music

Of chvrches and wolf & cub

Posted on August 21, 2013August 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I recall seeing wolf & cub with about 15 other people at v fest 08 (or 09 my memory is hazy).
They were playing at the same time as Madness and The Kills.
I was running around like a mad thing between three stages.

And so I listened to their album a bit that year and had since forgotten about them.

Until I was skimming through the triple j playlist and saw that they had a new song out. So I added it to a playlist and it hasn’t left my head since.

I did almost the same thing with chvrches. As they’re highly tipped for laneway and there’s been a bit of buzz about them I thought I’d give them a listen. I wasn’t all that interested.
But again skimming through the triple j playlist I listened to Guns and have been hooked.

Serious ear worms both of them.
And the best part of looking at the triple j playlist is you still stay in touch with what other people are listening to, without hearing the songs you don’t want to listen to. Or the songs that they play 5 times a day.

Cold War Kids

Posted on August 7, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Last time I saw Cold War Kids it was 40 degrees and there was no shade available.

Fortunately Friday night was in winter and inside.

Preshow we watched the football and then the cricket at a nearby pub. We got in, found a good spot, and then they were on!

We perched ourself just behind the VIP area which meant that the sound quality wasn’t the absolute greatest but it meant we could see.
If we wanted to hear it better we had to not see anything.

They played a reasonable length set without too many surprises. Which is annoying when your current favourite song is not a hit, as mine currently is.

Stuck in my head – wolf parade

Posted on July 31, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I don’t get a lot of phone calls. And the people who do call all have their own special ringtones so I know who’s calling.
HeWhoFishes has Trail of Dead, although for the longest time he had Eartha Kitt – Girl from Ipanema
Midnitemoose has Cold War Kids – We Used To Vacation.
Hedgehog-onalog (my even though im not actually married to her brother i still call her my sis-in-law) has Hot Hot Heat – Bandages
My littlest brother has Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
My middle brother has The Temper Trap – Fader
My Dad has Glen Miller – In the Mood
My Mum has Grandmaster Flash – The Message.

Mostly I choose ringtones because I saw that band with that person. That’s the case for the first 4 people on that list.
The last three are a bit more random. Mostly because to choose a song that reminds me of them would require me to put The Beegees (mum) or country music (my middle brother) as ringtones. Fortunately I’m quite partial to Glen Miller.

But my ringtone for everyone else is currently Wolf Parade – Shine A Light.
This week I’ve had more phone calls than all of last month combined. Real estate agents, valuers, and our mortgage broker all want to speak to me.

So every few hours I hear the opening bars of Shine A Light. Even while I was writing this post (because I do the majority of blogging on my iPhone) I heard the opening bars.

And it’s only now on reflection I think I should change it.
I’m not sure “waiting for something that will never arrive” is the vibes I want to be sending into the universe.

Stuck in my head – the duke spirit

Posted on July 24, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Every time I read a review about an album, or hear an interesting band name, or Shazam a song, I will find an album and make it a playlist.
Then I forget to listen to them.

So this week I started making an effort to listen to all of them.

It didn’t go to well.
I got two albums in before listening to The Duke Spirit on repeat.

I have also had the latest Editors album on repeat. It comes with a commentary which is pretty cool. I’m still undecided about the album though. I’m trying to give it a chance but it’s not the Tom Smith I know.

You Am I

Posted on July 17, 2013July 17, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I don’t know if You Am I were ever big outside of Australia, but for me they were one of those bands that you couldn’t avoid.
Even though I was never a massive fan they crept into movies I loved, hottest 100 CDs, and high school parties.

They played at the Astor on Sunday night and it was fantastic.

Stuck in my head – Dusted

Posted on July 10, 2013July 10, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I don’t talk about work often, mostly to keep some aspect of my life private. But I do have a full time job, which most days I thoroughly enjoy but always keeps me challenged and engages my brain.

Well yesterday was a tough work day. So I thought ‘what would Leslie Knope do’ and wrote down all my ideas and all my problems on sticky notes.

