i'm moving

my blog to wordpress. i'm sure there will be a few growing pains and i'm slowly figuring out that all my posts aren't transferring properly, but if anyone actually reads this, you can find me here: http://r0ckmej0e.wordpress.com

cheers!

isn't there something about those lights?

jon-rae fletcher's oh maria is the best thing i've added to my iTunes in a long, long time. bold statement, i know. however, it's nothing but true. it's honest and simple and hauntingly beautiful. it's a january record, for sure. january records are the kind of records that make you want to curl up in your bed and cry over the things you wish you had but don't. (january is the only acceptable month to do that, by the way.)

don't get me wrong. the whole record doesn't make you want to cry. but songs like "city lights," "big talker" and "oh, maria" do. they're just so honest. they're the kind of songs that make you feel like the artist is sitting there, on the end of your bed, playing those songs to you.

"big talker" is probably my favourite track. it's heartbreaking. it's so heartbreaking, it almost makes you angry, in a way.

the album draws on country, gospel and roots foundations. the gospel shows up in the soulful harmonies and melodies, like in "downtown," and the traditional country shines in tracks like "no dancing." it's utterly nostalgic, in the best way possible.

oh maria is the most well-rounded album i've listened to in ages. again, simple beautiful, front to back.

watch "big talker," and jon-rae's interview with the National Post below.

all i ever wanted help with was you

i'm not really up on the whole 'podcast' thing. however, my friend suggested i check out cbc radio 3's best songs of the 2000s. she then suggested i create my own list, as i consume a healthy dose of canadiana myself. so, seeing as i'm laid up with a sprained knee that will hopefully (fingers-crossed) heal itself overnight so i wake up tomorrow and don't have to use a cane, i've decided to spend a bit of time blogging to pass the time. (longest. sentence. ever.)

now, i'm in now way implying that this list is the be all and end all in canadian music. frankly, i didn't even start listening to canadian indie until relatively recently. i definitely enjoyed my canrock in the 90s, but that was when you could hear great canadian tunes on mainstream rock radio. when 102 stopped playing it, i stopped listening. i didn't get back into canroc until arcade fire hit with funeral. i missed out on a lot, unfortunately. so, with that in mind, here are my favourite canadian songs of the last decade

10. hey rosetta - there's an arc

beautiful album, hands down. there are a number of bands or songs i could have placed here, but i think there an act with a very bright future ahead of them.



9. land of talk - some are lakes

another hillside find. great rock tune. the kind that makes you swing back and forth while you listen.



8. rural alberta advantage - frank, ab

i love emusic. i found this album there about this time last year. it's been in heavy rotation since then. frank, ab is one of the best tracks on the record and as far as i'm concerned, it's one of the most exciting records pressed North of the boarder in the last ten years.



7. born ruffians - hummingbird

born ruffians were my favourite show at hillside '08. they're not everybody's cup of tea, but they're mine, for sure. hummingbird is another one of those songs you just have to see live.




6. feist - intuition

in my opinion, it's the best song on the record. hands down. simply stunning.



5. stars - the night starts here

romantic comedy is a close second to this track. i'm not sure which i like more, to be honest. there wasn't a good video for romantic comedy though, so "the night starts here" won the coin toss. as of late, i've lost touch with stars. there's that whole solo thing, and another band called broken social scene that some people are into, however, their first three records were brilliant and i hope the rope me into a few more.



4. new pornographers - challengers

i love pop music. i love rock music. i love canadian music. the new pornographers define all three. a new album will be out this spring called "together," according to the cbc's grant lawrence. i can't wait.



3. wintersleep - miasmal smoke & the yellow bellied freaks

intense. the first time i heard this record, and i had been a wintersleep fan for a couple of years when welcome to the night sky was released, it was like hearing the band for the first time. it blew me away. i've seen a lot of shows - a loooooooot of shows, but nothing, not even seeing "with or without you" with bono's crotch in my face, will ever beat hearing "miasmal smoke and the yellow bellied freaks" live. it's epitomizes what going to concerts is all about.

and, they've got the best drummer in the business as far as i'm concerned. again. a must-see live band. i should put about 5 songs on this list.



