**2/28/10
Macy Gray - Beauty in the World
-----------I know, right?! Macy Gray! The last time I heard Macy Gray was at Mountainbrook Swim Club in the middle of summer when "I Try" had a play count of fourteen times an hour. The salty-voiced R&B songstress brings the blue skies and butterflies back with an uptempo, tambourine-shaking smile with "Beauty in the World."
I picked this one today as a little reminder to shake my booty (listen, you'll understand), and to take a deep breath and relaaahhhxx. Easier said than done, true. But there's hope with a catchy tune like this.
http://perezhilton.com/2010-02-25-new-macy-gray-and-its-good
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/25/10
Alkaline Trio - This Addiction
---------------Somehow I can manage to have just come back from a symphony orchestra concert and immediately thereafter, crank up some punk. "This Addiction" is the latest single from AK3's fresh from the EasyBake oven album, This Addiction. For someone unfamiliar with Alkaline's stuff, they've been playing the Warped Tour circuit for a few years now and have a handful of albums (I recommend Agony and Irony, their 2008 release, but then again, I'm just a sucker for "Over and Out").
This Addiction is available at America's favorite bullseye, Target, for the teensy-weensy price of $7.99 - but only until Saturday! Get on it! Go!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/22/10
Deerhunter - Strange Lights
---------------Sorry, all. I was out and about visiting my dearest friend in Boston this weekend and narry a time at the computer could be spent!
The ambient rock walk-through-the-sunshine sound of Deerhunter is like warm weather - we're all ready for it and it couldn't fill up the atmosphere soon enough. Thankfully, we can pretend its a glorious, barefoot warm day in the park with "Strange Lights," a song about taking a stroll with someone you care about. Basic and simple, like the perfect white T. Can't wait to see them in Atlanta with Spoon in March. Get "Strange Lights" from the 2007 album, Cryptograms.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/17/10
Feild Music - Them That Do Nothing
----------------Feild Music are fans of confusing propaganda. On their Myspace page, their blurb-quotey-thing next to the band name reads "Pretending to be a Band Since 2005." True, the band went on hiatus in 2005 but are back with their third LP, Measure, which was released today. The album, which got solid reviews on Pitchfork, features "Them That Do Nothing," the grammatically incorrect ode to those who go through the mundane motions of the day. Sounds like a boring topic, but lyrically, it seems like a response to Lennon's musings in "A Day in the Life." Take a listen and see what you think.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/16/10
The Derek Trucks Band - Down in the Flood
------------Apart from witnessing firsthand that the Perfect Brownie pan really does, in fact, make a perfect brownie every time, nothing too exciting or brand new happened to me today. While avoiding the bag full of work that lay beside me in my favorite java stop, I picked up a 1991 "Rolling Stone" mag from a Rubbermaid bin underneath a table. It was The Hot Issue, an annual edition of RS that steamily features the best of the smoldering best for that year. And who was in it but a tiny Derek Trucks, snickering about how playing guitar gigs on schoolnights really made him feel like a badass.
Little Trucks may have felt proud of his prepubescent rebel self then, but it can't be anywhere near his renegade, modern guitar-god status that he's acquired over the years. Today's song, "Down in the Flood," evokes memories of an early rock n' roll blues man who made the house rock back in the day. The song's current flows swift and true, and Truck's six-string talents are, for his standards, demure, but powerful. It's from the album Already Free.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/15/10
JLS - One Shot
---------------JLS are as familiar with once-in-a-lifetime oppportunities as German figure skating pairs in Vancouver. This British boyband is otherwise known as Jack the Lad Swing (nice choice to abbreviate boys), which was an X Factor finalist this year. The 2010 BackstreetNSYNCOTown group are pop-locking through five-part harmony in their begging to be remixed for clubs hit, "One Shot." Don't get bored by the piano intro - it picks up to the radio-friendly boom-cack just in time. JLS just released their single "Everybody in Love" six days ago, a sweet rocking revolution of mushy gushy love...it's kinda lame. So, skip the bronze medal single and go for the gold with "One Shot."
