“This Is What Makes Us Girls” _ Lana Del Rey

I don’t understand why it’s the cool thing to be ashamed to like her.

This song is amazing and all like Valley of the Dolls and Clueless and 50s Americana with that amazing hint of Twin Peaks which makes it SO ON POINT for everything I’m into right now.

devincastro:

Blouse / Ghost Dream

was just texting about how i felt v unchic and bored and uninspired about and with anything related to anything creative and how life was just so mundane in this giant world and then Blouse came on and it was okay

hollydances:

D.A.R.L.I.N.G - Beach House

In that harbor of a room
You’ll find your anchor soon
In the parting of our ways
May it never happen anyway 

(via hoodoostarlight-deactivated2012)

So a few weeks ago I went to a Gardens & Villa concert and Gardens & Villa was still quirky and dumb and just cool like some garage band from California obsessed with stars and galaxies and it all just fit together and was dancey and the whole audience was into it. There were two bands that opened - the first one was local and just kind of basic, probably not going to go anywhere, the second one was Youth Lagoon.

Youth Lagoon in concert was actually interesting, but slightly mediocre at the same time. The singer’s mouth was about two inches away from the microphone at its furthest, his feet strapped into his (slightly platform) desert boots, turned in ~awkwardly~ towards one another, and his small legs wrapped in his skinny jeans. It was him and one lone guitarist, and a keyboard.

The songs he played were interesting, to say the least, they all typically start out small and build, the melodies along with the beats and the voice along with the melodies, everything was working in his favor. But I have to say, it’s all just so ~twee. Like the second coming of Michael Cera was upon us and we just had to put on our glasses that we all got from Old Navy and call it a day, pull our skirts (or our jeans, or if you’re a guy just roll them) up and just reign in the second coming of the twee indie scene.

See, I feel that slapping a label of “hipster” onto something is completely lazy at its core. Fashion forward? Hipster. Urban Outfitters? Hipster. Going to coffeeshops? Hipster. Eco-friendly? Hipster. And there’s this whole backlash to it. And on some level I understand it - no one likes to be talked down to, and the hipster stereotype is especially annoying because they’re talking down to you about something that will never truly achieve notoriety or success except in their spheres. But its just lazy to say “oh god look at that girl she’s so hipster” or “the architecture quad is full of hipsters” as if its annoying. No - its only annoying when I go to Starfucker concerts (SUCH a good concert you guys) and there are six girls that cut in front of Sadie and I with their hats that read “RAGE” and “PARTY ON” and their technicolor bras seeping through their poorly cut white tanks and their Nike shoes, and they all do it under the gaze of “hipster.” Being hip and being a hipster are two different things, I guess? Because I tend to dress well, dress with some of the trends (that I like), but for some reason on some days people slide me into the hipster category. I feel that its completely lazy to slide someone (anyone, really) into a category solely because you can’t fit them into a different one. It almost seems that hipster has become the cess pool for those that don’t fit in other categories I guess?

ANYWAYS. Tangent you guys. Ok so, ANYWAYS, I log on to see that Pitchfork has reviewed Youth Lagoon’s album and gave them an 8.3 or an 8.4 and the “Best New Music” title. The point of this post was essentially to tell you that his songs just sound like bedtime stories told through the lens of “Paper Heart” or “Any Movie Starring Michael Cera.” It’s all just so twee and so ~BEDROOM POP ♥~ which is so overdone I cannot stand it. I don’t want to hear these soft building lullabies, I want to hear a soothing yet engaging track, and with a lead singer whose voice is so muddled I can barely make out the words, I feel that Youth Lagoon was sorely overrated. Whatever. WHATEVER.

THIS POST MEANS NOTHING.

vneckandacardigan:

luciwithani:anniehinton:sotheresthat:shanemichael:

Florence + The Machine - “Shake It Out”

Apparently I’m late to the game, but this is great. 

NECESSARY FOR MY EXISTENCE

(Source: yayoyayu)

devincastro:

The Radio Dept. / I Don’t Like It Like This

“For Emma” _ Bon Iver

Phantogram _ “When I’m Small”

Foster the People _ “Pumped Up Kicks”

#spring2011 playlist

IT’S JANELLE MONAE TIME. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.

SECOND BEST ALBUM OF 2010 : JANELLE MONAE : “The ArchAndroid”

Why is this the second best album of 2010?

