Love Is A Mixtape

My friend Mike let me borrow a book of his called "Love Is A Mixtape" by Rob Sheffield recently. It was a short and sweet read, only took me about 2 weeks. The chapters were generally short and each started with the track listing of an actual mixtape of his, then he would reflect on that time in his life.

Sheffield is a former contributing editor for Rolling Stone where he wrote the column Pop Life.

The story really centered around Sheffield's relationship with Renee Crist, a fellow rock critic. Their story was adorable. After I finished I googled Rob and Renee and to my surprise found a couple pictures of Renee via Google. In the book it said she had dark curly hair, in the picture I can see it's very much like mine!

This is Renee with a different boyfriend, Jimm, not a very good pic of either of them, but the other pic of Renee and Rob together was really rather tiny.

I really related to the way Sheffield related music to events and times in his life. Many songs just really bring me back.

I suggest this book to everyone!

Two Tongues

Saves The Day has been my all-time favorite band since sophomore year of high school. I've listened to a bit of Say Anything, though not my favorite. I recently learned that two members from each group have formed a sort of super group called "Two Tongues." The group consists of Chris Conley and David Soloway of Saves The Day and Max Bemis and Coby Linder of Say Anything.

On their myspace, Max Bemis said:

"Chris has been my favorite songwriter since I was 15. Ten years later he is now is one of my closest friends. The Two Tongues record is really an expression of the yin and yang; how two "opposite" souls stimulate and battle each other in any truly loving relationship."

Once I met Chris Conley and it was the best day ever. I am planning to get a Saves The Day related tattoo in the early spring.



I like the new song, here it is as a still youtube video. The song is called "Crawl"



The record won't drop till February 3, 2009.

Neutral Milk Hotel

Neutral Milk Hotel released In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, one of the most highly regarded albums of the 1990's, 10 years ago. The album was a concept album based around the Holocaust. The band quickly dropped out of the spotlight following their most highly acclaimed release, never recording another album since.

After years of seclusion, playing his last known show in 2002, Jeff Magnum, the creative mind behind the band showed up and played at numerous shows this fall including the Elephant Six Collective Holiday Surprise Tour. Magnum is a member of the original Elephant Six Collective which also consists of members from The Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal and Olivia Tremor Control. The label seems to have an affinity with psychedelic pop rock music as well as psych folk and indie influenced work.

You'll have to excuse me for not plowing over a bunch of kids whose hearts had stopped just to snag a few photos of Jeff playing "Engine" in the near total darkness. It was an experience best not encroached on by our culture of rampant documentation technology anyway, and yet who could blame the folks haphazardly setting off flashes in the hopes of capturing something they might take home with them. Still, you've got to hand it to Mangum for finding a way to play out in the sort of intimate spaces that befit Neutral Milk Hotel, even as the project's stature has grown well beyond them.

I would have killed to see Magnum live.

Here's a live video of "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", my favorite song of theirs, at a 1998 show during their heyday. It sounds pretty good considering it's a homemade recording.

Put a Ring On It

I was starting to wonder what happened to good old Beyonce. Her singles are always really fun. She is dropping a new album this month and her first single off the dance CD of her double disc is called "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)."

Honestly i can't stop listening to it. My roomie and I are trying to learn the dance hahaha. Failing miserably so far but having fun doing it. The dancing is crazyyy.

i guess last Saturday SNL spoofed the video, with Beyonce but the back up dancers were Andy Samberg, Justin Timberlake and newcomer Bobby Moynihan. Someone had put it on youtube where it garnered over 600,000 hits but NBC had them take it down, yet they haven't posted it to NBC.com yet! i have only seen small clips of it, but it looks good.

Beyonce's video.



E!News has some of the clip in this online feature.

Sondre Lerche

My friend Oliver invited me to go see Sondre Lerche tonight. But I had to decline as I was already late in passing in my 8 page paper on a chapter from a Kafka book. I had never heard him before... but if I was free I would have taken up the offer.

It's kind of indie and retro. In one song I heard of his, the music reminded me of something like Dean Martin or Sinatra.

Studies ruin everything!

Here is a "video" a.k.a. still with music playing over it, but it's Sondre Lerche having a duet with Regina Spektor.

Jens Lekman

Yesterday I got two invites for the same event on Facebook. A Jens Lekman concert being held at Northampton high school for only $8.

The show is being held to benefit Clara Gardener, a Northampton teen that lost both of her legs in a car accident this past August.

"We all love her and care about her so much, that we need to step up and we are," says crew teammate, Kierstin Knightly.

Clara Gardner, the 17 year old soon to be senior suffered some serious injuries that led to both legs being amputated at the knees. She was hit by an alleged drunk driver as she was loading a car at the Amtrak station in Springfield.

"I couldn't imagine the pain she was in when she was pinned between the two cars," Knightly says.

