Music Monday :: 5 of my favorite unreleased (or unavailable on iTunes) tracks by my favorite lady singers/bands

5. “Big Loud Racket,” Elizabeth and the Catapult”
As live recordings go, this one is pretty clear and good, even if it doesn’t get volume in the same way as a studio recording.  This song has sass and attitude, and those are two of the reasons I adore it.

4. “Part of His Heart,” Fiona Landers
I am honestly not sure what Fiona Landers has been up to in recent years, musically.  I got her EP in high school and I still love-love-love it, and I’m obsessed with the few unreleased tracks of hers I’ve found on YouTube and stuff, and I would love to spend more money on her music if given the opportunity.  C’est la vie.

3. “Black & Gold,” Ellie Goulding”
Definitely the more dance-electronic of the items on this list, but I have not been able to stop listening to this song lately.  I enjoy when dance-electronic songs are also potentially a bit dark, and this is definitely that.  Also, this song has some excellent harmonies, and that rocks.

2. “Little Red,” Kate Nash
AZ Lyrics says this is on Made of Bricks, but I guess that applies to the UK release or some such, because it’s definitely not available anywhere on iTunes.  That is a damn shame, because this song is piano and Kate’s lovely voice and a certain level of melancholia and another level of whimsy.

1. “Pretender,” Eisley
(I don’t know, just ignore the video slideshow if you don’t want to see the kids of Eisley as, well, kids.)  You can download old Eisley EPs off of Strange Yellow Patterns, and that’s totally awesome, but this song is definitely not available on iTunes either.  It is a fabulous, dark song, though, and well worth a listen.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: Choose What Happens [a Cabin in the Woods fanmix]

1. Heads Will Roll (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
The men cry out, the girls cry out, the men cry out, the girls cry out, the men cry out, oh no.  Off, off with your head, dance, dance ’til you’re dead, dead.  Heads will roll, heads will roll, heads will roll on the floor.  Looking glass, take the past, shut your eyes, you realize.

2. The Kill (The Dresden Dolls)
And so you drink to all the emptiness until you wake up and there’s hell to pay again, and the punch lines point at you and all the comebacks in the world are in your head, and you can’t say them until everybody leaves and it’s just you and your imaginary friends…

3. Grow Up and Blow Away (Metric)
If she weren’t writing in blood she’d bring him her jokes, a new liver and a shovel for the mud.  If he were not knee-deep in mud he’d bring her his drugs, he’d get her a typewriter.  If this is the life, why does it feel so good to die today? Blue to gray, grow up and blow away…

4. No Surprises (Regina Spektor)
A heart that’s full up like a landfill, a job that slowly kills you, bruises that won’t heal.  You look so tired, unhappy.  Bring down the government, they don’t, they don’t speak for us.  I’ll take a quiet life, a handshake of carbon monoxide.

5. Unnatural Selection (Muse)
They’ll laugh as they watch us fall, the lucky don’t care at all, no chance for fate, it’s unnatural selection.  I want the truth.

6. The Horse and The Missing Cart (Elizabeth and the Catapult)
It’s best not to live by too many morals, enjoy the first sip before you finish the bottle, don’t want to lie in that bed before you made it.  And don’t second-guess something once you believe it, the world keeps on turning; you can take it or leave it, don’t want to put the course before the heart.

7. Ancestors (Jed Whedon and the Willing)
Branches and grass are all covered in ash and mud.  Pierce me with cattle bones drinking their milk and blood.  The fire dances with our ancestors, the stars, see how they glow, see how they glow.

8. Away We Go (Eisley)
We will sing loud, bellowing out as we strike towards the sound, and we’ll hold hands just like children on our path through the woods.  Sneak soundly, there’s bound to be a witch hiding somewhere, so we’ll bring matches, if she snatches I will rescue you.

9. Fade to Black (Apocalyptica)
Instrumental.

10.  Bombs Away (This Girl)
So the sky is gonna fall , it’s all the same.  We’ll be cursing and the cause of nothing changed.  We could disappear like smoke or curl up in a ball of flame ’cause the dumbest of us know we are deranged.  Wanna come back from the dead?  Be a monster, whaddya say?  We could terrorize and live forever and they won’t take our bombs away.