2. arcade fire - wake up

anthemic, overwhelming, and as i've said before, changed my iTunes library forever.



1. patrick watson - the great escape

beautiful. it's the only word i can use to describe this song. simply beautiful.



honorable mentions go to: dan mangan - fair verona, serena ryder - little bit of red, the dears - lost in the plot, sebastien grainger & les montagnes - meet new friends, arkells - ballad of hugo chavez and miracle fortress - maybe lately. just consider those my top 16.

i'm such a liar

i know i promised a plethora of new posts. i didn't deliver. my holiday was filled with too many drinks, too many pity parties and one new haircut. isn't that what the holidays are for?

though, i did download a whack of new tunes though and i'm slowly making my way through them.

most recently, i randomly came across the finnish band, rubik. one: i've got super band crushes on every dude in the band. see below. i especially like the one on the end in the yellow sweater. don't listen to anything otherwise, boys. beer bellies and beards are hot.

two: the music is rad. dada bandits is chock full of indie-rock dance anthems. think stars - if stars had balls. sweet bass lines, solid synths and soaring vocals. wow. that was some alliteration. it's only because i'm sitting in my basement, drinking 50, prepping for a night of skeezy karaoke at the bar down the street from me. translation: i'm getting tipsy.

fuck me. stupid blogger has somehow underlined that whole previous paragraph. and I can't get it off. i hate this program.

anyway, check out "wasteland" below. and visit their myspace for more wicked tunes.


Rubik - Wasteland

rubik | MySpace Music Videos

i like you so much better when you're naked

if i had a nickle for every...

ah. never mind.

seriously.

anyway, the title of this post is one of the tracks of ida maria's debut album, fortress 'round my heart. (i really like this font in italics, but the (sort of) writer in my prohibits me from writing this entire post in italics, unfortunately.)

back to it - i haven't lived with this album for long. a few hours only, to be honest. however, those few hours have made quite the impression. admittedly, i have a thing for chicks with guitars. probably in the same way that wayward philosopher types and lesbians do; i just don't fantasize about them. chicks with guitars are sexy. rock and roll music should be sexy. "i like you so much better when you're naked" is sexy.



what i like about ida maria is she can be tough and aggressive, like on "oh my god" and the track above, sensitive and vulnerable on "keep me warm," then totally fun and "bedroom dance party worthy" on tracks like "louie."

the album is fresh and fun and worth passing along to your friends. i have a funny feeling ida maria won't wear on me like kate nash. she's not novel or trendy. she's not trying to do anything besides write solid rock/pop/punk songs, and it works.





that's it for now folks. emusic subscription renewed today. bet your bottom dollar you'll see a few more posts from me over the next few days.

it makes me mad

that no one knows this band. they're amazing songwriters. i've posted about slow runner before, but i'm going to do it again. buy their records, please. i'd do their publicity for free, on weekends, i love them that much. tell me you're writing a new record, slow runner, and i will do your publicity for free. you've got that in writing.



http://www.myspace.com/slowrunner

songs that make me happy

you know those songs. those songs that always make you smile no matter what kind of mood you're in. i especially love hearing them on the subway at about 7 p.m. when everyone is in the worst mood ever and you know that no one's having as much fun as you are with your headphones on. sometimes, i'd like to walk up to the most miserable looking person in the car and pop my headphones on their head for a minute, if it wouldn't scare the crap out of them. it would be oh so fun though.

here's a selected list of happy songs. enjoy!

Tom Petty - Learning To Fly
Uploaded by UniversalMusicGroup. - See the latest featured music videos.

