I made a new mix which basically doubles up as a fanmix for movies like Dark City, 28 Days Later, Children of Men, and books like the Mortal Instruments series. What I really like about these movies and books are the worlds: dystopian or post-apocalyptic cities with dark alleys and generally creepy atmospheres. These songs are basically great for getting chased by zombies or running/driving for your life from oppressive tryants and/or monsters/zombies.
Imagine Dragons- Radioactive
Greenskeepers- Vagabond
The Pixies- Hey
The Rapture- Echoes
Radiohead- Talk Show Host
Arcade Fire- Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
The White Stripes- Seven Nation Army
The xx- Crystallized
Wolf Parade- You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son
My feelings are stupid. They're often of the "I am hungry" or "I am sad" or "Does he like me?" or "I am feeling shy" variety. I appreciate lyrical masterpieces as much as the next person but at the end of the day, I love songsthat has simple lyrics but still captures your feelings perfectly. Some may argue that the Smith Westerns's lyrics borderline dumb, but not me! These guys manage to tap my exact emotion(s)! Thar's been enough to keep me listening for three years straight.
Dye It Blonde is a super polished successor to Smith Westerns, their debut album- which is a gem in it's own right, not doubt. However, Dye It Blonde takes me feelings and amplifies them and makes them so beautiful and simple. What you have is ten tracks of pure simplicity and ~teenage~ emotions. I listened to this album every weekend in the twelfth grade because it captured my emotions perfectly. It's all about longing and love and wanting to have fun and just emotional debauchery in general. It doesn't matter if you're falling in love or falling out of it because Dye It Blonde will work for you either way (teenage ups and downs woohoo). Or even if you're alone in your room on a Saturday night- this is perfect music, you guys! It's a fun combination of glam rock and garage rock and pop and it touches my soul like nobody's business. Probably the most important album ever!
And I've been listening to their new track "Varsity" from their new album and it's so incredibly good.
Made another mix. Summer jams for hot days that include picnics and cycling (okay no) and staying up and feeling hot and being with friends and feeling the heat.
Regina Spektor- Folding Chair
Canned Heat- Going Up The Country (perfect cycling song. You know that scene in the Notebook when they're riding cycles through the woods? This should be the song. Okay it's not romantic enough. Into The Wild has the perfect usage of this song)
The Weepies- I Was Made For Sunny Days
Dire Straits- Twisting by the Pool
All Girl Summer Fun Band- Down South, 10 Hours
Tennis- Marathon
Led Zeppelin- D'yer Mak'er
The Young Rascals- Groovin'
Weezer- Island in the Sun
The White Stripes- Your Southern Can Is Mine
MGMT- Time to Pretend
Little Joy- Brand New Start
ELO- Mr. Blue Sky
The Strokes- The Modern Age
John Travolta and Olivia Newton John- Summer Nights
Koko Beware- I Miss You
Joni Mitchell- California
The Rolling Stones- Laugh, I Nearly Died
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Atlas Strategic- Smooth Nights
Backstreet Goodbye- Summer Drive Song
The Vaccines- Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra)
Black Lips- Bad Kids
Blitzen Trapper- Summer Town
Gold Motel- Safe in LA
Jonathan Richman- That Summer Feeling
Phosporescent- It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)
Serious case of frisson, guys. I've only ever heard Westlife's version of Seasons in the Sun, which I kind of enjoy but I'd never admit to liking in public. Anyway, this cover is a gem and I wish there were more pop-y Nirvana songs to listen to.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
I haven't moved from the front of my computer for about three hours now, except to make two cups of tea. A Sunday well spent, I must say. My midterms got over last week so this means I'm going back to spending all my evenings online again. These are three songs that I've got stuck in my head and I listen to each song about fifteen times a day at the least.