11. Black Math (The White Stripes)
Mathematically turning the page, unequivocally showing my age, I’m practically center stage.  Undeniably earning your wage, maybe I’ll put my love on ice and teach myself, maybe that’ll be nice.

12. Paint’s Peeling (Rilo Kiley)
It’s a hard day for breathing again.  The heat is chasing off all of your friends, and their scattered bodies part to the shore again.  And I feel nothing, not sane, it’s a hard day for dreaming again.

13. Everything’s Everything (HorrorPops)
Throughout all the pain that’s been spoken and all the promises that have been broken, I don’t want to let you go.  Erase all these clouds of damnation, in your eyes I wanna see salvation, I don’t want to let you go.

Choose What Happens at 8tracks.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: Apocrypha and Acumen [a Nora Gainesborough fanmix]

1. Taller Children (Elizabeth and the Catapult)
So you think you know, think you know, think you know better?  Is it just because, just because, you’re older and wiser?  Don’t you know, don’t you know you don’t get smarter?  You’re the same as you started, you just jump a little higher.

2. Ballad of a Politician (Regina Spektor)
But I am, but I am, but I am a carefully laid plan.  Shake what your mama gave you, you know that it won’t last.  You’re gonna taste the ground real soon, you’re gonna taste the grass.  A man inside a room is shaking hands with other men, this is how it happens, our world under command.

3. Attention (The Raconteurs)
Hey, now that you have my attention, what are you gonna do?  You might have good intentions, but they’re not coming through.  You’re very pleased with yourself, I see, it’s like a walk in the park.  You weren’t lying by anybody else ’cause you can see in the dark.

4. Sweet Religion (Imogen Heap)
My sweet little religion, how does it feel?  Written in that book of love, now does it say your name above the name by which they call me?  And is it written in liquid red, ‘cause nothing else will do instead for reassuring eternity.  Will you be there when I need you?  Will you be there when I need you?

5. No Room to Bleed (Ben Lee)
What did you mean when you said that I was bleeding in vain, wait, and I’m moving underwater.  Watch while I burn my bridges down, the words that I say and the hurt goes away.  You leave me no room to bleed, but somewhere inside I’m still on the line.  You leave me no room to bleed.  Wait on the landscape that I’m breaking, watch as I burn my bridges down and I’ve tried to run but now I’m all done, you leave me no room to bleed, you leave me no room to bleed.

6. Youth Without Youth (Metric)
Hangman, we played Rubber Soul with a razor blade behind the church, hiding place, it was a long joke ’til the punch line came.  Can you read my mind? Read my mind, follow along to the end of the song.  Hangman, we played Double Dutch with a hand grenade behind the church hiding place, apathetic to the devil’s face.  Wear the sheriff’s badge, put your toys away, they let us go, saying, “Let us pray!”

7. 1940 (The Submarines)
You couldn’t sleep for the awful fright that kept you up in bed last night.  While curious shapes shift in the dark, they vanish with the sunlight’s spark.  So rise and shine, now’s the time to be alive, to stay awake with me a while and smile.

8. What Are We Gonna Do (Glen Hansard)
What are we gonna do if we lose that fire?  What are we gonna do if we start to doubt, if that fire goes out?  I don’t wanna change you, but you’re a long, long way from the path you came.  I’m trying to show you something: good, good heart will always find love.

9. Megalomania (Muse)
Useless device it won’t suffice, I want a new game to play.  When I am gone – it won’t be long before I disturb you in the dark, and paradise comes at a price that I am not prepared to pay.  What were we built for?  Will someone tell me please, take off your disguise: I know that underneath it’s me.

10. Ritual (Ellie Goulding)
Into the death and shoots as far, too late to be with you’d from high.  You see it’s a thought those guys was he our faith he’ll hear our cries a ghost.  And he won’t stop here, acting with my fear, there’s a raging fire and it burns so mean.  But I’m ready now, but I’m ready now.

11. Only In Your Head (Marketa Irglova)
Maybe our actions are what counts and not all that we might think or feel or say, but don’t they all relate?  And I know it’s easier said than done, but has there ever been a struggle you thought you wouldn’t overcome?

