Movies of Myself

Every single day I can feel it chip chip chipping away.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

 

Another year of mini mixes come and gone! Oh my goodness. 

I hope all of you are having the very best of holidays. I wanted to say thank you once again for listening and for all your loving kindness this past year. Thanks so much for keeping the dream alive.

2010 is going to kick major ass. I just have a feeling, the kind I don't get often, of strange anticipation of sweet discoveries, grand goodnesses and adventures aplenty. I can hardly wait. And next year's music? It is going to blow our minds. Seriously.

Happy New Year, babies! Let's make it one to remember.

Mystery Zone - Spoon - From my second most anticipated album of 2010. Spoon, what would I do without you?

It's No Secret - The High Wire - A shiny bit of cleverness from an absolutely lovely album, a shimmery gem of a record. I expect to share much more from this London band in the months to come.

End Times - Eels - Hot on the heels of their last album, January will see the release of yet another recording from Eels. This title track is vintage Mark Oliver Everett. The world is falling around us, all we can do is hold on tight and keep on.

Adored - The Bravery - This is big, this is brash and it is most definitely the Bravery. Until Muse record something I can be on board with again, and until the Strokes and Interpol show me what they still got next year, I think this will do just fine.

All Time Greats - Eveningland

 

In the fall of 2004 I was struggling to find a home. Not a place to live. There were plenty of those and I tried to split my time evenly between them. But not a one of them felt right and I was quickly losing touch with what I wanted, what I was actually looking for. My days were nomadic and unsettled, restless and questioning. These weren't new circumstances by any means but the narrow and enigmatic roads they led me down were leading me only to dead ends.

Right at that time an album came to me, plucked almost at random from a Tower Records cd listening station (for that is still how I sometimes found music back then). It was Hem's Eveningland, and I fell hard for it instantly. It was love at first listen, a love that did not fade throughout the hundreds of times I must have listened to it that winter, through the weeks that found me deciding to transplant myself hundreds of miles north to a town that would not feel like home either, I knew, but which also would not carry the constant shadowy grief of wondering why that feeling could not be found. I found comfort in Eveningland again and again, something warm to cling to in all the tumult.

Hem is a collective of musicians, a melange of instruments, talents and musicality all blending to produce a sound that is pure exquisite Americana. It is folk music, but a kind that captures something timeless, somehow containing the innocent hope of childhood and the comforting, careworn wisdom born of experience and endurance. Singer Sally Ellyson's voice is as lovely as a sweet dream, the prettiest of thrills. And the songs on this album are luminous poems. Your heart will recognize them, you will reach for them and gather them in. And maybe you will find a little corner amongst them to call home.

Hollow - Hem This is one of the most poignant love songs I've ever heard:

But I hear it in your voice, love.
The strongest sound I've ever heard.
Like water from a well so deep in the ground
I'll never thirst again.

The Fire Thief - Hem

Redwing - Hem

And all of a sudden I'm struck with an urge to unlock a door with a key that's too big for my hands.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

I've made a concerted effort to keep this holiday season as stress-free as possible, so I'll keep this brief. A cup of tea and a comfy chair are waiting for me after I pack my bag for an almost two week stay in L.A. 

I just wanted to share some wonderful and not so traditional Christmas songs with you and send a little cheer your way as you make your final holiday preparations. I hope we can also take a little time out to think of those less fortunate than us and how we can make this season a little warmer for them. I am very much looking forward to Christmas with my friends and family and I am counting every last blessing I have (including the existence of an Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas album).

That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! - Sufjan Stevens

25th December - Everything But The Girl

Feliz Navidad - Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Winter White - A Fine Frenzy

Any way you run, you run before us.

 

It's mother flipping baking time. This week I've been testing out the recipes I'm going to bake for Christmas Day with my family. I've decided to make three new cookies this year, so a trial run was deemed expedient. I hope my co-workers are in the mood for cookies.

I always listen to holiday music when I bake for Christmas, but today was such a bright and sunny day here it just didn't seem to fit. Today reminded me so much of all my beach trips throughout the year. The beach is my solace, my thinking and walking place, a little pocket of peace.

The same can be said for the music of a band called, fittingly enough, Beach House. I have been listening to them all day. They make a beautiful, sweeping dreamy wave of sound, a breath of soothing melody that fans all around you.

Beach House's new album Teen Dream, is a work of genius, almost outlandishly pretty. Set for a January 26th release, it is somehow perfect for both the balmiest summer afternoon and for the heart of winter. I can't wait to listen to it throughout all the seasons of 2010.

Zebra - Beach House

Lover Of Mine - Beach House

Better Times - Beach House

Holidays Incoming

Okay somehow, and I really don't know exactly how, Christmas is now less than seven days away??

I don't want to jinx myself, but I really believe this will be the first year I won't be running around frantically on the 23rd, trying to finish up last minute gift shopping. This is mostly because I am working all day and then flying out at night, but hey, it still counts.

To do this weekend: bake cookies, watch Love Actually, wrap, feel Christmas-y.

Donna and Blitzen (About A Boy O.S.T.) - Badly Drawn Boy

It's such a pleasure to touch your heart. I can hardly wait.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

Dang, you guys. I've gotten so used to writing this music post that it was a little unsettling not to put one together last week. Bless you Mini Music Mix, you sweet little thing. In the interim, I've already started to listen to some 2010 albums, one of which is highlighted here. We have a lot of catching up to do, kids.

All of the songs for this week capture the sound of winter for me. I've not yet reached that tipping point where I just give in and listen to Christmas music all the time. But what I do want right now are songs that make me feel like I am standing at the window, looking out on a cold day, sheltered from some sort of approaching storm.

Gentle Hour - Yo La Tengo - This. This is almost unbelievably soft and tender, like the first snowflakes that brush your eyelids right as they begin to fall.

The Snow - The Eastern Sea - The melancholy of winter always creeps up on me. One minute I'm bustling around trying to ready everything for Christmas and suddenly I'm devastated by seasonal sad afflictions. This song reminds me to keep moving on, no matter how blinding the storm may be. Highly recommended.

So when you come home in the evening
And you're too scared to go to bed.
Don't tell them all that you're staying
And don't you say you're dead,
cause baby you're not dead.

I Remember - Yeasayer - Holy handpies, you guys. If Odd Blood, Yeasayer's latest album slated for a January release, is anything to judge by, 2010 is going to be a ridiculously good year in music. Songs like this one are a pure, exhilarating breath of air. This is big and beautiful, everything I wanted from this release.

Hazelton - Justin Vernon - I'm going to make Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) a little gilt crown and mail it to him for Christmas. Dude is like king of winter sound. I don't know how I ever got through a December without him. This little jewel, this delicate force of a song, is the title track from an EP recorded right before Vernon went into the woods to make For Emma, Forever Ago. You can hear the seeds of that album peeking through the frost-covered ground of this song.

Best Car Ever

Just saying is all. Best car EVER. 

Hotdog - Simian Mobile Disco

Watch, Look, Listen - Music Video Roundup 2009

I hope you guys have all been enjoying this year's Top Ten albums list! I've put together a few other year end Best Of collections to share with you and first up are some of my favorite music videos. Now, considering how much I love music, I find that I have basically zero patience for most videos. So if I can not only sit through these but love them time and again, you know they are some good watching.

1) "In My Eyes" - Pistol Youth, directed by Isaac Rentz. If you are a Golden Girls fan you have GOT to watch this. Or actually, maybe you'd best leave things be. This video is horrifying, hilarious and madly brilliant.

2) "Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear, directed by Gabe Askew. This is not a music video. It is a tribute to the senses, an adventure of the mind. Gabe Askew is a Grizzly Bear fan who made this unofficial video out of sheer appreciation for their music. I am in complete awe of this work and how it brings an already gorgeous song to life. If you watch only one music video this year, let it be this.

3) "Pon de Floor" - Major Lazer, directed by Eric Wareheim. NOT safe for work, I repeat, NSFW. Unless you are a pole dancer or you work in some girl's panty room. This crazy thang kind of blows my mind, it is just that freaky. Not safe for work, but quite safe for dancing.

 

4) "Paddling Ghost" - Dan Deacon, directed by Natalie van den Dungen. Oh, how I love cute little puppets! This video is full of them. Pirate ghost puppet. Dan Deacon puppet! The animation suits this lively and spirited song perfectly.

