Heyo musical studs!

I’m super jazzed to be writing this for you today. I’m doing it from the absolutely beautiful and picturesque eco-village in Paonia, Colorado. It’s, like, the most unbelievable place on the face of the planet. As many of you know, I just got my yoga teaching certification this March while I was in Denver. During the training, I learned some very amazing things about myself, yoga, the world around me, energy, biodynamics, and anatomy (among other things). But one of the things that I learned was that having a yoga practice without music can be one of those rare opportunities for silence and taking an inward journey. So, I truly believe that if you’re doing a serious yoga practice, or an intense yoga practice, or spiritual yoga practice, that silence is key. However… when you want to rock an amazing, fun, and funky yoga practice, it’s totally okay to get DOWN with some tuneage.

I’ve started teaching on this farm and it’s been an absolute joy to be able to practice, and learn from all of these yogis, farmers, creators (there’s a house tattoo artist… booyah!). Apparently, we were all just waiting for each other. I was waiting for people to teach, and they were waiting for a teacher. Perfect. Timing.

Anywho, the point that I’m trying to make with all of this is that music and yoga can compliment each other completely. It just has to be done well. I’ve developed this playlist over the past few weeks and it’s been crafted and refined, mixed and switched, twisted and turned. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it’s absolutely the best yoga playlist on the face of the planet. And bonus! It’s not just for yoga. It’s super high energy and it flows really well together, so you can use it for just about any type of exercise. I’m really jazzed to share it with you…

An Ending (Ascent)- Brian Eno

Brother Sport- Animal Collective

Ineffable mysteries- Shpongle

Xotica- Phutureprimitive

Spitfire- Porter Robinson

The Truth- Easily Embarassed

100% in the Bitch- Porter Robinson

Funk Blaster- Koan Sound

Moon People- Easily Embarrased

Cyber Dojo Lazer Training- Zen Death Squad

H.A.A.R.P.- Ill-Esha

1/1- Brian Eno

With love from the hippie farm!

-Corinne

Dudes! What have you been up to lately? Oh me… Not much. I’ve just been chilling in Denver, soaking up the sunshine, and getting completely schooled about electronic music. So now, I need your help in answering a question for me.

You know, I always get a little annoyed when people boo hoo music as soon as it becomes poplar. It’s the surest sign of a hipster. And time for hipsters, I do not have (time for speaking like Yoda though, I have much). I just don’t get it. I mean, I totally understand if you grow out of something, but to say that it’s terrible just because other people started growing into it, at the same time you were growing out of it, is preposterous. I have a theory that it’s vaguely self loathing. Like you hate yourself for liking it in the first place, or you hate that you used to behave like those people you now loathe. At any rate, if this is kinda your thing, I’d suggest not running off to a tattoo artist every time you like a lyric. You’ll probably end up hating yourself for it.

I knew this characteristic was common in folks who listened to Indie music and alternative stuff, but I didn’t think it would be all that popular among electronic lovers. I mean, it’s pretty much all the same, right? Uh… Not so.
I was out with a couple I Denverites last night and I happened to let it slip that I enjoy dubstep, and these days it’s pretty much all I can wake up to, write to, work out to, clean to, breathe to. Living to the sound of a steady wobble is a secret that I keep closely guarded. I’m not sure why, but I feel like you have to wait until you know someone for a minute before you let them know that it’s your day-to-day sound track.
The thing is, that after all of these months and years casually listening to dubstep day in and day out, I don’t really know all that much about it. I know what I like (pretty much everything) and what I don’t like (I can’t think of anything off the top of my head). But that’s pretty much it.

So, help a sista out… What exactly qualifies dubstep as dubstep?

In my last post, I talked a little bit about how I was turned onto the band The Good Old War. It’s become one of my favorite examples about how Spotify has changed the way we share music (or pester people with it). After writing that post, I started listening to the album quite a bit. Now it’s become one of my favorite examples about how music changes when we do.

When my ex sent me Come Back As Rain, I really didn’t want to listen to it. I was extremely busy at the time and I knew that if I listened to it, I would end up spending hours upon hours analyzing lyrics and trying to figure out the theme and what it all meant. In the end, I was too tempted to let it just sit there in my inbox. I was right. I listened to it and tried to decode the mystery of it all.