12. Beautiful (Eisley)
This is a good day for a revolution of the mind, voices ride the wind and take me to the night.  I crawled over broken glass to find a place in the sun was with me all along, the circle had begun.

13. World Gone Mad (Missy Higgins)
Standing on the roof my daddy built, looking at the rising of the silt, everything I ever loved is underneath, but what the river wants, the river keeps.  I used to believe in fortune and that in the hands of God everybody gets no more than they deserve, but the more I see the less I understand.  Watching as the water swallows the land, I’m starting to believe there was never a plan, that the world’s gone mad.

Apocrypha and Acumen at 8tracks.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: a love letter to Elizabeth Ziman’s live shows

As per I have blogged about Elizabeth and the Catapult before and mix with way a lot of their songs, it should be no surprise that when a friend told me Elizabeth Ziman was playing in the near-enough-to-go vicinity, I immediately got on it. I was not disappointed and I am now very much in love.  It was just Elizabeth, not the Catapult, though a fellow by the name of Chris Cubeta joined her for some of the tracks.

And holy wow.  I am not entirely sure I have a whole lot of coherent words (and I forgot to take my camera, so I don’t have video or anything, which is a bummer; we were, as we always are, in the far left-of-audience-right-of-stage corner right at the front) but wow.  I mean, Iloveall of their recorded work, but damn, that woman’s voice live is something very impressive.  I’m sure there’s some technical musicianspeak way to describe how she sings, but as I am not so much fluent in that, I will just say that her voice is crazy good.

She didn’t do a spectacularly long set, and I’d only heard some of the songs before; I don’t remember all of the new ones, or new-to-me ones, but I loved them.  “Happy Pop,” dedicated to her ex-record label, was brilliant and perfect.  She dedicated “Someday Soon” to a friend of hers who had recently passed away; she started playing it on guitar, then switched to piano and started over because “this (was) a dedication, (she) wasn’t gonna (mess it up).”  Which was adorable.

As for songs I did know, well, she started with this absolutely gorgeous version of “Apathy” that she then piano-transitioned into “Thank You For Nothing.”  Not even a break between for applause.  Just piano-piano-piano to segue.  And seriously, the albums are not so piano-heavy, but damn can that woman play the piano.  She plays piano insanely well.  “Race You” was freaking adorable, it always is, and I’m probably blanking on if there was another I recognized other than –

[awkwardly breaking to a new paragraph because seriously, this song] “Go Away My Lover.”  This song is insane.  This song gives me crazy chills, which I believe I have discussed before, but especially this way.  Her backup Chris guy started strumming away and then suddenly I realized what was about to happen and she was just standing at the microphone and oh wow it was an explosion of vocal beauty.  They sang together and I went a little weak in the knees.  Every sustained note had that effect on me too.  Highlight of the evening, easily.

In short… very successful concert.  (And I’m glad you loved our[that is only sort of mine] city Elizabeth.  We love you too.)

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: A Companion Doesn’t [an Inara Serra fanmix]

1. Inara’s Suite (Greg Edmonson)
Instrumental.

2. Girl (The Beatles)
Is there anybody going to listen to my story all about the girl who came to stay?  She’s the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry.  Still you don’t regret a single day.

3. Dancing Dirt Into the Snow (Missy Higgins)
Alone you find yourself just hanging, and to fill the hole you cling to all that seems to hide the little girl that’s crying, underneath the rage that you let others see.

4. Mr. Moon (Eisley)
Bones cracking, fingers blister, I might console you but look at my sisters: brilliant like fireflies up in their bedroom.

5. Time and Good Fortune (Duncan Sheik)
No – to the quiet gazes.  No – to the muttered phrases.  No – to the utter waste of time and good fortune.

6. One More Time With Feeling (Regina Spektor)
Oh, everyone takes turns, now it’s yours to play the part, and they’re sitting all around you, holding copies of your chart, and the misery inside their eyes is synchronized, reflecting into yours.

7. Red Right Ankle (The Decemberists)
And some were sweet, and some were cold and snuffed you, and some just laid around in bed.  Some had crumbled you straight to their knees, did it cruel, did it tenderly.  Some had crawled their way into your heart to rend your ventricles apart.  This is the story of the boys who loved you.