Top Ten Albums of 2009

Happy listening :)

10) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix

Lasso

There isn't a single supernumerary second on this album, these guys are so tight and so damn skilled. Just nine short tracks bursting with good energy and good feeling. Also most definitely the best album title of 2009.

9) The First Days of Spring - Noah and The Whale

I Have Nothing

I spoke previously about what a complete heartbreaker this one is and how many buttons it can push almost instantaneously. This is for anyone who's ever had everything fall to pieces and lived to tell the tale.

8) Middle Cyclone - Neko Case

Middle Cyclone

Another amazing effort from my darling Neko Case. The whole album is glorious but this title track is especially moving. The most delicately beautiful piece of melancholy I've heard in ages. Don't tell me you can hear this and not love her instantly.

Baby, why am I worried now?
Did someone make a fool of me
before I could show them how it's done?

I can't give up acting tough.
It's all that I'm made of.
Can't scrape together quite enough
to ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love.

7) It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Hysteric

This is the album I always thought the YYYs could make. No, wait - it is that and SO much more. It's Blitz! has gotten better with every listen and is something anyone and everyone would love. I bow before the genius that is Karen O.

6) Bromst - Dan Deacon

Slow with Horns / Run for Your Life

If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that a Dan Deacon album would be on my top ten list, and so high on it at that, I would have slapped their mama. But this album isdensely layered, marvelously full of life, and absolutely irresistible. It's as if you set Sagas of Icelanders to electronica music. Damn. Also, whoever is playing the piano in the last three minutes of this song deserves a freaking blue ribbon. Brilliant.

5) Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

Foreground

This album is like a dream where anything can happen, and sometimes will, if only you can let go of the past and the future. I believe their sound right now is inimitable, and inscrutable and nebulous has never sounded so good. This album closer is a perfect example of Veckatimest's spellbinding elegance.

4) Manners - Passion Pit

Moth's Wings

You know, there is a certain power in an album that just makes you feel good the whole time it's on, that makes you want to sing and dance and forget everything else that's happening. Manners has that power in droves. It's all handclaps and high notes and g.d. great times. This album colored in my whole summer and defined a big part of the year for me. xoxo

3) Aim and Ignite - fun.

Benson Hedges

fun. have a message and it is to be as real and honest as you possibly can be, and to tell a fucking good story and set it to great music at the same time. I am a firm believer in this message and I'm on my knees, singing their praises, newly and truly converted. This album is dazzling listened to in order from beginning to end. I highly recommend the experience.

2) Two Suns - Bat For Lashes

Glass

I have such an intense girl crush on Natasha Khan it's almost embarrassing. She is just a complete force of nature and this album swept me up entirely, flooded me with feeling. There is an almost earthy world music sound about Two Suns and when you combine it with her voice (oh god, that voice!) the results are intoxicating. This album has been such an inspiration, reminding me to be as I choose, right here and now.

1) Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

Summertime Clothes

Love, love, complete love. That's what I feel for this album. It wasn't immediate and it wasn't always easy, but something in it kept me listening and one day I turned it on and realized that I'd fallen for it heart and soul. There's just something about this sound that reverberates with me on endless levels, beyond what most music is capable of. Animal Collective have managed to capture a feeling of infinity.

After dozens and dozens of listens I feel like I've only begun to tap the ray of light that is Merriweather Post Pavilion. Each song on this album is layer upon layer of artful, luminous goodness. And I swear each song is as strong as the next. There are very few albums that can give this much and I can't wait to keep learning its secrets.

I get so low I need a little pick me up. I get so high I need a bring me down.

Best of the Rest Volume 2

I rediscovered a true appreciation for the album this year. Albums listened to from start to finish without interruption, albums that complete a whole story cycle . I'm proud to have spent more time with the headphones on, really putting the songs front and center instead of just having them on in the background.

I've also placed less of an emphasis on lyrics this year. I still adore a great lyric, but it is no longer the first thing I listen for and, while I still wish I knew much more about music theory, I think it has made a difference. 

Again, these songs are all from albums which were this close to making it into my Top Ten albums list. Each of one of them is a wonderful thing.

Tremble And Tear - John Vanderslice I really think this is Vanderslice's best work yet. He has a remarkable way of finding and describing the profound moments in the most ordinary day.

Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time - Fanfarlo If you're looking for beautifully crafted indie pop songs that sparkle and shine you've come to the right place. Solid.

Dark Days - You Say Party! We Say Die! Oh my god do I love this song. Love its darkness and its light. Love how loud and bright and sexy it is, love its determination to overcome the quiet thread of desperation underneath.

Stars of Leo - M. Ward Here's the thing, it is nigh on impossible to touch the feelings I have for M. Ward's last album. He's made a very nice follow-up, but this song stands out because it hearkens back to my favorites from Post-War. Great guitar work.

You go on ahead for a while. I would like to just follow you a while.

Best of the Rest - Volume 1

  

There will be two Mini Music Mixes this week and the first will highlight four of my most listened-to songs of 2009. These are seriously amazing tracks which I stand firmly behind. Each of one them was played a minimum of 75 times by yours truly but they stayed as fresh and true as they were the first day I launched them in iTunes.

These are all reposts from earlier on in the year, so you might be familiar with them already. But if you skipped over them previously, or if you came aboard partway through 2009, trust me, you're gonna want to hit these. All four of these songs are from albums that barely missed the cut for my Top Ten albums list, so I want to tip my hat to them right now.

As always, the songs are playable right here on the page or in RSS and you can also right click (or double right click depending on your browser) on the individual songs to save and enjoy them at your leisure.

You Go on Ahead (Trumpet, Trumpet II) - Sunset Rubdown This song? This song right here? It's my favorite song of the entire year. Yes, that's right. Best Song. I wish someone would drive alongside and film me when I'm listening to this in my car. You've never seen such a whirlwhind of air xylophoning.

From the quirky, glad instrumentation to the lyrics which are a storyteller's dream, I love every single second of it. The imagery is just deliciously expressive. I'm not quite sure what it's about, which means it can be about anything you want.

I'd like to throw this trumpet down and go on empty handed
and I'd like to think I am not one of them, but I know I am
so I'd like to just follow you a while.

This is the best kind of fairy tale. Spencer Krug's singing is extraordinary on this and if you aren't singing along at the top of your lungs by the end, "And I'll appear before you virgin white if virgins are still chaste", then bitch, please, I don't even know. And I don't know want to know.

Fireweed - Patrick Watson This song is pure, mesmerizing magic. It reminds me that there are parts of our lives painted with fate, brushed with mystery, things we won't ever truly understand and never should.

Orange Shirt - Discovery "Orange Shirt" kicks off a remarkably fun indie dance pop album that fell into my lap at the perfect time. It helped me regain a lot of my cool when I needed it the most and became my go-to ready to rumble song. Let's groove tonight.

Warning - Great Northern This band's music makes me close my eyes and feel a tumbling rush of many, many feelings. That's what the good ones do, you know? But this song does that especially, maybe because the feelings are such a perfect combination of bittersweet gladness. This album is not to be missed.

Support good music:

buy Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer / buy Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms / buy Discovery - LP / buy Great Northern - Remind Me Where The Light Is

Private Universe

Sometimes songs are meant to find you. 

I actually don't receive many music recommendations. I spend so much time seeking and spreading new music, and my friends aren't sure if something has already passed through my speakers. But there's only so much I can scrounge up on my own and a lot of artists end up falling through the cracks. So when someone says they have a song they think I personally would like, you bet I'll listen close. 

Two songs were given to me recently that I felt a deep and immediate connection with. They spoke to me so plainly and unequivocally it's as if they arose from own personal story; the soundtrack to my life. A big thank you goes out to my friends Michael and Sean for sending them my way. They are very much exactly songs I would love and I can only wonder at the luck and the goodness that allowed me to hear them. I hope they will speak to you too. 

The Beacon - A Fine Frenzy

All the Western Winds - The Rocketboys

Look around at everyone.Everyone looks alive and waiting.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

 
A happy, happy Thanksgiving to all my American peeps out there and warm wishes to everyone else, too. We shouldn't need a specific day to remind us to be grateful for love, friendship, family, hope and, of course, great food. But it never hurts to take a little time to reflect on these things. I hope that this finds you happy and well, no matter where you are, full of goodness and surrounded by beauty.