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/9/10
Stricken City - Lost Art
---------------Females were the dominant species in my ipod explorations this morning. Jenny Lewis said good morning with Rilo Kiley's Under the Blacklight and then I opted for some R&B sexydivaness in Destiny's Child.
If I could throw this out there, I encourage everyone to listen to a band they haven't jammed to in a while today. It could change your mood for the better (but hopefully not for worse!). Por ejemplo, I probably looked like a downright crazy person as I walked around today hearing "I'm ah Surviiivaahh!!" circulating my eardrums, but the out-of-placeness made it a more interesting walk.
Stepping down from my soapbox, I've gotta say Stricken City's Rebekah Raa is my new leading lady for the afternoon. "Lost Art" is a masterpiece of panic-frantic lyrics and a swirling bass line that I cannot stop freaking out over. Get "Lost Art" from the Stricken City album, Lost Art, and check out their latest release, Songs About People I Know.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/8/10
The Lo and Beholds - Four Mile Scar
----------Seems like a while since I've made a legitimate post...but I can see my finger's reflection in my ipod screen and it's...crazy...to...watch...whoa!
Getting back on track here instead of being vain about my flanges, let's touch base with a coed collection of musicians from The Lo and Beholds. In their EP, Lo and Behold, we have slow-moving thinkers like "Four Mile Scar," which has City and Colour-esque guitar and disarmingly, slightly uncomfortable lyrics. The simplicity shook me awake from the trance of electro-buzzing music that's been around lately. If you hail from the Queen City, I encourage you to find a show to check out.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Between the Buried and Me
"It's great to be home."
Tommy Rogers couldn't have picked a better place to wrap up the U.S. leg of their tour. BTBAM was marvelous and relentlessly driving in every song, save for their suprisingly contrived breakdowns.
The show opened with The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Scale the Summit, The Devin Townsend Project and Cynic.
Of Montreal at the Orange Peel
Birds of a feather...do the running man during an Of Montreal show in Asheville? Of Montreal were bouyant, flashy and fantasmagoric in their performance at the Orange Peel. Admittedly, if I had partaken in substance abuse like I am more than confident most of the venue's crowd did, the show would have been more crazy for me. But hey, I still got to watch a blonde-mowhawked indie hipster in a furry white vest come close to elbowing me in the eye the whole time.
Of Montreal drummer James Husband opened the night. Stand-up cello makes everything better for your side project, by the way.
Enjoy!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Off For the Weekend
We weren't sure at first, but my comrades and I are going to ignore the winter weather advisories flooding the area and we're going to see Of Montreal at The Orange Peel. Needless to say, I'm as pumped up as a gas station at Lowe's Motor Speedway to see this show.
Tomorrow, I'll be catching Between the Buried and Me and others in Charlotte. Get ready for some shots from this concert weekend, and pray we don't get stalled by this gnarly weather.
Later!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/3/10
The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl
--------------Happy humpday, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying whatever abysmal or wonderful weather is floating around your stratosphere at the moment. 'Round these parts it's surprisingly sunny, which prompted me to break into some sunny punk rock to gear up your rears for the weekend to come.
The Dead Milkmen may have been around for three years or so, but any fans of cute little punk rock ballads the likes of The Ramone's "I Want You Around" and Blink's "Rock Show" will love "Punk Rock Girl." Jumpstart your weekend-itis with The Dead Milkmen album, Beelzebubba, from 1988.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Song of the Day
**2/1/10
Talib Kweli - I Try
------------I try to vary the music that I walk around town to everyday, but today I found myself listening to Common's entire catalog. Since I don't like to repeat artists on this blog, I handed my hip-hop driven mind to Pandora to point me in a similar direction. Kweli came on, and I'm more than satisfied.
After a night of glitzy and glamorous playtime at the Grammys, I wanted something a little more pensive (and an album that's a bit mature for music turnaround) to welcome the new month and a new year of music. Talib Kweli teams up with Mary J. Blige on the stark confessional, "I Try," with razor-sharp rhymes slicing through thoughts on heritage, and the status quo of music. The Beautiful Struggle, is the Brooklyn emcee's 2004 project.
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