The show has been set up last minute due to Lekman's proximity to Northampton during his tour. Lekman is a 27 year-old Swedish pop/folk singer who has become quite popular in recent years. I had always heard of him, but never listened. When I received the invite for the concert I decided to give a listen and I really like it. His singing style at times reminds me of The Magnetic Fields.



I'll be there Saturday.

West Coast

Most of you are probably familiar with Jason Schwartzman's acting work in such films at "Rushmore", "The Darjeeling Limited" and "Shop Girl." But I bet you didn't know that he used to be in the band Phantom Planet. He wrote their song "California" which was the theme song to the teen drama "The O.C."

For a number of years Schwartman stuck to acting but last year he released his own solo album under the name Coconut Records. He recorded it in just a week at home with help from friends like Kirsten Dunst and Zoey Deschanel. The record, "Nightiming", isn't terribly revolutionary but it's cute and fun.

This is the only music video for the album, for the song "West Coast." At first I thought that it wasn't the official video, but it turns out that Schwartzman got permission to use Mark Gonzales's 1998 skate video footage.

I had never heard of Gonzales before, but it turns out that he revolutionized skateboarding. He and Natas Kaupus were the first skaters to skate on handrails. He was also one of the first people to skate in "switch stance."

Gonzales has also created a parallel career for himself as a fine artist.

I find it interesting that Schwartzman opted to use old skating footage instead of making his own video. But the song is "West Coast".. and skating is inherently California esque. Then again, he released the record on his own label, and likely doesn't have the money to shoot his own video.

Also noteworthy - Schwartzman's brother is in the band Rooney.

What do you think of the song and the use of the skate footage? do you think he's a good skater?

The Kinks

Lately I've been downloading a lot of Kink's music.

I downloaded an album called "The Great Lost Kinks Album."

There's an interesting story behind the album. It was an 1973 LP comprised of unreleased material. Reprise Records released the material after The Kinks moved to RCA Records.

The Kinks and their management were not told about the release of the album, they only learned that it existed because it showed up on the US Billboard charts.

Kinks song writer Ray Davies took legal action against Reprise. As a result Reprise discontinued the album in 1975.

The vinyl LP became a huge rarity. On Ebay a sealed copy of the album recently sold for $100.

The Kinks are perhaps best known for their hits "Your Really Got Me" and "Lola." "You Really Got Me" was the first hit song based around power chords and later heavily influenced heavy metal songs.

Here's The Kinks playing "You Really Got Me" live.

Mixtapes

Is there anything as great as receiving a mixtape from a friend or flame? I think not.
I also think it is so gratifying to finally finish what you consider to be a perfect tape(CD nowadays) for someone.

I've made CDs for my ex, I've made them for my car, I've made them for my friends after they were dumped. The music that is on a mixtape can really set a mood and burn memories into your brain.

I can never hear The Beatles "Got to Get You Into My Life" without thinking of the first mix my ex ever made for me. Certain songs bring me back to a specific time in my life.

The past couple weeks I worked on a mix for someone in Seattle. It should arrive on Thursday and I eagerly await his reaction!

The website Cassette From My Ex lets people post the story of a love affair and post the audio file of each side of a mixtape to the site. It's really fascinating to see what other people put on mixes for those they care about.

Misery Business

So I lied, I thought I wouldn't be posting Saturday. But here I am up after 12 am at my friend's before we depart for NYC tomorrow. But he just inspired me to post before I go to bed.

The past couple weeks I have finally been giving Paramore a listen to because of him. The song "Misery Business" is a very catchy song from their second release entitled Riot! . Easily my favorite. When I got to his place tonight he had made this music video for the song.



He plays all members of the band in the video. Which he made in only a little over a day.

Brian Babineau is a graphic designer by profession but he makes music videos and short movies for fun. He's been on youtube for years and has a bit of a following. For good reason too! His videos are always really fun and creative. Check out his vids!

Mama Mia!

I won't be able to blog Saturday because I'll be in New York City all day to see Mama Mia! on Broadway.

The show was created from hit ABBA songs. It has become a hit musical around the world.

Until I saw Mama Mia! the movie this summer, I didn't even really know I liked ABBA. I got the soundtrack from my work, heck, I even cried during the movie... like 3 times. Shhh!

I've never been to a Broadway show before so this is pretty big for me. My friends Brian and James are taking me with them, the Broadway pros that they are.

Here is a clip from the song "Honey, Honey" in the movie. I will spare you Broadway youtube clips as they're HORRID.

Meiko on Conan O'Brien

Last night I was watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Not only was one of my fave actresses, Amy Sedaris, on the show, but the musical guest was awesome. Allow me to introduce you to Meiko. She reminds me of a cross between Mirah and Fiona Apple. The song she performed is called "boys with girlfriends." It's just such a fun, cute song. Not to mention I always stupidly make friends with boys with girlfriends... not enough songs about that in the world.