Munday Morning Mux 2 : C'mon, Get Happy!

Stolen from Muxtape, blah blah.

So all of my posts lately have been my silly attempts at making mixtapes and playlists and my whining and moaning in commentary. How boring. I'm sorry.

But I'd like to post new muxtapes on a regular basis, and this week you were going to get my Please Please Please mix (which isn't so great, akshually, hence why it's not getting posted), but the weather has been SO DAMN NICE and it smells like sunshine and barbecues and I'm envious of the daffodils and dammit, I need some happy music!

Thing is, not a lot of my favourite music makes me happy. Okay, I must find some sort of pleasure in all of it, in some way, otherwise I wouldn't be listening to it. But it's quite different for me to think of a song that, say, makes me really happy and one that makes me want to dance, which then makes me happy, or one that is really splendidly written and that makes me happy but the song itself isn't so happy.

So here I'm presenting a mix between my pitiful Happy Mix! (which is all of like, eight songs) and the stuff I've been listening to as of late, which will be Spring '08 mix material.

C'mon, Get Happy!

Mux available here.

Tracklisting/Commentary/Incoherent babbling:

1) "Thomas Window Paine" - DZUSA
Did I have this on my last mux, too? Oops. But it makes me so happy! I just want to dance around a lot.

2) "Pop Song" - The Lashes
Also, more Lashes. The drum-heavy opening always gets me.

3) "Eyes" - Apollo Sunshine
It's so preeeeeeetttyyyy!

4) "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" - The Beatles
God, I love this song. Love love love it. It's very reassuring, as well.

5) "Here Comes The Sun" - The Beatles
More Beatles! Everyone needs more Beatles! And more sun. Yes.

6) "Elevate Myself" - Grandaddy
I'm not so taken with the rest of Just Like The Fambly Cat, but this shit's good.

7) "Young Love" - Mystery Jets
I've just recently written about this song and the adorable video that goes with it. I can't get it out of my head! I listen to it everywhere, on the way to class, at the gym, downtown, everywhere.

8) "Look Me Up" - Georgie James
I wrote about Georgie James relatively recently as well. Still love them.

9) "You're So Damn Hot" - OK Go
Yeah yeah, another OK Go song. This song pretty much started it all. And after four and a half years, I still love hearing it, which is a good thing, I suppose.

10) "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
Carefree and summery. Perfect!

11) "Shut Your Eyes" - Shout Out Louds
First SOL song I came across, probably still my favourite.

12) "Sophie" - Scamper
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE THIS SONG it makes me so happy!!! All of my friends are always like, "This reminds me of 'Stacy's Mom'!" which is DOES, but it really just makes me want to DANCE around all SILLY-LIKE, which I often DO.

(PLEASE NOTE: I wrote the above at like, 2:30 a.m., when I was way too super-tired. Hence the excessive capitalisation and punctuation. Sorry.)

All right, enjoy, loves.

Stuck In My Head: Vicky's Gets The Groove On

Sorry for the lack of posting post-Christmas, or really the lack of non-holiday oriented posting all month long. Most bloggers are taking this month to post their "Best of/Worst of 2007" lists. I'm really not so much for that. I could tell you, say, that I listened to Someone to Drive You Home and Nevermind the Living Dead a lot in the spring and lots of old WAS stuff and some of this and some of that, but really, who am I to tell you what was the "best" and what was the "worst"? Go make up your own damn minds. I'm a lot better at making to-do lists that never get finished.

Also, I have this job. I think I've mentioned this job a few times before. I'm not even working full-time, but it sure feels like I'm working a LOT. Maybe this is because I haven't actually had a job since, oh...January 2006? I've forgotten what it feels like, I guess.

Anyway, there are some perks to said job, like free stuff, but that doesn't help you much, does it? They also, surprisingly, play some good tunes. Stuff from, say, the Shout Out Louds (am I on a Shout Out Louds bender or what?), VHS or Beta, Hot Chip, Athlete, what I'm pretty sure is The Bird and The Bee, and what I thought was Metric but actually turned out to be Ladytron.

Maybe it's a little weird to give you a bunch of songs that I hear all day at work, but every time the Camp America remix of "Hurricane" comes on, I can't help but declare, "I have this on my iPod!" and dance along.

Athlete - "Hurricane" (Camp America Remix)
The Bird and the Bee - "Polite Dance Song"
VHS or Beta - "Bring On The Comets"
Shout Out Louds - "Tonight I Have To Leave It"
Ladytron - "International Dateline"

Stuck In My Head: Shout Out Louds - "A Track and A Train"

I had my iPod on shuffle last night, and it shot out a pretty good shufflemix, à la Shufflelovers. This may have to do with the fact that half the music it was spewing out was, in fact, stolen from Mr. Shufflelovers' desktop.

