+++one love | playing for change

Spending a decent amount of time in my 20’s overseas, I’ve learned a critical fact about myself and travel. I’m primarily interested in the human experience. I don’t need to see castles, churches, or art museums. I just want to be around people.

When I was 12, I went to Greece. The trip was with my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Tony, as we still call him, is very Greek. When we went, we did a lot of sightseeing. However, what I remember is spending time with his extended family at various Tavernas in Athens. It’s really the only thing that rests with me. Later in my teens, I went with a friend and his family to England and France. We stayed some of their British friends in Southampton. Our time was focused on the experience of culture.

The point is, I love people. I love being around people that are so different from me we are forced to talk about one another and learn. It’s one of the things I do best, love the most, and crave the most often.

This music has made it’s rounds on many times, but this video is a new one to me and it gets to me every time.

monday’s playlist – 16 hour workday edition

yeah i’m working a lot today, hopefully i’ll turn out some good results. only a few more months of this lifestyle;).

in other news, here’s what got me through. 

Beirut – My Night With The Prostitute from Marseille

Andrew Bird – Plasticities

Loney, Dear – The City, The Airport

Arcade Fire – Ocean of Noise

just oldies today

Phantom Planet please…

I love happiness more than cynicism. Life is way too good to not be positive. This music should settle that. Anyway, it’s never too cool to love Phantom Planet.

This one for Becca because I promised:

Phantom Planet – Do the Panic

Kelsi, this is for you. Listen to it and feel the passion of the music. And when we’re not going out on our date.. and you see my destroyed, but happy face… well cheer up with this gem of goodness.

Pantom Planet – Anthem

So much genius in two little songs.

Remixes are Yesterday’s Mashups

They’ve come and go. I didn’t love the mashup scene nearly as much as I could have. There are some good songs out there, including a great retake on the new Coldplay song (. Either way, it’s time to move on.

Although remixing songs has been around a long time, it’s just a bit out of control.

Today I heard a remix of “Electric Feel” by MGMT, and it was all together just wrong. The song is so good alone, nothing will be as good.

MGMT – Electric Feel

Stick with what’s good. It’s not like Cheesecake gets gross because they came out with a new kind. Trust me, you’ll appreciate it in the end.

Scandanavia is all too fond of the glam revival

I can’t say it’s a bad thing. I think people are scared to love glam. It’s like, we got into The Darkness a few years ago and that was okay but this kind of stuff scares us. Remember how Scissor Sisters got big here too? Yeah, that’s even worse than most of the stuff coming out of the frigid north.

Just look at these select bands and tell me you can’t see Scandanavia being the new capital of all things glam. p.s. I own copies of all these songs. Thank you Sweden.

Melody Club – Destiny Calling

Surferosa – Lucky Lipstick

The Ark – One of us is Gonna Die Young

p.s. part 2 – On the first song, it sounds like he’s saying “I’m your destiny, Collin”… and that freaks me out.

The “I don’t have time to categorize a post” mixbag post of delicious…

Yeah, I am still working on hosting this blog on its own domain. In the meantime, you can read my playlist for the last few days. These are the songs I can’t get enough of.. old or new, they’re amazing.

On that note… I got my tix to Vampire Weekend for the 31st in Salt Lake, and am looking forward to rocking the SSLYBY show in May. Any meet ups will be welcome if you’re local. Maybe I’ll rock a fanboy t-shirt or something.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Dead Right

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – We Can’t Help It

Smoosh – Find A Way

Musiq Souldchild f. Estelle – People Everyday (Arrested Development Cover)

Self – What A Fool Believes

Few are the people who can stomach this remake by Self, but I love it.  I heard one non-fan describe it as barking dogs… sad.

A couple of unrelated loose ends…

First, is a remake from a band called Self.

If you’re a true music nerd, you’ve probably listened to a bit of They Might Be Giants. It’s the kind of band you’re embarrassed that your friends know you listen to. They attract geeks of all kinds…. BUT….

They are actually geniuses. Their music arrangement and creativity is unparalleled. You’ll find a lot of their stuff to sound dated… but that’s because they’ve been around for a couple of decades and still put stuff out.