8. Apathy (Elizabeth and the Catapult)
Oh, apathy, don’t hypnotize me.  Once upon a time I thought I really stood for something, something much greater than my love.  If I just took the time to stop all of my talking, maybe I’d remember what it was, what it was, what it was.

9. Stable Song (Death Cab for Cutie)
I’ve suffered a swift defeat.  I’ll endure countless repeats.  The gift of memory is an awful curse, with age it just gets much worse, but I won’t mind.

10. Unravel Unwind (The Spring Standards)
In spite of all that we have said and everything we’ve done, the space between our words is all that we’ve become.  I believed you when you told me you were fine, I should have know it at the time.  The world unravels in rewind.

11. Feeling the Pull (The Swell Season)
Well stories of an open light and every time we work ourselves up into a rage, we smash and grab and pull the handle, no one says but everybody wants to be the one just climbing out, and I’m feeling the pull.

12. Maybe Sparrow (Neko Case)
Maybe, sparrow, it’s too late.  Moonlight glanced off metal wings in a thunderstorm above the clouds, the engine hums a sparrow’s phrase for those who cannot hear the words.

13. Today’s Undertaking (M. Ward)
There have been other songs from out these strings, but they came out wrong.  Don’t be mistaken, but this one comes from high above.

14. Draw Your Swords (Angus and Julia Stone)
See her come down, through the clouds, I feel like a fool.  I ain’t got nothing left to give, nothing to lose.  So come on, love, draw your swords, shoot me to the ground.  You are mine, I am yours, let’s not fuck around.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 11 songs that sum up the past school year

I used to do end-of-school-year/summer mixes, but then I realized that there would be some songs that would just sort of… keep turning up repeatedly, and they got way too random.  Way too sporadic.  But this isn’t a mix, this is just a list of tunes that this school year (September-a couple of weeks ago – I like having time to reflect on this sort of thing) has found me around a lot.  And yeah, plenty of them are fanmixy, but considering the prevalence with which I listen to those, that’s no surprise.

11. White Rabbit (Emiliana Torrini, Sucker Punch OST)
I kind of adore this whole soundtrack.  It was my jam at many lunchtimes, because when one is embracing the semi-antisocial life and spending their lunch breaks on their laptops (at least over in a corner with sunlight… mostly because that was where the electrical outlet was and I cannot run my baby on battery for more than half an hour before she gets twitchy) one might as well pull on their big-ass headphones and blast vaguely industrial soundtracks to movies about whores and insane asylums and ass-kicking repeatedly. But this song always sticks out for me. It could be just that I like the song generally, or that I adore Emiliana Torrini anyway.  And she absolutely rips into it.  Especially the third Alice, the

Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know

How she sustains that last word.  Or it could be that, that, I dunno, the song gives a nice crazy girl vibe.  And sometimes it’s fun to go a little mad.

10. You Will Be Mine (The Narrative, The Narrative)
A reasonably recent addition, but I cannot say how many times I adore this song.  It’s freaking sexy.  And I have a soft spot for songs that I heard first live, because every time I listen to them, I remember the concert, and the lights, and Susie Zeldin’s little be-bopping-ness…es (?) and, well, all of it.  And on repeated listens, the part that’s all

And don’t ask what this ring is for
I’ve yet to realize

Well, vocally, it’s absolutely insane.  It’s so crazy passionate.  And I love passion.

9. Right in the Head (M. Ward, Post-War)
Which could account for why I lust for this song so hard.  The passion of it.  I like that it’s a song, yes, about… slight moments of crazy.  M. Ward is one of those men that I don’t particularly find super physically sexy, but that voice… man.  Voicecrush ahoy.  Especially during:

‘Cause I lived with many ghosts when I was younger
And I will live with many ghosts until I go

I’m really not sure why.  (I’m afraid that’s a theme that will recur here.  A lot of these songs are more songs I have vague attachments to than anything else.)

