Album Cover Art Extravaganza

You know what they say... "never judge a book by its cover" or in this case, "never judge an album by it's cover art." I say screw that, it's all about first impressions. While going to a record store to discover some new stuff for your baby ears, of course you'll pick up what catches your baby eyes the most. Here are some of my favorites...

Artist: Architecture in Helsinki
Album: Place Like This (2007)
Genre: Indie, Electronic, Lo-Fi
Recommended Songs: Red Turned White, Heart It Races

This Australian band previously labeled as "twee pop" should now be a possible nominee of the mtvU Woodie Awards for a Left Field Woodie Award... "no idea what section of the record store to look for them in." This new album is quite very different from their previous albums, more electro-rocky than twee-folkish-funky-poppy. Still very incredibly awesome, just like its cover art.

Artist: Venetian Snares
Album: Hospitality (2006)
Genre: Drum & Bass
Songs Recommended: Frictional Nevada, Duffy

This EP is basically my favorite VSnares cover art, next to Horse and Goat (2004) and Cavalcade Of Glee And Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms (2006). Frictional Nevada is five minutes of beatoragasm and Duffy is six minutes of earsex. That's total of about eleven minutes of wonderful D&B action and it's only one third of the album.

Artist: Neutral Milk Hotel
Album: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998)
Genre: Indie, Alternative
Songs Recommended: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, The King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1

Not only do I judge this artist by it's album cover art, I also judge it by its name. It's pretty much fantastic, my day-dream music where I doze off in the aeroplane over the sea to the land of the kind of carrot flowers. Or it could be my Coney Island Carnival soundtrack. Yet, I still don't really know if that's a zucchini or cucumber for the woman's head.

Artist: The Unicorns
Album: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? (2004)
Genre: Indie Pop
Songs Recommended: Let's Get Known, I Was Born (A Unicorn)

Anything related to unicorns + rainbows is a given. Other than that, it's one of the good products of Canada, joining the top five with maple syrup, Leslie Feist, beavers, and... Mike Myers.

Britney VMAs performance

Nicole, i can't help it but i have to post about her!

(the mtv video wont work for some reason..oh btw check on wat sarah silverman says abt britney..it should be the clip after the disastrous performance when u click the 'mtv video' )

DOUBLE BTW, CHECK OUT WAT PEREZ SAYS...FOR U NON-PEREZ HATING PPL..[NOT NICOLE]

Britney....hmm...what can i say...well for starters, she's a mess...and really needs a stylist DESPERATELY. Second, she's very good at making controversial VMAs performances. If you haven't watched already, she was the opening act of the VMAs 2007 of last night. I give her credit for landing herself such an awesome performance slot in the VMAs, esp since the recent series of events/gossip about her. I applause her for getting off her drunk ass and finally doing smthg about her career going down the drain. Unfortunately, her comeback performance was one of the most horrifying...okay fine, not so dramatic....most disastrous then..thing i've ever seen her done....well i guess this weekend. HAHA...but yea...seriously, i mean people have been hyped about her comeback for awhile now and the fact that she started out like that...is not a very good omen. Yes, you could say that i have quite a thing against her, but you know what before i watched this performance i was really hoping that she would blow me away and prove me wrong. Did you see that confuse face of 50 Cent?

So what was really the problem with the perfomance? Firstly, please, dont show off your bod with sparkly bra and panties if you no longer have the body. I don't have a problem with ppl having a less than ideal body...but please dont wear clothes flaunting it like it's HOT when it's NOT. Second, she really needs a new choreographer...her moves are the same as like 5 years ago...unless it was really her fault that she didn't rehearse. She kinda tripped over herself a few times. All she did across the stage for those 4 minutes...was strut back and forth and flip her hair. Stop being a ditz. On top of that, if you're gonna lip sync, learn to do it properly. She started lipsyncing fine...and then i think she just forgot she was spose to be "singing" and she just stopped like she lost the ability to speak or smth. so wat else...oh yea...it seemed like she either couldn't walk in her heels or she was having trouble walking. period. i really felt sorry for her dancer that she got to step on to get off the stage though. the best thing about her performance was her dancer. they outshone her. it musta been the juxtaposition of her naked body next to these clothed human beings that just made her flabby stomach stick out more (not that there's anything wrong wit flabby stomachs if you clothed them). yea i guess the issue with the costume is that she shoulda just put some clothes on. she woulda been more respectable that way. Apart from that the song is really catchy. So here it is Gimme More.

*PS: i guess the stripper poles were pretty hot too.

A Little Bit Of Everything

Artist: Blaqk Audio
Album: Cex Cells (2007)
Check Out: Stiff Kittens, Bitter For Sweet, Semiotic Love

Whatever you would like to call this, electronic, darkwave, gothic, ebm (electronic body musik, apparently a genre now describing artists like Front 242 and Apoptygma Berzerk because you cannot categorize them as both industrial and electronic?), techno, alternative... I would like to call it RRGM, which stands for really really good music. I went to their third concert ever yesterday at the Grand Ballroom NYC, it was definitely worth the half an hour wait in front of the doors then one hour wait on the floor. For those who haven't heard, Blaqk Audio is an electronic project created by Davey Havok (gorgeously beautiful) and Jade Puget (not so photogenic but incredibly stunning in person) from AFI. Basically, this is the type of music you will see blue shirted middle aged glasses-wearing short mom standing from the balcony, blonde Laguna Beach-like girls with glowsticks, a bunch of goth kids, and yourself dancing to. Cexy.