I spent the whole day muttering "When I switched off my feelings, that's when I lost control" under my breath. I really love Teenage Fanclub. They're everything good in this world. I remember listening to them for the first time around March last year, right before the final physics exam of my life. I was listening to "The Concept" (which is pure genius) and drinking coffee and standing at the door of my balcony and staring at the tree with pink flowers and that moment was so right because it was the first time in days when I just felt good and not stressed and just happy and this intense feeling of frisson just overtook me. It was a good moment. Teenage Fanclub is good. They sound like a bunch of nice guys singing about nice feelings and sad feelings and happy feelings but the important thing is that they're nice guys. Like Wilco. Wilco sounds like a nice guy making excellent music about feelings and being human.
The Strokes, however, don't sound like nice guys. They sound like a bunch of young dudes making music about being young and doing stupid shit and since you're young and you do stupid shit you can't be a nice guy (except for Nikolai, of course. He looks like the nicest guy ever). That doesn't make them bad guys or anything, but it's just that they aren't exactly nice. Maybe they'll grow old and be a bunch of nice old guys but they aren't... kind.
And Lou Reed. Lou Reed is all about feeling. The Velvet Underground only made music about being human. Their songs were matters of the heart. So my sister and I reached a consensus about Lou Reed and that was this: He isn't a malicious guy. You could say he's nice. The thing is, since he's a ~human~ he makes mistakes and thus hurts people and thus may not seem like a nice guy but he will always sing a song about it and realize he wasn't a nice guy so that makes him a nice guy.
In the twelfth grade, I went through this transition period during which I was extremely happy and extremely angsty at the same time. I don't know how to explain it but my mood- and personality- would change, depending on the person I was hanging out with. I also went through several crushes during the year, which kind of ensured I was on a permanent floating high (crushes do that to me).
It was through Crush #2 when I discovered the song "Too Young To Be In Love" by this band called Hunx and his Punx. It was perfect for me because it called out to my soul, y'know? It had the right amount of energy and heartbreak and hope and when I heard the line "nothing can mend my teenage heart again", I knew I'd found it. The song that would probably be my number one song for the year. I then pursued some of their EPs and stuff and it was okay. It had ridiculous lines like "what the heck is wrong with you?/I think you sniffed too much glue/You don't like rock 'n' roll/and I don't like you". Before you dismiss the song (and band) for being, well, stupid, wait! Give it a chance. And listen to the album Too Young To Be In Love.
I'm a teenager and I'm happy and sad and I'm into boys so this album is A+. It has everything you need to go through a mad crush/teenage hormones and the best part is, it doesn't take itself too seriously, which is an important criteria for me. It's just about being a teenager and chilling and being in love and stuff! You could almost pass it off for an album released forty years ago but all the vintage sounds and the lead singer's voice (it grows on you, trust me) and really really powerful backing vocalists... well, it's an explosive combination. It's not for everyone but if you like mad and fun stuff, listen to this album because you will not be disappointed. At all.
Best tracks (in my important opinion): "He's Coming Back" and "Too Young To Be In Love".
I feel ~youth~ coursing through me when I listen to Is This It, the Strokes' debut album. It's looks at every (okay, many) aspects of ~youth~ (yes, the little squigglys are essential to highlight the point of the word), be it angst and love and going back to her apartment or just chilling with your ~bros~. Julian Casablancas' voice makes you ~feel~. Best song on the album, in my important opinion, is Someday, because it really makes me ~feel~. Reading about this album makes me nostalgic for a time when the Strokes were going to save rock 'n' roll and they were just a bunch of five attractive dudes out their to jam to good music. They were so effortlessly cool and stylish. This album is cool. You will feel cool when you listen to this album. It's for heartbreak and parties and being by yourself and not being deep enough and trying your best and still fucking up and everything relevant.
The title says it all. I spent a minute trying to decide whether it was roundup or round up but I've decided to go with the latter.
