Tag — music
Wednesday Review: Songs from TV
After a certain age, you just aren’t musically hip anymore, you know? I’m still trucking out my Indigo Girl’s CD’s and Paul has an embarrassing penchant for all things George Michael. When the clothing of your New Wave youth show up in 80′s vintage shops and as Target knock off’s (leggings anyone?) you know you’ve crested over the hill.
Still, I need new tunes. So I did something my teenaged self would never sink to — I Googled all the TV shows I like that have good music. And what do you know? I found some good stuff. Here’s my recs for this week:
Ingrid Michaelson (Grey’s Anatomy and theOld Navy.)
Her solemnly perky little tune (The Way I Am) about giving her love her sweater is just so …catchy. You can’t download it on the subscription service from Zune, but maybe you can download it from ITunes or pick it up here.
Iron and Wine (Grey’s Anatomy)
Okay, I am SO in love. This is a songwriter dream – beautiful lyric and moody tunes for the grey season. My favorite line from “Love and Some Verses” is “Love is a skirt you made long to cover your knees. ” I’m not sure I know what that means, but I’m pretty sure I need to carry it around on a little scrap of paper in my wallet. Find your favorite lyric Our Endless Numbered Days“>here.
Will Dailey (CSI: New York) Why is Gary Sinise suddenly playing the bass in a NYC club? Who knows, and as long as he’s on stage with Will Dailey’s gritty, folksy voice, who cares? The single Rise (which also appears on Back Flipping Forward) is well worth the purchase.
Feist (Ipod commercial) 1,2,3,4…how many times have you seen the new IPOD ad? Not enough to find out who the quirky little gal is dancing on the new screen. Welcome to Feist and the 1234 single off “The Reminder”. Maybe she and Ingrid could do a little duet together? Buy “The Reminder” here.
What tunes are catching your ear lately?
Every purchase you make by clicking a link from this review helps to support Magpie Girl. Thank you!
Wednesday Review: Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III
Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up
Paul and I are one of those couples who stay in the movie theatre until all the credits have run. We got into this habit because the kids always think there is going to be some funny little extra at the end of the latest feature length cartoon if you just wait long enough. (Remember when Ferris Bueller would tell you all to go home if you hung around long enough after the movie?) But even when the kids aren’t with us we hang around so we can find out who performed what songs in the movie. It’s a great way to find new music to love.
This madness of this method lead us to discover a beautiful song at the end of Knocked Up (a sleeper hit of a movie– but that’s for another review). The tune that plays over the credit is Daughter from Loudon Wainwright’sStrange Wierdos. I instantly fell in love with this sweet tune, which seemed to be written just for my daughter Eden. I snagged the whole album and was presently surprised to find that I liked most of the songs on the rest of the album CD well. Grey is LA captures the zietgiest of the area perfectly; X or Y is a funny take on the random nature of babymaking; the honkytonk vibe of Feel so Good will get your toes tapping, and Valley Morning is just…nice. All the tunes have that nice storytelling aspect that can only come from a practiced singer-songwriter — are rare gift in this radio pop world. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think.
Today’s Flavor: Folk pop meets the honkytonk blues
Small is Beautiful: Our Theme Song
Jen and I are this close to having the small is beautiful button done. I know, it’s been over a month since BlogHer ’07, but we are mom/artists/community builders types. That is to say, we wear a lot of hats –this makes our work time, well, small. Plus, we haven’t have time to write in an uninterrupted manner since…um… what day did school get out in June?But be not afraid, our children are in school soon and things should progress a bit more quickly.
In the meantime, why don’t we all get in a circle and sing the small is beautiful theme song. What’s that? You weren’t at BlogHer and didn’t get initiated with that one? We’ll here are the lyrics, which capture ever so nicely the “why” behind Jen and I and our silly, blogging ways.
If you’re wondering why you keep doing this crazy thing you are doing (blogging, writing, painting, taking care of one wounded soul..), maybe Ani can help you remember why you started doing it in the first place.
Blessings!
“i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe weach other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to,
just because i want to…”
Ani di Franco, Joyful Girl
Listen to my favorite version with the dreamy-voiced Dave Matthews here (scroll down to find audio file), although this one (track four) with the orchestra is nice too.
Bitter Sweet: The Remix Game
This band came pre-loaded onto my Zune at Christmas, and they’ve been consistently growing on me ever since. It’s sort of dance club dj meets Austin Powers. Most of the songs are heavily re-mixed with looping rhythms and female vocals reminescent of a the songs used in vintage James Bond films. I especially like The Mating Game and Bittersweet Faith. Most of the songs have a swaying groove that melds into you subconcious and gives it a nice little massage.
Todays Flavor: rum and coke meets the jagermeister generation
Corinne Bailey Rae
There aren’t many albums as perfect for Summer as Corrine Bailey Rae’s self-titled debut. I first fell for Corrine when I saw her sweet self singing on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. By the time she guested on Saturday Night Live I was in love! My kids love to sing along to Girl Put Your Records On and Momma loves to get her grove on with I’d Like To. Even the sentimental Butterfly makes you think of your grandmamma and captures your heart. You’ll put this disc on repeat until the dog days of Summer drift away.