I'll be cooking my usual Thanksgiving feast for family today and listening to a very special playlist all day long while I'm in the kitchen. I'll be making the final tweaks to my Top Ten Albums of 2009 list so that it'll be ready for your listening pleasure next week. Here's a last sampling of contenders from what has turned out to be a remarkably impressive year in music.

Surprise - Inara George She is subtle but oh, so powerful. Inara George's album is full of lovely, lilting contemplative pop songs. A complete delight.

January Twenty Something - WHY? I find it nearly impossible to describe the sound on this record except to say that the songs are complex, diverse and very, very good. WHY? have made something extremely unique, thoughtful and extremely listenable.

Chin Chin & Muck Muck - Devendra Banhart Devendra is back with another record straight from paradise. I especially love when he sings in Spanish, but all of the songs are charming tunes that just life the spirits. 

Cannibal Resource - Dirty Projectors Another badass album in the melodic experimental rock genre that I've been favoring so much this year. There's just some great stuff going on in this album. My one biggest musical regret of the year so far is that I didn't come to this record, Bitte Orca, sooner. I wish I'd had all year for it to sink in. 

Did you know that the world is a mountain? Did you know that one day we would meet on a hill?

 

When you are very young the world exists in this magical state of simultaneous vastness and nearness where the possibility of each place you will ever go and every person you will ever meet exists enchantingly close to the life you can actually touch, the pencils and the soccer balls, and running across a green field forever.

Then you get older and life somehow becomes shuffling steps, taking you down hallways through unspeakably beautiful days and utterly harrowing ones as well, and always the paths get a little more narrow and seem to branch off less. And before you even realize, you start taking shortcuts or keep circling the same little stretch over and over again, and soon you don't know which direction you're going in.

But there are moments still when every possible thing, every road that could open up, feels as close as warmth to a candle flame. When every just inexpressible hope is on the tip of your tongue.

A musician named Jonas Bonnetta who goes by the name Evening Hymns has released an album this month that is full of these moments. It is song after lovely song of remembering how connected everything is. Each track is a poem about getting the world close enough to touch again, and I highly, highly recommend it.

Lanterns - Evening Hymns

I'm gonna pull this string,
gonna pull it tight from both ends.
I'm gonna hear it sing,
it's gonna sing that everything's gonna be alright tonight.

Mtn. Song - Evening Hymns

This drink it will swallow me whole into the ocean
where I'll dig my heels into the floor for hundreds of years.
All your life it now lies sleeping so deep in the gallows
deep in the hull of my ship that I thought would be so easy so steer.

Spirit Guides is available now on Out of This Spark. You can hear more tracks from the album there as well. And a shout-out to the Eastern Canadians - Evening Hymns will be performing over the next couple of weeks in Ontario and Quebec. If you live nearby, don't miss it.

And What Was Left

For a song to stand out on an album as tremendous as Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, for the song to take hold of your ear and your heart and your very spirit when it is surrounded by 11 other truly remarkable tracks, it has to be something special.

"While You Wait For the Others" is that special. 

I've been listening to this song now for nine months. I've heard it hundreds of times and I swear, it just keeps getting better. I love its warm, lilting delicacy, its brilliant rising and falling cadence. But it's the end that really gets me. 

The final minute or so of the song is an uproar of beauty. Only twelve words are sung; three times the question is asked, "and what was left?" It is sixty five of the most intensely moving seconds I've ever experienced in music. It strips away every lie you've every told, everything you've ever done to betray your own self and leaves you with just what's true. That's what's left. By the time it's done I am a puddle of pure amazement. 

I have played this song and sang along when I have been brilliantly, sparklingly happy. And I have turned to it when I have been in the kind of helpless despair that you can't imagine ever getting past. "While You Wait For The Others" has found me angry, reflective and exuberant. It has seen me at both my best and my worst and it has always been right for either occasion. 

What I'm saying is, I think this song might very well be perfect. 

While You Wait For The Others - Grizzly Bear

Hard-hearted, don't worry, I'm ready for a fight.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

  

For the first time in a long time I've written an organized to-do list of things I need to make and design this week. I usually just wing it, but this week I'm determined to finish a superhuman amount of work, so on Monday I taped that damned paper up on my desk and I mean to stick to it. I've got the enthusiasm, the energy and the clear-headedness right now to shrink that long list down to nothin'. Hopefully I'll have some cool stuff to show you guys soon.

Ambling Alp - Yeasayer Yeasayer's second album will be out next year and this is our first taste of it. Dang, these guys can write a great chorus. If this song is anything to judge by, the record is going to be a wondrous thing.

Sentimental Tune - Tegan & Sara Unlike their past couple of albums, the latest offering from my beloved Tegan & Sara didn't hook me right away. Instead, it's sunk in day by day, blossoming with each listen, slowly bringing the comfort and familiarity that I always get from them. Love this track right now.

Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol I don't know why it embarrasses me a little to like Snow Patrol so much. Just because they went from true indie group to Coldplaying the hell out of themselves practically overnight doesn't make their songs any less sweet, catchy and infectious. This latest single is so very bright and beautiful.

Enter Me, Exit You - OFFICE This little indie rock band caught my attention a few years ago with their delicious blend of new wave hooks and twee pop sassiness. Their latest album, Mecca, finds them sounding as good as ever. Download Mecca in its entirety for free directly from OFFICE.

Wait

One of the most important things that photography has taught me is patience. It's hard enough to conceive the shot you want to get. Taking the time to try dozens of tiny variations in movement, angle and focus in order to actually capture it is another thing altogether. 

 

Because I am much better at starting things than at following through to their completion, the willingness to try and try again for my pictures has come as a surprise to me. I find the whole process almost magical. The little steps forward and back, the still mysterious panoply of camera settings, the slightest adjustments to the lens and then, the shutter clicking while you hold your breath suspended. One photo might be only minutely different from the last, but it will guide you forward along the path.

  

I love the trail of photos you make as you move closer and closer to the picture in your head. And I love the almost unconscious decision to keep going until you get what you want. Focusing the camera has helped me better focus my mind. I edit my writing more, try to be more careful with my speech and have become a little more apt at curbing the wild and dangerous turns my thoughts can take. 

And I have files and files of the shots that I truly wanted.

 

Wait in This Chair - Foreign Born

We could go kick down some doors together.

 

When I am older and grayer I sincerely hope that I will have the cacahuetes to go to Disneyland wearing an oversized glittery tiger sweater. That is a dude hanging with his granddaughter, btw. A dude who knows what's up. 

Paper Tiger - Spoon - A song which I'm sure Mr. Tiger Sweater would heartily approve of.

Lookin' so damn fly, send them corks through the sky.

 

Party people.

So the weekend is finally here, sweeties. Now, why don't you make it a good one by hopping on over to The Hood Internet. Their free Mixtape Volume 4 is available now and it is utter mashup glory.

Bon Iver + Friendly Fires + Aeroplane? Yes, break me off some of that. Think Kanye with Modest Mouse. Think Passion Pit played over "Back that Ass Up". This here's the real thing.

The small print: Mixtape 4 is horrifically addicting. It's the only thing I've listened to all week and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So get to it, and you can thank me after you've started dancing. Get it right, get it tight. xoxo

Tomorrow the sun will be brighter, the water will rise and wash us away.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

This week I wanted to send a huge thank you out to you all. To each and every one of you who stops by to check out what's going on my little corner of the world, who comes to share my excitement over wonderful music and food, who tolerates my rantings and ravings about the craziest things. You guys are truly amazing and I can't tell you how much it means to me. 

The past few years I've been working a lot on gratitude in my life and lately have felt an urge to try to express the deep-seated happiness and goodness that so many people and things bring to me. So I had 1,000 balloons printed and I am gonna use them to start telling folks how I feel. 

And I got so many damn balloons because I want you to join me! Don't you want to tell those nearest and dearest to you how completely amazing they are? Send me your mailing address (beckietran at gmail.com) and I will send you some balloons. All I want in return is the story of what is amazing to you. 

There's so much bad news and unbelievable difficulty everywhere we turn. Won't you help me spread some love instead, in the form of custom-printed latex balloons? :D

To go along with this, here are some of my favorite songs ever. Absolutely amazing songs.