Tom Petty - Learning to Fly
i can't tell you how much i love this song. i'm not entirely sure what it is about this song that makes me love it so much, besides the fact that tom petty is amazing. ps - the body painted stripper might be a little nsfw.

i can't embed this, but please watch it anyway: Journey - Don't Stop Believing

why, you may ask? well, for one, we've got some wicked cropped t-shirts. two, we've got the silkiest hair i've ever seen on youtube. three, the whole audience is asain and for some reason i find that funny. i mean, there's probably a logical explanation for it, like journey was touring japan, but it's still comical on some politically incorrect level. four, the drummer is wearing hot pants.

in any event, this song always makes me smile. like that big, stupid, i just unexpectedly ran into the dude i've got a crush on kind of smile.


springsteen - dancing in the dark
is it just me, or does bruce look like he's got a massive head in this video? just wondering. anyway, i've been known to bust out these moves while walking down the street and no one's around; it's that good. ps - at about the 3:10 mark, check out the dude with no rhythm in the crowd. he's wearing a tie. he'll make you smile all day too just thinking about how ridiculous he looks.


camera obscura - french navy
try not to foot tap to this one. actually, fuck that. try not to twirl and skip down the street while cartoon birds fly overhead and bunnies hop beside you and squirrels bring you chestnuts and raccoons don't scare the crap out of you and that deer that was trapped on university ave a few weeks ago trots by your side. yeah, it makes me that happy. and yeah, i have a thing for 1940s/50s disney cartoons.


annie lennox - walking on broken glass
i loved this song when i was 10 and i'll love this song until the day i die. when i was a kid, i can remember putting on my mom's CD and dancing around my living room, probably jumping on furniture i shouldn't have been jumping on. i still do that. just now i'm generally alone in my bedroom wearing my pjs.


bob seger - night moves
i've always said a good song should make you want to makeout. this is a song about making out. enough said. i loved this song in the 90s. i can't imagine muchmusic played bob seger, so i'm not too sure where i saw it, but i loved it nonetheless. i also just realized that bob seger is probably, totally the reason i tend to crush on old dudes with beards.

again - cannot embed, but please click on the link: pulp - disco 2000
i love how no one's wearing pants in this video. it's sort of amazing. this song makes me so happy, i want to jump around and pump my fists in the air like i'm at a concert. it's the drums.

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Uploaded by aquanote. - See the latest featured music videos.

new order - bizzare love triangle
this video alone will make you smile. i love music videos from the 80s. i should spend a whole goddamn day watching music videos from the 80s sometime. it would be the best day ever.


peter gabriel - solsbury hill
so, i would have picked my favourite video of all time, "sledgehammer," but the song doesn't make me smile like solsbury hill does. everyone fucking loves this song. also, i can't get over the fact that gabriel is wearing man-leggings. amazingness.

bring your hips to me.

i have a problem. every time my emusic downloads are about to expire, i go on a downloading spree. this means, generally, that i download about 5 albums in a day. you think i'd learn to use my subscription a little more efficiently; unfortunately efficiency isn't my strong suit when it comes to all things personal. anyway... a lot of the time, albums go overlooked for months in my itunes library, or at least weeks. this situation happened with the artist i'm about to tell you about: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down.



so ignore what is so obviously wrong with this video (the bad hipster/elaine dancing and the mustache - yeah, you know which one i'm talking about) and admit that you almost wish you were there. weird, i know. either way, i love this track. it's totally a solo-bedroom-underwear-dance party track. infectious, to say the least. i'm a big fan of "when we swam." it's my favourite on the record.



"cool yourself" is another great track. it has a 90s vibe, especially in the guitars. it's fun and upbeat. it makes you want to sing along and skip down the sidewalk while you walk home. i love the juxtaposition of thao's nonchalant vocals with the quick pace of the track.

really, the more i listen to know better learn faster, the more i realize how beautiful this little record is. i don't think there's a song i'd skip. it's fresh and modern, but takes pieces from 60s pop, 90s rock and modern indie rock, and gives the listener something new, yet familiar. it's as sweet as fresh-baked cookies on a saturday afternoon.

if you pick it up, it will totally be one of those records you want to keep to yourself because you feel like you've got your own little secret. don't, though.

i forgot to add this to my movie posts

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/3041991/The_Big_Lebowski_Bob_Dylan_The_Man_In_Me

Best scene in the big lebowski. hands down.

i think i'm developing a pattern

instead of cleaning my bathroom on thursdays while i do laundry, i have solo-bedroom-dance parties in my underwear and eat fruit pastilles. it's true. i'm on a janet jackson kick right now. specifically janet.. one of the best albums of the 90s.

