While Tac was living in WA in the bachelor pad, the kids and I were still in ID for about a month & 1/2, so they could finish school and I could get the house ready for moving out. I had zero spare time for fun stuff like finding new music, but Tac had a bit of time to do as he pleased. Graciously, he spent some of that time at the music store and he came back to ID to pick us up with a Matt and Kim cd.
I had never heard of them before, but that should mostly be attributed to the fact that I never listen to radio stations or any thing of that nature. I know that I am missing out on some good stuff, but the rest of it is so putrid,vile and ordinary that I can’t stand it.
Matt and Kim is way cool, its like really good breakfast cereal. Naturally sweet, a little crunchy, does’nt get soggy too quickly, and you generally want another bowl, knowing that you will most likely be having some for a snack later in the day as well. (I hope that analogy worked for you, even if your’e not addicted to cereal like I am)
Maybe this video will help if the cereal didn’t. Seriously can’t get enough of this, thank you Tac!
OK, here’s the situation (my parents went away on a weeks vacation…Will Smith) Ha ha, I have no idea how that just happened, but it really did, please tell me I’m not the only old person who actually remembers when that song came out.
Actually the real situation is that I am kind of a slacker and haven’t blogged in a wee bit, partly because we moved to the Seattle area this month. Issaquah to be exact. The whole moving thing is never fun, but we are starting to get back in our normal life groove and I actually had time to blog.
I am happy to be writing again.
Our new house
I wrote about Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears 2 years ago, or so (if you followed that link I just made I hope you are listening to “The Zero Light” right now, what a fabulous song!). Since then they have made another album called “The Flight of the Knife.” I never wrote anything about it because I had just blogged about them, but we have been listening to that album at least once every day for weeks now.
Our house essentially turns into the stage for a musical when they are playing; singing, dancing and overall cheerfulness. I don’t think I want to try and describe the music, you can figure it out yourself, and I hope you do because it has several of the best characteristics of different types and ages of music all in one, however it DEMANDS and DESERVES a second listen.
The kids favorite song is “Purple Rocket” because 1) its so awesome 2) we are reading a book called “Georges Cosmic Treasure Hunt” by Stephen Hawkings and his daughter Lucy, that is all about space and rockets n’stuff. This book has “blasted” Bryan Scary into our daily music fun. I very much recommend this book and the one before it to any parent looking for something to read their kids this summer.
I somewhat obsessively check Bryan Scary’s concert dates hoping so very badly to see them live someday, so far they seem to stick to the east coast, but I’m comforted by the fact that Seattle offers me a much better chance than Boise ever did.
Basically at this point it has been so long since last I posted that I am doing a big blogging faux pau, and writing about all kinds of stuff at one time. Tac, my social media expert and husband will not totally love it, but what are you gonna do? Besides, he’s too nice to say anything.
So much has been happening in the land of music! I haven’t been writing about it, but I’ve sure been thinking about it a lot. I feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to play catchup and making separate posts for all this, hence the all at once.
First of all, I love White Lies and their new album To Lose My Life. Of course Scary Larry told me about them. Tac and I both have listened to then a ton. They are best loud, but quieter works too.
The Mummers have turned their EP “Tale to Tell, part 1″ into a full length album. Seriously, if you haven’t, please listen to them and feel the love, and if you didn’t like them the first time TRY AGAIN! They added 4 wonderful songs, of which I am so impressed with all four. When I am in the mood for pure beauty and magic I turn to them.
My daughter got an itunes gift card and I was so proud when she bought some more Relient K (her favorite band) and an EP from HelloGoodbye (the one with the avocado on the front). She is adorable.
Jimmy Chamberlain left The Smashing Pumpkins! And, I’m totally excited about it too. Why not be happy about it, since its that or be upset. I am entirely hopeful that Billy Corgan will just crank out some wonderful things with a new creative juice or something like that. I also wish the best for Jimmy, he is amazing, I love his work with The Pumpkins, but like I said earlier: I choose optimism over sadness and despair right now. Plus, I really love Adore, and that was done without Jimmy for all you non-pumpkin nerds.
The Silversun Pickups have a new album, Swoon, and it has made me very happy. One of my favorite songs is called “Growing old is getting old.” My brother Adam is turning 30 today, so I am dedicating this to him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!! I am saying this is going to one of the albums on many people’s “best of 2009″ lists. I just keep listening, and it gets cooler every time.
If you are still reading: “hey thanks.”
And Happy Late Birthday to you, Larry!
Say Hi’s new album “Ooohs and Ahhs” has been played a lot at our house this last week. Say Hi is one of the bands that validates to me why I can’t live happily without having the music playing.
(What a difference from the band featured in my last post; Tinted Windows, who have some talent but choose to use it poorly and not find a better singer, not to mention the superficial lame lyrics.)
Say Hi appeals to everything in me, in a soft melting all over you and leaking inside the cracks way. The music doesn’t interrupt or enter abrasively, but it gets into your head all the same. The lyrics are sometimes hard to understand, you have to really be listening to understand them, but the cool thing is that every once in a bit you finally figure out what he is saying and its one of the wittiest things ever.
How can the lyrics keep being so genius, and original? That is what I was asking myself while buying this lastest album, slightly worried that it couldn’t be done. Yah right, “Oohs and Ahhs” is pretty much supercalifragilistic.