The Latest Toughs - Okkervil River - If Okkervil River only ever recorded one song, and it was this song, they'd still be one of my favorite artists. An honest, fierce anthem that is somehow still full of hope. It takes a lot of talent to get you singing along to the words "and if you're crying to be tossed they'll toss you down the oubliette", but these guys can do it. 

Upward Over The Mountain - Iron & Wine - Sam Beam is like my fricking guru and I think this might be his prettiest song of all. I heard him perform this acoustic in a silent theater full of people who could barely breath because of how beautiful it was. Wistful, moving and endlessly gorgeous.

The Cedar Room - Doves  - Heck yeah, this song! If you can ride along with this song blasting in your car without singing along and feeling like you could do anything, then you are a stronger person than I.

Red Moon - The Walkmen - This one, this one is almost too much to talk about. It does strange things to my heart. Chokes me up and makes me feel everything, everything. When you hear this one, think of me, okay?
 

When we sleep, I keep the lights on.

One of the best compliments I've ever received was when my friend Nicole asked me to a birthday party a few years ago. I wouldn't know a single other person attending, and there would be quite an array of people there, but she invited me because I was "such a versatile talker, you could go with the flow anywhere -- at a presidential gala or at a pig roast." 

Now, this was especially touching because rarely had my long-windedness and puerile devotion to random and/or obscure topics ever been described in a flattering light. And you know, it really changed the way I saw myself. Instead of being just a shallow ditch of meaningless facts about serial killers and Pokemon (that's bad), I was perhaps a versatile and inviting conversationalist (very good!). So I started to embrace my passion for seemingly trivial knowledge, which in turn led me to a deeper appreciation of so many things, including my very own self. I never told her, but this little shift made such a difference. So wherever you are, Nicole, thank you thank you. I wish you peace and love.

In accordance with all of this I wanted to talk to you guys about my latest band crush, a British electro indie pop group called Wave Machines. Their songs are quite diverse and they deliver each one of them SO well. It's not varied as say, Atlanta rap followed by polka music, but they run the whole gamut of indie sound. They do fun sharp dance in a most addictive fashion, mix in some 70's disco crooning, then ease it on down to a slower, atmospheric sound to close things out. I'm thinking these guys can do anything and this is just their debut album. I am officially inviting them to this party.

I Go I Go I Go - Wave Machines

Keep the Lights On - Wave Machines

Dead Horses - Wave Machines

Wave If You're Really There is out now on Neapolitan records.

Somebody bring me back some money please.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix
 

Well, today is my first back at work after 11 days away. I can only pray that it doesn't involve MASS SUCKAGE. 

I'm guessing the possibility is high, though, because over the past two weeks I've been experiencing this late afternoon near-coma state which does not lend itself to productivity. My neck is still seized up like a prize-winning sailor's knot and now I feel like someone took a sledgehammer to my lower back. Glorious. 

So why don't one of you run along and bring me a whiskey sour with a Vicodin in it? Just kidding, just kidding! I've tried that before and it doesn't do shit.

On To the Next One (feat. Swizz Beatz) - Jay-Z This though, this makes me feel better. Did you guys know that the White House makes its visitor log public? And did you further know that one of the names listed is Mr. Shawn Carter? I'm not gonna preach my political views to you guys but, come on, Hova in the White House is a good thing. This is my favorite track off of The Blueprint 3. Catchy as heck.

Ambulance - Eisley Eisley are a family band from Texas who have been together since the members were children. I love them like crazy and dearly wish they had more than two albums out. Their vocals are exhilaratingly beautiful. This track is off of a new E.P. called Fire Kite and Eisley look to release a new album next year. Yay!

Little Moon - Grant Lee Phillips I first heard Grant Lee Phillips as an opener for Neil Finn and have looked forward to his releases since. He's a singer/songwriter of the most classic leanings and his smart, sweet dulcet meanderings are always a pleasure. This is the title track from his latest album, a highly recommended effort.

Possibility (New Moon OST) - Lykke Li A song from the gallingly good soundtrack for the latest Twilight movie that perfectly showcases the lush icing sugar of Lykke Li's voice. In the singer's own words describing the song: "Love is a serious matter when it's real. It's blood and it's death. But it's also life, ain't no other way around it."

The Reeling

The other day my friend was telling me how simultaneously intrigued and repulsed he was by Chia Barack Obama and it reminded me of a time years ago when I was living part time in the House on Gainsborough.

I tried unsuccessfully for weeks to buy an original Chia Pet. I went to several branches of Long's Drugs, but they only ever had Chia Tasmanian Devil which, let's just face it, is like probably the worst Chia besides Chia Guy. Finally I compromised by picking up a Chia Gourmet Herb Garden, god knows why because there was nothing remotely Chia-esque about it and it would've been much cheaper and rewarding to grow herbs in regular pots.

One day I got a call from the Jangers saying that the House on Gainsborough would be fumigated for termites the next morning (I wasn't staying there that week.) She assured me that all my clothes, books, craft supplies, etc were safely covered and stored away and that the house would be inhabitable  again shortly.

I didn't give Chia Herb Garden a thought until the day I went back to the house and saw the shoots, which had finally attained a respectable cutting height, wilted to a pathetic huddle from a week of dehydration. Not that I'd recommend eating fumigated herbs anyways unless you want extra limbs growing out of your kidneys or something. But that was was my first and last Chia experience and I always regret that it didn't turn out better.

I picked up the terra cotta dish of dead Chia greens and walked it out to the trashcans. On the way I freaked out upon seeing several crows sprawled dead on the lawn, also victims of the fumigation. I squeaked and jumped up straight in the air, only to trip over another lifeless bird which was on the driveway and land on my right knee, tearing the hell out of my favorite jeans before ending up almost eye to eye with yet another enormous dead bird several feet away. That was a strange and sad day in Beckieland, completely forgotten until now.

It makes me wonder what other things lie hidden away in my mind, ready and waiting to bloom back into consciousness with a hint of a spark and some patience.

The Reeling - Passion Pit

Rosemary, heaven restores you in life.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

Not working really throws your schedule off, in the best way possible. I have no idea what day it is or what date. I only have a vague, loose list of the things that need to be done next: LACMA, Amoeba Records, a Hello Kitty exhibit, dinner at Bahooka's, Disneyland. Tonight's big project will be pumpkin carving. I've got my fingers crossed hoping that we can replicate the jack o' lantern goodness of the past two years. Hope you guys are all getting in the Halloween spirit, too, because I've got an eerie little mix for you this week.

In The Room Where You Sleep - Dead Man's Bones I'm not really sure why Ryan Gosling got it in his head to record songs with a children's choir, but it sure makes for an awesome Halloween album. The singing is otherworldly and marvelous.

Vampire of the West Coast - Ghost Bees A vampire song from a band with the word "ghost" in their name? What could be more apt? This is a beautiful track and I really think you'll like it.

Evil - Interpol Oh, damn. A slow, sultry stunner off of Interpol's amazing Antics. A dark and restless cunning shadows every song off this album, so while it is great listening for any day and every day, I especially love it for this time of the year.

Creature Fear - Bon Iver This song illustrates one of my favorite qualities about the Bon Iver album: the enigmatic and unsettling lyrics. It's open for so many interpretations. What tales will you spin from this gorgeous song for these darkening days?

Sunday Afternoon on the Beach

 

Maybe it's because I've been unfortunately self-absorbed and very immersed in work the past few weeks, but driving down to Southern California felt like shaking off a heavy load and stepping out into the sunlight for the first time in a long time. Sunlight like you'd find on a warm, busy day on Venice Beach. I like what you're showing me so far L.A. Keep up the good work.

Don't Stop The Music (Rihanna Cover) - The Bird and The Bee

Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it.

Oh my god, one of the satellite radio stations we usually listen to at work has recently morphed into pure awesome. It plays swoony hits from about 5 - 10 years ago and I simply cannot get enough of it. Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden, old school Mariah. Seriously check it out:

All My Life - KC & Jojo

Fading Like A Flower - Roxette

Flipping Roxette, you guys. Seriously, when was the last time you thought of them?? And when "All My Life" came on I kind of had a moment. I was walking up and down the hallway explaining, "this is my JAM, y'all. Close to me you're like my mother, close to me you're like my father..."

