MOG - LaSeulleFille's Posts

record of the week-saltbreakers

LaSeulleFille — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:42:41 GMT

for this entire year, my itunes has belonged to europe, mainly the brits: i find newfound layers in charlotte hatherley's the deep blue everytime i hear it, the kaiser chiefs' latest surpasses the first (which, honestly was a really good blur cover album), despite the cuckoo nme press, i really dig the klaxons, i like working out to the fratellis and sondre lerche, and i have to begrudingly admit that the new arctic monkeys is pretty good.

which got me thinking of course about where my civic pride has gone. eleni mandell's latest has been collecting virtual dust, as well as patty griffin's latest, even though they are both fantastic records.

so far the only americans in constant rotation for me right now are jill cunniff, and laura veirs' saltbreakers.

The last record was impeccable, and she's completely managed to top herself on saltbreakers. The nature metaphors conjure up melting glaciers in the midst of a beautiful sunshine, kids doing tons of frolicking amidst cattails, and other pastoral images. And every chorus this woman writes is golden.

Very excited about checking her out this week, for the second time.

LaSeulleFille — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:51:49 GMT

why write about a show when a few days later it shows up on youtube?

a snippet of the fantastic julieta venegas show at bb kings last week.

r.i.p le tigre...

LaSeulleFille — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:35:37 GMT

first sleater-kinney, and now according to wikipedia, (i'm aware they're not the most reliable source, but the sources on the site seem credible) le tigre quietly split up sometime in 06.

wow-two major feminist rock bands have bit the dust.

how square am I....

LaSeulleFille — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:55:16 GMT

to have to find out from the GILMORE GIRLS! about the demise of pretty girls make graves?

tragic on sooo many levels, lol...

grade school classic part deux

LaSeulleFille — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:33:44 GMT

normally i don't get miffed about the inanity of the american media, but a promo on a news channel for their story on whether or not barack obama is "too white" for black voters, the latest iraq casualties, and beatlemeyer's comment have led me back to this gem i forgot all about.

disposable heroes- with lyrics like "I was born for dyyyiiinnng!" make its antiwar message pretty self-explanatory. i'm not a big metal person, but i must admit, i have a weakness for some old school metallica. the band's campaign against Napster, and their later, crappier attempts at albums erased their previous accomplishments from my memory, but this particular track, this particular album is really tight, the songs are really well written. even if they were stripped down and covered in completely different genres, i think they'd still hold up.

i'm also really shocked by how much i like the new fall out boy record. its like crack in that its really addictive, even if you know its not very good for you. my fave track is definitely "hum hallelujah" despite the unneccessary lifting of the chorus of leonard cohen's track-jeff buckey and rufus wainwright these boys are not. But I think they actually have a great vocals/lyrics team in the singer and the bassist. "a teenage vow in a parking lot/till tonight do us part"-nothing deep about it, but it captures the essence of young love.

grade school classics, vol. une

LaSeulleFille — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:42:17 GMT

'07 for me has been all about the grade school and middle school classics. old school janet jackson i.e. "control", "pleasure principle" and "what have you done for me lately", pebbles ("mercedes boy, girlfriend"),swv, shanice ("i love your smile"), the queers' love songs for the retarded, the muffs' blonder and blonder, and juliana hatfield's only everything have been in heavy rotation lately.

i didn't discover the 90's band suddenly tammy till college, but finding we get there when we do is the most important thing i've done all year. one of those bands that if they had just stuck it out a few years more, they might have been popular. they cut two albums, their third was shelved by their label since the mid 90's piano rock boom wasn't on the horizon at this time, which is probably what prompted the split. the best way to describe them is a cross between ben folds five (but alot more intricate, a faster rhythm section) and belly. recommended for fans of both groups as well as regina spektor, lois, dressy bessy, go sailor. one of the founders, vocalist/pianist beth sorrentino still makes music-myspace.com/bethsorrentino

some indie faves of 06

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:33:33 GMT

starbucks jazz for the barnes & noble set, for those who like norah jones' first album (hey, i did, before it became elevator music.) its also a really pretty jazz record with some indiepop. fave track-I wanna call it love.

french indie rock with influences from alt country (ce que je suis) and electronica (les cigales) and the 60's.

