Updates!

Sorry for the radio silence.  Actually, in all sincerity, last week I spent half the week sleeping in a bunk at an overnight summer camp, killing spiders, turning off broken smoke detectors, and walking through cabins at 12 and 4 AM to do rounds.  Don’t ask. 

Anyway, here are a few songs everyone should be listening:

“Amen” by Paper Tongues

I just realized I downloaded “Higher” by Paper Tongues many moons ago and didn’t put it together that these two songs were done by the same band. This is a very I-Love-My-Life this song.  It can truly lift your spirits. I recommend it highly.

“Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men

I feel kind of embarrassed about this but this song is very creative and catchy and I cannot get enough of it.  If Mumford and Sons had children, they would sound like Of Monsters and Men.  This is a song that I can listen to over and over again and not get tired of it.  I think it is because it can mirror your mood—it can have a happy vibe, a sad vibe, or an angry vibe.  It mutates!

“Hands In The Air” by Timbaland featuring Ne-Yo

Taking a totally different track, the song that plays in most of the Step Up Revolution previews out right now is AMAZING.  This song is a great song for working out or running (or breaking out into dance on an escalator in protest-art-fashion).

“Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads

I heard this song in a bar recently and I was super excited about it.  I grew up listening to Talking Heads (well, rather I grew up with my mom listening to Talking Heads and therefore me being forced to listen to them as well).  They were just never my thing.  I never took kindly to them, I guess you could say.  However, this song really is great and it makes me respect them a little bit more.

Other songs worth listening to:

“She Doesn’t Mind” by Sean Paul

“Feel Good Drag” by Anberlin

“In My Trunk” by Dev

And if anyone hasn’t heard about it—Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie are performing in New York City on Wednesday, October 17^th.  Concert will also feature Jonathan Davis from Korn.  Should be an epic show!

Stealing Stuff for Miike Snow

I needed face wash.  But I wanted the fancy, overpriced kind that they sell at Sephora.  So I went to Sephora with the full intention of only looking at the face washes.  However, when I walked through the door, I quickly was distracted by the nail polish display.  I would say within the past few months Sephora has really branched out in terms of their nail polish options.  They have all these different brands and colors.  It is truly ama . . . oh right, so anyway, music blog.

So anyway, I was meandering around the nail polish display and noticed briefly the song playing in Sephora.  It was catchy—I liked it.  Then I noticed they had Dior nail polish and I started looking at that, no longer giving attention to the music in the background.  Then I noticed it again.  The same song was playing and it caught my attention yet again.  I had to find out what this was.

I had my big bag with me draped over my shoulder and I started looking for my phone to Shazam the song that was playing.  I fumbled over the sunscreen and dishwashing detergent I had just bought in Duane Reade, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter in paperback, a sweaty water bottle, wallet, but no phone. It was way down at the bottom of the bag and as I was trying to get it deep in the depths of my bag, the woman working at this Sephora came over and asked me, “Can I help you find anything?” 

Now, this woman had seen me at the nail polish a few minutes ago.  I had been looking for quit sometime (and not looking at face washes like I should have been).  But it was not until I had both my hands in my bag that she asked me if she could help me.  I have a sneaking suspicion that she thought I was stealing or preparing to steal something.

I was offended, whether I should have been or not was another story.  But I was.  So, I responded, “YAH—MY PHONE!”

“Oh, sorry,” she said and walked away, never to ask me if I needed help again.  Finally feeling the phone in my grasp, I took it out frantically; realizing the song could end at any minute.  So I stood there, looking at the nail polish with my phone out as it tried to find the song in its electronic brain.

The song was “Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)” by Miike Snow from their 2012 album, Happy To You.  This song is quirky, bizarre, comforting and adorable.  I downloaded it as I left the store and have listened to nothing else since. 

I recommend everyone listen to it as soon as possible.  It will make your day!  And this just goes to show that music comes before all else; even nail polish and face wash.

What is Important RIGHT NOW!

Today I am here to tell you two things you need to be aware of in the music world.  These two things are 1) “Shake it Out” by Florence and the Machine and 2) Continued Silence from Imagine Dragons.

1)  “Shake It Out” is an awesome song but I never gave it a chance.  When the whole Florence and the Machine craze was going on, I was only interested in her single.  Anything after “Dog Days Are Over,” I cared nothing about.  I had heard the song “Shake it Out” in places like Barnes and Noble or Starbucks, but that’s it; I have only ever listened to it in passing.  I have never sat down (or stood up for that matter) and just really listened to it.  I did that a few days ago on the subway.  I downloaded the song and totally succumbed to the talked about powers-that-be of Florence and the Machine.

First of all, she uses the word, “ghouls” within the first few lines of the song.  We do not use that enough.  That is a fabulous word that brings to mind something along the lines of the demons in Fantasia.  Recently when I was complaining to my mother about Amtrak and their not-so-adequate employees, I used the phrase “inbred swine” which is not my own invention, but rather I stole it from the film 300.  But it is brilliant—the perfect combination of sophistication, arrogance, pompousness and righteousness.  “Ghouls” has the same affect.

The fact the she expresses her past as a “horse” she is always “dragging around” and that she is now going to “bury that horse in the ground.”  It is excellent how she uses her metaphors.  She also uses a phrase that she is has a “graceless heart” and she is going to “cut it out and then restart.”  Wow, have I been there.  It is a serious song but the chorus keeps it catchy and not as heavy as the lyrics and song topic could make it.  “It is hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off.”  It is true just shake it out.  The music itself is wonderful and so are the lyrics and that voice is pretty otherworldly. 

2) Imagine Dragons is a group that only started releasing music a few years ago.  Their song, “It’s Time” has been released and is playing on the radio currently as a fairly popular hit.  In addition, there has recently been a preview for a film, The Words, staring Jeremy Irons and Bradley Cooper.  In the preview, the song playing is another song off of the same EP, Continued Silence.  The song is “Demons” and it is beautiful.  The chorus goes:

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide

Don’t get too close

It’s dark inside

It’s where my demons hide

It’s where my demons hide

There is real emotion, both pain and happiness, that you can hear in their music. It is Mumford and Sons meets Kings of Leon.  Check them out!