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    Music Monday February 10th, The Joy Formidable

    Here’s a fun fact about me: I am missing a small piece of the top of my right ear. I didn’t have a run in with Mike Tyson, it happened due to frost bite. During one particularly raucous house party in the dead of winter in my hometown, the cops showed up. They kicked everyone out of the house without letting us call rides or cabs (this was in the days before widespread cell phone use), so all of us had to walk back to town in -43 weather. I was wearing a very trendy full-length jean skirt with a kangaroo pocket, my winter jacket, some mittens and no hat. After an almost 2k walk in the freezing cold, I had terrible frostbite on the tops of my ears and the backs of my knees. A few days later, a small piece of my ear turned black and fell off, leaving me with a permanent reminder of two things: 1) Don’t forget your hat or wear full length denim skirts to parties (or at any point in life) and 2) Don’t live places that make parts of your body fall off. 

    I’m very far away from the town that took a tiny part of my ear as a seasonal sacrifice, but I still get deep into a winter funk when this time of year rolls around. It’s that time when it seems like winter has been around forever, 85% of conversations are based around people bitching about the weather and you can really start to feel like a vampire cause you never properly see the sun. Other than the gym or groceries, I haven’t really been leaving the house. ‘It’s too cold’ becomes a catch-all excuse for everything. And the sleep! Oh man I could easily sleep 11 hours a day and still be pleased to add in a 2 hour afternoon nap. Wintertime makes me so damn tired, so much so that even after a full nights rest I’m still hitting my snooze button several times.

    The idea of getting out of a warm, cozy bed and getting ready to go outside into this arctic tundra, brush off my cold car and shiver while I wait for it to warm up is so unappealing. In the past little while, I’ve needed a little something extra to get me up and at ’em so I went looking for the musical equivalent of coffee to get me moving in the morning and put a little extra pep in my step. Which brings me to the 2-song playlist that I’ve been getting ready to every morning this past week. The first is ‘Whirring’ by The Joy Formidable, a fantastic welsh rock band. This song is the perfect ‘get up and go’ beat, my feet instantly start tapping along with the drums as soon as they hit the floor. The second is one by my favorite boys, The 1975. I know, I’ve mentioned them so much this past year and maybe one day I’ll stop, but today is not that day. The track ‘Girls’ is one of the best ones off their most recent album, it’s got great funky guitar work and a really fun 80s tinged vibe that has me dancing around my kitchen every day.

    I once read this collection of letters sent from a pioneer woman in the midwest back home to Europe. The funniest one was where she wrote to her sister about her first impressions about Americans and said ‘Can you believe there are actually people here who expect all the parts of their body to be warm at the same time!’. I always think of that when I’m particularly sick of this climate, I guess we’ve got it pretty good up here at the north pole. I’ve got a fridge full of snacks, a hot bath, netflix and some good music to get me out of bed when I can’t seem to do it myself. So next time you don’t want to get going, make yourself some hot tea, thank the stars that you have heat in your house, hit play and let these songs warm you up and wake you up. 

    Enjoy.

     

    Music Monday June 17th, 2013

    “I play songs in endless loops. When a song is new to me, and there’s something about it that kills me, I’ll listen to it in an auto-repeat delirium for days on end. When they invented the repeat button on the CD player, my life was changed irrevocably (as were the lives of every roommate I’ve had since).” -Dave Eggers

    While I’m no longer activating the repeat button on my panasonic discman (with anti-shock!), this quote sums up my listening experience when I get ahold of a new song that I adore. I can listen to it 20 times a day and not get sick of it, I play it over and over until I know all the words and it’s finally a part of me; I don’t stop until I feel like it’s fully imprinted in my brain forever. Usually when I try and tell someone about the new sound I’m into, my writing articulation never translates to real life. I’m so excited that I end up sounding like a valley girl and say something very eloquent like ‘OH MY GOD GUYS, HAVE YOU HEARD THIS NEW SONG?! IT’S LIKE, SO GOOD’

    It’s kind of embarrassing, but that’s what a new band does to me. It’s nothing short of magical that someone I’ve never heard of can come out along and start making sounds that I will deem necessary to my life in a short time. My general rule is that I usually have a full week with an album before I write about it for music monday, and during this honeymoon phase only those closest to me will be privy to my mania and have to listen to me gush on and on before I share my new find with everyone.

    With all that being said, I’d like you to finally meet the newest band I’ve worked myself into a fever about, the 1975. A british 4 piece that’s been making waves opening a tour for the Neighbourhood, they have been working their way up to headline status very quickly. They’ve released 4 EPs :Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars and IV. 75% of their sound seems to be derived from the pop-rock vein, but it’s the other 25% that I’m enthralled with. On every album, they have an airy song or two that feels like being in a dream. 

    ‘Me’ is the track I first fell in love with, it’s clean and light and makes me want to watch a sleepy sunrise. ‘You’ is the next track on your playlist today, I’m hard pressed to tell you whether I like the original or remix of it better. One is more stripped down, and the other is percussively interesting, but both of them start with the line ‘You’re a liar’ that’s delivered so raw and honestly that I had to include both of them for you today. I’ve also included their number one single for you at the bottom, it’s a catchy driving song called ‘chocolate’ that has brought them a long way. So check em out, maybe you too will join me in my frenzy. But no matter which side of their diverse sound you prefer, I hope you’ll find something you’ll like in the 1975. Because guys, they are just LIKE, SO GOOD. 

     

     

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