The songs in my head

My friend asked for my Top Five songs of the moment, (yes, technically she asked for this a month ago, but Twitter is hard sometimes!) so here they are, in no particular order and subject to change.

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal 

I love the Fleet Foxes for their lush dreamy playing, which is so terribly delicate and yet feels so full. Makes me want to stare out the window on a snowy day. 

Mother Mother - My Baby Don't Dance

I am hopelessly in love with the new Mother Mother album Eureka, and am PLEASED AS PUNCH that they are coming to Bluesfest. A little retro, lovely and upbeat, and I always feel like it is a strange mix between urbanity and the hayloft. This single is currently my favourite, and is also the one that is getting a lot of play on CBC Radio 3. (there is no nice video attached to this one)

The Faint - Glass Danse
Angry, with a driving beat that I find myself trying vainly to hum at the dinner table. I've always loved The Faint, and I hope I always will.

St. Vincent - Now, Now
St. Vincent's album "Marry Me" has had my favourite tunes to turn on in the morning while I'm still soft around the edges for years now. Mellow and sharp, with that sweetness of voice that I constantly gravitate towards.

Dan Mangan - Robots
Dan Mangan is totally and utterly adorable (he's from B.C.) and this song is totally and utterly adorable and robots do need love too!

In other news, I am also listening to Man Man and contemplating a purchase of The Real Tuesdays, but I haven't spent enough time with either of them to really know yet. 

The Magic Bluesfest Pipe Player

That 1 Guy was one of the odder Bluesfest finds. He plays a Magic Pipe, which loops and electronica and drums and is pretty much totally awesome and bizarrely compelling (and ladies, sometimes watching his hands can really make you blush).

You can watch the official music video if you want, but I recommend watching the live footage to get a sense of the ridiculousness that are his concerts. Also, his stuff makes hilariously awesome dance party music:

Bluesfest is good for the soul

Michael Franti and Spearhead (fondly referred to by me and mine as Franky and the Orchestra [I am notoriously bad at names]) is probably the best concert I have been to in Ottawa and from Bluesfest 2009.
Political, angry, uplifting, and so very danceable, at one point he had us sing a chorus, and just left us for five minutes while we sang our little hearts out. The whole crowd was into it, and it was glorious.

Grrr! Arrr!

I have a huge fondness for zombies. Zombie Walks (I swear I will go this year), Zombie movies (Fido), Zombie spoofs (Shaun of the Dead), and Zombie video games (Hunter the Reckoning anyone?) are all equally adored. I even have truly epic Opinions about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (also, the movie is coming up! I look forward to having Opinions about that too).

So it should surprise no one that I have spent far too many hours over the past couple of days playing
Rebuild.

In this tiny flash game, you carefully direct your survivors so that you can reclaim a city and not be devoured by the ravening hoards outside your walls. Pure bliss. But like Mardek, don't click on it if you have something else you were planning on doing today. You've been warned.

Upcoming marathons: Walking Dead (I will almost be in time for season two)
Upcoming shows: TyLean and thOrN at the Avantgarde Bar
Upcoming craft shows: Originals at Landsdown

Bluesfest: Guilty Pleasures

For bubblegum pop, LIGHTS was perfect for the hot sunny day at Bluesfest and she was totally adorable with her ridiculous keytar and her cosmic love for us all. I don't care that she looks like she is 14.

Sunset at the Bluesfest

One of the things I really enjoy about Bluefest is that one of the stages has a glorious view of the river while the sun sets.

Renaissance played right when the full colours of the sunset hit the water. Moody, with a rich operatic voice, it was perfect for the time and place.

(My friend and I then got to have a very pleasant conversation about ProgRock and how it could have gone a different direction than the Progrock band we'd seen the year before [and whose name I prompty forgot, because I didn't care how seminal they were, I did Not. Like. Them], but that is perhaps beside the point.

Surfpunk does the Blues?

At the Bluesfest, I also discovered the Surfpunk through The Reverb Syndicate. They also had GoGo dancers and I had a mini-dance party. Finding them opened up the wonderful vista of surfpunk which has been super awesome. 

Like them? You should probably also try The Ventures (which sadly were NOT at Bluesfest. And are probably dead. I refuse to look that up for you [Nevermind, I looked them up anyway. Turns out they are still super popular in Japan and also still alive! Curse you black and white footage. So misleading.] ). 

Bluesfest Countdown: Part Deux

Continuing in our list of Bluesfest finds, from two years ago, I give you Les Claypool. Super weird, totally mesmerizing, and fucking talented, he plays the Bass like nobody's business and I only went because a friend told me to and then fell hopelessly and utterly in love. Bonus, if you like him, he's done a LOT and is even from Primus! (which alas I missed at the Bluesfest THREE years ago. Didn't know I wanted to go.)

Here is the Red State Girl video from Of Fungi an Foe. Click it. Do it. You will at least have an interesting time.

Bluesfest Nostalgia

Ottawa Bluesfest is hosting a Gala Event at the FINALLY finished Ottawa Convention Centre (you know, the construction zone by the Rideau Mall) and although there is no way I am forking out that kind of cash to go, I am SUPER excited for the Bluesfest line-up to be annouced.

So until that long awaited for week in April when we find out what bands we will be listening to while praying that it doesn't rain (or wishing that it would on the hot days) down by the War Museum, here is a weekly collection of the awesome bands I have found while cheerfully wandering stage to stage at Ottawa's Bluesfest (and yes, we know that most of these aren't Blues. It has been noted. Just work with it.) Keep in mind that these bands will be the ones I didn't not know about before seeing them on stage, not the ones I was already increadibly excited for.

First on our list is Caravan Palace, which was on one of the bigger stages and caught our interest right away. They sold out before I even made it to the merch tent, and then sold out of the downtown music store. Thank goodness they can order CDS in. French electroswing from Paris, and so so fantastic.

Why I do not purge my music library

I keep a lot of music in my itunes library because I know myself far too well at this point. I know that just because I have not yet decided that I like a band that I picked up two years ago and that I skip every time it comes on, does not mean I will not, at some unexpected point, suddenly fall completely in love with it.

It happened with David Bowie
It happened in a non-musical capacity with a pair of shoes (RIP)
It happened last night with The Velvet Underground.

I have been waiting to fall in love with them ever since I bought the sound track to the Royal Tenenbaums, and was disappointed each time a song came on and I didn't want to listen to it. But last night, finally, I spent an hour mucking about and wishing I in fact had MORE than the couple of cds hidden deep in my itunes.

Still thinking about buying an external hard drive so that I have somewhere to store all these future loves.