I Love You

Alright, so it’s Monday and it’s been quite a long time since I last wrote. Plus, today is extra special because…are you ready for it? This is my 100th post!! WOO-HOO! And to celebrate this I’m going to do a 100 song Random Playlist Monday. I know, I’m pretty dedicated. So, without further ado, here it is (just a warning: I am about to completely embarrass and humiliate myself because I have a feeling some very weird things are about to come up, brace yourselves).

1. War of the Worlds – Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
2. The City is a Drag – Hawksley Workman
3. To The Dogs or Whoever – Josh Ritter
4. Neon – John Mayer (so far so good)
5. Joy to the World – Sufjan Stevens
6. Woods – Bon Iver
7. Depot Depot – Tom Waits
8. Fool – Neutral Milk Hotel
9. The Girl You Lost to Cocaine – Sia
10. Back Broke – Swell Season
11. Cape Canaveral – Connor Oberst
12. New Years – Ohbijou
13. At the Airport – Old Man Luedecke
14. Motion the Eleven – Cornershop
15. Extra Ordinary – Dave Mann Collective
16. Sixteen – Justin Trawick (Freaky, no!?)
17. Come Together – Across the Universe Soundtrack
18. Late Bloomer – Sarah Harmer
19. Never Going Back Again – Fleetwood Mac
20. An Open Door – Illinois
21. Dream About Flying – Alexis Murdoch
22. South Australia – The Pogues
23. Trouble – Ray LaMontagne
24. Here Goes Something – Nada Surf
25. Waiting on the World to Change – John Mayer
26. To Go Home – M. Ward
27. Language is a Virus – Laurie Anderson
28. Doot Doot Plot – The Hidden Cameras
29. I Don’t Mind – The Cave Singers
30. Whole Lotta Losin’ – Monsters of Folk
31. Home – Wintersleep
32. Perfect – Danny Michel (It’s about time!)
33. Say Hey (I Love You)  – Michael Franti and Spearhead
34. Sula – Jeremy Fisher
35. Violins – Lagwagon
36. The Clearing in the Woods – Harry Nilsson (It’s getting strange now!)
37. Oviedo – Blind Pilot
38. Little Nancy – Fionn Regan
39. Junkie Song – The Be Good Tanyas
40. Jimmy Jazz – Clash (Good changeup there!)
41. Chelsea Dagger – Fratellis
42. Free Until They Cut Me Down – Iron and Wine
43. Low Day – Capra
44. Gypsy Boys Reprise – David Francey
45. I Am a Rich Man – Old Man Luedecke
46. Sammy – The One Night Band
47. The First Snow of the Year – Hawksley Workman
48. Run Devil Run – Jenny Lewis with the Watson T
49. On My Way – Ben Kweller
50. I’ve Just Seen a Face – Across the Universe (Go see this movie if you haven’t already, and if you have go watch it again I know I’m going to)
51. Toothpaste Kisses – The Maccabees
52. A Matter of Minutes – Shawn Colvin
53. Black Wave-Bad Vibrations – Arcade Fire
54. We Go -   Thao
55. Story of My Life – Done With Dolls
56. Had Me a Girl – Tom Waits
57. Blake’s View – M. Ward
58. Salt Bean Fumble – The Penguin Cafe Orchestra (Great name for a song if not a little strange)
59. Close to Me – The Cure
60. With or Without You – U2
61. Why Didn’t You Call Me? – Macy Gray
62. To Your Love – Fiona Apple
63. Never Know – Jack Johnson
64. Sold – Dan Mangan (Going to see him next week: can’t wait)
65. Anti-social – Cuff the Duke
66. Satisfied – Bruce Peninsula
67. Cowgirl in the Sand – City and Color
68. No Sleep – Sam Roberts
69. Last Leaf – The Cake Sale
70. Basket – Dan Mangan
71. Happier – A Fine Frenzy
72. Hearts in the Park – Patrick Watson
73. Our Velocity – Maximo Park
74. Midnight Lullaby – Tom Waits (With 3 songs, Tom now dominates, but how could he not?)
75. House in Motion – Talking Heads
76. Hello Seattle – Owl City
77. Oxford Comma – Vampire Weekend
78. Run (I’m a Natural Disaster) – Gnarls Barkley
79. Patience – Take That
80. Hours Last Stand – Elvis Perkins
81. (Past-due) – The Weakerthans
82. State of the Union – David Ford
83. Gomni – Ali Farka Toure
84. A Call to Arms – Beirut
85. The Saga – The Libertines
86. Shelter from the Storm – Bob Dylan
87. Sweet Baby James – James Taylor (some classic cheese, but we all love our cheese, well except for lactose intolerant people)
88. True – The Frames
89. The Dozens – Amelia Curran
90. 1234 – Feist
91. Champion Angel – Low Anthem
92. Try (just a little bit harder) – Janis Joplin
93. Sweet Hallelujah – Hawksley Workman
94. Quiet – Rachael Yamagata
95. All is Love – Karen O and the Kids (if you haven’t seen “Where the Wild Things Are”, go see it NOW)
96. Hannah – Freelance
97. Whales – Personal Stars
98. This Feeling — Danny Michel (just in time)
99. Relax – Frankie Goes to Hollywood (a terrible song! Yet so very good)
100. Brainy – The National

So, that was quite the list. There were some really good things on there, and a few questionable ones. Now is the appropriate time to laugh at that list. I must admit I’m slightly embarrassed by it, especially the Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but oh well I guess. Of course, there was an extremely large amount of Danny, Tom and Hawksley, but there always is. Today though out of all those songs I’m going to go for Michael Franti, because we all need a music pick-me-up every once and a while, and a little reggae never hurt anyone.

