Ready, Able

The new video from Grizzly Bear off the "NEW MOON" soundtrack. Don't ask me how this film pulled so many decent artists i.e. Thom Yorke, Bon Iver and St. Vincent. The song is so hauntingly beautiful, freaking love the sound of Ed Droste's voice. It feels like you're getting a group hug from heavenly angels. The claymation in this video is either extremely disturbing or an ingenious work of art. I propose both.



Also, heading out to a Julian Casablancas concert tonight with my buddy Maz. Free Free Free. That's the only way I can hack it. I will tell you alllllll about it this weekend.

Oh...you haven't heard much from him? That's because his solo album was just released. Here's a taste. Savor the flavor.

Glass - Julian Casablancas

Year in the Kingdom by J Tillman

Fleet Foxes' drummer J Tillman's second solo album.



Just lovely.
Feel it.


Please listen and then proceed to buy this album, it is well worth it.

You may do so here.

Have a happy Tuesday, everyone.

Her Morning Elegance-Oren Lavie

Happy happy Sunday. Just a little video that I think is pretty darn precious.

Here are a few lyrics I enjoy the most:

Sun been down for days
A winter melody she plays
The thunder makes her contemplate
She hears a noise behind the gate
Perhaps a letter with a dove
Perhaps a stranger she could love

And She fights for her life
As she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
As it pours
And she fights for her life
As she goes in a store
With a thought she has caught
By a thread
She pays for the bread
And She goes...
Nobody knows

San Deezy Eazy Peazy/Monsters of Folk 2nd Edition

Oh yeah. You better believe I did. More on that later.

I headed down to SD directly after my interview on Tuesday and got there around 4. I basically just wandered around the harbor near the USS Midway and enjoyed the sunshine. It was such a beautiful day, not that I expected anything less from the near-perfect San Diego climate, but really. People were exercising, couples were enjoying their late lunches on the patios of the harbor restaurants and life just seemed right.

Oh. Bon apres-midi.

"Unconditional Surrender"

Some of downtown (how obsessed with the saturation technique am I?)

Made me really miss my old stomping grounds, so many great memories there.

Around 5 I met up with my friend Deron and we made the trek from Broadway to Balboa Park. We found another Spreckles theatre and it looks like this:

At this point I'm thinking,

1) Why have I never been to this part of Balboa Park. I am a waste of human life.
2) Why can't the concert be at this Spreckles.

3) Spreckles must have been loaded.

Then Deron said that on a run through the park one day, he stumbled upon some cute little houses that represented different countries around the world. Apparently on Sundays, the Park puts on cultural appreciation days and you get to visit these buildings and eat their native cuisine. I lived here for five years and know nothing of this. Disgusting. Well, we went searching for them and low and behold.

They look like this:

and this.

There are actually a lot more of these houses but I thought I would just let you see two of them.How undeniably righteous is that?

I'm making sure to go back on a weekend to have the opportunity to go into a few of these, even if it means going alone. I seem to be doing a lot of things solo as of late. I'm kind of digging it.

Concert started at 7pm which means it started at 8:30, obviously. I got myself situated in my seat, which was in the top-most balcony about 100 miles away from the band.

But let's talk about this theater. Gorgeous. Want to learn something today? I thought so. It was built in 1913 by Claus Spreckles, a German immigrant who would eventually come to be one of the wealthiest men in America. His first stop in the states was South Carolina, then soon after moved to NYC and would then settle for a short time in San Francisco where he opened a brewery and made a killing. He ended up using that wealth to purchase large tracts of land in California and Hawaii to grow beets and sugar cane. He would use the capital from those ventures to purchase the Pacific Commercial Advisory, which is now known as the Honolulu Advisor, one of the largest newspapers in circulation today (but for how long, right?). Anyway, the cat had money. And I like what he was doing with it in this theatre.

Here are a couple of wretchedly amateur photos that don't do it any justice at all.

So back to the show. There was no opening band. The curtains went up after keeping the audience waiting for quite some time (I can appreciate anticipation) and the four musicians were having a ball. This concert was nothing short of mind-blowing. These guys were not only extremely talented, but they were having the time of their lives up there. The chemistry between musicians that aren't even in a band together was really inspiring. Monsters of Folk consists of Jim James (lead singer of My Morning Jacket), Conor Oberst (lead singer of Bright Eyes), Mike Mogis (uber-producer and mult-instrumentalist from Bright Eyes) and M Ward (half of the duo which is She and Him).

