Music Monday #2

I've been mixing a little of the old with the new in the last couple of weeks. This playlist kind of reflects the kind of stuff I usually find myself either singing at the top of my lungs to, or having on in the background while doing other things.


1. Up Up Up - GIVERS
Love the way this starts and GIVERS' album 'In Light' is one that I can't get enough of, it just feels really summery to me, something that's definitely needed now that the weather is better but still can't quite make up it's mind. 'In Light' is my go-to album when at work at the moment.

2. First Love - The Maccabees
'Colour It In' is the album that made me fall so hard for The Maccabees, and as The Maccabees are my full-on favourite band, it makes sense that it's an album I often tend to pick songs from whatever the situation. 'First Love' is easily in my top songs of theirs, and the video is both sad and happy, one of the best combinations. Sometimes sharing favourite things is a little awkward though isn't it, but I'd love to think you'd grow to love them, even if it's not as much as I do.

3. Let Her Go - Passenger
I haven't actually listened to the radio in a while, but last time I did, 'Let Her Go' was Greg James' 'big thing' and I was instantly hooked when I heard it. Passenger's other songs on 'All the Little Lights' are great too, but it's still that song that sticks out for me, there's a reason why it's a hit – I'd also recommend that you check out his earlier album 'Flight of the Crow' on Spotify, it's compiled of such beautiful duets.

4. 5 Years Time - Noah and the Whale
It's been a big time of reflection lately and this song really makes me think about how things move quickly. With Noah and the Whale's new album coming out recently I've been looking back on them and remembering how much I used to really like them. I think I might have forgotten about them because they were so sad before being too happy, 'Peaceful the World Lays Me Down' is a great album though and not just for uplifting twee songs like '5 Years Time' either.

5. Never Fade Away - Spector
It's a shame the only time I've managed to see these guys live was at Reading last year, it was dampened a little by the fact that they were congratulating those (incredibly young) people who had just got their GCSE results but I listened to their album non-stop for a week once we got home. 'Enjoy it While it Lasts' really is a brilliant album, definitely the one right now for getting pumped in the morning and singing along.

What have you been listening to recently? Be sure to follow me on Last.fm ♥.

Happy.

As cheesy as it sounds, and despite how appallingly cringey the earlier posts on this blog are, I am quite pleased to have kept this going. It has been really useful both to refer back to and as a general visual outlet. I was reading a well-known blogger's blog the other day and she was talking about how it will be a nice thing to look back on when she's older and maybe even able to share it with her kids. I think that's kind of a nice thought, and I'm already quite glad to share this now too.

This week my view count has picked up and I actually feel as though I'm talking to someone, hello!
So I thought I would share with you that I'm feeling positive and happy, particularly as I've mainly been feeling unmotivated and sluggish previously.

Here are some things that have made me happy this week.

I might actually have got to grips with driving, and I'm more excited than scared about three-point-turns and reverse parking.

I'm actually able to write on here and update it with apparently readable content.

I now have motivation to start applying for things properly again.

I'm going to Portsmouth tomorrow.

The sun is shining!

My favourite American shows are back, with just The Walking Dead left to wait for.

(via Sophie Spils)

(via Keep Calm Arsenal)

(via 8:Swim)

(via Passion for the Music)

(via Models Own)

(via Verbal Vomit)

One thing that made me angry this week:
My favourite band is The Maccabees and I was unable to get tickets for their upcoming October/November tour because they were selling exclusively out of record stores who declined telephone orders, meaning you had to get the tickets in person. Rough Trade sold out by the end of Saturday.
This sales structure was based upon keeping booking fees down and keeping the shows more local, despite the fact that most ticket sales still involved a booking fee. It was a nice idea but now I am left without a ticket, I'm having Maccabees withdrawal symptoms and I need to hear some new songs, they're so good live and always have really fun support acts. I am hopeful that they will have another, larger tour once their new album is released in the New Year. This just bugged me because I've not seen them live for a long time and haven't heard any new material in a long time and now I have to wait even longer.

New Video: Ed Sheeran, YNMIDNY.

Maybe I'm a bit behind the 'Youtube times' because Ed Sheeran's new video dropped around 36 hours ago and I wasn't even aware of it. A small part of me perhaps relishes in the simplicity of this SBTV recording that's been floating around for a while, and maybe it's because I've seen it so stripped back when performed live, either in real life or on recordings, but I think I could get used to this.
This is one of my favourite Ed Sheeran songs and I'm glad he's beefed it up a bit for it's upcoming release.

