like dreaming, only not

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


King Crimson - "Court of The Crimson King"
Recently Sean has really been getting into this band. And to be honest, I'm surprised neither of us had given them a good listen before. King Crimson is an amazing English band that started recording music in the late 1960's. I really love this song in particular. When I first heard it, I immediately recognized it from the movie Children of Men. It is such an epic song, all nine minutes of it.

LINKS:
♥ LADY GAGA COOKIES. Oh, lawdy. These are not to be missed. Gingerbread men shaped cookies with famous Gaga outfits!

♥ God, I love the Blythe dolls. I have secretly wanted one for a while, even to the point of wanting to be one of those freaks who sew customized outfits for their dolls, and take them out on photo shoots. Some genius over on the Craftster forums had the idea to make giant replicas of these iconic doll heads, and use them for a fashion show. Loves it!

♥ Decorating Nature, a neat blog featuring fauna graffiti. I really like the idea behind this project. Although the outdoors are obviously beautiful enough on their own, adding color to leaves and placing them back into nature makes for some really beautiful pictures.

♥ Kaleidoscope!

♥ Toy jellyfish for your water bottle. I kind of need one, I think.

♥ Larry Carlson's Weird Worlds Scrolls. Large, complex weird psychedelic collages. Slightly new age/occult and drug culture related. Right up my alley. May I suggest THE OWL LIGHT GROWS AT NIGHT and THE SHAGGY WOODS BEAST .

FIRST AID KIT

God, I am in love with these adorable Swedish sisters. They have almost angelic voices that manage to be both soft & sweet and rich at the same time. I can't stop listening to them, and prancing around the house singing their version of Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" (only when no one else is home and I can be obnoxiously loud). They're quite young, I can only imagine them growing and developing musically over the next few years. Great female folky indie, CHECK IT! At the very least, look them up on YouTube.

♥ First Aid Kit - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Fleet Foxes cover)
♥ First Aid Kit - You're Not Coming Home Tonight
♥ First Aid Kit - Cross Oceans

NEON INDIAN & JELLYFISH

NEON INDIAN

♥ Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer

Good song. As the name kind of implies, it is a summer-y jam. NickFRESH played this out at TSI last night & I was pleasantly surprised.

♥ Neon Indian - 6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)

This song is a little darker sounding. Kind of makes me think of the Cure just a bit.


& JELLYFISH.

I love jellyfish & want to keep some as pets but the tanks are complex and expensive to maintain.

DISCOVERY

I suppose it's a little late to be blogging about this album since it came out quite a bit earlier this month, but oh well. When I heard Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend and Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot were collaborating on a side project, I was pretty excited and had high hopes, as I enjoy both of their respective bands. I know a lot of people have shit with Vampire Weekend, but their first album is just so laid back, simple, and poppy. And although Ra Ra Riot is just starting to really get their name out there, I remember seeing them at Jackrabbits a little over a year ago, and I think a lot of people left impressed. Their set was really good, and it is refreshing to see a band with multiple string instruments (other than guitars of course). But anyway, it seems that working together Rostam and Miles could just not make it happen. The album is very "eh", and while some of it could be described as okay, none of it sticks out as anything special and some of the songs are just plain bad. There are two covers on the album, Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell" (god, the original is so much better) and the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (it is shameful to disgrace a classic like that). Most of the other songs are not even worth commenting on. The only two songs that even somewhat spark my interest are the following:



♥ Discovery - Osaka Loop Line

TIMBER TIMBRE

I have had a lot of time to try to find new music lately because my only way of listening to tunes has been playlist.com, thanks to my practicly new external harddrive quitting out of nowhere (FUCK YOU WESTERN DIGITAL). So after my playlist had me bored (which was fast, I only had a couple of bands on there), I decided to do some LastFM browsing. LastFM is every music lover's bestfriend, in case you didn't get the memo. It tracks what bands and songs you listen to, builds charts of how frequently you listen to them, and then makes recommendations of new bands to try out based on information they've gathered. Plus, they have awesome online radio where you can listen by 'similar bands' or genre, or whatever.

ANYWAY, clicking around I happened upon Timber Timbe. I added them to my playlist, and over the last couple of days they have really stood out and caught my attention. Out of the woods of Canada, Timber Timbre produces almost haunting, lo-fi folk that is really simple but wonderful. Kind of weirdly ethereal in a way, kind of makes you feel like you're relaxing on the porch of a log cabin, maybe about to hop a train, with a slight old time blues/country tint to it. Definitely worth a listen. At least watch the video for the song "Oh Messiah" (above) for its awesome incorporation of "Twist and Shout."

