vive la france

my friend in a shishi poo poo spot snapped this close up. 

i think he felt like he could climb up on the speaker because he's "france".  people were saying how cool it was, but i thought he kind of looked like an idiot trying to get down from there.  regardless, phoenix put on another wicked good show! 

a crowd favorite.  this one made us jump... high!

"1901" by phoenix

npr... will you marry me?!

if you don't already subscribe to npr's "song of the day" and "all songs considered," get after it!  great work listening. 

here are some examples from the recent 'bike to the beat: songs for the urban cyclist' collection:

 "perfect games" by the broken west

"the golden path" by the chemical brothers

satiating

satiation is a special education term i love to use, which means "to satisfy to excess."  sometimes i satiate on songs.  i listen to them over and over again until i can't even stand them anymore.  right now this song is satisfying me and not yet to excess.  so glad this was dropped into my box (man, that joke is never going to get old!).

"closet astrologer" by the ruby suns

english electropop, yeah!

 

hot chip

great video!
"boy from school" by hot chip

  
and a grizzly take on the same song...
"boy from school" by grizzly bear

this one's a little darker. from their latest album:
"take it in" by hot chip

and just because, how about a little canadian electropop, too?
"odessa" by caribou

it gives me fever

jason and anthony are right, this video is unreal!

"i say fever" by ramona falls

i'll take care of you...

...if you ask me to. (that lyric goes out to bouncy adorable ernest! he rocked it again!)

i was in like with beach house before, now i am in love.  the sound at emo's was so crisp and clear it sounded like the produced version.  it was a beautiful show, possibly one of my favorites this year--and i am counting, i've seen 46!  try to see them sometime.  you won't regret it!

"take care"

"walk in the park"

man, did this sound fantastic live!  love this version.
(shout out, TLC!)
"used to be"

jury's still out

livin' the dream.  our first dj-off.

usually dj smitten kitten, dj rahk, and dj ant rivers dance to the music.  this time we brought it! according to the inebriated judges, we need another go around. you had better be there. in the meantime, dance to these...

this crowd pleaser comes at you from dj smitten kitten, an up-and-coming magic music weaver that is taking austin to new levels of sweaty booty shaking!

(no name and artist necessary)

dj ant rivers used his day skills to tech up his mix. what was that i heard?  overlap?  fade out?  blew my mind with this track. i think i've found my new theme song.

"music is my hot, hot sex" by css

and this one will be on every dance mix i make.

"party and bullshit in the usa" notorious BIG vs miley cyrus (hathbanger remix)

my boyfriend's coming back!

hot damn!  ernest is opening up for beach house on thursday.  saw him at sxsw, and boy, did he bring out the dance in all of us.  i will be there, front & center!

"new theory" by washed out

for the dork in you

"handbook of mathematical tables."  that's what reckoner means. who knew? well, maybe you, if you are a nerd.

sometimes i like to listen to this song over and over and over again. (thanks, andrew, for blowing my mind with this bad boy. check out his blog: atxavenues.com.)

rad that there was a contest for this official music video:

"reckoner" by radiohead

remixalicious

let's start with this lovely number. i like that the remix maintains some of the darkness, but also gives it some added pep.

"daniel (death metal disco scene remix)" bats for lashes

what is that that i hear?... is miike snow feeling irie?

"animal (mark ronson remix)" by miike snow

"maybe sometimes make it easy."

"two weeks (fred falke radio mix)" by grizzly bear

i'm pretty sure i'm a dancer. you?

"human (armin van buuren remix)" by the killers

swirl hair

the other day one of my clients said, "so, tell me what's going on with your hair."  and i told her, willi, my hair guru had been hinting at the swirl 'do--short on the right side and cut at an angle all the way around to my long "signature piece" on the left--for quite some time.  it was getting progressively more asymmetrical with each cut and i started to embrace it, so one day i just told him to get after it.  anyway, my client's response: "hmmm, so that was on purpose..."  i don't think she likes it.  but i do love that story!

besides hair, willi also loves music.  and that's what we talk about while he works his magic.  there has even been a cd exchange.  and here are my favorites.

a new (old) favorite from a favorite.

"the trees were mistaken" by andrew bird

this song is something else:

"oh messiah" by timber timbre

and this is not actually one of the two beach fossils songs on my mix, but it's one i love and you will get the idea.

"youth" by beach fossils

i also like this mellow one from air waves.

"lightning" by air waves

homegrown

concert 5 of 5 for the week: homegrown live at the parish w/ the bright light social hour, the frontier brothers, and the lemurs.

the bright light social hour rocked it.  mr. moustache, especially.  my personal favorite lyric, sung to a bluesy tune: "...why don't you come over here and sit on my moustache."  no, thanks.  but you're fun.

"back and forth" by the bright light social hour

i still have a special place in my music heart for the lemurs.  michael kincaid was a nice surprise on joint vocals.  he & mitch (the rockstar in the picture w/ me below) can carry a tune together for sure.  

yeah, i know people. 
"nina" by the lemurs

i don't have much to say about the frontier brothers...  (except, "thundercats, whoa!!!")

what nice weather means

i say spring is over.  and you know what summer means?  burgers, lawns, and free music.  well at least when it comes to the "kgsr unplugged at the grove" series.  http://www.kgsr.com/unplugged/

tonight if the storm doesn't hit, charlie mars will serenade.  and if you haven't seen him, please note how dreamy he is:

right?

here he is in a video w/ mlp.