8. Go Away My Lover (Elizabeth and the Catapult, The Other Side of Zero)
And here’s another one of those tl;dromfgseeeeeexxxxxyyy tracks.  I’m pretty sure the first time I heard this track, it literally took my breath away.  (I can count the number of songs that have legitimately done that on one hand.)  Elizabeth Ziman and Dan Molad’s voices on this song.  AUGH.  The complete way it comes to such a climax and a stop.  The instrumentation.  The duetty nature of it.  The lyrics.

Oh I will give you one last kiss
If it will put your heart to rest

The way she sounds on those lines just.  Every single time.  Incoherent incomplete sentences.  So phenomenal.

7. Going Through the Motions (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy “Once More With Feeling” soundtrack)
Blah, blah, boring personal emotional blah.  But I can also say that this is the year that I am finally progressing in Buffy and now this song (and the whole episode) has Way More Context!  And that makes me happy.  I mean, I got it before, but I get it now, I guess?

Will I stay this way forever?
Sleepwalk through my life’s endeavor

Also, epic car trip singalongs and epic at-the-gym motivational mouth-alongs have bumped this up in the ranks a lot.  (And trufax, as they say, I was so very torn between this and “Rest in Peace,” if just because I have a wicked crush on Spike [well, up until about "Seeing Red."  Then I get kind of fussy with him.  But he can probably redeem himself probably?] — but those blah blahs made this win out.)

6. Rox in the Box (The Decemberists, The King is Dead)
As if I needed another excuse to tl;dr about how much I worship the Decemberists.  How much I love this album.  How much I fangirl.  But this song especially.  I love it because it’s got that classic Decemberists quasi-creepy-yet-also-not thing going.  I love it because Colin Meloy really gets into it.

So while we’re living here
Let’s get this little on thing clear
There’s plenty of men to die, you don’t jump your turn

I mean, the whole song is sort of… thrilling.  With his voice.  But for some reason I adore that part especially.  Yeah, be looking for this track to appear on an as-yet-finalized fanmix in the future.

5. The Hush (The Spring Standards, Would Things Be Different)
Yes, yes, I know, I’ve mentioned this one before, too.  But oh dear sweet lord.  When I hear this song, I just want to dance (pardon the being in Spanish).  I just get so damn happy.  Which is… a little weird, if you really listen to the lyrics, but hey.

And I will bury every thought
Of the way the moonlight laid upon your skin
But the threads unknown don’t hold the sheets above your sin

But it’s just such a jam.  There’s so.  Much.  Fiddle.  So much twangy perfection.  And anyone who dares to deny that this song makes them at least want to tap their toes or something is lying.

4. Patriarch on a Vespa (Metric, Live it Out)
I know, I said there would be a lot of fanmixy tracks.  I wasn’t kidding.  But this song is classic Metric, and considering how much I love Metric, well.  It’s kind of perfect.  I listen to this song on the mix it’s on (“Engagements,” if you remember) and I listen to this song on the album it’s on and I listen to this song when it comes up on shuffle pretty much… any time.  It’s one of my gym jams.  And I love mouthing the lyrics along while treadmilling or biking, just because I’m a weirdo and like to do that.

Until our faces all resemble dying roses
Stop trying to fix it

Emily Haines is a goddess of song.  She’s especially perfect on this track, I think.

3. Smarter (Eisley, The Valley)
I could get exaggerative and put, oh, that entire album on this list.  But for some reason, this has always, always been one of my favorite tracks.  It’s fierce but not ragey, aggressive but not over-the-top.  It’s freaking empowering is what it is.  And it’s good for chill moods and workout-y moods alike.  Songs like that are precious to me.  And damn, Sherri, way to tear into it.

And I apologize for not telling you
That my halo was cut from paper

Also, any songs that contain the words “apocryphal,” “futile,” and “narcissist” (replete with mythological allusions) are winning songs in my book.

2. Remains (Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon)
More with the fanmixy, yes.  Also with the heartbreaking and the I watched this video late one night on YouTube and almost actually literally cried (and that’s magically rare for me; usually I just hyperventilate, which I also did a bit).  Also with the tie-ins to pop culture clearly being a big winner for me.  Also, after downloading it off iTunes, I taught myself the piano to it.  By ear.  Which is something I hadn’t done in a while, missed doing, and love doing.  And I’m really freaking proud of my ability to do it.  Not that it’s probably that hard of a song, but still.  Also, I can actually sing (most of) this song.  This is a rarity.