Mogis had a large hand in creating the Monsters of Folk sound, both as producer of the record and as an instrumentalist.

On the record, Mogis is credited with playing at least 17 instruments, including drums, various guitars, dobro, bass, bongos and a Wurlitzer organ. I'm pretty sure he played all seventeen of those instruments that night. I was pleased.

It was really something special to be there on my own, I sat between two people I didn't know, but there was a lot of freedom in that. I gave myself permission to lose myself and just experience the music on the most personal level. There's something liberating about not feeling obligated to conjure up a verbal reaction in response to everything that's going on.

Between songs, Jim James seemed to be the biggest ham. My favorite part of the night was when there was this long silence as the group was switching instruments and tuning for the next song. Some woman shouted out "I love your beard!!!" obviously to Jim, who was the only one with facial hair past his chin. Conor replied right away saying "We love you too. Thank you for coming out-" and before he could say "tonight" Jim just points at the chick and fires back "I love your beard too." The whole place erupted. They played for almost three hours. Sometimes they didn't even face the crowd. It was as if they were having a pow wow and we were only invited to a few songs. They played for themselves and they played for each other and sometimes they would remember "Oh yeah, people came to see us" and they would turn around and face us again. No one minded. Was it selfish? Probably. But it was the best kind of greed.

Best song of the night? My fave, "Dear God." They saved it for last. Where else would it have fit.

Monsters of Folk

Here is a track from my current obsession Monsters of Folk. This indie all-star group is comprised of Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), M. Ward (She & Him), and Saddle Creek producer Mike Mogis.They played at The Greek last night and a ton of my friends went. I couldn't afford it. They said it was spiritual, possibly the best show they've ever seen. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Freak.Me.

Here it is anyway:

Dear God


And just for kicks I'm going to throw in a performance from last week's show in Portland.

Where the Wild Things Are

The day has finally come and it is happening tonight with a group of about 15 close friends (on IMAX no less), with dinner beforehand. Happy happy day. I am beaming.

Here is the trailer.

Loupy Days Are Here Again.

I have been spending the majority of the last few days navigating the most treacherous and time-intensive job hunt of my life. I have decided to stay in Los Angeles a bit longer and give it one last go for a career. Look, I don't really like the idea of LA, in fact, I pretty much still consider myself a visitor and am not quite sure when I'll accept my resident status. But the honest to God truth is, I have an amazing group of friends here. And not just a group. Groups. I have found myself to be somewhat of a social butterfly and this area is exceptionally conducive to my lifestyle. I love the fact that there is always something going on and going home to Granite Bay, although possibly the more financially responsible thing to do, is a just a cop-out at this point. I want to make this work for the time being, moving home would be a regression in so many areas of my life, I'm not prepared for those repercussions. I don't want to run home because this isn't working. Didn't I move here for a challenge? (the answer is yes) This was the last place in the world I thought I'd end up. I really do believe being here is preordained in some way. It has to be. Because I was always the person that hated LA. I hate the pollution, the LA "vibe" whatever that means, the fact that you can't escape traffic at any point during the day and I really hate the sports teams, minus the Clippers because they get no love from anyone. But being here right now feels, well...right. Sue me. Keep me in your thoughts, prayers and meditations. I am going to need positive vibes for the task at hand. Go me.

In other news:

I have started to take Adderall again. I was diagnosed with A.D.D back in high school. The drug initially makes me feel very odd. It gives me insomnia and I really can't stand that. I was up until 7am on Monday morning. Did.not.sleep.a.wink from Sunday to Monday. I listened to music all night. I was still wide awake when I finally forced myself into a short-lived coma from 7-10am that morning. My stomach is all upset during the nights and I've lost my appetite. Appetite come back. I can't workout without you. Last night as I was doing an impeccable job of not sleeping, I went into a photographic frenzy and decided to just take some photos of myself (narcissistic? you bet. creepy? almost assuredly). If you are on facebook, you already know about this. I was going for an anthro night time feel.
(pause)
And here we go:

That's all you get.
Also:

Here are a couple of songs from a band I'm really digging right now. Like, I am loving their sound. I kind of want to elope with them. Not any one of them in particular, but as a whole. Actually no, I want a ceremony, my parents would kill me. I wish to walk down the aisle and meet this band at the end. Goodbye Dad, hello Le Loup (wink). Take my hand Le Loup, aww your palms are sweaty. Nervous nuptials. Appropriate length of tasteful kiss. Celebration, we did it.

*I believe I may have just taken that too far.