It's funny how you might dismiss pop hits as cheesy and lame when they're actually in the Top 20 but, after a few crucial years pass, you just adore them when you hear them again. My favorite flashback has been this song:

Back For Good - Take That

Whenever I'm wrong just tell me the song
and I'll sing it.
You'll be right and understood. 

Oh my god. SO heartfelt, AM I RIGHT?? Seriously, this song is so sing-a-longable. I think it's the teasing falsetto notes. LOVE you, song.

And as I was singing along, I realized for the first time that "Back For Good" has one of the best lines ever:

"GOT A FIST OF PURE EMOTION".

FIST of emotion, you guys. Epic. That is like, what I am feeling deep within my heart AT ALL TIMES.

And I can't stop saying it either. I was accused of acting the fool, when I know I have not. FIST OF PURE EMOTION. That's me.

Lots of people sorting things out with me at work before I leave for the week. It's making my head spin. "Can you ask me later?? I am a FIST OF PURE EMOTION right now." 

Yep. Amazing new macro.

Ooh, that dress so scandalous.

Okay, so my little sister got me hooked on the Fox show Glee. Admittedly, it was an easy sell since I was a member of both junior high glee club and high school dance team. Performer in the house, y'all.

I'm especially excited about tonight's episode though, for the following reason:

Audrey: Hey, what is the Thong Song?

Beckie: Why are you asking about that???

a: Will is going to sing it to Emma on Glee this week.

b: Oh my god, the Thong Song is only like the greatest yet stupidest song of all time. It's by a rapper named Sisqo and it is AMAZING. She's got dumps like a truck, truck truck. Thighs like what, what, what.

a: Woah, that's--

b: Baby move your butt, butt, butt. Thong, thong thong thong, THONG.

a: How can he sing that to her and have it make any sense in the storyline? I love this show.

b: The Thong Song ALWAYS makes sense, Audrey. Multi-purpose. Good for any occasion. Ooh, that dress so scandalous!

I am so stoked to finally see the Thong Song get the love that it deserves. Maybe people will finally start using Thong Song ringtones, as I'd hoped. Next comeback hopeful: Nelly's "Hot in Herre". Do it!

Thong Song - Sisqo

I wanna drink with you all night, til we both fall down.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

I wanted to finish up some painting and art projects and take care of some other loose design threads before I head down to L.A. next Monday. I will be there, away from Creative Suite, my new 100 pack of Xacto blades, and all my other supplies for a whole week, so I'm frantic to make the most of the next few days while I'm on a productive roll. 

So tell me why I decided at 6 p.m. that I wanted to bake sugar cookies and make royal icing from scratch and why it is now after midnight and I've finally finished this crazy impromptu cookie endeavor and have enough leftover frosting to choke a whale and I am mega tired and warm and happy and wildly sick of cookies. My co-workers better eat the shit out of these things. 

Low Rising - The Swell Season Oh, these guys. I just love these guys and was so happy about all the attention that Once received. This album has more slow soul on it than the Once soundtrack and that is alright with me. As he always does at his best, Glen Hansard channels Van Morrison and the results are fabulous.

Shelia - Atlas Sound This one's for fans of Animal Collective, Panda Bear, etc. It has the same resonant, layered complexity. The new wave of indie rock. 

All is Love - Karen O and the Kids I have yet to see Where The Wild Things Are, but I am absolutely smitten with Karen O's soundtrack for the film. It is full of hope, childlike innocence and unabashed energy. I can't imagine a more fitting album for this soundtrack.

Stuntin' Like My Daddy in Beverly Hills' - Weezyer Or, "what Lil' Wayne's rock album would sound like". Yes, it is an album of Weezy and Weezer mashups. Yes, it is bitchin'. And yes, it is available for free download here. 

Soon I'm going to wake up. Someone's going to bring me around.

 
Sometimes I think that it's Thom Yorke's world, and we just live in it.

Hearing Damage - Thom Yorke, The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack

Follow Me Around - Thom Yorke, Gagging Order Acoustic Recordings

4 Minute Warning - Radiohead

I'll be fine once I get it. I'll be good.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

Every little thing is coming together to show me that fall is here. It gets dark before I leave work and it is still agonizingly dark when I get up in the morning. And today we had our first rainstorm of the season, a real doozy. I got to use my new leaf umbrella for the first time - yay! 

But it's music that tells me first and foremost that the year is drawing to a close. I've already started working on my 2009 top ten albums list and this weekend I'm gonna go out and start buying some of the candidate records on vinyl. And still there is so much good new music pouring in. 

Pursuit of Happiness - KiD CuDi feat. MGMT & Ratatat I wasn't sure about the KiD CuDi album after the first couple of listens, but Carolyn's enthusiasm for it made me give it another go, and I am SO glad I did. Cudi's slick hip hop just came together for me and I'm especially loving on this inspiring collaboration. Best of all worlds right here.

When We Swam - Thao with the Get Down Stay Down The latest release by Thao and the GDSD is full of the sparkling, quirky, original sound that I've come to expect from her work. It's just so very diverse and interesting. Funky fresh :)

Careful - Paramore What can I say about the newest Paramore album except that it is all that I hoped for and more. They just have such passion and god, can they rock. When she sings "the truth never set me free, so I'll do it myself", it just kills me.

Blue Hotel - Ryan Adams This is not a new song, but would it really be autumn without some Ryan Adams? Who else can better usher in the long nights and the crisp, quiet days that have memories falling all around you like turning leaves.

You send a little love my way.

 

Maybe because Tegan and Sara's 2007 release The Con blew me away so completely, I find myself unfathomably excited for their upcoming album, Sainthood. Like, every single day I am giddy with anticipation.

Their songs just get to me, they go straight to the center of my heart, 0 - 60 mph in a single note; a fun, sweet, beautiful and WILDLY catchy note. I can't urge you strongly enough to check them out. They make the most honest music you've ever heard and it will show you both your strengths and your weaknesses. Their songs will blow everything wide open, if you have the courage to face yourself. And I know you do. 

Sainthood is out October 27th from Sire Records

Hell - Tegan and Sara from the new album, also streaming right now on teganandsara.com

Don't confess (this thing that breaks my heart) - Tegan and Sara from If It Was You

I Feel It in My Bones - Tiesto feat. Tegan and Sara

I don't even recognize the sound of your voice, the feel of your touch.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

One of my flickr friends has me all hooked up on True Crime books again. Couple that with the fact that I'm reading both Dracula and a huge volume of Sherlock Holmes stories and you will see why I spend my days and nights in overwhelming paranoia, expecting to be ended at any second in the most horrific and dastardly manner. I've gone from confidently strolling around my sweet, safe suburban neighborhood to running towards my car while I look over my shoulder. Yesterday I went to the ATM and berated myself for not owning a taser.

To combat this ridiculous level of fear, let's get our Rocktober on, shall we?

Graphics - Memory Tapes This song takes exactly one minute to build up and then it explodes into the most delightful chorus I've heard all year. Lovely, uplifting and dancetastic.

Going To The Casino (Tomorrow Night) - Philadelphia Grand Jury These guys are so much fun. This album would be perfect to listen to while you're on your way to a night full of endless adventures. The way they deliver the lines "Going to the casino tomorrow night. What could possibly go wrong?" makes me laugh every time.

Solid Gold - The Golden Filter In a year where dance music has gone decidedly indie pop, I love that the Golden Filter is still staying true to the club sound. Super hot track.

Ecstasy - jj      Now, what would happen if you took the Putamayo World Music Hour and blended it with a Carnival Cruise Line commercial and a Lil' Wayne sample? If you don't know, now you know. xoxo

When the morning comes, I have to fight.

I was reading recently about a little phenomenon called Rocktober. Now, Rocktober is a mindset, a carpe diem approach to life for an entire month. What are the things you've been meaning to make for a while now? What have you put off because you're too tired? What have you wanted to say, where do you want to go? Think of the things you "wish you had time for". Isn't there time to try at least one new thing?

Personally, I have two art projects I want to start and finish during October. I want to treat myself to a spectacular lunch at Slanted Door one afternoon. One night I want to dance until I feel like I'm flying. Those are a few of my plans for Rocktober. Now what do you want to do?