"listen to the darkside" by charlie mars

* post show: sorry, charlie. not super impressed. the acoustics at shady grove might not be the best. he had banter going for him, the music was nice, and he is fun to look at, but his voice was a little too piercing for me. and the torrential downpour didn't help...

i will rock your face

even the koozie says so.

here we go magic and white rabbits played @ the independent.  we were not afraid to rock faces.

"percussion gun" by white rabbits

tony and i say that the old stuff sounds better!

"fangela" by here we go magic

temper trapped

was concerned i'd be an oldie in a crowd of x-handed youngins at the temper trap concert. but i think the late start time in combo with curfews on a tuesday helped me out. phew! the aussies put on a great show. initially, i couldn't quite place lead singer dougie's voice. but then i got it, and dare i say, i still like the sound: neville-brother-ish. still a fan of the overplayed one...

"sweet disposition" by the temper trap

windows down

day off.  no complaints!  on lovely days like this, my favorite thing to do is drive around with my windows down with a good song blasting.  found this one and i think it is just perfect for the day off drive.

(or for staring out a window as you fly above the andes.  that good.)

"die young" by the sweet serenades

scrawny boys

was impressed with the javelin boys' energy.  i thought they were super entertaining, there were one or two times when the singer tried to hit a high note that made me laugh right out loud.  my friends and i couldn't help but bounce to some of their beats, too.  great duo to open for yeasayer.  (and in case you are wondering, yeasayer sure did rock my socks!)

"vibrationz" by javelin

rainy day songs

sometimes you want to dance in the rain (think acl 2009).  sometimes you want to hole up and listen to mellow nostalgic ballads.  today i might just hole up.

last year at the film festival i saw an incredibly moving documentary about a little sweetie with autism.  i highly recommend it: http://www.horseboymovie.com/.  this song was featured in the film.  i loved it from the moment i heard it on a mix my brother made for me years before, and now that i associate it with the emotion of the movie, it takes my breath away.  hoping to see it played like this someday...

"to build a home" by cinematic orchestra

this one gets me deep, too.  heard this on npr's song of the day and immediately downloaded it.  it is the quintessential break-up-mix song.  careful, it'll make your eyes wet.

"blue skies" by noah and the whale

sunday funday

i think these guys look like they know how to have a good time on a sunday.

looking forward to seeing yeasayer again.  (once i may have been caught on a npr video stream talking throughout part of their set.  get off my back, i stopped once some of their indie alternative beats sunk in, and i realized no matter how funny my story, i didn't want to miss it.)

love this remix they got after:

"absolute place (yeasayer remix)" by fang island


ah, memory tapes!, come back to austin soon!
"ambling alp (memory tapes remix)" by yeasayer


"madder red" by yeasayer

here's the thing

this gem of an artist comes at us from cwru (represent for cleveland)! he's playing a free show on saturday. heck, yeah! he's going to mashup some tunes while my friends and i mashup the lawn with our wicked dance moves. don't worry, i've got one more: the dance floor is gonna be silly!

"here's the thing" by girl talk

stole it

not sure about blog etiquette. but i totally stole this track from another blog (check it out over on the right side "austin riffraff") and i've got to give credit where it's due. thanks, dude!

this song just brightens my day. especially because i have fond memories of the whole huge group of them bouncing around the stage with boundless energy. edward sharpe, i love you and your magnetic zeros!

"home (rac)" by edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros

shout out

i like it... not only does this song give a shout out to my home state, but deep voices remind me of my "favorite man"--make that two favorite men--daddy d. and brother beau:

like son, like father

you'll want to download this song for free: www.highviolet.com. chances are, you'll become real hoarse when you sing along and try to emulate matt's deep baritone.

"bloodbuzz ohio" by the national

wish my name were crysteena

because then this song would be about me. this song insinuates that crysteena is one sexy broad. and something about it sounds 80s, which makes me think crysteena loves aerobics. this is a good song to run to & might also elicit deliberate air-batting and head-bobbing in the car.

"crysteena" by mille

as gomer pyle would say

surprise, surprise, surprise!

liked hockey more than i thought i would. but not as much as a certain friend who may've gushed about the lead singer, "i think he's gay. is it weird that that makes him hotter?" i liked his energy and his earring. i agree with anthony and natalie, with a little add-on: their sound was gay-vampirey-walkmener-spoonish.

the really good news is, they were 100% better than the band playing at the mohawk, where i accidentally sent my friends instead of emo's. can i get a "whoops" and a "phew"?

"too fake" by hockey

and it was a happy monday

love it when i get fresh tunes via email (hint, hint!). makes me smile all over my face!

thanks, tony!

(for the songs and that sweet costume)

"swimming" by little dragon

"runabout" by little dragon

because it's a holiday

my gift to you. these songs always get me going!

remember when jesse met robert smith?!

"just like heaven" by the cure

"naive melody (this must be the place)" by talking heads
(david is the man!)

dance to it with a partner

my dance instructor and i

this song makes me happy. i think it's the perfect two stepping, dipping song. and i love the first line, "everyday i'm away from you shakes me up inside." come, on. i dare someone to sing that to me. melt my heart.

"everyday" by vetiver

drats, another band i missed!

never would've made it into the church w/ my lowly wristband. darned badgeholes!

"compliments" by band of horses