There were a lot. And eventually I retreated into a conference room to get more space. So no one disturbed me, or distracted me in went the headphones. Open plan offices are good for overhearing work related stuff you don’t get told directly, not so good for overhearing personal conversations and people saying stupid or enraging remarks. Headphones are in a lot of the time.

As I moved around sticky notes, I scrolled through all my spotify playlists, most of which are albums which I’ve saved for future listening.
I come across bands from so many different sources (twitter, radio, street press, websites) I lose track of which comes from where.

So I have absolutely no idea about how Dusted came to be on my playlist, but I listened to their album through three times straight.

Music to shuffle post-it notes to.

Stuck in my head – The Shins

Posted on July 3, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Well if you have a look at my most played artists for this week you won’t find the shins.

We had a stereo on board, which we could both plug our phones into and there was no one around.
So when HeWhoFishes was out on the dingy I did leap at the opportunity to sing and dance around like the crazy lady I am.
And I wasn’t dancing to the shins.

But when we weren’t being nostalgic and listening to Jebediah, and I was enjoying the solitude of being away from society and on a boat, I was listening to this song.

(And just to rub it in, here’s my photo collage which I use as my work computer background. One of the reasons I use hipstamatic, Instagram, and the a beautiful mess apps is not so all my photos look twee [which I do like] but it makes it easier to put into collages because they all use the same dimensions. My work computer has no fancy unworkrelated software so I resize the photos to 7cm using microsoft word and then copy and paste them into paint. Then I can chop and change photos as I like )

Stuck In My Head – Portishead (+barely contained rage)

Posted on June 19, 2013 by bekswhoknits

This week has been pretty shitty and I’m going to talk about it.
These are my ineloquent views, so please don’t think for a second that I’m saying that these should be your views or are your views. I have been called an extremist, feminist, and an atheist sometimes all in the same sentence and I am happy with those labels.

Reading the news has left me tired, sad, and undervalued as a member of society.
As a lady in a committed relationship, who doesn’t want children, and who knits I couldn’t help but feel sorry for another lady in a committed relationship, who doesn’t want children, and who knits, and who also happens to be Prime Minister of Australia.
I have always believed I was fortunate enough to live in a time where I could choose my own destiny.
Without having a husband I own property, I have a credit card, I have a degree, and I can vote. Yet I have shockjocks on the radio saying that there are people that might assume my partner is homosexual – as though there is something wrong with that.
As though there is something wrong with the way I choose to live my life.

I am strong enough now to not care about opinions of people who don’t matter to me. However I do care that while this is in the media, people in the lunchrooms and in the pubs feel entitled to criticize and comment on my life choices. Whether they’re doing that intentionally or not, when they’re talking about a lady in a committed relationship, who isn’t married, doesn’t want kids (I believe deliberately barren is the phrase), and who knits, they may think they’re talking about the PM but they are also talking about me. This week the world has told me that I am not a “real woman” because I don’t see marriage or children in my future.

In the same week, we’ve seen a high profile domestic abuse case. I was prepared to hear victim blaming opinions from the people in the lunchrooms and in the pubs but I was seriously shocked when this was the only live discussion I’ve heard (I’m excluding online as I have a lovely online bubble where no one would even consider this comment). The comment was about how bad she looked without wearing makeup, and how she is pretty on tv, but not on the cover of a newspaper.
SHE WAS JUST ABUSED! Seriously, her appearance is so low on the available topics regarding domestic abuse it doesn’t even warrant a mention. And yet it’s the only conversation I’ve heard about the whole thing. This week the world has told me that even if I’ve just been strangled in public, I am still obliged to meet a beauty standard.

It would be easy for me to untwist my knickers* and retreat back into my own sheltered world where every person is equal, everyone can choose how they want to live their life, and as long as it’s safe and consensual no choice is better than any other.
But I just can’t do that at the moment. And I don’t just want to talk. There are ways to contribute. There is gofundme.com where you can donate straight to real people and causes. (I’m sure at some point we will see news reports about scams, but I feel the risk is justified.) I recently donated to help cover the living expenses of a sex worker who needed money to be able to prosecute her rapist. There is a getup campaign to steer the conversation away from personal attacks and to the very real consequences of being born a woman.