another woman heavily influenced by french 60's pop. She sounds like a tad bit like bit jane birkin and cat power. I loved the danceable "you gotta give to get back" all summer, "party" and "this loneliness" are classic, grade A bonafide downers.

some pop faves of 06

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:33:41 GMT

this one made me bring out what was one of my pride & joys during the summer of 96, my 2 CD 2 Tone Collection.

the first disc is a fun marriage of old school hip-hop and r&b. the 2nd disc is guilty pleasure all the way.

some pop faves of 06

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:32:33 GMT

this one made me bring out what was one of my pride & joys during the summer of 06, my 2 CD 2 Tone Collection.

the first disc is a fun marriage of old school hip-hop and r&b. the 2nd disc is guilty pleasure all the way.

faves of 06

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:29:09 GMT

this one made me bring out what was one of my pride & joys during the summer of '96, my 2 CD 2 Tone Collection.

the first disc is a fun marriage of old school hip-hop and r&b. the 2nd disc is guilty pleasure all the way.

some faves of 06

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:24:16 GMT

this one made me bring out what was one of my pride & joys during the summer of '96, my 2 CD 2 Tone Collection. i should take up skanking again, lol.

the first disc is a fun marriage of old school hip-hop and r&b. the 2nd disc is guilty pleasure all the way. i can't help it if i am a sucker for "candyman".

everything aguilera said she'd do in back to basics, amy winehouse did with back to black, and much better. her voice brings so many singers to mind, nancy wilson, nina simone, lauryn hill, jill scott, but her tone and her sense of humor are more similar to allen and nellie mckay. i can respect any singer who belts out, "they tried to make go to rehab i said no, no, no"

norah jones-ish jazz with some indie pop. it's a really gorgeous album. fave track hands is down "i wanna call it love"

french indie pop, that pulls from alt country, some electronica, the 60's. and their videos are awesome. fave track-"sur le pave"

bjork meets goldfrapp.

LaSeulleFille — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:01:58 GMT

There is a part of me that doesn't always take these synth heavy electro bands too seriously, even though I like quite a few of them. However, I was thoroughly, and surprisingly impressed by Wednesday's Ladytron/Cansei De Ser Sexy show.

I liked CSS' album alot, mostly for their bouncy quirkiness which reminds me of the scottish band bis, but also cause towards the end of the record, they start to sound like a solid r&b/funk band. Live they sound great, but the real show when they come are the hijinks of the lead singer, Lovefoxx. At one point, during "Art Bitch" she went off the stage and sang in the crowd, letting some even sing into the mic.

Ladytron's set was nice. First off, great fashion sense, I get a strong goth vibe from them, I dig it. It brings to mind Bauhaus. They had a live video projection in real time. very badass. It was a perfect set, they played most of the withcing hour, some old songs that i was hoping for, including, "seventeen", and "playgirl".

The Be Your Own Pet show i caught last night was the complete opposite vibe. There were two not so great opening bands, that made me put on my earplugs right away. During the Black Lips' set, some guy jumped on stage and was probably sprayed with a fire extinguisher, or mace or pepper spray, he was eventually taken off stage by the bouncers. Everyone had to leave the club for awhile, there was some weird smell. There was some hecklers in the audience byop's set, it was pretty obvious they weren't taking kindly to the suggestion that their guitar sounded shitty. They played a rather short set, and then the guitar player broke the guitar, pieces of which went flying everywhere. I was almost hit by one and had to get out of the way, which sucked since i really wanted to catch a piece of it.

Libraries rule!!!

LaSeulleFille — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:14:45 GMT

I just want to thank my local public library for carrying the essential pansy division.

always a bridesmaid

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:51:09 GMT

Last week I thought I was the shit for making my first ipod the 30gb. Now that I see they got a new 80gb, AND that I could have saved 50 bux if I had just waited a week after waiting years to get one anyway, not feeling as hot as I was last week.

