New Music: Nieves

Oh the musical lilting of a Scottish brogue accompanied by a lovely guitar. Makes me think of the Scottish countryside, “putatohs”, and that hella long Outlander book series turned TV sensation which has an interesting premise and is quite a good watch with that handsome Jamie Fraser… but I’m getting off track. The only Scotsmen this post will focus on are from the band Nieves whose song Winter is currently stuck in my head. It’s not often I hear such a strong accent from singers but with Nieves you really can’t miss it. If you’re a sucker for a Scottish serenade then you definitely wont be disappointed. Their folksy debut EP is out now and you can check out their songs here .

Also check out this old-timey video for Winter which strangely enough reminds me of the Bobsey Twins. Weird. Do you remember the Bobsey Twins books? I’m so old… school.

Listened to Nieves? What do you think? Lemme know!

Also if you wanna know more about the Outlander book series you can check out fellow blogger Kim’s post here.

FilmWatch: Timer

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Remember the days when you had to dig deep in the trenches to find your oh so elusive soul mate. Endure endless small talk; practice your smooth/sexy walk across the bar; your pensive look while in the coffee shop; your holy not holier-than-thou look while in church; your focused yet welcoming look while in the office, all in the efforts of snagging someone who may be the one? I know, so exhausting.

Sure internet dating is now a thing but does it really work? I mean with all the questions you have to answer and things you have to write about yourself, internet dating has basically just improved your typing skills and led you to become a quasi therapist with all the self searching you end up doing. What I’m saying is that there must be an easier way. It’s 2015. Why can’t someone just implant a chip in my arm that will tell me exactly when I’ll meet my soul mate? Is that too much to ask?

Not according to the movie Timer (2009). Set in the future, dating is made easier…kinda. You turn 16 and can get a chip in your arm and if your soul mate just so happens to also have a chip in their arm then boom! your countdown begins. You can sleep in peace knowing you don’t have to have nightmares about the eternal quest of snagging the one.

As you can imagine, this has it’s own set of problems. I know what you’re thinking. Free market economy, proprietary software, competing platforms. You’re on the Android marketplace he’s only on the Apple app store – oh the horror! Oh wait…were you thinking of other less techy problems? In any case let’s say this whole thing works. Throw the science straight out the window and what are we left with? People and feelings. No way that’s a bad combination, right?

The movie centers around Oona (is that German?!) who is on the quest for the one. Her timer is stuck at –:– and she basically keeps dating guys without timers, convincing them to get them only to end up disappointed. Her sister who has about 15 years till her prince comes is living it up with a revolving door of one night stands and thinks Oona should live a little and step out of her idyllic quest. Ofcourse things get complicated when she does and ends up falling for someone who’s timer’s clock is ticking.

With an interesting concept, well placed dramatic moments, comedy and surprising twists, Timer is a really good watch. I appreciated that it explored a wide range of scenarios from varying viewpoints and is essentially a story about the choices you make in the quest for that oh so crazy little thing called love.

Have you seen Timer?  Would you get one? Lemme know!

FilmWatch: Chef

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Let’s not mince words here. The proof is in the pudding and gosh darn it, this pudding is hmm hmm good. Okay I’ll try to limit my food puns but I just watched Chef and this movie is a delightful little nugget, simple in it’s premise but filled with so much goodness that I’d be hard pressed to not give it a 5/5 but I’ll settle at 4. Directed by Jon Favreau, who also stars as the main character Chef Carl Casper, the movie follows Chef who quits his restaurant job, purchases a food truck, travels across the country and along the way learns about the internet and social media, builds his relationship with his son and kinda finds himself on a road that leads to fulfillment.

With a peppering of famous names (Robert Downey Jr, John Leguizamo etc) that pop up when you least expect them, the film is a whole pot of feel good that leaves you feeling like you just had a good home cooked meal. I might even go back for seconds.

Did you watch it? Lemme know?

TV: The Good Wife

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It’s been on for five years and if you haven’t heard about the most amazingly well written, well acted, well produced drama on network and possibly cable TV, called The Good Wife, then I’d say you must have been living under a rock, been super busy with other things or that TV in general isn’t your thing. Whatever the case may be, it’s back on for it sixth season and another 22 episodes of full blown awesomeness. Also, I’m not using that word lightly. When I watch The Good Wife as I have been doing since it premiered, I am almost always left in a state of awe. A state of “how?” A state of “how can you keep being this awesome?!”

