BONA DRAG MIXTAPE VOLUME 9

Volume 9 is shipping with all orders starting today. This compilation became a collaborative effort with the help of our designers. All of the songs included are somehow related to our designers, whether they are in the band themselves or they introduced us to the particular song. Read more about volume here.

ONWARD

Danielle De Vincenzo is the designer behind Onward Into the Future jewelry. Her and her man Jeffertitti just had a great feature at Stylelikeu, in their home in Topanga Canyon. Danielle used to be a dancer, but she now spends her spare time behind the drum set in their band, Jeffertitti's Nile (which is on our current MIXTAPE).
Jeffertitti says "I've been playing music my whole life. I can play almost any instrument. I've taken lessons. I teach kids to play music, and that helps me learn. I teach them down the hill by the beach."
Danielle says "Scout is the best store in LA for vintage clothes. Whenever I go there I find the most amazing, magical things." We agree.. Joey at Scout has impeccable taste. Danielle actually used to design the Scout clothing line with Joey years ago.

mixtape volume 8

the new bona drag mixtape volume 8 is shipping with all orders starting today. this one is especially close to the bona drag heart cause it features a few bands of the designers we work with, such as open ocean (eviana from bodkin plays the drums), family band (kim krans is the singer/songwriter and the artist behind the wild unknown, (our) living sacrifice (carly margolis from all for the mountain sings and plays an array of instruments), and jeffertitti's nile (danielle devincenzo's band and designer behind onward into the future. plus, some great bona drag customers/and human beings in general like dan (and his wife) from the black keys. as well as some other amazing songwriters...
we used a polaroid photo by photographer/friend molly surno for the cd.
for the track list card, we used this photograph from the samantha pleet 2010 look book, taken by andrew de francesco. thanks samantha!

order today ($100 or over) and receive our new canvas army green tote for free!
p.s. how do you like our new future logo? created by the talented kim krans.

track 2 - mexico city

and back to the volume seven mix tape. this has got to be my favorite song on the whole cd. it's just beautiful.. she sings about the living and the dead and drinking booze.

she's a real sweetheart, that jolie. i'm not going to talk about every song on this mixtape. only the ones that mean a whole lot to me.

track 1 - don't throw me away

collecting songs for the bona drag mixtapes is a rewarding but very time consuming project... i have to find the perfect band, select the perfect song, email a hundred people and wait a hundred years for it to be approved, where approval rate is at about 10% since most labels have a no gratis policy. it could be a lot easier, but i don't want to settle with putting crap songs on the mix tape.
so i really love it when friends named peter mcbride help out with the initial process by emailing me lists of new bands to start listening to.
the mumlers were at the top of his list. fortunately the band and label were both super down to be a part of the compilation, cause i fell in love with this band and particularly this song. at first listen i thought for sure it was a cover written 50 years ago.. but no, it's an original, and timeless.
turns out, the talented peter designed the cd booklet. another cool thing about peter.. he made this tiny paper cut out collage of our cats, nova and pizza.
you can listen to the track "don't throw me away" on their myspage page here.
it might melt your heart.

THE BONA DRAG MIX TAPE - volume seven

the next mixtape is finally done! It will start shipping with all orders placed today. detailed track list coming up.

gold dust woman

new flair arrivals - my mother handmade some crochet medicine bags for us.
also just added a few stackable ring sets

track ten (the last track)

mattson 2 - met (featuring ray barbee)

the mattson brothers are local encinitas friends. they are so timeless and amazing live. and they always wear suits when performing which makes them sound even better.

track nine

julia hummer - bowling in woodstocki found julia on myspace. she's from berlin and unsigned... and i think she sounds great.

track eight

whispertown 2000 - i think you should know

"don't worry about a thing.. cause you can't help the way you sing". i love morgan's unconventional voice in these sweet songs.


here's another newer song and video..


The Whispertown 2000 - "Old Times" Video from Whispertown 2000 on Vimeo.

track seven

no age - teen creeps

a great noisy band from los angeles. see more here.

track six

vanishing system - m83 / we own the sky remix

my friends james and paul live in sf and are the vanishing system. this is a great remix of a great song. so fucking beautiful..

i wish i had a hilarious photo to put right here of that one time paul spent christmas with us he got peer pressured into swinging on the rope in the canyon while hungover and couldn't even hang on for more than one second and smashed himself real bad. not being able to hold in your own laughter is one of the coolest things ever.

track five

chelan - faultlinesi contacted the band waxfire for the mixtape, to find that they have broken up but reformed a new band with the same members, called chelan. turns out, the boy i was talking with happens to be the boyfriend of kime buzzelli. she painted their album cover, and they let me use elements of this beautiful cover for our mixtape cover.
summer machines available on itunes.

track four

silver jews - tennessee
can you believe i got permission to put a silver jews song on our mixtape? i sure can't. i'm going to send cassie some dresses to thank her. i don't care that she won't be wearing them on stage anymore.. if she wears them in her backyard on a lawn chain in tennessee that's good enough for me.

track three

the finches - last favor

a dreamy band from san francisco. they seem to be very lovely people too. their first full length is now out, called human like a house. hear them on myspace. one of my very favorite songs on the mix.

track two

emily jane white - hole in the middle
i just discovered emily jane white. i love an ethereal voice over blues/folky songs. kind of a cross between chan marshall and maybe edie brickell. 'wild tigers i have known' is a really great song too (listen to it here), but i couldn't use it because it was written for a movie of the same name, which now i really want to see. by cam archer, and it's about two teenage boys. here are a couple stills:
looks like it could be nice and jacked, just the way we like em.

track one

lissy trullie - self taught learner

i've written about lissy before, back when the only way you could listen to them was to click on their myspace page, but now you can buy their ep on itunes! it's only $5.94 for six songs.

she also happens to the be the girl making out in Sophomore's Spring look book..and harley, the bands bass player is the one modeling Sophomore's cut out dress:

bona drag mixtape volume 6

the sixth mixtape is out and shipping with all orders now. this one feels so much more special and personal because i got permission from all of the musicians to include their songs.. and it took many hours of searching for the perfect small-time bands (that also wanted to participate). it's nice having limitations sometimes. kind of like in art class when you are only allowed to use one color or you have to draw upside down.. you end up creating something extraordinary that you wouldn't have otherwise.

i'll be going through the tracklist, since all of these bands are definitely worth mentioning.

the new BD mixtape: volume five

shipping with all orders starting today. sounds like crisp autumn foreverness.

MIXTAPE - track sixteen, volume four

clarence "frogman" henry - ain't got no home

the last song on the mix. i have no idea what the deal is with clarence's different voices on this song, but i'm feeling it. john invented listening to this one a few months ago, and sometimes i feel like it's the best thing that ever happened to us. when it comes on, it makes everyone drop what they are doing, get stoked and start dancing.
the next time you and your dude/lady are being silently mad at each other after getting into a retarded argument, just put this song on extra loud and do the choreographed dance that you've been rehearsing. if they aren't laughing, break up with them immediately.