current crush

'and you'll die by the time you're thirty'

-Oberhofer

current crush pt. II

It's winter and to avoid being infected with the SAD disease (Seasonal Affective Disorder Disease!!!!), I attempt to put down the Simon & Garfunkel and listen to happier music. I mean, I love Paul & Art, but if I was considering suicide, I'd consider listening to "The Boxer" while doing it.

Anyway, I recently discovered the band Baths and I do believe they'll keep me depression-free for the duration of the winter months. Like winter itself, Baths is both melancholy and beautiful. The band described themselves as "slow and dreary" (like winter itself, too, I guess) which I would agree with to a point, though their music is like a gorgeous slow and dreary, like mid-March when the air is foggy and the snow is melting into slush.

My favorite track off their album Cerulean is "Animals" because I am first, a sucker for lil kids with British accents and second, because it is sweet and I'm able to Get Happy while listening.

enjoy, friends.

current crush

Glasser, "Treasury of We". (I highly encourage you check out the album Ring)

Best Music of 2k10 (KANYE FREE ZONE)

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love Christmas desserts and I hate cold weather. I love feeling sensitive and reflective about the year past- the natural and man-made distasters that have occurred, and the celebrities that have died. But I hate, hate, HATE "best of" year end lists. I have been reading too many "best of" music lists lately and this as only fueled my fire. If you happen to read any of them, you will find errrrryy music critic blowing their load while simultaneously crying over Kanye's new album. Disgusted, I've decided to make my own best of 2k10 music list. I know roughly as much as someone who works at Spin and I am definitely a lot less mopey. So, friends, here it is:

Best Albums of 2k10:
I danced. I cried. I got off.

5. Odd Blood- Yeasayer
Yeasayer's sophomore album Odd Blood is the best dance party you'll ever attend. Odd Blood picked up where their debut album All Hour Cymbals left off but Odd Blood is decidedly different. More produced (and in this case that's a good thing) and more polished, Odd Blood is full of highs and lows from a band that knows their audience. "Ambling Alp" is an anthem, while "O.N.E." is a party starter and "I Remember" will make you cry (I mean, um, maybe). Odd Blood kinda makes me think Yeasayer will be on the jukebox at your favorite dive bar for a long time.


4. Body Talk, Pt. 1- Robyn
My love affair with Robyn began when I was in middle school. I used to sit at my desk drawing, listening to her Show Me Love album. Apparently I wanted some pretween boy to Show Me Love (did not happen). Ten years later, Robyn still has my number. On the first track "Fembot" when Robyn says, In fact I'm a very scientifically advanced hot mama/Artificially discreet no drama, I fell in love with her all over again. This woman gets it and Body Talk, Pt. 1 is evident of that. Also, seeing her live is a religious experience.



3. This is Happen- LCD Soundsystem
It seemed like LCD Soundsystem's album This is Happening was as hyped up as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Well, if James Murphy is Jesus, well, then I'm a religious woman. LCD Soundsystem makes me very happy and this album did too. Murphy is the voice of a generation (I miss the way the night comes/With friends who always make it feel good/This basement has a cold glow/Though it's better than a bunch of others/So go and dance yourself clean) and everything about this album is pretty perfect. If "Dance Yrself Clean" "I Can Change" or "Home" do not make you feel, you have no soul.


2. Teen Dream- Beach House
Before Teen Dream came out, I was both SO FREAKIN EXCITED and so very nervous. Their previous album, Devotion, broke my heart and put it all back together again so their third album Teen Dream had big, sensitive shoes to fill for me. And of course, those guys, did not disappoint. It is my humble lil' opinion that Victoria Legrand has one of the coolest voices in music today and goddammit, she makes my Silver Soul soar. Teen Dream (+ whiskey) got me through a Vermont winter which I can assure you is very, very long. It might be juvenile, but I think a truly great album is one that you can listen to straight through and every song is its own beautiful gift. Teen Dream is just that- idyllic, longing, and all-encompassing.



1. Treats- Sleigh Bells
This album is a fucking treat. As an album, it's nearly perfect. The first track, "Tell 'Em" let's you know what Sleigh Bells is getting you into- insane riffs, heavy bass, panting, screaming, and singing. In short, a great Saturday night. You'll be head-banging and foot-stomping for the length of the album. And you'll play it again.

txt me: a modern day tragedy

The perpetrating purse in this story is a hell of a lot cuter than the one pictured above


On Saturday night, somewhere between the gin drinks and sloppy speech, the unthinkable happened: my purse deleted all of my text messages. How my grandmother's vintage Coach purse could do this to me is unimaginable. And the proceeding emptiness I felt for my bygone text messages is unexplainable.

