Coverpalooza!

I love this playlist! It is so full of awesomeness. I really took some time in crafting this collection of songs. Despite the fact that there are 30 tracks, which is longer than usual, I was cutthroat. Great bands can cover other great bands, but the results just aren't always special enough to stand alone as a cover song. I think that the best cover songs are made carefully and abstractly; someone else supplied the music and lyrics, so what happens next? It's great for one artist to pay homage to another, and the best way this is done is if the cover song diverges from the original in a new perspective, while still retaining the integrity of the original. It is hard to do, but it is also incredibly fun to do. Fun is another criteria for creating the best cover song, it should always be fun. For my own ukulele covers, I often use Chordie.com to search for chords.

Adele! She does some amazing covers, here is a Buzzfeed article listing some of her others. This song would be on the playlist however Grooveshark did not have the file in their library. Lame!

I was really blown away by the Cee Lo Green cover of Band of Horses' "No One's Gonna Love You", it might be my favorite on the list (aka. I can't stop listening to it). I didn't even realize that it was on his most recent album, The Lady Killer (2010). I was really into Band of Horses during freshman year of college, they're wonderful to listen to during the fall/winter. Second place favorite might be the Benzedrine Monks of Santo Domonica's cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You", just because I love to imagine them standing in a church in their robes, rocking it out.

To come up with some ideas for this playlist, I used this awesome website called The Covers Project. It is a searchable database with comprehensive listings of many, many bands covering others. Obviously though, the place with the most covers, updated constantly from all around the world, is YouTube. There are some fantastic unknown musicians who do fabulous covers that we would never hear, had it not been for YouTube.

EDIT, 09/7/2011

I was going back through older posts of mine, and realized that Grooveshark is not an ideal way to share playlists in the long term. One of my lists from earlier this year went from having about ten songs to...three? While I am not exactly sure where the songs come from on the website, the fact of the matter is, they disappear and it affects my lists, causing me to lose whatever I worked to share with you in the future. So, from now on I am going to make cuts like this with the list of songs, just so they are never lost. I suppose any site besides a direct link to the song may do this as well, YouTube isn't forever either. So, anyway, click the link below for a listing of the tracks.

things heather hates

We spend a lot of time on this here blog talking about music we really love.

What about music we really hate?!

I went through my iTunes the other day, looking for some. And then I remembered I make a concious effort to not curate music I hate on my hard drive. But then I was curious about something I'd really not want to listen to for any extended period of time (ie. more than 30 seconds). I have a bunch of artists I don't really like, per se, but upon revisiting them 2-5 years later, I love them (see exhibit a: Hot Chip. God DAMN was I missing out. I'm just getting into them now- good thing I saved those three albums of theirs!)

But this still doesn't solve my mystery of music I really hate... or does it?

Here are some things that I, Heather, cannot stand to listen to:

1. Rap-Metal.
Why did this have to happen.


2. Modern Pop-Country Music.
I actually really love country music - old stuff (Johnny Cash!) to newer alt-country (Neko Case! Wilco!), bluegrass (Crooked Still!) and even Dolly Parton (yes I said it, you guys can stop taking me seriously now...) But this shit? Terrible.


3. Musicals.*
I really dislike when people leap up out of nowhere and start singing and dancing. Musicals, therefore, I something irrationally hate. Maybe this means I don't like fun, I don't know.

* I make four exceptions to this rule: 1) Mamma Mia, as I sometimes get drunk for the sole purpose of watching the DVD (and the entire thing is people singing - they don't stop singing OR dancing, so it's sort of okay); 2) Rocky Horror Picture Show; 3) Hedwig and the Angry Inch; 4) The Muppets. #2, 3 and 4 are weird enough as it is, so adding more unnecessary weirdness is just entirely campy and over the top and therefore enjoyable!

4. Matchbox 20.
Fuck off, Rob Thomas.

Until very recently, one of the few things I knew about my sometimes-boss Gary was that he really liked Slayer.

So when he recently told me that he was starting a club night, I had my apprehensions. Was he going to try to make a metal club night? What would that even sound like? This night is advertised as "Italo-Synthpop-Funk + Other". The first three sounded great, but what would constitute "other"? Slayer??

Well, It turns out that I was very wrong. Gary has spectacular taste in music, as his promo mix shows:

Osmium Mix July 2011 by I_Fear_Satan on Mixcloud

Tonight's the first one, but a bunch of my friends are back for their graduation this weekend, so I don't think I'm going. But you best believe I am coming to the next one...

what the hell is 'chillwave' ?

I have no idea. I keep hearing (about) it. It sounds like some sort of new hipster thing that we'll look back on and laugh & laugh. Remember emocore or whatever that was? Thursday and Taking Back Sunday and stuff? That was hipster music before there were hipsters, right? (how appropriate.)