Was he thinking about the song Over and Over when he sent it to me? And if he was, what did these lyrics mean to him?

Oh, sometimes I try to think that you are something I don’t need
I try to tell myself you’re gone
It’s the day before you leave
And I’m sure that you’d come back if I could offer you some change
I’d have to promise you, but I can’t promise you

Or did he want me to hear Calling Me Names, wanting me to share the blame of our horrifying break up?

You should blame yourself
You and no one else
You can say you’re not
But you were guilty as well
Instead of making sense
And talking like we’re friends
You think it’s a better idea
Calling, calling, calling me names

I listened to it and analyzed it. I allowed myself to get worked up about my own theories. Why oh why would he send this particular album? But after few hours, I came to the sudden realization that none of that matters. I could either listen to this album and think of that dude and what he put me through… or I could not.

Fortunately for my ears, I chose the latter and fell in love with this album. I can’t say that I don’t think of him sometimes when I put the it on, but the thoughts are different. I think that it’s pretty sad that he thinks about me when he hears music. It’s unfortunate that one of these songs made him lament our disconnection so much that he felt compelled to reach out.

It’s kind of fitting too. I’ve begun to think of our situation as a good old war. We’re not enemies anymore. Shoot, I know him about as well as I know the pharmacy tech dude at Walgreens. But it’s gotten to a place when I can feel nostalgic about it. Enough time has passed that the perspective has shifted. The casualties really don’t matter anymore, all that matters is that it’s over and that there is finally peace.

Has an album ever made you come to a similar realization?

I’m not sure I’ve ever gone on a Spotify rant. If not, consider this a long overdue post about how friggin’ fantastic that music service is. Last night I saw someone being introduced to Spotify for the first time and it was really exciting to be able to witness it. All I could think was, “This is going to change this dude’s life and he doesn’t even know it.”

One of the best things about Spotify is that you can lead yourself down a rabbit hole of new music and navigate your way back out. For example, I was feeling some Avett Brothers today, so I put them on for a minute and saw that they were connected to The Head and The Heart. I listened to their album for awhile and saw that they were similar to a duo called The Civil Wars. They were alright, but not really what I was looking for. Then I landed on Mat Kearney. He’s upbeat and pretty lovely so I’ve been there ever since.

I’ve had some interesting experiences with Spotify lately and they’ve led me to believe that this thing is more than a music app. It’s becoming more and more socially significant as time goes on. I feel like it’s reviving the mix tape. You can create a playlist of songs and shoot them right over to your prospective or actual lover.

It’s also a great spite tool. My ex sent over an album during the “Don’t Contact Me” month of March. It’s a break up album from a male perspective, and it’s actually one of the best albums I’ve heard in awhile. But it was definitely meant to deliver a message. At any rate, in the olden days, my ex would have had to work a lot harder to musically pester me. On that note, the band is called Good Old War and the album is their new one Come Back as Rain. I’d highly recommend it. It’s a fantastic album for travel, especially if you’re running far away from a cruddy relationship.

How has Spotify changed your life?

Sufjan Stevens is a singer/songwriter from Detroit. His folksy sound and goosebump inducing lyrics have been captivating fans since 1999. He’s released 9 albums, including Michigan and Come On Feel The Illinoise, which are the only albums completed in his overly ambitious goal of 50 albums for the 50 states, as well as a Christmas album where he puts his touch on the music of the holiday season. With his most recent release of The Age of Adz, Sufjan takes his music in a new direction.

In addition to his horn heavy banjo plucked beats, Sufjan embraces electronic synthesizers whithout loosing a sound all his own. This makes it a perfect album to dance, cry, or cook a vegan meal to.

Across the album, he relives the beautifully realized aspects of a deep personal hurt, ringing with bitterness “At least I deserve the respect of a kiss goodbye” to confusion “I thought I was so in love/ Some say it wasn’t true”. Surrounding himself with music that expertly balances between over-orchestrated and chaotic, Stevens elevates his struggles with love and lust into legendary myths in which he’s the bitter hero.

Listening though the album is sure to take you back to the last time you felt wronged or heart broken from a lover, and the world Stevens creates shows just how deeply the human soul can ache. Even if you’ve never been hurt, you can’t help but sympathize with Stevens, since he is also fairly easy on the eyes.

