road trip songs

Tomorrow my wife and I are making a quick road trip down to Portland to visit Katie! Inevitably, I always make a road trip mix for the ipod and for one reason or another, these 10 songs usually make the cut (some have "road" themes, others are just fun):

1. The Winner Is - Devotchka & Mychael Danna
~ Pretty much just because it's from Little Miss Sunshine - one of the best road trip movies ever!
2. Life Is a Highway - Tom Cochrane
3. Many the Miles - Sara Bareilles
4. Beautiful Day - U2
5. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
6. On a High - Duncan Sheik
7. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
8. Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
~ This one really doesn't make any sense, it's just so damn catchy!
9. Love and Memories - O.A.R.
10. Leaving So Soon? - Keane

What are your favorite road trip songs?

Kate Nash video

Happy Tuesday everyone, here's a music video for "Mouthwash" by Kate Nash - isn't she just adorable? Watch out for the sci-fi stage performance a minute in:


Kate Nash - Mouthwash - Kate Nash

Songs about Rain

Following my weather theme I've got going, here are ten songs about our precipitous friend (or fiend?) we call rain. Did you know there is a song called "Sun King" by the Beatles and "Rain King" by Counting Crows (though the latter is a reference to the 1959 novel Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow) - strange coincidence I thought:

1. Rain King - Counting Crows
2. Mandolin Rain - Bruce Hornsby
3. Every Time it Rains - Charlotte Martin
4. Rainy Day - Coldplay
5. Come Rain or Come Shine - Frank Sinatra
6. It's Raining Again - Supertramp
7. Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin
8. November Rain - Guns N' Roses (one of my all-time favorites)
9. Who'll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
10. The Rain, the Park and Other Things - The Cowsills

What are your favorite rainy day songs?

Its Raining Again - Supertramp

Songs about the Sun

It's clear skies and sunshine in Spokane today, here are 10 songs about that yellow dwarf we call the Sun:

1. Sunshine - Keane
2. Sundrenched World - Joshua Radin
3. Sunburn - Muse
4. Brighter than Sunshine - Aqualung
5. Listen for the Sun - The Eames Era
6. Island in the Sun - Weezer
7. Sun King - The Beatles
8. California Sun - The Rivieras
9. Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
10. Sunshine - The All-American Rejects

What are your favorite songs about the Sun?

Sunshine - Keane

Erin McCarley vids

A couple videos of Erin McCarley in the studio performing "Sticky-Sweet" and "Blue Suitcase":


Sticky-Sweet - Erin McCarley


Blue Suitcase - Erin McCarley

Also, her website now says she'll be performing in Denver, Colorado, which is still a fair distance from Spokane but it's in the right direction. You can visit Erin's website here or read my original post.

putting the ho in "Jai Ho"

I got that line from my favorite movie blog www.AwardsDaily.com*. They had a post about the Pussycat Dolls doing a rendition of A.R. Rahman's Academy Award-winning song "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. Many film buffs were offended. The music community? Not so much. You can view it for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7AyQpsukM.

* By the by, this is a fantastic blog for you cinephiles out there; it has a great community of smart and devoted bloggers.

Have you heard...

Muse has been around for a while. The British rock trio formed in Teignmouth, Devon, England in 1994. I was first introduced to them back in high school by our pep band's bass player, which is fitting because Muse has soaring, interesting bass parts. Their sound is also characterized by a blend of soft and hard rock elements, intentional feedback, stunning keyboard work and a Radiohead-type sound. They've gained popularity recently with their music being featured in movies like "Twilight" and games like "Guitar Hero". They're not for everyone and all of their music is not for me, but these are a few tracks I love: "Starlight" from Black Holes and Revelations, "Falling Away With You" from Absolution, "Sunburn" from Showbiz and ""New Born" from Origin of Symmetry.

RIYL: Incubus, Interpol, Radiohead, Coldplay, Keane

10 Songs for After the Breakup

Yes, breaking up is hard to do. Luckily, there are a ridiculous amount of songs written about breakups to help you cope. Here are ten of my favorite songs for dealing with new-found singleness, along with my favorite lines from each song.

1. "To the Light" - Newton Faulkner
I feel like a muppet with a drunket puppeteer, but I'll survive; I will survive.

2. "Cologne" - Ben Folds
Four, three, two, one, I'm letting you go. I will let go, if you will let go.

3. "Opportunity to Cry" - Priscilla Ahn
I'd like to see you, but I'm afraid I don't know wrong from right and if I
saw you would I kiss you or want to kill you on sight?

4. "Vegas" - Sara Bareilles
Listen up now, honey, you're gonna be sorry.

5. "Merry, Happy" - Kate Nash
Yeah you make me merry, make me very very happy, but you obviously,
you didn't want to stick around. So I learnt from you.

6. "What Can I Say?" - Brandi Carlile
Alone is the last place I wanted to be.

7. "She" - Over the Rhine
What she would like to do is get you out of her head. She's tried every
trick; she's so sick of thinking about it.

8. "Heal for the Honey" - Brooke Waggoner
The noons are hot with heartache aplenty. I'm lovesick and undone.

9. "Oh What a Day" - Ingrid Michaelson
Now that you're gone I can roll onto something good.

10. "Just Dance" - Lady Gaga
Just dance, gonna be okay. Da da doo doo-oom.

Bonus Track: "Breakable" - Ingrid Michaelson

Breakable - Ingrid Michaelson

Have You Heard...

I heard Meiko's "Boys with Girlfriends" on the radio literally five minutes ago. Googled the lyrics, looked her up on imeem, and decided to blog about her. Her self-titled album came out in September 2008. Though I've only heard one and half tracks, I can tell I already like it.

I was struck by the practical advice of "Boys with Girlfriends." Meiko seems to says in hindsight, "I know better not to be friends with boys with girlfriends." As a fan of a tongue-in-cheek, bitter tunes, I knew I'd like whoever this was. It wasn't just her lyrics though--Meiko has a beautiful voice, and the tune is catchy and upbeat.

Don't take it from me though; give her a listen:

Boys With Girlfriends - Meiko

RIYL: Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, Kate Nash

Twitter, Twitterer, Tweet?

I signed up for a Twitter account a month or two ago and let it sit idle. Honestly, I was scared of it. I didn't know what to do with it. My understanding of Twitter was that it was like Facebook updates on speed. Finally, a program that lets me tell all my friends exactly what I'm doing every second of the day!

Personally, I found that a little narcissistic.

However, in the last couple weeks I've decided to give Twitter another shot. I've discovered that it has many uses beyond the one above. Because I'm into the publishing industry, I can follow Publisher's Weekly and Publisher's Lunch on Twitter. I can follow NPR and CNN and stay caught up on the headlines. And, best of all (and most applicable to this blog), I can find new music on Twitter. In addition to being able to follow the big music folk (MTV, CMA, etc), there is this great program called twtfm.

Twtfm is a great way to find new (and old music). It's basically just a venue for sharing music. It allows you to post streaming audio of your current musical obsession and lets you hear streaming audio of your friends' current musical obsessions. If you go to http://twt.fm/tracks, you can view a list of the most recently tweeted (I still can't really handle that it's calling tweeting...) songs. Check it out. Find some new music. Then join the Twitter bandwagon.

P.S. Even if I do use Twitter for legitimate things, I might still be guilty of a slightly narcissistic post now and again.