In a recent tribute album, Matt Mahaffey from Self did a remake of one of my favorites.. Ana Ng. It’s brilliant, as he’s also a producer and has amazing sense of arrangement. I love every twist and turn this song takes… as originally put by TMBG, but as later interpreted by Matt.

Self – Ana Ng

The second random pick is one of my favorite memory attached songs. If you like the recent push in electronica, you have to check out United States of Electronica. Their music was all available for free from their site awhile ago. My roommates and I were all big baseball fans and had a huge hoopla festival of nonsense Rex Soxery when they won the World Series in ’04.

This was the theme to our celebration. Yeah, we know the song is about Seattle, but there was too much energy in the track to not use it.

A close friend of mine is from Seattle and saw these guys in concert. He said it was an experience you will find nowhere else. They are all about love and music. There’s a mass of them that gets on stage and just completely parties out. Worth a look for sure.

United States of Electronica (U.S.E.) – Emerald City

I still love SSLYBY

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is a favorite of mine. The 2006 album went off with relatively little fanfare, and much to my dismay as over a period of time I couldn’t find their stuff. Even locating information online seemed tough.

After hearing I am Warm and Powerful on LastFM once, I did some thorough searches. I keep a list of good bands and their music that I hear. When I get the chance I look it up and find out more. Ticking most bands off the list wasn’t hard, but they were one of 2 that I just couldn’t get the info on.

Eventually, I subscribed to Rhapsody and found their album Broom.

Today as I scraped Hype Machine to find some Bird and the Bee stuff for their new EP, I located new SSLYBY stuff and everything was a-ok! It’s not for everybody, but I love their clever approach at arrangement. It’s simple, but different. I get the same feeling listening to I am Warm and Powerful that I get when I pop Say Hi’s Northwestern Girls. It’s just… good.

Anyway, the song Oregon Girl is coming as part of their new sophomore release called Perishing. It’s shaping up to be an amazing release, so keep on it. We’ll update with any more show news.

I can’t pick a favorite here.. they’re all rad.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – I Am Warm And Powerful

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Glue Girls

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Oregon Girl

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Pangea

Birthday Week

If your Birthday week is this week, then you already know it. I’m celebrating a Birthday week for someone starting today, and to start off I have a song.

I’ve been a huge Bird and the Bee fan, which is good because I don’t listen to a lot of girl-led bands unless they’re really good. I found the song Again and Again a long time ago and was way into it. The vocals are the serene type that do well over something a little less traditional for that type of voice.

I discovered a buddies blog yesterday, and it had this new Birthday song up. It pretty much took over the spot as fav Bird and the Bee song. So here’s “Birthday” as well…

 

Bird and the Bee – Birthday

Bird and the Bee – Again and Again

Talking Sondre Lerche

I talked to my buddy Ben today. He moved out to Hawaii and it’s been ages. We worked together on a project I started, but ultimately we both had to go do other things. We always seemed to enjoy a lot of the same music though, and so it was a glorious reunion of sorts.

In passing conversation, Ben mentioned that he was checking out Mitzvah from time to time. Funny enough, I forget that people even read this. So.. Ben asks me what I’ve been listening to. I hesitated to answer anything big, since i’ve been busy and sticking with more of the classics than anything else.

Despite that, I have been sticking with a lot of Sondre Lerche, and so I told him I’d post up some Lerche for him to check out.

I fell in love with this guy’s music way back in ’03 when I first heard “Sleep on Needles”. The sound is so charming, he landed the gig to do the music for “Dan in Real Life”. Anyway, there’s not much else I could say without just letting you listen. If you aren’t a Sondre Lerche fan already, I hope this pushes you over the edge.

Oh yeah, and if you plan on seeing Sondre any time soon, don’t. He’s Norwegian and does more shows abroad than here in the States. Decide how much of a fan you really are.

Sondre Lerche – Airport Taxi Reception (easily my favorite)

Sondre Lerche – Phantom Punch

Sondre Lerche – Let My Love Open The Door

Sondre Lerche – Modern Nature

Sondre Lerche – Two Way Monologue