I think it's a very brave move as such a new artist to hardly feature himself in this video, and it was the same schtick for his last single 'The A-Team'. However, judging by how much he's getting around at the moment and how dedicated he is to playing so many live shows, we already know it's him so there's hardly any need to milk it. I actually really like this anyway, the lighting is great and it has rings of La Haine about it. I also really like the use of metaphorical and literal imagery. I'm very pleased that this version has changed from what I see to be 'the original', purely because of the 'VO5 Wax lyric' and memories it holds of how big a cheer he got on the Croissant Neuf stage.

Ed Sheeran's still one to watch and he's not going to go away, they show his music videos on 4Music and everything!

Ed Sheeran meets ASOS.

Two things that I quite enjoy.

Speaking of videos, my Glastonbury video is looking to be at least an hour long at this rate, I hope I'll be able to upload it somewhere. I really like all of it, I suppose it's more personal anyway, I'd just like to be able to share it with my friends that are a bit further away from me, that's all.
When I thought about making it, I didn't think I'd get enough for more than 10 minutes, we're just arriving into Glastonbury when it gets to the 10 minute mark, so make your assumptions from that. I want to put it on Youtube, but I'm not sure I could deal with something so personal being ripped to shreds...

Carol Vargas.

This is so awesome.

© Carol Vargas, 2010. via Mint Magazine

Carol Vargas also has an awesome series on her Flickr called 'Legs in the Air' but I like this 'Noah's Ark - Animal's Meeting' set the best because it's pretty inspiring in relation to my 'in my head' dressing up box project that I might possibly do next semester.
Although finding stuff like this just affirms the fact that creatively, I am almost completely unoriginal, even if I find the photos after my own idea.
I like her photos anyway; http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolinevargas/

I also found this at Mint Magazine, made me laugh out loud, it's kind of funny how these are just suddenly trendy, but it makes me feel mega-cool for having one this time last year and it wasn't even from kigu.co.uk, amateurs.

Pink, yellow, blue and red.

I think this is the most disappointed that I've been with an OK Go video, but it's still great, even if it's a bit repetitive, the last 10-15 seconds of the video does make up for this though. I'd really like to know the story behind the geese, it really looks like their following them half the time. They're probably the only band that I can really think that I'd like to work with - apart from maybe The lovely Maccabees - not even because I particularly like their music, which is probably why I'm not a great fan of this video and much prefer 'This Too Shall Pass', but I just love the brilliance of their promo's visual style, and you can tell they have a lot of input as to what to goes into them. Even making the coffee on set would be so badass.

Video Room, Digital Age.

This is a pretty interesting commentary on the recycled and distorted nature of the digital age. The post cards of the Mona Lisa would all end up like this if everything had been digital from then on in. He turns in to some kind of weird alien by the end of it, so much effort though, it must have taken him a very long time.

A Thousand YouTube Iterations via The Creators Project Blog

On a related note, I won myself tickets to The Creators Project in London, 5 of them to be exact, the only bummer is that it falls on the same day as the Grad Ball, which I have already bought my ticket for and want to go to anyway. However, if some of The Creators Project event is taking place during the day, I may go by myself (as most people I would want to take would be in Portsmouth) and fob off tickets on people that desperately wanted to go, not that I don't, but I'm not entirely sure I won the competition fairly.

The idea was that you would comment on The Creators Project Facebook fan page and the selected comments with the most 'likes' would win the tickets, I got two likes and one of them was me, some got hundreds, maybe I just got pity tickets, I don't care, a win is a win and if I don't win tickets to any of the iTunes Festival shows I will count this as Fate's consolation prize, even if I really wanted to go to both. But then again, winning iTunes tickets two years running would be one serious fluke, especially seeing as I already got who I wanted and had an amazing time last year.

Today has been a pretty hectic day for e-mails, I feel like I've been doing them non-stop all afternoon. I stayed up a bit later than I wanted to last night sending out emails asking for work experience and I've managed to grab a position covering 'Malden Fortnight' for a free local magazine called, 'Village Voice', they won't be paying me but I will obviously get full credit and it might be fun to take in some local New Malden entertainment, I've written down the dates I want to cover in my diary already. Despite lack of payment, I'm quite excited about doing it because it goes out to all the houses round here and everyone will get to see them.
I also got an email back from the editor for The Kingston/Epsom Guardian wanting dates that I would be available, I hope to hear back from him later or tomorrow. I knew it would be a good idea to try and start small, I sent out another email to Company as well but I think I'll be left with no response like the last time. My cousin Mark also emailed me a pretty good paragraph about the mild identity crisis' that mixed race people have to go through which I guess is how I initially felt but I've changed my perspective on it a bit since thinking more in depth about the project overall.

Feeling bored and fat.