All around, you should check out all of his music. The journey this man is able to take his listeners on through his beautiful and often lonely music is one everyone should take. Not only are his records impressive, but he is a master of the live performance, often sounding better than he does on his recorded tracks. Ask any fan, and you will find a large number of dedicated, devout followers ready to consume even the slighting thing Steven’s produces.

I’m not one of those music fans who has to have the latest album from every artist I’m into. I don’t rush out to record stores the day something comes out and I’m a little too broke to buy everything that comes out on itunes.

For the past few years I’ve been operating under a one way system for getting new music. Basically, I normally just let things come my way. If it crosses my path, I listen to it. If somebody’s got something they want to share, I’ll give it a shot. If I love it, I listen to it over and over again until something else crosses my path. And so on and so forth. Maybe that makes me a bad music fan. But maybe it makes me the coolest person in the world. Who knows?

Spotify has changed all of this completely, and like many of you, I’ve been using it to brush up on some of the amazing jamz I’ve missed over the past couple of years. Now, not only do I have music recommendations coming out of my ears, I also have the opportunity to catch up on some amazing albums.

I’ve been a fan of Of Montreal for quite some time. I own one of their albums on vinyl and I used to let that baby spin quite a bit. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard any of their new stuff. So I was pretty excited to come accross their 2010 album False Priest this week. It’s frickin’ awesome. It’s playful, funny, biting and groovy. I know nobody in the music biz says groovy anymore, but it really is one of those records that makes you want to groove.

Best Tracks

My favorite tracks are “Our Riotous Defects”, “Coquet Coquette”, and “Famine Affair”. “Our Riotous Defects” is an absolutely laugh out loud track about a crazy chick. While it’s funny, it’s also toe tapping-ly genius.

Uses

This album is great for driving long distances, dancing in your underpants, doing homework for your Boston University Online classes, and writing awesome blog posts.

What do you think about this record?

Ask a twelve year old that question, and you’ll probably get a new answer every week, depending on who’s being featured on MTV. The older you get, that question seems to get a little bit more solid.

Yeah, you’ll find new favorites all of the time. Hopefully, you’ve found different ways to discover new tunes (ex. this blog). But, when asked, if you’re not too embarrassed to answer, you’ll probably have the same response time and time again. Unless, of course, you’re a hipster and liking the same band for any period of time would make you super uncool.
So assuming that you’re not a hipster, there’s that band that you go to first when you’re all alone and have free reign of the ipod. They’re the band that you’ve seen in concert too many times to recall, but you can totally recall how many times you’ve seen them. Heck, you can recall what you were wearing, who you were with and what you ate before and after. The memories stick hard, because each time they get better and better and you’d never forget one of their shows. And apparently you’ll never forget that hot dog you had when it was over.
Who is that band for you? Who do you play too much of? What band do you love more than any other band on the planet? You can answer anonymously if it’s like Ace of Base.

I’ll go first! My favorite band is this amazing little funky jam band out of Minneapolis called Wookiefoot. Sure, there are more pretentious things that I could put down, but I’m honest and them’s just the facts. They’re my go-to music 99.999% of the time. If I’m feeling up, down, or in the middle their music makes me feel understood and uplifted. You should check them out.
So, now that I’ve showed you mine, you should show me yours. Who is your favorite band?

So last week, I talked about The Avett Brothers and how that they would be at a festival that an ex and I would both be attending. I also talked a bit about how I was super close to being over him. His ears must have started burning (it would have been more fun for me if they just would have set on fire). He decided to break the silence and send me a bunch of links to the bands he’s really looking forward to seeing at the festie.

I’m not sure why he would do such a thing. Maybe he was trying to let me know which tents to avoid that weekend. Maybe he missed seeing me around the office as an executive assistant. I guess I’ll never know. I sent that final eff off email:

I’m not sure if this was mistakenly forwarded to me. If so, please remove my email address from any further forwarding lists. If you meant to send this to me, I’d like to request that you please leave me alone. There are no reasons for you to contact me. We’re not friends, and we haven’t drifted apart. We made a conscious decision not to speak to each other after you told me I would die alone because I’m so selfish. It’s a nice judgment coming from the guy who… well, there’s just no reason for you to re-establish communication with me.

