make up gift

so i know i have been seriously slacking on getting the final pics of the house up here. i think that is mostly because i am seriously slacking on getting the house finished, so images of the finished house are tough to come by.

to try and appease you all, i wanted to write a quick post about an artist i am currently obsessed with. her name is lissie - just lissie, like cher or jewel - and she is fantastic.

i first heard her when she opened for ray lamontagne at the orpheum theater in la. she was great live and a perfect opener for ray. i got home and immediately purchased her ep why you runnin'. it was really good, the title track being the stand out for me, but didn't have the song that was my favorite when we saw her live. then, it happened.

it will be the first song on her upcoming album, which you can bet your sweet you-know-what i will be buying when it drops. it's called when i'm alone and it's amazing. check the official video below.



and as an added bonus, she does a cover of lady gaga's bad romance that is stunning. seriously, she might be my favorite artist of the moment. here's the video for bad romance that she recorded and released on youtube.



please take a moment and enjoy. she really is fantastic...and great live.

just a girl and her violin

this is seriously incredible. enjoy.

top ten # 4

i have been thinking about this since my last list of my favorite ten bands of all time. while that list, as all my lists are, is subject to change without notice, it seems pretty complete at the moment.

so i have this list in my head of my favorite solo artists of all time. here you go:

10. jason mraz - while his sophmore album was a bit of a let down, i think he is finally finding his groove. and i am feeling it.

9. ray charles - older stuff = better stuff. check it out.

8. bob dylan - while i am not a crazy fan of his, and there are many out there, the things he did for music can't be taken away from him. he changed it.

7. jay-z - a rapper adam, really? well yes, and here's why. this guy puts stuff together that blows my mind lyrically. his beats are sic and he can flow like nothing. he has also solidified himself as one of the most influential, if not the most influential guy in the game. his career alone is enough to get him on the list.

6. johnny cash - this guy made great music until the day he died. god's gonna cut you down. amazing song. you should look it up. now. don't worry, the rest of us will wait for you to finish.

5. damien rice - it will be interesting to see what kind of music he makes without the help of lisa hannigan. but the stuff he made with her on his first 2 1/2 albums is legendary. yeah, i said legendary.

4. aretha franklin - mama can sing. seriously.

3. michael jackson - i think the only argument i'll get here will be that he isn't number one (or two).

2. otis redding - buttery smooth. one of the saddest stories the music industry has ever seen. he died far too young. thank God he got started early and pumped music out while he was working. so amazing.

1. ray lamontagne - crazy at number 1? maybe. but if i could sound like anyone in the world, it would be him...so there you go.

you will notice an amazing lack of estrogen on this list. if you know of some ladies i missed, please let me know. women who almost made the list: janis joplin, etta james, and billie holiday.

top ten #3

so this will be my list of my top ten favorite bands of all time. this will not include any solo acts, only bands. we'll see how this goes:

10. matchbox twenty - they may not appear on many people's top ten bands of all time, top ten on the 90s maybe. but i grew up in the 90s and they have a spot on mine. so there.

9. u2 - their catalogue and their impact on music cannot be argued with. seriously, don't try.

8. aerosmith - they continue to impress, putting out album after album of good rock music. i do think they peaked in the 90s, but their catalogue is impressive.

7. david crowder band - as the only christian artist i will put in and listen to exclusively, crowder and his tejas homies clearly have a spot in my heart, and on this list.

6. pearl jam - they started a revolution for goodness sakes. or maybe they just piggy-backed the nirvana revolution. i can never remember.

5. ccr - creedence clearwater revival. sick stuff that is just plain fun to listen to. get the lemonade out and enjoy your summer; creedence is here.

4. fleetwood mac - the harmonies, the era and some rockin lyrics make this band an icon.

3. jimmy eat world - i have all of their albums and they never cease to amaze. i know they are new. i know these higher spots on the list should be reserved for classic rock bands, because that would be the hipster thing to do, but i am no hipster. don't label me.

2. dave matthews band - their entire catalogue is pretty amazing and got me through my formative years.

1. sigur ros - while i found them later in life, i can honestly say that this music is like a religious experience. i have 13 albums, even bootleg EPs and they are all remarkable. there isn't a song in the bunch that i skip, and that speaks volumes.

top ten #2

yesterday i said that there may be another list coming today...and lo! it has arrived.

here are my top ten favorite songs of all time...maybe. this has always been a tough list to nail down, but here goes nothing.

