tom petty rocks my socks

i've been feeling a bit blah lately. i think it's the weather. winters are long in toronto, that's all i'm going to say. anyway, i was on the the subway on my way to work, having woken up to a cold, wet rain this morning, when tom petty's "learning to fly" came through my speakers and totally brightened my morning.

i love tom petty. i always seem to overlook his catalogue when i dream up my one of many attempts at an "all time favourites" list. i guess what i'm trying to say is that tom petty is one of my favourites. if i ever forget to mention him, or his work, in future attempts at an "all time favourites" list, just refer me back to this post.



and speaking of tom petty, i happened to see a fellow at the dakota tavern in toronto last thursday who reminded me of tom petty. not in the "i'm trying to steal tom petty's groove" kind-of-way, but he struck me in a tom petty kind-of-way through his presence, his phrasing and his style. this "he" to which i'm referring is dustin bentall (check his officially web page here). he's a fantastic live show. cool; that's the crucial word i used to describe his show to a coworker. he's got a stage presence much larger than the cozy, dark stage in the corner of the dakota allows for, i think. he's just fucking cool.

if you can get your hands on them, look for "handful of the blues," "see it coming," "such a shame" and "cold and lonely." you know what? just buy the album. you'll like it. especially if you dig the alt-country scene.

i'm moving tomorrow

just down the street, but it seems easier than it is. i'm lacking boxes. seriously lacking boxes. i'm also slightly behind on my to-do list for today. i've packed up my dvds and vhs tapes, that's about it. anyway, my iTunes is on random right now and a tune from the empire records soundtrack came on. i don't know whether it's nostalgia, but there's something about that soundtrack that just makes me happy. that's all i had to say.

Empire Records (Theatrical Trailer)
by NakedBrotha2007

PS

can you tell i just figured out what the second "embed" url means on youtube? hah. yeah. i might be slightly stupid.

i was jealous...

of everyone that could download the new camera obscura album today. i'm impatiently awaiting my downloads to refresh on emusic so i drown myself in the new album. because i was jealous of everyone downloading the new album, i decided to use up my last few downloads for the month on the new ep from the breeders, sans the final song.

i'm a huge pixies/the breeders fan. and, on first listen, i do enjoy the ep. mark lanegan from screaming trees is on one track, "the last time." clearly he's got a major hard-on for leonard cohen. "chances are" is a simple cover of the bob marley tune. "fate to fatal" has a classic breeders vibe. i'm digging it. i'm still pissed i missed them last time they played in toronto. man, i love kim deal.

i also finally broke down and downloaded serena ryder's "is it okay." i'll have to keep you posted on how the album grows on me. i have to be honest - i've never been a fan of the way her albums are produced and mixed. i think her songs would just sound better stripped down. i LOVE her voice though. she's an amazing singer. i wish i could bend around notes like she does. she's a real artist. there's just part of me that really wishes she'd work with a different producer and veer away from the a/c sound and feel her albums seem to have, in my opinion anyway.

"little bit of red" is my favourite track, hands down. i love it. i especially love singing it in the shower. it also makes me dance around my room when i'm making my bed. it's true. totally just happened, like, 15 minutes ago. why i was making my bed at 10:15 pm is beyond me, but hey.

so i had the day off today

and today has just been a weird day. i woke up in a bad mood - mainly because i had a friend stay at my place for the weekend and even though i barely saw her, i was ready to have the place to myself again this morning.

i'm also not sure i like these four day weekends. the 'relatively' recent (or really not that recent and it's time for me to pick myself up by the boot-straps and move on) breakup has made me relish the time when i'm too busy to think. that's normal, i'm sure. although, perhaps i should avoid movies like Say Anything.

alas, the famous "In Your Eyes" scene is currently plastered across my screen. however, this screening has not been a completely self-loathing experience. i've noticed a few things about the movie that i've found quite amusing:
1) the dad is totally creepy. i feel like he comes across more creepy than intended. if the dad were a real person, he'd totally be in an episode of dateline's "to catch a predator."
2) diane looks like a meth addict in the scene at the kick boxing gym. sorry. when she says "i left home," does she neglect to mention the "and became a meth addict" part?
3) "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen." is possibly the best movie quote ever.
4) seeing as almost every fashion trend in this flick can be spotted on queen west any given day of the week, i'm waiting for the feminized pirate hat diane wears in the final scene to make a comeback.
5) i'd like to meet a hopeless romantic. not anytime soon, but eventually. and i know that's not really that amusing. though, the fact that i'm making it a life goal might be. heh.

anyway, excuse the personal crap. i just needed to vent and i'm fairly certain that not a single soul reads this. it's just that, sometimes, it's nice to talk and not be talked back to. i avoid the 'talked back to' part when i write here, and, in a strange way, i still get the satisfaction of getting something off my chest. that's why people blog, i suppose.

moving on. my post for today is not supposed to be about personal crap or say anything. it's about J Tillman - another recent music love and another discovery due in part to social networking. i fucking love the internet. i came across J. Tillman one day on facebook, when a casual acquaintance with excellent music taste added his video to her FB feed.

