I’m still around! Check out what I’ve been up to:

Blouses And Trousers

I’m back! The chaos has subsided and I am ready to write about music again. I’ve kinda missed it actually, I keep coming across cool songs and I’m like, oh I should make a post about that… if only I had time. Well, now I do, um, somewhat.

Anyway, because I took so much time off, I’ve put together a special extra long mixtape (16 songs!) so feel free to download them all and burn them onto a cd for your friend and pretend like you put the whole thing together yourself. It’s a bunch of new stuff that’s been popular lately, and stuff I’ve found on other blogs that I thought was awesome which may not necessarily be all that new. Anyway, you’ve probably heard of some of these already, but check it out since this has been pretty much been my playlist the past week or so!

(Note: In case it’s not obvious, click on the song title for the mp3 and the name of the artist to go to their webpage.)

I’m Very Scared Buster, Yes At Last - George Pringle

I’m Good, I’m Gone - Lykke Li

Teenage Love - Magic Wands

Kick This City - Kara Keith

Blue Skies - Jaymay

My Sunken Treasure - The Duke Spirit

Beat (Health, Life, and Fire) - Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down

Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - She and Him

Like An Arrow - The Red Sun Band

After My Divorce - Looker

Brown Girl In The Ring - kiiiiiii

Gila - Beach House

Paper Float - Cassettes Won’t Listen

Northwestern Girls - Say Hi

In The Night - Basia Bulat

Larlie - Let’s Get Out of This Terrible Sandwich Shop

So, I’m taking a little blog hiatus, got some personal matters to attend to in the coming weeks. (Nothing bad, just busy with work.) So hopefully I’ll be back with a renewed zest for blogging after I take care of all these other pressing concerns. Until then, I’ll leave you with a couple links. February is make an album month apparently, kind of like NaNoWriMo but with music. It’s already started but you still have enough time to join! On the other hand, if you’re not musically inclined, you can check out what other people are doing:

The RPM Challenge
February Album Writing Month

For some unknown reason, I was reminded of this song. I was thinking of actors and actresses singing, and I remembered how good this song from The Sweet Hereafter (a Canadian movie) was. So this is Sarah Polley doing a cover of “Courage” from The Tragically Hip. It doesn’t get any more Canadian than this, really. This really is a great cover. And this movie rocks too, I think it might have even made me cry. Check it out and reminisce, or discover it for the first time.

heartbeat

still the one

www.xoxthevalentines.com

So, I’m in the process of organizing my iTunes library. This is no small task considering I have thousands upon thousands of random songs that are either unnamed or too obscure to figure out who they actually are made by. It’s been a hassle. I’m really trying though.

Anyway, I stumbled across a band I had downloaded a song from who knows when, that had somehow fallen through the cracks, gotten past the radar, and what have you. They are called The Valentines. In my efforts to figure out which albums the songs belonged to I came across their website, where something exciting happened. I discovered that they have an entire album free to download! Woo! I like when bands do this, obviously.

As far as I can tell it’s a self-titled release, and I’m listening to it for the first time right now. It’s cute poppy minimalistic electronic stuff with choppy vocals. Basically, I love it.

I don’t know much about the band, since here’s their bio in it’s entirety:

The dancing sound that’s exciting the younger generation: the valentines…amanda, jamie, todd. we play dance music. we have fun. we dance. we play all instruments and use drum machines. we come from all over the country and we don’t sound like anyone else. we sing about nothing and very important things. the valentines love you!

Simple, yet appropriate. Check them out!

www.myspace.com/wonderfulprincesschelsea

I was browsing through some of my favourite music blogs and I came across a post on Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood about Princess Chelsea. I gather from the post that she is relatively new, and as I could not find anything online, you’ll have to check out the streams of her songs on myspace. I love the cute sound, and the funny lyrics, and I recommend you take the time to check her out. Apparently she used to be involved with a band called Teenwolf, who I am also not familiar with, but she’s struck out on her own with some solo stuff. I’ll be keeping on eye on any releases she may come out with and let you know. I love what I’ve heard so far, especially “Positive Guy Meets Negative Man”.

wild gardens
www.myspace.com/kissingiseasy

So last night I was wondering what Magneta Lane has been up to lately, and apparently they are in the process of recording their new album, Gambling With God. Exciting! I couldn’t find any samples online from the new album that you could download, but if you head on over to their myspace, you can listen to “Lady Bones” which is from the new album. I’ve been listening to it over and over again obsessively, but that’s probably because it’s really good.

Also exciting is the addition of keyboard player Jordan De Masson, since I firmly believe that all bands should have keyboard players. Check out the video for “Wild Gardens” below which is from their previous release Dancing With Daggers, as well as the mp3 for the same song above. It should get you all worked up in anticipation for the new album.