I don’t know what it is, but this video has captured my attention for the past three days. The Shins have been around for as long while and hardly call for basic information to let you know who they are. If you don’t know who they are- shame on you. Go look them up!
They will be releasing their new album Port of Morrow (with this ‘Simple Song’ leading the charge) in 3 days! Go pick it up… I will be.
The song mixed with the video just captures an angst in my soul… a tangle of emotions. I have said this before… family is the source of so much pain and so much joy in our lives… it is amazing to see how a family affects our upbringing. I have come to that realization in my young life at 24. You can choose your friends (I have had many), you can choose your church (Been through many of those), you can choose where you live (I will be moving to the west coast soon)… but you can’t choose your family. There will always be a piece of me in Kentucky with my family… a part of me is in Texas where I lived my middle school years, a piece of me in Mississippi where my childhood lies… and you know this video reminds me that no matter how bad I painted my past… it wasn’t perfect… and it wasn’t hell. It is the only childhood I will have, and this is the only family I will have. I dedicate these musings to my family.
The Shins :: Simple Song :: 5 / 5 beats!
Remember Gotye? That video I posted the other day? Yeah, I know you do… look into my past posts if you don’t. The female singing with Gotye in that video is none other then Kimbra. Here she is singing the song, “Settle Down.” While this is a fear of mine. (Not Kimbra, but a woman saying she wants to settle down. :P) I love the flow of this song.
Kimbra’s debut album ‘Vows’ came out in 2011. This singer/songwriter comes out of New Zealand and currently lives in Australia… I don’t know what is in the water out there, but there is great music pouring from the Australian part of the world. I should go visit:)
Right now, Kimbra is rocking it out at SXSW, and I must say… I think we can expect more music from this woman… or I hope we will, I am liking this trend in music that seems to be a head on collision with sounds from the 80’s and our hipster tendencies of today.
Enjoy, and remember… if you are a band out there… feel free to give me a follow… and I will gladly listen to you music and tell others about you :) Provided you are good.
Message to the bands… if you follow me, I will review your work.
My first victim is a band out of Los Angeles. They go by the name “Dance Hall Pimps” and when I looked at their picture my cynical mind thought that this was a group of old men trying to hard… and who calls their music gothspel!? I then wondered why in the world these guys would think of following me… what music pointed them to the idea that I would appreciate gothspel!? What the hell… I will give it a shot.
So I clicked to watch the video of “Mommy Was A Zombie” in regards to the video… meh. The music was more then enough to forget about the video… I would honestly suggest to play the song and ignore the video the first go round, and then watch it the second time if you so desire… but you will want to listen to this song at least twice. I wasn’t expecting a rockabilly/ 50’s rock/ cajun sound! I have said this before, I am loving this retro revival happening right now… it feels like many in the music industry are going back to the roots to test their mettle. Dave Grohl talked about it some in his acceptance speech at the Grammy’s. I think there is a market for people that want to get outside of heavy production… lots of editing and working kinks out in post. With the rise of social media… people will be desiring more authenticity and humanity in the arts. Just my thoughts about that.
I would suggest for you all to look into this band and buy some of their songs through iTunes… or amazon. The CD is called Beast For Love. I would personally love if the Dance Hall Pimps would throw some of their music on Spotify so that I can throw them in my playlists. I also promise to not judge a band by their pictures any more, I have been given a life lesson… thanks Dance Hall Pimps!
I don’t normally do this, but this isn’t the song I totally want to talk about. The song I want to talk about is the cover of this song. The Muppets are one of my favorite things in the entertainment industry, and this is one of my favorite moments on the Muppet Show!
Airborne Toxic Event covered this song on the Green Album and it meant a lot to me on my trip out west. It is a beautiful thing to love yourself… or more who you were made to be. We spend so long, masking ourselves that we don’t realize that we actually hate ourselves.
Deep thoughts aside, the cover is a great song. Look it up! Airborne Toxic Event have been around since 2006. They are from LA and released their second album in April of 2011, three years after their first album in 2008… hopefully they can knock out their next one quicker then that.
Enjoy the Muppets, and please look into the Airborne Toxic Event these guys will rock your mind!
You are welcome. If you have not heard the band Tennis yet, that is all I can say. I can’t get over this indie pop… west coast sound. I imagine myself on a beach in California… and if I could surf… I would surf and then hang out by a fire on the beach. I can get lost in my thoughts, but this is what music does right? While this band comes to us from the out west, they actually come from Denver. The band is led by husband and wife team Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley who met in college as philosophy majors. Goes to show you that you can use your philosophy degree! Go ahead and get acquainted with these guys. They released their 2nd album February of this year, and I can see more albums to come. Again… you are welcome ;-)