10. ray lamontagne - hannah

9. beth hart - am i the one

8. damien rice - i remember

7. dave matthews band - pay for what you get

6. sigur ros - inni mer syngur vitleysyngur

5. jeff buckley - hallelujah

4. third eye blind - god of wine

3. fleetwood mac - the chain

2. counting crows - colorblind

1. bon iver - skinny love


post your list and we'll see what we get...

top ten #1

without realizing what i had done, i took pretty much the whole month of march off. i didn't even really do anything spectacular. my wife and i are waiting to hear if we got a house that we have an offer in on, so that is pretty exciting. but i wasn't on another continent or anything really cool like that.

because the last three weeks of my life were so humdrum, i don't really have any cool stories or rants. last night i was talking with my friend bailey and i told her that i would put a short list together of awesome songs i was listening to right now. we share a love for sigur ros, so we will often share a new song or band with the other.

anyway, i put together a list of my ten favorite songs right now. they are all pretty current (last year or two) and are by no means my favorite songs of all time. maybe that list will come tomorrow.

here we go, from 10 to 1 (plus a bonus number 11 because i couldn't have a list without sigur ros on it):

11. sigur ros - saeglopur

10. madi diaz - love you now

9. the temper trap - sweet disposition

8. local natives - sun hands

7. angus & julia stone - mango tree

6. jesca hoop - love is all we have

5. boy & bear - mexican mavis

4. great lake swimmers - your rocky spine

3. middle east - blood

2. kim talyor - anchor down

1. basia bulat - gold rush

this list is by no means exhaustive and could change within the hour, but will try and leave it alone for a while. you should check these songs and these artists out. many of these peeps could have had several songs on my list, but i tried to give more variety and so i limited them to one song for the list.

enjoy!

mtv had a pretty good run

so, mtv has basically been garbage for like the last 10 years or so. what started in 1981 as a revolution that took the music world by storm, mtv (which, for you young kids out there, actually stands for music television) now pretty much consists of poorly acted, mostly scripted "reality" shows about stupid people who should never make money and certainly shouldn't be famous in any way shape or form (see the half of speidi that doesn't look like a tranny - and his creepy flesh-colored beard).

with the creation of the real world in 1992, mtv began it's slow and steady decline to the gutters of television, and introduced the world to, what is now, the plague of modern man, reality shows and the annoying "stars" this movement brings with it. i keep waiting for people to stop caring about these morons, but it seems that the more moronic they are, the more people want to watch their circus of a life unfold.

but i digress. with mtv, our former source of music videos, now a cesspool of filth and venereal diseases, it seemed as though the music video was going to die with it.

but the fine fellows who make up ok go are trying to single-handedly keep people interested in music videos via the internet. if you are unfamiliar with ok go, they made themselves internet superstars with this clever video for their first single here it goes again. see video below.



well the group who made people care about the music video again (and built a nice career from the internet success of this one video) are back at it with another video that demands that the viewer watch to the end. and they are rewarded. wonder why their jump suits are colored, well wonder no more.

thanks to my friend lindsey at music ramen for this video. enjoy!

the luckiest

is a quirky but great song about love. it was my song to my wife at our wedding. i hope that my love will always be so definite. my favorite verse in the song:

next door, there's an old man who lived to his nineties
and one day passed away in his sleep.
his wife, she stayed for a couple of days
and passed away

i'm sorry, i know that's a strange way to tell you that i know
we belong
that i know...that i am the luckiest

gorilla manor

hey all. so today, i want to bring an amazing local band to your attention, the local natives, and their new album gorilla manor. i have been listening to these guys since airplanes hit the net about a year ago. the full length album is finally available on itunes. it isn't in stores yet (not even amoeba), but you can download it digitally, or order it from amazon.

this is what it looks (that pic you passed on your way to these words)

and you can stream the whole album here if you want to preview your purchase for longer than 30 seconds per song.

enjoy!

sigur ros and God

i have described the music of this band as spiritual on several occasions. i believe that there are certain things that transcend religion, because God wrote them on our very hearts. i think religions tap into this, but it is also possible to tap it without organized faith at all. i believe that service falls into this category, as do love and community.

there is a movement in western culture to be spiritual rather than religious. we believe that all paths to God are equal. following this reasoning, there is no need, then, for any organized religion at all. if all organized paths lead to God, then so should all unorganized, or personal paths. we then, with this mindset, cite our spiritual experience as example for the truth in our belief. "i loved unconditionally and helped someone in need, it was such an emotional experience."

i believe they are simply tapping into something God has written on our hearts, a desire or pursuit woven into the very fabric of humanity. it makes them feel close to God because it was designed to.

for me, as a christian, music never really fit into this category. worship did. but i believe that the above are also forms of worship and that we, as humans, are all designed to worship something. but the vessel for some acts of worship, specifically music, never held that power to transcend until i heard sigur ros for the first time.

now, after years of listening, i believe that some music can transcend religion and offer truly spiritual experience. if we follow this to its logical end, then one could conclude that music was also written onto the human heart. i believe that there will be singing and praise in heaven, and that somehow, music was given to us to remind us of the greatness of God.

i just hope our praise in heaven sounds something like this: