4.13.2010

Blog consolidation.

I'VE MOVED.

Last time, I swear! But I basically am just attempting to merge 3(+) random blogs I've started/abandoned into one coherent place.

I'm going to keep this blog up for a little while, just in case anyone really wants to read about what I was listening to 1/2/3 years ago (...?) but it won't be here forever. I'll be releasing it to the cold cyber wilderness soon enough.

Thank you to anyone who's ever read or lurked here. It's nice to know (all 3 of) you care enough to to do so!

xoxo,

Emily.

4.11.2010

girl pop update


1. Chew Lips // Play Together

This song made me smile when it got to the hook. She sounds a lot like La Roux.


2. Le Corps Mince de Françoise // We Are Cannibals

These girls are super cute. Their new track is all sorts of 80s girl pop awesomeness.


3. Pocahaunted // UFO

Not girl pop, just girls. New Pocahaunted is bluesy and breezy. On the summer itunes playlist, yes indeed.

2.20.2010

ay-ay--ay--ay--ay--ay--ay-


Hot Chip // We Have Love

Belated V-Day post.

New Hot Chip's hella throwback.

2.17.2010

awesome/terrifying idea...

What if Facebook incorporated a Chat Roulette-like feature? And then you'd be forced to possibly come face-to-face with random acquaintances left over from freshman year/that bro from IR 210 you hate/your #1 crush/your mom... all while hungover in your PJs on a Sunday afternoon?? WOULD HILARITY NOT ENSUE??

No! I mean... yes? No? I shouldn't ask questions that necessitate a double negative as an answer?


Uh...


No.

2.14.2010

Oh hey look I'm blogging again how bout that

Herro!

Before our regularly scheduled music update, I wanted to better address why I stopped blogging last year in the first place. Short answer: Music is dead. Long answer: Last year did kind of kill my enthusiasm for music. That's not to say there weren't "good" or even "great" releases last year -- there were plenty of bands I heard people raving about, and plenty of albums people seemed to be in love with. (Ex: Girls, The Pains of Being Young at Heart, jj, Bibio, tune-yards [or however the crap they spell their name], etc., etc.) But there were very few albums last year that really felt... different. Take, for example, the overwhelming popularity of surf-rock-inspired lo-fi. Sure, at first it felt kind of novel, if riding on the tail of Ariel Pink, but two months and twenty other albums later it was just TOO MUCH. If I have to here another washed out, three chord ballad crooned by a dude/chick with dirty waist-long hair, I will take your distortion pedal and crack it over your head. (Exceptions: I do like Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles. But that's about it.)

Most of the other albums I gave a quick listen to last year had one or two decent tracks if they were lucky, but the albums that stood out from beginning to end are few and far between. I wasn't into the xx's debut at first (after their stellar early tracks, I honestly thought it was a bit of a let-down -- too sweet) though admittedly it's grown on me in the past few months. I really dug Atlas Sound's new album for a few weeks, it wasn't one of those "epic" albums I play over and over again for months. In the past couple months I've really gotten into Crocodiles, which, as I said before, for me is a total exception to the rule for mediocre lo-fi bands, I think because their melodies are far better constructed than all those bands who use fuzz to make up for the fact they can't sing....(cough GIRLS). Fuck Button's album was great, though more like a debut 2.0 than a follow-up, and though obviously MPP was a wonderful pop album, let's not lie. AnCo's done better. (DON'T YOU DARE CONTEST THAT OR I WILL ASSUME YOU ARE A 14-YO GIRL) But honestly, I spent most of last year discovering or re-discovering albums released before or waaay before 2009. I swear I'm not tryna sound jaded about recent music -- I'm just bored. (Those are different, right?)

Which brings me to newish/not-new-at-all stuff I've been listening to since the fall. That's not lo-fi or a Beach House knock-off or associated with Animal Collective or any of its members. First of all, if you haven't jumped on the Emeralds bandwagon yet, you're missing out:

It sounds like... that ^

I'm not gonna post just a track because this a band best enjoyed in context. I HIGHLY recommend the Overlook Tour CS, and the self-titled is great as well. (Try Stratosphering for a taste.)

Cover art for album by band with silly name*

A similar ambient/electro project is *Oneohtrix Point Never (yeah, try and recall that name in regular conversation). I'd describe ONP as a lil more synth-y LAZER-y, a lil less, uh, underwater-y? I mean, definitely check it out, but moreso...

As it turns out, dude from Emeralds and dude from Oneohtrix Point Never collaborated on a project about a year ago. It's call Skyramps. The album's called Days of Thunder. And it's AWESOME. In the trippy, nature-y, wanna-take-peyote-and-wander-in-meadows sort of way.

SRSLY YOU NEED THIS

So that's it really -- some fun ambient that other blogs will have told you about already, and 1/2 of my lame excuses for losing interest in music last year. (Other 1/2: Hipsters killed music. More on that some other time.)

2.09.2010

YAWN

Okay, I'll be honest here. I still visit this blog daily, because it has all my favorite others blogs handily listed on the side there. (see? -->)

The lack of updates/repeated reminder of the sub-par blogging I did last fall is starting to annoy me. So bear with me, but for sake my own sanity/vanity, I'm returning to my longtime habit of irreverently blogging about WHATEVER THE CRAP I WANT TO, OK?

Or at least about things within the scope of this blog's original intent. (See: sidebar, music - dinosaurs.) HEY, which gives me an idea! Train-of-thought blogging, gettin all Virginia Woolf up in hurr. Okay, so, from now on I'm writing on a six-subject rotating schedule. Music-fashion-art-people-politics-dinosaurs. Or, if you prefer, gush-gush-gush-whatever-rant-OMG STEGOSAURUS

YEAH I SAID IT

We're back in fucking business.

Word.

12.04.2009

shutting it down.

Hey dudes,

This blarg is officially on hiatus. I haven't had the same enthusiasm -- or inspiration -- for writing this of late, so I'm going to focus my energies into my writing blog (and perhaps a new web mag?) instead. If something so awesome or mid-blowing comes my way that you must know about it, believe me, you will, but any future posts will be sporadic at best.

Thanks for reading, y'all.

ems

12.01.2009

leaving LA soon...

...And not really going to miss it.

I'm way excited to get back to the East Coast. I'm so sick of LA's superficialness, obsession with staying "cool", and the fucking endless freeways. I miss Boston and New York's ability to be refined but not pretentious, fashionable but not showy. I miss public transportation, brick and cobblestone, mist and rivers. I miss dry humor, brutal honesty, and people who are unconcerned with being "nice". (Seriously... I miss NOT being the bitchiest person in the room!) I miss my family and my friends, though really, they all fall under "family" (duh).

But more than anything...

I miss the feeling of being home. And I can't wait to get that back in two weeks.

SO sappy.
.
.
.

No seriously, though, fuck LA! I'M COMIN HOOOOOOME

---

Addendum: Oh, LA. For all your faults, I have to say we had our moments. I admit I'll miss you a little bit. Maybe even come back and visit some time. And who knows? Maybe one day when you have an effective Metro system and a (sort of) real downtown, you'll finally be the working, coherent city you long to become. Until then...

Your pal,

Emily

11.20.2009

coke addict's* lullaby?


There's something weirdly comforting about a solid banger.

Steed Lord // Royal Ruffian (LAZRtag rmx) [right-click...via Missingtoof]

*NOT me. Just to clarify.