The Good Wife is basically a show about life wrapped up in law, politics, family, infidelity, injustice and other shenanigans. If you’ve heard of big, crazy, preposterous things on the news then it’ll be on The Good Wife, most likely premiering a few days after they’ve made the headlines. Don’t ask me what brand of magic they’ve used to stay so relevant and on top of things because I don’t know and I don’t question it. I sit back enjoy and sometimes lose it every now and then because…you know…good shows do that to you.

If you want an actual synopsis, The Good Wife is about a mother/homemaker/politician’s wife played by Julianna Marguilles of ER fame and fondness who decides to stick by her politician husband after he cheats on her with as many whores as there are worms in the woodwork and is sent to prison for…stuff. It shows her going back to work as a lawyer, trying to juggle her personal and professional life and keeping it all together while rocking some nice suits.

To say that I can’t even thing of another show as good as the Good Wife is saying something. To be fair, I don’t watch that much television and they have had some crazy story lines but hardly is there ever anything inauthentic used in the plot to propel a story as many a shows do on the regular. This is no prime time soap, ladies and gentlemen. This is the real deal. It’s funny, witty and calculating with an AMAZING cast and guest roles that are so perfect in their execution and placement that they form an integral thread in the shows narrative and gives you more people to love or love to hate. Either way you’re still so amused by their quirks and deviousness that you literally feel giddy when you see them turn up out of the blue in a new episode.

Like I said, the sixth season has just begun, with a BANG I might add that got me feeling all sorts of ways and though you could jump in right away I’d say start from the 1st episode. Character growth and dynamic is one of the things that makes this show great, so starting from the 1st season is the way to go. Don’t let those 110 episodes daunt you. You’ll love every second of them.

Are you a Good Wife fan? Gonna watch? Lemme know!

New Music: Arctic Monkeys

About a year ago, a friend of mine recommended I listened to this group named Arctic Monkeys. “You’ll like them”, she said. Well, I watched one live performance and thought,” meh, this kid looks too cocky for my tastes”. The lead singer had his hair slicked back, popped collar, dark sunglasses, smug expression, swinging those hips like some kinda mediocre Elvis impersonator and that was the end of that. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon them and in true fashion, got a little obsessed. After listening to “Do I wanna know”, one of the singles from their most recent album “AM”, for a million times; getting mesmerized in what I thought was the sexiest guitar riff and percussion combo I’d heard in a while; loving the voice from lead Alex Turner and the well placed falsettos from drummer Matt Helders, I decided to check out their other stuff and I’m so glad I did. With a very retro, sexy, rock and roll kind of a sound that’s pretty unique right now, I can see how they’ve risen to prominence in the last few years. Check out this live version of “Do I wanna know” and tell me what you think.

Also, check out the full acoustic performance playlist of songs from their last two albums, here.

New Music: Shannon Saunders

In case you didn’t know it, YouTube is a vortex. It is literally a pool of quicksand made of videos that slowly pull you in and drag you down to a place where time no longer exists and by the time you have the wherewithal to claw yourself out, hours and possibly days would have gone by. Poof! Disappeared.

On one such visit to this magically dangerous place, I stumbled upon a beautiful Brit whose lilting vocals captured me and tore me away from my last music obsession. Today I introduce you to Shannon Saunders and her song Creatures which in true obsession fashion, I’ve had on repeat for a few days now. I’ve only really checked out a couple of her other acoustic performances but I’m pretty sure she could literally sing the alphabet while accompanied by a few simple guitar fingerings and I would think it amazing. There’s just something about her voice and tone that just makes her style so delicately, hauntingly impactful. Check her out below.

Book Review: James Patterson’s “The Beach House”

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Well wash me ashore and color me disoriented! Welcome to the first book review of the blog.

I’ve been meaning to catch up on my reading but recent choices have led me to think myself way too critical or just crap at choosing books. Either way, I actually got through my latest literary quest (unlike the last book I attempted) and thus I come to you bearing gifts of a few wise words that I implore you to heed. DO. NOT. READ. THIS. BOOK.