Also, Say Hi is touring right now and BEST OF ALL, I will be seeing them next month! I am thrilled. Please see them here for their concert schedule if you would like to see them, or listen to “November was white, December was Gray” from the new album.
This is kind of a short post, mostly I just wanted to see what you think about it. James Iha formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins is finally in another band: Tinted Windows. I just listened to their new song, Kind of a Girl, here.
Over all I would say they are musically talented for sure, but the lyrics? (to this song anyway) Not so much. It was too bubble gum for me, but that is what they were going for I guess, so they did a good job. I was hoping that it would be better, so James could feel cool too. He’s kind of like the ex-girlfriend that wants to look super hot and be all that, next time she sees her ex-boyfriend (Billy Corgan) at a party.
Prediction: Kind of A Girl, will surely end up on the soundtrack of a Disney-type tween movie.
About 5 years ago our friend Nick recommended the band Sparta to me. I bought their album Wiretap Scars; listened to it, liked it, but never took it beyond that. I always really liked the album, but didn’t play it all that regularly.
I absolutely love to play my ipod on “shuffle” and just let it randomly pick the songs. Its such a great way to hear all your music, and I get kind of excited to hear whats coming on next. Every single time Sparta plays I get that naggy feeling of “why don’t I listen to these guys more?” So I did. Even better, I found out that they have three other albums I didn’t know about. I’m really looking forward to checking them out more.
I’m pretty sure Rich Taylor is a fan, how about you Scary Larry? Anyone else? Hope you likeee.
How many of you saw the Super Bowl commercial featuring The Smashing Pumpkins new song “FOL,” (Feel Our Love)? I didn’t see it during the actual game, but still I watched it several times.
You can download the whole song for free here, if you’d like. I love it, there is some real energy in this song, you do kinda “feel it.” And you end up singing it repetitively, maybe thats what happened (Billy got his own song stuck in his head when he wrote it). Seriously though, I was a little nervous when I heard the new song would be released through a car commercial, I can’t really even think of a logical reason why.
After hearing it, and it is straight up Pumpkin goodness, I realized how silly that was. Because its actually really cool; I just got a great song from Billy for free. Take that Corgan nay-sayers, he was creative and managed to get paid for his work, but his fans didn’t have to be the ones to do it.
After listening to that one song many times, today I listened to a shuffled mix of everything Smashing Pumpkins (yes, Billy, I do listen to entire albums) and at once my super fandom was totally validated when “Bye June” came twinkling out of the speakers. That was followed by “Rose March” and I was as happy as I was the first time I listened to Siamese Dream.
(Below) enjoy some “Bye June” accompanied by some wonderful pictures taken in Scotland.
Our 4 yr old Seth is a lover of the music. He is constantly amusing us with his requests for certain bands when we are driving or at home. He really likes Muse and Seve Vs Evan, so you can see how most of the time its not hard to fill his wants. One of the only things he likes possibly more than music is his Grandpa. They are totally best friends.
My dad is a big fan of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys (so am I actually, which is hard to comprehend if you know me and how much I dislike all country music… except for Bob Wills). So naturally when I finally got some of my Dad’s Bob Wills on my ipod and played it for Seth last month it started some kind of explosion in Seths brain causing him to beg for it constantly when he and I are alone in the car (which is a lot since the other kids are in school and he and I run lots of errands and go places together).
(a little clip you might like, even though the quality isn’t perfect)
Seth is actually going to spend over a week next month with my parents while I go to Puerto Rico, and he is most excited about jamming with my Dad every day. My Dad is very musical and he has an area in the loft with a drum set, keyboard, guitars, microphones, and harmonica. They play together often. Seth likes to bring his blue ukulele.
So that is my big music scoop for last month, perhaps not so “gen x” as usual, but I like Bob Wills because it is incredibly entertaining, and I love the quaint undiluted sound of the guitar, violin, piano and who knows what else. Mr Wills talks while they are playing, to the band itself and commentary on the song in general and it is so funny. He also makes crazy noises. They went through several band members, and I like some better than others, but one of our favorites is the piano player Kelso. We are naming our next dog Kelso, and that is the name Seth uses now when he pretends to be a dog.
My Dad has a huge box set, but for the average listener I think the best album to start with is Bob Wills the Country Music Hall of Fame. (check out the listening samples there on the album, you might surprise yourself and like it too)
Our 7 yr old son created some new additions for our 10 yr old daughters Christmas village. I love it, she didn’t so much. click on the picture to make it larger if you want.
We had a great Christmas season, filled with tons of family, junk food and good food, and some cool new toys too. ( I felt bad omitting that spiritually we also had a wonderful time, but this blog hardly seems like the place..) My new toys came in the form of 2 necklaces from a site that I have been drooling steadily on for some months now. I guess Tac got the hint when I showed it to him every day for like a week.
If you are interested in either wearing or making a beautiful woman in your life very happy,check out this very uniquely beautiful jewelery at www.jewelsbynature.com, where you can link to her etsy site and see the SteamPunk line, which is where Tac did his shopping for me. ( I’m just linking to it because I like it so much, I am not “advertising” or anything weird like that, I leave the marketing in this family to Tac.)
This roused my curiosity about steampunk in general and I found out some really interesting stuff, like…
“Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology”
and
“Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual craftpersons into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.”
(from Wikipedia, follow this link to read more)
I also found a SteamPunk band; Abney Park, have you heard of them?
Well that should give you your daily allowance of semi-music related trivial information.