Before I am accused of being dramatic, text messages are our modern day love letters. Texts are how we tell our loved ones how we feel in 10 words or less or ask the curious, "where u @?" They are our professions of love, propositions for sex, our zany anecdotes.

Before this tragic event, I had over 100 text messages saved. I'd probably have more saved if Verizon would allow it. I had lol-able statements from friends and photos of my sister's new haircut and greyhound dogs my friend spotted in Brooklyn. I had soundbites from a Nicki Minaj song and Lady Gaga quotes. Simple statements of love, lust, and longing; memories preserved in my little LG "Glance".

I don't know how it happened, but I was too drunk at the time of the tragedy to realize the severity of the situation. But when I woke "the morning after", I knew something terrible had happened. I woke up to a plate of crusty ketchup, egg yoke and half eaten bread and looking at my phone, where it had once said "Inbox (136)" it was now nothing but an empty inbox. My heart sank. I kind of felt like Jo March in Little Women when Amy burns her novel, except I was betrayed by the fickle nature of modern technology, not my bratty little sister.

Maybe I should get a flip phone (but seriously, who has a flip phone anymore?) or maybe I should get a sophisticated handbag from TJ MAXX with a "cell phone pocket". Maybe I shouldn't get so drunk. Or maybe I shouldn't harbor memories in a piece of plastic with the "samba" as its ringtone. I guess it could be worse- I didn't drunkenly text someone inappropriate. Instead, I deleted a whole bunch of inappropriate drunk texts. TTYL.

dance party

love robyn & diplo

[review] Nicki Minaj, "Pink Friday"

Today is Pink Friday, but it's actually Tuesday, the day when albums "drop", and today Nicki Minaj's long awaited debut album Pink Friday dropped and OMIGOD, it is so good, you guys.

If you're not familiar with Nicki Minaj, clearly have not gotten crunk with me and I'm not sure if you inhabit the world at all. I am a huge Nicki fan because she's a talented badass lady with thick thighs and bangs- basically everything I aspire to be (I've got the thick thighs and thick bangs down, by the way).

Nicki has been "feat." with every artist today from the brilliant Lil Wayne to the deplorable Will.I.Am, but it is about goddamn time this sought after artist is doin' it for herself. I admit I was nervous before listening to Pink Friday; Nicki's featuring raps always left me wanting more from her, but I worried that she couldn't carry the weight of a full solo album.

I was wrong. Sorry for doubting you, girl!! With the first track off Pink Friday, "I'm the Best" Nicki explains exactly what her listeners are getting into: I hear the coming for me because the top is lonely/I'm fighting for the girls never thought they can win.

I am sure Pink Friday will be filed under "Hip Hop" because Nicki is a Black woman, but the album is, thank god, beyond classification. The beats are produced, sometimes overly so, and she samples everyone without sounding tired or redundant. She features everyone from Drake (her rumoured boo), to Kayne to Natasha Bedingfield (in the suprisingly good "Last Chance"). The only weak track is "Roman's Revenge" which is, surprise surprise, feat. Eminem.

I don't know if Nicki would call herself a feminist. But Nicki's pro-woman/IMA-FUCKIN-BADASS-BITCH lyrics is what sends my pop loving feminist heart aflutter. Nicki is mainstream but is spiting, I'm a woman/hear me roar and she's not messin'. The word "bitch" is Nicki's favorite and I fucking love her for it. I have a complicated relationship with the word "bitch" (which I will get into in a later post. HOLD YR BREATH). But Nicki doesn't use it the way that frat dudes use the word ( i.e.,"That bitch is so dumb, bro"), or the way some women use it to 'horizontally oppress' other women (i.e.,"That bitch stole my shoes/boyfriend"). She calls herself a bitch, calls girls she loves bitches, and the haters are bitches, too.

Aside from the very danceable/stomp-able beats, what I love about Pink Friday is that Nicki comes off incredibly sincere and just real. There are a couple of slow love jamz that are among my least favorite, but even when showing her rarer, vulnerable side, Nicki isn't sticking us with the same pop bullshit. From "Save Me", Ima bitch/ Ima monster/Yes Ima beast and I feast when I conquer/But I'm alone on my throne. Nicki's a bitch, but a bitch with feelings, and this bitch gets it and loves it.


Best traxxx: 1. "I'm the Best", "Did it on 'em", "Super Bass", "Your Love"