Burn down my home
My memories hardened and bright as chrome

Besides all that, it’s just a beautiful song.  Definitely my depressing track of choice this year.

1. Black Sheep (Metric, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World OST)
Not too surprising there’d be two Metric songs here.  Especially since one of them is this one.  This is somewhat of a holdover from the late summer preceding, but I can safely say this song has been played on my iPod more than… almost anything.  It’s my number one jam of all time.  It’s my phone ringtone, it’s a song I am physically incapable of skipping, it’s a song I like to pretend I can sing in the shower when I feel brave enough to sing in the shower, it’s pop culture, it’s fierce.  As hell.

I’ll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up every time everyone pulls away

I like to hold this song as a goal for how fierce I aim to be in life.  If I can be as fierce as this song, it is a good day indeed.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: Top 10 most played albums on my iTunes

10. Repo! The Genetic Opera (original soundtrack)
I have those campy ridiculous rock opera moods more than a sane person ought.

9.The Other Side of Zero (Elizabeth and the Catapult)
This is probably the most recent addition to the collection, but for some reason I am pretty much always in a baroque indie mood, so I turn this one on a lot.  I can study to it, goof off to it, nap to it, anything.

8. Narrow Stairs (Death Cab for Cutie)
I’m not sure why exactly I turn this one on so much.  But I really, really do.  Maybe it’s that I like the peace of an eight minute jam ode to stalking.  Maybe it’s that I enjoy Ben Gibbard’s voice in my ear.  Maybe it’s that it’s energetic enough to keep me going but not so much that I get hyper.  Maybe it’s all of these things.

7. Once More, With Feeling (original soundtrack)
Yep.  You’re seeing that correctly.  Some of this comes from the fact that I play almost all of the songs individually when they pop up on shuffle (especially at the gym.  I’m not sure why, but “Rest in Peace” makes an awesome treadmill jam).  Some of this comes from the fact that my friends and I will never get tired of having Once More, With Feeling sing-alongs (and they’re my favorite kind, since I can actually sing along with Alyson Hannigan).  Some of this comes from my love for, again, campy weird and fangirl awesome.

6. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (original soundtrack)
Every time I’m cleaning my room?  This is blasting.  Every time I’m trying to motivate myself to do anything?  This is blasting.  Every time I’m bored and need to feel awesome?  This is blasting.  Bonus points go to “Black Sheep” being one of my favoritest songs ever (and I don’t even know why but it’s epic).

5, 4. Room Noises, Combinations (Eisley)
I’m not sure which one gets played more; the counts are skewed from certain songs (“I Could Be There For You,” “My Lovely,” “Invasion,” “Plenty of Paper”) being high on the individual play counts from listening to them all the time always.  (No coincidence three of those four are on my mixes of epic.  And one is probably going to wind up on one eventually.)  And honestly?  Give it another month or two, and The Valley will be on there, too.  It’s the same as why I can blast Elizabeth and the Catapult constantly.  It’s perfect for every mood.  They’re whimsical, interesting, and just… something I’ll never tire of.

3. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (original soundtrack)
There’s nothing coincidental about this and Once More, With Feeling both being here.  This is for more fun sing-alongs.  This is for more fangirl weirdness.  This is for the fact that I will absolutely always want to hear “Brand New Day” in my ear, and that I like when Felicia Day goes “I wonder what you’re captain of?” and that I like when Nathan Fillion exists on the planet and that I like when the groupies are all “we have a problem with her~” and… just, love.  Too much love.

2. Spring Awakening (original cast recording)
Considering that I’ve been playing it probably at least once every 10 days since I got it?  This is not surprising.  Considering that, again, I will blast almost all of the songs when I hear them on shuffle sometimes?  Also not surprising.  Add in the, yes, more sing-alongs, the nostalgia value, the fact that when I’m done with Scott Pilgrim and still cleaning it’s right there in the S’s?  And, yeah, you can figure this.