anyway, now that november is coming to a close, all these best-of lists keep popping up everywhere. well, seeing as a i blog once a month, you could take this years blogs, condense them, and call them my top-10 of 2009. so, instead i'm going to do something different. here's a selected list of some of my most listened to tracks of 2009 - minus the one's i've already talked about.

here goes:

marcus foster - 14 times
it's beautiful and simple, just the way a great song should be. watch out for this kid. apparently one of his tracks is on the new moon soundtrack. yeah. i'm going to hate on new moon. sorry.


fink - this is the thing
fink is one of those u.k. phenomenons. mercury prize winning phenomenon that's popular home but no one seems to care to market over here. i think he's great and both his albums are amazing.


the temper trap - sweet disposition
500 days of summer was one of my favourite films this year. not just because i have a massive crush on joseph gordon levitt (and a massive girl-crush on zooey deschanel) but also because it helped me make sense of the breakup i went through earlier this year. i had mostly made sense of it by the time august rolled around, hah, but it gave me that extra bit of clarity i needed. anyway, i love "sweet disposition." it's just one of those feel-good songs you dance around your room to in your underwear while eating fruit pastilles.



bowerbirds - northern lights
bowerbirds' upper air is one of those albums that's in my top-10 of the year that i unfortunately didn't get a chance to write about (ahem *lazy* ahem). "northern lights" is a beautiful love song. "all i want is your eyes - in the morning as we wake for a short while" ughhhh, make me melt.


the xx - vcr
i think we all know i was born about 15 years too late. i should have been a teen when joy division and new order, the psychedelic furs, and the replacements were still writing tunes. because of that, i think we all know i love a good throwback. the xx are just that. a solid throwback. "vcr" is that kind of song that just makes me want to makeout with someone. as i've said before, a good song should make you want to do that.


phoenix - liztomania
another dancing in my underwear kind of song. i think i like to dance in my underwear. though, i do pull out the molly ringwald snap/kick move from breakfast club and that's rare.


anni rossi - wheelpusher
if you get a chance to see this little firecracker, do it. don't ask me what it's about. i don't really know. it's just pretty. sorta like megan fox... if she were a song... and a little more indie.


a.a. bondy - the mightiest of guns
so apparently i've got a thing for dudes with guitars. what? a.a. bondy's a recent discovery, but i'm in love. if you're in toronto, check him out december 3rd at the el mo. in fact, i've got an extra ticket if anyone wants to go.


young galaxy - firestruck
you have to see young galaxy live. seriously. this album just keeps growing on me. so pretty. oh so pretty.


the outfield - your love
yeah. i just did that. i blame adventureland. she and him need to cover this shit.

i give up

i've spent the last hour and a half attempting to search out my favourite movie soundtrack clips and i've managed to round up four. goddamn copyright infringements. seriously? you think in this day and age we'd be past that. apparently not.


"kissing you" by des'ree - romeo & juliet

so i think i understand the whole twilight phenomenon. i'm pretty sure i went to see romeo & juliet three times at the cineplex in Guelph. romeo & juliet is ridiculously better than twilight, but, after re-watching this clip, i remembered how much i loved this movie and how great of an impact it had on my perpetually heartbroken 16-year-old self. needless to say, this scene (that kicks in at about the 1:40 mark) is simply beautiful. honorable mentions go out to "young hearts run free" too.


"born slippy" by underworld - trainspotting

even though this scene is only one minute long, it's the best minute in trainspotting, as far as i'm concerned. it fits the mood of the film perfectly. i wish the clip rolled into the credits but sadly it's all i can find. it's intense. it's urgent. it's trainspotting.


"try a little tenderness" by otis redding - pretty in pink

oh john hughes. the master of the soundtrack. i don't think there's anything i can say about john hughes that hasn't already been said since his passing so i'll just focus on the scene.

i don't know about you, but i didn't have some geek serenading me with otis redding tunes when i was in high school. but, if i did, i'd be all over it (as long as he wasn't as so obviously in the closet as duckie was). molly should have done him a favour. note to any potential bfs: serenade me with otis redding and i'll do you a favour.