This song by the Shout Out Louds wasn't. It caught me by surprise (and it's not like I haven't heard it before); I thought it really lovely and that the intro was particularly fitting of the upcoming season because it sounds all sort of Christmas-y, like dropping snowflakes, a little snow globe of a love song. It opens with Everyone's got someone/And I got no one (so true!), but then it becomes But here it comes at last/And my heart is beating faster.... And nope, it hasn't come at last for me, but I still appreciate the prettiness of this shimmery little song. It's probably going to get a bunch of plays over the next few weeks.

The Scandinavians are out en masse.

While I was researching another band (not from Scandinavia) about whom I want to post, I noticed that our shores are soon going to be invaded by some very lovely Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) artists in the coming months.

First up are the Shout Out Louds, who have actually been here since early October. I'm clearly totally unobservant. In any case, I got their song "Shut Your Eyes" on a free iTunes sampler ages ago and I just love it. Their second record, Our Ill Wills, dropped on 11 September in North America. Here are the remaining US/CA tour dates:

19 October Logan Square Auditorium Chicago, IL
20 October The Basement Columbus, OH
22 October The Mod Club Toronto, ON
23 October Cabaret Montreal, QC
24 October Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA
25 October Bowery Ballroom New York, NY
26 October Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY
27 October Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
28 October 9:30 Club Washington, DC
29 October First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
30 October Cat's Cradle Carrboro, NC
31 October The Loft Atlanta, GA
2 November The Parish Austin, TX
3 November Granada Theatre Dallas, TX
5 November Henry Fonda Theatre Los Angeles, CA
Support for all shows is Johnossi and Nico Vega.





Next is indie pop darling Jens Lekman, who also just dropped a new record, Night Falls Over Kortedala, which you probably all know about already and which I keep meaning to pick up but never do. His tour dates:

23 October Jake's Bloomington, IN
25 October Black Cat Washington, DC
26 October First Unitarian Chrch Philadelphia, PA
27 October Webster Hall New York, NY
28 October Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY*
29 October Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA
1 November Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, OH**
2 November Logan Square Auditorium Chicago, IL**
3 November Triple Risk Social Club Minneapolis, MN**
6 November Nectar Lounge Seattle, WA
7 November Someday Lounge Portland, OR
9 November Bimbo's 365 Club San Francisco, CA
10 November The Troubadour West Hollywood, CA
13 November Granada Theatre Dallas, TX*
14 November The Parish Austin, TX*
15 November Club Down Under Tallahasee, FL*
16 November Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, GA*
All shows are supporting Viktor Sjöberg EXCEPT
*solo show
**with Dave Fischoff



And lastly, the lovely Sondre Lerche will be making his way over here. Oh, goodness, am I excited. I had intended to see him play the Nouveau Casino in Paris in May, but as my ear had decided to start ringing bloody murder, I decided that maybe a concert wasn't such a good idea. So yes, I am glad that Mr. Lerche will be gracing us with his presence this fall (and so close to my birthday, too!). Dates:

7 November	The Red Room	Vancouver, BC
8 November	Nectar Lounge	Seattle
10 November	Doug Fir Lounge	Portland, OR
11 November	Swedish American Hall - Cafe du Nord	San Francisco
12 November	The Troubadour	Los Angeles
13 November	The Troubadour	Los Angeles
15 November	Club Dada	Dallas, TX
16 November	The Parish	Austin, TX
18 November	The Waiting Room	Omaha, NE
19 November	The Varsity Theatre	Minneapolis
20 November	Park West	Chicago
21 November	Cambridge Room	Cleveland, OH
22 November	Lee's Palace	Toronto, ON
24 November	Le Gymnase	Montreal, QC
25 November	Paradise Rock Club	Boston
26 November	Music Hall of Williamsburg	Brooklyn, NY
27 November	Bowery Ballroom	New York City
28 November	World Cafe Live	Philadelphia
29 November	Maxwell's	Hoboken, NJ

All shows are solo shows.
(Or, rats, that list looks so much nicer than my first two. :P)




Just look at the pretty.


I seriously need to pay more attention to who's touring in my area. Although, admittedly, I've been out of the concert loop for a while now, owing to my ear and the surgery. Now that I'm feeling better, hopefully I'll be able to start heading to some shows again...