Song of the Day: Smile-Smith Westerns

This song is not only awesome, but also feels very appropriate for the last few days of my life. It is kind of trippy, with slightly unclear, muddy lyrics and "swishy" music (that makes more sense in my head). The picture  above (Chloë Sevigny on the cover of A Magazine) really conveys how this song makes me feel; with the silver stars and Chloë's dreamy facial expression it all seems lost and a little dizzy, but cool and psychedelic.

Song of the Day: Where is My Mind-the Pixies

 

When I do blogging stuff, which is not so often recently, I have been working on a bunch of really detailed expansive posts, but they take so long/are so exhausting that I end up not posting anything. It's okay, though, because nobody really read this blog and I just like to do it for myself really.

Anyways, this is one of my favourite songs, partly because I feel like the Pixies are a perfect soundtrack to teenage angst. The first time I heard this song I strangely became obsessed with the line--or really more line snippet--"I went swimming in the Caribbean"...don't ask me why, my reason will just be that it sounds awesome. I think it's because of that line that this song conjures "ocean vibes" for me. More particularly, it makes me think of going to the seaside on a gray, cloudy (almost stormy) day and having some sort of epiphany about the crazy hardships of youth. That's just me though...

The image (which is a youth at the beach on a gray day) is Meghan Collinson by Corinne Day

I'm a VAGABOND travelling from SANTA FE to EAST HARLEM

In my opinion the best things in life are the ones that remove you from your universe and take you into another world, one just filled with beauty. This can come in many different forms: art, theatre, film, or music, as in this case. I most recently experienced this transplant into a "scenic world" when I first laid the needle on Beirut's new album, The Rip Tide. The album makes me feel like I am living in the French seaside, having a picnic on a blue sky day, smoking with a long cigarette holder, in the company of wonderful people. While the whole record evokes extreme emotion, I would most highly recommend East Harlem, Santa Fe, and Vagabond.

The photograph is by Garry Winogrand and was probably the first photograph to really resonate with me. I think it is the perfect image to accompany this album and very much proves my point because (at least to me) there is a sliver of perfect world captured in that photo.

Song of the Day: Michicant-Bon Iver

If it were possible I would shout this off a mountain, but I don't have a mountain, I don't even have a news channel (that's an Anchorman reference, kids), so I am type-shouting on this blog: BON IVER HAS A NEW ALBUM!!!! It is eponymous and, this goes without saying, it is just overall an amazing record. My personal favourite songs are Towers, Holocene, and most of all Michicant, which I would strongly advise everybody to listen to.

the image is by Wendy Beaven for Marie Claire Italy

Song of the Day: Aye Co'larado-Genya Ravan & Lou Reed

I'm not sure that I have mentioned it on this here blog, but I love Lou Reed! I have been listening to his music since I was about five, even though my dad continually said that I couldn't listen to it because I kept asking what "she never lost her head even when she was giving head" means.  Anyways, the point is that any song with Lou Reed is a song for me, but THIS SONG has an added bonus: Genya Ravan, a punk Jewish girl (like myself at times) who escaped from Nazi Holocaust Europe, not only with her life, but also with a great sound!

the photo is by Arthur Elgort (but i don't have the source)

Song of the Day: Blood Bank-Bon Iver

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while, I hope that the beauty of this song makes up for it!

image by Beci Orpin 

Song of the Day: Big Jet Plane-Angus And Julia Stone

This song can be described in one word: lovely. The lyrics are very happy (a strange phenomenon in current music), but something about his voice gives very sad, lost-love vibes...but it is nonetheless extremely sweet and sentimental.

the image is Gemma Ward by Corrine Day (I posted another photo from this editorial in my last inspiration post, but it is just sooooo good that I can't stop sharing)

Song of the Day: Killing the Blues-Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

I'm sorry, I know I have been away quite awhile--due to finals--but rather then make some long-winded apologetic explanatory post, I'm just jumping right back into it, with this beautiful song.

I'm really not sure that there is anything I love more then the combination of TWO wonderful things into ONE, especially in the case of musicians. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are one of the best examples of this matrimony of talent and the music they made together is so wonderful, Killing the Blues being my favourite.

the image is Skye Parrott from Jalouse Magazine

Song of the Day: New Slang-The Shins

This song is one of the things in this world that is just too beautiful! I owe it both to Romy for giving me the name and Zach Braff (my directing hero) for using it so beautifully in his film Garden State.

The image is Rodarte from Nomenus Quarterly

Song of the Day: Forever and Amen-the Drums

Romy has been telling me to listen to the Drums for quite a while, but I just put them on my list of bands I should one day explore and didn't get around to them. Thankfully, when I was at Coachella my friend took me to see them and we were lucky (and pushy) enough to get to the front, but even before that their music had struck me. It is a really awesome mix of like '80s British bands and neo-grunge, if that is a thing. My personal favourite song of theirs is Forever and Amen, enjoy.

