Not only will you receive a curated list of tunes to spice up your morning, but this will be a more personal window into my life. The Mondaylist is a journal of sorts and with a few words hope to encapsulate why these sounds are meaningful to me at this point in time.

On Saturday evening my best friend and I attended a fantastic concert. One of the bands we cemented our friendship by listening to and loving was alt-j. Their late night show at Austin Music Hall following Austin City Limits was packed. We stood about 20 feet away from the stage in a diverse crowd of hipsters young and old.

I have never attended a concert where nearly every audience member is intimately familiar with the performers’ entire repertoire. Alt-j only has two albums and a cult like following, so they were able to easily rely on the crowd to supply lyrics, build up anticipation for particular works, and surprise and delight the audience with the subtlest modifications to their record.

They began the show with one of my of my favorite tracks of all time, and continued throughout the show to play the intros and interludes from their album that I know and love. For this Mondaylist I sought out other values intros and interludes and studied their contribution to the album as whole. In many cases I find myself enjoying the freedom from form and convention that intros and interludes allow.

Enjoy!