Listen!

I heard these guys on XPN this morning. First of all, Freelance Whales is the best name for a band. Secondly I adore their sound. Here's a brief clip of them performing in the subway in NYC. It's cut off at the end, but you get the idea. I think it's impossible to listen to this and not feel ... i don't know, "happy" doesn't seem strong enough. It's awesome.







Here's their myspace page if you're interested in more...

So good....

Goatliciousness.

You know how you never watch a show, but the two times you do happen to catch it, it's the exact same episode? That's what happened with me and Moral Orel. I don't know how the rest of the show is, and I don't remember much of that episode, but I remember hating what I watched. I mean, like everyone else, I enjoy some good depressing entertainment every now and again, but this made me want to kill myself. Granted, it was New Years Eve, so I was already in a bad mood, but... you know.

Anyway, it introduced me to the Mountain Goats who's song "No Children" was used during the episode. And now I think I love them. It didn't happen right away, it took a while for some pieces to fall together and make sense, but well... here we are.  Enjoy.

just discovered....

Fanfarlo covering Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane over the Sea

okay, first of all, why has no one told me about Fanfarlo before?

and secondly, more importantly, why have I never heard this song before?? I know of Neutral Milk Hotel, and know some of their songs quite well... but somehow this one has slipped by me again and again. But now that I've found it, I adore it.

Too long.

Been a long time! I should really try to keep up with this... it's just one of the many things on my "Things I should keep up with" list.

Saw Iron and Wine... or really, just Sam Beam








Did a few Polaroid Transfers



Tried out some Fuji FP-100C


Other than that, things have been going well. Outside of work and all...

I'll try to post more often.
Love you!

Things and Stuff: an update

I will be doing the World Cafe Live Arts and Crafts Fair on July 20th in Philly.

I love this book: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Saw Melody Gardot at the Sellersville Theater. Amazing. (Sorry Ant.)

Also love the Arrival by Shaun Tan.

I especially love this photo of the library at Holland House in London the morning after a boming in 1940.


As for the rest of the goings-on in my life... It's amazing how things can change.

I love you, Mr Ritter.

Ritter was amazing. That's all I can really say. Here's a post that pretty much sums it up. The videos are from the same guy.

Really... Amazing. Can't wait to see him again.

Jesus....

... it's been a long time.

To follow up my last post, 2008 held several more firsts for me and altogether was a most excellent year. 2009 opened with a whopper of a first and has started pretty craptasticly. But as "they" say, it can only get better, right? (Please someone tell me it can only get better.)

Almost odd how things have seemed to come full circle in this here blog. One of my last posts was about seeing the National at Messiah College, and I was THISCLOSE to seeing Josh Ritter at Messiah this coming weekend.... until I found he was playing just minutes down the road from my house only a few days later! Hooray! I'm insanely excited. But once again, I'll be going it alone. ...hooray...







ps. Josh, I know nothing about you as a person, but if you would be so kind as to fall in love with me immediatly, that'd be super. Thanks.

When ya gotta go, you gotta go...

...to a concert alone, that is.
I attended a National show this past weekend. I was all set to write a nice blog about it, but then I lost... well, let's just say I lost steam. So here are a few of the highlights. or at least I think they were. I only wish they'd done Geese of Beverly Road, or perhaps Lucky You, but that's okay... they played almost all my favorites otherwise. The videos aren't the best, but they ain't bad either!


They opened with Start a War

Apartment Story

Squalor Victoria, which I never really liked until I heard it live.

And they ended their second set with About Today... the perfect ending...



*Sigh* Happiness. Yeh, you people who bailed on me, you missed a good time. Especially when I knocked over a section of seats. I rock.

and i can't sleep.

Seriously, I'm in love with the National.









And I can't sleep.

Things that make me happy: part 4: Music

I think almost everyone will tell you how they love music and it's such a huge part of their lives. It's just how we work, I guess. Something we can all relate to in one way or another, be it the words, the melodies, or even the mathematical part of it (yes, someone tried to discuss this with me at length one time, and even though I could appreciate what he was saying I can't say I completely "got" it, I'm more the words/melody side). Did you know there's a branch of psychology dedicated to music and how if affects our behaviors, experiences, interaction... and junk? I guess it makes sense that there should be. But I never figured there was an entire branch dedicated to it.