Everyone has Spotify and the list of  bands playing waka. I truly don’t care who you’re into. As a matter of fact, thank you for ruining that tantrums album and the excitement of Wakarusa for me. Knowing that you like them and that you’ll be there makes me much less jazzed about both. If you’re trying to get me to sell my ticket to Waka, you’re on the right track. I would have already done so, but you know how Holland is. So if you have any respect for me or for yourself, you’ll have the common decency not to rub your relationship in my face that weekend.

There’s no reason for you to respond to this email. Please, for the love of god, just forget that I ever existed. You’re not doing either of us any favors by sending me emails with f*cking emoticons in them And you won’t be doing me any favors when you send me an email after you’ve had too many beers telling me that I’m a c*nt who makes people want to eat glass. Just leave me alone.

There are always those bands that you can’t really listen to when you’re going through a break up. Every song stings your little heart and all of the words take on new meanings. For my ex, this band was Mumford and Sons. For me, it was the Avett Brothers.

For me, Mumford and Sons became a great break up album. But the Avett Brothers, who I’d been listening to all the way through the time period before we split, were like a dagger to my heart. It was the last music we kissed to. It was what I packed my bags to. And as I drove away, those banjo playing brohams seemed to say, “You’re soooo wrong” with every single word. I would have to turn it off or it would send me into a bad place. Go directly to a bad place. Do not pass move forward. Do not collect the money your ex owes you.

But you know you’re starting to heal when a song comes on by that band and it doesn’t send you into a pit of despair. When Bon Iver doesn’t make you tear up and when your “hands off” band doesn’t make you feel like an empty shell of a human being, I’d say that you’re 50% there.

If you can rock out to that band only skipping a few songs here and there, you’re probably around 75% along.

Now, if you can listen to the band’s discography, including that last kiss song, and the ones that you chanted while you were rolling out the duct tape, you’re about 98% there.

That other 2%, well that part is just magic and you’ll know it when you experience it.

I may not have blown over that 2% hump, but I think I’m getting close. All I know is that I can jam to the Avett Brothers like it’s nobody’s business.

What do I know about these guys? Not much. I think they’re brothers and there’s a lot of banjo involved. They’ve got a cult like following due to their crazy touring schedule. And they’re going to be at a festival that both my ex and I will be attending (lucky me).

Hopefully, those last few percentage points will be buried by then and I can enjoy the song “Shame” without balling or taking my top off out of spite. I guess only time will heal and only time will tell which route I take.

Anywho, check out the Avett Brothers. They pretty much rule.

So I’m house sitting in Chicago right now and I’ve been here for a couple of weeks already. So I’m not sure how I didn’t spot the case in the corner by the keyboard until Friday night. I was spending an evening in and I was feeling really musically inclined. I was writing some little ditties about winter, and love and heartache and I went to sit at the keyboard to work out some melodies.

My leg brushed up against this little case and I thought, “Cool! A small chello.” That was literally what I thought before I opened the case. I know. I’m a moron.

I unzip it and think, “Cool! It’s a tiny guitar!” Hey. It had been a long day. It was obviously not a miniature guitar. It was something much cooler.

I’d never played a ukulele before, but as soon as I sat down with it, I knew that it was love at first strum.

The next six hours flew by as I took on the little uke with fervor. I started learning cords, keys and strumming patterns. I studied some tabs and learned a few songs. I went to YouTube to learn how to tune it to itself. Needless to say, I was hooked.

I can’t say that I’d ever listened to ukulele music before. But one search around YouTube showed me that people love to make videos of themselves playing this little jam wonder.

The shining star? Aiden James. He’s the cutest. thing. I’ve. ever. seen. When I was looking up the strumming pattern for Adele’s “Someone Like You” I found this…

Then I just couldn’t stop… He’s just so precious. Here’s another one. It’s him singing The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars. If you want to skip to his super cute sister joining in, skip to 1:45. If you just want your little heart to melt, just go ahead and skip to the end.

This kid is really talented. I’m sure he’s going to qualify for a ton of music scholarships when he’s older.

Do you uke?!