"in your eyes" by peter gabriel - say anything

one: i can't find this fucking clip to save my life. ffwd to 1:45
two: i, and almost every other woman on the planet, will eternally crush on john cusack because of this scene, no matter how bad his films get.
three: cameron crowe is a close second behind hughes - honorable mentions go out to "secret garden" by springsteen in jerry maguire. couldn't find that clip either. oh, and all of almost famous - specifically "something in the air."


"hold me up" by live - zack and miri make a porno

okay, so this may seem a little weird and out of context. AND nsfw. i love this scene though and the song makes it. literally - wha wha. i feel like most people would find this choice odd, especially considering kevin smith's gift for picking extraordinary music for his films, but for me, it fits perfectly.


"all i want is you" by U2 - reality bites

okay, ignore the fact that the dialogue is in fucking spanish. i hate YouTube right now. HATE. anyway, i love this song. i love this scene. i love this movie. i now blame U2 for my desire to date dirty, greasy, asshole philosopher types. everything about this is beautiful.

and thus continues my love for all things u.k.

my coworker nelson has wicked taste, sometimes. our itunes collide when it comes to u.k. imports. it was nelson who introduced me to florence + the machine. we swapped a bunch of records about a month ago but i only got around to uploading them to itunes this weekend. disappointing, only because i wish i had listened to LUNGS a month ago. it was on repeat all turkey-weekend long.

"dog days are over" is clearly the stand-out track. check the video here. i have to say, it's totally amazing and weird, complete with creepy clowns, children and a tree fairy. however, the track shows off 22-year-old Florence Welch's impeccable, organic sounding vocals.

the video for "rabbit heart" is as equally creepy and weird - think jane austin on acid and a tea-party with entirely too much pork. i love wacky videos. but back to the song; it's the perfect indie-rock-dance-party-anthem. the chorus is soulful and powerful. the verses are pretty and ethereal - a great juxtaposition.

"between two lungs" was the first u.k. single. it's very pretty and quirky... and here's where the kate nash comparisons start. not because they sound the same, because on most tracks they don't. you could never confuse one artist for the other. the comparisons start because when kate nash released her debut you could argue she was trying to do the same thing: quirkify pop music.

florence and + the machine does it better and they're a better band too. not because her voice is amazing, which it is, but because florence + the machine do a better job of making their pop music legitimately different by taking bits and pieces of contemporary pop and indie rock and melding those pieces with dance, some r n' b and a healthy dose of 80s pop. (sidenote: i accidentally wrote poop and only caught it on my final read-through. i should have left it.)

the production is also totally brilliant. it sounds like the album was recorded in a big empty theatre with every instrument, synth and beat at their disposal. for an example of amazing production value, check out "cosmic love." you can check out the live video below, but do a little hunting for the mp3 to really get what i mean.



needless to say, this record will be the soundtrack to my solo-bedroom-dance-parties for months to come. if someone has an extra ticket to their sold-out toronto show, i will happily take it. please.

ohmygod

i love this too. why don't i work in england, i swear to christ.



alan pownall

it's bands like this

that make me so glad i work in the music business.

Mumford & Sons / Little Lion Man video


i just adore mumford & sons. please buy their album when it's released here - just so i can see this band live. i have a funny feeling they're capable of melting faces.

and band, if this pops up in your google alerts (and i know it very well might because i'm a publicist and i get google alerts for my artists all the time), please talk to that dude from toronto, cananda who keeps emailing you. his name is chad and he's totally rad.

sunday aka hunting the depths of the internet for music

i love movie soundtracks. for a long time, i wanted that job. movie soundtracks. i thought that a movie-soundtrack-job consisted of watching movies/hunting the depths of the Internet for new music, then placing the fruits of your labour over top of those movies you watched. sounded pretty rad to me, until i learned that a music supervisor's job really consists of negotiating contracts between labels, publishers and the studio - most of the time. not so rad. who knows though. i'd still like to see for myself. i think my description makes more sense.