Artist: Rilo Kiley
Album: Under The Blacklight (2007)
Check Out: The Angels Hung Around, Silver Lining, Close Call, Dejalo

Rilo Kiley's fourth full length album, after most of the band members "returned" from their solo albums (Jenny Lewis with Rabbit Fur Coat and Blake Sennett in Sun, Sun, Sun with The Elected in 2006). This new album is a new sound for those who have listened to their previous albums... it the adventurous album. I suggest you purchase this album not only because 1. Jenny Lewis, 2. Sounds like a mixture of Jenny Lewis' solo work, drums, country, folk, yet a little bit of mellow rock, 3. Jenny Lewis... but also because the album's jewel case is tinted purple! What more can you ask for?


Artist: Au Revoir Simone
Album: The Bird Of Music (2007)
Check Out: The Lucky One

My new found super mellow indie ambiance meditation music. Just imagine a set of harmonious triplets and while you look at the album art and you will get a good picture of what their music might sound like. Sounds like sunsetting gradually, leaves turning from kelly green to a medium kind of sea green, and summer going by really slowly. Except summer has gone by too quick for me and I need to start writing a paper instead.

Feist- The Reminder

So I recently got this CD The Reminder by Feist, I was gonna get Tristan prettyman...but i found Feist. I've got to admit I came across Feist from Perez =p. At least that's how i remember it. I think her music really reminds me of gap commercials, just coz of how light spirited the songs are. I mean not all her songs are "happy"...but just how simple and raw it is. the instruments are not dominating the sweetness of her voice. Speaking of commercials...the song "1234" is actually the song Apple is using for the commercials for their NEW ipod nanos. yea you should definitely check out both the song and the new designs by apple. (personally im not sure wat exactly i feel abt the new designs...i like how they now play videos...but other than that from a designer's point of view iono...) The above link is a remixed version of it, which i'm not too fond of compared to the original. but you can listen to the original on her myspace. Oh she's Canadian btw.

Boy bands certainly have their target audience, those suffering from post-break up grief, lusty prepubescent girls, and screaming fanboys (did anyone see the JT concert and how he obviously avoided the outstretched hands of his male fans?). However, for those of us that don't have a tissue box permanently attached to our person or aren't looking for an emotional tsunami, boy bands certainly do not fulfill our every musical need.

In celebration of my recent unemployment, allow me to share with you two tunes that tickle my pickle and pump me up! ;)


Good Luck by Basement Jaxx

This dance/electronica group hailing from the UK been around for quite some time now. According to the all knowing Wikipedia, they rose to popularity in the late 1990s. Of course I didn't hear about them until well past the end of the millennium, but apparently they're in high demand as remixers (used by the likes of JT [he's EVERYWHERE] and N.E.R.D.) .

This song is about a break up, only instead of being reduced to inconsolable rubble, the girl moves on with a big "FUCK YOU" to the guy. Fantastic. Of course, its not really the back story of the song that makes me love it so much, its the beat/mood/emotion. Listen to it, you'll see what I mean. Makes me feel like I can do ANYTHING.

The NFL Themesong

Duh. Sorry, I can't find a link. But trust me on this one guys, if it pumps football players up, it'll pump you up.


OK, time for a celebratory slice of cheesecake!

Boy Band Music

Yeah, I said it. Boy bands. You all know the famous ones N*Sync, 98 Degrees, LFO (ugh. they were beyond terrible) and I know Tink remembers Westlife. Of course, the Backstreet Boys reign at the top of that pyramid (best concert I've ever went to, for realz) with a new cd coming out this fall! Here are two songs from two boy bands you might not remember.

Song: Faded
Boy Band: SoulDecision
Album: No One Does It Better

This is, hands down, the best boy band song EVER. Honestly speaking, I have never heard of anything else by SoulDecision, but no boy band, not even the Backstreet Boys, can touch this song. It is just pure guilty boy band pop and it is awesome!

Song here

Song: The Hardest Part About Breaking Up (Is Getting Back Your Stuff)
Boy Band: 2ge+her
Album: 2ge+her: Again

I don't know how many of you remember 2ge+her, but they were a boy band formed by MTV to parody boy bands. They even had a movie! I only remember seeing the opening credits, but that in itself was good enough. All the band members had labels - the cute one, the heartthrob, the bad boy. They even have a pseudo rapper! Just like the real boy bands! Haha, I love it. The song is so corny and the lyrics are all sorts of hilarious.

The hardest part about breaking up.... is getting back your stuff.

I realize my descriptions are really brief and crap, and I know it's been a relatively long time, but I'm actually in stats class right now. No really. Worse college student ever, I am.

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) by Mika

Song Title: Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)
Artist: Mika
Album: Life in Cartoon Motion
Genre: Pop

So its been a while since I've listened to pop. Other than classics such as the Backstreet Boys and (maybe) the Spice Girls, I've mostly turned my back on this genre. Yesterday I rediscovered why pop songs are great: they're perpetually happy and they make you want to dance. You'll find no emo here.

Mika is a solid candidate for pop stardom because of his ambiguous sexual orientation, oh and his music too. Of all the songs on Life in Cartoon Motion my favorite song is "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)", you might recognize it as the new Ugly Betty Theme song and fittingly so; it gives the finger to beauty norms... but in a really subtle, nice, positive way. Who says silly can't be meaningful? Its happy, catchy, and fun; if you love to hate, this isn't the song for you.

Give it a listen on Mika's official website.

As an afterthought... I was thinking of other songs that make me want to dance: try "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Vitamin C (courtesy of YouTube, and the movie it was in... whatever its called). Huzzah, I'm going to close my door and play it full blast.

BTW... FIRST POST OF SEPTEMBER!!!!