1. I read the Likeness by Tana French, which is the second book in the Dublin Murder Squad series. I'm avoiding using the term "sequel" because it's not exactly a sequel in the conventional way. Into The Woods was about Rob and his partner Cassie, and this book is about Cassie after the incidents in Into The Woods. I've read a lot of reviews about how implausible the whole premise is (read the book and you'll know what I mean) but that was totally okay for me because I wasn't thinking. What are the odds of a girl who looks exactly like you and then she's murdered and you go undercover? AS HER? Implausible yes, but the book was interesting and captivating and I couldn't let it go. It stuck with me the whole day. It was dark and kind of downward spiraling (does that make sense?) but it worked and I really enjoyed it. What really bums me out is that we didn't hear of Rob at all but you can totally deal with it. So I'd strongly recommend reading this novel and then reading the whole series (I realize that I haven't read the whole series myself but I'm hoping it'll be as good as the first two novels).
2. I watched Cabin in the Woods months after I put it on my movie list. It started off super interesting and funny and there were some real gems in the movie but it didn't do much for me. I think it was the end that was kind of annoying- not the end end but before the end. It involved characters running around and a lot of fantasy animals on the loose. It was hilarious, yes, but kind of stupid and not the "Look, we're being stupid because this genre is being severely misused and is stupid" but the "eh, stupid". The unicorn was hilarious too. And there were some parts that had me laughing out loud. And I scare easily.
So yes, watch it but DO NOT EXPECT MUCH. And watch it with someone because it's going to be funnier.
3. Um, yes, music that touches your soul?! I don't know what rock I've been living under but I have no idea how I went so long without listening to these two gems:
Hurt by Johnny Cash
I cried. But maybe that's because there were ~excess emotion~ in my soul.
Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem
I was listening to this song while waiting for my ride this morning and fkdhsfkjsfkdsj (excess emotion). It touched my soul.
4. And finally, I've diagnosed myself with no motivation, apathy, laziness, and depression.
I had an amazing day with B today, but that's a post especially devoted to diy. I just realized the beauty of Shakira and she's a true goddess. She belly dances, for Christ's sake! And she's beautiful. She looks like those people who're beautiful on the outside AND inside, y'know? Which is an extremely important criteria for being a goddess. Also, I'm not really sure if she's actually a beautiful person on the inside but she sure looks like it. So without further ado...
Underneath Your Clothes is like my jam. It's perfect, really. Everyone should listen to this and sing along, especially on auto rides early in the morning. It makes your day better because you'll be humming this song until you go to sleep that night.
Um, this is the combined beauty of goddess Shakira and Dude I Love, Nadal. I know zilch about tennis but whatever. Look at his smile, you guys! I melted into the puddle of love and goo when I saw his smile. And together? They're on fire! This is beautiful. Even the scene in which she dances for him doesn't make me cringe which is a massive achievement (for me, at least)!. Yummy yummy.
More fun stuff to listen to: (this stuff just makes your dull day bright. Really. Promise)
(Isn't she gorgeous? And hello, it's the world cup! United we stand, divided we fall!)
And finally... the jam of the jamzz. The belly to my dancing. The ANTHEM.
Enough said.
And bonus:
I want to go through a break up, just so I can listen to this song.
I realize that all the video stills are of goddess Shakira's assets. Weird.
She's a real goddess. I adore her. Want to know how much of a goddess she is? Listen to Cool. The video is partly why I want to be a music video director. Also, Gwen with brown hair! Doesn't she look gorgeous?
I want a cute dopey looking boyfriend to bum around with in this beautiful Mediterranean town! And if we're talking about Gwen, we have to talk about No Doubt. I never really got seriously into them but they were way before my time, you guys! Sam from All American Girl (Hi, goddess Meg Cabot) was so obsessed with them. So 2004. But, yes. We must appreciate No Doubt. I went and bought myself a No Doubt CD for a cheap cheap cheap price of 33 rupees! Weeee.
Um, yes? Museum of lovers! That's a very important line!
I really dig this song for some reason. Unrequited and yet so jazzy.