♥ Timber Timbre - Oh Messiah
♥ Timber Timbre - Under Your Spell
♥ Timber Timbre - Like A Mountain (fave at the moment)
♥ Timber Timbre - There Is A Cure

- Timber Timbre's Myspace

RANDOMZ

♥ Chris Craymer's Romance: Beautifully composed portraits of couples in love.

♥ Catch of the Day: Art inspired by trash found littering the beach.

♥ Take me to this art gallery, plz.

♥ MY 100 CARDBOARDS: A hundred different painted cardboard faces.

THESE SONGS. CHECK THEM:

♥ El Guincho - Palmitos Park
I am aware that I posted an El Guinco mp3 a couple of days ago. OH WELL, here's another. So good. I wanna say it sounds like old brazilian psych or something? With a little something else thrown in? Download this, you'll thank me later.


♥ The Dirty Projectors - My Offwhite Flag
This was one of those bands for me that I heard people mention a lot, but never took the time to listen to them. My mistake.

THEY MADE FROGS SMOKE 'TIL THEY EXPLODED

LOVE this video.

A MIX!

♥ click

I sleep to this. Dig it.

OH YEAH

CYA LYDIA STREET:


OH MY LOVE FOR SEASHORE aka APPLE'S MSPAINT:




TOP 15 SONGS EVERYONE SHOULD HEAR BEFORE THEY DIE:
(excluding super mainstream stuff, in no order)
- "hounds of love" kate bush
- "the purple bottle" animal collective
- "outdoor miner" wire
- "with a girl like you" troggs
- "lamb ran away with the crown" judee sill
- "care of cell 44" zombies
- "whole wide world" wreckless eric
- "waterfall" stone roses
- "everyday is like sunday" morrissey
- "she was born to be my unicorn" tyrannosaurus rex
- "nobody but me" the human beinz
- "a minha menina" os mutantes
- "i enjoy being a boy (in love with you)" banana splits
- "no joy in mudville" death cab for cutie
- "i hear you breathe" neutral milk hotel

3 THINGS IM DIGGIN'

I'm not sure who Big Bear is exactly, but obviously he's a cool dude. CHILLIN' WITH BEARS. It's brilliant. The cigars! The bling! The purple velvet! The fruit? One of my friends showed me this a while ago, and I seriously think about it way more than I should. It's gotten to the point where all I have to do is think "BIG BEAR: DOIN' THANGS" in my head and I just can't help but laugh. I'm not sure how this album cover hasn't become an internet sensation or something.


Black lacy thigh high tights, motherfucker. Yes, I am aware (as a friend lovingly pointed out) that these are "slut tights". Do I care? NOPE. Not only are they cute & feminine, they're practical (you don't have to pull 'em down to pee!), and relatively cheap. Plus, no one knows what you're secretly hiding under your dress or skirt. They're sassy and fun and I really don't care if people think it's trashy! Mine don't have the classy back seam down the back though, which is unfortunate. I plan on wearing mine all winter!


I LOVE THIS PLAYLIST! Perfect for sleeping, but also ideal for any other situation. All of these songs hold a similar kind of appeal to me, but I can't put my finger on the words to describe it. I keep coming up with airy, lighthearted, almost whimsical, soft, beautiful. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but all of these songs seriously make my brain sing.

ROCK N ROLL UKULELE COVERS!

Does that excite you as much as it does me?! Gus and Fin are two blokes from the UK who cover all sorts of rock n roll, punk, and ska songs on the ukulele! I feel like all of these had the potential to be totally awful, but somehow they don't fuck it up! It would be really wonderful if they recorded an album. I'm generally a fan of cover songs, but they're really onto something with the ukes!

Buzzcocks- What Do I Get


Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop


Wire - Outdoor Miner


Thanks to my long time e-pal Leigh who posted about them on Facebook! DON'T YOU LOVE THE INTERNET AND SHARING KNOWLEDGE! Watch more Gus and Fin videos at their youtube.

NATALIE PORTMAN'S SHAVED HEAD

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head is an up & coming band from Seattle. I am just starting to get into them, but they are quickly working their way into my heart. Can't say no to their electo pop loveliness!

