I love my town and dreamy guitars and synths and VCRS

Carrrrry On

tune 1

Honestly? I don't think these guys would get away with this if they weren't French and Indie cool. However, it such a ridiculously groovy tune - sounds tight like a skin over a well tuned drum.

Coming soon to a soundsystem in General Pants/Urban Outfitters/Just Jeans near you. Listen and feel cool. Peut-être?

RASHIDA

I don't think I'm the biggest fan of Rufus Wainwright - I'm not too familiar with his stuff - but I bought his latest album "Out of The Game" after I checked out a few of the tracks on Spotify. Also, since I am a sucker for anything Mark Ronson and Dap Kings related (i.e. Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, Ronson's debut Version, and The Business INTL's Record Collection).


But damn, I love the slightly sophisticated, yacht-jazz-rock vibes of the whole album. It's pretty smooth, light and poppy - think Steely Dan.



p.s.  Barbara is probably the most Yacht-Rock moment on "Out of the Game"

Alan Hampton

He's a really awesome bass player from New York via Houston (like I'm talking A-Level Jazz Playing With Guys Like Herbie Hancock and Gretchen Wilson) and he does this on the side. (Or is it his main thing now? I'm not sure)

Regardless, he's a very talented dude who writes a lot of very sweet, down-to-earth, musically interesting songs. When I saw him live, he was the support act for M'Shell Ndgeocello at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco! It was only $20.

Things I have been reading

Aside from sporadically delving into textbooks for university, I haven't had that much time to read novels or magazines. I am terrible at managing my time, especially in portioning off that quiet, solitary time you need to devote to reading. So, to fix this, I've started reading a few things this month. The ones I've particularly enjoyed have stars put next to them.

Half Read/Started:
Mark Treddnick - The Little Red Book of Writing*
Christopher Hitchens - A Letter to the Young Contrarian
James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* (close to finishing this one, it's an amazing autobiography of her early life)
Emily Dickinson - Collected Poems*

Read:
Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Dream Hunters (Graphic Novel)*
Sam Harris - Lying*

Online:
I've read a few things online, but I'd like to share a link to this great article on the New York Times about what people read on the subway.

Looking back, I've spent a disproportionate amount of time reading things on screens rather than reading things on paper or Kindle (e-ink doesn't count as a screen! Maybe it does. Damn). Looks like a trip to the bookstore or the library is in order.

ALPINE-SLOWCLUB-BLACKJOELEWIS

I like a lot of music and I recommend a lot of music. So without further adieu, here are the songs and artists that I have really liked this week.

First off, here's Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears. Pretty cool southern rock soul funk blues crazy band - super raw and heavy.



Imagine folk music, indie music and soul music got together and had some sexy, hyperactive babies (whilst hitting a lot of drums) you'd get something like Slow Club. Also, I really liked the lyrics.



Speaking of sexy, here's a new track from Melbourne dream-pop outfit Alpine. Warning, the videoclip does get a bit... well.... make-out? In a surrealist kind of way? Which is another reason why it's cool. These guys make music that is on another level, I have been listening to the album ("A is For Alpine") all evening and my ears are splitting diamonds.