(yes. i'm getting to my point.)

one of my favourite movie soundtracks (of life) is empire records - and not just because i have a long-standing crush circa 1995 on ethan embry and maybe even liv tyler, just a little bit - but because the soundtrack was, most literally, another character in the movie. amazing soundtracks always play that role.

another movie soundtrack i love is adventureland. same reason. a common thread from both those soundtracks is the band big star. long story short (because i just linked to the wiki): they're a band who got caught up in the record label machine. it's a sad story that is unfortunately repeated all to often. you know a couple of their songs. most notably, "the ballad of el goodo" (empire records soundtrack, though it's a cover) and "in the street" (that 70s show theme song.) they're a band that heavily influenced a number of other bands who heavily influenced blah, blah, blah... and so on. most exciting though (in my little musical world) is that both rem and the replacements cite big star as a major musical influence. so much so, the replacements actually recorded a tribute song, "alex chilton."

moving on, with the help of the adventureland soundtrack and hyperspace, i got my hands on their first two records: #1 record and radio city. buy them on emusic.

seriously. buy them (or it). it's timeless, classic, rock and roll songwriting. you can't help but fall in love. they're the kind of songs you wish that a greasy man (who looks like he might be homeless) would sing to you just to make you smile.

i love, love, love "i'm in love with a girl" from the adventureland soundtrack.

and speaking of greasy, incredibly adorable men, here's a cover of "thirteen" by sebastien grainger.

(sebastien grainger released one of the best records of 2008, as far as i'm concerned, and i'm sort of mad at myself for neglecting to post about it. in lieu of that, the cover. buy his record too though. it's quite fantastic. sebastien grainger & the mountains. i thought it was & les montagnes? maybe that's just in canada... haha)

giving up on love

yep. i'm going to do it again. i'm waiting for my laundry. that's the only reason why. i'm never, ever, ever this motivated.

so, i have a rad record to share with you. i found it one day when i was browsing emusic: the best online music retailer - IN THE WORLD. it's so convenient. no foolin'. emusic is sort of like online dating. you obtain an account because you like to date/like music and you'd like to find dates/music that you maybe wouldn't encounter otherwise. you might (will) make a few mistakes along the way, but you could come across a real winner. it's the idea that you might come across a real winner that keeps you coming back for more and makes the real duds tolerable.

so, without further non-related rambling, i'd like to share the best seat dancing routine of LIFE. no seriously. check it out. this might be one of the best videos ever made.



that video above is from slow club!

(i had to hard return and add punctuation because it wouldn't let me continue on with the next sentence un-hyperlinked. i'm not really that excited)

and, just as i linked to the myspace, i realized that they played the mother effing dakota on tuesday night. #fml. why do i always find out about shows after they happen? someone help me out here.

anyway. i'm a massive fan of the album. it took a few listens. at first i thought, "big whoop. another male/female duo. i'm over ra ra riot." but, slow club are different. they're british. and no, that's not wholy sarcastic. i mean that in the best way possible. i think that music coming out of the uk right now is a little less serious, a little more quirky and a whole lot more fun.

yeah so is one of those records that tricks you. it's one of albums that makes you think it's all happy - filled with unicorns and cotton candy and sparkly rainbows. but really, they're songs about breakups and other depressing things. i'm in a phase where i dig that sort of thing right now.

fav tracks:

"giving up on love" has a great retro sound, beatles meets the beach boys maybe. it makes me want to do the mashed potato in a polka-dot swimsuit. i'm afraid no one would care to see that though, i'm sure.

"when i go" - see below. you know it. you know you like it. too cute for words. the song and the commercial. who doesn't like dude on chick folk. the back and forth is super sweet and works, so well.



"our most brilliant friends" is a ten minute song. a bit long, if you ask me. really, it's a secret track, i think. i like the tin-ey production on this one. it's got a frantic build. the build is common throughout most of the album, to tell you the truth. i appreciate it. it helps to take you along for the ride.

well. that's it. go get it and i'll go get my laundry.

you know

when you hear a song and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and you think that if your heart could smile it would totally have a giant, goofy, toothy grin slapped across its... left ventricle?