I wanted to hate this band. At first glance, they just screamed stereotypical "CHECK ME OUT IM SO HIP AND WEIRD AND ELECTRIC!!11!" to me. The neon colors, the synth, the rainbow diamond ironic obnoxious whatever trendy bug that seems to be infecting everyone. However, once I realized that there is no way they actually take themselves seriously, I could give them a real listen, and I'm a tad ashamed to say I'm hooked.

I first fell in love with "Me + Yr Daughter", and it is still one of my favorite car jams. The beat is fucking infectious and the song is just so danceable and catchy. Then, while at Steamworks someone mentioned "Beard Lust" (which I have been known to have). This song is 100% ridiculous and I love it. Such a mood booster, you really can't help but sing along and smile. Seriously, I dare you to deny the beauty of these lyrics: "Clean it, and scent with violet. Love it, but don't get violent. Rub it, but not in public." VIOLET SCENTED BEARDS, YEAH! Last but not least, the past few days it is seriously "Bedroom Costume" on repeat. Hey! A song about voyeurism! I'm into it!

Here is the video for their song "Sophisticated Side Ponytail":


It is just so over the top tacky and I LOVE it. RAINBOW LAZER BEAM DIAMONDS & SHAMU.

CHECK THEIR MYSPACE!

WOWEE ZOWEE

Let me just start this out by saying that I am usually not a fan of remixes. Especially remixes of indie songs. I remember walking into TSI once and hearing a remix of Feist's "1  2  3  4", and i was just blown away. But not in the good way. I thought it was terrible and I questioned why anyone would feel the need to ruin a perfectly good song that way. However, I have recently stumbled upon a certain group of artists from around the world who come together as the Remix Artist Collective(RAC) and make AMAZING remixes that actually enhance the original and make the songs beautiful instead of turning them into an over-the-top electronic pile of shit! So, please do your ears a big favor and check these out:



Ra Ra Riot Manner To Act
I really enjoy Ra Ra Riot. I saw them perform at Jack Rabbits a couple of months ago, and it was pretty amazing. They have a great energy, and they really are quite talented. Not to mention it is pretty awesome that they have both violin and cello players. I was worried that a remix would just be disastrous, but they definitely proved me wrong. This is the song that really turned me on to RAC. It's absolutely stunning.


Tegan & Sara Back In Your Head


The Fashion Solo Impala
Let me take the chance right now to say that I had avoided The Fashion based on their name. MISTAKE. They are actually kind of good, so if you have not given them a listen yet, I recommend it.

REPUBLICAN MEN LOVE ABBA.

Known for their upbeat dance songs and sassy costume choices, ABBA was and still is a very loved group. While I hate to sound like a an ignorant jerk, when I think of ABBA, I think of karaoke night at the gay bar. I imagine pink boas and platform shoes. I picture glitter and ridiculous dancing. What I do not see is an aging, uptight Republican man getting his jam on. But I guess I'm wrong because. . .


JOHN MCCAIN LOVES ABBA.

In a recent article by Blender magazine, the presidential hopeful was asked to name his top 10 songs. His response:

1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

WOWZA! Not one but two ABBA songs! Big fan, eh? Oh, the money I would pay to see him get down to "Dancing Queen."


COLIN POWELL LOVES ABBA!

In an article from Swiss magazine Blick, ABBA member Bjorn recalls spotting Powell at a Mamma Mia show in Washington,



I wonder if he sings ABBA in the shower too?


DONALD RUMSFELD LOVES ABBA!

Okay, I cannot find a real source for this information, but after all that I've told you about McCain and Powell, is it that hard to believe? While googling, I found an ABBA message board with a very long list of celeb fans. Although they spell it Ramsfeld, its gotta be the same guy, right? Vladimir Putin also makes the list! HA! Anyway, who knows if that website is correct, I really just wanted to make another ridiculous graphic. You love it.

And, last but not least,

MY DAD LOVES ABBA!

And while I would REALLY love to sparkle up a picture of my father to post here, I'm pretty sure he would have my head on a platter!

MY BUDDING LOVE FOR HIP HOP, FUNK, AND DISCO.

Between taking an African American Musical Heritage class and hanging with Jon, whose musical knowledge is just crazy, I am becoming really interested in lotsa music that I never really bothered with before. It's not that I was opposed to listening to it, I just hadn't been exposed to it. But something clicked and I'm kinda all about it! BRING ON DA FUNKY JAMZ!