I can’t get a enough of this – Best of Friends by London band, Palma Violets. Listen and (hopefully?) enjoy.
Tag Archives: indie
Song of the Week: Mom
This past week was an epic one as it was my first time visiting Beijing. I saw lots of cool stuff and met some nice people. A proper post on it will be up later (with pics too…. which reminds me, I gotta do that for my Taiwan trip in February too).
Heavy in my iPod rotation while I wandered around the city was from L.A. band Fatty Dearest and their EP Mom Dance. I had first heard these songs a few years ago when I attended their shows and this week it was great to relive the awesomeness of their high energy sounds.
I’ve linked their song Mom below but I pretty much dig their entire EP. Especially Sleepdance and Dog Park.
Disasteradio
I’ve been a fan of New Zealand computer musician Disasteradio ever since I saw him perform at The Smell during the epic summer of 2011 (still considered to be the greatest summer of my life). His music gives off the vibe of all that is awesome combined with an 80s dance party.
Though I’ve been a fan of his for nearly two years now, recently I’ve begun to revisit his terrific music videos, several in which seem to take place in some post-apocalyptic-but-fantastic world. Lately my favorite music video by him has been Drop The Bomb from his album entitled Charisma.
My favorite things in this video are as follows: the song itself, the phrases free wifi and hack the planet that appear in the video and the cool girl in his car who happily gives some zombie jerks the finger. Check it out.
Song of the Week: “This Song Is A Drug Deal”
Earlier this week, one of my favorite bands from home, the drumtastic Foot Village, released their new album Make Memories. For me, this title is perfect as this is a band that has most definitely given me a lot of great memories. I’ve been a fan of them for a long time now and have been to many, many of their shows, with many of those gigs being some of the most fun times I’ve had with my friends. With this band totally being of the biggest things I miss since moving from L.A., I was SO GLAD to had been able to see them perform last November.
The new album is fantastic, with some of my favorite tracks being 1600 Dolla Bill and Aids Sucks, Make Money. With a lighter work week ahead of me, I’m looking forward to giving the entire album several more listens. Along with the new release, Foot Village also premiered a rad new music video for their single This Song Is A Drug Deal. It is full of good times.
Shanghai and Music Stuff
So an editing project at my job has sent me to Shanghai again. It was meant to be one week but now it will be two. Which is cool. But while it is a beautiful city, all the work has kept me from seeing anything new that I hadn’t see on previous trips here. Hopefully that changes this week. Though one cool place I got to check out was area called Tianzifang. It’s pretty much a maze of lit alleys filled with cafes, pubs and craft shops. Unfortunately, being the non-camera crazy guy I am, I once again forgot to bring my camera for photos. So to give you an idea of what it looks like, this will have to do. I shall definitely be retuning to this place while I am here..
On the night before I arrived in Shanghai last weekend, Beijing band Hedgehog returned to Hong Kong almost exactly one from their last visit. With them being one of the first bands I had ever seen in Asia, I had to go see them again. And I LOVED IT.
Though I won’t be in Beijing until later this month, I’ve still have been blasting their tunes in my iPod for the past couple days. They are GREATNESS. And did I mention I am in love with the drummer, Atom?
She Never Understood
I found some time this weekend to finish editing a short music video for Comet Gain’s song She Never Understood with footage from Jon-Luc Godard’s film Masculin Féminin. This was the first time I did a music video set to movie footage since Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim challenge almost two years ago in which I submitted this.
For my new video, my inspiration comes mainly from this guy on Vimeo, who does edits some pretty damn awesome movie music videos himself. You can view She Never Understood below.
I Just Wanna Party Baby, Part 2
So last week’s final Captain Ahab show at The Smell has come and gone. It was amazingly epic and I’m completely glad that I made the flight back to L.A. to witness them perform one last time. They gave me some of the best times ever as well as helping me make some great friends through our common like for the band.
Though the other bands performing that night were great as well, it was especially fantastic to see Foot Village. Like Captain Ahab, I have seen them many times throughout the years (they were actually the first band I ever saw at The Smell) and their lives shows are something I dearly missed since moving from L.A. Their new materials kicks ass and I am so excited for their new album.
I’m sure there will be videos of the awesome performance appearing online in the days to come but in the meantime I did find this nice moment of Jim Merson pumping us up for their set while Jonathan Snipes got things prepared.
I Just Wanna Party Baby
Stuff and Some More Stuff
Things have been quite busy since my last post two weeks ago. Last weekend I was suddenly asked to join a team for the 48 Hour Film Project as editor. I had done a similar project two years ago when a friend asked me to join the USC Ed Wood 24-Hour Film Festival back when he attended school there. The extra 24 hours for last weekend’s shoot definitely was much appreciated and I had a good time working and meeting lots of new good people. Below is a still from our film.
The concept of the contest is pretty much each team must pick a genre from a hat and go forward in creating the film. A specific phrase and prop must also be used. We picked out dark comedy and yesterday our film was screened at a movie theater (a 15 minute walk from my apartment – booya!). Now that the contest is over, I’d like to do some cleaner edits to the film since there aren’t time restraints. I’ll be sure to post it as soon as I’m finished.
With other things, I’ve been listening to a lot of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yelstin lately. Especially their track, Oregon Girl. Not sure if it’s because I recently decided Portland is a city I will move to in the near future or because I suddenly just remembered a good song. Though that song is from like 2006, I listened to it heavily during summer 2011 and it brings back a lot of fond memories, mainly of my bicycle and the girl I was crushing on at the time. Check the vid below.
It is already almost Halloween and my personal plan to watch nothing but horror movies for the month of October failed right after watching Shaun of the Dead. Instead of going for watching another horror flick, I ended up seeing Say Anything this week for some reason. Maybe because I’ve been feeling like a bit like Lloyd Dobler lately.
Your Heart Breaks
Your Heart Breaks is a band I saw in 2009 when they opened for Kimya Dawson. Ever since that night I’ve really liked them. Their music is so pure that its hard not to love it. I’m listening to them really loud right now as I write this. And they have new music! Check the Vimeo embed below. A lot of their songs give me that feeling of pleasant nostalgia, including their new one.