Whatever it is, let's make You Say Party! We Say Die! our soundtrack. The delightful Canadian group has a new album out called XXXX and it is spectacular punk-pop dance glory. XXXX is alternatingly raucous, dark and icy hot, but "Laura Palmer's Prom" is the prettiest New Wave song I've heard in a while. Their singer, Becky Ninkovic, carries it all off with aplomb. YSP! WSD! have made an album that is stunningly fun to listen to.  And it ROCKS.

There Is XXXX (Within My Heart) - You Say Party! We Say Die!

Lonely's Lunch - You Say Party! We Say Die!

Laura Palmer's Prom - You Say Party! We Say Die! --highly recommended

XXXX is available in North America through Paper Bag Records.

Heart like a four-poster bed. Heart like a canvas.

A picture, a poem and a song for autumn:

"Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell"
by: Marty McConnell

leaving is not enough; you must
stay gone. train your heart
like a dog. change the locks
even on the house he’s never
visited. you lucky, lucky girl.
you have an apartment
just your size. a bathtub
full of tea. a heart the size
of Arizona, but not nearly
so arid. don’t wish away
your cracked past, your
crooked toes, your problems
are papier mache puppets
you made or bought because the vendor
at the market was so compelling you just
had to have them. you had to have him.
and you did. and now you pull down
the bridge between your houses,
you make him call before
he visits, you take a lover
for granted, you take
a lover who looks at you
like maybe you are magic. make
the first bottle you consume
in this place a relic. place it
on whatever altar you fashion
with a knife and five cranberries.
don’t lose too much weight.
stupid girls are always trying
to disappear as revenge. and you
are not stupid. you loved a man
with more hands than a parade
of beggars, and here you stand. heart
like a four-poster bed. heart like a canvas.
heart leaking something so strong
they can smell it in the street.

I Like What You Say - Nada Surf

Sparkle, bubble over, in the morning all you got is rain.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

Hoo boy, it was windy today. Autumn has made a grand entrance into these here parts but you know what, Autumn? I ain't mad at you, because cooler weather means more hot beverages and that is not a bad thing in the least. 

I implore each and every one of you to go out straightaway and get one of those coffees where the barista takes a painstakingly great amount of time to draw you something beautiful in the foam topping which you will consume in 15 seconds. This simple leaf in my Blue Bottle cappuccino made me positively giddy with good feeling (or maybe that was just the kick ass coffee).

Speaking of good feeling, I wanted to mention an album that is so full of goodness: Josh Ritter's 2006 release The Animal Years. I have been so remiss where this record is concerned. It is superb; a strong, lyrical work of art. It's bluesy and folksy, full of longing and understanding and yet, I've never mentioned it once. For shame. Since I first heard it, The Animal Years has defined the heart and the soul that I look for in singer/songwriter albums. Here's a few of my recent favorite tracks in the same vein.

Mightiest Of Guns - A. A. Bondy 

Oslo - The Wooden Arms 

Fugitive - David Gray 

Girl In The War - Josh Ritter 

I recognized the voices talking in my head. I couldn't make out everything the voices said.

Do you ever forget about a song (or a movie, a memory, a person, even) for years and years and all of a sudden, out of the wild blue, it'll rise up and you think, oh my sweet golly, how could I ever have forgotten?

I've had to listen to this all day long to get it out of my system and now I'm passing it along to you, my dears:

Adelaide - Old 97's

I have not always been the most dedicated Old 97's fan, but Rhett Miller's voice on their ballads can catch me off guard and rattle the little rusty doors of my heart without even trying.

All Time Greats - Automatic For The People

This is the first post in a new (and hopefully continuing) series which celebrates my absolute favorite albums. These are my desert island discs, the ones that made all the difference. I hope you will love them as much as I do, and perhaps you do already.

We start with Christmas, 1992. My aunt said I could pick out any album I wanted for a holiday present and I chose R.E.M.'s latest, Automatic For The People. It was one of the very last albums I would buy on cassette. I remember being intrigued by the transparent yellow tape it was recorded on, a tape which I thoroughly wore down in the years following its purchase. That cassette lived in my Walkman for the next ten months. In fact it was basically all I listened to during the summer of 1993 and so it is indelibly tied to long, hot days and ponderous, sweltering nights.

It was a transitional time for me, fraught not only with the inevitable challenges of high school, but also with ups and downs at home. My parents were always at odds, at least that's what it seemed like the little that I saw them. I mostly lived wherever my grandparents did and I spent most of my time reading, writing and listening to music. I remember countless late summer evenings sitting out by the pool in the darkness, looking at the moon with R.E.M. and wishing I was somewhere else.

Automatic For The People was a popular album, with radio singles like "Man On The Moon", "Drive" and, of course, "Everybody Hurts", with which I'm sure you are perfectly familiar, even if you've never owned this album. It's a song which always seems to come on the radio at the right time, to reassure you that this too shall pass. 

But this album is best experienced in its entirety, as one engrossing tale from start to finish. Trust me, I've listened to the whole thing hundreds of times and it never gets old. As a naive teenager, I thought this album is what life must be like once you grew up. And I was right. The songs may reflect on a lifetime of experience ("Try Not To Breathe"), or on one evening's seemingly mundane events ("Nightswimming") but they give a sense of freedom and loss, of longing and peace. They say that no matter how weird and wearying the world gets, it is still worth loving.

Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.

Try Not To Breathe - R.E.M.

Find The River - R.E.M.

Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
All of this is coming your way

---.....---.....---.....---

Automatic For The People on Amazon Digital Download

Sometimes it's nothing to believe in. Sometimes it's everything I see.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

When I first heard that M. Ward, Jim James from My Morning Jacket and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes would all be recording an album together, I didn't believe it for a second. Hello, what?? Some of my absolute soul deep favorite musicians working on one superproject called, of all things, Monsters of Folk?? Stuff like that doesn't actually happen. 

But now the album is here and oh, how magical it is. The songs are lovely and it is glorious to hear these voices, all of these astonishing voices, back to back and harmonized. Monsters of Folk, indeed. The album both contrasts and blends each of their styles and talents. This week's Mini Mix is a tribute to this album and to each of the artists that have brought so much to me in the past few years.

Poison Cup - M. Ward M. Ward's album Post-War was one of the main reasons why I survived the difficult second half of 2006. This opening track sets the scene for everything he has to say and for almost everything I've believed in since. It's one of those rare, powerful songs that make me want to smile and cry at the same time.

Hot Knives - Bright Eyes
 This is from the criminally underrated 2007 album Cassadaga. It is biting, caustic and beautiful. There are few singer/songwriters out there who can tell stories like this.

Golden - My Morning Jacket I've waxed rhapsodic about this band to an almost excessive degree. Here's my previous love letter to them. Each day I hope that life will go as easy and good as an MMJ song.

*****

Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.) - Monsters of Folk

Say Please - Monsters of Folk

I think we're superstars. You say you think we are the best thing.

Sometimes the words sound right in my head, but then so much is lost in translation. The trip from my mind down through my heart and out between my lips cuts the words all up so they're not always in the best order when I finally say them. It's so hard isn't it? For everyone to just talk to each other sometimes? How do you express passion and sweetness that make the whole world seem brand new. How do you explain grief and disappointment beyond what you'd ever imagined?

Well, the songs from the debut album by British group The Xx are trying. These are our kisses in the rain and the whispers that pass between us when the lights are off. These songs are our morning after and the days, weeks and years that follow. We're looking at each other through an open window. These songs are that window.

And what does it all sound like? Sultry shoegaze. Sexy, sexy dream pop. Like Stars with a little bit of Interpol thrown in. Indie flavored with r&b. Like this:

VCR - The Xx

Crystalised - The Xx

Islands - The Xx

The XX are touring extensively this fall in Europe and the U.S. Some shows will be in support of Friendly Fires --  this is not to be missed! The Xx from Rough Trade records is out now.

When our boots they hit the ground, they made a high and lonesome sound.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

Earlier in the week we had a huge, late night summer storm. Before the rains began I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, debating whether or not I should touch up my hair color again. Just like both my mother and father did before me, I have been going gray since I was eighteen (thanks a billion, genes!) All of a sudden I hear a hard, insistent knocking. Five solid knocks, then nothing. It is half past midnight, clear cold air is blowing in the windows. My heart leaps into my throat and I swear my eyes glaze over a little. I am awash with fear, for so very many reasons. I'm so nervous that I actually pretend that absolutely nothing has happened. I don't look through the peephole. I don't turn on the porch light. I don't even go near the door for a while. 