• It’s an entertaining concept album. Did you hear/read that? Entertaining and conceptual. That’s awesome right? It’s also one of the only albums that I can remember that has actually done that and done it well. Monae takes her futuristic side and blends it with so many different styles to make it a mish-mash of her own music. She collaborates with big names (Big Boi on “Tightrope”) and little names (Deep Cotton on “57821”) and everywhere in between (Of Montreal on “Make the Bus”). 
• But don’t think that because there are so many collaborations that her album lacks her ingenue spirit or her civil rights focused work. Cindy Mayweather, her loving android character from the future, is bright and alive as ever. She actually has a love story now (“Sir Greendown” for reference, and a little bit of “57821,” I think) and her story is brighter than ever, save for getting a little bit muddled towards the end (which is one of my few problems with this album).
• She’s utterly excellent in her delivery. With a song like “Cold War” she keeps her voice very tame, very stable, but in other songs like “Come Alive (The War of the Roses)” she screams and more than one of my friends (read: 2, because I’m a loser) thought that instead of a scream it was an instrument, some sort of freaky guitar. Shit’s intense man. In “Oh, Maker” she twists and turns her voice in some Prince/Jimi Hendrix sort of fashion that makes you relive the 1970s in the 2070s.
• The album is so thick and polished that every song is it’s own journey, despite having every song form into one another (at the end of one song - I think it’s “Neon Gumbo” - rain starts to play, the next song “Oh, Maker” starts out with the line “I hear the drizzle of the rain…” it’s the little things okay!). She get’s the symphony orchestra to play INTRODUCTION music for her. That’s when you KNOW that this woman has power and she’s not afraid to utilize everything local around her (Of Montreal is an Athens, Georgia band, Big Boi resides in Atlanta and Deep Cotton is signed on her label) to make this album perfect.

WELL BLAKE, you’re probably saying, because I’m a super popular blogger with so many beautiful and sexy and gorgeous fans that I’m sure you’re saying it, WELL BLAKE, IF THIS ALBUM IS PERFECT THEN WHAT’S THE PROB? WHAT IS IT MAN? TELL ME.

• Well, my perfect follower, I have one with this album that consist of relativity to Monae’s other work.

1. Her first album, The Chase Suite was PERFECT. And I’m not just saying that. That album (consisting of only 6 songs but whatever) is PERFECT. It’s heavy on the plot (“Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!”), heavy on the message (“Many Moons,” “Sincerely Jane”), and heavy on ambiance (“Cybertronic Purgatory”). It’s dance-y, it’s soulful, it’s an amalgamate of EVERYTHING to create something great. It’s perfect. And this album didn’t seem too heavy on the plot whilst still retaining the other two. For such a long album, you really have to sit down and read the lyrics to actually know anything going on in the world of Cindy Mayweather, whilst the other album leads songs with “I’m an alien from outer space / I’m a cyber girl without a face a heart or a mind.” Songs in The Arch Android lead with different things, and some are inconsequential (see, “Oh, Maker” above).

That’s basically it.

TOP ALBUMS OF 2010 ACCORDING TO BLAKETH

1. Beach House “Teen Dream”
2. Janelle Monae “The ArchAndroid”

That’s all for now ok!

Beach House _ “D.A.R.L.I.N.G.”

a song that has more meaning than ever, i feel. today, and the next few weeks will be a strange time but i know i am ready.

okay so this list is really rough but i’ll try to make it organized and beautiful so you readers, you lovely, super amazing beautiful humans that rarely ever actually listen to the music i post, can ignore this once more - i probably won’t even get a single “like.”

but that’s not what this list is for.

so when i first set on this list the FIRST album that came to mind was “Teen Dream” by Beach House, so they’re obviously number 1.

1. “Teen Dream,” Beach House.

• Why is this album utterly amazing? Well (1) because Victoria Legrand’s voice is so hauntingly beautiful. The way that she moves it along tracks, or the way she adds small things during the songs (like in “Take Care” she just starts doing blips during one of the keyboard sections, or in “Norway” where the whole beginning of it is her just breathing into the microphone basically, it’s memorable and amazing), how she can start to yell and pull her voice away so it’s not annoying and instead is tragic and sad and optimistic simultaneously?
• Or maybe it’s because of the arrangements of the songs, how the bass in “Walk in the Park” is melancholy yet you understand it. Or how most of the songs have small little lead-ins and then get BIG on you (in the Beach House way, “big” doesn’t necessarily mean loud, it basically just means that everything is playing at once). Or maybe it’s Victoria’s pulsating keyboard skills? Maybe it’s the subtle drum machine (although on tour they do have a real drummer that basically sounds just as awesome)? Maybe it’s these things all wrapped up together that makes them sound clear, collected, and determined to show you what their inner thoughts are. Probably that.
• And if those two things (awesome voice, awesome music and compositions) doesn’t grab you, perhaps it’s the lyrics that should rip you from your body and make you sulk because someone really understands what you feel. The reason I love “Walk in the Park” (a song about losing someone and then eventually forgetting them) is because I’ve graduated high school, losing my four best friends (physically at least) and I’m dreading forgetting about the many people that I became friends with throughout my 15 year stint in the Atlanta suburbs. And if you don’t like sad, yet understanding and apathetic lyrics, then there’s other songs like “Lover of Mine,” and “Used to Be” that can fully encompass all the emotions that can occur in this busted teen dream that we’ve all had whether we like it or not. It’s all of THESE THINGS that make me LOVE this album. It rocked me to my core. It made me discover a new band, it made me realize that their music is EXCELLENT and it made me love music even more than I already do. And this post RIGHT HERE is my explanation why Beach House’s “Teen Dream” is the #1 album of the year (as of August 4th, 2010).

more DEFINITELY to come.

CUT COPY

if they ever come in concert to atlanta i’m going. i don’t care if i’m going alone. i’m going.