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.