I lean in closer over the sink, pushing tiny sections of my hair from one side of my head to the other. I look myself in the eye and hear the first patter of drops hitting the leaves outside. And I think of the things that count. It pours buckets of rain for hours while I sleep. There is a storm drain very close by and that night it sounds like an ocean wave drawing in and out. Thunder claps call again and again and I start awake, then drift off again almost immediately.

In the morning every surface (including my car windshields, word) is sparkling. I am up early, and I step out my front door thinking on things I'm afraid of. At that moment it is absolutely nothing.

Blue Sea - Zoot Woman This is a slice of dreaminess from a fun, upbeat electronica group. The rest of the album is more danceable, but this is a breath of respite in amongst it.

Malachite - Division Day Malachite is copper carbonate, and this song is much like it. A dense mass of pointed sound, vibrant and hard, crystallized.

T.I. ft. Sigur Rós - Big Shit Poppin': Team Teamwork As evidenced by the dozens of hours I've spent getting down to Girl Talk, I am a sucker for a mash-up. Team Teamwork's rap and indie artists remixes are the cream of the mash-up crop. I start every morning out right with his Good-Ass Remixes album. Trust me, you do NOT want to miss Slim Thug feat. Iron & Wine.

High Lonesome - The Gaslight Anthem
 This is what I wanted, exactly.

There were Southern accents
On the radio
As I drove home
And at night I woke up with the sheets soaking wet
It's a pretty good song
Maybe you know the rest

Friendly Fires - August 23rd, 2009

So one hot Sunday night this past August, Steph and I went to the Glass House in Pomona to see a British indie synth pop band called Friendly Fires. The Glass House is a teeny all ages venue, as in their bar sells Orange Fanta and Ring Pops instead of liquor. I hadn't attended a show there in almost five years and I was a little worried once we arrived for several reasons.

1) Most everyone in the crowd looked awfully young. The kind of young where, if you asked them to name a classic tv show, they'd probably say Seinfeld. 2) Did I really think I could cut a rug with these kids? What if my body ran out of electrolytes halfway through the concert? and 3) I have an almost freakishly large personal bubble and can't bear to have strangers, especially hot, sweaty strangers, within two feet of me for very long at all. I had visions of collapsing in a heap of Friendly Fires fans as they pelted me with like Depends Adult Undergarments.

I'm slowly fretting away as it gets later and the band still isn't on stage, 30 minutes after their anticipated set time, and my Ring Pop has been worn down to a syrupy nub. Just when I'm about to swear that I'll never go to another dance band show again, the lights go down and the boys enter stage left.

Their lead singer, Ed Macfarlane, is beautiful and looks like he just stepped off the set of Gossip Girl. He has perfectly tousled golden-brown hair, the biggest blue eyes on the planet and is dressed in khakis and a perfectly tailored button down shirt. if I were to caption his photo I would write "an angel descends from heaven, ready for spring break in the Hamptons." We're all staring at the boys, wondering how these prepsters could possibly have produced this madly infectious music. And they're looking at our small, impatient motley crew (the show wasn't nearly sold out), probably wanting to walk right back offstage. Everyone is skeptical.

But then the music started and everything changed. Ed McFarlane starts dancing, and he dances like this:

 

Seriously. He's shaking it like I have NEVER seen it shaken before. Not just for one song, but for the entire night. He's putting every dirty dancer, everyone who's ever freaked like a freak on the floor, to utter and total shame. He's stuntin' like your daddy up there, from the very first second of the show, and all the while he's singing like his life depended on it. And the other band members are right there with him, playing as if possessed. Friendly Fires are a maelstrom of joyous beats and positive energy. "Come on. I want to see you guys dance," McFarlane says, pointing at all of us.

And dance we did. We sing along, wide-eyed and wondrous. With a hive mind we press closer together, closer to the stage and we dance like there are tropical fire ants in our pants. For a brief hour all of us are beyond age and place, above all our worries and the dull weight of our daily routines. All that exists is music that make us feel completely alive and the boys on stage who are there to give it to us. 

The fear is falling away.

Keep breathing, keep searching
Keep holding on.
Keep breathing, keep living
Keep holding on.

Jump In The Pool - Friendly Fires

Lovesick - Friendly Fires

Skeleton Boy - Friendly Fires

Original and Expanded versions of their self-titled debut album are available now.

And it's the darkest side of my heart that dies when you come to me.

Last week I started the task of listening to all the loose songs I've download from various music blogs since January. I tend to favor whole albums, with the exception of an occasional hip hop single, so I had a playlist of 100 random songs to go through.

Well, I didn't make it very far at all. Only a handful of tracks in, these two songs from The Middle East came on and they've kept their steady hold on me ever since. The sound is very reminiscent of two bands whom I love and have raved about here before: The Acorn and Horse Feathers. There is so little information available about this Australian band, and it appears that their only release is a brief EP.

I can tell you that it's beautiful folk music, sweeping and wistful, telling little stories about life woven up in pretty tunes that make your heart ache. They have male and female vocals, both ridiculously gorgeous. I sincerely hope the Middle East are recording more music.

Blood - The Middle East

The Darkest Side - The Middle East

The Recordings of The Middle East is available on Amazon.

Summer grant us all the power to drink on top of water towers, with love and trust and shows all summer.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

 

It's September, and so my heart tells me it's not really summer anymore. All the students I know are back in school. Moon festival season has descended upon my family. And the light and the air alter themselves a little more each day, starting to darken from summer's sunny yellows into the golden hues of fall. 

My mind though, it's got a bad case of the summer lazies still. I've been meaning to fix my sewing machine for oh, about two months now. Always just on the verge of doing it. And each morning I've got nothing to wear. There's plenty of clothes in the cavernous pit that is my closet, but most of it needs to be ironed or hand-washed or altered, etc. Getting to that real soon, too. All I care for this week is happy little craft projects and tv shows on my recently renewed Netflix account. Good food, chilled white wine. Books, books and more books. And summer songs, summer music and the feeling of bright-eyed confidence they bring. As my peeps The Hold Steady say, "let this be my annual reminder that we can all be something bigger."

A Summer Song - Chad & Jeremy (Rushmore OST)

Dear Summer - Jay-Z

Summer Crane - The Avalanches

Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady

And lights flicker out before the rising sun. There you will see them following the meridian.

You know how in art house films there are always important messages about mortality and these lessons will often present themselves during a haunting dream state interlude which you know is just a dream because everything is at once hypnagogically vague yet honest and focused at the same time, and the scene lives as a recognizable reflection of how your heart speaks, how your soul knows and how your mind hears? It is something you have been, something you always are in a small way, aware or not, somewhere above or underneath.

I have found the soundtrack to that. It's like Grizzly Bear and the Kings of Convenience got married and there were unicorn rides to the reception. The very first time I played the opening track off Sleeping States latest album, In The Gardens of The North, a part of me greeted it like I had known it forever.

This record and its predecessor, There The Open Spaces, are tremendously beautiful and I give them the highest of recommendations. I think you will love them.

p.s. This post is dedicated especially to the Pittsburgh Three. Jen, I think even Chloe would like Sleeping States ;)

Rings Of Saturn - Sleeping States

Gardens Of The South - Sleeping States

Contact Lunacy - Sleeping States

As I wander from the scrublands of my mind
to the mountains of my heart,
taking in the sounds around me
figuring out the boundaries,
I begin in these forced surroundings
to develop a touch of lunacy.

You're saying it's harder to know what I'm thinking
and I'm starting to wonder myself.
Remember last night when I was smiling?
You asked me what I thought
and I just wanted to dance.

Have you ever wondered about our old nu-metal friends and what became of them?

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

I really wasn't expecting it, but there are SO many good albums out this year, especially in the last month. I have been listening to an incredible amount of music lately. Most of the things I download merit many repeated listens and before I even feel like I've given something its due time, another handful of releases are ready to go. It's exciting stuff.

At Least I'm Not As Sad (As I Used To Be) - fun.
 I was a latecomer to the spectacular goodness of a band called The Format. I didn't start listening to them and loving them til after they called it quits in early 2008. So I was very much anticipating this new project from one of their previous members and I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Upbeat melodies and clever, heartfelt lyrics, most of them autobiographical. You can't beat that combination.