BUT WHATEVER TODAY WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT CHILLWAVE. I have three mixes for you, which I did not make but rather gratuitously lifted from Perfect|Midnight|World. I think these generally fall under the category of "chillwave" though.

I'm going to need you to suspend your hipster disbelief for approximately 3 hours, as I think i have accidentally found the perfect trifecta of summertime soundtracks: one for when it is too hot to move, one for late-night rides, and one for quietly putting on while having friends over. I've been writing and listening to them a lot, too. I think these might actually just be perfect anytime playlists, really...

1. Cloudy Busey - Broken By Inertia
2. Warm Speakers - Waves
3. Summer Heart - Simple Minds
4. Teen Daze - Let’s Fall Asleep Together
5. Art Imperial - The Inbetweener
6. Seapony - Dreaming
7. Cheerleader - New Daze
8. Saskatchewan - Dreamboat
9. All Tiny Creatures - Holography
10. Beach Fossils - Plastic Flowers
11. Women - Bullfight
12. Guards - Swimming After Dark
13. Ham1 - Ghost Loop
14. Dirty Gold - California Sunrise
15. Eddie the Wheel - Nearsayerfive
16. Kids on a Crime Spree - Sweet Tooth
17. Real Estate - Younger than Yesterday
18. We Are Trees - Teenage Heartbreak
19. Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr - If It Wasn’t You
20. Still Corners - Endless Summer
21. Banjo or Freakout - Go Ahead

download DREAMING IN SHADE here.

---

1. Soccer Legends - Leeroy
2. Chad Valley - Acker Bilk
3. Active Child - Playing House (Ft. How To Dress Well)
4. Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed
5. Pulsprogramming - Island Answer Anywhere
6. Dead Gaze - Take Me Home or I Die Alone
7. All Tiny Creatures - Breathing Set
8. K.C. Accidental - Ruined in ‘84
9. Teen Daze - Watch Over Me
10. Atlas Sound - Quick Canal
11. John Maus - Hey Moon
12. Porcelain Raft - Come Closer
13. Film School - Sick of the Shame
14. Zaza - Don’t Bleed Me
15. Arrange - Golden Neighborhoods
16. Stumbleine - Wasted Summer
17. Trouble Books & Mark McGuire - Floating Through Summer
18. Asche and Spencer - Under the Stars
19. Neighbors - Bad Timing
20. Zola Jesus - Run Me Out (Acoustic)

download BENEATH SUMMER STARS here.

---

1. Ducktails - Sitting
2. Girls Names - I Could Die
3. Teen Daze - Cliff Jump Love Song
4. Beach Fossils - Face It
5. Flake Music - Deluca
6. Grandaddy - Summer Here Kids
7. Real Estate - Out of Tune
8. Dream Cop - Beach City / Carol I Know
9. Thee Oh Sees - Corrupted Coffin
10. Tyler Jon Tyler - Seperate Issue
11. Dom - I Wonder
12. Atlas Sound - Day Out
13. Pavement - Grounded (Alt. Version)
14. Cloud Nothings - Forget You All the Time
15. Black Tambourine - By Tomorrow
16. Surfer Blood - Catholic Pagans
17. Yuck - Stutter
18. Pinback - Tripoli
19. Youth Lagoon - July
20. Dead Meadow - I’m Gone

download WARM WEATHER GHOSTS here.

You are welcome.

And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin, chasin down a hoodoo there

What would summer be without some CCR? I know for me it would be a pretty bland and quiet one, and who wants that? I adore Creedence, they are definitely one of my favorite bands of all time. When I was in high school, I went through a vinyl phase after rescuing my mom's old record player from certain doom in a box in the basement. Then my grandparents donated their old records to me, so I was good to go. My number one favorite record out of the whole collection...a slightly ragged but still rockin copy of Cosmo's Factory. I would recommend this album to a new listener, but while you're here you might as well check out this amazing compilation I've made of great CCR jams. I burned this mix to a CD in high school and I've still got it on consistent rotation, most specifically in the car for highway driving. This thing's been road-tested, and the Dude abides, hold on to those CCR tapes.

EDIT 7/7/11: I changed the link above of Cosmo's Factory from the Amazon.com CD purchase page to their downloadable option, which is only $6.99! It's worth it.

2001: A Rock Odyssey

Remember when the 'new' millennium arrived?

Besides a shift in our clocks, there was a garage rock revival that changed the face of alternative music forever. In 2001 I was thirteen years old, and I quickly fell in love with the White Stripes and the Strokes when they arrived on the scene. My affection for the genre only deepened with the arrival of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Hives, the Libertines, the Stills, and eventually the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party. Yeah, I love my indie pop now, but before that the speakers in my bedroom were flooded with louder, back-to-basics grooves. I still pop in the White Stripes' Elephant and zoom down the street in my car from time to time, yell-singing "I think I smell a rat!". In high school, my first concert was the Strokes in Boston, at age fourteen. I didn't get to see the White Stripes until age eighteen, but it was still worth it then. Currently, the White Stripes are broken up, who knows what happened to the Hives, and the Strokes are making a dismal attempt at becoming a band again. Even I can admit this, and I was obsessed with Julian Casablancas from the first time I heard "Last Nite". Ah, well. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some talented new groups to arrive, to pick up where these guys left off in the middle of the last decade, keeping the original soul but injecting some new juice. Anybody wanna start a band?

