Break out the Sprinklers!!!

Yes kiddies it's that time again!

It seems my waining social life is your yummy musical goodness. I have started a new collection of Songs Of Summer and have finished Issue 1 of Vol. 2 with more to follow. I fought long and hard over the playlist because I really wanted to make it fit on a standard CD. Alas, I couldn't resign myself to doing away with any of the tracks as they all have their place on the mix, and hey, after all, this is the digital age! If you don't have an iPod by now you might as well be deaf. (You know I love you, Bethy!!!)

*ahem*

Sooooo.... anyway, I'm tired of being a grown-up. At 26, I'm not sure if it's because I'm burnt out already, or I'm just close enough to remember my childhood that I don't want to let it go. Robert Kennedy (but more likely an uncredited speech writer) once said "This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." These are the qualities I wish for myself. This is the music that makes me remember the energy of that time in my life. I give you my ode to terry cloth capes and water wings.

Enjoy!!!



SOS vol. 2
Issue 1

We Play

1. My Coco - Stellastarr*

2. Lose That Girl - Saint Etienne

3. Weapon of Choice - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

4. Hard to Beat - Hard-Fi

5. Pump It - Black Eyed Peas

6. First Tube - Phish

7. Australia - The Shins

8. Summerlong - Kathleen Edwards

9. Her Ornament - The Verve Pipe

10. Superhero - Garrison Starr

11. Dreams - Deep Dish (Featuring Stevie Nicks)

12. The Con - Tegan and Sara

13. When You Were Young - The Killers

14. Get Back (Love Edition) - The Beatles

15. Behave - Charlotte Hatherley

16. Love in a Trashcan - The Raveonettes

17. Kiss Me - Stephen Duffy

18. Sea Lion Woman (Chromeo Remix) - Feist

19. Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - DJ Spiller

20. Lose Myself - Lauryn Hill

21. Combat Baby - Metric

22. Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

23. Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids

Download as Complete Zip File:

SOS Vol 2 Issue 1: We Play

Perhaps Paris & Lindsay Should Take Note

This is how beautifully crafted pop music should sound.

It's no secret that I love me some Kelly Clarkson. The moment she opened her mouth on American Idol I knew she would have a very successful career ahead of her. Her third album, My December, is due out at the end of this month and I cannot wait. I've heard an early release with some demo versions of the songs and they're wonderful. She's just now releasing the second single, "Sober" and it's brilliant. If "Never Again" was the initial fury after a breakup, "Sober" is the mourning and eventual acceptance of getting over someone. It builds a steady crescendo of emotional uncertainty before proudly exclaiming with great assuredness that it will eventually be ok again. Having co-written every song on the album, my hat is off to Kelly for baring so much of herself to the rest of the world all without taking off her clothes. And so I say again, this is how you do it, ladies. See you in rehab.



Sober

Wonder Twin powers, activate!

Form of: Kick-Ass Canadian Rock Duo!


I've been holding on to this for the better part of two weeks. I apologize. I'm very, very selfish.




Three years ago I woke up to my alarm clock radio playing the greatest song I'd never heard, Walking with a Ghost, by Tegan and Sara. I won't go into their life story, all you need to know is they're twins, they're Canadian, and they kick ass. After hearing that track I rushed out and bought the album So Jealous (Amazon) as well as their 2002 release If It Was You (Amazon). There were some really stand out tracks on both albums, but (at least for me) they weren't the kind of albums I would listen to straight through, and surely not repeatedly. Their upcoming release, The Con has certainly changed all that. I can't stop listening to it. All the way through. All the time. I play it at home, I play it in the car. It's bloody fantastic! I can't wait to get my non-digital hands on it when it releases on July 24th. Until then, here are a couple of my favourite tracks to wet your pallets. Enjoy

Tegan and Sara, The Con




The Con

Knife Going In

Floorplan

Lemme know what you think!

And as always, songs are provided for sampling purposes only, and therefor will only be available for a limited time. If you like what you hear, please support the artist by following the links provided to purchase the album!

Heartbreak Sans Hotel

A few months back I started seeing reviews everywhere for this singer songwriter whom I had never heard of before. And not just the usual music magazines I peruse, but in such literary gems as People. I find it difficult to gage whether I'm going to like a musician from reading something about them so I don't usually read reviews of artists with whom I'm not already familiar but after seeing his name in bold type for the fifth time I decided to bite.



Thank God I did.

Having lost both of his parents to tragedy (father, actor Anthony Perkins, died of AIDS complicated illness in 1992 and his mother, photographer Berry Berenson was a passenger on AA flight 11 which crashed into the World Trade Center on 9-11-01) it's no wonder Elvis Perkins' debut Ash Wednesday lingers somewhere between promise and despair. His voice reads a bit like Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) or David Gray. At its most dramatic it even resembles Rufus Wainwright. But then I don't think its fair to compare him to his peers. This album makes me feel like no other has as of late. The songs themselves are thoughtful pieces of personal misfortune, humming on the edge of heartbreak and hope. Straining a bit for the silver lining in an otherwise grey sky. This album is one of my top picks for 2007 and I seriously recommend you give a listen! If you like the tracks below go out and buy the album, it's truly wonderful.



Elvis Perkins, Ash Wednesday.

Buy Amazon, iTunes

All highly recommended tracks

While You Were Sleeping

All The Night Without Love

It's Only Me

Enjoy