WELL, almost every single song on DAWES debut album, North Hills, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and heart-smiley. signed to ATO in the US, the album hits stores states side on August 18. If you're a canadian, you can pick it up on iTunes NOW. DO IT.

in my opinion, dawes does new-folk better than fleet foxes. heavy claim, i know, but listen to my reasoning. i loved the fleet foxes album when it dropped. i listened to it, religiously, for a few weeks after acquiring it. i loved the aesthetic, the harmonies, the throwback. but, after a while, it was just TOO much. i had a new-folk hangover that i just couldn't shake. eventually, i just gave it up.

then came along dawes.

dawes have all the nostalgia you need for one sitting. it's folky, but delivers a healthy does of country-rock (heavily influenced by bands like the band) to balance it all out. the lyrics are solid, the hooks are traditional and the harmonies are beautiful. it's not perfect, but that's what makes it so endearing. and it's so easy to listen to. i can solidly say it's passed my tests. i'm a month in, or close to it, and i routinely go back for more.

check out "that western skyline," "give me time" and "peace in the valley" (my personal favourite.)

ALSO, i'm a huge fan of "love is all i am." the video is beautiful.

Dawes "Love is All I am" from THE FEAR on Vimeo.

i know it's been forever

but fuck off. i had swine flu. no joke. it basically put me out of commission, and by out of commission, i mean asleep with a fever between 100 and 103, for five days. i could have brain damage. who knows, really.

this isn't a real post anyway either, so i can fuck off for that one.

i've been a bit down lately and i found myself searching around for some new tunes to cheer me up a bit. anyway, i did find some sweet tunes so i'll rustle up the gumption and post about them soon. tonight i just want to feel bittersweet.

anyone who knows me knows that i'm obsessed with frightened rabbit. anyway, i was perusing a few blogs and happened across a frightened rabbit live video. not the one below, but the same song:



anyway (and i preface this with the following comment: "yes. i'm aware that i'm being lame and a teeny bit pathetic") but anyway, all of the sudden i remembered being in my ex boyfriend's car, just after christmas, when i went down to visit him for 10 days, on our way to a movie. we were running a bit late because he made this red thai curry for supper. he made fun of me because i didn't quite trust that the chicken was cooked all the way through. i totally didn't think it was cooked all the way through.

it was incredibly cold and his car always took a little to while to warm up. it was old.

we had to take the highway to get to the theatre on time. we listened to frightened rabbit the whole way there. i swear, i can remember that song playing in the car and looking over at him and just feeling so. incredibly. happy.

it's just bittersweet. it's a great memory, but it's marred by the fact that we don't talk anymore and probably never will. that week, i was happier than i'd ever been, almost certainly. i know i'll be that happy again someday. but, i do miss him. just a little. from time to time.

i guess this is sort of inappropriate for a blog about music. but, in a way, it all relates. a song, a good song, always has meaning. this song in particular has the ability to actually bring back the smell of the cold, cold air that night. that's a pretty powerful track, if you ask me.

TV ON THE RADIO

Were everything I expected and then some. Couldn't have asked for a better show. But, what the fuck is with all the Torontonians who wouldn't bust a move?? Seriously. Best show to dance at, ever! I'd write more but I'm tired and I have to work at a photo shoot allllllll day tomrrow.

A-Mazing

i declare a mutiny

many thanks to a coworker who just introduced me to one of the freshest artists i've seen in a long time.

William Elliot Whitmore


he's signed to anti - one of the best labels out there in my opinion. according to his bio, whitmore grew up on the banks of the mississippi (what a shock. it's not like he sounds like a 60 year old black man who's been singing/playing guitar since he was 12 or anything) and a according to iTunes he's released five full-length albums. with all that music underneath his belt, i'm shocked i've never heard of him before. i can tell you one thing though, i'll be picking up a ticket to his show if he ever makes his way to toronto.

my coworker gave me songs of the blackbird and i instantly downloaded animals in the dark. i'm in love. his songs are everything i look for in good music. solid story telling, melodic, rhythmic music and that thing that makes a good song a great one: in whitmore's case, it's his voice.

check out "dry" and "mutiny." if you're a country fan, you'll dig "johnny law."

i'd write more but i must get a head-start on some work for tomorrow. it's newsletter time at work...