I first discovered Michael Franti through his Obama Song. I was really into Obama and all he stood for (and still am) and the song just seemed really cool to me, it also proved to me that I can like hip-hop/rap/reggae music (other than Bob Marley). After the intial discovery I went in and found a few more of his songs. I especially fell in love with Say Hey (I Love You). Sure it’s a little cheesy, but it’s a damn good cheesiness. And there’s just some kind of appeal to Michael Franti, I’m not entirely sure what it is, but he has that “thing”. This song just always makes me especially happy, and it can give you a good outlook on the world, this is especially shown in the video. The video for Say Hey (I Love You) has just made it up pretty high on my list of top videos. It’s pretty fantastic and incredible cute, see for yourself.

I love this video, I especially love that it’s real people and his background looks real, not Hollywood perfect. I think that’s what makes the song not come across totally fake and cheesy. It has a certain real-ness to it not expressed in most things. I really love that the people look like real people of different sizes, cultures, and are allowed to show real emotions. It’s a pretty darn cute video, and I think it can even make all you cynics out there smile (it achieved that for me, and I’m about as cynical as it gets). So, please smile away for the rest night, and if you’re like me you’re going to watch this video about a million times more. For now though I’m out, thanks for putting up with me for this long, it’s greatly appreciated, and feel free to continue, that would also be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Feel free to get up and dance a bit to, it may actually be a requirement. Awkward dancing especially.

Cuntry Boys & City Girls

It’s Monday and I’ve just endured one of a rural towns greatest jewels, the annual fair. And what does this great event have you might ask. Well it has horse pulls, truck pulls (which I thought was going to be farmers trying to pull trucks, turns out it’s just trucks pulling weight, not quite as exciting), medicore and overly priced rides, so much deepfried food I think I broke out just from being there and the cherry on top, the demolition derby. Now if you don’t know what that is, don’t be ashamed, in fact be very happy you have no idea what it is. But I’m going to burst your little happy bubble and tell. Basically the demolition derby is cars smahing into cars, “smashy smashy” as one car fondly put it. It’s where people gather to drink and smoke and until they pass out. And I literally mean until they pass out. Atleast one person does every year. It’s sort of like a morbid disturbed small town ritual. But it was back to normality again at school today. Stressful, fluorescent light normality, but normality all the same. And the topper of this very normal day, Radom Playlist Monday. So I’m going to stop my incessant chatter and get right to it.

1. Heavy Soup – Cornershop (the perfect start to a random playlist)

2. Cousins – Vampire Weekend

3. The City – Sarah Harmer

4. Sweet Baby James – Taylor (’cause everyone needs some sweet baby James)

5. Cuntry Boys & City Girls – The Fratellis (their pretty super awesome and the title goes along pretty well with the fair, there’s not much like a Cuntry Boy)

6. Bright Future – Bowerbirds

7. ‘Til You Come Home – Peter Katz (this is a very, very sweet song)

8. It’s All Been Done – Barenaked Ladies

9. A Thousand Suns – Hey Rosetta!

10. Ashes to Ashes – Danny Michel (this is super great. You take a momumental artist like Bowie and than a budding artist like say Danny and get him to cover this monumental artist and what do you get but a pretty darn awesome covers CD)

This might have been one of my favourite random playlists. It has all the great components of a pretty awesome playlist. I think I’m going to go for Vampire Weekend today. The video for Cousins is pretty amusing and it’s a great band. I’ve already ranted far to much on Vampire Weekend so I’m just going to show the video and you can see the greatness all for yourselves.

I would love to bang on things going down a street to. Especially sped up like that. I am so tired tonight though that I must go to bed (yeah I know it’s only 8:30, what can I say) so until tomorrow, Goodnight and dream all about Vampire Weekend.

Buzz, STING!

Okay, so I completely forgot about random playlist Monday, WHOOPS! So that’s what today is going to be. And here it is.