I don’t usually talk about these things on my blog. But when it came to choose this weeks song, I couldn’t think for all the opinions and thoughts in my head.
If it seems glib to be talking about domestic violence, and then music in the one post please excuse me but I’m starting to think instead of talking about these difficult issues in hushed tones, they should be open and everyday conversations.
I want my niece, and every other young lady out there to find a world where they’re not financially worse off as soon as they come out of the womb, be it through tampons being taxed as a luxury item, not being paid for equal work, and not having adequate superannuation. I want my niece to be able to go to work and be asked “if she wants to get married and have children”, not asked “when” as though it’s a foregone conclusion that because she is female she must have a husband and babies to be complete.
I want my niece to choose her own path in life, whatever that may be. And I want society to accept that choice.
Maybe I’m dreaming of a perfect world, but the only ways that I can think to achieve change is to talk about it and give my time and money.

How can any song possible make its way through all of this clutter? Well there was really only one choice.
In many ways it’s not relevant to this conversation, but it’s the song which is giving me the strength to write these thoughts instead of leaving it solely to the proper writers who explain themselves more eloquently than I do. See articles here, here, and here.

http://open.spotify.com/local/Portishead/Dummy/Glory+Box/308

*Is “got your knickers in a twist” a common colloquialism outside of Australia? If not I know it to mean get worked up about something you have no control over.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead + Sincerely, Grizzly

Posted on May 29, 2013May 29, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I promised knitnrun4sanity that this Wednesday I would post some photos about my CD wall. But I’m going to delay this promise for a week because I went to a gig on Saturday night.

…And you will know us by the trail of dead (or Trail of Dead for short) is a band which my partner introduced me too. They’ve been to Perth before and they’ve been song of the week before, and one of their songs is in my top 20 most listened to songs. (that was in 2010 and it hasn’t changed too much.)
I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’m a fan of this band.
It’s one of the bands which my Bloke and I double up on (as in he and I both have a copy of the same CD). So I was a little shocked when he called to say that he was staying up north on his fishing trip rather than see this band.
Best Friend to the rescue!!

Having never heard this band before (I’ve obviously failed as a friend by not previously lending her any of the 4 albums we own), I’m pleased to report she had an awesome time.
She was the one who convinced me to get a photo with the lead singer after the gig. Unfortunately I only remembered last night (way too late) that my camera has a flash which you have to pop up for it to work. So two of them were just darkness. But the third I was able to save with the magic of photo editing and over exposure.

We were impressed with the support art Sincerely, Grizzly so we both bought their EP. The band were at the merch stand so we chatted to them for a while. The lead singer was a massive Doctor Who fan which was very cool.
The only pic I have of that is Midnite Moose looking mid “woo!”, which is for her eyes only.

Sincerely, Grizzly were definitely influenced by Trail of Dead, which made them a pretty good support act. I would definitely see them if they came to Perth again.

Trail of Dead played Source Tags & Codes in full before skipping their scheduled break and playing a set from the other albums.
Overall it was an awesome show. I got home with my ears ringing, and a grin from ear to ear. That’s always a sign of a great gig, and a great night out.

Stuck In My Head – Pissed Jeans

Posted on May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been a CD buyer for a while now. I’m a collector by nature and always a music lover so it’s a natural fit.

My latest CD haul all arrived at once which is a surprise as usually I place am order and they just trickle in. I love getting presents in the mail. Particularly if I’ve bought them myself and I know I’m going to like them.

So judge me as you see fit!

But apart from the two soundtracks (Buffy and Smash [very disappointed Smash was recently cancelled]), the album that’s getting the most air time is Pissed Jeans.

Sub Pop is one of the few record labels that I pay attention to. They’ve had some really good signings over the years and so whenever they sign a new band I hop on the band wagon pretty quick.