Song of the Day: Scenic World-Beirut

To be blunt: I LOVE BEIRUT. His music is not like anything else I've ever heard, it's very whimsical and beautiful all done up in old fashion horns and tin drums that cause it to remind me of a circus by the sea (like a combination of Neutral Milk Hotel's two big albums) where everything seems like it is filmed in grainy footage with pastel colours...I think this feel is shown best in Scenic World which is an unusual and captivating mix of the most beautiful feelings and the saddest...

the image is from (the current) boy. by Band of Outsiders lookbook

Song of the Day: Rebellion (Lies)-Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire was one of my favourite acts I saw at Coachella because of THIS SONG...it felt so special and sentimental, with thousands of people all packed in the desert night chanting in a sort of whimsical, lullaby like way "lies, lies, lies".

the image is Guinevere van Seenus by Tierney Gearon

Song of the Day: Big Big Love (Fig. 2)-Foals

I had heard this song somewhere I don't remember a while back, but Romy really got me into it. It was actually a very nice time; it was her birthday and we were driving down Sunset and, as she said, the beginning is very beautiful and there is something about it makes you feel very, I can't really describe it, alive and like you're seeing the world for the first time.

the image is Meg White photographed by Jurgen Teller for Marc Jacobs

Birthday Song: In an Aeroplane over the Sea-Neutral Milk Hotel

Today is my birthday and in spirit of it being a (surprisingly) nice day I am sharing In an Aeroplane over the Sea, which may very well be my favourite song ever! This song is like a beautiful world...enough said

image Agyness Deyn photographed by Tim Walker

Song of the Day: Hero-Regina Spektor

it radiates sadness...

song of the day: Not in Love-Crystal Castles

I started listening to Crystal Castles because I needed some new music and they are one of those bands that seeing their name as I scroll through the artists on my Ipod makes me very happy, and I learned from Romy that their lead singer is very cool. Admittedly, these aren't the best reasons for listening to a band, but it worked out for me because their music turned out to be aaammmmaaazzzzzingggg!

I particularly like this song Not in Love, it's a great song for everything from a crazy rave dance party to slogging through homework.

image source

Song of the Day: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1-the Flaming Lips

After my dad continually making fun of me for having 49 "on the go" playlists, I finally got my act together and cleaned out my Itunes library. I am sure glad I did because it gave me a good chance to listen to some music that I hadn't heard for a while because I tend to go through stages where I listen to the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again until I get really sick of it.

Among my rediscoveries was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1 which is a super quirky and funny song, but also has a somewhat sad, though beautiful, undertone.

The image is by Yosuke Ueno

Song of the Day: Flash Delirium-MGMT

Sorry that my posting has been pretty erratic, I am trying to work harder in school and be efficient so I can at one point go to a certain university, that will remain unnamed, but is the place of my dreams. For a little hint: it has a connection to this song!

Flash Delirium was the first song I heard from MGMT's second album, and while it is VERY different then album número uno, it has a totally great unique sound. The song is very mysterious, but because it is it reminds me of a combination of the following:

the scene from the movie version of "The Time Machine", where he goes into the super-technological future.


The REALLY awesome song "Kiss Off" by the Violent Femmes


And one of Aya Takano's super trippy future cities

Song of the Day: Ooh la La-The Faces

Sorry, I seem to be doing a lot of old music, soon I'll probably be back to "young people's music" (as my dad calls it), but for now, these are really amazing songs that I want to prevent from being lost to time.

My brother started playing "Ooh la La" on the guitar after he heard it at the end of the film Rushmore, directed by my hero Wes Anderson. I didn't may attention to the song much, but then my dad started listening to it and got me so hooked.

It's a really beautiful song, with a folky feel that for some reason reminds me of the stitching on an old blanket. It's sad and sweet, and makes the moment you listen to it feel very sentimental for reason that I cannot explain. I want to say 'it touches your heart', but I feel that I have been saying that a lot, and it sounds super pretentious...BUT REALLY, that's how I feel when I see/hear/experience something this beautiful, it's like my heart is being sucked up into a little radiating pin hole! Damn, that sounded a thousands times more pretentious...Okay, I'm putting that aside, it's just a good song!!!

The photo is Sarah Silverman in the Boy. by Band of Outsiders lookbook froom 2009 and was shot at Canter's Deli...seriously so pop culture infused! Their lookbooks are really awesome...maybe more on that later

Song of the Day: Hey You-Pink Floyd

I have been wanting to watch the movie "The Squid and the Whale" for so long, and I finally did, and it more then met my expectations...it was seriously one of the best movies I have ever seen. Noah Baumbach is an amazing writer, and thus, now, my idol! And if I wasn't in love with the adorableness of Jesse Eisenburg before, now...well, words can't describe.

I won't ruin it, but one of my favourite songs, Hey You by Pink Floyd plays a big (and amazing, though creepy) part in the film.

This song will reach out its claws and touch your heart!!!

the first image is by Marcel Dzama, my newest artist obsession (maybe more on him later)
and the second is actually from the movie