But I am in love with it just the same, almost as much as I love Itunes 7, LOVE the album cover feature. That tiny little feature is going to rock my sad little world for many, many days to come.

idlewild

LaSeulleFille — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 18:24:11 GMT

like 99.9999 % of the nation, i caught idlewild last night. I read the reviews beforehand, so I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. In some respects, I was pleasantly surprised by how sharp the cinematography, the editing, and animation are in the film. Bryan Barber definitely knows to visually gives viewers all the razzle dazzle, the smoke and mirrors, that people have come to expect from outkast music videos/albums. However, the story totally is predictable (I called the ending not even halfway through), and not even the wonderful acting from Big Boi and Terrence Howard, (Hate to be a hater, but I wasn't impressed by Andre 3000's acting, he didn't show much emotion in his character. He was a mortician-maybe that was intentional?) could bring that much to the story, though it was more fun to watch by far than the love story. Also, most of the songs are from their last album, while the dance numbers for those tracks are amazing, watching 3 year old songs for a movie that purports to have tracks from a new album,especially when they were given 2 1/2 hours to do so, is slightly disappointing, and the final number over the credits felt totally tacked on. Granted, having wasted fifteen minutes writing this, I have to admit I would see it again for the dance numbers alone.

cd mixtape fun.....

LaSeulleFille — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 18:13:53 GMT

Out of sheer boredom, I made a "gospel mix" this morning.

The playlist:

1) The Gas Face-3rd Bass 2)Makes Me Wanna Pray-Chrstina Aguilera 3)Mesmerized-Faith Evans 4)Sweet Dreams-Tori Amos 5)Corpus Christi Carol-Jeff Buckley 6)Sweet Knees & Backbone-The Cat Mary 7)Devils & Dust-Bruce Springsteen 8)I Play Music-Rosie Thomas 9)Rise Up With Fists-Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins 10)Son of a Preacher Man-Dusty Springfield 11)Hell-Squirrel Nut Zippers 12)Walk With Me, Lord-Lizz Wright 13)Reverend-Kostars 14)Atlantic-Rainer Maria 15)L'il Ennio-Belly 16)Undeniable Hate-Seaweed

vive le france!

LaSeulleFille — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 03:36:22 GMT

part of my recent trip to montreal was spent scavenging some of what the francophile scene has to offer.

on my previous trip to montreal, i discovered the lovely mara tremblay, whose current record les nouvelles lunes is perfect for fans of rilo kiley/jenny lewis, on this trip i discovered some of her earlier stuff, which is more along the lines of old school juliana hatfield.

the indiepunk malajube come with approval from the dears, and rightfully so. the middle ground between current day indie rock and 90's pop-punk.

my fave discovery of the whole trip?- the incredible folk/reggae-hop duo dobacaracol. i would go as far to refer to them as "les blancs nubians". they sound exactly like les nubians, but its all earnest, no mimicry going on here.

holden is also sort of country-folk, their songs are so yummy.

ladies! what crack are you smoking?

LaSeulleFille — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:35:12 GMT

Sleater-Kinney Go On “Indefinite Hiatus” by Staff | 06.27.2006

Sad news from the Sub Pop camp today; Sleater-Kinney have announced that they are to go on “indefinite hiatus”. Whether or not this is muso long-hand for “split up” remains to be seen, but there is certainly an air of finality about the press release:

"After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus. The upcoming summer shows will be our last. As of now, there are no plans for future tours or recordings.

We feel lucky to have had the support of many wonderful people over the years. We want to thank everyone who has worked with us, written kind words about us, performed with us, and inspired us.

But mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile.

With love and thanks,

Sleater-Kinney"

One Download leads to another...

LaSeulleFille — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 00:59:57 GMT

I chose to spend my rainy day at my desk downloading mostly 80's and 90's alt rock. A search for Billy Bragg turned me on to the late singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl. I was surprised to learn of her amazing recording career. She had a hit in the UK in the 80's with her cover of Bragg's cover of "A New England". Tracey Ullman's cover of her song "They Don't Know" was also a pretty big hit in the UK and the US. Another popular song was "As Long as You Hold Me". In addition to Bragg, over the course of her career MacColl worked with The Smiths/Morrissey, Frida from ABBA, Ullman, she also recorded duets with Shane MacGowan ("Fairytale in New York"), and Evan Dando on a cover Lou Reed's Perfect Day.

Her musical styles were all over the place, but mostly within the folk/rock genre, with some tracks being heavily influenced by country, and her later work having a lot of latin rhythms.

11 yrs. ago, my 8th grade friend Mike gave me a tape of Throwing Muses' University, which I fell in love with right away, even if I was a bit young for the lyrics. Heard some of their later stuff, it was all fine and dandy, but I prefer The Real Ramona.

There my first (and only post.)