Ok. Fine. Read it if you wish but I thought it was absolute rubbish and a complete waste of time which is sad because I was so looking forward to it. After all it’s from James Patterson: writer of crafty, mysterious, suspense ridden, horrifically criminal in nature but none the less entertaining pieces of fiction. This sadly was none of those things….well maybe one. I’d say “horrifically criminal” is an apt descriptor, in more ways than one.

The plot is this:- The younger brother of Montauk native and lawyer-to-be Richard (at least I think that’s his name) gets violently murdered on the beach while working at a swanky party attended by the rich and famous. The death is immediately ruled a suicide and Richard overwhelmed with grief and disbelief decides to take matters into his own hands, to get to the bottom of this cover up and to get justice for his brother.

That’s all you need to know ladies & gentlemen because the development of this plot goes drastically downhill from there. Every action is either comical or wildly preposterous. The dialogue is crap and Richard is an idiot. Also the events leading up to the big reveal was like something out of a low-budget spy movie…like I said preposterous. Save yourself the misery and pass on this one unless you’re a masochist, then read away.

Have you read it? How much did you hate it? Cuz, you hated it right? Not just me? OK.

New Music: Sia

Hola amigos! Just so you know, I absolutely positively did not forget about you. No, really! Forget you? Impossible! Let’s not talk about it anymore. I can see you’re getting upset. Instead let’s talk about Sia, another aussie that will make you really happy with her cute, bubbly, crazy, weird personality and amazing voice and songwriting talents. Sia’s been around for years, years I tell you, writing hits for lots of famous pop stars and releasing her own albums along the way… not to much fanfare in comparison to her pop star compadres but she likes it that way. For Sia it’s all about the music, the lyrics, the vocals, the feels. I mean she performed with her back completely to the audience on Ellen and wore a paper bag on her head at some other point in her career and I am not mad about it. I’ve known about Sia for a while and have loved many of her songs because of their highly personal and emotional nature but I’m about to jump to number three of my “music listening process” and it’s all because of these two songs.

Shout out to the 404 Podcast who tuned me into Sia’s new single “Chandelier” below.

Youtube then led me to “Soon we’ll be found” (which I love!) off her 2008 album. Watch all the way to the end to see how adorably cute she is!

I’ll check out the album and report back. Let me know if you’re a Sia fan and which song of hers is your fav.

New Music: Delta Rae

This week, I was gladly exposed to a song and video that while short, pulled me in completely. It hails from the year of 2011, so while not new by those standards, it’s quite new to me. With the song itself giving off a negro spiritual kind of a feel and the video portraying some element of a witch hunt, it is 2 minutes and 21 seconds of a fully developed story. The voices, the lyrics, the music, the imagery fit perfectly (…well maybe not the bright red mexican wrestling masks that popped up in the dead of night but, let’s pretend that never happened).

Check out Bottom of the River by the group Delta Rae (not the name of the lead singer as I initially thought) and tell me what you think.

 

New Music: Never Shout Never and Vance Joy

The act of finding new music/artists is oftentimes a form of obsession. At it’s most perfect, the process of discovery, for me, is usually this:

1. Hear a song I like/see a random youtube cover/video. Listen repeatedly.
2. Check out the original/other songs from the artist. Listen repeatedly.
3. Find the album from the original artist. Listen repeatedly.
4. Download entire discography. Listen repeatedly.

The full process doesn’t happen quite so often and when it does, it may take me months, years even, to get past #2. However, getting to #4 and being awash in the epic euphoria of a band/singer and their musical gifts in their entirety is an amazingly emotional experience. I’ll be sharing some of those amazing findings later on, but for now, check out these brand new finds in this, the first post in TILT: Things I’m Listening To.

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Up for some easy, laid back chill indie tunes? Check out this tale of heartbreak and growing up in “Lousy Truth” from Never Shout Never.

And if you like strapping men with ukuleles, here’s Aussie boy Vance Joy with “Riptide”.

I liked this live version more. But if you wanna check out a contender for the most literal video ever, see the official video here. Also check out TheSmokingZebras whose covers led me to the songs above and whose videos are absolute gems.