Without going into boring details, my history with music is pretty sordid. There were some periods I'm still ashamed of. I'm easily influenced by people around me, which may account for it. After several years of drifting, I think I've found my niche. I credit my discovery of the Beatles at the age of 15 for helping me along the way. Of course I always knew who they were. My mom would always play "Birthday" for.. uh.. for our birthdays (that, and the Winnie the Pooh "Birthday Birthday" song) on our little Fisher Price record player. I don't even know what really prompted me to start listening to them later on, but I know around that time the Anthologies, Free as a Bird and Real Love were released. But I must have been into them before, because the first anthology was released on my 16th birthday, and I was incredibly excited about the coincidence. What I do remember is listening to the so called "white album" for what I thought was the first time, and realizing that I already knew the words. I don't know where I heard it, but someone once said the Beatles have become part of our DNA. And I think they're right. I also think they stole this idea from me because I've been saying it for ages. (I LOVE this video! I can't catch them anymore because my Beatles knowledge is slipping, but there are TONS of subtle references to songs and whatnot.)




So let's see, where to go from here? I have some perennial favorites, and some I'll forget about in a few months. I guess this is a bit of a hodgepodge of the two. And this is really only skimming the surface.

On the playlist: Some of these will be mentioned below, but for the one that is not ...

The Engine Driver by the Decemberists -- Completely obsessed with this right now. It's almost as bad as when I was obsessed with Rufus Wainwright's version of "Hallelujah". (interesting bit of trivia, Rufus's version was on the earlier versions of the Shrek soundtrack, but now it's the John Cale version, which I believe is also the one heard in the film. I don't know why it was changed. Rufus' version is better.) (On another side note, the Shrek movies also make me happy. They're awfully cute. And all message-y. And funny. Well, the first 2. The third is kinda lame.)

---

El Sorcho will always be my favorite Weezer song. We have a bit of a history dating back to when I still taped songs off the radio, and then rediscovering it a few years later. I like Weezer. They make me happy. How can I not sing along... in my car... alone? And I can't think of Weezer without thinking of the 2001 Y100 FEZtival where I saw them. And we learned the Weezer, uh, gang sign.




I have a bit of a girl crush on Regina Spektor. She's a weird one. Maybe a little too weird. So I guess my girl crush is mainly on her music. I just recently bought her Soviet Kitsch CD. Naturally I don't like it as much as Begin to Hope. At least not yet. but isn't that how it works a lot of the time? I've got one of her songs on the playlist there... while I'm not the biggest fan of it, I do LOVE how she sings "...when I would only smoke Marlboro's". When I listen to it in the car I repeat that part over and over. It gives me chills. Anyway, I am loving this song right now:




Guster will always been one of my favorites... even though their newer stuff isn't really doing much for me. They're quirky. I like quirky. My favorite songs change from time to time... right now it's Parachute (on the playlist), but Demons is always a good one. I particularly love the addition of the banjo in this version.



I first heard "Top shelf" by Man Man on YRock on XPN (mentioned previously)... (YRock is the "alternative music" portion of XPN.) Not really my style, but it seemed "right" at the time. And still does. Sometimes you just need something, uh, drastically different, right? They’re from Philly, so how can I not support them? And I hear their live shows totally "shred". They "jam" for a while, then go into Top Shelf. If you can hang in there that long.

Somehow this feels unfinished... but I don't know what else to say.

Late Bloomer

When I get a new CD I tend to listen to it once or twice, then put it away. I like to let it ferment for a while. That way when I put it back in my player the songs sound familiar ... and it's sort of like finding an old friend. This is especially helpful when you're not sure whether you're going to like something... or not.

My most recent "old friend" was Brandi Carlile's "The Story". I bought it almost a year ago after hearing the title track on the radio. It took a few tries to get into it a second time. It's a little overly dramatic. A little chichéd. Some of the lines make me cringe like you wouldn't believe. ("Even when I was flat broke you made me feel like a million bucks"? .. excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.) But over all it's mostly very enjoyable. I'm not a big fan of female singers. I can only listen to Rachel Yamagata or Regina Spektor for extended periods of time... everyone else just kinda drives me nutty after a while, but I'm really enjoying this at the moment.

Just kinda wanted to share. Other than that, this is rather pointless.

Anyway, of course my favorite song is the "hidden" track, and naturally it's unavailable online. So enjoy this video. I love the old guy with the piano. or try this video .

And then, if you so choose, here are the songs from the CD. well.. the ones I could find.