Today’s Flavor: sweet crooner for nights on the patio.
Maroon 5: Songs About Jane
This band of rocker boys know how to groove. According to my sometimes-seventeen-year-old, Maroon 5 is too Pop, but I think they have funky R&B meets disco thang going on that really works. Songs About Jane is well worth purchasing just for the cover art, not to mention all the great tracks. The chart topper Harder to Breathe is a regular on my MP3 player (my kids love that one), Sunday Morning makes me want to reach for the Stevie Wonder and if someone wrote She Will Be Loved for me I would gladly roam the country on tour in the band’s smelly van.
It’s pretty hard to cut a second album that holds up to a debut this good, but It Won’t Be Soon Before Long is a close second. Take a listen to Little of Your Time and try not to dance. (Great for your workout!)
Today’s Flavor: funk gets updated
Beach Reads and Summer Tunes
Did you know I’ve started making recommendations every day over at Magpie Reviews? It’s easy to get something great — just click on the image or the title to order. Check out my beginning collection of great summertime reads and tunes to groove by.
Love,
Magpie Girl
The Verve: Urban Hymns
There are very few albums where you like EVERY single track on the CD. The Verve’s 1997 release Urban Hymns is one of them. Sure, Bittersweet Symphony has been played to death by all the animatronic dj’s on the radio, but you’ve still got 12 other great tunes to groove by. I especially like the mellow second track, Sonnet, for it’s backyard-with-white-wine groove; and Catching Butterflies is one of my odes this Summer. Plus, what kind of urban abbess wouldn’t like an album called Urban Hymns? Listen in, then order some hymnody for your city-fied self!
Today’s Flavor: a little bit psychedelic
Now in love with…
Aqualung: Strange and Beautiful
Dreamy, melodic…makes you want to be melancholically in love with someone so intense you forget to eat anything other than artisan bread and strawberries.
The Dante Club: A Novel
Okay, so I had to to take notes on the back page of my paperback in order to keep track of the broad cast of characters , but now I’m so into it I can hardly put down this sophisticated literary mystery.
The Piggle I’ve started this and torn in out so many times I’ve probably knit three of these puppies. A knitting pal just told me how to string a “lifeline” thread through each set of lace repeats so that if I make a mistake I only have to unravel a few lines. Phew! Catie better wear this hat every day for a year!
Givin’ it up for Lisa Loeb
Today I had to pick up Eden mid-day to go to the orthodontist. I was gearing up to be grumpy about leaving the studio mid-project, when I remember that it’s the very first day of the Free Love Give Away habitude. The anticipation of giving people little surprises every day for a month perked me right up! I immediately started scheming what today’s give away could be. (To read more Free Love Give Away Stories, click on the pink heart in the masthead above.)
After a long Apple vs. Microsoft debate, my hubby the Microserf gave me a Zune for Christmas. I immediately subscribe to the all-you-can-eat monthly service and downloaded approximately 5,300 songs. Last night I spent some precious free time shuffling songs around and creating killer playlists. Thankfully, my car has an mp3 jack built in, so I plugged in and started grooving. When I got to the school it dawned on me that a good Free Love Give Away would be to let Eden pick the music for our cross-town trek. This wasn’t too self-sacrificial as the girls have a pretty killer playlist just for them, and it has some sweet tunes like Better Together, quirky numbers like Stickshifts and Safteybelts, and even some hunkering-down-for-a-good-time riffs like Anything’s Possiblefrom drool-fest Jonny Lang.
Eden opted for none of these. She chose Lisa Loeb.
Now normally, Lisa Loeb would seem like a fine choice. I loved her in grad school and once sat close enough to touch her at a Vancouver concert – seats Kami had scored us by standing in line all day elbowing people out of the way and quite possibly promising the doorman something special if he opened up our side first. At the time my own Lisa Loeb devotion was so severe that Paul would only let Kami and I put on her Tails CD’s if we promised not to sing along. But Eden, well Eden has taken that devotion to a whole new level, listening to The Way It Really Is is on the kind of permanent repeated usually devoted only to preschool obsessions with The Wiggles. On top of this repeat issue is a small problem with the age-appropriateness of the lyrics. I’m just hoping that Eden isn’t picking up that the first song isn’t really about returning a red dress after wearing it once, but is really an extended metaphor for getting used in a dating relationship.
With self-discipline usually reserved for making myself get on the treadmill each morning, I scrolled through my 10,000 adult-bearable song offerings and found Lisa, offering her to Eden with a smile and cranking up the volume.
She sang all the way to the orthodontist.
Chalk on up for the joy of a Free Love Give Away!
P.s. In case anyone is in doubt of Eden’s older-soul tendency toward the melancholy, this is her favorite song. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with Lisa’s kids album, Catch the Moon? Here a little sample of it here.