If you're expecting some really cool vids, don't. These were the only ones I could find. The first one is just a still shot with the song and the second vid is just, well, you'll see. If you like music as much as I do, you won't end up caring anyway.


***Youtube says this next song is over nine minutes long but that is a blatant and rather obnoxious lie. The song ends halfway in and it's just silence for the rest of the time. Please just make it to 1:43, it is worth it. Do it. Yuh huh.



[tap tap]Is this thing on...Here's a toast to new loves(or bands), new lives and meeting your match. Everybody make sure you grab some cake.

MAN SHOPS GLOBE

I, along with just about every 20-50 year old woman in the United States am obsessed with all things Anthropologie. They are notorious for having the most unique and whimsical displays and give me so much inspiration for my own future home. I just found out about this show and my seams are busting. It follows Keith Johnson, chief buyer for Anthro and for this episode he's wading through the glory of Paris, my all-time favorite city. It's just a snippet, but I can already tell this is going to be quite the guilty pleasure.

Winner? Warpaint.

Let's talk about last night.
1) Erin shows up at my house around six. I'm showering, she comes in to the bathroom and tells me that she loves me and that she's going to start making dinner. I can only hope that one day my life can resemble that in some fashion with my future spouse. Thank you Erin, for entering my life.

2) After a delicious dinner of honey-glazed miso salmon and brown rice, we head out around 7:30 to get some coffee (we're doing a sober concert-going) before the show and meet our friend Maz at the venue around 8:30.

3) We pick up our lattes from Coffee Bean and walk over to the Troubador where we find Maz. Hugs/smiles are exchanged and we wait while he grabs the tickets from will call.

4) There is a problem. Turns out, they don't have his tickets. They claim he never bought them. But he has the record of the purchase on his iphone on a random ticket site they've never heard of. He asks us if for some reason, they don't give him the tickets, would we want to buy tickets from the box office, since we came all the way down to Hollywood (mind you, he has already paid $30 for tickets to a show he's not even going to, he just decided to let his tickets not go to waste on us). We both say that we're broke and we would probably just go home and watch a movie. With this news, he steps back over to the box office.

5) Next thing I hear is Erin saying, "Maz, don't do anything dumb now." And of course he does. On top of the money he lost from the ticket scam online, Maz buys Erin and I tickets to last night's show. We can't even refuse them at this point, Maz is a winner. A winner indeed. We will be cooking him dinner on Thursday night, best believe that. He just invested $60 on a show he is not attending. Who.Does.That.

6) We walk into the venue with Phantogram playing one of their last songs of the set. Just a guy with his electric guitar and a girl mixing beats. Good sound, I could dance to this. So we do. It resembled something like this:

Phantogram - When I'm Small (Live @ Saratoga) from blair neal on Vimeo.

7) Enter Warpaint.
Three girls and a dude on drums. I'm not really into giving detailed music critiques. That's not what this is about. I enjoyed them. I especially enjoyed the fact that the girl on bass guitar was wearing a crew neck sweatshirt, some long johns that look like they had been living on her boyfriend for 10+ years and her hair was matted beyond anything you could hope to imagine. But she was working the stage like Jessica Rabbit. People could not take their eyes off of her, there was a confidence about her you don't see everyday. And apparently, this same girl in sweat pants is sister to an actress I love named Shannyn Sossamon.


That was refreshing. On top of that, they seemed like they were having a great time. It sounded a little something like this:

http://hypem.com/track/912719/Warpaint+-+Elephants


8) Here they are. School of Seven Bells.
To be honest, I like what I've been hearing from School of Seven Bells when I'm on my computer. In person, they were almost laughable. There is really only one musician out of the three members, granted I don't have a voice so I don't have any room to speak. But the two girls basically just stood there with their instruments, pretending to play while he and the pre-made beats did all the work. Their vocals were completely drowned out by the music. Grrrrr. The only upside to their performance was the fact that their beats were so loud that I had heart burn by the end of the night. It felt like minor earthquakes and God knows I love that.

School of Seven Bells

This is actually pretty funny. A friend and I were talking about this band coming to LA about a month ago. As much as I wanted to see this band, I really didn't have any desire to shell out the cash to actually make it happen. But low and behold, my friend Maz had two tickets that he was giving away as of a few hours ago. Let's just say that Erin Law and Courtney C will be making their grand entrance at the Troubador tonight. Yay for friends who don't have time for shows because of their grown up responsibilities (I am not a grown up).

Also, the first girl on this video is quite pretty. Yikes.