This playlist is full of songs that I loved when I was in high school, that I think represent the mood and time well. I'm no expert on where genres end and begin, but I think this compilation is pretty awesome and worth the time-traveling. 

this is the remix!

You guys, seventeen year old me is really jealous of twenty three year old me. On Wednesday I went to a Belle & Sebastian music video launch, and tomorrow I'm going to a symposium on the Historical Thesaurus of the OED.

But never mind all of that.

because...

guess what time it is?

TIME FOR MORE THINGS HEATHER LIKES AW YEAH

(otherwise known as 'i have been writing and here are some things I have been listening to, perhaps unhealthily, on repeat')

1. Alpine Ski Champion
Alpine Ski Champion is one of the approximately six bands (this is only a slight exaggeration, though by the time you read this it might be accurate) that my friend Suse is in. ASC is her electro project with her bandmate-in-one-of-her-other-bands/friend Frazer Graham. Both Suse and Frazer are DJs as well, and brilliant ones at that, so needless to say the combination of all of that into an electronic project is pretty fucking fantastic. I recently saw Alpine Ski Champion play live, and they were most excellent. (SIDENOTE, electronic music performed live is much more interesting than i expected it to be.) You can check out all of their tracks on Soundcloud, but check out this remix of Gwen Stefani ft. Pharrel Williams' Ice Cream Island--
Ice Cream Island (Gwen Stefani & Pharrell yummy vocal edit) by AlpineSkiChampion
If this doesn't win you over, nothing will!

2. Bon Iver, Self-Titled
Confession time: I barely listened to For Emma, Forever Ago. (I am aware of the massive crime against humanity that this represents.) Something about this album gave me extraordinary bad luck. So when I heard that Bon Iver was coming out with a new album, I was ready to miss it again. And then I heard Calgary and everything - EVERYTHING - changed. Christ on a bicycle, you guys, this stuff is fantastic. Get the whole new album here. You are welcome.

*BONUS: to fit the theme of this post, here is Calgary, Remixed:
Bon Iver - Calgary (Thunderlust Remix) by Thunderlust

3. The Jackson Pit (the jackson 5 vs passion pit)
YOU GUYS THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR HOW PERFECT THIS IS.



4. This remix of Run This Town vs Fireflies.
Remember that time that Owl City was a thing? Also this comes off a mix called "Best of Bootie". Just saying.


5. http://historysaidwhat.tumblr.com/
This isn't music but this is pretty fantastic.

Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair...

New Arctic Monkeys! Try out their new single, "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair", off of Suck It And See, which was just released on June 7th. I'm getting an Iggy Pop vibe, but maybe that's just the vocals during the chorus. Anyway, it is a lot different than the more popular Arctic Monkeys songs of the past that people recognize, but I'm digging the new direction. The video for this song is great too, all psychadelic and colorful. What does everybody else think?

A new single from Beirut! "East Harlem" is off the upcoming album The Rip Tide, which will be released on August 30th. How long has it been? To be honest, I didn't even realize that he released an EP in 2009, and I haven't heard it yet. I was on the bandwagon with Gulag Orkestar, Lon Gisland EP, Elephant Gun EP, and dabbled in The Flying Club Cup. The song doesn't charge right out of the gate like some of his early work, but rather slides by. I've always been a big fan of his vocals, and here they are subtle yet precise. This new one is very summery, relaxed, and elegant, I definitely recommend it.

Thoughts?

summer time and the living's easy

It is currently "summertime" in Glasgow (this is arguable). As a result, all the stores are having sales on their "winter" clothes. So, I have been spending a lot of time in H&M lately stocking up on sweaters that are on sale. (I should point out that i am still wearing said sweaters indoors. Yes it is June, thanks for asking.)

The other day while I was in there trolling the bargain racks for the third time (and picked up a fantastic woolen thing for £5), I decided to make my best H&M mixtape. Because, you know, whatever. I concede my hipsterdom to the point of admitting that half of these are songs I've actually recently heard at H&M.

AND it has a bit of a summery feel to it! So there, Glasgow. 55F and rain does not constitute "summer". Just saying.

01 wrong feels right - dum dum girls
02 we're happening - the vaccines
03 still (dr dre) - jj
04 baby says - the kills
05 southside (ft. gwen stefani) - moby
06 night jogger - those darlins
07 wild young hearts - noisettes
08 make time - cults
09 invisible light - scissor sisters
10 after dark - le tigre
11 if you wanna - the vaccines

as per usual, grab it here!