It feels like winter has just hit. I walked home from work in the rain with my feet squelching in my shoes, and immediately donned my trackydacks.
It’s the sort of weather where I want to curl up with a nanna blanket, and mulled red wine. I crave music by The National, Still Corners, Portishead, Zero 7, Silversun Pickups, and they greet me like old friends.
Yo La Tengo is my newest cold weather friend.
If you watched my video from last week you may have noticed I showed you a finished object that I hadn’t blogged about yet.
So this is a little cushion with two different lyrics from The National on either side.
It’s not a standard shape, mostly because I didn’t realise I was going to make it into a cushion when I was embroidering those song lyrics onto scrap fabric.
Fortunately the scraps were big enough and I could turn them into a cushion.
This is cushion #3 in my 13 in 2013 project.
I’m interrupting Knitting and Crochet Blog Week to continue with my usual Wednesday blog series, Stuck In My Head.
I’ve been blogging for as long as I can remember, and in every one there was always music. Music is such a constant in my life. CDs take up more space in my house than yarn (true fact), and its very rare for my ticket wallet to be empty.
So my Stuck In My Head project started as a way to try out my music journalist skills (turns out I have none), and has developed into choosing a song (or two) to represent each week of the year.
At the end of the year I have a nostalgic playlist which takes me down memory lane revisiting bands I’ve seen, conversations I’ve had, or what mood I was in that week.
If you follow me on twitter you’ll know that Sunday was In The Pines, Perth’s local music festival. Set at the gorgeous Somerville Auditorium, this year celebrated 20 years of In The Pines with a great lineup looking back on the past 20 years of Perth’s local music scene.
The line up included some bands who reformed just for the occasion as well as some new favourites. I walked away with 2 CDs which is always a good sign.
Our local community radio station RTRfm puts on the event, which I went to for the first time last year and had a blast.
So Timothy Nelson & The Infidels were one of the bands where, as soon as this song played I had that ‘aha’ moment. It seems like this song had been following me around for 2 weeks before In The Pines and now I finally know who it’s by.
It certainly tested my ability to knit and dance at the same time.
The full playlist can be found here
A week ago I hadn’t even heard of this song.
However a fortunate twitter conversation with @weareaustralia (australia’s curated twitter account) led me down a rabbit hole to find this song.
It tells the charming story of Johnny and Flo who have a regular Sunday outing to go “rowing”.
But best of all, it’s also the song which the Richmond club song is based on (but more on that tomorrow.)
Please compare and contrast the two versions.
So not only is this duo incredibly badass with a sound reminiscent of the Kills, but they met in a crochet class! How cool is that.
Unfortunately they’re currently only touring the east coast of Australia (one of the downsides of living on the west side, in the most isolated capital city in the world), but I could definitely (hopefully) see them playing Splendour and some side shows.
They don’t have an album out yet, just a smattering of singles. Hobo Playa is the track I’ve had on repeat. But for all you US iTunes peoples (I only buy music if I can put it on my wall) their EP is out today. (what a cool coincidence)
And as always you can listen of all my Songs of the Week in one convenient playlist.
Earlier this week I was chosen as the Dance Track Queen.
It’s a competition on my favourite talk back station 720 Perth, where you get to pick a song that makes you want to dance, and people SMS in to vote whether or not you get to stick around.
I was voted out on my first day, but the song they played has been stuck in my head ever since.
It’s makes me want to dance around in my kitchen in colourful tights and pajamas and sing into a spatula. But the majority didn’t agree with me.
Here were the other two choices that the 720 audience didn’t get to hear.
Ps. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!
Sometimes the best music is sititng undiscovered in your own city.
How I haven’t heard Elk Bell before is a mystery. But this is why community and local radio is so important.
I don’t listen often enough (mostly because it ends up costing me a fortune in buying new music), but every time I do I hear something different.
Elk Bell is one of those enchanting voices, which I haven’t been able to forget.
So we wrapped up our Perth Festival with Buke and Gase supporting the Tallest Man On Earth.
I’d seen the Tallest Man on Earth before and it was fantastic.
I did some research on Buke and Gase the day of the gig and found their bio and their music really interesting. Particularly the concept of making your own instruments.
The it was the Tallest Man On Earth.
It’s so difficult to get a photo of Kristian Mattson because he’s always moving around the stage with such energy and enthusiasm.
He played a good set of songs from all his albums, and he opened with my brothers favourite King of Spain.
I have great difficulty deciding on my favourite song, but I wasn’t disappointed with his set. I felt like I heard everything I wanted to.
With an almost full moon shining over the stage, it was the perfect way to finish what was a great series of concerts. (Even if everything didn’t go quite as smoothly as previous years – I’m looking at you security guard who took the key home and they had to hacksaw off the lock so they could let everyone in)
Check out my previous songs of the week
Mostly because I’m seeing them tonight!
This is the song that first drew me to them.
And this is their latest single.
listen to Theory Of Relativity on spotify
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One song which I would love to hear at Laneway, but is hugely improbable. (Wolf Parade – Cloud Shadow On The Mountain)
One song which I’m almost guaranteed to hear at Laneway, provided I’m there in time. (Kings of Convenience – I’d rather dance with you)
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polka-dots & sparkles 