1. You Can Always Come Home (feat. Serena Ryder) – Jason Castro (how many times has this song come up on shuffle)

2. Driven To Tears – Sting (not sure why I have this, but a classic all the same)

3. Shout It – Mitchell Musso (not at all embarrassing that I have this…)

4. One Of Those Days – Joshua Radin

5. Stranded – Hope For Haiti Now Version (a somewhat bearable version)

6. Make The Most – Brett Dennen

7. Walcott – Vampire Weekend

8. Rosie – Chubby Checker (apparently every week, we continue my old guy music thing)

9. Lonely – Tom Waits (I don’t know what is up with Tom and my playlists, but he’s always there)

10. Don’t You Fall – The Be Good Tanyas (this always makes me think of my mom)

That was incredibly strange. Sting to Mitchell Musso (a very sappy Disney guy), than Vampire Weekend to Chubby Checker. Goes to show how strange my iPod is. Anyways, I’m thinking Sting, because it’s one of the only things on that playlist I haven’t talked about or atleast mentioned, which is what I love about random playlsits, I always find something new.

So I’m not entirely sure what to write about, on the topic of Sting. The song came from the Hope For Haiti Now CD, which is superb, but I can’t say I’m a huge Sting fan, although I actually quite like the song. I just went and downloaded a few more and may becoming more of a fan. I think the name may have been a bit of a turn-off, seems more rockier (nice word) than he is. Anways thank you playlist for introducing me to this song, that I didn’t even know I had. Below is Sting singing Driven To Tears, which is a fantastic song, the lyrics are very interesting too. Enjoy the video, the show he played this for really was awesome, a great fundraiser, I advise you to go buy the CD and check out the telethon at youtube.

I can’t believe I may have just become a Sting fan. One day I talk about the Zac Brown Band, the next Sting. This was a fantastic discovery, hope you enjoyed it, and have been taking more advantage of Sting than I have over the years.

My final conclusion: never jugde a band by it’s name!

P.S. Lee won American Idol, YEAH!!! Check out his version of Beatiful Day by U2, although nothing could compare, it’s pretty well done.

Easter Monday Playlist

How is it already another Monday I don’t know. You know what that means. It’s Random Playlist Monday (which none of you probably knew, whoever YOU are). Here comes another random playlist. A random Easter playlist. This should probably be the official Easter playlist, although I don’t actually know what it consists of yet. Anyway, here it is.

Eyetunes Easter Monday Random Playlist (quite the long name isn’t it)

1. Blah Blah Blah – Say Hi To Your Mom (exactly how I feel on Monday, blah)

2. Diplomats Son – Vampire Weekend (more Vampire Weekend, strange)

3. Even So – Rachel Yamagata (perfect for a rainy Monday)

4. Home – Alexi Murdoch

5. Like A Mountain – Timber Timbre

6. You and Me – Lifehouse

7. 1234 – Feist

8. Shout Bama Lama – The Detroit Cobras (not very good for a rainy day, but a great song!)

9. Open Arms – Hey Rosetta!

10. No More Named Johnny – Hawksley Workman

Once again, not as bad as I thought it would be. Loving the Feist to The Detroit Cobras. That’s really working for me. This is officially the Easter Monday anthem, UH-OH :/

Here’s Like A Mountain by Timber Timbre. I saw them live at Hillside and loved it. This is by far my favourite song. Enjoy!

Vampire Weekend Live

Right off the bat I’m going to tell you this is NOT todays post. It’s yesterdays I was just too exhausted to write it yesterday. Expect todays post later today.

So, Tuesday night I went to see Vampire Weekend at the Sound Academy in Toronto. This post will basically be my review on performance, venue, and overall experience.

I loved the place. It was big enough that it didn’t feel like everyone was on top of each other but it didn’t feel like it was just you in the room either. For performance I’m pretty sure the show was good. I mean the music was great, their AWESOME live but I don’t really know what the band looked like. I barely even saw Ezra Koenigs head. Every once and a while when people would a little I could see his head bob up and down. I don’t even know what he was wearing (which is very important!). I’ve decided I am way too short for clubs like this.  There was one nice person at the show who didn’t stand in front of me (and I know it’s tricky not too) who, even though his friends were beside me didn’t get in my way (good thing too he was like 6.5″ I think). The guy in front of me was the same height so basically I just looked at his hair all night, and don’t get me wrong it was nice hair but I’m sure Ezras hair is much nicer (funny story about the Ezra thing. If I was a boy my parents would have probably named me Ezra and I thought it was the worst name ever until I discovered the lead singer of VDs name is Ezra. That almost made it cool enough I almost wished I was a boy…but not really). The other annoying this is that people kept cutting in front of me. My dad said they kept cutting in front of me because there was a gap in the crowd, HAHAHA! Anyways, other than the fact that I’m too short, the show was great. They made it much more upbeat and danceable. Their encore was Contra, which was awesome and they did a really good job of Cousins. I love their song One (Blake’s Got A New Face) even though I think it annoys everybody else in the world. Maybe it’s just because it reminds me of a friend.  Overall the show was great.

Conclusion: Vampire Weekend fans = freakishly tall (no joke, their monsters).Next time I’m wearing heels. And I’ve decided clubs should hand out phone books or something like they do for concerts or movies with children.

Overall Rating: 41/2 stars

Here’s California English, which was awesome live. Really cool to see him making all the noises.

P.S. I’ll talk about Vampire Weekend again, this is just about their live show, so don’t PANIC!