My Girls - Animal Collective
 I downloaded the latest Animal Collective album on January 5th of this year and, I'll admit, it was all just mindless noise to me at first. Then around May I listened to it again. Okay, i was starting to get it. This was fantastic music. Last week I put it into rotation again and hot damn I fucking love it to bits and pieces. My brain wants to hear it constantly and try to understand it more each time.

Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker - Girls
 Girls, I haven't quite figured out what you're doing yet. Every one of your songs is pretty different, with a sound that incorporates so many things and that goes in so many directions. It's lo-fi everything coming out of San Francisco.

No More Pirates - Chris Garneau This dude is making lovely theatrical pop in the vein of my beloved Rufus Wainwright. His voice is even more geared towards the whole chamber pop genre and he uses it very effectively. This is off of Garneau's latest album, but I urge you to give his debut, Music for Tourists, a listen. Lovely stuff.

Fifty pound bag of flour, generator lost its power. All the milk is going sour. Get the wine.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

 

For the last couple of years I've been living life as a morning person. My insomnia drifted away and, while I was still going to bed at around midnight or one a.m., this was such a vast improvement over my sleeping habits of the past two decades that I started getting up at an alarmingly early hour. Voluntarily up at like seven or eight everyday or some shit like that. Even on the weekends. 

But it was all a sham. I've had to be at work every day for the last few weeks starting at about 7:45 in the morning, necessitating my alarm clock to ring at about 6:30, leading inevitably to my desire to machete everyone in the face because this is not working OKAY?? Going to bed earlier does not help. I could get 16 hours of sleep, but when that alarm goes off I wish with a soul-deep desperation that something heavy will land on my head so that my concussed self will be unable to leave bed. Well, things have finally started falling into place, and tomorrow I get to report at about 9:00 or 9:30 as I'm used to. Yesssss. Bet you didn't see that one coming, morning!

Pon de floor' feat. VYBZ Kartel - Major Lazer
Oh, this song! To quote the inimitable Montell Jordan, this is how we do it.

Watch The Waves - Taken By Trees Taken By Trees is the latest project for Victoria Bergsman, lead singer for the Concretes, and best known for her vocals on Peter, Bjorn and John's "Young Folks". She has a voice that's a cross between Hope Sandoval and Lykke Li and yes, that's as wonderful as it sounds. The latest TBT album was recorded entirely in Pakistan and it's just a delight.

Hard To Be - David Bazan The title track off the Pedro the Lion lead singers' first solo album. It is a deep and profoundly thoughtful exploration of lost faith, set to beautiful music. He's really an amazing lyricist.

Sour Milk / Salt Water - Port O' Brien Because of my love of all things nautical and because this is a great, great song.

I hope it's gonna make you notice.

Steph pointed out something to me on the way to the KOL show at the Forum in L.A.: Kings of Leon are our only true active rock band. Neither of us could think of a single other group we liked that could actually be classified as a straight up rock band. Others were definitely rock-based, but with too much indie or electronic or pop stylings to actually count.

The Followills (the band is three brothers and a cousin) have no mind to cross over into any other genres. They are neither overly clever nor risky. They're good ole boys. They love pretty ladies and beer. And they came to play and sing and sweat and that is that. Kings of Leon aren't skinny jeans or electric vehicles or lyrics inspired by beat poets. They are bourbon on the rocks, steamy makeouts in the backseat of the car and getting the shit kicked out of you in the parking lot behind the bar. Probably in that order. They are catchy as hell and they sound entirely American. They bleed American.

And the crowd goes wild for it. Let me tell you, I have never heard an audience cheer like they did between the main set and the encore last Saturday at the Forum. Insane, deafening screams the whole time. And the majority of the crowd stood and danced for the duration of the show even though it was a seated venue. It was dumbfounding.

And it was very similar to the first time I saw Kings of Leon, at the Warfield in San Francisco. That was a much smaller venue, but it was full of ardent fans, each and every one of them out of their minds with happiness to be seeing KOL. Every single attendee (yours truly included) was on their feet the whole night, singing along with everything they had. The whole experience was infectious and moving, not unlike the atmosphere inspired by an especially charismatic preacher at a tent revival. Church of KOL. The pretty and petite little Hispanic girl standing next to me was so giddy with joy she threw her arms around my waist during the opening bars of "Taper Jean Girl". I can't explain my excitement when they played my favorite song, "On Call". Just think of 2,300 people singing at the top of their lungs together, "If you'd call me now baby, I'd come a running."

It is so rare that the audience reaction to a very well-played live show is what absolutely makes a night. When it happens, it's magic.

Taper Jean Girl - Kings of Leon

On Call - Kings of Leon

Use Somebody (RAC Remix) - Kings of Leon

That's a pill that you've got to take. I won't rest until you take it.

Mid Week Mini Music Mix

 

I don't know if it's just my general relief at feeling less stressed or if it's my genuine gladness at having my mood take such an upswing this past week, but I've got so much good energy the past few days. It is awesome. Reckon I could really tear shit up right now. I'll be down in Southern California this weekend for a couple of concerts and some quality time with a sausage-pie loving puppy's household. L.A., you best watch your step.

Psychic City - YACHT
- There is something almost indescribably wonderful about this song. Something so quirky, strange and cool, it is really like nothing else. And it's also SO danceable and singable and therefore, immensely enjoyable.

Burn (You stupid Bitch Remix) - Nine Inch Nails
 - Sometimes you just need to crush it like this. Epic remix.

The Feel Good Drag - Anberlin
 - Don't think you can get away with anything. Anberlin saw you and they are pointing fingers. Love this song.

I Luv the Valley OH! - Xiu Xiu
 - Not for the faint-hearted. Xiu Xiu never is, and admittedly they frighten me a little (especially live) but this song is sweeping, angry, passionate and very memorable.

Oh, cause blue skies are coming, but I know that it's hard.

Each year there seems to be one album that strikes such a deeply emotional chord with me that I can barely stand to listen to it.

Now, I'm not talking about the Timely albums, the ones that come along when you experience some big life change and seem to know exactly what you're going through and exactly what to say to you. I've had my fair share of those (i.e. Death Cab's Transatlanticism, Tegan & Sara's The Con) and I treasure them. But the Timely albums you want to hear non-stop. In fact, you listen to them exclusively and ignore everything else. It's painful, but cathartic. It helps get you through.

What I'm talking about is a rare situation when, for no apparent reason, an album pierces me straight through the heart at the very first listen and just wrings me dry every time I hear it. I feel like the songs are just squeezing the carefully hidden and most defenseless parts of my being and it's simply gut-wrenching. That doesn't mean I don't come to love the albums. Last year it was The Walkmen's You & Me that did it, and that ended up on my top ten albums list for 2008. Still, just seeing the album cover sends my heart right into my throat, chokes me up without having to hear a note of it. 

This year I see the same thing happening with Noah and the Whale's newest, The First Days of Spring. The record title sounds so fresh and innocuously sweet, doesn't it? That's what I was expecting when I first set it to play a month ago. Yeah, about two minutes in I felt like they'd dropped a boulder on my head. I haven't been able to listen through once yet without completely losing my shit. But it is a tremendously good album and so I wanted to let you know about it, because I never tried to spread the goodness of You & Me last year and I regret that. These albums are worth listening to. If you can get yourself to listen. xoxo

The First Days Of Spring - Noah and the Whale

Blue Skies - Noah and the Whale

and in reparation:

If Only It Were True - The Walkmen

Tell me all you know, what was that old story that you told?

It's warm here this week in the Bay Area, though it feels only mildly balmy compared to the Southern California summers I grew up with. The days are still long and full of sunshine and make you feel like your road is long, that you'll have forever to do the things you want to do.

But oh, I can already feel autumn walking towards us, and soon it will peek its head around the corner to tell us this isn't true. And I wonder what life will be like in the fall. I hope it will be something like this stop-motion animation video for Australian band Firekite's "Autumn Story". It took six months to prepare the chalkboard drawings and film them and it is a thing of true beauty.

Feelings lived here once, before our time.

We hear the bells on every hour.
I will always love you.

Says she loves to dance,
and she loves red cross til the end.
We don't want these days to ever end.

Autumn Story - Firekites