For Your Listening Pleasure: Sweet November

November has cranked out some sweet jams this month, everything from bouncy booty music to the ethereal beats of chill-wave, and folk.  

Everyone loves a good booty jam, Big Freedia specializes in booty beats, p**** pops.....or whatever you want to call it, it'll make your booty jiggle, shake, and wiggle. Big Freedia is the undisputed “Queen Diva” of Bounce music and  her newest album Big Freddia Hitz Vol. 1 can be purchased here.    Y'all Get back Now by Big Freedia


Ooooo Lawdy! Found this band, Fevers, through one of my favorite music blogs Newdust just this morning. How's that for a beautiful Friday morning for ya? This band is out of Ottawa, Canada and is a five-piece band that are  "purveyors of independent, electronic pop." Can't wait to check these guys out live one day. Download their album here.    Passion Is Dead (Long Live Fashion) by fevers


We Are Trees is one of those small gem-of-a-band's that sound so lovingly perfectly that you selfishly want to keep in your  iTunes and never tell anyone about. But luckily for you, I'm not selfish....I did think about it though. Their first EP Boyfriend is a beautiful composition of Sunday morning love.Their second EP Girlfriends sounds a bit more raw, but still full of strings that sends your heart a-flutter. We Are Trees.    We Are Trees - Sunrise Sunset by the beat farm

For Your Listening Pleasure: October Sky

Wow, Righteous Brothers and Lykke Li?! It sounds like a tender re-vamped modern episode of The Wonder Years. You know, the episode where Kevin (you) realize that your teenage existence is composed of  fleeting moments when your only wish is to kiss Winnie Cooper (insert 14-year-old crush's name). C'mon Kevin! Just kiss her!

  Lykke Li - Unchained Melody (The Righteous Brothers Cover) by LykkeLi


New single from Miracle Fortress, a Canadian musician and producer out of Montreal. Song is a must for your repeatable pleasure.



Miracle Fortress – Possession by licas

New track from Dum Dum Girls new album, Only In Dreams. Who doesn't love 60's-esque punk?

 

Always Looking by subpop

I discovered Eric Crusher while I was in Washington D.C. and could not get enough of this guy's stuff! Everything he puts out is a complete joy to listen to, this guys needs to put out a proper LP sooon!!



Eric Crusher - send w/Ira Atari (Germany) by Eric Crusher

Heat

The heat. Oh the heat.

8 am.Outside, hot as hell. Inside is the only relief. Air conditioning is a blessing. Refrigerated air is a disaster...

5pm. Absolutely no let up. The heat is a mean lover. Embracing you with warm arms, burning you if don't know when to leave...

2am. The heat lingers. the hot air in my lungs...i lean in to the heat...summer in dc...

Nothing good happens when it's this hot after midnight...

The heat of the crowd bounces off my skin. sweat drips down my back, my clothes damp, make-up a mess. Damn, this drink is not doing its job...


Rolling through dives, pushing through crowds. Can I at least get a decent drink here? He buys me two...loud music, swaying crowds, beautiful people. My weakness for such things...


Cab ride? Metro? Did we miss it? Bouncing off each other we make our way. The heat is still there...

A different kind of heat. The warmth embraces us...

Finally...release...

A girl's simple view of her travels

I have been fortunate to have been able to travel to different parts of the world the last 10 years, as I see it, I've also busted my ass to get to those places. Nothing was ever easy, wall after wall, but as fate would have it, I arrived to my destination safe, sound, and a part of A(me)rica left at the airport.

Washington D.C. is a weird sort of place. The enthusiasm of patriotism is there no questions asked, but as I would stare at the sheepish faces of people proudly announcing their devotion and loyalty to this entity and idea of what America is, I can't help but wonder whether they truly bleed red, white, and blue when I see doubt in their diverted eyes.

But I'm not going to go on a tirade of what, why, and how the U.S. is the best place in the world blah, blah blah, everyone should travel blah, blah, blah you've never lived blah, blah.......but these are my simple and humble observations. Unique perspectives I have attained by leaving my bubble and plunging head first in the vast ocean of culture, chaos, and worldwide beauty.

It used to be that I would scoff at people who would claim to know, to be in, to have the skinny on the world and its musings when they had no clue at all on how a different culture views the U.S. When in reality they've never left their city, state, country or what's even worse, when they've traveled to and from countries but were jaded about it. They would lay forth their vast knowledge of 'who's, what's and it's because' on me. "Really? Where have you traveled? No where? Ok. You're dead to me." Closed-minded with a faux openness. Be open. Become a sponge, suck in, release.

Sights, smells, inner sickening and/or ecstatic emotions, the feel of dirt, a whiff of homemade food, summer's day heat on your skin, the hardness of the ground below your feet, slender grass blades between your fingers, clouds of 1st and 3rd world petrol smoke engulf your body, loud thunderous vibrations of an outdoor market, the sweat on your brow, ancient runes of forgotten civilizations; make your 5 senses work and strain for every bit of memory it can handle. Your body will carry each country tucked somewhere inside you.

I anxiously wait where my feet will lead me soon. Till then, I can only humbly narrate the adventures of my journeys and try to bring as many people as I can with me.

I'm here to s(t)ay

It's been 4 weeks to the day since I've stepped onto District of Columbia soil. DC has been good to me. It's opened a lot of sets of eyes I alternate within me. Realizations that will forever change (for the good and bad) me. I want to help, I want to save. "No you can't, who the hell are you?" "Yes you can, you have the potential to change universes."

Since I've slowly accustomed my leisurely EP pace into faster, get-out-of-my-way-you-dammed-tourists state of mind, I have come to believe that I am a child of chameleon tendencies. I thought I was able to quickly adapt to my surroundings back home in EP, but here, oh my gawd, I am becoming a master jedi of rapid change. Surprise? Well, that's another story. Surprise change? Ok, you're losing me.

I found an article recently on thoughtcatolog.com about being a 20-something living in DC and living through life's little joy's, disappointments, regrets, a-ha moments, etc, etc etc, yadda yadda yadda whatever we quarter-lifer's are going through. "Drink with Republicans. Make out with
Liberals. See more diversity than you ever have in your entire life living back home....Feel disconnected to the reason you came here. Get frustrated with D.C. traffic, slow metros, bad neighborhoods, expensive cost of living, and overall insanity....End your pseudo relationship back home. See couples on the street and stare at them like zoo animals. Everyone is too young for that here. Not really, just more self involved. Question your life path...." http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/how-to-live-in-washington-dc/

And with that thought I leave you. Appreciate where you are, who you're with, the moment where you look down at your hands and feet and then look up and realize the sky you're looking at is not the same back home.

Change of Me

New Place. New Blog. New Me.