J. Tillman's Vacilando Territory Blues is his fifth... fifth, solo record. i don't understand why i've not heard his stuff before. maybe because three of those five solo records were just released digitally this past fall, but that's besides the point (i should research before i start to write, i suppose. hah.) anyway, the album is hauntingly beautiful. Tillman also plays drums in one of the most highly acclaimed indie bands a la moment: fleet foxes. clearly this guy's got something a brewin'.

if you're looking for the fleet foxy sound on this record, you're not going to find it. that could be because he's a rather new addition to the band, but either way, it's entirely more current-sounding than anything on the fleet foxes self-titled album. i can best describe Vacilando Territory Blues as lo-fi, ryan adams-esque indie rock, with a bit of folk thrown in for good measure. non-traditional americana, howabout that.

"first born" is one of my favourite tracks. it's simple and beautiful and so is the video.



"Steel on Steel" and "New Imperial Grand Blues" are nice surprises.

"James Blues" is a stunning track, too. again. i'm in love with production on this record. it sounds like the record was recorded in a (rather large) bathroom, live, in one take. i love music that just sounds... organic... please excuse the use of a buzz word as ubiquitous as 'organic.'

love, Love, LOVE J. Tillman. Buy his shit here.

you can touch me if you want to, i don't really care

"oh you can kiss me again if you want, i don't mind."

i think i'm in love with 1) jessica lea mayfield and 2) cyberspace (yeah. that's right. i'm bring that back: cyberspace) - i love the power of the interweb and social networking tools.

case in point:

yesterday i was on twitter and stereogum posted new video from jessica lea mayfield.

see said video below:


so. the handgun at the end is sorta lame, but i had instant music love for the track. so, from twitter i went to emusic, found the LP and downloaded it. the internet just makes life so easy. i love how i can see a twitter, watch a video and legally obtain an album all within 10 minutes. for reasons such as this, i know that in some capacity, i will always be able to find work as a publicist (knock on wood).

either way. i'm in love with jessica lea mayfield. i love her seemingly ambivalent vocal style. the way she swoops from note to note, effortlessly, but with a clear direction of where she's headed. i love her sharp, sad, honest lyrics. at 19, she's got a lot to give yet, that's for sure.

i especially love the production on the album. it's whimsical, with a healthy dose of rock and country-twang thrown in for good measure. it sounds real. it's sounds alive. it's reminiscent of of the style of production on a fleet foxes or bon iver album.

stand out tracks:

the clear front runner is "kiss me again." (see above video). i've listened to this track about 20 times in the past 24 hours.

"the one i loved the best" - it's a beautiful track. i was recently broken-up with and i have to say, if i was capable of writing a good break-up song, it would have been this one. what i'm getting at is that mayfield has this way of capturing raw emotion, through her words and tone and musicality. that's a songwriter, if you ask me.

"we've never lied" - twangy guitar picking and traditional, folksy, acoustic guitar set the mood for the track. again. the vocals are the stand-out here. they're the stand-out on any track. their painstakingly emotional. they suck you in and hold your attention for the length of the song. they're haunting, really.

"for today" is also an amazing track - "but i could care less about you, care less about you, and i love the sound of you walking away, and i can see clearer, and i'm getting closer to finding out just who i am without you in the way, so hold me, but only for today." who writes like that at 19?

jessica lea mayfield was the best birthday present. of life.

hell has officially frozen over...

i'm posting here again and it hasn't been a bajillion months since my last post. AND - i probably could post twice, i've discovered so many good bands/tunes lately. i think i'll save it up and perhaps post again next week... stay tuned... if anyone actually reads this. hah. ah well.

so. today's not about anything new, per se, though it is relatively new to me.

so, a few weeks ago i downloaded TIM, Let It Be and Hootenanny! by The Replacements. i had heard of them, casually, for years, but i was never inclined to discover them. i'm not sure what prompted me to download them at all, actually. random internet surfing, probably. but i'm so glad i did. i feel like my love for The Replacements is growing like a little music love tree in that special place in my heart that i have for bands such as pixies. no matter how old it gets, it never sounds dated. it's always current, because it's just fucking good.

anyway, so i went to ADVENTURELAND this weekend, and incidentally, the soundtrack was full of replacements' tracks. i knew, then and there, that it was a sign. i was meant to blog about the band to pass on all that is good about the replacements to the one, maybe two people that happen across my blog.

you won't be sorry. i promise.

what i love about the replacements, is no matter what the song is about, it makes me feel good.

favourite tracks:

unsatisfied - this song makes me want to hang out in my bedroom and listen to this record on my non-existent record player with a slightly chubby, slight awkward dude, smoking cigarettes and holding hands while lying on my bed. it just that kind of song.

bastards of young - this song feels like summer to me. it's the kind of tune that i could listen to and completely and utterly loose myself in while riding the streetcar, sitting down next to a window, slightly cracked, with the warm air creeping in as the streetcar barrels along dundas.

can't hardly wait - this song is totally a week-long road trip to nowhere in a shitty honda from the 90s with a tape-deck and two crappy speakers.

i could go on and on... all three albums are, hands-down, amazing. what makes me most happy, though, is that in this day and age, music as good as this is finally a possibility again. that's why i love working in this industry. there is always something beautiful to discover around the bend, if you're willing to look.