1. The Hazards of Love (the Decemberists)
Yes.  I do listen to this constantly.  Still.  Despite the fact that a lot of people didn’t “get” it or something?  Well, I love it.  It’s exactly what I love about everything.  It’s got a story, it’s creepy, it’s baroque, it’s Colin Meloy being epic all over the place, there’s romance, there’s an unhappy ending, there are ghosts, there’s kidnapping, there’s murder, there are harmonies, there’s a harpsichord somewhere, I mean, what more can someone want?  Really?

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 10 co-ed bands of awesome

In no order.

10. She & Him
Zooey Deschanel my love.  M. Ward of the beautiful awesome musical talent.  Retrokitschadorable.

9. The Decemberists
Because Jenny Conlee may not be the star, but she’s awesome, okay?

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
They have just been my jam lately.  I dunno.  I think I’ve been digging that sort of sound.

7. The White Stripes
I’m not sure what it says about me that this is on the soundtrack of my youth, but they just rock my combat boots off.

6. Eisley
The boys don’t really ever sing, but they’re still there being awesome. I dunno. The Dupree family just shocks me with their awesome, always.

5. Elizabeth and the Catapult
I will never get tired of fangirling about them.

4. The Spring Standards
Best harmonies ever? I think so.

3. Metric
Rarely is a band so good at having energy without being frustrating. They’re just the definition of fantastic.

2. The Dresden Dolls
Life was just not complete until punk cabaret was invented.

1. Rilo Kiley
I heart them soooo much.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: Top 11 ladyvoicecrushes (nontheatre)

11. Corin Tucker
She’s like… a punk opera singer.  In real life.  How cool is that?

10. Regina Spektor
It’s different and interesting and holy moly, does she have range.  This isn’t a list of songwriters I crush on, but I crush on her voice?  Hard.

9. Amanda Palmer
Again, it’s different.  And I dug on Brechtian cabaret before they tossed the punk in.

8. Missy Higgins
Is to me what a soulful encounter (or a time you’re wanting a soulful encounter but are sitting alone in your bedroom) sounds like.

7. Heather Robb
She’s so plaintive.  It’s refreshing how un-processed and honest she sounds.

6. Fiona Landers
Is also honest sounding.  With dark moments.  And that’s awesome.

5. Emily Haines
In a way, she’s every girl.  In a way, she’s just too spectacular for words.

4. Zooey Deschanel
Pretty sure this woman can do no wrong ever, but her voice is just cute.  Nothing more to it.

3. Jenny Lewis
Also versatile.  She sings rock song s and ballads and sounds equally at home on both.

2. Elizabeth Ziman
The things that woman can do with her voice.  Her sustained notes make me go jaw-droppy.

1. The Dupree sisters
Okay, that’s sort of cheating, but they take turns singing and I can’t decide which one I like best!

– your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: Top 5 artists I have absolutely got to see in concert before I die

A list inspired by the fact that I missed the chance to get tickets to a Decemberists show this weekend and am still depressed about that fact.

5. The Spring Standards
I admit I fell for them because of Johnny Gallagher’s having been in the mix back in the Old Springs Pike days, but man oh man, they make me absolutely giddy.  I will say that the absolute folksy adorableness of the above song “The Hush” might just trump everything, but they’ve sort of got a song for every mood, be it cute, plaintive, soulful, thoughtful, what have you.

4. Metric
As I’ve rambled on many a time, I can groove to them every day of the week.  If I’m feeling too introspective there’s always their acoustic EP.  And the rest of the time I can rock hard.

3. Elizabeth and the Catapult
Again, I have mentioned these kids before.  A lot.  But I would absolutely kill to experience the joy that is their live work, I’m pretty sure I would die of happy.

2. Kate Nash
Is pretty much the cutest person on the planet, or at least one of them.  Her British accent makes me squee like an idiot, her fashion sense makes me squee like an idiot, her songs make me squee like an idiot… pretty much, idiotic squeeing goes on every which way.

1. The Decemberists
As to be predicted.  Colin Meloy and Jenny Conlee were on the most recent Portlandia and I was way, way too happy about it.  I don’t know.  I’m pretty sure this band’s talented folk are the gods and goddesses of my heart.  And all of my friends say they put on an amazing show.

 

–your fangirl heroine.